1 PROLOGUE - KIM

When you look for the word smile or energy in your dictionary, you get a picture of Kimberley Aries Asdan. If you look for pretentious or arrogant, you'll get her twin elder sister, Amanda Venus Asdan. And if you look up at uptight you get her parents. Or at least that's what people say about my family.

It's true I'm always smiling and running, swimming, hopping, dancing and doing other stuff like that. It's equally true that my sister can be a huge pain but she's also very intelligent. Some people think we just can't stand one another but were actually very close. And my parents are strict and overprotective, but people have a tendency to be over dramatic about it.

I don't look a tiny bit like Amanda. I've known a few fraternal twins like us, but they still share some resemblance. We don't. At all. If you don't know us, you'll swear we're not from the same family. I've got pale hazel-colored hair, she's a brunette. I've got brown eyes, hers are amber. Her hair is straight, mine curls up in the ends. Our nose... Well you get the point. We don't look anything alike. I don't even look like my dad. When we travel as a family, people ask if I'm a cousin or a friend. Among all this black hair, mine stands out like a beam of light in utter darkness. And it's not as if we were easy to miss.

We were raised as equals. I'm equal to Amanda and she's equal to me. She can't give me orders. I can't either. We both do the chores. She gets some really cool super privileges that I'm really jealous of, but I get others she hates. Equality. Believe me, it's important.

The only thing that makes Amanda a little superior to me is her supposed maturity. Apparently, I didn't fully grasp the concept of this VIP notion in my life. Too bad. Amanda is to check up on me when our parents aren't around and that's basically it. But, it's still real annoying.

And one of those annoying moments was happening right now.