Times Squared

by Julia DeVillers

  Emma saluted him and made a “zip up her lips” motion.

  What the heck?

  “I’m no longer allowed to speak to Morris when the bus is moving,” Emma explained. “I had been trying to help him out by telling him about shortcuts he could take. I also alerted him when he was waiting too long for a student, which might put him behind schedule. And I told him when people behind us were causing distractions.”

  “She was very distracting,” Morris grumbled.

  Emma sighed. “So we made a deal that I could stay in the front seat if I didn’t talk to him without him calling on me first. I came up with the idea to wave to him to alert him when I have valuable information to share.”

  The bus turned into a neighborhood as Emma continued speaking.

  “So I’m honing my nonverbal skills in the process. Did you know that spoken language is less than one-third of our communication? Most of our feelings and intentions are sent through body language.” Emma waved her arms wildly, I guess to demonstrate. “Or hand gestures.” She gave me a thumbs-up. “And facial expressions. For example, I’m copying your facial expression right now, Payton. It’s a cross between a scowl and a look of frustration. Thus, I’m inferring that you are irritated by something.”

  “Or someone.” I sighed. Morris the bus driver sighed too.

  Morris probably ignored Emma half the time, like Dad did when Emma sat in the front seat and tried to tell him more effective driving methods. Emma likes to point out when things could be done better. Yes, it could be annoying. But I had to admit, she was almost always right.

  The bus slowed down and pulled up to a bus stop. A bunch of kids got on the bus.

  “Okay, I get it,” I told Emma. “But can you not wave your hands so very wildly? It looks pretty spazzy and we can even see you all the way in the back. People might think you’re me.”

  I hoped she would get the hint that she was embarrassing us.

  “And, Payton,” Emma said, “would you mind following the bus safety rules by not walking while the bus is in motion? People might think you are me breaking a rule. That would be so embarrassing.”

  I groaned. I couldn’t win.

  “And speaking of spazzy,” Emma continued, “people are still talking about you stumbling down the aisle.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked her.

  “I can see them in the rearview mirror.” Emma pointed. “As you know, I’ve been practicing reading lips. That girl with the slate-gray stylishly tied scarf just said something about how you’re wearing sunglasses on the bus like you’re a TV star. And then she laughed, remembering how we got into that fight the first week on school TV.”

  I groaned again. This was not going as planned.

  “I’m going back to my seat,” I said.

  “If you need to tell me anything else,” Emma said, “just wave your hands wildly from your seat and get my attention. Then mouth it. I need more practice reading lips.”

  “Can’t you just use twin telepathy?” I tried one last- ditch effort. “Practice reading my mind instead?”

  “Payton, shh. You’re not supposed to be talking to me out loud, remember?” Emma replied. Then she mouthed something at me that I completely didn’t understand.

  I felt defeated as I slid my sunglasses off and waited for the bus to stop so I could go back to my seat. The bus slowed down and pulled to a stop and the doors whooshed open. I stood up and started walking to the back. But not before I saw Emma’s hand go up and wave.

  “Yes, Emma?” I heard Morris say.

  “You don’t have to wait for him,” Emma replied. “He’s a minute late and you’re already two minutes behind schedule.”

  I looked out the window to see a boy in my Drama Club, Sam, running madly to catch the bus. I turned back to Emma.

  “Sam is carrying a prop for our Drama Club skit,” I said to Emma. “It’s slowing him down. Give him a break.”

  Sam was carrying a beach chair that was big and awkward. I was glad I had only brought sunglasses. I waited at the front to make sure Emma couldn’t convince the driver to leave him.

  “Made it!” Sam said, huffing and puffing as he climbed up the steps.

  “An extra one minute and twelve seconds delay,” Emma said, shaking her head.

  I sighed as I stood up and followed Sam down the aisle. It was slow going, as he banged into people with the beach chair as he passed by.

  “Can I go ahead of you?” I asked him. “I already got yelled at by the driver once for being in the aisle.”

  “Sure!” Sam said cheerfully, and as he stood to the side he knocked another person on the side of the head.

  “Sorry,” I told them. “Sorry!”

  I was relieved to slide into my back seat without stumbling or pulling anyone’s hair myself.

  “Are you okay?” Sydney asked. “I saw you falling all over the place.”

  Ugh. I had forgotten all about Sydney being on my bus. I slid my sunglasses back on so I could ignore her.

  “Did you bruise anything?” she continued in a voice of mock concern. “Or just your ego?”

  A few seconds later I had a brief moment of happy karma when Sam made his way to the back and tried to sit with Sydney. When she told him the seat was saved, he got up and the beach chair accidentally knocked her on the side of the head.

