Jennifer O ‘Malloy, better known as Jen, sat down at the computer.

“Jen! You’re always on that thing! Get off, it’s my turn,” whined Madeline.

Jen ignored her sister.

“Jennifer!” Madeline tried again, tugging on her arm.

Jen freed herself from Madeline’s grip. “Maddie, I haven’t been on at all today. You have.”

“Please, Jen?”

Jen sighed, and felt her resolve crumbling. How her younger sister always managed to do that to her, she’d never know. “Give me one hour, okay?”

“An hour? That’s a whole 60 minutes away!”

“Glad to see you pay attention in school.”

“Please, let me get on, Jen. Please? You can have all my time tonight.”

Jen rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, but you better believe I’m gonna hold you to that.”

Madeline grinned, and sat down. “Don’t worry.”

Jen studied her sister for a moment. A lot of people confused them for twins; they looked so much alike. They had the same golden-blonde hair that hung halfway down their backs, their skin was the same dark color, they were about the same height, and wore the same size. Of course, if you saw them up close, you could see the differences. Madeline, 2 years younger, had dancing blue eyes and a thinner face. Jen had sparkling green eyes and a scattering of freckles across her nose and dimples on each side of her mouth.

The two got along well. As they had been growing up, they’d had only each other and their older sister to play with. Even now, though Jen was just 15 and Madeline almost 13, they still hung out together and stayed up till all hours of the night talking.

Madeline turned. “Do you mind?”

“No, not at all,” Jen said breezily.

Madeline smirked, and turned back around.

Jen walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door. She shivered from the blast of cool air and studied the contents inside. Finally she grabbed a can of Coke and shut the door. She leaned against it and opened her pop. “Hey, Maddie?”

“Hmm?” Madeline answered, sidetracked.

“Never mind. I’m going upstairs.”

“ ‘Kay,” Madeline said, never taking her eyes from the screen.

Jen walked through the kitchen and up the stairs, remembering when running had been her and Maddie’s only means of transportation. She smiled at the memory.

She entered her room and placed her can down on the nightstand before throwing herself down on the bed. She yawned and closed her eyes. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night, she thought, drifting off to sleep. The shrill ring of the phone revived her. She rolled over on her stomach and grabbed the phone. “This is Jen.”

“Hi, Jen, what’s up?” a female voice asked.

“Oh, hi, Taylor,” she said, picturing her best friend.

Taylor Chase wasn’t gorgeous, but she wasn’t ugly either. Her black hair was cut short, about jaw length, making her appear older than her 16 years. Her eyes were a freezing blue, and Jen sometimes thought they could see right through people.

“Who were you expecting? The Pope himself?”

“Yes. He still hasn’t called.”

Taylor laughed. “So, what have you been doing?”

“Mmm, you know, the usual. Fighting many battles, building Rome in a day, trying to figure out what Pi is…”

“So, in other words, Mad kicked you off the computer, right?”

“You know me too well.”

“So, you busy tonight?”

“Not unless you call waiting for Madeline to get off the Internet being busy.”

“Okay, good. I’ll be by in about 20 minutes, okay?”

“What? What are we doing?”

“You’ll see. So, 20 minutes?”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay then.” Taylor hung up.

Jen rolled back over onto her back, smiling. She wondered how many times Taylor had said “So.”

She got up slowly and changed her clothes. As she pulled a brush through her hair, she studied her reflection. She sighed, wishing she could look more like Madeline. Oh, well, at least she had the cuter nose. She grinned at the thought, and put down her brush as she heard honking outside. She ran downstairs. “Tell Mom I’m going out. Be back later! Bye Maddie!” Jen didn’t wait for an answer as she ran out to Taylor’s car.

“Mom is so going to kill you.”

Jen turned away from the mirror to face Madeline. “I don’t care. I like it.”

Madeline was sitting on Jen’s bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. “So do I, but Mom won’t.”

Jen turned back to the mirror. She turned her head slightly to get a better look at the piercing at the top of her ear. “Do you really? Mom doesn’t have to know. Yet, anyway.”

“Yeah, I think it’s cool.” Madeline bounced slightly on the bed. “My sister’s a bad ass.”

Jen laughed at her sister’s excited tone. “Hardly.”

Madeline replaced the pillow and slid off the bed. “Well, you’re getting there. I’m going to my room. The computer’s open.”

Jen took one last look at it and released her hair from the ponytail she had it pulled back in. Her hair tumbled down, hiding the earring. Satisfied her mom wouldn’t see it, Jen left the room and went downstairs to the kitchen. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, Jen. Did you have a nice time with Taylor?”

“Yeah.” Jen sat down and waited for the Internet to dial-up.

“What all did you do?”

“Oh, you know,” she answered, shrugging. She logged on to MSN Messenger. The only person on was her oldest sister, Lacey. She clicked on Lacey’s screen name, Sexy Baby.

Jenni: Hi Lace.

Sexy Baby: What’s up?

Jenni: Not much. U?

Sexy Baby: Same. Hey, you wanna talk to somebody?

Jenni: Okay, sure. Who is it?

Sexy Baby: I don’t know. His screen name is Cowboy.

Jenni: You don’t know who it is? How are you talking to him? How old is he?

Sexy Baby: I thought he was somebody else. He’s 14.

Jenni: Ok, sure I’ll talk to him. Give him my email.

Sexy Baby: Ok, I did. I gotta go now. Let me know how it turns out.

Jenni: Sure. Bye.

Sexy Baby: Bye.

Pretty soon, a box popped up on the screen telling Jen that “Cowboy” had added her to his contact list. Did she want to add him? Jen clicked “okay” and waited to see what Cowboy would do. Another box popped up.

Cowboy: Hi

Jenni: Hi

Cowboy: So, you’re Lacey’s sister?

Jenni: Yep. Jennifer is my name, but call me Jen.

Cowboy: Ok, Jen. I’m Zachary, but call me Zach.

Jenni: Ok. You have any brothers or sisters?

Cowboy: Yep. You wouldn’t believe how many.

Jenni: Try me.

Cowboy: Six. 3 bros and 3 sisters. U?

Jenni: 2 sisters, no brothers.

Jenni: Soooo…hehe

Cowboy: What?

Jenni: I’m starting to sound like my best friend! Her favorite word is so.

Cowboy: Who’s your best friend?

Jenni: Her name’s Taylor.

Cowboy: Her name’s Taylor? I thought that was a boy’s name.

Jenni: I don’t think so. Only boy that I know of that’s named Taylor is that one from that group, Hanson.

Cowboy: You like Hanson?

Jenni: Yeah, they’re not bad. Let me guess, you don’t.

Cowboy: Aw, come on! Who doesn’t love MMMBop?

Jenni: Lol.

Cowboy: Hey, I gotta go.

Jenni: One of your sibs wants on, right?

Cowboy: How’d you guess?

Jenni: I got one myself-Lacey doesn’t live here.

Cowboy: I’ll talk to you later, ok? Say, tomorrow?

Jenni: Sounds good. Is it ok if I email you? I get really bored all day.

Cowboy: Yeah, sure, feel free. Bye

Jenni: Bye

Jen logged off and sat at the computer, just staring at the screen.