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There was something in the air. Something that made my stomach twist into knots.
And no, it wasn’t the cafeteria food.
It was Krel.
Krel Tarron, the coolest guy in high school.
He’s new, he’s a genius, he has a latin accent, and… questionable social skills.
Every time I see him, my heart does that little jump that the cheesy songs I secretly listen to always describe. He has soft brown hair, freckles that steal everyone’s attention, caramel eyes that seem to analyze the entire universe, and an arrogant smile that completely melts me. He’s smart, sarcastic, and carries himself with the grace of a prince.
He’s electrifying.
Every time I see him, I freeze. I can’t speak, and I start sweating like I’m made of wax.
But there’s one small problem: Aja.
She has incredible hair, a girl so radiant and extroverted she makes the sun look like a burnt-out lightbulb, with a smile straight out of a toothpaste commercial.
She’s always, always with him. She grabs his arm, make him laugh, eats the fries off his tray. Every time I turn a corner at school, there’s Krel Tarron, and next to him, always, that girl with the slavic accent. I see him hug her, drink from her cup, brush leaves out of her hair…
It’s exasperating.
Wherever Krel goes, she’s there. She throws an arm over his shoulders, they gossip together, they make plans all the time.
Aja, always there, glued to him.
In the hallway, in the cafeteria, in the gym, in the library.
She laughed at his technical jokes. - I could laugh better than her, even if I don’t understand what Krel is talking about. - She brushed hair out of his face and whispered things into his ear that made him smile in a way that shattered my heart into a thousand pieces.
They share lunch, whisper secrets, and defend each other with a ferocity that would make an MMA fighter pale.
It’s tedious.
Tragic, even.
Jim, Claire, Toby… they all say that Krel and I would have an amazing connection, that it’s obvious he likes me. But how could he, if he’s with her all the time?
At first, I didn’t even recognize the hot, acidic feeling that twisted my stomach every time I saw them together. I thought it was indigestion, but my sister knew what I didn’t want to admit.
“I never thought I’d see you jealous.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
And the worst part is that I don’t understand why it affects me so much.
I’m not a jealous person. Seriously. It’s not something that defines me. But every time I see Krel smile at her, I feel my blood boil and the tea I’m drinking turns into poison.
I feel like a loser.
I don’t know exactly when that sharp pain in my chest started every time I saw them together. I guess it was gradual, filling up little by little, like a bucket under a leak.
When we first met, I just thought they were friends. But every time I was with Krel, she always found a way to get to him, like a magnet.
They’re inseparable.
“Hey, Krel. We’re going to a Papa’s Skull concert on Saturday. Want to come?”
“Oh, Douxie, I’d love to, but Aja and I are going to see a movie.”
“Krel, there’s going to be a robot fight next week. We could go together.”
“Oh, Aja and I are going to be judges for that competition.”
“Hi, Krel. We’re going camping this weekend. I know you don’t like nature, but I’ll bring my guitar, there’ll be marshmallows, and we’ll tell horror stories.”
“I know, Toby and Eli tried to convince me, but Aja and I are leaving town for one of Aja’s karate competitions.”
My sister was getting tired of my failures and complaints.
“You know I could help you with that situation…”
“I know, but we’ll do it as a last resort, and only as a last resort.”
“Whatever you say.”
The universe, in its infinite wisdom - or absolute cruelty. I hadn’t decided yet. - gave me another chance to invite Krel to a meeting at Claire’s house.
Lately, I’d managed to be alone with Krel, and everything was going well. I was still nervous, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Everything flowed. Too well.
The day arrived. Claire, Mary, and Darci were practicing songs for their band. Toby and Eli were playing video games, while Aja and Jim were practicing karate in the backyard.
It was now or never.
We were in Claire’s room. I had my guitar and was teaching him a few chords. My chest against his back, the green apple scent in his hair, my mouth close to his ear, our hands touching all the time.
I wouldn’t get another chance like this.
I had to confess.
“You know… teaching you music is just an excuse. I actually just wanted to be close to you. Alone.”
His fingers stopped, and he looked at me.
His eyes were so bright.
“Douxie, is everything okay?”
His skin was as soft as I had dreamed.
“Yeah. It’s just that I want to kiss you.”
Our lips were getting closer. My hand on his cheek.
I could feel my face heating up.
I could feel the space between our mouths disappearing.
I was about to taste heaven.
“Krel! Aja hurt her wrist!”
