Lori requested that both her mom and her had their lunch on the deck while Luke and her dad were at the bike park. The Brat Princess wanted the time with her mom to be somewhere just as special. The seldom used deck was the perfect venue. It was elevated and had an awning for protection from the weather. Being attached to the sunroom made the deck seem bigger than its actual size was to Lori. The deck’s elevation along with their home being on a hilltop gave a great view of the Mon Valley. This vantage point made Lori feel so important on sitting on the deck. If there were people in the yard they would have to look up at her.The low frequency of usage added to the prestige of being there for the Brat Princess.

To Lori, the deck was the most regal place in her home and exactly where she should have this high tea with her mom. Lori was about to request to talk about something of an urgent matter to her Mom. The matter was the Birthday situation. Lori should not have to share the celebration of being born with someone as common as a twin brother. The special day for the special person should not only be the highlight of the day. Lori’s party should only be what the day was about.

To make sure Lori would get her Mom to agree that this year there should be two parties instead of one, the Brat Princess asked her mom to talk about her birthday party. When Alice started to talk about how her mom and dad went out of their way to make her feel special on her birthday, she became the Nostalgia Queen. Alice would look at the past and want the same fond memories for her daughter.

Alice’s fond memories came from her belief that she was fawned over by her parents. Alice’s belief got reinforced by her mom and dad joking about how the youngest got treated the best when she asked why her birthday parties were so much bigger than her siblings. The answer being said seriously made the young girl take it as fact.

The real reason Alice thought that her childhood was different than her brothers and sisters, was how much younger she was than them. Alice was 5 years younger than her closest sibling, so she did not have the memories to compare their childhood with hers. To make the memories even less, the sibling next to her in age, Dom, was an introvert. The celebrations for him were low key events.

Wanting the same childhood for her youngest as she had, made the Nostalgia Queen decree that, this year, Lori and Luke would have a separate birthday party. With wanting to put all her time and energy into Lori’s party Alice was going to have Fred take care of Luke’s. There would not be enough time to plan two parties with how extravagant she was going to make Lori’s. Having a party worthy of the Brat Queen was going to be expensive so Alice was going to have to do some overtime. Which was fine, as Lori deserved to have a childhood fitting to being the youngest.

The royal court of one gave out a hip hip hooray after the first part of the Nostalgia Queen’s decree was heard. Then Lori had an internal murmur of descent on hearing the second part. Her mom was going to make Lori have her party on a different day than her birthday. The ruling made no sense to Lori. How could her special day be special if they do not hold the celebration on the same day? Also, Lori wanted the parties to be a competition. She wanted all the classmates to have to choose between going to her or Luke’s party.

Before the signs of internal discontent started to show, Alice’s suggestion of Lori helping with the party squashed it. When Alice suggested that Lori could fill out the invitations, that gave the Brat Princess a great idea. Put the date in which the party should be on the invites. Her party would be at the same time as Luke’s. This would make the kids have to choose which party they would go to. In Lori’s mind this would be a no-brainer, the kids would choose her’s over her brother’s. Lori also did not want to take any chances that her popularity was not as big as she thought, so she was going to give her invites a week before Luke’s.

Lori’s suggestion of her being first to give out the invites made sense to Alice. Her daughter’s party was going to be a week before Luke. Giving out the invites on two different days also separated the celebrations. Even with her children being twins, they were two different people and should not be connected. Alice thought it was lazy parenting when twins had to share everything.

************

The Saturday Morning Bike Club had a great time at their second meeting. Renee showed up with a huge surprise. She had a new bike. Instead of her purple bike with a basket, Renee was sporting a BMX bike. Her mom and dad saw how much their daughter enjoyed riding on the BMX course and bought her a more fitting bike. This bike was going to encourage Renee to keep on doing what she was starting to love, to ride her bike faster than anyone else.

Matt and Luke were happy when they saw Renee’s new bike. They knew the new wheels were more fitting for their friend than her old bike. The old bike was fine to get from one place to another, but Renee wanted more from her bike when she was at the bike park. The bike needed to be a high performance vehicle. The frame needed to be more streamlined to cut down on drag. The chain between the sprocket and cog needed to be tighter to lessen the loss of energy from pedaling. The brakes needed to be hand controlled to give more control on slowing the speed.

