How many J's?

I sighed, sinking into the fluffy, purplish maroon beanbag on the living room floor with my hot cocoa. I’ve been busy all day. Mom and dad left in the morning, leaving my brother and I by ourselves. I made us some breakfast then drove us to school. After school had finished I picked him up, bought lunch, did some homework, walked the neighbour's dog, dropped my brother over to his friends house and by the time I got back it was already 7:30. 

I boiled some water for hot cocoa and sat in the living room. While waiting, I turned the tv on and by the time I had chosen a movie, the kettle was already beeping. I made the cocoa, added marshmallows and sat down. 

As I was about to start the show, the landline beside me rang violently like it always does. 

RING RING RING RING RING- 

“Hello?”

“Heyy, watcha doin?”

“Jen?”

“Yup this is her”

“…Did you get your phone taken away again?”

“Yea..” She whispered out of embarrassment.

“Of course you did.” 

Jennie is my neighbour/childhood best friend. Her house is right next to mine and coincidently the rooms where our landlines are, have windows that face each other. I have known her my whole life. We’re practically sisters that have zero hate for each other. Most of the time.

“Yea yea. Anyway, who’s home right now?”

“Nathan is at his friends house for a sleepover and mom and dad are at grandma’s house.”

“Oooh home alone I see” she said while smirking through the window.

When she wants to, Jennie can be a real devil. Wanna get revenge on a friend or have, in her words, fun then she’s your girl. She even has her own supplier for almost every single item you would need to prank someone. Everything from rotten eggs to water balloons to air horns. The worst thing that we’ve ever done was when we covered Mr. McCoy’s, one of our school’s teachers, house with glue, eggs and maple syrup. Turns out the damage to his house and ego was so bad that he had to move away to a whole other town. Honestly, he deserved it. He wasn’t the best teacher after all.

“No Jen. Stop that.”

“Stop what?” She asked innocently

“I know what you’re thinking!”

“Now I know that my best friend can read minds”

“No I can’t. I just know you too well.”

“Ok ok, fine. Nothing crazy tonight”

“Thank you!”

“I can’t anyways. Mom and dad took away all the knives, toilet rolls and eggs but If you aren’t doing anything right now, do you wanna come over? They aren’t home so we could raid the pantry for snacks!”

Her parents are always away on weekends. They say it’s for business trips but we all know it’s to get away from the neighbourhood. It isn’t the kind of neighbourhood you would call ‘easy going’.

Our moms grew up in the same neighbourhood and went to the same school as each other. They became really close in college and ever since then had been best friends. Naturally, they made their children best friends aswell. On the other hand, our dad’s haven’t been get along that well ever since Thanksgiving last year. Jennie’s dad, whose name is Simon, had borrowed our lawn mower and semi-pro pressure washer. Dad didn’t really care much about the lawn mower but the pressure washer was something he worshipped. He even schedules ‘spa days’ for it. 

That thanksgiving, Simon had left the pressure washer outside and it went missing the next day. He claimed that it was stolen and dad was willing to accept that fact but asked for money from Simon. Jennie’s dad was beyond outraged and they haven’t spoken since then. Ridiculous isn’t it?

“Ooh I’m really tempted but I can’t tonight.”

“What? Whyyyy?”

“1, my dad didn’t want me coming over. 2, I’ve got some homework for geo and 3, you’ve got homework too so don’t try and get yourself out of that.”

“Ugh why do you have to be such a good student?”

“What can I say? You gotta think like a proton”

“…what?”

“Always positive!”

“Oh my god, you and your school puns.”

“I’ll never stop these”

“Oh Tara hold on I just heard something at-“

The phone was cut off.

“Jen?” I said for confirmation that she ended the call. I looked out the window into her living room and saw her trip and fall. She ended up crawling and hiding in the storage room under the stairs. I swear that this girl is gonna be the death of me. Thinking that she saw a cockroach, I wore my coat, brought my geo work and walked over to her house. For a girl that goes to great lengths just to prank someone, it isn’t quite expected of Jennie to be scared of bugs. I don’t know why people hate them. They don’t even harm anyone.

I walked over to her house. The snow falls exactly onto my nose making me sneeze. Winter isn’t really the best time of year for me. I would much rather be in a country that’s hot right now. Like Malaysia! Or Venezuela! Or Egypt! Basically any country that doesn’t have snow this time of year. I walked across her snow covered porch and knocked on the door. While waiting for a response, I looked around. There were many cars this time because of Christmas. There are so many sketchy vans around here so I walk far away from them.

She didn’t answer so I just entered. “Jen? You ok?” I looked around the house. “Jennie?” I called out but louder this time. “Jennie you’re starting to freak me out man. C’mon say something, this isn’t funny.” Slowly and cautiously, I made my way into the kitchen but before I could enter, she popped out of nowhere.

“Hello Tamara”

“Woah, Jennie you scared me!”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. What are you doing?”

“Nothing, just making some popcorn.”

“Alright… Jen are you ok? Did something happen?”

“Yes I am good Tamara. Do you want to watch a movie with me?”

“Um ok but we have to finish our homework first.”

“Sure. In my room.”

“Ok…”

I took off my coat and brought my work upstairs. I set up the table while she made the popcorn. Her room was beautifully decorated but the only thing I didn’t understand about it was the fact that she has 3 wooden letter J’s in her room. 1 for her of course, 1 for who I assume is their dead dog and 1 for her sister who is dead. Her parents said that Jennie had a twin who had died when we were really young. At the time they weren’t expecting another child so they weren’t financially prepared and Jennie’s mom had felt incredibly guilty about it all and decided to keep the J for the sentiment. They were identical twins and her name was Juliana. That’s all I know about them. Jennie’s parents were incredibly secretive about that. 

“Hi, I brought you some water. I might’ve accidentally left the popcorn in too long so I’ll go get more from your house?”

“Seriously? You burned microwave popcorn? You know what, yes. I’ve got extra.”

“Alright then, I’ll go get it now. You just stay here ok?”

“Yea, sure”

She left the room. What was she doing that had made her burn the popcorn? Why was she being so weird? What scared her just now and most of all why is she calling me Tamara? Sure she calls me that sometimes but we’ve known each other long enough to call each other our nicknames. What is going on here?

I heard the front door close and I exited her room. Reaching the living room, I peeked out the window to see that she was doing something in the kitchen. I then thought to myself, wasn’t she hiding in the closet before I came? This was really starting to freak me out. I made my way to the closet slowly and reached for the handle but stopped myself. What if she is normal and I’m the crazy one here? No it can’t be. I know what I saw. Hesitantly, I opened the squeaky closet door. “JEN?” I whisper shouted.

Jennie, my Jennie, was unconscious in the closet with her hands tied together. What is happening here! If this is Jen, then who was I speaking to this whole time??

I quickly untied her and tried to wake her up but it was no use. She was out cold. I stood up and started to panic even more. I bite my nails while thinking about what to do.

“Oh I see you’ve gotten to her first.”

I froze. Oh no.

I turned around to find her with a knife and a bag of popcorn.

“Who are you and what do you want with us?” I asked, trying not to provoke her.

“Well I want revenge”

“Sure but you didn’t answer my first question”

“Oh I’m sure you know who I am!”

“No way…”

“Yes way.

“…You’re Juliana?”

“No silly, I’m Jocelyn.”

“Jocelyn?”

“Ever wondered why she had 3 J’s in her room?” She asked with an evil smirk.

“Oh my god...”

“We should finish quickly before they notice I'm not over there. Oh and by the way before I kill you, they’ve never had a dog”

It was her. The third J.