Chaos reigned at the Singleton house with only one college student watching six children. Violet, Kaleb, and Noah watched boredly as the babysitter tried and failed to control the younger three while playing with Play-Doh.
"This is so lame," Violet said with a yawn.
"Play-Doh is for babies," Kaleb agreed.
"Wanna go up to my room? I have a new Lego set we could try," Noah offered to his friends. They gladly took him up on it. Anything was better than watching the sitter flounder.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" she called frantically to them as they went upstairs.
"To my room."
"I"m supposed to watch all of you at the same time! Come back!"
They didn"t heed the babysitter"s pleas. She was boring and they had better things to do. They all settled down on the floor of Noah"s room as he brought out the box of Legos.
It was a dragon, knight, and castle set his cousin outgrew and gave to him when his family went to Pennsylvania for Easter. His cousin swore it even had all of the original pieces because he was careful not to lose them.
"Why do our dads have to work at the same place anyway," Kaleb grumbled. "This would be more fun if Aunt Jen was here."
"Don"t be stupid; we wouldn"t even know each other if dad hadn"t hired Uncle Cameron," Violet said as she began sorting the Lego pieces into piles by shape and color. "He and Uncle Aiden have worked for him since before we were born. Dad has known them almost as long as he"s known Mom."
Noah looked confused. "How long have your parents known each other? My dad says he met your dad in college."
"High school," she replied, not looking up from her organizing.
"Wow, that is a long time. But I"ll know you longer when we grow up because we"ve known each other since we were babies."
"That isn"t how that works—oh, never mind. Anyway, I"ll always know Kaleb the longest since we were in our mom"s tummy together."
Noah scowled as he stared intently at the instructions. "Unfair."
"Life isn"t fair, Noah," Violet said simply.
Kaleb rolled his eyes as he started putting pieces together at random. He was used to their bickering. And how much of a know-it-all his sister was. He loved her dearly anyway; he wouldn"t trade his twin for anything.
But sometimes she had a talent for making other people feel stupid. It was probably because she was so smart.
At least he was better than her at sports. Every time she tried, she tended to get hit in the face with whatever ball was being used. Whenever this happened he would laugh at her after checking to see if she was okay. That made her pretty mad.
The three of them worked in relative silence for a while, only speaking to ask for a specific Lego piece or something else pertaining to construction of the castle. In Kaleb"s opinion, it was better this way.
Even though he was closer to Violet than anybody he had the odd sensation of being a third wheel when Noah was around. And yet everybody else said they felt like a third wheel around Violet and Kaleb. He was a little jealous that Violet always got to be an important wheel.
At the same time, he knew he had way more friends than her. He couldn"t be too upset. She was polite enough to her cla.s.smates and her brother"s friends but the only people she really liked were him and Noah.
As they got older and progressed more in school they grew apart a bit since they had different cla.s.ses. Kaleb knew Violet didn"t like it but he had secretly requested to be in a different cla.s.s when they were in third grade.
It wasn"t that he didn"t love his sister; he simply wanted to be able to go to school without worrying about her. She always got so sulky when he played with anybody else. He still saw her all the time and played with her constantly at home. n.o.body but his mom knew that he wanted school to himself.
Well, she probably told his dad. He knew there were no secrets between those two because of the time Dad snitched on him for eating the last cookie even after Mom told him not to. She said that was how marriage was supposed to work. Whatever that meant.
Violet"s world was limited to very few people and Kaleb didn"t want to be stuck as a third wheel forever so he went out and made as many friends as possible. Kaleb liked Noah but he knew he ranked second to his sister in his friend"s eyes.
Wasn"t it better for him to play with people who saw him first while they could be off in their little world by themselves?
"Kal, I need the piece you"re holding," his sister requested, holding her hand out for it.
He handed it to her without a word and she smiled brightly at him. Violet had the same kind of smile their mom did; it made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever you saw it. She smiled at him more than anybody because he saw her most. Even more than Noah.
For a while when they were younger Kaleb wished Noah would go away so he could have his sister"s smile all to himself. But that was a dumb thing to wish for. With Noah around, Kaleb was able to play with new friends at the park without having to cater to Violet. He got over it pretty quick.
But as they got older, he noticed that Noah was even more protective of his sister than he was. Sometimes Kaleb wondered why. He knew why he was protective; Violet was his twin. They shared a certain bond that nothing could break.
Noah wasn"t her twin or even her brother so why did he care so much? He clung to her like Velcro. If he were Violet, he would be annoyed by the constant attention.