Avery and Spencer are your ordinary twins, they look very much alike, straight, shiny brown hair, with very pale skin, bright blue eyes and light freckles along their nose and cheeks. They love a little healthy competition with each other, especially Avery. The only difference is that one twin, Avery, strongly dislikes her sister, Spencer, and it causes some issues between their family and friends. Both girls are runners, but Avery is the fastest on their track team, always winning meets. Spencer loves to run as well, but she isn’t nearly as quick and nimble as her sister. Spencer’s best friend, Keegan, who also likes to run, practices with her everyday. Most days, Keegan comes home with her to study, and they’re always greeted by her troublesome twin, who is always laying on the couch doing absolutely nothing.

“Hey Spence, what’s up Keegs, how was practice?”, Avery asks from the couch as the two stroll through the door, sweaty and gross.

“It was good, we got a nice workout in, I don’t know about Spence but I’m gonna be sore tomorrow”, Keegan replies.

“Oh yeah, definitely. I bet you I’m gonna be even more sore than you”, Spencer adds.

“Well I’m already good enough to beat everyone in the region, so I get to relax and watch TV after school everyday”, Avery remarks with a little smirk. Spencer gives her “the look” that comes up when some competition come up between them.

“You can never be too good, there’s always room for improvement. Actually, you should come practice with us!”, Keegan adds. Spencer looks at him in shock and shakes her head a little bit, mouthing the word “no”.
“You’re funny Keegan. You know that I’m way too good to run with you and your little slow poke sidekick over there that’s never won a race in her life.”

Spencer motions Keegan to go up to her room so they can study for a big math test. After a couple hours of studying, Keegan starts to head out the door when he’s stopped by Avery.

“Keegs, where are you going so suddenly, it’s only 5:30.”

“My dad texted me, I need to go home.”

“Oh, well, don’t you want to stay for dinner? We’d love to have you”, she replies with a sly smirk on her face.
“Yeah, um, I think I’m good, but thanks for the offer, I don’t think Spencer wants me around you”.

“Oh come on, we’ve got an extra seat at the table for a reason”, she begs.

“I’m gonna go home before anything stirs up between us like you stir things up with Spencer. Bye, I’ll see you at school tomorrow”, Keegan rushes out the door.

“But, wait, Keegan, ugh. It’s no use”, Avery feels defeated.

The next day, they went to school, and it was fairly easy. Thanksgiving break was soon, so the work loads were calming down before they got a few days to themselves. They went to the track after school, as always, and walked through the mushy grass from the rain, and smelled the crisp fall air. They had almost reached the track when Spencer paused and turned to Keegan.

“Hey, Keegan, I heard you and Avery talking last night downstairs right before you left. What were you talking about? You know you don’t want to mess with her, I don’t want you getting hurt”, Spencer questions.

“Oh, that? Yeah it was nothing, she was just asking me to stay for dinner and stuff. I just told her that I needed to go home and that I didn’t want anything to start with her. You know how much she likes drama”, Keegan replies.

“You should’ve stayed, Avery ended up going to a restaurant with Emily, so you wouldn’t have had to worry about her.”

“Next time give me a call if that happens, ok?”, Keegan replies, as they smile at each other.

“Hey, race you to the hot dog stand over there?”, Spencer starts to run.

“Hey, not fair!”, Keegan runs after her.

That day Keegan decided to go home instead of going to Spencer’s because he had hockey tryouts soon, and he wanted to go to the rink to practice. Spencer’s walk home was very calming, she didn’t have anyone to talk to, or anywhere to go. She passed by the ice cream shop that was closing down for the winter, just as a cool breeze flew through the air. She continued her walk home, and when she got the familiarity of Avery’s matte plum-colored bike wasn’t there in the garage. She immediately suspected that she had gone to a friend’s house to study, or what Avery thought of studying. As soon as Spencer walked through the door, this depressing feeling rushed through her body. Her mom runs to the door with tears streaming down her face.

“Oh good, you’re home”, she sniffles.

“Mom, what’s going on”, Spencer concerns.

“Sweetie, sit down I have, we have, some news for you.”

“Um, ok”, Spencer replies, confused.

“As you know your dad had a doctor's appointment today, and, um . . . ”, she starts to sob.

“Mom, what’s wrong with dad?”, she pesters.

“Spencer, your father was diagnosed with cancer today”, she starts bawling.

