Evelyn heard loud voices from downstairs. Her mother, Hannah, was yelling while another deeper voice was trying to quiet her down. She could hear her mother's voice shake as she held back tears. Evelyn leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Her legs were freezing against the cold hardwood floor.  

The yelling had stopped, the only sounds left were her mother whimpering and the twins making engine noises down the hall behind their closed bedroom door. She wondered if they heard any of the yelling. If they did they didn't seem to be phased. Her bedroom door creaked open slowly.

"What was all of that yelling?" her sister whispered and took a seat next to her at the top of the stairs. Evelyn shrugged. Charlotte raised her eyebrows at her. "Are you serious? You heard it but didn't go check it out?" Charlotte scoffed and shook her head before walking down the stairs. 
Evelyn glared at the back of her head. Charlotte had heard it too. She could have gone down earlier. She walked down the stairs quietly and peeked around the corner. Charlotte quickly turned around and rushed back up the stairs, her short curly hair swaying from her frantic movement. 

"What was it?" Evelyn asked. She sat back down on the floor. 

"It's that guy from the bank again!" She whispered frantically. 

He had been here before. Last time he came he told Hannah that she had 3 months to catch up on rent. The sisters had been sitting in the living room watching TV. They heard what he said, but Mom tried to pretend like everything was fine and it was some guy who was asking for directions. They didn't pry. She had been exhausted from working all day; she didn't need two teens arguing with her.

"Maybe we won the lottery," Evelyn joked. Charlotte slapped my knee. She hit harder than she meant too. It left a stinging sensation on her kneecap. 

"Shut up, Evelyn! This isn't the time to crack jokes. You know why he's here, right?" She asked. Evelyn shook her head. "Mom didn't catch up on the rent. We're being evicted," She explained to her younger sister. 

"Oh please, you're just being dramatic," Evelyn dismissed her theory. 

"No. You're being childish,” she shot back. Evelyn glared at her and wrapped her hand around our loose railing. She pulled herself up and stomped into their bedroom. She could hear Charlotte following her. The floor was littered with her sister’s clothes and shoes. They only shopped at the Salvation Army ,but Charlotte knew exactly what racks to look in and what days to go. The two dressed exactly alike since Evelyn always made her shop for her. She never knew what was fashionable.

Evelyn sat down on her creaky bed and grabbed her book that she was assigned to read for school. Charlotte came rushing into the room and closed the door quietly. Evelyn raised her head and looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

“That guy left,” she said and sat down on the side of Evelyn’s bed. Evelyn folded over the page of her book to keep her place.

“So?” she sighed and put her book back. Charlotte brought her knees up to her chest.

“Mom must be coming upstairs soon to tell us what’s going on,” Charlotte rolled her eyes as if it was obvious.

“I’m sorry, do we have the same Mom? Mom never tells us about anything. She still thinks we’re 9 years old,” Evelyn responded. Charlotte didn’t say anything. She stood up and laid down on her own bed. Evelyn felt like she should apologize, but she hadn’t said anything insulting. Maybe insulting towards Mom, but not to her sister. “Do I need to apologize?” she sighed.

“Mom is a great mother,” Charlotte said with annoyance in her voice.

“I never said she wasn’t.”

“You implied. So what if she doesn’t tell us that stuff? She doesn’t want us to worry.”

“Don’t you want to know, though? Doesn’t it bug you that something is up, but she doesn’t tell us?”

“No. She will tell us if we really need to know. Let’s just drop it, though. This is going to turn into a fight,” Charlotte dismissed. Whenever she would say that she thought she was making it all better again, but they were both still were mad at each other and wouldn’t speak. Evelyn opened her book back up and resumed reading.

It was a silly book. The style of writing was youthful, but not in a good way. The cover was an amaetuer, cliche picture of a sky. The title was spelled out in the clouds. If the author really wanted to they could have made it interesting and well-made. It seemed like he just wanted to finish it as soon as possible, though.
Sniffles came from outside their door. Evelyn looked up from her book to see if Charlotte had heard them too, but she was already looking at her sister with raised eyebrows. A gentle knock sounded against the wooden door.

“Girls, can I come in?” their mother’s voice asked quietly. They both called out a simple “yes” and sat up straighter in their beds. Their frazzled mother came tiptoeing into the room and closed the door gently behind her. She took a seat on Charlotte’s bed and motioned for Evelyn to come and sit with them. Without hesitation she closed her book and rushed to her side. She didn’t even fold over the page.

She wrapped her arms around the two girls and smiled.

