Double Trouble part 2

Double Trouble
By Curious4ever
Part 2



We finally made it to the locker room and it was filled with a dozen or so boys wearing identical swimsuits. We came to a stop in front of a locker when I suddenly realized something.

“Hey we can’t go in the pool. We don’t have our swimsuits.”

Billy shook his head. “You know we don’t wear our own suits here. We wear the ones supplied by the school, just like everyone else does. Yours is in your locker.”

I opened up the locker and inside was a blue and yellow speedo hanging on a hook. It was identical to the one that the other boys in the room were wearing and was the same colors as my unitard.

I fumbled around for the unitard zipper until Billy stepped over and unzipped it for me. He was much more accustomed to wearing unitards than I was and he was already out of his and into his speedo before I was even undressed. He put his unitard in the locker and slammed the door shut.

“You’re such a slowpoke today. I’ll meet you at the pool,” he thought to me as he left the room.

By the time I slipped off my unitard I was the last one left in the locker room. I finished putting on my speedo and I ran to the exit.

A minute later I was out in the pool area and all of the other boys were already swimming in the pool, all of them that is except for Lucien. Unlike everyone else who was wearing a speedo with the school colors on it, his speedo was bright green. He spotted me and started walking in my direction.

“There you are David,” he said. “And before you try telling me that you’re Billy I already know that you’re not.”

“I wasn’t even going to try. But I would like to know how you can tell us apart.”

He stood silent for a moment and then he grinned.

“You’ll find out later but only if you win our race,” he said. “But don’t forget that if you lose then you’ve got to do everything I tell you to do next period.”

“But what about my next class?”

“Don’t give me that,” he said. “I know that next period is a free period for you.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right, I forgot,” I lied.

“Now are you ready to lose our little bet?” he asked.

“I’m ready, but not to lose.”

As we both marched down to the end of the pool I counted at least a dozen set of twins that had gotten out of the pool and were now standing along the edge. Word must have gotten around about the wager that I had with Lucien. When we got to the large diving board at the far end of the pool Billy was there waiting for us.

“Toby told me about the race and your bet,” he said. “And I want in on it.”

At that moment Toby stepped up behind Billy. “Me too,” he said.

“And me,” said Mark as he ran over and stood next to his brother.

Lucien shook his head. “Oh no, you guys aren’t going to team up against me,” he said. “This bet is just between me and Winnie.”

“Winnie?” Billy asked.

“That’s what he’s been calling me,” I said. “Because he said that I’m a whinny Winnie.”

“And when he loses I get to keep calling him that,” Lucien said. “And he’s got to help me next period.”

“But we were supposed to practice next period,” Billy said. “We need to get ready to perform for the principal later.”

“We’ll still be able to practice because I don’t intend to lose to Lucien,” I said. “You know I’m a great swimmer.”

“Yeah I know that you are, but Lucien’s an excellent swimmer too,” Billy said.

“Are you just going to stand around here all period and talk or are we going to race?” Lucien asked.

“I’m ready,” I said as I stepped to the edge of the pool.

“I’ll stand poolside and cheer you on,” Billy said.

“So will we,” Toby said as he put his arm around his brother.

Each of them walked to a different spot alongside the pool and then they stopped and waited for us to begin.

“Okay, the race is to go to the far end of the pool and back again and the one who makes it back here first is the winner,” Lucien said. “On the count of three. One… two… three!”

The moment he said three we both dove into the pool. By the time we were halfway to the far end of the pool we were both pretty even. We made it there at the same instant and then we flipped around and headed back. My heart was beating wildly as I listened to my friends cheering me on.

I guess I overdid it in my first class because I was starting to feel a little fatigued and I was starting to slow down as Lucien took over the lead.

I tried to pick up speed but I got to the finish a few seconds behind Lucien. I waded around in the water as he got out of the pool and did a little victory dance.

“Told you that I could beat you Winnie!” he exclaimed. “Meet me in the locker room and we’ll settle our bet.”

