Finding Fate

by Keelan Storm

  Not wanting Mr. Girst to see that she was done and assign her more work, she pretended to check over a “difficult” answer and glanced over at Jet. He was still working diligently, his brow furrowed in concentration, and his left hand pressed to his temple. He popped his fingers against his head.

  Annie watched him scratch out an answer vigorously and flip to another page in the text. She could tell he was having trouble, and she wished she could help him out. History was never his subject. Actually, most subjects weren’t, but he tried. At least, he always managed to keep his grades up enough to participate in athletics. Barely, but hey, he was passing.

  He scribbled another answer in the space and looked up at her in a way that expressed his loathing for the subject. She gave him a sympathetic smile and turned her head back to her desk for the remaining minutes of class.

  “Hi, everyone! This is Megan Diaz, your student council president. I’d like to have your attention for a few minutes, please,” they heard the perky cheerleader voice say over the announcements just a few minutes before the bell was scheduled to ring.

  Emma dropped her pen and immediately turned around to look at Annie. Several other students stopped as well and started shoving their things into their bags, Jet included. Mr. Girst frowned, not appreciating the interruption of his class time.

  “First of all,” the voice continued, “I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope y’all all have a great week off. Enjoy it. It’s our last break before Christmas vacation!”

  “Second of all, I’d like to announce this year’s Homecoming court nominees! But please remember that these are just our nominees. We’ll be voting for our three members of the official homecoming court when we return after the break.”

  “Okay, okay, get on with it,” Emma muttered to herself, wringing her hands together on Annie’s desk.

  “Alright, are you ready?” Megan’s voice rang suspenseful from the intercom.

  “Yes,” Emma groaned, making Annie laugh.

  “Our homecoming court nominees are…Margaret Jackson, Beverly Whitfield, Susan Molina, Emma Kooper, and Annabel Dearly.”

  Emma had begun to squeal at the mention of her name, but when Annie’s name was announced, the girls stared at each other in surprise. Who in the world would have nominated her? Wasn’t it common knowledge that Annie despised her involvement in anything that required the use of a dress or makeup?

  The bell rang moments later, and Mr. Girst reminded them to turn their papers into the basket at the back of the room, finished or not. As people passed by, they shared their congratulations with the two friends. Emma turned away from Annie to respond to the attention, her surprise dismissed as she reveled in her own excitement. Annie silently started putting away her things that she had neglected to before.

  “Come on, sweetheart,” Jet urged her. She had been moving so sluggishly that she, Emma, and Jet were the only three left in the room other than the teacher.

  “Right,” she agreed offhandedly, swinging her bag onto her back and grabbing her long completed work from her desk to turn in on her way out.

  “What the hell was that?” she asked when they stepped out into the hall.

  Jet lifted his shoulders and raised his eyebrows to show he didn’t have a clue.

  Emma let out a small comprehending gasp. “I bet I know,” she said and dug her phone out of her bag. She swiped through her password and flicked to the screen she needed to show them.

  Annie couldn’t believe what she read.

  “TELL ANNIE PAYBACK’S A PAIN!”

  Emma slid her phone into her back pocket when they finished reading it. “She sent it right after lunch, but I was so distracted by the time I saw you that I forgot to mention it. What is Izzy paying you back for?”

  Annie’s face fell as the sting of understanding behind her sister’s texted words hit her.

  “Annie?”

  Jet frowned. “For something that was supposed to already be forgiven and didn’t deserve this in the first place.”

  “Okay…” Emma responded, her tone unsure with their moods. “Sorry, I brought it up. Oh, look, there’s Ian. I wonder if he’ll be my escort,” she said before running off to greet him.

  Jet placed a hand on Annie’s back as they made their way outside towards the giant oak in the courtyard. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. That was a low blow, especially for Izzy.”

  “You know what?” she answered abruptly. “I’ll get over it. It’s not like I’ll actually make the official court or anything.”

  Jet didn’t say anything. He just walked with her to meet their friends, one he wasn’t too particularly happy with.

  When they rounded the corner of the building, Annie could see Izzy sitting with Tucker beneath the tree. Her stomach knotted, and she stopped.

  “I’m gonna head home, babe. I promised Mom I’d clean the kitchen and bathrooms today before she got home since Grandma and Grandpa are coming in for Thanksgiving this weekend. I want to get a head start.”

  Jet gave her an all too knowing look before he kissed her goodbye, and she headed to her truck.

  “I told her not to, man,” Tucker said to Jet when the rather peeved Greek approached his friends.

  Izzy shot Tucker a sarcastic ‘Thanks for defending me’ look.

  “Well, I did.”

  “It’s alright, dude. I’m sure you tried,” Jet assured his best friend.

  Izzy looked down, recognizing that the reassurance was not meant for her. She was not forgiven, and coming from Jet, that said a lot.

  “Alright, I’ve got to head out to work, love. I’ll come see you tomorrow before we head out of town.” Tucker said, leaning down to give Izzy a quick kiss. “You mind if I take one of those 3D pictures to show my Nana and Pop Pop?”

