1 THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW YEAR

By: Spencer Kanagie Roberts

Alexandra was in her room reading Romeo and Juliet when she heard a heavy sound downstairs. She poked through the window and didn't believe her eyes; it was Jackson, her heartless younger cousin. " God!!" Alexandra yelled. Alexander her twin brother rushed from his room to find out what the yelling was about and hearing the reason, he yelled " NO!!!" Even louder. Alexandra and Alexander hate Jackson because he's good at faking emotions. "Lexie, Alex, come down and see who's here from a visit…" Mr. Parker said happily. As the twin walked downstairs, they met a scornful smile on Jackson's face. Alexandra played brave and gave Jackson a big warming hug. As Alex took Jackson's suitcases, he grinded saying "what sort of cousin who pretends a lot?".

Lexie went in the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. As she sang 'Rise Up by Adele', it was suddenly ended by Jackson, as he walked in the kitchen. " Hey" he greeted after singing. "You were missing me wasn't you? Well I'm back and this time, more friendly!" Hearing this, from Jack, gave Lexie chills. " Why pick on a girl when there is a boy?" Alex said as he walked in. "Ohhh… look who's talking. So you are now bad?" Jack asked. "Than you" Alex replied. "We are not starting a fight here are we?" Lexie interrupted. "No sweetie…but sooner." Jack said as he stepped out looking back still. "Don't mind that jerk Lexie, we will show him who we are." Alex said as he hugged Lexie.

After few hours, Mr. Barker went off to work and Mrs. Barker went to the market. At home it was Lexie, Alex and Jackson. Alex was watching his favorite movie on NETFLIX and Lexie was making a TikTok video. Jackson came to join the video but because of the Christmas rage, Lexie said no. Few minutes of Jack sitting alone, he decided to watch NETFLIX with Alex but he changed the video immediately. Lonely Jack sat on the stairs wondering what to do. " Oh, look who's sad." Alex called out to Lexie. Lexie had just ended her TikTok and posted it, where she suddenly started getting multiples of likes. "Alex, can I talk to you?" Lexie called from a distance. Came Alex with laughter on his face, got serious after seeing Lexie's face. "Mom taught us to be nice right? So let's be nice to little Jackie a little bit okay…." Lexie started. "Alright. But he should hold his horses because if they loosen, he's gonna get the better of me. This is not last year Christmas vacation." Alex seriously said. He walked to Jack and gave a hand to get off the stairs, took him to the sitting room and put on a wonderful movie. Meanwhile, Lexie started another TikTok video. While the fun was on, Lexie ordered pizza and popped popcorns. The entire evening went well until the arrival of Mrs. Barker.

When Mrs. Barker first arrived, Alex and Lexie was in a swift to get the area clean up, and Jack looked confused. Mrs. Baker walked in with glossaries and asked Alex to put some in fridge and Lexie cook the remaining. All Jack did was sit in the sofa, starring at Alex like a weirdo. For every time Alex turned to take a vegie of milk or egg or anything, Jack stares straight into his eyes, which made him suspicious of Jack being up to something. For a second when Jack said "Mrs. Barker", Alex suddenly yelled "ahh ha". Cutting everyone's heart. "Why was that for?" Mrs. Barker asked. "Nothing, nothing,…. Nothing" Alex replied. Mrs. Barker began "so Jackson why was it that you wanted to say?" Lexie and Alex froze, looking from Jack to one another and then back to Jack. After Jack had looked at them both, he slowly said "n o t h i n g". And then Alex and his sister felt relief.

Later in the evening, Alex was going on the basketball court for practice when Lexie decided to join him. As they were going, Mrs. Barker called out to them to take Jack along. "Now we have a problem" Lexie said. "What kind of fourteen years old boy can't look after himself?" Alex asked. "Well we are sixteen and he is fourteen, which means we are two years older than him and his twin sister Jacklyn. At least she's not here to add to our stress." Lexie answered. Whole waiting for Jackson, Alex was happy to see that Jack was coming in shorts and a sneaker, which means he will be playing. On their way to the basketball court, all Jack could talk about was his friends at school. This really irritated Alex and Lexie until Lexie put an earpiece in her ear, and Alex pretended to be on a call with his mates.

At the court, Alex team was Spencer, Jordan and Franklin, his best friends against Ernest, Christopher and Kelvin. Kelvin's team was missing one player so Jack joined. Lexie video taped Alex to put it on her blog but just fifteen minutes into the came, there was a foul. Jack pushed Alex as he was taking a clean shot from three points. This foul caused as injury on Alex's left ankle and the game went on with Alex's team being incomplete. It was just two more weeks for Alex and Lexie to be free from Jack.