“I win!” Jessie shouted, moving her bishop diagonal three spaces. Alice surveyed the board and groaned loudly. In three hours, Jessie had beaten her twice. It wasn’t fair that Jessie got the genes of their father, who worked at NASA. Sometimes, Alice wished that she could be the smart twin for once and see how Jessie liked it. She really hated her sister. Plus, she was the favorite. She was perfect in every way possible, being athletic, smart, and pretty. Even though they were twins and it would have seemed like they would get equal amount of attention, Jessie was always the person to get complimented or praised for being athletic.
Fighting the urge to upend the chessboard, Alice got up. “I’m done. Do you want a snack?” Alice said, standing up. Her hand floated to her pocket, and then quickly brought her hand back. She did not want Jessie to be suspicious.
Jessie nodded. “Yeah, thanks. Then do you want to play Monopoly?”
“No,” Alice replied firmly. She was sure that Jessie would beat her at that too. Last week, Jessie had bet Alice that she couldn’t climb to the top of a tree. Jessie won that bet and infuriated Alice.
“Then what do you want to do?” Jessie asked, following Alice into the kitchen.
Alice shrugged. “I really need to finish homework,” Alice answered, pulling down a box of Ritz crackers from the pantry.
Jessie groaned. “Why didn’t you finish it yesterday?”
“I didn’t feel like it,” Alice said.
“That’s a lame reason,” Jessie pointed out.
Alice glared at her. “Do you want a snack or not?”
“Yes, I do,” Jessie said hurriedly.
“Then stop arguing with me,” Alice replied, pulling the peanut butter out of the refrigerator. While Jessie was absorbed in something on her phone—probably texting her friend—Alice quickly pulled out a vial from her sweater pocket. With one eye on her twin, she cautiously tipped the ingredients into the jar of peanut butter. Not enough to do a lot of harm to Jessie, but enough to make her...crazy.  “I can do what I want," Alice said sharply once she put the vial away.
Jessie looked up from her phone and rolled her eyes. “We’re the same age,” Jessie pointed out.
“No, I’m older than you,” Alice said, spreading the peanut butter onto the crackers.
“By two minutes.”
“Five,” Alice corrected, smirking.
“Whatever,” Jessie groaned, sitting on one of the many stools placed around the island. After a minute of quiet, Jessie asked; “So how long does it take to make peanut butter cracker sandwiches?”
Alice glared at her twin. “You don’t have to be so rude about it,” Alice answered, purposely taking longer.
“What other way would make you hurry up?” Jessie quipped, placing her elbows on the granite countertop and setting her chin in her hands.
“For your information, now it’s going to take even longer until you get your cracker sandwiches,” Alice said, smirking.
“Alice!” Jessie whined.
Alice laughed, dipping her knife into the peanut butter again. “Deal with it, sister. It’s your fault that you were rude to me.” Practically every minute of your freaking life, Alice added in her head.
“Fine,” Jessie grumbled, slouching down in her chair and crossing her arms, glaring at Alice. Alice ignored the glare and continued making the snack.
It took Alice five minutes to finish making the sandwiches. By then, Jessie's stomach was growling and she was eyeing the sandwiches hungrily. Alice suspected that it was taking a lot of self-control to stop herself from blurting out that she was hungry.
Smirking once again, Alice slid the plate of crackers over to her sister.
“Snack is…ready,” Alice said, rolling her eyes at her sister’s lunge for the crackers.
“Finally,” Jessie replied, her mouth full of peanut butter and crackers.
“This is the best snack ever,” Jessie said, reaching for her third cracker sandwich.
“I know,” Alice replied, purposely not eating any of the crackers and crossing her arms. “That’s why I made it.”
Jessie looked at her sister and smiled. “You’re the best sibling anyone could have, you know that right?”
Alice rolled her eyes, but Jessie didn't seem to notice. She reached for a cracker, just so she wouldn't look suspicious, but found the plate empty. Jessie had eaten them all.
“Jessie!” Alice complained. “You ate them all!”