  He’d be gone for most of the week; the trip to Dallas to see his grandparents was something his family did every year. “Next year will be weird, though. Destiny can’t be in two places at once,” Tucker thought, wondering how it would work.

  Isabel nodded, hating that he would be gone so long. “Sure, I’ll get a couple of early ones together for them, too. Love you.”

  “Love you, too,” Tucker said as he left for the parking lot.

  Jet watched Izzy look down at the bench next to her, avoiding his gaze. He knew she knew he was upset. “Good. I want her to know how crappy it was for her to do that to her sister.”

  “So, where’s Annie?” Izzy asked after a few minutes of awkward silence. It was very unnerving to have Jet mad at her. She didn’t like it.

  “She went home to start cleaning the house.”

  Izzy looked up at him, confused. “She left me?”

  He nodded. “But that’s fine. I’ll give you a ride.” “And a talk,” he added in his head.

  She nodded back, knowing full well what he meant.

  * * *

  They rode around in silence for a long time. Even the radio was turned off, Jet being well aware Izzy couldn’t help but reflect on things when left in silence, especially when she knew someone was mad at her, and he wanted to let her imagination run a little wild at what he might be thinking before he said what was on his mind.

  It was a good half hour before she started excessively playing with her hair, her cheeks beginning to flush pink with worry and frustration. At those signs, he was sure he’d waited long enough.

  “That was some seriously screwed up payback.”

  “So?”

  “So?” he repeated back, “So?”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “I’m not putting up with any hormone crap today, Izzy.”

  She glared at him. “Excuse me?”

  “I’m serious.” His voice was sharp. “I know you’re pregnant and everything, but you’re still you, and I know you knew how much that would upset Annie.”

  She looked out the windshield then, her eyes ashamed with her anger.

  “Why did you
even think you needed to pay Annie back?” he asked less severely this time, now that he knew she was showing regret.

  “Because she just made me so angry.”

  “Why? Because she and I did something to help you…because we love you? Where’s my payback? I did it, too.”

  She didn’t say anything again, her eyes still focused on the road in front of them.

  His anger was beginning to rise at her lack of response. Why couldn’t she just admit what she did was wrong? Certainly, she knew it was, or she wouldn’t have looked away like she had.

  “You know what I think?” he asked when the silence grew tense.

  She shrugged. “I have an idea.”

  “I think it was pretty crappy of you. Annie did what she did out of love and concern for you. You did what you did out of anger. Not one small part of what you did had good intentions. You know Annie hates that kind of attention, but you did it anyway. She’s done nothing but tried to be a good sister to you through this whole thing, and you threw it in her face today.”

  He watched as the pale twin’s features flushed scarlet and braced himself for the explosion he knew was to come. It didn’t surprise him. He knew he’d hit a nerve with that one.

  “You know, you’re right,” she said, turning to him. She wasn’t yelling, but her fury and frustration seeped through in every word. “I did do it out of anger, Jet.”

  “Keep going, Izzy. Tell me.” His tenor tone was stern, picking up on something in her voice.

  She crossed her arms under her chest and glared out the window once again.

  “Come on, Izzy! Say it!”

  That was all she needed, and Jet was thankful he had a knack for knowing when and how to push his friends’ buttons.

  “I’m pissed because she doesn’t understand!” Izzy exploded. “She just expects everything to go along as it was supposed to! Like we had planned it to be before this started!” she yelled, pointing to her stomach.

  “But it can’t! Nothing’s the same! Everything’s different! And what sucks is that I know she cares, that she’s trying to be there for me, but all she’s been doing lately is making me feel guilty about it! Guilty that we can’t all go off to school together! Guilty that she and I can’t stay together after this year, whether in dorms or not! And guilty that I’ve changed everything with one stupid mistake, including Tucker’s future!”

  Jet pulled off to the side of the road when he realized he was staring at her, dumbfounded. The last thing they needed was a wreck.

  “That’s what this whole thing is about?” he wondered incredulously. He’d had it all wrong. Here he was thinking that Izzy was oblivious to Annie’s fears when she had been carrying the guilt over them all along.

  The silence enveloped them while he gave his upset friend time for her newly unearthed frustrations to saturate her mind. After a long while, he spoke.

  “Izzy, I have to ask…” He hated doing it. It would sound awful… “Are you regretting the baby decision?”

  She looked at him, her wide eyes round with shock. “I just wish that Tucker and I hadn’t been so careless that night. That we would have used protection. That we could have had Destiny a little later. But no, I don’t regret my decision about her. I love her and want her more than anything now that she’s on her way.”

  Jet nodded, trying his best to understand, but not fully being able to. “I guess you have to be in that situation to really get it.” He said the best response he could think of.

  “You shouldn’t feel so guilty.”

  Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes. “Yes, I should. I’ve ruined everything.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  She sobbed. “Stupid hormones. Can’t I get through anything without crying?” “Maybe,” she replied.

  Jet shook his head. “Not a single one of us blames you for those things. We all know it was an accident. Tucker especially. There’s no point in feeling guilt over what you can’t control.”

