Bryanna McIntosh

5^th period

Mrs. Wilson-Scott

                                                         TWINS.

As the brakes on the bus skirted to a stop, bright lights flashed through my eyelids as they opened. We’d finally arrived and now the fun could begin. Viva Las Vegas! Sin city. My cousin Alex, a cheerleader, invited me, my mother, and my younger sister to her Jamz Cheerleading competition held in here in Vegas. I was delighted to attend. I knew the majority of people on the bus from other cheerleading competitions, including Victoria. She was a very slim, bubbly girl, whose aunt was one of the coaches for the cheerleading team, and one of my good friends.

Getting off the bus always aggravated me. The way people forced themselves like wild hogs made me wait and wait until the bus was nearly lucid. As I grabbed my bags and headed down the steep stairs of the bus I took a big whiff of the Las Vegas air as  I glanced at this extravagant full of life scenery.

“You guys could pass for identical twins.” said Victoria.

“No we couldn’t.” we said at the same time.

That’s impossible, I haven’t been introduced to her, I thought.

“Bryanna, meet Antisha,” Victoria introduced us.

As we shook hands, tingly sensations traveled up through my arm all the way to my heart.

“Was sup?” Antisha said with a smirk.

“Hello” I said hesitantly.

I felt awkward staring at my reflection in another humans face.

“Check in isn’t till eleven,” my mother assures me. “I’m going to take your sister to the bathroom so watch our bags.”

As I sat on top of my suitcase, the voices around me went through one ear and out the other. My eyes only focused on Antisha, completely ignoring Victoria; she wasn’t my concern anymore. Staring at her made her stare back. I couldn’t help myself. I just had to figure out where she came from, why she had my face. I could tell she was thinking the same thing from the expression on her face-- It was the same as mine. Most of our features were indistinguishable, same nose, smile, cheeks, and eyebrows. It was kind of intimidating.

As fascinating as it was, I tried to concentrate on other things like what I was going to do that night. After all, I was in Vegas. My concentration was broken by a question.

“Excuse me, are you two twins?” asked a tourist.

Before we could reply, Antisha, gnashing her teeth, said in an annoyed voice, “Do we look like twins?”

My mouth opened so wide, flies could have flown in and started their own village. I was shocked in reaction to her sassy remark.

“No ma’am, were not” I said as kindly as I could, plastered with the phoniest smile placed on top of it.

Well damn that was rude. I thought to myself.

“Did you get lost?” I asked my mother as she chased my sister on the way back.

“No, the line was long,” my mother said

“Yea what-ever,” I mumbled under my breath.

When we reached the front desk, the ultra tanned clerk who looked as if she bathed in the sun everyday, gave us our room keys and a map of the hotel.

“You’re in room 3210,” she said as if she was high on cloud nine.

“Enjoy your stay at the Circus Circus hotel” the tanned clerk said.

Only in Vegas.

Unpacking was always a drag. But I was in a hurry to figure out who Antisha was.

“Are you sure you don’t want to lie-down?” my mother asked me.

“No! I slept on the bus.” I said trying to imply that I didn’t want to talk, I tried to make it known that I was in a rush to leave.

My hand is on the door knob and ready to open the door. She kept talking not catching the hint.

“Hey, what’s that’s young lady's name?” she asked.

“Who, Antisha?” I responded hoping that she wouldn’t say what I didn’t want to hear.

“Yeah, that’s the one; you two favor each other, like twins.”

Damn it , it just frustrates me how everyone is telling me I look like somebody that I don’t even know, I have to get out of here before I explode… like the volcano show featured at the Mirage, I thought.

“Yeah, so I've heard”. I left.

Peach colored walls, paintings of clowns, walking down the hall I see Antisha in front of me.

She walks exactly like me. I must be in the twilight zone.

“HEY!” I yelled not thinking.

Everybody turned to look, surprised at how I yelled. A teacher would say it was my outside voice.

“Oh yeah, what’s crackin?” she replied.

“Nothin. What’s you finsta do?” I say trying to mimic her slang.