“I was hungry!” Jessie protested, laughing. There was a peanut butter smudge on her chin, but Alice wasn’t going to say anything. It would be funny to see how long Jessie would go without noticing it.
“Obviously,” Alice replied, holding back a smirk. “Okay, I need to go work on my homework,” Alice said, getting up. “See you later.”
Alice walked down the hallway and then up the stairs to her room. She opened the door and went over to her bed. Her phone sat on the quilt lying over the mattress. Suddenly, the phone lit up with a notification. Alice slid the notification over and typed in her password. It was a text from her mom.
I’m running late, go ahead and get ready.
Okay. Alice typed back and hit send. There was a whoosh as the text message was sent. Tonight, Alice had her first choir concert, and luckily for her, she was already dressed and ready to go.
Alice set her phone back down and walked over to her backpack lying on the floor by her desk and opened it. As she stared at the mound of homework lying inside, she sighed. Sometimes, she wished she wasn’t in high school. Deciding to start with math homework, she pulled the dedicated binder out and opened it to her journal. Then, Alice brought out her textbook and glared at it.
“Sometimes, I wish that I could press a button and have my homework done,” Alice muttered to herself.
“Talking to yourself again, Ali?” Jessie asked, poking her head into Alice’s room.
“Jessie,” Alice sighed, getting up and opening the door all the way. “How many times have I asked you not to call me Ali? It doesn’t go with my name at all!”
"I think it does,” Jessie replied, walking over to Alice’s desk and sitting down. She flipped through the pages of Alice’s textbook. “Too bad you have to do homework,” Jessie teased, closing the book.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Stop it,” she said, shoving Jessie onto the bed. Her sister gave a little squeal of surprise as she fell onto the bed, but ended up laughing.
“Is that all you can do?” Jessie taunted, getting up from the bed.
Alice just rolled her eyes and focused again on her math homework.
“Oh Ali!” Jessie called, from behind her.
“Don’t call me Ali, how many–” Alice turned around, only to see Jessie press something on her phone. “What did you just do!” she screamed angrily, launching herself at Jessie and scrambling to regain control of her phone.
Jessie laughed and held the phone above her head. “Nothing at all. Tell me, would I really do something to you while your back is turned?”
“Yes,” Alice replied without hesitation, trying to snatch her phone away from her sister. “Now–give–phone!”
“Not happening,” Jessie taunted, then, phone still in hand, she raced out of the room, laughing.
“Get back here!” Alice cried angrily, running after Jessie. Alice could hear Jessie’s footsteps as she ran around the house, evidently trying to get away from Alice. What on earth did Jessie do? The thought made her run faster, following the sound of Jessie’s footsteps.
“Jessie Holden, you get back here!” Alice yelled, tearing through the kitchen where their dog Luna was laying, taking her afternoon nap. The beagle opened one eye lazily as she watched Alice run by, then closed it again and went back to sleep. “Stupid dog,” Alice muttered under her breath as she passed the puppy.
“Here, Alice,” Jessie said, appearing suddenly beside Alice.
Alice jumped. “You scared me!”
Jessie smirked. “That was the whole point,” she replied, holding out Alice’s phone. Gingerly, as if it might explode, Alice took her phone.
“Why are you giving this back to me so willingly?” Alice asked, typing in her password and started rifling through her social media accounts and text messages to see what Jessie did.
Jessie shrugged, a small smirk taking form on her face. “Because I’m your sister,” Jessie said, hoisting herself up onto the kitchen counter.
Alice rolled her eyes, setting her phone down on the chair next to her. “Since when have you given something back to me just because I’m your sister? And what did you do to my phone?” Alice added.
“First of all, I just started. Second of all, I didn’t do anything.”
Alice raised an eyebrow. Since they were twins, she always could tell when Jessie is lying. Now was one of those times. “Yeah right.”
Jessie laughed, jumping down from the counter. “I’m not telling you, figure it out,” Jessie replied, strolling out of the kitchen, her head held high, but then she walked into a wall. “Ow!” Rubbing her head, Jessie successfully managed to walk out the door
Alice stifled a laugh and turned back to her phone. When she turned it on, she realized that she only had five more minutes until her mom came to pick her up for the concert. Alice gave a tiny shriek and dashed out of the kitchen, her black and white dress swinging around her knees.