He gleefully headed towards the locker room and did high fives to any boy that would give him one back.

Dejectedly I got out of the pool and waited for Billy to come over. I could already sense his disappointment and that feeling intensified the closer he came.

The longer I remained in this strange world the stronger my psychic connection to Billy was becoming. In addition to that I was still acquiring new memories of us growing up together. The newest one that I just got was of our very first day of school and the matching green unitards we wore. We were both so happy that day and we both cried the day that we finally outgrew them. The more memories that I received the realer this world became and it seemed like the other world that I came from was slowly fading from my mind.

Billy was shaking his head when he finally came over.

“What happened out there?” he thought to me.

“I’m sorry, I screwed up,” I thought back.

“Maybe I can talk to Lucien and get him to let you out of your bet,” Billy thought.

I shook my head. “No, we made a bet fair and square. Mom would get pretty upset if she found out that I welched on a bet.”

“I love you bro, but I’m still going to practice next period without you,” he thought.

“It’s okay. Hopefully what he wants me to do won’t take all period. I’ll meet up with you as soon as I’m done. Twin promise.”

“Twin promise,” he repeated back to me.

The telepathic talking that we did no longer felt odd or strange to me because I remembered it as something that we had always shared and it was what bonded us so closely to each other. I knew that not every identical twin had this ability and I was glad that the two of us had it.

When I finally got to the locker room Lucien was waiting for me by my locker. He had changed out of his speedo and was back to wearing his green tights. The only difference with this outfit was that this green shirt was checkered while the other one wasn’t and it was a different shade of green.

“I see that you’ve changed already,” I said. “That’s a different shirt.”

“It’s for my presentation next period,” he said. “For my final exam I’m doing Peter and the Wolf and I’m dancing the part of Peter.”

“So how am I supposed to help you? I don’t take ballet, remember?”

“You don’t have to dance,” he said. “You’re just going to be a prop.”

“A prop?”

“Yeah, you’re going to dress up as a wolf and I’m going to capture you,” he said.

“And then what?”

“That’s it,” he said with a shrug.

“If I’m not going to dance then what do you need me there for?”

“Because nobody has ever teamed up with anyone else for ballet,” he said. “It’s always a solo thing. So even though you’re just a prop we’re still going to be a team and I will get extra points for creativity.”

“Is that it?”

“Oh and there is one more thing,” he said.

“Why am I not surprised?”

He opened up my locker and pulled out a white box.

“Where did that come from? That wasn’t in there before,” I said.

“I know, I put it in there,” he said. “I knew that you wouldn’t win the race. Open it up.”

I opened the box and inside was a light brown leotard with patches of brown fur on the shoulders and sleeves. In addition to that it had a long furry tail sewn into the back. Lying underneath it was a matching set of ballet slippers and a dark brown pair of tights.

“You mean I’ve got to wear this thing?” I asked.

“Yes and there’s still something else that you haven’t uncovered,” he said with a grin.

I lifted up the tights and under that was a hood in the shape of a wolf’s head. Lucien picked it up and placed it on my head. It covered most of my head with the exception of my face and ears.

“Now it’s time for you to put the rest of your costume on,” he said.

Fortunately all the other boys from class had already changed and left for their next class so it was just me and Lucien in the locker room.

I pulled off my wet speedo and dried off. Then I slipped on the dark brown tights. The leotard was a high collared one with long sleeves and I needed to find the small zipper behind the fur in the back in order to get into it. After that I put on the ballet slippers and a white pair of gloves that I found at the bottom of the box. The costume was slightly padded in a few areas and so it gave me a more slightly rounded appearance in certain places.

At the end of the row of lockers was a large mirror and when I saw my reflection in it I cringed. I looked almost unrecognizable in this dumb outfit.

“I look so stupid in this costume,” I said as I put my hands on hips. “And what’s with all this padding?  It makes my hips and butt look larger than they’re supposed to be.”