My hand was holding nothing now.
I wanted to die.
“You know, listening Bullet For My Valentine on your bed while you cry doesn’t solve anything.”
I’d been like this for days. Eating very little, skipping rehearsals, barely talking to anyone.
Aja wasn’t to blame for her minor sprain, or for stealing Krel’s attention. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated.
Krel worried about her constantly, took care of her all the time, and they were even closer than before.
But what finally broke my heart was a comment I overheard in class.
“If I had a boyfriend like Krel, I’d feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
And suddenly, everything made sense.
Except that Krel seemed to want to kiss me too.
Maybe my sister was right, and I had to use heavy artillery.
“Zoe -”
“Finally.”
“I feel guilty about this.”
“We start tomorrow. Don’t worry. No one will get hurt.”
At lunch that day, my already shattered heart took another blow. Krel fed Aja with a strawberry.
A strawberry.
My favorite fruit.
My jealousy, which had started as a mild twinge of discomfort, had evolved into a monster wearing a T-shirt with Aja’s face crossed out.
“They’re not dating. They don’t act like a couple. They act like… I don’t know, like they share a brain.”
“That’s what all couples do, Zoe. They share a brain. And food. And a life.”
“Aja isn’t his type.”
“And what is his type?”
“You, idiot. But if you keep standing there looking miserable, he’ll never come to you. We have to do something.”
That’s how the Operation “Small and Harmless Sabotage” began.
The idea was simple. By coincidences that were definitely not on purpose, they would realize they weren’t that compatible, and I’d have a clear path to be with Krel.
Even so, I felt guilty.
The first attempt was during lunch.
Zoe approached their table and, with a surprisingly convincing performance, “tripped” and spilled her entire strawberry milkshake all over Aja’s white jacket. The idea was for Aja to leave long enough for me to talk to Krel alone.
But it didn't work.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” Zoe said, with a voice that had a hint of honesty, she liked Aja’s outfit.
Krel jumped up immediately, worried. “Aja! Are you okay?”
But Aja just laughed, brushing off the sticky drink.
“It’s nothing! Now my jacket smells like fruit! That’s an upgrade!”
And she hugged Krel.
Total failure. It seemed to bring them even closer.
At least Krel seemed eager to spend time with me, so not everything was lost.
The next day, a tragedy stole Krel’s attention.
Zoe and I were with them. I was telling to Krel about a jazz band that wanted to turn metal and was fighting with their record label. Zoe was eating. Aja was talking to Eli about a movie. Mary was taking photos with Steve, who had a milkshake. Everything seemed fine.
Until it appeared.
A small spider crawled across Mary’s screen. She screamed, startling everyone around her. Steve jumped in fear, bumped into Eli, who tripped into Zoe. The milkshake spilled onto Krel’s computer. The device let out an agonized beep and died. Krel stared at the scene in silent horror. Aja roared and chased Steve down the hall. We couldn’t separate them and Krel spent the rest of the day mourning his computer, completely ignoring me. It's okay, he needs to process his loss.
The second attempt was the following week. Krel needed time to grieve.
One day, while Krel was in class, Zoe and I approached Aja.
“Hey Aja, did you know Krel has a date with a girl of Arcadia Oaks Academy?”
Aja frowned.
“Wow, that’s… strange, because he- never mind.”
She just walked away.
Zoe looked at me with a grin of pure happiness.
“We’re getting closer.”
Despite Aja’s confusion, she and Krel were still extremely close.
For the third attempt, Zoe hacked - yes, my sister knows how to do that, it’s terrifying. - a message from Aja to Krel that said: “See you in the physics lab." "Bring a soldering iron <3”. She changed the second message to a cold: “I need space.” We were evil geniuses. Our mother would be so disappointed if she knew about this.
Sure enough, Krel arrived at the lab with a frown.
“Aja, ‘I need space’?” he asked, confused. Aja looked at him like he’d grown a second head.
“Space? For what? Our model has the correct dimensions.”
“But your message…”
“Oh! Must have been autocorrect. I meant ‘I need you to bring the soldering iron.’”
Their teamwork was flawless. They were geniuses. They hugged.
Another failure.
At least Krel seemed excited to talk to me about the project they were working on for the science fair.
The day of the science fair arrived. Zoe planned to introduce a small error into the programming as the final straw, but I didn’t want to ruin Krel’s project, so we didn’t interfere.
We definitely had nothing to do with what happened that day.