The best part of Renee getting her new bike, was that all three of the friends could race against each other. They might have been competing but those races were no competition. Renee won each time. Matt was too reckless and just went for speed. This led to him taking turns too wide and also crashing. Luke did not have the fire to push himself to give it all. Not being able to give that little extra was what made him not go his fastest.

The best part of Renee winning was the reactions of her two opponents. Matt and Luke were more than gracious losers. They were so happy for Renee and gave her high fives. They saw how proud she was of being the best and wanted her to bask in that feeling. Those two not sulking to losing to a girl was so important to Renee’s confidence. The young girl knew she had the right to be as good as she was.

One of their classmates, Tom Downey, was at the bike park. He saw those two losing to a girl differently. When the three friends took a little break from the races Tom rode over to them. He was going to give Matt and Luke grief to losing to a girl. To Luke this grief hurt. Tom’s words reminded him of his mom putting him down by questioning if he was a boy. Alice might have only saw the results of having peace in her home, but those words hurt her son.

Before Renee could challenge Tom to a race to put him in his place, the Loser’s column, Luke did so. A fire came within Luke and he had to prove himself better than the boy who was putting him down. Tom was not going to chance losing to Luke and tried getting out of the competition. So Matt declared Luke the winner by forfeit, and Tom changed his mind.

The two combatants in the battle of who could master the course were at the starting point on top of the hill. This was the most serious race so far today. The tension was tighter than the chain on Renee’s bike. The start gate released and Luke jumped out to a lead. The desire to not lose made Luke pedal his bike the fastest he ever had. The only thought of not losing to his competition gave Luke the focus to navigate the course in the best possible manner.

Tom was already 20 feet behind Luke at the end of the first straight away. The race was not going to get any better because Luke was still pulling away as Tom was going his fastest. He knew the outcome of the race before they hit the first turn so he purposely wrecked as taking the bend. Trying to save face by falling on his face did not work for Tom. Everyone who was watching the race knew he would have lost.

When the racers meet up, Luke had the thrill of victory as Tom had the agony of defeat. Tom so wanted to turn the tables and only knew one way. He was going to tease the victor. Making the winner lose worse than the loser was going to be a moral victory. Being a gracious loser was overrated to Tom.

Luke was getting high fives from his fellow club members when Tom said “Good race Luka.”

This was the first time Luke was teased about being forced to wear a dress when not being outnumbered. Instead of going into his shell, Luke felt like he was able to fight back. Being one on one made the teasing not feel like he was being overwhelmed. Instead of struggling in the quicksand of overmatched, Luke was on the solid ground of a fair fight. “Don’t call me Luka, Tom.”

Tom said “You can’t stop me.”

“Yeah, but you can’t beat me in a race.”

“I can. I wrecked. Let’s race again Luka. You will see who is the real boy out of us two.”

“We already saw who was the real boy, Tom. I won you lost.”

“You are scared, Luka.”

“Yeah of you wrecking again.”

Matt and Renee laughed at how frustrated Tom was over losing a race. The feeling of embarrassment clouded Tom’s judgement. He had false confidence, if he and Luke raced again, the outcome would be different. “I can beat you.”

Luke said “I have no reason to race you.”

Tom’s arrogance made him want to entice Luke into racing. “I will never call you Luka again if you win. If I win you can never say anything about me calling you Luka.”

Luke’s friends were worried about the stipulations. Matt and Renee told Luke not to take them. Stipulations were only as good as the person who made them and Tom was acting in bad faith. Luke ignored his friends and said. “Deal.”.

The race was in name only. The start of the rematch played out the same as the first race. Tom thought about falling to get out of losing, but changed his mind. He knew that even that would be a loss and just wanted the small chance of Luke wrecking to win.

The loser was greeted at the finish line by yet another round of high five to Luke from his friends. Before he could show Renee and Matt were right about their lack of faith in him, he was given a warning by Matt “You better keep your word.”

