Title: Jessica vs Elizabeth

Summary:

“Oh, Lizzie, isn’t it romantic?” Jessica squealed.

Elizabeth gaped at her twin. “They’re expecting us to kill each other.”

“Yes, but we get new clothes and we’re paired with a boy!”

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Notes: I am going to post this, unbeta’d as it gets written for NaNoWriMo2017. I will post a clean, edited (hopefully coherent) version when it is finished, but if you want to see the raw, error-laden process of my word-vomit, here it is.

Chapters: 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

Twenty-One

Jessica heard the cannons sound – three very close together, so that meant there was only one other person left in the arena. And then one more cannon would sound and Jessica would be the victor of the Hunger Games. She would get fabulous dresses, she would probably be famous, and she only had to kill one person to achieve it.

The snap of a branch made her look up.

Her sister stood in front of her holding a sword. “Hello, Jess.”

Jessica felt her temper rise. “Of course it’s you! There’s only one person left in the arena, and it’s you! You’re always doing this. You always try to steal my glory!”

“First of all, you incompetent moron, there are two people left in the arena. Second of all, you’re the glory hog. You always have to be the centre of attention, no matter what’s going on. I’ve killed eleven people in this arena, twelve security guards, and there’s a further four who could have died since I’ve been in there. I know math is hard for you, so that’s twenty-three dead and four potentially dead. And you’ve done what?”

“For your information, I’ve killed plenty of people: Amy Sutton, Peter DeHaven, Sandra Ferris and Bruce Patman! So there!” Jessica snapped. “Not to mention Roberta Manning and Sally Holcombe!”

“That’s still only six, you idiot.” Elizabeth shook her head and took a step forward. “You just don’t have this, Jess. Time and time again, you start something and then drop it at the end, you’d have been fine for a serial killer, just killing whenever you wanted, but this is a sprint, not a marathon.”

“And you say I’m stupid! At least I don’t think this is a running competition!” Jessica snapped.

“I’m a spree killer, you idiot. If you ever cracked a book once in awhile, you’d know that that is what is required. Also, I have a motive – a really good one. I have been putting up with your nonsense for twelve years. Every time I do something, you try to take it!”

Jessica shook her head. “No, you’re the good twin, you’re supposed to let me do what I want.”

Elizabeth’s eyes flashed in anger. “I have. You have taken the shoes off my feet, you bullied me for being a teacher’s pet, you bullied Nora Mercandy, you bullied Amy Sutton, you said you’d take care of a dog and then you left me to look after it and the one time you were supposed to take responsibility, the dog nearly died!” Elizabeth took another deep breath. “You dragged me into pretending to be a triplet, you bullied Sophia Rizzo, you framed me for stealing money for the class trip with your lies, you blabbed ithig to everyone just to go to a party! You ruined my run at student council, you–”

Jessica frowned. “Are you really going to recap every book, just to pad the word count?” She waved Elizabeth’s accusations away. “Anyway, you let me do all those things. Every time I did something you didn’t approve of, you would tut and be horrified, and then go along with it, because you’re a spineless waste of space. And let’s talk about the times you’ve misbehaved, Lizzie! How about the time you sucked up to Lila just so you could ride a horse for free? Or all the times you’ve pushed your nose into other families’ affairs, because you’re obsessed with fixing everything, even though it’s none of your business! What about that time you dressed up like a librarian and walked around with a clipboard, tattling on everyone, all because someone had nominated you for the best student! And how many best friends have you had this school year? Every time someone new shows up, you befriend them, push your way into their problems and drop them as soon as you’ve done that. There is something really really wrong with you and I’m sick of everyone saying you’re the best twin, when you’re just as awful as me!”

“I can’t wait to kill you!” Elizabeth screamed in frustration.

Jessica took a step back. “Wait, what?”

“I said I’m going to kill you,” Elizabeth replied.

“But this is the part where we realise that we’ve just misunderstood each other, and you can never stay mad at me for long, and then I get my own way!” Jessica said. It was how their adventures always played out.

“No, this is the part where I kill you.”

Jessica stamped her foot on the ground. “But I want to win!”

“So do I!”

“I want to be an only child and have your room as my meeting room for the Unicorns!”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Well, the Unicorns are mostly dead, so I think I’ll take your room and use it as a library. I’m going to build a shrine to Amanda Howard right where your closet is!”

“You monster!” Jessica bellowed.

“And I’m going to ban purple from the house!” Elizabeth added joyfully.

Jessica leapt at her twin and knocked the sword from her hand. They both hit the ground hard, but that didn’t deter either one from attempting to land the first punch. Jessica got in there first and slammed her fist into Elizabeth’s mouth. Jessica split her knuckle on her twin’s teeth, but was gratified to see that she’d knocked several teeth flying.

Elizabeth hit back with a savage blow that broke Jessica’s nose and sent a torrent of blood flowing down her face. “When I kill you, I’ll finally be more than four minutes older than you!”

Jessica kneed Elizabeth hard between the legs – she didn’t know if it would work on girls as well as boys, but from the way Elizabeth groaned and shrank back, it seemed good enough. “I can’t wait to be an only child!”

Elizabeth scrabbled away from Jessica, and reached out, hoping to find her sword, but Jessica grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back towards Jessica. “I’ve never seen the point of you!” Jessica cried.

“Really?” Elizabeth lashed backwards with her elbow and knocked out a couple of Jessica’s teeth. “What about all the times you stole my homework or my clothes?”

“If you never existed, I wouldn’t need to steal your things. They’d just be mine!” Jessica threw an arm around Elizabeth’s neck and tried to squeeze.

They were so intent on their fight, they didn’t notice Lois step up to them, aim her flame-thrower and flick the switch.

Instantly the twins’ clothes and hair caught fire, and they both rolled away screaming.

Jessica tried rolling over on the ground to stamp out the fire, like they showed in movies. As she rolled, she saw Lois crack Elizabeth around the head with a hockey stick. Elizabeth stopped moving and a cannon sounded above.

“You killed my twin!” Jessica screamed, momentarily forgetting about the flames, the pain and her anger at Elizabeth. She staggered to her feet and lunged at Lois.

Lois brought up her hockey stick and Jessica was impaled on the sharp end of it.

She fell to the ground screaming.

She didn’t think she was going to win after all.