“You look fine Winnie,” he said. “Now stop your whining.”

When he got to the exit he stopped and looked back at me.

“Are you coming or not Winnie?” he asked.

“I don’t want to walk around school dressed like this,” I moaned. “Everyone is going to look at me and laugh.”

“You promised to do everything I told you to,” he reminded me. “And speaking of that, once we get to where we are going you’re not allowed to speak to any of my instructors while we are on stage. Do you understand?”

“Why not?”

“Because this is my final exam and I don’t want you to say anything that would ruin it for me. Now come along. I don’t want to be late.”

I wasn’t too happy about it but I eventually followed him out of the locker room and down the hall. As I expected I got many strange looks from the other students as I passed by and there were lots of fingers pointing in my direction.

“We’re almost there Winnie,” he said.

“Do you have to keep calling me by that name?” I asked sorrowfully.

“I will as long as you keep whining,” he said.

We stepped into a large auditorium with a half dozen teachers seated in the front row. Lucien walked up the side steps and stood in the center of the stage. There were several fake trees and rocks onstage and behind him was a backdrop with a cloudy sky painted on it.

“Hurry up Winnie, we haven’t got all day!” he shouted.

I walked past the teachers and went up the steps and finally stood next to him.

He bent down and grabbed a white rope from the floor and tied a small lasso at one end. When he was done he lassoed the rope over my head and tightened it around my neck.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“You’re a wolf and I’ve captured you, Winnie,” he said loudly. “Now get down on all fours and howl.”

“No, I’ll feel stupid doing that.”

“Does this mean that you’re welching on our bet Winnie?” he whispered.

“No,” I said dejectedly.

“Then start howling,” he said with a nasty grin.

“Why do I have to do that?”

“Because it’s fun,” he replied.

“I don’t think it is.”

“I didn’t say it was fun for you,” he replied. “Now howl like a wolf.”

I sighed and got down on all fours. Then I rested my hands on a small pair of fake rocks. It was about a minute before I finally worked up enough courage to howl.

“Awooooo!” I howled.

“Excellent Winnie! Keep up the good work,” he said as he slapped me on the butt.

I spent the next half hour howling and walking around on all fours as Lucien performed a number of elaborate ballet moves. Several times he leaped right over me and it startled me every time that he did it.

When he was done he bowed and placed his hand on my head.

“Nice job Winnie,” he said as he patted my head.

All of the teachers rose from their seats and applauded.

“An outstanding performance Lucien, very creative and original,” one of the teachers said. “And you were excellent as well young lady. The two of you are a wonderful team. You have such beautiful chemistry together.”

Young lady? Was he referring to me?

“It was very nice of you to take time away from your cheerleading classes and help out Lucien with his presentation,” the teacher added.  “Would you happen to be his girlfriend?”

“I’m sure she must be,” a female teacher said. “Look at them together up there. They make such a lovely couple.”

I stood up and put my hands on my hips. “I am not a girl, I’m a boy.”

Lucien nudged me with his elbow.

“You’re not allowed to talk to any of my instructors,” he said softly. “Remember our bet.”

“Oh, I do apologize,” the female teacher said. “But when I heard Lucien call you Winnie I naturally assumed that you were a girl.”

“I also thought that she was a girl,” said another teacher.

“I did as well,” said yet another.

“She’s obviously playing a little joke on us,” said the first teacher. “Look at her curvaceous figure. That is definitely not a boy’s body.

“And notice how closely she stands beside her boyfriend,” another teacher added. “She obviously relies on him for support.”

“Indeed, very timid,” said the first teacher.

“That’s very true,” said the female teacher. “And besides if she was really a boy then she would have a twin since we all know that twins are never seen apart from one another.”

All of the teachers nodded in agreement.

I punched Lucien on the arm and then got so close to him that we were nose to nose.

