Steamin' at the Seams

"Here we are," Mom says, looking out the passenger side window at the passing houses.

"Whoo," I say glumly.

Yes, here we are. Forks being the here, Mom, Dad, Will, and me being the we. Our new home. The new place we'll live, anyway. I still don't know where 'home' is. Certainly not Baltimore. I love the city, but…it just doesn't feel like home. I know one thing I will miss, though. Blending in. Spotlights and I don't mix, and as Forks High is tiny and the only high school in town, there probably will be some sort of spotlight on Will and me when we start school in September. That's great. I can get kind of shy, nervous really, and when I do, there isn't a filter between my brain and my mouth. Not that there's a great one in place normally, but…it's worse.

"This is our house," Dad says as he pulls into the driveway.

I look up at the house. It's pretty. White, with green shutters and a red roof. Two Stories.

"Come on, guys, let's get inside," Mom says.

We all unbuckle our seatbelts, and I slide open the door on my side of the van, climbing out and stretching.

"What do you think?" Will asks, his voice low, walking to stand beside me.

I shrug, glancing at the house. "I don't know yet."

I follow my twin to the back of the van, where Dad has the trunk open. I grab my duffle and a sleeping bag, pulling my hood up against the misty rain as I walk to the house.

Mom's already inside; I hear her footsteps echo through the empty first floor. The front door opens into the living room, with a doorway right on the right into the dining room. There's also a doorway at the back of the living room. I drop my bags on the carpeted floor and walk through the back doorway. Ah. The kitchen. It's big.

My shoes squeak on the hardwood floor as I walk over to where Mom is standing, looking out at the backyard. The woods come right up to the edge of the yard.

"Hey, Mom."

She turns to look at me, smiling. "Hi, honey. What do you think?"

I still don't have an answer for this question, so I shrug. "It's fine. I haven't seen much of it yet."

"Uh oh." I hear Will's voice upstairs, then his footfalls as he comes down the steps in the back of the living room. He joins Mom and me in the kitchen, and uncertain look on his face. "Have you guys been upstairs yet?"

I shake my head and Mom asks "What's wrong?"

"There are three bedrooms," He says. "The biggest one'll be yours and Dad's, obviously, and that leaves the other two. One is normal sized, and the other is tiny."

"Oh, yeah, about that–" Mom starts.

"What's up? What do you guys think?" Dad interrupts, walking into the room.

"I was explaining about the bedrooms," Mom tells him.

"Ah." Dad replies.

"Anyway," Mom continues. "Your father and I have decided that Will will get the larger room upstairs–"

"That's not fair!" I interject.

"Let me finish," Mom says sternly. "Lacey, you will sleep in the basement. Before you complain, it's completely finished, phone jacks too, and there's an outside door."

"I can sleep down there if Lacey doesn't want to." Will says quickly.

"No, that's why we've got Lacey down there and not you." Dad says, referring to Will's tendency to sneak out.

"I'm fine with sleeping down there," I say. Will makes a face at me and I stick out my tongue at him. One might think we were six instead of sixteen.

"Alright, it's settled then," Mom says. She pulls an envelope out of her pocket. "Here are your keys." She hands me two and explains "The square-topped one is to the door downstairs."

I nod once and say "Oh, ok."

I slip the keys into my pocket and walk through the door at the end of the kitchen, through the dining room, and back into the living room.

Will follows me. "I still don't think it's fair."

I snort. "Tough."

I pick up my things and walk to the basement door. It's next to the door to the kitchen in the living room. I nudge the door open with my foot, flick the lights on, and walk down the stairs.

The basement is pretty, too. The walls are paneled and painted light blue, and the soft carpet is tan. There are small frosted windows along the tops of the walls. There's a round light fixture at the bottom of the steps, and there are three spotlights in a row across the middle of the ceiling.

There are two white doors along the west wall. I try the handle of the sturdier-looking door and find it locked. I guess that's the door that leads outside. I open the other door and flick on the light switch just inside the door.

