By Melanie E.

Internet. Keyboard. Free time. STORY!

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Fifteen minutes turned into half an hour, all 30 minutes of which the twins managed to fill with every apology, nicety, and plea not to get in trouble they could. Meanwhile I spent the time cleaning up their mess and leaving our cousin to pickle in the kitchen. The TV was toast, as was my console (obviously,) but luckily those seemed to be the only two things seriously damaged by the incident. Mom was going to be mad, but the TV was pretty old anyway, and all my saves were backed up to a flash drive in my room, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Of course, I couldn't let the twins know that, could I?

"But we don't have any money!"

"Then I guess you'll just have to work off the cost of a new TV with mom and dad," I said, tsking as I wiped down the wall and wondered if we had any filling putty in the garage. "Then you can buy me a new system too."

"But those are like eleventy-million dollars!" Jenny cried.

"Eleventy million and twelve," I countered, getting a gasp from both of them. In truth replacing the TV, the game, and the console would be maybe five hundred all together, but at their age what was the difference? "I'm sure you'll have them replaced by the time you get to high school though."

"But we'll be old then!"

I managed to bite back my laugh and turned toward them, glaring. "So being in high school makes me old then?" I asked, giving them every opportunity to dig themselves deeper into the hole they were already trapped in. Luckily for them we all heard the front door open before they had a chance to answer.

To say Mom was pissed would be an understatement. We started in the front room, where she gave the twins a good tongue lashing before sending them to their rooms. This was less a punishment for them than it was a gift, though, because it meant they didn't have to see the confrontation between Mom and Marilyn.

It took the two of us the better part of ten minutes to wake her up, but as soon as she saw Mom she knew she was in deep trouble. She tried to give Mom a sob story about problems with her husband and money -- the same one she'd used on grandma so often -- but Mom wasn't listening.

"I let you stay here with my CHILDREN, Lyn! I trusted you, and gave you a chance to prove yourself worth that trust. Get out and don't come back."

"But...."

"OUT!" Mom screeched, making both me and our cousin jump. "And take this shit with you!" Mom said, kicking over one of the empty wine bottles. Despite her condition our cousin was out of there like a shot, likely heading across the street to our grandmother's place to hide out.

With that it was just me and a haggard looking Mom, who almost immediately collapsed into Marilyn's vacated seat and collapsed forward, head in her hands. "Jeezus."

"I know, Mom," I said, patting her on the shoulder. I still wanted nothing more than to just get out of there, but I knew that wasn't the right thing to do.

"How're you staying so calm, Sam?" She asked me. "If your uncle Ben had done that to something of mine I'd still be in jail on the murder charges."

"I'm used to it," I said with a sigh, remembering all too many other times the twins had tried to "help" me. "Besides, it's really Mar's fault, not theirs. If she'd been watching them like she was supposed to...."

Mom gave me a grateful smile. "True. Still, I can't believe how patient you are with those two. Sometimes it feels like you can deal with them better than I can."

I shrugged. "They're good kids, just, I dunno."

"Destructive? Trouble magnets?"

"I was thinking 'rambunctious,'" I answered her with a snort.

"Hon, you are the master of understatement." Her smile quickly faded as she closed her eyes and put her head in her hands again. "Ugh. What am I gonna do for a babysitter now? Marilyn wasn't the best choice, but she was the last option we had. If only I didn't have to work afternoons."

We sat in silence for a bit after that. I was too busy tutoring in the afternoons to do the babysitting myself, and that was on the days I didn't have something else going on, like practice with my band. Looking at Mom, though, there had to be something I could do to help.

The problem was I really didn't want to.

"Mom?"

"Yeah honey?"

I gulped down my own distaste at what I was about to say before continuing. "If... if I HAVE to... I can tutor from the house I guess?"

Mom was about to say no, I could see it in her face, and for a brief moment I felt a glimmer of hope that I might not have to watch the twins. Then, that glimmer was destroyed by mom's pause followed by her look of relief. "Okay hon. And as much as your dad's gonna hate it, tell Greg he can bring his drums over to our garage and your group can play here too. I really appreciate this, Sam."

"No prob, Mom," I said, hoping she couldn't see the disappointment on my face.

Well. Now not only had I lost my console, AND my favorite game, but I'd also lost what little freedom I'd had on the afternoons.

The twins would pay. Oh, yes... they would pay.

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Welp, there ya go. Not sure how long I just spent typing this up, but it advances the plot beyond what I'd put in the first one, and opens things up for if I continue this in the future. Regardless, thank you for reading, and feel free to comment -- I always appreciate them.

By Melanie E.

Suffering the interminable wait until new compy parts arrive via the wonders of UPS and internet purchases while my brain slowly melts out my ears due to exhaustion after a long night at work. Heck, what better time to try and write a bit of story?