“Will you tell them that I’m not your girlfriend,” I said softly. “Tell them that I’m a boy.”

“Why should I?’ he asked. “It doesn’t matter to me what they think about you.”

“Please talk to them about me, please,” I begged.

“Okay but only because it’s the only way to get you to stop whining,” he said. “Remember that you are forbidden to say another word to them.”

He turned and smiled as he addressed the teachers.

“My girlfriend and I want to thank you for your very kind words about our performance. She hopes that you liked her little joke and she wants you to know that this is her first time appearing on stage and that she is very nervous being in front of you all. She hopes that this will not adversely affect the grade that you are going to give me.”

The female teacher stood up.

“You may tell her that you both performed admirably and we enjoyed both your performances very much. You can rest assured that you will receive a very high score for your presentation today,” she said.

“Excellent!” Lucien shouted gleefully.

Then he gave me a whack on the butt. “Did you hear that Winnie? We did it!”

I knew that there was no use in trying to convince them that I was a boy. I felt so embarrassed that they all thought I was a girl that I ran from the stage and headed for the exit. As I ran down the aisle the female teacher raised her hand.

“Young lady, please don’t run,” the female teacher said. “It’s very unladylike.”

I burst into tears as I ran out into the hallway. I didn’t care how I was dressed as I ran through the school looking for Billy. I must have passed several dozen boys before I finally located him alone in a classroom. He was just getting up from the floor as I dashed into the room. He ran towards me and gave me a powerful hug.

“You must really be very upset,” he thought to me. “I could feel that you were stressed out all the way across the school.”

“I am stressed,” I thought back to him. “That Lucien, he gets me so angry!”

I was still very upset and I couldn’t stop crying. Billy released me from his embrace and gave me a puzzled look.

“Why are you dressed in that silly outfit?” he thought. “It makes you look like a girl.”

“It’s the costume that Lucien made me wear,” I thought back. “It was part of our bet. And the worst part is that they all thought I was a girl because of how I was dressed and he kept calling me Winnie.”

“Well don’t let it get to you,” he thought. “You’re still my brother no matter what and I will always love you.”

His words soothed me down and I stopped crying. We still had a little time left to practice before performing for the principal so we started to rehearse our routine. I didn’t want to waste what little time we had left so I practiced our routine in my wolf’s costume. A few times my tail got in Billy’s face and he sneezed every time it did.

It was finally the end of the school day and time for us to see the principal. We went back to the pool locker room so I could stop at my locker to find something better to wear. I was just about to open my locker when Billy opened his and handed me a unitard from his locker.

“What’s this?” I asked. “My school unitard is in my locker.”

“That’s the one that you wear to school. This is the one we use for competitions. I forgot to give it back to you after our last competition.”

I looked at it and while it was the same colors as my school unitard the colors were designed differently on it. He pulled out another one for himself and he started to change into it. I quickly changed out of my wolf’s costume and was happy when I finally put on my competition unitard.

We made our way to the principal’s office and Billy’s hand was shaking so much that I didn’t need our psychic connection to know that he was feeling nervous.

Earlier that day I had had a difficult time remembering my various bending exercises and I only managed to pass Mrs. March’s test by pure instinct, but now I remembered all my years of contortion classes that Billy and I attended so I was feeling pretty confident.

Mrs. Stilton, the vice-principal was the first person we met when we entered the office. She was an older woman about our mom’s age but unlike our mom she wore glasses and had wavy brunette hair.

“Good afternoon Mrs. Stilton,” we said together.

“Hello boys, you’re right on time for your meeting with Mr. Carson,” she said. “He’s running a few minutes late so you can wait for him here until he gets back.”

We spent the next few minutes doing our limbering up exercises.

“I’m just so nervous about our presentation,” Billy thought. “Why aren’t you nervous?”

“I don’t know,” I thought back. “A little while ago I thought it was really important that we win first prize. I really wanted that medallion. But now I’m having a hard time remembering why it was so important.”