Turns out their table was under a leak. It only took a little water for their robot to go crazy. It started walking around and knocking over all the volcanoes nearby, creating a disaster throughout the room.
Krel and Aja were escorted out until they found the leak and proved their innocence.
At least the messages I sent Krel seemed to cheer him up.
A month had passed since we started the plan, and neither Krel nor Aja showed any intention of distancing themselves from each other.
For the fourth attempt, we tried something more radical, but without hurting anyone.
Zoe pretended to be a secret admirer and left Krel a note in his locker, asking him to meet at the track field. The idea was that Aja would see it and get jealous.
It worked. Sort of.
Aja read the note. They both went to the meeting together, intrigued by the mystery.
We only heard a few phrases.
“You know, I thought everyone knew that…”
“No, I only told our friends.”
Zoe and I watched them from behind the gym door until they left.
The operation was getting out of hand.
Desperation clouded our judgment.
The Final Grand Sabotage: The Homecoming Dance.
Zoe got her hands on the instruction manual for the gym’s sound system.
I, with my limited tech knowledge, followed her instructions to the letter.
The plan was simple: during the slow dance, when Aja and Krel would be dancing - because of course they would - we’d switch the romantic music for the metallic roar of “Painkiller,” a song Krel loved but that was… disruptive for a slow dance.
We had no idea that Steve and Eli were in charge of the lights.
It was chaos: Cables, levers, wrong panels. I don’t know what we did wrong. Probably everything. Instead of changing the music, I activated the fire sprinklers. Instead of dimming the lights, Steve connected the DJ’s microphone to the speakers at full volume.
The result: the gym flooded, the fire alarm wailed, and the DJ’s voice shouting “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” echoed throughout the school.
Krel and Aja tried to help fix the systems, but it was already too late.
Everything was a disaster.
The police were behind us.
And that’s how Zoe, Steve, Eli, Aja, Krel, and I ended up at the police station, sitting on a bench, dripping wet and wrapped in thermal blankets, briefly detained for “minor damage of public property".
The worst part? Aja and Krel were… fine.
He was explaining the likely short circuit we’d caused, and she laughed, leaning against his shoulder.
Instead of arguing, they were laughing, drawing diagrams in the dust on a table about how to improve the wiring system.
I felt awful. I don’t deserve him.
They were the perfect couple. Nothing in the world could change that.
A few days later, we were at the park with my sister, still coming to terms with the fact that I’d never be with Krel.
“I’m sure he likes you too.”
“He only likes me as a friend.”
“Friends don’t look at each other like that.”
I was about to reply when I saw her.
Great. Just what I needed to feel even worse.
The embodiment of everything Krel loved. And it wasn’t me.
But something surprised us.
She wasn’t with Krel.
“Tell me I’m not crazy.”
Zoe couldn’t speak.
On a bench, half-hidden by bushes, were Aja and Steve.
And they weren’t arguing. No, they were kissing.
With far more passion than I thought possible.
“Do you see that? She’s cheating! She’s cheating on Krel with Steve Palchuk!”
Zoe went pale. “Oh God. This is so much worse than we imagined.”
How could Aja do something like that to Krel?
I had to tell him. I had to save him from that betrayal.
The next day, I cornered him at his locker, my heart pounding at marathon speed.
“Krel, I need to tell you something. It’s about Aja.”
“Yes?” he said, closing his locker.
“I saw her yesterday. At the park. With… Steve.” I blurted it out, waiting for his shock, his anger, his pain.
But it didn’t come.
“I know. They’ve been dating for a month or so. It’s pretty sweet, even though Steve is… Steve.”
“Are you… okay? Doesn’t it bother you that your girlfriend is cheating on you?”
He looked at me with complete confusion. Then his eyes widened, and a smile slowly spread across his face.
He began to laugh, loudly.
“Oh my God! You thought Aja and I were… dating?”
I nodded slowly, feeling the heat rise from my neck to my cheeks.
“Well, yeah. You’re always together, you hug, you whisper… what was I supposed to think?”
Krel laughed again, but this time more gently, almost tenderly.
“Aja is my twin sister. I was born one minute after her, so she always thinks she’s right about everything. She’s unbearable.”
The world stopped.
Sister. Twin. One minute apart.
I’d spent weeks jealous of his sister!
I’d dragged my own sister into sabotaging his family relationship!