“Move, Jessie!” Alice cried, trying to push past her twin to get to her room. But Jessie stubbornly stayed where she was, taking up the whole staircase as she climbed slowly to the top. “I’m going to be late!” Still, Jessie didn’t move out of the way. “JESSIE ANN HOLDEN, MOVE!” Alice yelled at the top of her lungs. Surprised by her sister’s sudden outburst, Jessie moved her arms out of the way. Seeing the route of escape, Alice pelted up the stairs and burst into her bedroom. She frantically raced around her room, trying to find her purse.
“Looking for this?” Jessie asked, standing in the doorway. Alice turned around and saw Jessie there, holding her purse in one hand.
“Yes, thank you,” Alice replied, and reached for it. But then Jessie pulled back her arm, smirking. There was something wrong about her. It was like there was something evil lurking in the tiny brain that Jessie had,
“You really thought that I would give it to you?” Jessie said, raising her eyebrows.
Alice blinked in surprise. “What?”
“You really thought that I would give it to you?” Jessie repeated, speaking to Alice like she was talking to someone hard of hearing.
“Jessie, I need that. Mom’s going to be furious that I’m not ready—”
“That’s your own fault, isn’t it? Mom told you ten minutes ago to get ready, and here you’re begging your helpless younger sister to give you the purse that you should have had with you a while ago.”
“Jessie, please. It’s our first concert, I don’t want to be late. Mrs. Flatts will be so mad at me.”
Jessie just laughed cruelly. Alice stared in shock at her sister. What had gotten into her? Then she remembered the poison. Did she put too much in? How powerful was this stuff? The person she bought it from said that all she needed was the vial... was it possible he was lying? He said that the victim of the poison would have vivid hallucinations, so it would seem like Jessie was going insane. Using the poison, Alice would finally be the “good twin” for once in her life.  Deciding it would be best to play it safe, Alice carried on as if nothing happened.
“Jessie?” Alice said cautiously, brushing away the tears forming in her eyes. “Jessie, are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” Jessie snapped. “Like you care,” Jessie added under her breath.
“Jess, I do. Something has gotten into you. Please, just give me my purse…” Alice pleaded, but stopped when she saw Jessie strolling towards her, a wild gleam in her eyes.
“Something has gotten into me? Me? How do you know it’s not you? What proof do you have that it is just you, not me?”
Alice scrambled backward as Jessie marched toward her, her eyes like fire.
“Jessie, my purse…” Alice said weakly. Then she hit the wall.
“The purse?” Jessie asked, towering above Alice menacingly. “That’s all you care about?” Outside, a car honked.
“Look, Jessie, I really need to go,” Alice whimpered, knowing it would get her nowhere.
Jessie leaned down, her hand reaching towards Alice’s face. Just a second before it happened, Alice knew what Jessie was about to do. Jessie’s hands hooked around Alice’s neck and lifted her off the ground. Alice felt her sister’s hands tighten around her throat, cutting off her air. Alice choked and thrashed around, but it did her no good. She could feel her life slowly dwindling away, and images began to flash before her eyes. Jessie and Alice swinging at the park when they were three. Alice’s fourth birthday party. Jessie pulling a prank on Alice when they were five. The trip to Disneyland when they were seven. Jessie laughing at her when they were ten when Alice fell out of a tree and broke her arm. When they were thirteen, the jealous look in Jessie’s eye when Alice finally won a medal for her singing.
Alice could see the hatred burning in Jessie’s eyes as she strangled Alice. What is making you do this? Why do you hate me so much? Alice wanted to scream, but she had no air. She couldn’t breathe. Then everything started to blur, then darken. Alice couldn’t feel anything anymore, not even when Jessie suddenly dropped her sister and burst into tears. She couldn’t feel anything, or see, or hear, because Alice Rose Holden was dead.