Free The Twinning Project by Robert Lipsyte Page A

and boxes of entire dinners, including meat, potatoes, and vegetables. One of them said you could microwave it in seven minutes.
    I have to find out what microwave is.
    Grandpa usually made him scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast, with hot chocolate in the wintertime. Eddie didn’t want to start cooking in this kitchen. He peeked into a lot of cabinets before he found the cold cereals—at least six different kinds, including organic wheat with pecan flakes. He settled for Wheaties—the Breakfast of Champions—which he had eaten at home. He put berries and one percent milk on the cereal. One percent of what? He wondered what Tom ate for breakfast.
    At eight o’clock he heard a honk. There was a huge black car, more like a delivery van or a small truck, in the driveway. He went outside. The passenger window rolled down and a big black face smiled at him. “Hey, Tom. You look soooo preppy.”
    It had to be Alessa, but Eddie was surprised. Tom had never said she was colored. There weren’t any Negroes in Eddie’s school. Not that they were segregated, like in the South, but no Negroes lived in the neighborhood.
    Tom’s best friend at school is a Negro girl,
he thought
, and now she’s supposed to be my best friend.
It made him nervous. What would he say to her? He didn’t talk to girls that much. And he had never spoken to a Negro person.
    â€œLet’s go, Tom, we’ll be late.”
    He opened a back door and climbed in.
    The driver said, “You look very nice, Tom.” She was a Negro, too, but thin. She wore a suit over a white blouse. She had very short blond hair and piles of makeup. Really pretty. Must be Alessa’s older sister, a high school girl or maybe college.
    â€œThank you. You look very nice. Do you go to school here, too?”
    She made a hooting sound. “Ohh, I think I love you, Tom.”
    Alessa said, “I think some alien must have taken him over, Mom.”
    Alien? Mom? Eddie looked back and forth between them, but they were just laughing. It didn’t seem as if Alessa knew anything.
    School was less than a mile away. They could have ridden bikes there—even walked, he thought. It was a red brick box, pretty much like his school but older-looking. The bricks were chipped and grimier. There was a big stone fountain out front, just like at his school.
    There was a line of cars outside, most of them trucks like the one he was in. Kids were climbing out with suitcases. Some of them had wheels. Some kids had them strapped on their backs like the packs Scouts carried on overnight trips. Everybody had those little phones in their hands, and most of the kids were fiddling with them using only their thumbs. There were other Negro kids and lots of Oriental-looking kids, which was surprising, too. He wondered if he would be able to get along with them. On his planet, they’d been fighting wars with Japanese, Koreans, and even Chinese until not long ago.
    When the big car pulled up to the entrance, Alessa’s mom said, “Have a good one, guys.” She kissed the top of Alessa’s head and waved her fingers at Eddie. She had a ring on every finger.
    â€œThanks for the ride,” he said. She gave him a big smile, and as he got out, she started talking. He turned back to answer, but she was talking to a little microphone above her head.
    Alessa was waiting for him on the sidewalk outside the school. Kids rushed by. “You never got back to me.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œThe plans for today.”
    â€œWhat plans?”
    She scowled at him. “Well, you just check your texts. It’s all there.”
    Texts.
He remembered they were messages you get on your phone. “I don’t have a phone.”
    â€œDid you leave it at home?”
    Eddie remembered that he hadn’t seen the little phone in Tom’s bedroom. Had Tom sneaked it along?
    â€œI’ve got to stop using it for a