“Well I want to win it to show Mark that he’s not better than us,” Billy thought. “Him and his brother think they’re the best in the school.”

“You don’t know what they think,” I thought back. “We don’t even know if they are telepathic with each other like we are.”

“That’s because we’re so close to each other,” Billy thought. “We not only sense what the other is feeling but we also share the same emotions sometimes.”

At that moment the door opened and Principal Carson entered the room. He was an older balding man with a big bulbous nose.

“Good afternoon Principal Carson,” we both said in unison.

Our psychic bond was so strong that we were constantly saying the same thing simultaneously. It didn’t matter if I thought of it or if Billy did. It was just natural for us both to respond together.

“Okay boys, I’m afraid that I don’t have a lot of time right now so you will have to start your performance immediately,” he said.

“Yes sir,” we said in unison.

Mrs. Stilton grabbed a clipboard and they both stood next to a very large wooden table. I looked at Billy and our psychic connection was so strong that when I raised an arm he raised his at the exact same moment. We spent the next minute performing identical moves and then we went into our separate bending positions. Our whole performance took almost five minutes and when we were done we both felt like we had done the best routine of our lives.

“Very good boys, now take a seat while I discuss your results with Mrs. Stilton.”

“Yes sir,” we said simultaneously.

We were about to sit in the two chairs next to the table when we suddenly remembered what our teacher Mrs. March had said about creativity and originality so we jumped up on the table and Billy got on his knees and bent all the way backwards until the back of his head was resting on the table. He rested his arms behind his head while I placed my arms on his chest and flipped my legs backwards into the air until they were high above my head. Because of his position, Billy was staring at the ceiling while I was staring directly at Principal Carson.

“Ready when you are Principal Carson,” we said in unison.

The two administrators looked at us for a few seconds and then spoke quietly between themselves. Mrs. Stilton made several marks on her clipboard as we both remained perfectly motionless.

“We’ve finished with your results and I’m happy to say that you will both be performing in this afternoon’s school competition,” Principal Carson said. “You almost didn’t make it but your final move at the end was the determining factor.”

Mrs. Stilton nodded. “Yes, when you used your brother as a chair instead of doing the expected thing and sitting on the two chairs behind you we both thought that was very creative.”

“You mean if we sat on the chairs we wouldn’t have been picked to perform?” we asked.

“That is correct,” Principal Carson said. “All of the boys in the school are very dexterous and skillful in the art of contortion and that is why we are always on the lookout for students who think outside of the box and show us their creativity.”

“You may now go boys,” Mrs. Stilton said.

I did a flip and adeptly landed on my feet. Billy sat up and did a backward flip and landed right next to me.

“Thank you,” we both said in unison.

“Good luck in this afternoon’s competition,” Principal Carson said. “I look forward to seeing your performance.”

“Thank you Principal..,” I started to say.

“Carson, our performance…,” Billy continued

“is going to be…,” I continued.

“fantastic!” we both said together.

We both giggled as we walked out of the office. We were both so happy that we had won the chance to compete. Once the door was closed behind us we stopped and smiled at each other.

“You were wonderful!” he thought to me.

“No, you were,” I thought back.

“There’s no way that Mark and Toby are going to beat us,” he thought back. “We’ve still got a little time before the competition. Let’s find some place quiet and practice.”

We headed for the library but as we walked past an open classroom door I came to a sudden stop.

“What’s wrong?” he thought to me.

“Look inside,” I said as I pointed into the room.

Inside the room were Toby and Mark and they were both in an extremely difficult contortion position. They remained completely immobile in that position until I walked up behind them and started to applaud.

“That was amazing!” I said. “I never thought of bending myself in that position before. Where did you learn that one from?”

“Mark created it,” Toby said. “He comes up with all our moves. He’s the creative one.”

“You’re just as creative as I am,” Mark said.

Toby shook his head. “You’re just trying to be nice. We both know that you create everything we do.”

