“I called the mayor’s house and they’re on their way to the airport. It only takes 20 minutes if they use their helicopter and they don’t want their daughter to wait an hour by driving” he said.
“What’s the time?” the other therapist asked.
“7:30 pm. They’ll be here 10 minutes before 8”
“They need to eat. Let’s give them some food”
The therapists picked the twins up that kept their eyes on each other to make sure their sister doesn’t disappear; they were placed into 2 high chairs next to each other and got some food. They consumed it with taste and soon Nadine’s parents were, ready to take her home
Diana looked at Rocky and she looked back, not looking at her food and accidentally pushing it off the chair; the therapists looked between the 2, hoping they wouldn’t need to use their plan, but that Diana and Rian would also take Rocky home with them. Nadine also looked back and forth in the hope that her sister could come live with them from tonight, but knew that this won’t happen tonight, though several years from now.
Diana went closer and picked her out of the chair so she could have a closer look at her, holding her up high so she could look at her beautiful face; soon tears filled both their eyes and made them cry and cry without stopping for five minutes.
“I wonder if Nadine’s twin would look like this if she wasn’t….born dead” Diana said, holding back some tears.
“Diana…she’s gone…wishing won’t bring her back. Rian told his wife.
(Author's note: Rocky was honestly surprised that Diana picked her up in my game)
The thought of Nadine’s dead twin was unbearable for Diana, causing that she couldn’t look at Rocky for even one more second and put her in the crib she was earlier, then picking up Nadine. Rocky immediately started throwing a tantrum in the crib, thinking her mother doesn’t want to accept her bur only loves her sister.
“We’ll just go” Rian said and before the therapists could explain, hearing that Nadine had a twin, they were gone.
“Hearing that she was suppose to have a twin explains so much” the female therapist said, picking Rocky up and drying her tears. “Go call Adams to take her back to her ‘parents’.”
The male therapist went out of the room to find Adams and the female on stayed with Rocky to try to get her to calm down and understand this complicated situation.
While they were the only 2 in the room the therapist decided to teach Rocky to talk so she could tell them how she sees this situation; when Adams and the therapist came into the room Rocky could speak English mostly and could barely keep herself from exploding with words to rant on how unfair she feels her life is.
“What’s wrong little one?” “I-I feel dat life isn’t fai’. My ‘eal mum doesn’t love me, she only loves my sista” Rocky said.
“That can’t be true”
“It is ‘ue. She doesn’t want to know me! She nefe’ wan’ed me at all! I’m so mad at Nadine! I’m SO mad at my TWIN!”
“You don’t have a twin. And what about daddy Pat? He loves you.”
“He not my ‘eal dad. My ‘eal pa’en’s doe’n’t love me or cale about me! I hafe a twin and she ‘tinks! She’s ju’t a big meanie toddlel gi’l!”
Rocky burst into tears that caused her to stop rambling about her ‘stupid’ family and allow the tears to stream down her face.
“I’ll take her home now” Adams said.
“The mayor will skin me alive if I’m not at his house soon” Nelly said worried.“You live with the mayor?” a voice asked that Nelly recognised as the person who called her earlier this morning; Nelly slowly turned to face the person to whom the voice belongs to.
“Y-y-you’re the person who called me this morning, talking about something that’s hidden”
“Glad you remember me”
“Who are you?”
“I'm Jesse and I'm very surprised that the new light bulbs are so bright it looks like day."
"I'm-"
"Nelly, I know. Go home. Meet us at the small abandoned beach tomorrow morning. It's Saturday tomorrow, so it shouldn't be a problem."
With these last words she and her gang ran out the circle of light the streetlights produce, with Nelly staring after them until they are too far to see.
The next morning Nelly woke up at 8:37 am, quickly making her bed and rushing downstairs to sneak out the front door, but got stopped by Nadine waddling from the kitchen to Nelly. Nelly couldn't resist spending the next half an hour playing peek-a-boo with her until she remember what those girls told her, getting up, once again heading for the door."Hi Nelly" a voice came from the stairs leading down.
"Hallo Miss Matthew" Nelly said, stopping dead in her tracks and Nadine stares at her.
"Thanks for keeping Nadine busy for a while. She has been very busy ever since she came back from the police station."
"Why was she there?"
"I don't really know. Something was wrong with her."
"What?"
"They didn't tell us. Rian told me you want to spoil your mother with a new dress."
"She deserves it."
