Times Squared (14 page)

“Nima!” I said. “First of all, I think you need to talk to Coach Babbitt. Or your parents or something. You're way too stressed. Second of all, I'm not Emma. I'm Payton.”

“Payton?” Nima looked slightly horrified. “You're Payton?”

I nodded. I guess with my wet hair in a ponytail and wearing a bathing suit for the pool it would be even harder to tell us apart. Speaking of wet hair, mine was starting to get seriously cold out here in the air-conditioned hall. I wrapped my towel tighter to stop me from shivering.

“You're not even on mathletes,” Nima said. “Why am I telling you this?”

“Um,” I said. “A mix-up. But I can still help you.”

“I've wasted four whole minutes of time that I could have spent studying! Oh no!” Nima said.

I wasn't sure what to answer. I just shivered in my wet bathing suit and towel. I made a mental note to tell Coach Babbitt about Nima's stress.

“Payton?” Someone was coming down the hall. At least someone could tell who I was. I turned around to see Tess.

“Hi, Nima,” she said. “Mrs. James says she wants everyone in the pool area so she can supervise.”

“No problem,” Nima said. “I need to go study.”

She walked off, leaving me alone with Tess in the hallway.

“Hi-i-i,” I said, my teeth chattering a little. From cold. I followed Tess back down the hall toward the pool.

“Isn't swimming so much fun?” Tess asked, looking through the window at everyone in the pool. “Too bad Nick had to miss it.”

“Yeh,” I said. “I wonder where he is.”

“What?” Tess said. “You don't know? Didn't you get his text?”

What text? “Um, no.”

“You're not the only one who's getting a cool break on this trip,” Tess said. “Nick got to go on a tour with Ashlynn this evening!”

What?

“Yeah, Ashlynn chose him to go on a tour next,” Tess said. “Ashlynn is going to show him their professional lightboard and sound system. How cool is that? It's like Nick's dream come true.”

I shivered.

“Hey, you're freezing,” Tess said. “Let's go back into the pool. Aren't heated pools awesome?”

Awesome! Yeah! I had to forget about Nick while he had his fun with Ashlynn! Ashlynn could make all his dreams come true!

I stood shivering for a second. Grrr. Then I pushed my way into the pool area. I felt the warmth of the humidity blast over me. Then I felt the heat of my frustration blast over me.

I marched over to Emma. I couldn't do anything about Nick falling in love with Ashlynn. Ashlynn was irresistible. Fine. But I could do something about Emma.

“Emma,” I said. “You are not going to Nima out.”

“What are you talking about?” Emma said.

I took Emma's flash cards. I marched over to the pool. And I tossed them in.

“Hey!”
Emma yelled. “What the—”

“You know those by heart,” I said. “Staring at them and muttering is so not going to help you. But this will. Some fun.”

I reached over. And I pushed.

Splash!

Emma into the pool.

“Are you crazy?” Emma resurfaced, soaking wet and floating among her flashcards.

“No and neither are you,” I said.

“Twin fight!”
someone yelled.

“Not a twin fight,” I yelled back. “We're on the same team! It's twins against the world!”

I went over to a bin and pulled out some beach balls. I tossed one to Emma Then I punched one at Sam, hitting him on the head.

“Score!” I yelled. I threw a bunch of beach balls into the pool.

Everyone started laughing and jumping for the balls. Then they were hitting balls to one another. Everyone was having fun. Except Emma, who was collecting her soggy flash cards. I grabbed them up quickly and put them on the side of the pool.

And then the pool door opened. Everyone stopped and looked. A bunch of other kids we didn't know came into the pool area.

“It's the Panthers team,” Emma said, narrowing her eyes. “They're seeded number three in the competition.”

“Geckos versus Panthers!” I yelled. And I threw a beach ball toward the Brooklyn team.

One of the girls caught it.

I looked at Emma.

“It's a competition,” I said. Emma grinned.

“Go Geckos!” Emma yelled. “Crush the Panthers!”

Then the Panthers all jumped in the pool too. And before I knew it, the Geckos were on one side of the pool. The Panthers (most of them, anyway) were on the other side.

And we were punching balls back and forth.

“You're getting my hair wet!” Sydney protested.

Emma responded by bopping a ball over at Sydney and Cashmere, getting close enough to splash them.

“Eeee!” They both squealed. And moved away from us.

Good
, I thought.
Stay away if you're not gonna play.

“Two four six eight, Geckos Geckos are really great!” Emma shouted.

“Two, four, sixteen squared! Panthers team is more prepared!” a Panther yelled back.

Emma responded by nailing the Panther in the head with a beach ball.

“Nice shot,” I told her admiringly.

Emma grinned at me. And we both tossed beach balls to the other side of the pool.

THE HOTEL POOL

“Hi-ya!” I punched a beach ball at the other team and lost my footing. Before I slipped under the water, I saw it bounce off a boy Panther's head.
Bull's-eye!

I held my breath underwater and regained my balance. I popped up through the surface, ready for my next victim. But something was weird. All of the sound around me was muffled, like someone had turned the volume down to low. Very low.

“Payton!” I called. I located my twin and paddled over to her. “Payton.”

“. . . ,” Payton said, looking at me.

“I can't hear you!” I told her. “I can't hear anything! My ears are plugged up!”

“. . .” Payton frowned. Her lips kept moving.

“I'm going up to the room!” I said.

My twin finally got it. She nodded and pointed up. She also pointed to Mrs. Nicely.

“I'll tell the chaperone,” I agreed. I got out of the pool, wrapped a towel around me, and tried to dry off my hair and the insides of my ears.