“Nothin. You wanna kick it?”

My heart thumped .I was surprised that she wanted to hang out. Maybe she wasn’t the grumpy miss attitude girl I assumed her to be. She might just be like my twin after all.

Although I barely knew her, I could tell for the next four days would consist of the same God damn question. “Are you two twins”? (Ugh)

The more we shared our life stories the more we had in common. Even though we came from two different backgrounds, we were so much alike. We knew a lot of the same people; all the hot spots to kick it, we even wanted the same type of dream car. This was weird.

So far I’d learned that she attends Albany High School and is a going into her sophomore year. I almost went to Albany High and the question ‘what if I went to Albany’ pops up. She would be turning 16 in April and I would be turning 16 in May. That’s how I knew we weren’t biological twins. That kind of lifted the eight ton weight off of my shoulders, good to know my mother hadn’t pulled a parent trap on me.

“So do you have a boyfriend?” she asked out the blue.

“Um yeah”. Not wanting to answer. You don’t know me that well I thought.

“What’s his name?” she says in an I’m going to tell kind of way.

“Brandon”

“Oh really Brandon what?”

“Graves” I said second guessing if I should say, for all I know it could be her ex.

“I know him. That’s so cute, how long Have you guess been goin out?”

Oh my gosh, she all up in my business .damn.

“Almost a year” I say

Before she could say another nosy word Victoria came to get me. My mother was looking for me.

On the elevator ride up I look at my reflection through the steal doors wondering should I have let her know that much of my personal love life. Was I letting her in too much too fast? How would Brandon act if he found out? I was confused.

As I stick my card key into my hotel room door Antisha and Victoria are running down the hall.

“I want to meet your mom” says Antisha.

Aw shit. Should I let them meet? Wait there going to meet sooner or later might as well be now. My thoughts are like the game Boggle, they’re just moving everywhere.

“Sure, let me just tell her first” I say trying to act excited.

I opened the door and my mother was laying down watching the infomercials that showed what Vegas had to offer.

“Mom get up, Antisha wants to meet you.” I said extremely fast hoping she wouldn’t catch what I said and avoid the question. Why does did she ask to meet her?

“Alright, let me get up.” She said.

Shit she did catch on. I felt like I was introducing her to my first serious boyfriend and didn’t know how she would respond. I opened the door and told Antisha she could come in. Victoria followed her, like a bird following his flock.

“Hello” Antisha said grinning so hard I was worried she’d bust a vain in her cheek.

“Hi, well aren’t you adorable, my daughter has a twin.” My mother said in awe.

I was starting to get irritated. I hated when people always said, “you look like this girl I know, or, I think I know you, simply because of someone they’ve claimed to have seen who they think is me. This has been happening every since I was ten—I was getting sick and tired of it.

“Well so yeah” I mumbled. “Let’s go meet up with everybody else.”

“Okay” Victoria and Antisha said.

We left.

It was so loud bells dinging and donning from left to right. The sounds felt like they were inside my head expanding out. All of the teenagers of the group who had sisters, cousins, and friends on the cheerleading squad had all came together in the lobby.

After we all introduced ourselves, we came up with a game. The objective of the game was to see who could stay up the longest, forty-eight hours to be exact, without any sleep. We divided up into two teams with six on each side and started the clocks. My group had a decent plan. Or plan was do drink a lot of caffeine and eat a lot of candy. One hour past and we were overly hyper, running through the casino, hallways, and elevators

At one point the security guards asked us to calm down, it was midnight and families were trying to sleep.

“Let’s go meet up with the other group” I suggested.

About thirty minuets later we were sitting in the hallway between our doors to our hotel suites.

“Is anybody tired yet?” Armani said. Armani was my cousin who came along with us to see our cousin Alex cheerlead.

“No” one big group replies.

We all laughed. Making jokes and playing truth or dare, the hours were slowly moving.

“How long has it been?” Antisha asked

“10 hours” victoria said.

I could tell by the excitement in everybody’s face that this was going to be a fun ass forty-eight hours even though we think that were young and we can hang, our bodies will pay for it later on from extreme exhaustion.

