Abby's Twin by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

“So, Anna, what do you want to do?” I asked the moment I returned home that afternoon. Anna was sitting on the couch in the living room. A pile of books was beside her, and she was watching some orchestra on the educational public station. I figured that couldn’t be a whole lot of fun. She needed to do something exciting.

“You’re standing in front of the TV,” she said.

“Sorry,” I apologized, stepping aside. “But it’s not like anyone is actually doing anything you’re going to miss.”

“They are doing something,” Anna said. “They’re playing music and I want to watch them.”

I studied the set. Rows and rows of people dressed in dull, formal outfits, wearing serious expressions, and playing slow, gloomy music. Okay, so — technically — they were moving. But barely.

How could she stand to watch this? It was so boring.

And the music was so sad. Anna was probably just sitting there brooding about her scoliosis. I needed to snap her out of her sad, self-pitying state.

“I know!” I cried. “I borrowed that new video game from Kristy, Drag Race Canyon.” It was a great game. Super graphics. I really felt as if I were careening around a mountainous road in a race car. It was exciting — just the thing to take Anna’s mind off her problems.

I took the video cartridge from my jacket pocket and then switched the TV to channel three.

“Hey!” Anna cried indignantly.

“You’ll love this game,” I assured her as I popped the cartridge into the game system. “Do you want to be the yellow car or the green?”

“I want to watch the concert, Abby. I was enjoying it!”

“Okay, you be yellow,” I said. I handed her a control pad. “The thing is to slow down just a little on the curves. If you go too slow, you lose time. If you go too fast you spin right off the course and crash into stuff.”

“Abby, did you hear what I said?” Anna asked.

“What? Are you saying you’d rather sit around and mope than play an exciting game with me?”

“I wasn’t moping,” she muttered.

“Sure you were. I mean, you have a perfect right to be bummed. But it’s not going to help anything.”

Anna sighed deeply. “Okay. I still don’t think you’re listening. But if it will make you happy …”

I smiled, pleased. It was my first victory in cheering up Anna. I’d roused her from her sullen state, and now we were doing something fun. Together. It made up for my selfishness in running off to the mall with my friends this morning. I felt a whole lot less guilty.

Sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, we played the game. I have to say Anna was hopeless at it. Every two minutes she was either crashing or stalling out. “Concentrate,” I told her.

“I don’t like video games,” she replied.

“You’re just not used to them.”

“No, I don’t like them.”

“Everyone likes them,” I insisted. “If you keep practicing, you’ll get the hang of it.”

“Abby, I don’t want to do this, okay?” Anna said, a sharp edge in her voice.

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