Kaitlyn and the Competition

Kaitlyn and the Competition — page 7 — of the party and me well not even at the party When Eve was thirteen like me she’d gone to a bunch of bar and bat mitzvah parties even though we weren’t Jewish At fifteen she’d been invited to a ton of Quinceañera parties and had a zillion friends at her own Quinceañera party And this year she’d spent many nights at Sweet Sixteen parties I by contrast hadn’t been to a party in months The difference in our popularity couldn’t be blamed on our appearances either Everyone said we looked alike We both had wavy brown hair and dark eyes and heart-shaped faces Simply put I was a shorter less-curvy version of my sister It was our personalities that made us so different I’d always been careful Eve had always been careless I didn’t want to leave the house with a wrinkle in my clothes or a hair out

Kaitlyn and the Competition — page 8 — of place Eve didn’t even notice stray wrinkles or stray hairs I played everything by the book Eve just played I wanted to play too to get invited to cool parties to goof off with cute boys to totally relax and have fun I enjoyed babysitting every Saturday night but it didn’t make up for my sad social life I stroked my comforter which always cheered me up Made of pretty lilac silk and embroidered with sweet ivory birds my comforter was soft and beautiful My parents had refused to pay for it claiming it was overpriced and would get stained easily They refused to pay for a lot of things My mother worked with children in foster care My father managed a food bank In their spare time they volunteered at a homeless shelter Compared with the kids they saw every day Eve and I had

Kaitlyn and the Competition — page 9 — more than enough possessions But Eve and I didn’t see it that way So I had bought my comforter with the money I’d earned babysitting I cherished it It wasn’t the same as an invitation to a hot party It wasn’t even the next best thing to it But it was mine I took my babysitting bag out of my closet and made sure I had everything I needed for tonight Two educational board games Check Six library books to read to the children Check Rubber gloves for light housework after the children went to bed Check Checklist for the parents specifying what the children did in their absence Check I grabbed the bag and my cell phone which hadn’t cost much but came with a pricey two-year two-year service contract and went outside to wait for my client Mrs Sweet pulled up a few minutes later

Kaitlyn and the Competition — page 10 — Good to see you Kaitlyn she said as I climbed into her minivan You too I smiled at her And I can’t wait to see Mikey and Lucy It’s something I look forward to all week Mrs Sweet didn’t respond That was a bit strange She was usually pretty chatty After a few minutes I said I’m sorry I couldn’t babysit Wednesday night I had a big algebra test the next day We should have given you more notice Mrs Sweet said But no worries We found another sitter I hoped she worked out all right I said But I was sure she hadn’t worked out as well as I did Mrs Sweet had said I was the best babysitter her children ever had My former client Mrs Hernandez had said the same thing

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