Two: Underwear conditions

“Are you kidding me? You've got to be, Momo.” I hollered, at my sister.

The argument had been going on for hours now, with both of us refusing to back down.

“I'm not. It's rather simple. I'm going to the convention because I'm the face of the company. You're not going because you refused to take the post.” she explained, seemingly exasperated. She was stalking around the room packing her bag, stumbling in her heels because of the smooth linoleum floor.

“But Momo--,” I pushed hoping to get a word across. Wishing she'd spare a minute and listen to my argument for once instead of bustling around maniacally. 

“Oh come on. Stop it Romi! You chose this yourself.” she groaned. “You chose this. Nobody forced you to hide. You were the one who made all the decisions.Nothing's going to be changed now. They've already changed the venue, the theme and the date over and over again. I can't handle any more new things. So back off.”

“Momo, you ready to go honey?” The door to our room swung open revealing Ms.Goodwite. She was beaming proudly at my sister as if she was the one who'd birthed her and made her who she was today. As if.

“Nala could you please give us a minute. We've got something to talk about. It's important and urgent.” I said, trying my best to look polite.

“No. Nothing is more important than the Inventionation. You've got to wait till Momo comes back from the convention.” Ms. Goodwite barked back, impolite as ever. I didn't know what I'd ever done to her. She seemed to hate me for no logical reason.

I grit my teeth, my hand curled into a fist till my nails dug painfully into my palm, biting back my anger. It would infuriate my sister further, if I were to fire Ms. Goodwite right now. It would only make her feel like I was trying to exert my power and maybe overthrow her.

“It's okay Nala. Wait outside for a few minutes.” Momo requested. She grudgingly accepted and stepped outside. 

I had a very strong feeling that she had her ear trained at the door. What she didn't know was that I'd soundproofed the room myself when I'd been 11 so that I wouldn't be caught for working with chainsaws, in the middle of the night, instead of sleeping. Back then Momo had been away at boarding school and our love for each other had known no bounds. Now all we did was bicker about everything.

“If this is about you going instead of me, my answer still stands the same.” Momo clarified.

“But what if I accompanied you. I don't want to replace you. I just wanted to come along.” I pleaded, trying to look as innocent as possible. She sighed.

She sounded so tired and looked like she wanted me to stop fighting her, it made me back down a little. My prior determination fizzled away.

“But what about the media? Everyone in the world would see you. It would be on the news with a big blown-up shot of you. The headlines would read--”

“---The Veblen family's secret daughter. They'd wonder why I was hidden. If I was forced into hiding by mum and dad due to my--uh condition.” I completed her line of thought, feeling tearful and ashamed. 

I literally hadn't thought this through for the first time in my life. I'd been so selfish about the collaboration I was finally doing, thinking only about myself, I'd forgotten about the company and our face value. And why it was my sister, my beautiful twin sister who was the face of the company and not me.

“Hey Romi! Don't cry. You know I'd support you and everyone in the family would support you if you finally decided to come out and work publicly. Even now, if that's what you want, I'll be there right next to you. But dad--” she drawled, her eyes cast at the ground.

“He wouldn't be happy at all. I know. They'd accuse him of cruelty to me and it wouldn't be good. I understand. It's okay.” I relented, flopping onto the bed, staring at the ceiling trying to keep the tears from falling.

Momo shot me a sad smile, reached down and patted my knee before walking towards the door. 

“Momo, one more thing.” I called doing my best to sound light and amused. She stopped walking and tilted her head to the side listening.

“Do you really want to take dad for underwear shopping with you? In the morning before the Inventionation?” I asked, smiling to myself. 

She may have been a really good CEO, managing a whole company with no trouble, but my sister was the most forgetful person I'd ever met.

“Yeah, no.” she deadpanned. “Wouldn't even dream of it.” I could feel her horror at the thought.

“Then I should remind you that you've forgotten to pack your underwear.” I laughed, raising myself on my elbows to watch her reaction.

Her ears had turned pink and she threw her head back, cursing herself. Exaggeratedly flustered for a person who'd done the marketing and extensive presentations in front of a room full of judgmental people for ‘smart underwear’ that I'd designed, a few years back. 