By the thirty-second hour we were ready to give up. I know I was. Victoria, Antisha, and I made a deal that we would sneak off to our room and take a five minute nap.

It turned into six hours. I was the first one to awake. The first thing I saw was Antisha’s face. My twin.

By the time we arrived to the Jamz competition – the cheerleaders rushed off to check in before they where disqualified, they were over 15 minutes late. Next thing I know Antisha grabs my hand and yanks me into the woman’s bathroom without a word. For some awkward reason she directed us into the same stall, small and compact like a woman who wears a size 9 shoe forcing it into a size 6.

Weird.

 I looked around at the pastel color walls and the very white toilet, with a silver toilet tissues dispenser.

          “Oh my gosh, he’s so cute.” She said grinning enormously.

Before I could speak I thought she was acting a seventh grader who had a crush on an eighth grader.

          “Who?” saying trying to sound interested.

          “Mike, you know your cousin” she whispered like he would hear her.

As my cousin’s name sprung from her lips through my ear lobes, my stomach began to turn into knots.

          “Eww, why?” I said in discuss.

          “What do you mean eww? But does he have a girlfriend?” she asked sounding so                            

Desperate. I could tell this was going to be a major problem, great.

           “Um I don’t know” I said sounding guilty because I knew the truth, the truth is he does but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. “Let’s just go watch the competition alright”. I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

          “Alright, maybe I can sit next to mike” saying as she tried to maneuver out the stall hitting my elbow.

Aw shit, I just wanted to say “you don’t want to talk to my cousin he’s a man whore, a woman slayer, and to top it off he has a girlfriend, get over it!” but I didn’t and kept quiet.

The arena was to the maximum capacity. Parents from all over the west coast were standing up with their camcorders, glued to their hands, trying to catch a glimpse of their little darlings who would occasionally be in the back.

I didn’t bother to stand; I would just wait till it was time to chant my cousin’s name,

A-L-E-X, my vision was blocked but I out the corner of my right eye I seen Antisha eyeing Mike. Loser.

Its show time, our friends and family we came to see danced their asses off; I was so thrilled and thirsty from yelling. They did such an amazing job. 

Time went by with two hundred something teams doing cheer-tastic moves. I was beginning to feel a growl in my abdomen. Maybe I’ll feel better if I ate.

       “Do you want to go get food” I decided to ask Antisha since she was right next to me.

       “Who me” replying as I broke her consideration.

       “Duh you, who else would I be talking to dumbo?”

  She laughs and grabs her purse. We exit.

Twins, some jackass yells while we’re standing waiting for our food -- everybody turns to look. Rather getting annoyed by the comment, I embrace it and smile. We grab our food and begin to walk back to the arena.

        “I know this sounds weird, but you’re starting to feel like a real …” she pauses.

        “A real what” I asked anxiously.

        “A real sister” she says smiling.

The wall I had built had been at that moment broken down. It was kind of her to express what was going on in her big head. My eyes started to sting. Oh crap I hope I don’t cry-- I don’t want to seem like a big sap.

     “You’re not so bad you’re self” I say joking, avoiding my tears. 

After a long 4 hours of techno mixed with toe touches and back flips, it was time to announce the winners. My cousin Alex cheerleading team came in first place for two of the categories. They take their team and family photos while we get ready to leave and get ready to go home.

      “Alright everybody grab your own shit and head to the bus, you will get left.” The exhausted coach said.

  Holding hands Antisha and I rush to the back of the bus to get the seat not only in front of the three-inch TV but a seat next to each other. Antisha couldn’t stay awake long enough to watch us pull off. Thinking, I realize that this would probably be a memorable experience for the rest of my life. Looking like another person wasn’t  as horrifying that I presumed and made it seem to be. DING, it just hit me. This could a good thing for me.

Passing the leaving Vegas sign, the New York New York rollercoaster, extravagant costumes and magic shows, the endless amount of orange dirt, I was saying goodbye to a lively city but as I looked over at Antisha to see that this was a new relationship beginning, a sisterhood.