“I’m sure you heard the yelling,” their Mom began, “That was a man from the bank,” she took a deep breath, “As you two know, we are short on money since your father passed,” she opened her mouth to continue, but couldn’t seem to get any more words out.

The day their father passed was the worst day of Evelyn’s life. They had been losing money by the grands paying for his hospital bills. She once heard my mom on the phone with a friend of hers saying, “I wish he’d die already,”. Of course she didn’t mean it. When she got the news that he finally passed she walked around as if she was dead. She didn’t make dinner for three weeks before Evelyn and Charlotte finally talked to her about it. The children had been having Craft Mac and Cheese every night. Charlotte threw up because of it.

They made sure they helped take care of the twins and with dinner just to make things a little easier for her. Charlotte even offered to give Mom her paychecks from her job at the pizzeria. Mom refused, but Charlotte would still sneak a few dollars into her wallet a few days a week.

“What is it, Mom?” Charlotte intrigued. Mom looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

“We lost the house. We need to be out by midnight tomorrow. I’ve missed the last few payments,” she said quickly. Evelyn’s stomach dropped. It seemed like the world just came to a pause. She couldn’t believe Charlotte was right. She always went to worst case scenario.

“What do we do?” she asked. Charlotte was just staring at the wall.

“I’m going to call Beatrice. Hopefully we can stay with her,” she answered. Beatrice was kind and generous, but not generous enough to take in a family of 5. Especially a family with young twin boys. “I’m going to do that now. Let’s not tell the boys, eh? They’re not old enough to understand anyways. Can you just tell them to pack up their stuff? Say we are just going on a vacation to Aunt Beatrice’s,” she said. Mom patted their knees and pushed herself off the bed. She left with the door wide open.

“Are you okay?” Evelyn asked her sister. She shook her head.

“Is it wrong that I’m mad at Mom?”

“No, I guess not. She could’ve asked for help and we wouldn’t be in this situation,” she shrugged, “When do you suppose we should tell the twins?” Evelyn asked. Charlotte laid down, spreading her arms out.

“Never,” she groaned and rolled over on her side, “I guess we should do it now so they can start packing,” she said.

The house was mostly empty other than the bedrooms and a dining room table. The utilities belonged to the house. The sofas in the living room weren’t worth anything. Mom got them at a garage sale for 5 dollars each. She was probably just going to throw them to the curb.  The TV is small, just a little bit larger than a laptop. It wouldn’t take too long to pack everything up.

Charlotte stood up from her bed and motioned for Evelyn to follow her to their room. Once they were out in the hallway they could hear them playing. Charlotte walked in first and told her sister to close the door behind her. Evelyn did so and sat down on floor next to Charlotte. The twins glared at them for interrupting their play. Charlotte spoke up first.

“What are you guys playing?” she asked in a kinder voice than usual. Tyler set his plastic monster truck aside and sat up straighter.

“Trucks!” Will exclaimed and threw his arms in the air excitedly. He offered them Tyler’s truck, but they declined. Tyler looked almost offended that his twin would offer someone else his toy.

“We came in here to tell you something. Mom lost the house, meaning we have to move out. We are going to be staying with Aunt Beatrice,” Charlotte explained,  not following Mom’s orders at all. Evelyn smacked her arm with the back of her hand. “What? I’m not going to lie to them,” Charlotte glared at her, “Anyways, you guys need to pack up all your toys and all your clothes. We have to leave tomorrow night,” Charlotte finished. The boys looked at each other. They looked back at us with confused looks.

“Do you guys understand?” Evelyn asked. Tyler nodded while Will shook his head. Tyler nudged him with his elbow. Will quickly nodded. Charlotte stood up and patted their heads on her way out. Evelyn did the same and closed the door behind her.

“I think that went well,” Evelyn smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

“It went well enough. I’m gonna start packing,” Charlotte said and walked into their room. Evelyn followed. Charlotte grabbed a large black box that was under her bed from when they first moved in. They had only lived here for a little over a year. They used to live in a trailer when their father was alive, but after he passed they moved in here.

Charlotte scooped up all her clothes from the floor and threw them in the box, not bothering to fold them. It was odd to have the floor cleared. They only had a few pairs of shoes. That was something that was always impossible to find at the Salvation Army.

“They’re going to get wrinkled,” Evelyn noted. Charlotte glared at her and resumed packing. “Why so mad?” she teased and grabbed her own box from their closet. Hers was a bright green.

“Why am I mad? We are homeless, Evelyn! We are without a home! What are the kids at school going to think?” she exclaimed, flailing her arms in the arm as if that helped her sister understand. Evelyn opened the drawers to their dresser. She had to have the bottom drawers because she was smaller than Charlotte.