  “It’s still true, though. Everything’s ruined.” Tears still ran steadily down her cheeks.

  “I’m not going to lie, Izzy. Things are definitely different.”

  “Tell me about it,” she sobbed.

  He smiled. “But we’ll get through it together. That’s what best friends do. That’s what sisters do. That’s what you do with the person you love with all your heart.”

  She smiled a little and leaned against his shoulder. He reached over with his other arm and gave her a squeeze. “You really are a sweetheart, Jet.”

  “So they tell me,” he joked.

  She hiccupped a laugh, still leaning against him.

  “Hey, Izzy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Just so you know, Tucker doesn’t think you ruined his future at all. Even though you convinced him to still try to play in college, you know what he said to me on his birthday?” He felt her shake her head. “That basketball is just a game. You’re so much more important than that to him.”

  Her tears strengthened, and he wrapped her in a hug. “Talk to your sister, okay? Work through the rest together.”

  She nodded her head, and they sat there like that for a while on the side of the road. Izzy crying senselessly as she often did nowadays, and Jet holding his girlfriend’s sister, his best friend, in comfort.

  While he waited for her tears to cease, he couldn’t help but wonder, “What does this say about what it will be like when Annie’s pregnant one day if Izzy’s the reserved twin?” He shut the thought out quickly. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

  * * *

  Isabel stepped inside her house a little later that afternoon. It had been nearly two hours since school had let out, but she still had at least an hour before her mom got home, and Tyler usually caught a ride home with Helen and Chris lately.

  She went to the kitchen to grab a snack before going to look for Annie. It was already clean when she went in, so she knew Annie was probably working on one of the bathrooms by now.

  She grabbed a strawberry yogurt from the fridge and ate it quickly, making sure to put her spoon in the dishwasher to keep the kitchen clean when she was done.

  Realizing she was still pretty hungry, she grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on the counter and sat down on one of the stools. She ate more slowly this time, absently rubbing circles along her growing stomach and allowing herself time to think about what had happened after school today.

  Jet was right. She had screwed up. Annie didn’t deserve what she had done to her. She should have been thrilled to have a sister who cared that much about her. Instead, she stabbed her in the back first chance she got.

  “Ugh…I disgust myself.”

  And on top of that, Jet was having to tell her to talk to Annie. She used to do that all on her own. What was with her now? It was like being pregnant screwed up everything that was normal about her and her life.

  “Or maybe you just depend that much more on Tucker now.” The thought surprised her as she realized it was true. Somehow, that made her just as happy as it did sad.

  She shook her head as she popped the last bite of banana into her mouth and threw away the peel. “One issue at a time,” she thought as she headed off to find her sister.

  She went to check the Jack and Jill bathroom between Tyler’s bedroom and the small room their father had used for an office. It was currently a weird mix of storage and her father’s sketches and blueprints they hadn’t had the heart to clean out, but that heartrending chore was coming as Destiny drew near.

  Isabel found Annie on her knees, leaning over the bathtub, her ponytail dangling over her shoulder while she vigorously scrubbed the dirt and grime from the bottom of the tub. She watched with feelings of remorse. Annie only got that into her cleaning when she was really upset.

  “Hey, sis?”

  Annie pretended not to hear.

  “Annie?” She tried again.

  Still nothing.
/>   “Annie!”

  “What?!” her sister cried, turning around to give Isabel a furious look that couldn’t fully hide the hurt she was feeling.

  “We need to talk.”

  “When I’m done,” she responded coldly and returned to her scrubbing.

  Isabel didn’t argue. She deserved it. Besides, she had chores to do before their mother came home as well. She went downstairs and opened the closet across from the laundry room, rolling the vacuum cleaner out into the living room to plug the cord into the one socket that she knew would let the machine reach all of the open, carpeted area downstairs.

  While she worked, she thought about why they were cleaning. Her grandparents, her father’s parents that she rarely got the chance to see, were coming for an early Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. She wondered what they would say when they saw her. Or did they already know? Could her mother have told them already?

  “Probably,” she thought. It wasn’t like her mom to not let the family in on things. Heck, even her aunt, uncle, and cousins over in west Texas probably knew about it. But why shouldn’t they? They were family, Destiny’s family.

  Her mom’s mom, Granny Pope, she saw a lot more often and had taken the news pretty well. More of a free spirit, she was even excited to be a great-grandma soon. Isabel hoped Grandma and Grandpa Dearly had reacted, or would react, at least close to that.

  In a way, she felt like if she disappointed them, that would mean she let her father down, too. Or if they could accept it well, then that meant her father would have. Like their reactions were somehow tied to what Patrick Dearly thought and felt. It was silly, she knew, but she couldn’t help it.

  She was done vacuuming the downstairs before she knew it and had even finished the upstairs hall and Tyler’s bedroom that he’d cleaned yesterday before Annie was done with the bathrooms. All she had left when her sister came looking for her was their bedroom, which was fine with her. She wanted to pick it up a little before she did that room anyway.

  “I’m done,” Annie said to her as they met in the open upstairs hall.