We’d hacked messages, almost destroyed the gym, ended up at the police station, all because of a misunderstanding and my jealousy.
Everything clicked at once in a way I never expected: The familiarity, the stupid fights, the way they looked at each other, not like a couple, but like siblings.
Siblings who adore and protect each other.
The wave of relief was so overwhelming I almost fainted. Immediately after came a wave of shame so intense I wanted to die, again.
“Your… sister?” I managed to stammer, my voice ridiculously high. “Aja is your twin sister?”
“Yes” Krel confirmed, now with a mischievous smile forming on his lips. He seemed to be enjoying my discomfort. “Technically my older sister, even if it’s only by sixty seconds. She never lets me forget it.”
“But… why didn’t you ever mention it?” was all I could ask, pathetically.
“You never asked. And honestly, I thought it was obvious. We have the same last name, we live in the same house. And we’re always arguing about who has to take out the trash or wash the dishes. Doesn't that seem like a... familiar dynamic?"
Yes. It did. Crystal clear. Zoe, in one of her rare moments of clarity, had even hinted at it. “They don’t act like a couple. They act like they share a brain.” Of course they shared a brain. They're twins.
At that exact moment of maximum humiliation, Zoe appeared, pale and wide-eyed.
“Douxie, it’s a catastrophe! Aja and Steve are -!” She stopped short when she saw Krel, then me, with my expression of absolute panic and defeat.
“Oh no. Did you tell him? And is he… laughing?”
Krel burst out laughing again, even louder.
Zoe looked at me, completely lost.
“He’s not… angry? Heartbroken? Planning bloody revenge?”
“I have news” I said, my voice still trembling. “Aja is his sister. His twin sister.”
The silence that followed was so deep you could hear bees buzzing in a park three blocks away.
Zoe’s face went through the same emotional journey mine had: disbelief, then the horrible realization, and finally a shame so deep she covered her face with her hands.
“The entire operation” she muttered through her fingers. “The milkshake… the message… the note… the sound system…” She lowered her hands, looking at Krel in panic. “I’m so sorry. This was all Douxie’s idea.”
“Hey!” I protested, but it was useless. The betrayal was complete. And she was gone.
“Wait, you mean all those weird moments… the milkshake, the message, the note, the dance…?”
I nodded slowly, unable to form words. My face must have been a poem of horror and remorse.
Krel let out another laugh, softer this time, almost compassionate.
“I thought you were just… clumsy. And that you had something against Aja.”
“No” I finally managed, my voice breaking. “I… I thought that you and her…”
“That we were a couple” he finished, nodding with a smile that was now kinder than mocking.
“It’s funny. Aja and I had actually noticed you acting weird every time we were together. She thought maybe you didn’t like her.”
“On the contrary!” I blurted out, a little too loudly. “I mean… Aja seems… amazing. It’s just that… I…”
I fell silent. There was no way to soften the truth: I’d been jealous, irrational, and completely wrong.
His eyes softened.
“All that ‘tension’ between us lately… was jealousy?”
I couldn’t speak.
I just nodded, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.
All the drama, the failed plans, Zoe’s intervention… all because I hadn’t taken the time to ask something so basic.
Krel chuckled softly and stepped closer.
“That explains why so many… ‘accidents’ suddenly started happening around Aja.”
“I’m so sorry” I said, burying my face in my hands. “God, Zoe and I… we did so many stupid things.”
Krel gently took my hand and lowered it from my face.
“Don’t worry. Really. It’s… kind of cute, actually.”
Our eyes met, and for the first time, I noticed how his eyes shone differently.
How his smile was just for me.
How his hand was still holding mine.
Before I could respond, before my brain could process anything else, Krel leaned in and kissed me.
It was soft, sweet, and perfect.
My heart did that little jump the cheesy songs always talk about.
When we pulled apart, we were both blushing.
“So… do you want to go out with me?”
“I’d love to. But you’ll have to apologize to Aja, help fix my computer, and probably be a test subject for our next robotic creations, to make sure they don’t turn homicidal.”
“I’ll accept my punishment.”
“Good” Krel said, stepping a little closer. “Because I think this will be worth it. And I’ll need you to tell me all the details of your… ‘Operation.’ So I can laugh more.”
“Yeah, I think that’s the least I can do. I promise not to sabotage your family life again.”
We were walking near the park holding hands when Krel broke the silence
“Want to know something funny?” Krel added with a smile. “Steve had the same question as you, but he asked.”