“That’s actually what you’re worried about? What the kids at school will think?” Evelyn said, grabbing her folded clothes. Little pieces of wood were dangling off of them from the rough dresser drawer. She plucked them off and just threw them to the floor.

“Yeah. So?” she asked as if it was the only important thing about all of this. Evelyn set the clothes down in the corner of the box. She turned to her, baffled that that was the only thing she was concerned over. Not where they would live, not how they were going to eat, but what the people at school would think.

“You’re,” Evelyn began, but no words came out. Charlotte looked at her with raised eyebrows and hands on her hips.

“I’m what?” she asked teasingly. Evelyn narrowed my eyes.

“A self-centered wretch,” She said proudly. Charlotte chuckled.

“Just call me a brat. You don’t always have to be a show off,” she said and continued packing. Evelyn opened her other drawer and grabbed the last of her clothes. She set aside clothes for tomorrow. All she could think of was better comebacks to Charlotte. They were all so good, but it’s been too long to say anything more now. She would just make fun of Evelyn for taking so long.

Evelyn turned around to see her Mom standing in their doorway. She had her hand raised, ready to knock on the door frame. She smiled at her and walked in.

“Hey girls. So, I called Beatrice. She said that we are welcome to stay for as long as we need! Isn’t that lovely?” she looked hopefully at us. Evelyn smiled and nodded.

“That’s great, Mom!” She said reassuringly. She glared at Charlotte who had her back to Mom.

“What do you think, Charlotte?” Mom asked, looking at the back of her head. Charlotte turned away from her box and crossed her arms. It was silent for a second as they stared at each other. Evelyn could tell Charlotte had plenty of rude things she wanted to say. Mom kept smiling, but it soon turned into a frown.

“I think this is all bullshit,” Charlotte shrugged. Mom’s jaw dropped at Charlotte’s words. Evelyn heard Charlotte swear plenty of times, but she never swore at Mom.

“Excuse me?” Mom scoffed, resting her hand on her chest. Charlotte laughed her fake sarcastic laugh. Everyone hated that laugh. Everything about it was obnoxious.

“You put us in this situation, you know. You could have asked for help and we would be fine,” she said and rolled up on her toes.

Evelyn could hear her toes crack. She loved the sound of bones cracking. Charlotte could crack any part of her body. Several times a day she would spend a solid 5 minutes cracking her bones. Evelyn once had her crack her toes, but it hurt too much she made her stop. She didn’t even get past 3 toes.

Mom kept opening her mouth to try to fight back, but every time she just closed it again. Charlotte had her arms crossed over her chest. She had a smug look on her face, as if she won. There were no winners in that situation, though. Mom was obviously hurt, and Charlotte was beginning to feel guilty. She quickly wiped that smug look off her face.

“I’m so sorry, Mama,” Charlotte apologized. Whenever they felt extra guilty about something we would call her Mama. It made Mom think they were younger and cuter. She knew that that was their goal, but it still worked.

“That’s okay, honey,” she smiled and opened up her arms for Charlotte. They embraced for several seconds, Mom trying not to cry. Evelyn couldn’t tell if she was crying over the fact that Charlotte felt that way or the fact we lost the house. Either way, it was a heart-wrenching scene. They broke their hug and Charlotte turned around and sat on her bed. Evelyn stood there awkwardly. I shouldn’t have to feel awkward in my own room, she thought.

Mom looked at her and held her arms out.

“Do you feel left out?” she asked. Evelyn didn’t, at all. She knew why they were hugging. She didn’t feel excluded even a little bit, but for her mother’s sake she smiled and nodded. She wrapped her arms around me and Evelyn did the same.  Their Mom always hugged tighter than necessary. The hug didn’t last too long. Not as long as Charlotte’s, but she didn’t mind. Evelyn wasn’t much of a hugger, anyways.

The rest of the evening was mind numbingly dull. The twins screamed and cried when they got too tired of packing. Usually Hannah would do whatever they wanted, just to make them happy. Not on that night, though. She pointed and screamed right back. She didn’t cry though, at least not in front of them. Evelyn could hear quiet sniffles when she claimed she was going to take a shower.

“What should we have for dinner?” Charlotte asked, opening the pantries and rummaging through.

“Whatever is fine with me. I just want to take a break from packing,” Evelyn complained and jumped up on the counter. She nodded and took a box of Craft Mac and Cheese out of the cabinet. It’s probably been in there for years. Evelyn scowled.