Those words were said with an intensity which Tom knew he had to stay true to the conditions, at least around those three. Calling Luke Luka to his face was not worth taking the risk of how Matt would hold him to his word. The loser begrudgingly agreed to being a man of his word. Tom would make an appearance to do so. From that moment onward, anytime those three were not around Luka would be the only words from the sore loser’s lip when talking about the victor.

***************

Everyone other than Fred in the Zahn's household liked when Alice announced the plan about Luke and Lori were going to have separate birthday parties. Fred did not like it, not one bit. Lori loved the spotlight to be on her, but she loved pushing Luke out of it even more. His children having two different parties made pushing Luke away from the spotlight on his special day impossible. Also, the smile on his daughter’s face told him she was up to something.

Fred loved his daughter, but knew she had a major issue with Luke. Those two were family and should be there for each other. Lori was trying to make it so only Luke was there where and when she wanted it to be. Even with them being only 7, Lori needed to start treating her brother better or else he would not be there when she needed him the most. Knowing this fact was frustrating to Fred. Lori was too young and immature to understand the lesson if Fred tried to explain it to her.

And his wife Alice, thought Fred was being irrational when he brought up his concerns. To the Nostalgia Queen her husband was still overreacting to Lori pulling her brother’s leg about Luke being forced to wear a dress. In truth, Alice was too blind to the truth to be behind him about this important life lesson. She thought that was how the youngest should treat their older siblings.

The following week was a normal week. Lori and her allies kept up on teasing Luke about being in a dress. The other kids got bored with not getting a reaction other than silence out of Luke. To everyone but Lori, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on to back up Fred’s bad feelings about the separate birthday parties. Fred felt like he was being a bad parent. Doubt crept in to his rush of judgement about the birthday party. Kids deserved the benefit of the doubt.

If Fred would have looked at the invites for Lori’s party his gut feeling would have been justified. The date of the party was the same as Luke’s. To make sure that Luke did not find out about this newest battle in the War of the Twins, Lori conveniently forgot to give Renee and Matt their invites. Lori also not telling anyone about her change of date also made it so Luke would not be able to change his. Now, the kids in her class would have to choose which party to go to. Hers would win out. In her mind, the biggest reason was the kids liked her better than Luke. In reality the reason was that the parents would not change a social commitment once it was made.

The results of the newest attack by Lori was felt by Luke on Monday at school. All his classmates other than Matt and Renee declined the invites. Most of them said it was because they already had plans to go to Lori’s Party. Tracy, Blake and Mike stated they did not want to be around Luka. Tom was still sore about losing the race to Luke and just said he did not want to go.

Lori was rubbing it in that no one liked Luke. Luke’s only retort was to tell Lori that she was going to have to change the date of her party. That mom and dad would fix the mistake that Lori made. This showed a huge flaw in her plans and would have been the downfall of Lori wanting to make the class choose between the twin. Now there was time to fix the mistake. Lori took advantage of this and work on how to get her mom on her side. A stalemate would lead to no change.

Most of his class was not going to be at Luke’s party. This hurt the soon to be birthday boy. The venue of his birthday party being overbooked added to the pain. Luke had nowhere to celebrate. The only reason Luke did not start crying was Matt and Renee. Luke had their support and learned an important lesson. It is not about the quantity of friends but the quality of those friends.

Luke was able to control his sadness until he got home. Lori started phase two of this battle before Luke could say hello to his mom. The Brat Princess was going to play innocent and make herself the victim.

Lori went running to the kitchen to greet her mom with lies. “Mom, Luke said I have to cancel my birthday party. He is just mad that no one is going to his party.”

Hearing her daughter’s childhood was not turning out to be more like her own quickly made the Nostalgia Queen emerge. “Luke you cannot make anyone go to your party. Sorry that no one is going. They must have already had plans.”

“I didn’t say that Mom. I said Lori could not have her party on the same day as mine. Most of our classmates were already planning on going to hers. Matt and Renee are coming to mine. That is why they are coming to mine. That is not fair.”