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We finished up with our third song to riotous cheering and clapping from our small but enthralled audience, Jimmy and Jenny both bouncing up and down excitedly. "More, more!"

"Pleeeeease?"

"Whadda you say, guys?" I asked my bandmates, all of whom gave me nods or thumbs up. Well, all except for Greg, who instead gave a rim flam that made me glad I'd fitted both the twins and myself with ear plugs before we'd started. With a quick one-two-three click of his sticks we were off into the next song of the set we'd been working on for the last couple of weeks, my bass amp thunking away next to me as we played.

It had been a week since that ruinous afternoon, but I'd yet to actually do anything to the twins as punishment for destroying my stuff. Mom had punished them plenty in her own way, grounding them (no big deal at seven, though the way they'd wailed it was the end of the world,) and taking away their tablets until they really DID manage to "pay back" the cost of a new TV and console by doing chores around the house. Still, there were things I could get away with as the eldest sibling that Mom just couldn't do, and I had spent many a happy if malicious minute contemplating just what I would to to wrest my revenge from them.

Even with that, though, I had to admit things hadn't gone too badly since. Moving tutoring to my house instead of going to the homes of the people I was helping had actually been a good thing, since it had allowed me to compress the time I spent tutoring down a bit without having to account for travel time, and as me and the band had quickly figured out, having a live audience to play for was infinitely better than Greg's sad excuse for a mutt back at his place.

I sang my heart out as we played, too. Yeah, I know, bass guitar and lead singer, weird combo huh? What can I say, Dad was a rush fan, and I'd kinda inherited the addiction. We'd kind of patterned ourselves on the band a bit at first, but our lineup had expanded since with Greg on drums, me on bass and vocals, and our friends Julio and Jesus (hey-soos) on twin guitars, with Greg's sister Emma playing keyboards for us. It was a blast, and we'd even tried our hand at a Rush song or two, though none of us were anywhere near good enough to actually emulate them. Still, even being able to play some of the Top 40 stuff off the radio was fun.

We finished up with our version of Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" to more cheering and applause, and I could feel the grin growing on my face when the twins' excitement was finally too much for them and they came up to us and started chattering nonstop at Julio and Jesus. Since they were twins too the little devils had taken an instant liking to them, and for Julio and Jesus' part they had taken it in stride, humoring the kids as much as they could.

My musings as I watched the two pairs of twins chatting was interrupted by a tapping on my shoulder, and when I turned around I found Emily standing there, a smile on her own face. I quickly took my earplugs out and palmed them, giving her a shrug. "What's up?"

"Nothing," she said, giggling. "I was just saying how nice it is to see how much you love the twins."

"Who, those monsters?" I asked, raising my voice to make sure the monsters in question heard. I waited until I got the growls in answer I'd been expecting before continuing. "I kinda have to. I mean, I'm their big brother."

"Maybe," she said, still grinning from ear to ear, "but there's more there. You really care about them a lot, like take care of them, don't you?"

Now I was getting embarrassed. "Well, I mean, Mom and Dad work a lot, so it just kinda happens."

"Really? GREG!" She called over my shoulder, making me wince and wish for a moment I'd kept my earplugs in.

"Yep?" Greg asked from behind me, close enough to make me jump.

"You ever see Sam here do anything to hurt those two?" She asked him, pointing at my still-preoccupied siblings.

"Not once," Greg answered, laying a hefty hand on my shoulder. Greg was one of those guys who a lot of people found intimidating just hearing his voice and seeing how big he was. "Since they were born lil' Sam's been super protective of them."

"Thought so," Emma said, giggling again. "No wonder they adore you."

"They do?"

"Like you didn't know that already," she scoffed, giving me a playful shove.

Greg and Emma had been my friends since, heck, I couldn't remember a time we WEREN'T a group. Greg and his sister were less than a year apart, and due to a quirk in the way our school handled entrance ages the three of us had always been in the same class at school. I'd actually met Emma first, the two of us arguing over who got the play kitchen our first day in kindergarten, and we'd been an inseparable trio since. We picked on Greg a lot about being the baby of the bunch, but he'd turn right around and pick on both of us for being little elfs, something that always bothered me since I wasn't THAT short.

Greg and Emma just stood there while I thought about everything. Them, me, the twins. I looked Jimmy and Jenny's way again, and the two of them looked back toward me with grins from ear to ear before turning back to our guitar players.

Maybe I wouldn't make my revenge on them all THAT bad....

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NOTES: I know, I know, still no TG, but whatever. If that's what you're waiting for, I promise it'll come eventually; I'm just not rushing myself since this is all just a "hey let's write something" spur of the moment thing anyway.

So, read, enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments below. Suggestions for the future are welcome, since this is all flying by the seat of my pants anyhow.