  “Can I sit with you?” Sam asked me.

  “Sure,” I said, and moved my tote bag. Sam tried to wedge himself and the beach chair into the seat. It was a tight fit.

  “Sorry to squish you,” Sam apologized.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Well, if you could get the top of the chair out of my stomach it will be okay.”

  “Sorry.” Sam shifted the chair. “This bus is lame. It would be cool if we could have a huge double-decker bus like we went on in New York City.”

  “I know! That bus was cool,” I said. Emma and I had sat on the top out in the open air.

  Brzzzzt. Bzzzt.

  Speaking of Emma, my cell went off. Emma was texting me.

  Look up and say something. I angled the mirror 76 degrees so I can read your lips perfectly.

  I shook my head, my lips tightly closed.

  Brzzzzt. Bzzzt.

  Shaking head doesn’t count! Say something! I want to prove to u my mad lip-reading skillz.

  I mouthed: You are bizarre.

  Brzzzzt. Bzzzt.

  You said “You are star!” Twin-kle twin-kle little star 2 u!

  Sigh. I started to slide my phone back into my bag.

  Brzzzzt. Bzzzt.

  What now? I pulled up her text and read it.

  But you may want to take off your sunglasses. They’re kind of embarrassing.

  Ag. I gave up.

  Two

  ON THE WAY TO SIXTH-PERIOD STUDY HALL

  My lip balm! Did I remember to bring my lip balm?

  I slipped my hand into the outside pockets of my backpack. I felt my mechanical pencils (eraser side up), sticky notes (sticky side up, ew), and my extra scrunchie. A cinnamon-raisin granola bar for after school.

  And, whew, my lip balm. I pulled out the vanilla-flavored stick from pocket #4. Normally, I didn’t wear any cosmetics. Unless Payton forced me to wear lip gloss on “special occasions.” Which, for her, was every day at school. Or at home. My twin sister was a lip gloss expert.

  I, however, was a lip-reading expert. Well, not exactly an expert—but I was picking it up pretty quickly. Like on the bus earlier this morning, I could tell that people were talking about my twin’s massive wipeout on the bus. Not by listening, but by reading their lips!

  Although you couldn’t miss their laughter.

  Anyway, Payton may be a little spazzy, but she’s my best friend. A few weeks ago I might have said she’s my only friend in my peer group. But then middle school happened. Now I had friends. And I was back in my familiar environs. Yup. It was going to be a normal day.

  “What’s the capital of Loserland?” a familiar and unwelcome voice
said behind me. “Millsville!”

  I turned around.

  Jazmine James!

  “Get it? ’Cause your last name is Mills?” A boy’s voice.

  And her sidekick, Hector!

  “And that’s where Emma will be after the geography bee.” Jazmine cackled. “Millsville, Loserland!”

  Sigh. I turned around from my locker. Besides making friends in middle school, I’d also made a few enemies. I leaned back casually. Don’t let her get to you.

  “Still hurting after I annihilated you at the mathletes competition?” I faced Jazmine and Hector. “The competition that I won?”

  “Oh, please.” Jazmine waved dismissively. “That was so last weekend.”

  Last weekend we were in New York City! Now we were back to the usual routine. Which I liked. “Predictable” was my favorite word. Besides “winner.”

  Riinnnng! The warning bell rang.

  “Well, lovely talking to you, but I must go,” I said, shutting my locker door and turning to head to study hall . . . YANK!

  “OW!” I shrieked as I was slammed backward into my locker. My ponytail. I’d closed my locker on my hair. I tugged. Nothing happened. I was stuck. I was stuck in my locker.

  “Heh,” said Hector. Then he and Jazmine burst into hysterical laughter and went off down the hallway. Jazmine’s long braids swung freely down her back and she treated the hall as her personal catwalk, elbowing people out of her way when they got too close.

  Grrr. Jazmine James. From Eviltown.

  “Hi, whichever twin you are!” a girl called to me as she walked by.

  “Uh—hi!” I said. I leaned back against my locker, so maybe I’d look like I was hanging out. La la la, keeep moving, folks. Nothing to see here.

  “Hi, Payton!” another girl said to me.

  “Er—hi!” I said. Thanks to a public humiliation after our first twin switch, Payton and I had become rather well-known. Although most people couldn’t tell us apart. But hey, that was good in this case. They could think my twin was plastered to her locker. Payton, not Emma.

  “Hey, Emma!” my friend Quinn greeted me.

  “Quinn!” I yelled. “Can you, um, come here for a second?”

  Quinn stopped and frowned a little.