“Wait, what, how, what, when, where, I don’t know how to handle this”, she falls into her mom’s arms and starts bawling, like one of those ugly cries that lots of people do.

“Spencer, sweetie, it’s all going to be ok, your dad is at the hospital right now, they’re taking care of him before it gets worse. He’s actually very lucky that they found it as soon as they did, because this could’ve gotten way out of hand.” Spencer breaks away from her mom’s arms and looks at her.

“Well, what are we doing here, let’s go, I want to see dad”, Spencer insisted.

“It’s not that simple, I’m sorry, but he has to be checked out first, just to make sure he’s safe to be around people”, her mom responded, sounding disappointed.

“He’s not going to do anything to me, cancer’s not contagious, so let’s go”, she grabs her by the hand and starts to pull her towards the door.

“It’s not that, it’s actually us. We’re not sick or anything, but his immune system is very low right now, so if we have any little bit of anything, it puts him at risk”, she replies trying to sound peppy to boost the mood.
“But, but, I just want to see my dad, especially since now we don’t know how much time we have left. What type of cancer does he even have anyways?”

“Well, he has Leukemia, which I’m sure you’ve heard of before, but if you want I can tell you a bit about it. At least you’ll know what’s happening to dad so when we see him soon you’ll know what he’s going through”, she replies.

“That’s ok, I have an idea though, you’ll be happy with it once you find out”, Spencer runs up to her room with a smile on her face, going so fast she must’ve skipped some stairs.

When Spencer got up to her room, she immediately stood in the middle of her blue, shaggy rug and just stared at her purple wall that was completely covered in pictures of her and her family and friends. She fished out some pictures of her dad and climbed over her bright white desk and blue shaggy chair that matched her rug and she carefully peeled them from the wall. She just stared at them a bit as a tear runs down her face. She felt the cold, wetness of it and she took her finger and wiped it up as she sniffles a bit. She’s never missed her dad so much in her life than right now. Not even that one time he went to the beautiful city of Rome, Italy for a month for his job. She had to see him somehow. She thought to herself, “what if I sneak out and into his room?”, but then that idea instantly went away because “that’s an Avery thing to do, not a Spencer thing”, she quickly remembered. She sits down at her desk and sinks into the cool memory foam of it. She opens up her laptop, which is covered in stickers of places she’s been, and types into Google, how to raise money. She read an article about making a lemonade stand, babysitting, and simple things like that.

Her Corgi dog, Luna, runs in the room, breaking the silence with her collar jingling and her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

“Hi, Luna girl, whatcha doing?”, Spencer says in a babyish kind of voice. She seems very confused, almost like something was off.

“I know, baby, dad’s not here right now, but hopefully he will be soon”, Spencer reassures her, although it seems more like she’s reassuring herself, as she stares at the picture on her desk with a slight smile, a tear trickling down her face.

She starts to do more research on her computer to try and raise money for her dad, but there was nothing. “People are so pathetic and don’t know what anybody is going through”, she thinks to herself looking through all of the ridiculous suggestions. She was looking at some of the websites that raise funds for some hospitals, and she got some inspiration. After hours of research, and the dedication to help her dad, she finally found a way to possibly help her dad! She glances over at her sewing machine, and all of her felt and fluff and whispered to herself, “This is it”.

Avery didn’t come home that night, it was a Friday so Spencer was sure she snuck out to a party or something, she wasn’t even worried about her, though. She wouldn’t help her anyways, why does she care what happens to her own father? Thinking about this just made Spencer even more furious. She wondered why people in this world are so careless, even if you have a close relationship to them. People just like to assume and decide that there’s nothing you can do, and you have to just let the situation handle itself. Well, they’re wrong. And Spencer was going to prove that. She slides across her wood floor in her socks, and closes the door, fairly lightly. She then slides over to her sewing machine, and picks it up. She grunts a little but, forgetting how heavy it is. She hasn’t used it in a couple of years since she lost an interest in sewing, and discovered running. She’s very talented at sewing though, although she’s going to need to dust off some cobwebs to remember how exactly to do it. She puts it down on her desk with a big “thud”, and she brushes the dust off of her hands. She goes over to the corner with her sewing equipment and grabs everything else from stuffing, to needles and thread, to buttons, just about everything you can think of. She sets it all on her desk and gets to work.