"I want to give you something. Come Nadine!"
Nadine looked at her mother and started walking fall-fall closer to her.
When Rocky woke up in on the couch at home, she started crying once again; she had fallen asleep by crying, screamed her lungs out in the car on the way home and used violence on her parents to leave her alone when they wanted to take care of her; in the end she just climbed onto the couch and fell asleep on it when her parents climbed into their bed.
Slowly she climbed up the stairs to her parents' room, in the mood to be cuddled, kissed, played with, nurtured, wanting to be like Nadine; when she came home last night and her parents finally left her alone, she taught herself to walk and can now do it perfectly, just like Nadine. Climbing up, she trips over a loose step and almost falls off, but quickly grips the railing and only fall hard onto the previous step, the loose one landing on her lap.
“Mummy? Dada?” Rocky said sweetly once she reached her parents’ room.
“Rocky! My baby! Feeling better?” Freya exclaimed.
“Uh-huh. I’m ‘orry about la’t night.”
“It’s ok. What was wrong?” Freya walked to Rocky and crouches next to her.
“Nadine” Rocky said.
“Who’s that?” Freya asks.
“’Omeone I would waffe’ fo’get”
“Who?”
“A gi’l, but I want to fo’get he’. So can we pwease, pwease fo’get it?”
“Yes, of course” Freya said as she picks Rocky up and pulls her into a tight hug. “I’m just glad you’re better now. Do you think you’ll tell us later, maybe when Nelly and Vinny return?”
“I don’t fink so…maybe a long time fwom now” Rocky’s muffled voice came through Freya’s shoulder. Rocky looked up from where Freya is still holding her tightly against her and looked into Pat’s eyes; he seems to know who Nadine is, what’s wrong with Rocky and just everything going on in her life.
“Freya, why don’t you climb back into bed? You didn’t close an eye last night. I’ll keep Rocky busy for a while” Pat suggested.
“Yes! I want to be alone with daddy fo’ a while. Pweeeeeeaaaase, pweeeaaaase, pweeeaaaase?” Rocky answers for Freya.
“Ok. That would be nice.” Freya said.
Freya climbed back into bed and Pat took Rocky downstairs for a little talk; Pat sat on the couch and put Rocky on his lap so he can look in her eyes and let her be more comfortable.“Daddy, what do you know?” Rocky asked after a few moments of silence.
“About what?” Pat replies to Rocky’s question with a question.
“About everfing dat I can’t explain in my life and most of all…Nadine…my twin.
“Oh, that”
“It doesn’t su’pwise you dat I said I hafe a twin? Nobody would believe me if I told them.”
“It doesn’t surprise me at all. You’re just a lot smarter than I thought you’d be….Arrayna-I mean Rocky.
"Arrayna?" Rocky said with a memory coming up, a vision in front of her.Diana, we have 2 beautiful twin daughters" Rian said coming into the room with 2 nurses following him and a baby in each nurse's arms. Diana got out of bed and moved toward them and taking a baby from one of the nurses, Rian already holding the other one.
"Let's call this one Nadine" Rian said, looking at the small baby in his arms.
"Then this one is Arrayna" Diana said cuddling the baby in her arms.
"We need to take them to the nursery, but we'll bring them after dinner.
"Take good care of them" Diana replied.
"We will."
The vision started to blur and a new one formed; it's in the nursery, 3 babies lying in cribs marked with their names in front of her. The left one is marked 'Rocky', the middle one is marked 'Arrayna' and the right one is marked 'Nadine'. One of them laid very still, the one in the Rocky-marked crib; then a figure entered the room, heading for the crib marked Arrayna and taking the baby from the crib, saying something.
"I'm so sorry little one, but I have to. You're special and now I'm taking you from your perfect life, shattering your dreams and taking you into a hard and painful reality" a familiar voice says to the unsuspecting, innocent baby, holding her in his arms. "You'll probably never be called 'Arrayna' again, you are now Rocky."He put the baby that was in the Rocky-crib in the baby he's holding's crib.
"You will pay for this. I can't do anything to you now, but when they are reunited I'll make sure the parents show you no mercy" a familiar female voice says to the person who just separated Nadine and Rocky. Or rather, Nadine and Arrayna.
The memory melted before Rocky's eyes and she now stared Pat straight in the face."Are you ok, Rocky?" he asked her.
"Don't call me that! I'm not Wocky, I'm Awayna." Rocky yelled.