  “Can we talk later?” she asked. “I don’t want to be late for class.”

  “Please?” I begged.

  Quinn came over quickly.

  “I’m stuck,” I admitted. “My hair is stuck in my locker.”

  “Ow, does it hurt?” Quinn asked, looking concerned.

  Note to self: Friends don’t laugh when you’re in trouble. Unlike Jazmenemies.

  “Only if I move,” I said. “I tried to pull it out, but I got nowhere.”

  “Okay,” Quinn said. “What’s your locker combination?”

  “Great idea!” I told her the numbers. And I tried to smile, in case the people walking by saw me in this stupid situation. The very last thing I wanted was for people to think “stupid” and “Emma Mills” at the same time.

  “Forty-nine . . . sixteen . . . three,” Quinn repeated. I heard the wheel spinning. “How do you remember your combination? I’m terrible remembering numbers.”

  “The square root of forty-nine is seven minus the square root of sixteen, which is four, equals three,” I said. “Did it work?”

  “Oh, sorry, I forgot to turn it twice,” she answered. “What was it again?”

  I told her. Perhaps even merely a month ago, I would have rolled my eyes. But having a nice friend like Quinn had upped my social skills from “zero” to . . . well, improving.

  “Got it!” Quinn said triumphantly, and I heard a click.

  “I’m free!” I said, shaking out my ponytail. Crisis over.

  “Yay,” said Quinn. “Now I’ve gotta go. Can you hang out after school?”

  “No.” I sighed. “I’m tutoring today.” I thought about my new outlook on friends. I wanted them. So I made sure Quinn knew I wasn’t just blowing her off.

  “Quinn, I want to hang out, so let’s plan something more fun than rescuing me from a—er—hairy situation. Like a Boggle tournament or the mall.”

  Quinn smiled and nodded as she left.

  Well, I handled that well. Considering I’d been stuck in a locker, that is. Which, yikes, made me late for study hall! I rushed to study hall. Fortunately, it was in the same hallway as my locker. And since I had to tutor Mason and Jason, the Trouble Twins, after school, I needed every spare moment to study in study hall. I was on an intense study mission for my next competition: the Geobee! The schoolwide competition was Friday night and I was going to be ready for it. Geobee, geobee, geography is fun for me . . . especially when I win.

  And with that happy thought, I walked into study hall just in time before the last bell rang. I had exactly forty-three minutes to prepare for the competition. I planned to answer every question correctly. Emma = 100 percent winner!

  Julia DeVillers is the taller twin (by three-quarters of an inch). She has longer hair and apparently (as a classmate pointed out) the bigger nose. Julia’s books have been featured in national publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, and leading teen magazines. Her novel How My Private, Personal Journal Became a Bestseller (Dutton) was adapted into the movie Read It and Weep.

  Jennifer Roy is the older twin by six minutes. She’s also the one with shorter hair. Jennifer is the author of Yellow Star (Marshall Cavendish), a middle-grade novel and audiobook that received numerous honors, including starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and VOYA. She is also the author of MindBlind (Marshall Cavendish, 2010).

  Meet the author, watch videos, and get extras at

  KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Julia-DeVillers

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Jennifer-Roy

  ALADDIN M!X Simon & Schuster, New York

  Cover illustration copyright © 2011 by Paige Pooler

  Cover designed by Karin Paprocki

  Also by Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy

  TRADING FACES

  TAKE TWO

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN M!X

  Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin M!X edition December 2011

  Copyright © 2011 by Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  ALADDIN M!X and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event.

  For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Designed by Karin Paprocki

  The text of this book was set in Granjon.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  DeVillers, Julia.

  Times squared / Julia DeVillers, Jennifer Roy. — 1st Aladdin hardcover ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Identical twins Payton and Emma have vowed never to switch places again, but they face an emergency while the mathletes and Drama Geckos are all in New York City together.

  ISBN 978-1-4169-7532-8 (hc)

  [1. Twins—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Individuality—Fiction. 4. School field trips—Fiction. 5. Middle sch
ools—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction. 7. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Roy, Jennifer Rozines, 1967– II. Title.

  PZ7.D4974Tim 2011

  [Fic]—dc22

  2010026839

  ISBN 978-1-4169-6732-3 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-1728-1 (eBook)

  WE HOPE YOU LOVED READING THIS EBOOK!

  We have SO many more books for kids in the in-beTWEEN age that we’d love to share with you! Sign up for our IN THE MIDDLE books newsletter and you’ll receive news about other great books, exclusive excerpts, games, author interviews, and more!

  CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

  or visit us online to sign up at

  eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com/middle