There was going to be a change of Lori’s date until Lori enacted her plan. She started to sniffle and said “I messed up Mom. I was trying to help you with the party. It is not fair if I have to change the date of mine.”

Alice bought Lori’s lie. Her daughter was just excited to have her own party for once. “You are right Lori. It would not be fair if we changed the date of your party. Luke you will change yours.”

Luke objected “That is not fair to me.”

Alice trying to console her son said “Honey, life is not fair. You will get your party. Just on a different date. Everyone will be happy”

Luke did nothing wrong. The change was not fair. Life might not be fair, but Lori should not get all the breaks. Luke’s party should not be on a different date. The change of schedule should keep to the original plan.

Luke started to cry. He was feeling like he was being treated less than his sister by his mom. “This is not fair. I did nothing wrong. Lori did and I have to change my party.”

The Nostalgia Queen did not want any objections to her ruling. She knew Luke had a point, but one of her kids was going to be upset about any decision she made. Alice made the choice it should be the eldest. The youngest should have the better date for their party. The crying was taking away the peace from the land of rose tinted glasses. Just wanting her son to stop Alice said “Boys don’t cry.”

Trying to get Luke to act more mature came off as his mother questioning his gender. The crying became louder. Alice’s mistake of getting peace by bringing up putting Luke in a dress was coming back to haunt her. Lori getting her way was also adding to Luke learned helplessness with his sister. She found a way to get what she wanted all the time.

Luke ran up to his room. Alice waited to go after him. She wanted Luke to be calm before her husband came home. She knew that Fred would see the worst. Her husband would claim that Lori’s innocent mistake made him right to feel bad about the separate parties.

Talking to Luke worked worse than a man on the last day of a job he was being forced out of. Nothing she could say would change the fact. Luke was once again getting the short end of the stick.

The house felt tense and Lori was smiling as Fred came home. This was not right. There was something which upset Luke and by Lori’s huge smug looks it had to be her doing. The worst was the gut feeling. Fred was thinking that his daughter planned whatever got under Luke’s skin. He asked Lori where her mom was and Lori said in the crybaby’s room.

Lori’s put down of her brother took the little remaining air out of the room. Once again, Fred had to deal with the mess Lori made. He turned off the television and instructed his daughter to do absolutely nothing until he came back downstairs.

Thuds of footsteps filled the air in Luke’s room. Alice was dreading this moment; her husband was home. She thought that Lori told her husband about the party and that was why she could hear his displeasure. She blamed Luke for her not being the one who told Fred about the change of schedule. Tonight would have went much smoother if she was the one instead of Lori.

The door opened up and Fred was greeted by Alice saying “Honey, it is not bad. We are just going to change the date of Luke’s party.”

Hearing why Luke was crying made the vacuum even tighter. To everyone in the room, it felt like the walls were sucked in. “Why? What did Lori do?”

Not wanting Fred’s opinion on how Lori was acting towards Luke to be verified Alice lied. “I messed up her invites and only a couple of the kids can make it to Luke’s party.”

Fred was livid, his wife lied to cover what Lori did. Alice forgot that Lori bragged about her penmanship on the invites to her dad. Wanting to keep their word about not fighting in front of the kids. “Alice I am going to call my parents to watch Luke and Lori for a little while when we talk.”

Not wanting a fight, Alice said they could talk in their bedroom. Fred was dialing his phone before Alice had that sentence out. Once again, her words worked worse than a man on the last day of a job he was being forced out of. Alice fixed a stern look at Luke. She just wanted a peaceful night and her son made that impossible. Luke needed to learn that the youngest got treated better than the rest of the children.

Fred and Alice made it downstairs. Lori looked at her mom to try to get leniency. Alice said “Remember, she made a mistake with the date sweetie.”

“This is not about her changing the date of her party. Lori, you do not call your brother a crybaby. You do not put down your brother. You will not be seeing your Gameboy for a long time.”

Wanting to ease her dad’s wrath she said “I will go get it now.”

“Do that.”