Oh. It's a bathroom. There's a shower and everything. Well, now I won't have to worry about having to go upstairs to use the bathroom. That's handy.

I leave my things in the basement and go back upstairs. I walk through the living room and up the stairs. There's a doorway right to the right at the top of the steps; it's the small bedroom. There's a door on the left, as well, almost across from the tiny bedroom. I push it open slowly, finding a bathroom inside. Wandering down the hallway, right on the left, at the very end, I find the largest bedroom. The hallway ends at the doorway of the next-to-largest bedroom, the one destined to be Will's.

I find my twin inside, standing at the biggest window, looking out at the rainy neighborhood. I walk over to stand beside him. I glance up at him. It's obvious that we're siblings. We have the same blond hair, same pale Irish skin, we even have the same noses.

There are differences, though, too. The fact that he's 6'1" and I'm 5'5", for instance. We have different eyes, too. Will was born with Mom and Dad's green eyes, and I have…untraceable blue eyes. Will has lots of freckles, and I only have a few, splashed across my nose.

"So, what do you think of my room?" Will asks.

I shrug. "It's fine. Not as good as mine, though." I glance sideways at him, smirking.

He makes a face and shoves me a little. I laugh and shove him back.

"Come on, let's go see if there's anything else in the car that needs to be unpacked," I say.

We walk downstairs and out into the rain. I pull my hood up again as we jog over to the van. There are a few boxes left in the back, and we grab them, carrying them back to the house.

"Mom, where do you want us to put the last boxes?" Will calls as we walk into the empty living room.

Mom comes out of the kitchen, saying "Just leave them in here, you can stack them against the wall."

"When's the rest of our stuff getting delivered?" I ask, setting the boxes against the wall.

"The trucks, and our cars, are supposed to show up tomorrow morning," Mom says.

"Yay!" I jump up and down, then slip and fall on the floor. "Ow."

Will laughs at me. "You're such a dork."

I stick my tongue out at him as I get up off the floor, dusting off my bum as I do so. "Yeah well I'm still cooler than you."

He rolls his eyes at me. "Yeah, right, whatever you say."

Mom just laughs at us. Our heads all swivel to the door, though, as we hear someone knocking.

Mom quickly moves to open the door. There's a girl standing on the other side. She looks like she's about the same age as me, and she's holding a container.

"Hi," She says. "I'm Maggie, I live next-door."

Mom smiles a big welcoming smile. "Hello, come on inside!"

She steps aside and Maggie walks into our empty house. She throws back her hood, revealing long curly red hair. She's very pretty. She smiles. "Mom sent me over with some cookies to welcome you guys."

Mom takes the container Maggie hands her, saying "Well that was very thoughtful of her. Thank you."

She carries the container out to the kitchen, and Will says "Hi, I'm Will."

Maggie smiles. "Hi Will."

"I’m Lacey," I say.

She smiles at me, too, laughing. "Hi, Lacey. How old are you guys?"

"We're almost seventeen," I answer.

"Twins?" She asks. Will nods. "Oh, that's so cool! You guys are gonna be the only twins in our class!"

I grin. "Sounds cool." I wonder if people can tell when I lie.

"Hey, the weather forecast for this weekend is sunny, and some friends and I are planning on going down to First Beach at La Push, you guys want to come with us?" Maggie says.

I glance at Will and he shrugs, grinning. I look back at Maggie and smile. "Sounds good to me."

She beams. "Great! Well, we're meeting in front of my house at eleven-thirty on Saturday morning. Bring something to eat, we're planning a picnic." She glances at her watch then says "Oh, I've got to go, I have to babysit tonight. Hopefully I'll see you this weekend though!"

We say goodbye and she rushes out the door and across the yard back to her house.

"Well, that was…odd," I say.

Will laughs. "Yeah, but at least we have plans this weekend!"