After hours, and hours, and hours of working, Spencer’s mom taps on the door.

“You doing ok, Spencer?”, she calmly asks as she starts to creak the door open.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine”, Spencer replies, rushing to put everything away.

“Ok, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Jay’s Pizza for dinner, I know it’s your favorite. We can get one of those delicious melted fudge brownies that you love”, she bribes.

“Oh my gosh, that sounds so good, let’s go!”, Spencer gets excited. Her mom smiles at her and they walk out the door.

As they’re driving, Spencer’s just thinking about the gooey, warm, chewy goodness of that brownie. She started thinking about her project she was working on to help her dad. She thought about Avery, and how bad she wanted her to help. She decided to ask her mom if she had any idea when she would be back.
“Hey mom?”, Spencer questions.

“Yes?”, she replies.

“Do you have any idea where Avery went tonight?”

“Spencer, you know her, she always runs off with her friends on the weekends, but she always comes back, so I don’t worry”, she replies.

“Ok, well, I just need her help with something, but it can wait”, Spencer says. Her mom turns to look at her in the passenger seat of the car.

“Can I just say that I feel awful that your sister is never here for you, and you guys never get along. It’s her fault too. It might not seem like it, but I do see your side of the story, and I am trying to fix everything, I promise”, she reassures Spencer.

“Thanks mom, I really appreciate it”, Spencer replies with a smile.

Spencer had a meal with her mom, talking about so many things from school, to running, to her dad, and everything in between. The drive home was completely silent, since Spencer was texting Keegan, telling him everything that was going on.

When she got home, she immediately went to her bedroom to continue sewing. A little while after, she went downstairs to feed her dog, and her mom had fallen asleep on the couch. Spencer suspected that she’s had a pretty stressful day, so she went to her parents’ bedroom, and took her mom’s favorite blanket out from under the bed. It was so fluffy and soft, and it was this beautiful baby blue color. She went downstairs, spread it out, and laid it on top of her mom. She goes to the kitchen, and right by the back doorwall, Luna was sitting there, patiently waiting for her food. Spencer opened the cupboard right next to it, and reached for the highest shelf, where her food was. She just barely grabbed it, and she opened it, and poured a pretty good amount into her bowl. They refill Luna’s bowl every Monday and Friday since it fits a lot of food. Spencer then went back upstairs to her room and continued sewing her big surprise.

The next morning, it was Saturday, and she had been working all through the night, so she was exhausted when her mom came in the room at 9:30.

“Spencer, it’s time to . . . oh, you’re already up”, she seemed surprised. Spencer is never awake before 9:30 on the weekends.

“Yeah, I’ve been working on something, and I felt like I needed to get up earlier to work on it”, Spencer replied trying to cover up the fact that she’s been up all night.

“Ok, well, you should come down to breakfast soon, Avery came home with donuts this morning. Hey, why’s your sewing machine out? You haven’t used that thing for years”, her mom questions.

“Oh, well, it’s for dad. You’ll see”, she replies with a smirk on her face. “But Avery came home with donuts? She never does anything like that”, Spencer sounds very surprised.

“I know, I was surprised too, but she said Emily’s dad bought them and nobody wanted them, so she took them home.”

“Oh, wow, I don’t think I know anyone in this world that would turn down a donut! You haven’t told her about, well, you know, that thing yet have you?”

“I made sure it was the first thing she knew when she walked through that door, yes, but she doesn’t seem to care that much.”

“Don’t you ever think about how much she doesn’t care, and is never here for us, like, ever? I just wish she were here more, it makes me so frustrated that I’m the only one of us two that actually cares about dad. She needs to be more loyal to her father”, Spencer is very frustrated.

“I agree, but there’s nothing much we can do about it, is there? I have to go to work soon, so I’m going to go take a shower, but you go down and eat soon, please?”

“Ok, yeah, I will”

Spencer goes downstairs, but she has no intention of eating a donut, or anything at all. She picks up one of her creations from her desk, and stomps down the stairs. The marches into the living room, knowing that Avery would be on the couch watching TV, or texting her boyfriend or something.

“Avery, we need to talk”, Spencer announces.

“Um, yes?”, Avery answers, confused.

“I need your help to help dad, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

“No. There, how’s that for an answer”, Avery challenges.

