Times Squared by Julia DeVillers

Author:Julia DeVillers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Sixteen

THE HOTEL

“Pomeranian poo.” Payton finished telling me about what happened to her after the mathletes had left the theater.

“Ew!” I grimaced. “Gross! TMY!” I said.

“It’s TMI,” my twin sister grumbled. “And so far that has been the highlight of my first day in New York City.”

“Hey, twins!” Cashmere’s head popped out of a doorway. “We’re right next door to you! Sydney, we can bang on the wall and the twins will hear it.”

“Whatever,” Sydney’s voice said from their room.

Payton and I were carrying our suitcases and bags through the hotel hallway to our room.

“Room 817,” I announced. Cool. A prime number.

“We’re here?” Payton gasped. “Emma, we are about to enter . . . drumroll, please . . . our very own hotel room in New York City!”

I slid the room key card the way the hotel front desk person had shown us.

The little light on the door flickered red.

“Isn’t it supposed to be green?” my twin asked.

I slid the card again. Red blinking light. I flipped the card around. Swipe. Nothing.

“Having trouble, twins?” Jazmine James walked by. “You want to win mathletes, but you can’t even get into your room?” She cackled.

I waited for Hector’s echoing cackle. Nothing. Then I remembered the eighth floor was all girls. The boys were on the ninth. For once I didn’t have to deal with Jazmine’s sidekick.

Although one of the eighth-grade mathletes was with her.

“Hi, Emily,” the girl said, looking at both Payton and me.

“Hi.” I smiled weakly. Swipe. Red. Flip. Red. Rotate. Red light again.

Jazmine and the girl, who was apparently her roommate, went up to the door just past ours. Jazmine swooped her key card, and the two girls disappeared into their room.

“This card must be defective,” I complained, jiggling it.

“Oh, give it to me,” my twin sister said, “Emily.”

I handed over the card.

“Like you can do it better than me, Pain-ton,” I scoffed. “You couldn’t even open the right locker on the first day . . .”

“We’re in!” Payton squealed.

The door opened on her first try.

“Woo,” my twin said, “hoo?”

Our hotel room was more like a hotel closet, really. It had enough room for two twin-sized (appropriate) beds and a shallow closet. And a stall-sized bathroom.

“What?” I said. “You were expecting them to put a bunch of middle-schoolers in a luxury suite?”

“It’s cozy,” Payton determined, “and all ours.” She wheeled her travel suitcase in. I followed with mine. I placed my backpack on a bed.

“Ooh.” My sister smiled. “You gave me the bed with a window view!”

“It’s probably a view of a wall,” I said, opening my backpack. Aah . . . my mathlete review books. “Or one of those giant billboards advertising mattresses.”

“Or it could be a View! Of! New! York! City!” Payton said, pulling the cord to open the curtains.

“Oh!” she said. I walked over next to her and looked out the window.

“Wow,” I breathed. We were overlooking the building next door’s rooftop garden. Plants and flowers flourishing right in the center of the city.

“Look down,” Payton whispered.

From our

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