“I wish I could come up with something new for the competition,” Mark said. “We showed Principal Carson everything we had in our audition.”

“We just got picked to compete,” I said.

“Oh, I guess they were desperate if they picked your brother,” Mark said.

Billy stepped angrily into the room.

“I heard that! And I’m a million times better at contortion that you are,” he said.

He grabbed me by the hand.

“Come on David, let’s get out of here!”

He pulled me out of the room before I had a chance to say goodbye to either Toby or Mark.  He didn’t stop pulling me until we had walked down two corridors.

“What are you so upset about?” I asked as we finally came to a stop.

“Mark and his brother think that they are so much better than us,” he said. “It just makes me angry.”

“They were right about one thing,” I said. “We can do every move and routine flawlessly but there is nothing in our routine that is original or creative.”

“We’ll figure out something,” he said.

He looked up at the clock on the wall and shook his head.

“Looks like we’re out of time,” he said. “We’ve got to go to the competition now.”

We quickly headed for the auditorium where the competitions were being held. When we got there I checked the schedule and noticed that Mark and Toby would be performing fifth while Billy and I were assigned to perform last.

We watched from backstage as each of the first three teams performed. They were all very good and every one performed their routines flawlessly but Billy and I weren’t worried because we knew that our routine was better than theirs.

“So far so good,” Billy thought as the third team was finishing up their act. “Just two more teams to go and then it will be our turn.”

We were feeling pretty confident about our chances of winning until it was time for the fourth team to perform and a lone figure in a blue and yellow unitard stepped onto the stage.

“Something’s not right,” Billy thought. “There’s only one person on the stage. Where’s his partner?”

The person on stage bowed to each of the judges and when the final bow was taken I was able to get a better look. The performer on stage had long blond hair that was just a little bit longer than ours but stranger still was the fact that the person standing there was a girl.

“What’s she doing there?” Billy thought. “Girls aren’t supposed to be contortionists. They’re supposed to be cheerleaders.”

“I’ve never seen her before. What did they say her name was?”

“I think they said it’s Danielle,” Billy said.

I shook my head. “Nope, there’s nobody in any of our classes with that name.”

I stopped thinking about it when she dropped to the floor and raised the bottom portion of her body until her legs were dangling high in the air and her forearms were the only parts of her body still touching the floor.

“Darn, she’s very good,” Billy said as he nervously began to bite his fingernails.

“Yeah, it sounds like the audience really likes her.”

“Well that’s only because she’s a girl and no one has ever seen a girl contortionist before,” Billy said. “This has got to be the most original and creative thing we’ve seen so far.”

My hopes of winning the medallion were quickly fading as Danielle performed several more amazing feats of contortion all without the assistance of a partner.

When she was done there was a tremendous outburst of applause from the spectators.

“I’m really worried about this, Billy.”

“I know,” he replied. “She was very good but maybe we’ve still got a shot of winning. After all she didn’t do any moves that we haven’t seen before.”

“She’s a girl and she performed. And that’s something we’ve never seen before.”

“So what?” Billy replied. “We’ll just do our chair routine at the end. The principal and Mrs. March really liked that.”

“Yeah because they had never seen it before,” I said. “But now they’ve seen it and they will be expecting us to do something different.”

At that moment Danielle walked off the stage while Toby and Mark stepped onto it.

As they began their routine I decided to limber up a little and so I bent my right leg backwards and raised it straight up into the air. I grabbed it with my left hand while I rested my right hand on Billy’s shoulder. He placed his right arm behind my back and rested his hand on my waist. As we stood there watching Mark and Toby perform the image of the comic book cover came to my mind since they were now in the same exact position as they appeared on the cover. I became very nervous and I began to doubt that either of our teams could defeat Danielle. Her performance was definitely different even if she wasn’t a team.