"Uh-oh! Arrayna, what did you see?"
"I've seen and hea'd enough to know I HAVE a twin and I know who sepa'ated us."
"Stay calm. Let's talk about this. Arrayna-"
"Save you' bweath. I'm not listening to anode' wo'd coming out of you' mouth!"
Rocky jumped off Pat's lap and stormed to the door, not looking back once and just said 'don't twy to find me' before slamming the door shut, leaving a pale Pat behind.
In Freya's garden Rocky found a sharp rock between the plants and started carving out a message on the wall for Freya, since she didn't have anything to do with what just happened; she wrote:
DEAR 'MUMMY'
I'M SORRY I'M RUNNING AWAY, BUT I HAVE TO. I'LL SEE YOU IN A FEW YEARS. I'M GOING TO FIND MY TWIN.
P.S. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT, IT'S PAT'S.
FROM ARRAYNA (OR ROCKY AS YOU CALL ME)
BYE
“Wow! That’s so beautiful!” Nelly said as Diana shows her a dress she wants to give Freya.“I wore it at my first concert. It’ll fit her wonderfully” Diana said.
“Thank you so much. She’ll love it, but I think it’s a little too formal.”
“I’ll send something a bit more casual as well. I’ll take you home at 2 pm.”
“Really? For a visit?”
“No, to stay.”
“That’ll be great, but what about Vinny?”
“He’s still staying with us but if you continue to behave you, you can go to a normal high school when you’re 14.”
“That’s so great! I have to be at the beach but I’ll be here at 1:30.”
“Ok. Have fun!”
When Nelly arrived at the small abandoned beach a few miles from the Matthew house, she found the mystery girl waiting for her in front of a tree house, winking her closer as soon as she spotted Nelly.
“Nelly!” the mystery girl called to her, running closer.
“Hi” Nelly replied.
“Jesse will be impressed that you showed up”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Every time a new girl shows up at school that looks like she can be a potential prankster, we talk to her and try to get her here, but they mostly don’t show up because they don’t have the guts.”
“I think I can handle it”
The mystery girl took Nelly to the back of the tree house to a hidden pole; she showed her to climb up it without falling, unseen by everyone on the beach they made it into the tree house and found the girl with purple hair waiting for them.
“You’re late, Mi-” the girl said before being cut off by the mystery girl.
“Sssshhhh! Don’t be stupid! She can’t know our names yet!” the mystery girl silenced her.
“Sorry, I forgot. Anyway, Jesse and the other girl is waiting for us in the living room”
The 3 girls went into a room on their right and found Jesse along with the oldest girl she saw at the beach yesterday, playing video games with each other.“Ha! Looks like I’m going to beat you for the first time ever!” the girl said.
“Don’t count on it!” Jesse replies and looks at the screen with a scrunched up nose, then she gains 3 more lives so she has 5 and the other girl loses 3 of her 4 lives. “Die, die, die!” Jesse yells as she shoots the other girl on the screen.
“Game over. Player 1 wins” flashes on the screen.
“I really thought I was going to win you this time and I would if you didn’t cheat” the girl said disappointed to Jesse.
“I didn’t cheat, I used my advantage” Jesse replied.
“It’s an unfair advantage!”
“No it’s not!”
“It is!” the girl argues.“I say it’s not” Jesse said with the half dead voice, looking as if her eyes want to break free from the cover of the contacts.
“Jesse, deep breaths. You know it’s bad for you.”
“I can’t help it, it’s in my blood and you know it!”
“Jesse, calm down! Stop now! If you don’t calm down you’ll lose control.”
“No!!”
Jesse’s eyes started to become red under the contact lenses and some of the colour could be seen through it.
“Jesse, you’re losing it!”
“I’ll decide when I’m losing it or not!”
“Mila, hit her pressure point!”
“Thanks for telling Nelly my name!” the blonde girl yelled.
“Sorry, but there are more important things right now!”
“Fine!”
Mila crawled to the back of Jesse who looks like she’s having a hard time keeping her feet on the ground; waiting for the right time, Mila jumped up and hit Jesse between her neck and right shoulder, exactly when all the chairs and sofas in the room started floating in mid-air, but just when Mila hit her, everything dropped to the floor, as well as Jesse. She looked up at Mila and smiled thankfully at her.“Thank you Mila. I’m glad I trusted one person to where my exact pressure point is” Jesse tells Mila.
“I’m glad you told ONLY one person” Mila replied.