After Lori left the room, Fred just looked at Alice. His wife went behind his back and gave their
daughter back something he took away from her. She undermined his authority. He held in anything he wanted to say. Anything he said would have come out too loud, too furious.

Alice knew she was wrong. She hoped that Fred would not find out, and when he gave back the Gameboy she would have handled it. That would have been easy, Alice would just say she would do it.

Betty Lou and Bob Zahn came and picked Luke and Lori up. Luke was feeling better for a couple of reasons. One he had someone on his side. The other was Pappi and Memaw was going to take them for pizza. That was where they always went if Luke’s grandparents took them around supper time.

When Alice and Fred were finally alone Alice started. “Before you blow this out of proportion, like you did with Lori joking with Luke. She made a mistake and that's why I lied to you. I don’t want you to go over the top again, like you did by taking her Gameboy away.”

Fred was now able to let out his feelings. As soon as he opened his mouth, all the air came rushing from his lungs to fill up the room. “Alice, don’t lie to me about our kids. Lori knew what date her party was on. She changed it on purpose. She wrote the wrong date on all the invites. She made a big deal about getting her invites out a week before Luke’s.

Also, she needs to start treating Luke better. She was told not to tell anyone about you putting him in a dress, yet she teases him about it. Now she is calling him a crybaby.”

“Luke was crying and that is what little sisters do to their older brothers. I used to tease Dom all the time. Quit babying Luke.”

“That is rich woman. Me babying Luke. You got on Luke for making Lori cry all the time, yet you defend her calling him a crybaby. You punished Luke for giving back to her what she gives him.”

“Don’t call me woman, you drama queen. Luke is older than Lori so he is held to a different standard. He needs to be more mature than her and learn to deal with it.”

“What part of them being the same age don’t you understand? They were born on the same day.”

“Lori is the youngest and her birthday party should have been on that day. Luke should have moved his.”

“It was your idea that Lori had hers first. I would have gone along with Luke having his on a different day, but you announced the plans. You did not get my input.”

“We can’t make every single small decision a huge discussion.”

“According to you a birthday party is a big decision. A birthday party is a big deal. If not, you would have just corrected Lori’s changing it by moving it back to the original date. That is what we are going to do.”

“No. Luke’s party is going to change or else he would not get one.”

“No, there will be no parties.”

“People already made plans and bought Lori presents for her party. My parents are coming down from Altoona for the weekend. Lori will have her party.”

“Yeah, they are coming down the weekend before. That was the date you told them.”

“No, Lori mailed them one and they called to say they would be here. So they are coming down on the correct date for her party.”

“Fine, the parties will be on the same day. Luke’s party will just be at the Trafford Lanes. Him and whoever is going to his party will get to bowl. Then afterwards we will go to Bellisario’s Pizza for supper.”

The Nostalgia Queen hated hearing her husband’s solution. The youngest should get the best party. Luke having a way better party will overshadow Lori’s. Lori was not going to be happy hearing Luke was having an event party. The other kids were not going to like being stuck at Lori’s home as Luke and his friends went bowling. Plus, it was giving more to Luke than Lori and that was not fair. “No, Luke will have his party here and we can change where’s Lori is. After all, Luke was planning on his party to be here.”

“Alice, it is simple you said we cannot change the date of Lori’s party, so we cannot change the place. You want to change where Lori’s party is then we are going back to the original date. The one which was planned.”

Alice thought the fight was over “Fine, have it your way. Now what do you want for supper dear.”

Alice acted like fight was over, but it was not. They only resolved what Alice saw as important. The other issues Alice was counting on her husband forgetting them. Overall Alice was not happy with the outcome but could live with it. The saving grace was Lori got what she wanted. Alice also knew her husband was not happy with the outcome, but thought he was being an unreasonable drama queen.

Alice made a mistake of counting on her husband forgetting what the fight was actually about. The reason behind the fight stayed in his mind because they were his real concern. The twins’ father was not worried about either of them getting what they wanted. Fred was worried about making sure they were treated fairly. ,As Alice tried to go the kitchen to start supper Fred “Alice we still need to talk about you lying to me and going behind my back for Lori.”