“Oh come on, it’s all we have,” she said. The noodles rattled in the box as she walked to the stove.

“Will it make enough for all 5 of us?”

“I asked Mom before we came down. She doesn’t want any dinner,” she said and set a full pot of water on the stove. Evelyn grabbed the lid from the overhead cabinet above her and set it on top.

“She has to eat,” She sighed. Charlotte scoffed and tore open the box.

“She’s an adult, Evelyn. She can make her own decisions.”

“She’s a stressed out adult,” Evelyn pointed out. Charlotte rolled her eyes. She poured the noodles into the unboiled water. Evelyn hated watching her cook. She never followed the instructions.

“The directions are on the back of the box for a reason,” she said. Charlotte took out the packet of cheese and threw the box in the garbage can.

“What box?” she smiled. There were a few moments of silence as Charlotte measured out the cream and butter.

“Where do you think we will go after Beatrice’s?” Evelyn asked. Her feet were beginning to fall asleep from dangling off the edge of the counter. Charlotte shrugged and put the lid back on the cream.

“Probably Grandma’s,” she answered. Evelyn brought her knees to her chest. She could hear a quiet pop as the left knee of her jeans tore open slightly. Charlotte saw and sighed. “You can’t sit like that anymore. You rip all of your jeans,” she said, hitting Evelyn’s legs with the back of her hand. Evelyn laughed and dropped my knees to the counter.

“You’re not scared, anymore?” Evelyn questioned. Charlotte shook her head and put the butter in the microwave.

“No. As dumb as it was for Mom to not tell us about our financial situation, she’s still a very capable mother. She will figure this out,” Charlotte said more like she was trying to convince herself than her sister. The microwave beeped loudly. She quickly took it out to stop the beeping. The sound it made was horrid. When they first got it it sounded fine, but Will put one of his Legos in there thinking it would expand. Ever since it sounded awful.

Evelyn wanted to bring up past things Mom had done just to disagree with her, but she didn’t have enough energy to argue. Instead she just nodded along. The noodles started to boil over so Evelyn turned down the heat for her.

“I could eat this whole box,” Charlotte groaned.

“Me too,” Evelyn agreed. It was pizza day at school that day, so the two sister scavenged around the house for the $1.35 that the lunchroom charged. They only found enough for one slice of pizza and a bag of Doritos. People looked at them oddly when they took turns taking a bite out of greasy pizza.

The twins came running down the stairs. Every time they did that it made Evelyn anxious. She was just waiting for one of them to trip and then they’d have another medical bill to take care of. When she told Charlotte this she just laughed and called Evelyn their mom.

“When’s dinner gonna be ready?” Tyler asked, peeking over the island counter. They were just tall enough to stand on their tiptoes and see over the counter. 

“In like ten minutes,” Evelyn said. She took the lid off the noodles and stirred them. They were still hard. They probably wouldn’t be if Charlotte had just followed the directions. Charlotte hit her hand away from the pot.

“I’m the chef,” she said and took the spoon out of Evelyn’s hand. The twins ran out of the kitchen to play in the living room. All of the lights were on in the kitchen which was extremely rare. Mom had a rule: only one light per room. There could never be a light on during the day. Tonight though Mom didn’t care. She was the one to turn on all the lights.

“It’s so bright,” Evelyn said. Charlotte turned off the light over the stove.

“Better?” she asked.

“I wasn’t saying it was bad,” Evelyn argued. Charlotte put the strainer in the sink and drained the noodles. “They aren’t done,” Evelyn complained.

“I don’t care, I’m hungry,” Charlotte smiled. Steam surrounded her face and clouded one side of the window. The other side was just a towel.

Last year Evelyn had been playing football with Tyler. She threw the ball too hard and it went straight over his head and through the closed window. It shattered into a million pieces. Evelyn was hysterical when it happened. She even asked Tyler to take the blame. Their mom hadn’t been too mad. She was tired when it happened and didn’t have the energy to fight.

Evelyn jumped off of the counter, making the pots on the shelves rattle. Charlotte already was mixing the noodles with the dressing in the same pot she cooked the noodles in. Evelyn wanted to take it away from her and at least put it in a proper dish, but that would start a fight.

When they were little they’d fight constantly over the most childish things. Charlotte would hide the cord to the TV on nights when Evelyn’s favorite show was on. Evelyn would sing the annoying warm up choir songs while Charlotte was doing homework. That one really drove her insane. One afternoon when Evelyn did that Charlotte turned around in her desk chair and slapped her across the face. Evelyn had a bruise for a whole week. Their mom was furious. She didn’t want their teachers thinking they were from an abusive family.