Every time I tried to think of a way of beating her all I could think of was the word team. I had heard it a lot lately starting with Lucien at the pool when he accused us of teaming up against him to beat him in the swimming contest. Then later I heard it when Lucien told me that he wanted to team up with me for his ballet competition because it had never been done before and it would benefit him due to it being such a creative idea. I couldn’t get that word out of my head and then I came up with a fantastic idea. I grabbed Billy by the hand and pulled him onto the stage.

“Follow my lead and do what I do,” I thought to him as we stepped onto the stage alongside Toby and Mark.

Toby was doing a handstand on Mark’s stomach when he saw me standing next to him.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered. “It’s not your turn to perform yet.”

“I know,” I whispered back. “But there’s no way either of our teams is going to win against Danielle. She’s just too original and unique.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Toby whispered.

“That we combine our two teams and that we all perform at the same time but with each other’s sibling.”

“You mean that you want me to perform our act with you while Billy and Mark do theirs alongside us?” Toby whispered.

I nodded and after we both whispered my idea to our brothers we continued the act but as a foursome. Billy and Mark did not appear to be very happy having to perform together but it was our only chance of winning.

As we performed our act all I could think of was that this would either be a tremendous hit or it would be a total disaster. There was no way of knowing for sure until it was all over.

After we did a few synchronized bends we did a rotation of reverse moves where one team did the opposite of the other.

I was currently standing on my hands on top of Toby who was twisted on the floor looking upwards while Mark was balancing by his hands on top of Billy’s ankles which were bent over his head. Mark and I both had our legs over our heads but mine were spread apart while Mark’s were bent backwards over his head.

“Okay guys, it’s almost time for our big finale,” I said. “Let’s show them everything we’ve got.”

“What are we doing for the finale?” Toby asked.

“It’s going to be a variation of the chair routine that Billy and I did earlier today,” I said. “The three of you will twist yourselves into a chair and I will do a several flips and land on top of you.”

Nobody in the audience could hear a word that the four of us were saying. To them we simply appeared to be doing a series of very rhythmic contortion routines.

“Okay, now, on the count of three,” I said. “One… two… three!”

I jumped and did a triple somersault as Toby, Mark and Billy quickly twisted and contorted their bodies until they formed one large chair. They were able to do that in the time that I did my somersaults and I flipped backwards and landed perfectly on top of them.

The audience jumped to their feet and applauded. Several of them were busy snapping our pictures with their cameras and cell phones. I was exhausted and very relieved that it was finally over. I couldn’t remember when Billy and I had performed such a strenuous performance. We stayed perfectly still in that position for over two minutes as the audience continued to applaud. My hands were resting on top of Toby’s chest and his heart was beating wildly.

At that moment the judges walked onto the stage. Several of them were holding trophies of various sizes while another was carefully holding the first place prize. We quickly untwisted ourselves and stood on the side of the stage along with the other competitors.

The principal stepped up to the microphone and waved to the audience.

“Let’s have another round of applause for our fine young performers,” he said as he clapped his hands.

The audience continued cheering and applauding and I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The sound of their approval and admiration was like a super sugar high and I craved more. I couldn’t wait for our next opportunity to perform together.

“Although only one team will walk out of here with the first place prize I just want to say that every one of them is a winner in my opinion,” Principal Carson said.

The audience cheered even louder.

“Due to some last minute unforeseen changes to the performance schedule we appear to have only five teams today instead of six,” Principal Carson said. “As you all are aware our final two teams performed together and so we have graded them as one team instead of two. And now for the results, our third place trophy goes to the team of Randy and Sandy.”

Standing right in front of me were two curly haired brothers in fluorescent purple unitards. They happily ran to the principal and grabbed their trophy. They held it above their heads as the audience applauded for them. They walked over to the other side of the stage and stood on a little platform with the number three painted on it.