“Yeah. I don’t want it to reach the ears of the wrong people”
“Nelly!” Jesse called as she got up.
“Yes?” Nelly answered a little terrified of what she just saw.
“It’s time for your test.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Go tell anybody on this beach everything you know about us.”
“Ok, if you say so”
“Do you think she’s going to pass?” Mila asks Jesse as they watch Nelly approach a woman.
“I hope so. It looks like she has a lot of potential.” Jesse replies.
“Excuse me Ma’am” Nelly said to a stranger.“How may I help you?” the woman replied, but Nelly was silent for a moment thinking if this is what the girls really want her to do; after a while of thinking she thought they may want to see if she’ll just give in to pure pressure or if she’ll think for herself.
“I want to show you something”
“Ok.”
She follows Nelly to the tree house but instead of going in, they stop underneath; Nelly guides her into a small room and locks the door as soon as the woman is on the far end of it, locking herself out of the room, standing outside.
She quickly runs up to the girls waiting in the living room to tell them what she did and to get a stash of pies to throw at the woman for the prank to be complete; when she entered the room they looked at her with confused faces until she started to explain, then turning the frowns to laughter from what she did and wants to do to the woman.“I knew you could do it” Jesse told Nelly.
“Thanks.”
“We’ll finish the prank and you can go to the mayor’s house so his wife can take you home.”
“How’d you-?”
“You don’t want to know”
“One more thing before I go. Do you have any extensions you can give me? My mom wants long hair but she doesn’t want to wait.”
“Certainly.”
After that everything passed quickly and days went past without any sign of Rocky at all, even the police couldn’t find her using any of their methods and soon grew very worried and sympathetic for the Hendrickson family; Nelly has been home for a long time and Rian was about to drive Vinny home as well, because from the time he got the call from his mother that his little sis’ is missing, he didn’t have the spirit for pranks. 5 days after her disappearance, Vinny went outside to climb into the car to go home when he found a little toddler he thought is Rocky in front of the mansion of the Matthews.
“Rocky?” he asked the toddler.
“No” she answered.
“Nadine?”
“No”
“Then who?”
“Arrayna of course. You know me Vinny”
“You’re Rocky”
Vinny quickly told Rian he’s taking the bus and made his way home with his little sister squirming to return to the Matthews, in his arms; when he came home nobody waited for an explanation and just gathered around them. Nelly was the first to receive a hug from the small girl.“Why did you leave?” Nelly asked her.
“I’ll explain everything to you after my first day of school” Rocky whispered to Nelly, but couldn’t say anything else to her because Freya took her into her arms even before she stopped hugging Nelly and Pat closely after but Rocky tried to refuse and push herself away but a small toddler against an adult is no fair fight.
“You won’t influence my choices. You’re just a despicable piece of slime” Rocky whispered to Pat, suddenly with another memory taking place.
This is a picture of Freya with her new look.
“Pat, she’s gorgeous! Why didn’t they want to bring her to me at first?” Freya asked.“There was some kind of mix-up with the babies in the nursery” Pat answered.
“Well, she’s here now and she’s perfect”
The baby opened her eyes and looked at the 2 people in front of her with confusion; even then she was a genius.
“You’re not my parents” the baby whispered weakly to them.
“Oh Pat, she can talk! She’s so smart! Rocky, honey, we are your parents”
“No. They look different”
Freya was stubborn and didn't want to be refered to as an imposter, Rocky's statement making her face glow red and then forcefully fed her a bottle, ignoring her screams to stop.
A picture of how she remembered her parents and sister formed in Rocky’s mind and she was able to feel as if they are standing with her and holding her tightly, Nadien smiling at her.
“Mummy, I know you miss Arrayna” Nadine whisper in Diana’s ear.
“How do you know about Arrayna?” Diana said startled.
“She’s my twin.”
“You don’t have a twin. There’s no Arrayna. I’ll explain it to you when you’re older”
A memory came into Nadine’s head as well, but a different on as the one Rocky saw.
“Oh Rian! It can’t be true! She has to be alive! Both the twins should have a life!” Diana cried after having news that Arrayna’s lungs fell flat; she held Nadine for support.“Diana, we can’t do anything about it” Rian said, but tears also streaming over his face.
“There has to be something we can do!”
“Let’s just raise Nadine the best we can.”
“We’ll give her a life most children only dream about. She doesn’t have to know she was supposed to have a twin sister.”