“Dinner’s ready!” I yelled out. The twins came barrelling into the room and sat at the table, waiting for us to deliver their food.

“Come on, you can come get your own,” Charlotte said and served herself first. Tyler tried to make Will get him his food, but Will ignored him. Will waited patiently as Evelyn got her food while Tyler jumped up and down trying to push her away.

“Calm down,” Evelyn muttered and sat across from Charlotte. Footsteps echoed upstairs as their mother walked around frantically upstairs, getting the last few things into boxes.

They ate in silence. Will would try to speak, but no one answered him. Evelyn finished first and threw her paper bowl in the trash. The lid to the garbage can squeaked loudly as it closed.

“I’m going to go help Mom,” she said before darting up the stairs. Toys were being thrown out of the twins room into a large cardboard box in the hallway.  “Mom?” she called and stood by the doorway.

“Why do those boys have so many toys?! I didn’t get toys when I was their age! I played outside!” she yelled. Evelyn didn’t answer. She wanted to say Because you’re a better mother than your mom was, but that would start a fight. Her mom would try to defend her mother, even though they all knew she couldn’t stand the old woman.

She opened their closet and gasped. Her face fell. Hannah reached into the closet and pulled out a bong. Evelyn recognized it. Their father would sit at the dining room table, smoking through it. Their mother would say he was doing science, but Evelyn knew that science didn’t make anybody that happy.

“JAIL” was written out on the pipe in sloppy letters. Inside were several army men. One was stuck in the pipe.

“Those boys are in so much trouble,” Hannah said through gritted teeth. Evelyn wanted to ask why that was even still in the house. She wanted to yell at her mother for letting them even find it. 6 year olds shouldn’t be playing with bongs.

“They didn’t know what it was,” Evelyn tried to defend them.

“Even so, they shouldn’t touch what isn’t theirs!” she yelled. It felt like Evelyn was the one in trouble. Her mother pushed past her in the doorway and rushed downstairs.

Evelyn could hear Hannah yelling at them and then a loud thud. For a horrifying moment she thought that her mother hit one of them, but then she could hear their garbage can lid squeak closed. She had thrown the bong away.

“Rise and shine!” their mother yelled, drawing the curtains in the living room. They had set up sleeping bags downstairs the night before. Their mother’s mattress, Evelyn’s, and Charlotte’s were all tied to the roof of the van. Tyler’s and Will’s were out on the curb. They couldn’t fit all of them on without risking a few flying off on the highway.

Evelyn sat up quickly, instantly regretting it. Her back was extremely stiff from the hardwood floor. She put her hand in the middle of her back and bent backwards. It cracked loudly. Charlotte hit her with a pillow.

“Stop it. That’s disgusting,” she complained and stood up. She went on to crack her knuckles. Evelyn wanted to call her a hypocrite, but now wasn’t the time to start a fight.

“Come on, roll up your sleeping bags. I want to be out of here by 11!” Hannah yelled, nudging Tyler with her foot to get him to get up.  She had her sleeping bag and pillows in a pile neatly by the door.

According to the oven clock it was 9:30. They had been up till 3 in the morning the night before. When they complained that they were tired their mother would say “Well, we can just leave your stuff here when we leave,” which kept them moving.

Their mother had made more than enough pieces of toast, half with butter and half with peanut butter. The 4 of them sat down and looked at their mother who was double checking all of the cabinets to make sure they had everything.

“Mom, aren’t you going to eat?” Charlotte asked, worry in her voice. Hannah closed the last cabinet and glanced at her children sitting around the table. She nodded with a smile and sat at the head of the table. It all felt normal. Slightly. Except for the fact that their kitchen was completely empty except for the stuff that belonged to the house.

11AM came faster than Evelyn expected. She had triple checked their bedroom while Charlotte sat near the front door, bouncing a tennis ball off the ceiling.

“Don’t you want to check too?” Evelyn asked on her second time. Charlotte threw the ball up.

“I trust you,” she replied and caught the ball gracefully.

Hannah sent them all out to the car with the last few things while she did a quick scan of the house. The van was tightly packed. Evelyn had to sit on top of boxes without a seat belt. None of them dared to mention that it was illegal.

10 minutes had passed when their mother finally climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Do we have all 4 kids?” their mother asked, seeming a little chirpier. Charlotte nodded and Hannah backed out of the driveway with ease.

“That place was a dump, anyways,” Hannah laughed. It wasn’t her usual laugh.