It had cost me a year's worth of pocket money to buy the chainsaw for myself. 

Despite the fact that I barely used it, the chainsaw was one of my most prized possessions. Loved and treasured only a close second to my design journal, which held all my invention ideas.

I didn't even love my computer as much as I loved my chainsaw. And my computer had been a gift from my great grandmother, who'd used it before me.

I hadn't heard my parents knock at the door or seen them enter, with all the noise I'd been making, sawing off the wooden planks for a new birdhouse I was working on. I had decided to add sensors and a computer to catalog the bird species that visited it.

It was only when they entered my immediate line of sight did my brain register they're presence. 

Don't even get me started on the rich heritage we had. It was a long complicated history that I kept losing track of as we kept stumbling upon distant relatives and faraway, lost cousins of the Veblen family. If my family was as scientific as they claimed, I wonder how long it had taken them to figure out birth control for having created the population of a small country.

“Romi! Switch it off.” My mother was saying, at least her lips were moving. I couldn't actually hear her because I was an idiot holding a running chainsaw in my hand and wearing a pair of headphones blasting Bruno Mars. Watching my parents in confusion.

“You're home way early!” I exclaimed as I pulled out the power plug, brushing off sawdust from my clothes. They'd been only gone for a day and a half, and this year the Inventionation was a three day event.

“Yes. Momo already found the person she wants for the collaboration.” Mum said, nodding emphatically. She didn't look very happy. But dad seemed satisfied.

“They chose a winner this early? Were there very few participants this year?” I asked, puzzled.

The Inventionation was a serious affair, an invention competition of sorts. Momo often complained about the dreariness of the convention each year. I'd never actually been to it. But from all the news I'd read and watched, it seemed like fun. 

“No. He's not the winner. He got a ‘Good Idea’ award.” Momo explained, standing at the door. She knew better than to walk into a room covered with sawdust, unlike my parents for some reason. She'd fallen on her face enough times, maybe that had knocked some sense into her.

“A what? That's even a thing? Did he even build anything? What is wrong with you? And you approved this?” I looked at my parents with disbelief.

“Hey! His idea was great! There were some technical errors. But he gave such a good presentation! He was cute and charming as hell!” Momo exclaimed, defending her choice.

“Are you an idiot? That's not even a reason to hire him. He's supposed to work inside a lab with me, not go advertising with you.” I barked. She was being an absolute selfish git. She'd just hired a guy because he was cute and my parents had agreed. I couldn't believe it.

“Hey! I also mentioned that his invention was good didn't I ?” she protested.

“And you said it had technical errors. Think of the gravity of this situation. If he makes more mistakes in the lab we're bound to have a major accident and have all our equipment blown up. Why do you want to put all of us in mortal peril just because you want to date some boy?” I argued, agitated. 

Did she realise that one mistake in the lab and we'd all be ashes and dust? There'd be no dead bodies to recover. The government would have to vacuum our remains and send it to grandma to be cremated. I quite liked my solid body.

“Romi, stop it. She tried her best to get you someone you'd like to work with. You have to respect her decision. Stop being a brat.” dad groaned, sounding irritated.

“Oh yeah, I'm the one who's a stuck up git when it is her who chose a scientist for his looks.”

“He got a good idea award!” Momo screamed.

“That's not good enough!” I screamed back, ignoring the disapproving looks my parents were shooting me. “I refuse to work with someone who couldn't even build a working machine. I refuse to work with someone who's not good enough for a real prize.”

“Look who's talking? You haven't even participated in a competition ever. How can you talk?” Momo accused, glaring at me. She'd walked halfway into the room now.

“I don't need to prove myself by getting a prize. The company has had the best turnover in an era since I started working here.” I barked back.

She was dumbfounded, like she thought I didn't pay enough attention at the management meetings.

“Okay. So she'll work with him while you can stay here till you apologize.” dad declared leaving all of us stunned.

(A/N: Now you know why the people of Wattpad don't read my stories. Lol. 2018-me was not much better than 2017-me. Anyone out there who liked this enough to want to read the next chapter or disliked it a lot and wants me to stop, feel free to let me know. Adiós.)

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