“We debated amongst ourselves for several minutes trying to come up with our second place winner and it was a very close decision,” Principal Carson said. “Our second place winning team is probably one of our most original and creative one that we have seen in a very long time. By now all of you are aware that one of our teams is not composed of a set of twin boys but rather it consists of one very talented young lady.  She is a recent transfer student who will be starting her classes this coming week but she is such a unique individual that we allowed her to perform in today’s competition and I’m sure that you will all agree that she has done an outstanding job. I am pleased to present the second place trophy to our newest student, Danielle.”

The crowd burst out into an even louder round of applause as Danielle headed towards the principal. She smiled as she received her trophy.

“Th…. Th.. thank you, Pr... Pr… Principal. Ca… Ca.. Carson,” she stuttered.

She walked over to Randy and Sandy and stood on a slightly higher platform with the number two painted on it.

“And now I am extremely proud to present today’s first place award,” Principal Carson said. “This award goes to the team of David, Billy, Mark and Toby, for their truly unique and original performance. Never in my entire vocation have I ever seen two sets of twins team up and perform such exacting feats of contortion, it was truly a remarkable display of ingenuity and creativity.”

It was such an exciting moment and the audience was once again on their feet and giving us a standing ovation as we walked over to Principal Carson. He handed Billy the medallion and Billy proudly held it high above his head as the audience busily cheered and snapped pictures.

We walked over to the platform with the number one painted on it and the four of us struggled to stand on the small area that was barely big enough for two people.  I decided to climb onto Billy’s shoulders and sit on them while Toby did the same to Mark. With one hand Billy held the small case containing the precious medallion while with the other he held my leg.

“All of the credit for our winning today belongs to you bro,” he said. “We never would have won if you hadn’t come up with the idea of us teaming up together.”

“Yeah, how did you come up with that idea?” Mark said.

“Actually Lucien kind of gave it to me,” I replied.

“He did? How did he do that?” Toby asked.

“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll tell you later.”

We spent the next half hour or so standing on stage and posing for pictures. A lot of people wanted us to recreate the chair performance from our act so they could get a better shot of it. We were more than happy to accommodate them with that request and all the other contortion poses that people asked us to perform. After a very rocky start and a few bumps along the way this was quickly becoming the best day of my life.

By the time it was over it was way past dinnertime and we had to quickly leave if we were to get anything to eat. We invited Mark and Toby over to our house for a celebratory dinner and sleepover. A short time later we sat down to a delicious meal of yogurt and salad. I knew that I was once content to eat other things like potato chips and pizza but now I was happy eating yogurt because I knew that it was extremely important that we keep our bodies fit and trim.

All during dinner and for an hour or so afterwards we were busy talking about our next contortion performance. We had to make it something even more creative and exotic, something that the audience had never seen before. We passed ideas back and forth for so long that by the time mom came home she had to remind us that it was past our bedtime.

Toby and Mark got to sleep in the guest bedroom which was right next to our room. Billy and I were both lying in our bunks and we were both too excited from the day’s events to fall asleep. I looked at the nightstand and saw a very familiar comic book lying on top. It was the one that I was looking at before I came to this world. The last time I saw it the cover featured one set of twins performing on a stage while the other pair watched from the side. Now it featured both sets of twins performing together on stage just like we had done earlier. In addition to that the title of the book had changed from ‘Double Trouble’ to ‘Twin Win’.

“I had a fantastic time today,” I thought to Billy in our special private think talk. “I never thought that I could enjoy anything as much as I love contortion.”

“Well, we’ve been doing it all our lives,” Billy thought back.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. You know I was hoping that we would win that medallion so I could return back to the way that things were but I think I like it too much here to leave.”

“I’m not sure what you are talking about but I’m glad that we won,” Billy said. “And we are going to do even better at the next competition.”

“You bet,” I said. “Good night bro. You’re the best.”

“Same here,” he said as he turned off the light.

I lay there in the dark and I thought about my life. It was definitely different than anything that I had before but I was extremely happy and I couldn’t wait for our next contortion adventure.


The End of the first adventure in young David’s new life