|
The Adventures of Rachel and Jacob:
What a Character
By Anika Sandy-Hanson
Having a twin brother can sometimes be a pain. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but Jacob can really test my patience. Mom insists God doesn’t differentiate between little sins and big sins. In my book, though, Jacob has little offenses and then he has big ones. The little offenses only rub my nerves, like when he hogs the shower before school. For me, the big offense is when he treats me really great at home and really lousy when we’re out in public. The even bigger aggravation is when he acts all sweet and respectable at home, but then puts on the bad boy image away from our parents. I keep telling him that Dr. Jekyll will catch up with Mr. Hyde, but he won’t listen. I think it’s finally getting through to him after the episode with our final assignment.
Everything started as we were sitting in the cafeteria with Sarah and John. Jacob and Sarah decided that our project would be a photo journal on two sets of twins growing up together. At first I wasn’t too enthusiastic, mainly because I didn’t want the whole school seeing pictures of us splashing around wearing nothing but two teeth a-piece. By the time the lunch bell rang, however, the four of us were laughing at some of our classic exploits and had decided we would work on the project at the Roberts’ house.
At four p.m. John, Sarah, and I were waiting by their car eager to get to work. We made small-talk until Jacob showed up 30-minutes later.
“Well look who decided to grace us with his presence” snorted John.
“Hey guys” said Jacob sheepishly “I know we were going to work on the project tonight…” and as he trailed off three of the schools’ fashionistas walked out the door and yelled they’d be waiting for Jacob in their convertible.
“So, we’re being blown off for them” Sarah said with anger and an undertone of offense. Jacob tried to look defensive.
“They invited me to hang out and I couldn’t turn them down” he said.
“Great, you can’t say no to Amy, Jo, and Nick, but you can renege on your promise to work on the final project we have due for class. So when are we supposed to finish our photo journal?” asked John.
Jacob finally looked at the three of us, “Actually, the guys invited me to work on a mock fashion magazine with them and I think I prefer that project. You know, work on the future instead of revisiting the past. I mean, it’s not like we can do the twin thing forever, right? Anyway, I’ll see you guys later.” And with that, Jacob took off for the sleek car waiting to take him somewhere more desirable than where we were going.
I didn’t know what to say; my brother had just, in one fell swoop, stomped on Sarah’s idea, belittled his long-time friendship with John, and blown off his promise to finish the biggest project of our freshman year. This time there was nothing I could say to defend Jacob. After all, he had hurt my feelings worst of all.
For the next two weeks, John, Sarah, and I worked on the project after school and on Sundays. We saw little of Jacob, except the back of his head as he left school with his new friends. As the deadline approached, I was never so glad to see the sun setting on Friday; at least I could get a 24-hour reprieve.
As I was preparing for church one Saturday Jacob poked his head in my room, “Can I talk with you?” he asked.
“It’s a free county” I quipped, but I turned my head to indicate that I wasn’t going to completely ignore him.
“Look” he started, “I know it was really rotten of me to ditch you guys when we had agreed to work together and I’m sorry for that; it turns out that Amy and her crew really don’t care what grade they get, so they haven’t been spending any time on the final project.”
I took a minute to consider what he was saying. “So now that your little friends aren’t working out, you want us to take you back and let you ride on the work we put in?” I asked. Jacob could only look at his shoes and for that moment I felt a twinge of sympathy. “Hey, you’ve been my brother for 15 years and if it were up to me, I’d let you work hard tomorrow and get equal credit on Monday, but it’s not up to me, so you’ll have to make your case to John and Sarah.” With that, I turned and finished fixing my hair.
I knew it would take some time for Jacob to show he could be trusted and would honor his word. On the other hand, the four of us had been friends for a long time, and John and Sarah were big on giving people another chance. I imagined Jacob would be no exception. I only hoped we would be able to salvage Jacob’s grade, and our friendship, before summer came.
i
|