Nothing. The whole pool area must have been noisy, but I couldn't hear it. I went over to Mrs. Nicely and explained my situation. She gave me my room key card and pointed up. Then she said something to a lifeguard, and together we left the pool area.

Squinch, squinch
. My ears made sloshing sounds as Mrs. Nicely and I silently walked through the corridor on the way to the elevator.

We reached the lobby elevators and stepped into an open one. While waiting for the doors to close, I spotted Nick coming in the hotel entrance.

“!” His mouth was moving. He held up a minicamera and waved it around.

The elevator doors shut. I had no idea what Nick was trying to tell me. The elevator went up to my floor.
The doors opened. Mrs. Nicely and I walked down to my room.

Squirch!
There was a weird, echoing sound in my left ear. I tilted my head and jumped on my left foot, a trick my mother had taught me. A useless trick.
Wee-oo-wee-ooh
went my right ear.

I felt a little dizzy. As I slid my room card in the swiper, I tilted over.

A couple of eighth graders—Katelyn and Ava, I remembered—were walking down the hallway in my direction. They saw me hopping and swaying and started giggling. I couldn't hear them, but I could definitely tell they were laughing at me.

“I have vestibular issues, okay?” I yelled, just before I lost my balance and fell over.

I lay sprawled at Mrs. Nicely's feet. I looked up and noticed the red light blinking. I hadn't gotten my door open either. Double humiliation.

My library media specialist/chaperone pulled me up and got my card to work. I assured her I was fine and said good-bye as she left to go back down to the pool.

I didn't know if she'd said anything to me. But at least she was gone. I looked around my little room. Alone at last. Perfect time to study.

I remembered my floating flash cards as I changed into a new white with blue stripes shorts and tee set. The flash cards were a total loss, I thought as I combed my wet hair in the bathroom. But my outfit was cute, I decided as I looked in the mirror.

My mother had taken Payton and me shopping for this trip. My twin and I had picked out one casual outfit. Our mother . . . well, she'd insisted on buying us matching dresses. They were hideous.

“No, Mom!” Payton and I had protested.

“You may need them for a dressy occasion,” she had said firmly. “Besides, they're sixty percent off!”

Yeah, because no one would buy them.

I finished drying off, thinking about the matching dresses tucked into the bottom of our suitcases. Which is where they would stay.

Unlike my math books, which were out, all ready to be reread for the fiftieth time. I looked at the clock. Four thirty. Plenty of time to study before our next activity—dinner at six thirty. Yes!

Squoish
, my right ear gurgled. This was seriously annoying. I would have to ignore the water sloshing in my eustachian tubes in order to study for tomorrow's competition.

Tomorrow's competition!

“Aaaaaaah!” I yelled. (It sounded like “aaaaaaah” to me.)

The competition! What if I couldn't hear by then? What if my ears stayed clogged? I would be disqualified from competing! Sure, I could do the written part, but the lightning round was all oral. If I couldn't hear the questioner, I couldn't answer the questions!

I banged the sides of my head desperately. No change. This was a disaster! I flopped down on my bed with a yelp of frustration.

There had to be a way to fix this! Maybe sign language? Okay, I didn't know sign language. What was I going to do???

Zzzzzzz . . . I fell asleep.

Pop! Poppity—pop-pop!

I woke up when the inside of my skull exploded. (Or was that part of my dream?) I opened my eyes and saw Payton looking down at me.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“Okay.” I yawned and looked at the clock. It was 4:50. Nice, little nap . . .

“Hey!” I jumped up. “I heard you! Payton, I can hear!” The popping must have been my ears draining.

“Talk to me, Pay!” I exclaimed. “I want to hear your voice! Wait, I can hear my own voice now, which is identical to your voice. So never mind, you don't need to say anything.”

Payton talked anyway. “Emma, did we get any calls? Or texts?”

“Um,” I said. “I don't think so.”

My twin looked sad for a moment. Then she picked up her cell phone from the side table.

“I've got five new messages!” she said. “And you have four!” she added, picking up mine.

“Oh,” I realized. “I was so worried about not being able to hear, I forgot to check.”

“Nick!” Payton said, realization dawning. “Tess, Mom, and Nick
again
!”

I scrolled down mine. Mom, Ox, and Nick?

I skipped over my mom and opened Ox's.

Em- did you get Nick's msg? CU soon! Ox

I opened Nick's message.

“It says Nick wants us to meet in the conference room on the first floor,” I read.

“I know, I know,” my twin said. “I got the same text. And it says it's a
secret
meeting. What the heck is this all about?”

“I don't know.” I shrugged. “But we're supposed to be there at five. That's in exactly five minutes.”

“Five minutes?” Payton shrieked. She grabbed her suitcase and dragged it into the bathroom with her. I was surprised they both fit.

I used the time to text Ox and Nick that we'd be there. Then I texted my mother back that we were great, everything was great, and that we'd call her later.

That took four minutes.

“I'm ready!” Payton opened the bathroom door. She'd changed into her cute new outfit (cream shirt and pink leggings). “That was the fastest I've ever gotten ready.”

“Congratulations on your new world record,” I told her. “But your hair is still damp.”

“So is yours,” Payton pointed out. “And it's sticking out funny in the back.”

Erg! Poolhead plus bedhead. I grabbed a hair band and tied my hair back into a ponytail.

“Better,” my twin said. “Now let's go find out what this mystery meeting is all about.”

We took the elevator to floor one and followed a sign to the conference room.

“If this clandestine meeting gets us in trouble, I'm
going to say you made me come,” I told my sister. “We are
supposed
to be resting in our rooms.”

“What?” Payton looked at me like,
Are you crazy
?

I can't afford to get disqualified tomorrow,” I explained. We reached the conference room. Nick was at the door.