“Maybe if I explain to you what I’m doing you’ll understand”, Spencer replies, upset. She puts her stuffed owl, blue with pink and yellow polka-dots in front of her, and she hands it to Avery. “I’m making stuffed animals, and I’m going to sell them to children to raise money for Leukemia, to help cure dad. It’ll also help pay for his treatments.

“Spencer, that’s ridiculous, nobody’s going to buy these, these, things”, Avery replies, trying to hold back the fact that she’s actually talented at it.

“Listen up, Avery. You do absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING, for this family. You’re lazy, and a stuck up, spoiled, brat, that goes off and does her own thing. Your dad, our dad, is dying, yes, dying. He has a deadly type of cancer, that he may not survive. You love your dad, don’t you? You may put on this little act about how you don’t care, and it doesn’t matter, but I know, deep inside, you love everyone in this house, and right now, you want to help dad. This is the only way that’s affordable that we can help him, and other families that are going through this struggle. So you, right now, need to get off of your butt, off of the couch, and you need to help me make these. After that, we are going to the hospital, and we’re going to sell these, for $20 each, to children that are there. Then, we’re going to the children’s hospital, and we’re going to sell them to the hospital itself, because I know there are kids going through even worse than dad, and this will make them happy. Deal?”, Spencer shouts at Avery, furious.

“I . . . I . . . I don’t know what to say”, Avery stutters, and she starts to cry. This is the first time Spencer’s ever seen her cry, ever. “Spencer, I admire you. I always act like I’m better than you, and you’re just this nobody, but that’s not true. Not at all. You’re a much better person than me, and you’re right about everything that you just said about me. Let’s go help dad, and other families”, Avery gets up and gives Spencer a big hug. The twins just stand there, embracing the hug for a bit, in tears.

By that night, they had made about 100 stuffed animals, and they spent the night going to hospitals and they sold about 80 of them. Most people gave them tips for doing this for kids. They ended up making about $2,000 off of the stuffed animals.

The next day, they went downstairs to breakfast, and their mom surprised them with good news.

“Avery, Spencer, you two are getting along very nicely, I’m surprised”, their mom tells them with a big grin across her face.

“Mom, why are you so happy all of a sudden?”, Avery asks.

“Well, I have great news. We can go see your dad today, and they’re starting his treatments tomorrow”, she answers, very exciting. The twins look at each other with a very surprised and excited face.
“There’s just one thing, though”, their mom starts to get sad.

“What is it, mom?”, Spencer asks, worried.

“His treatments are very expensive, close to $30,000”, she breaks to them.

“Well, if it helps”, Avery looks at Spencer, and she runs up to her room and runs back down with $2,500 in cash. She hands it to her mom, and she just stares at it, in awe.

“How, what, why, when did this happen?”, she’s shocked.

“Well, you know how I told you I was working on a surprise for dad?”, Spencer ask, her mom nodding, “Well, I got Avery in on it, and we’re making stuffed animals for kids, we’re selling them for $20 each, and we sold about 80 last night at hospitals around town. This is what we made last night.”

“I’m so, so, so proud of you two, and how you’re pitching in to help your father”, she responds.

“Yeah, well, we have some work to do if we want $30,000 anytime soon, so we should get to work”, Avery exclaims.

“Hold on, you two should take a break, let’s just enjoy the day , and go see your father. There’s leftover donuts for breakfast, sit down and eat”, their mom stops them.

They spent the day with their dad, and making more stuffed animals with their mom, completely forgetting about a state meet for track they have in two weeks, they were so focused on having fun as a family, well, as much of a family they’ll have until their dad comes home. By the next week, they had raised about $15,000, and they couldn’t be happier.

“Hey mom, I’m going to the track for a few hours with Keegan to prep for the meet this weekend. I completely forgot about it, and I need to practice”, Spencer says as she’s walking out the door Sunday morning.

“Oh, ok, good luck”, her mom answers.

A few minutes later, Spencer arrives at the track, and Keegan’s there, already running.

“Hey Keegan, how were hockey tryouts yesterday?”, Spencer asks.

“They were great, I made the team!”, he answers.

“That’s great! My dad is doing a lot better, they started treatments since we raised half of the money”, Spencer informs him.

“That’s amazing Spencer! I was wondering if I could help out with the company, I mean you did make a company didn’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s not that big, but we have a website and stuff. I would love for you to help out though!”

“Ok, great! We can talk about it later though, you have a state meet to attend this Saturday.” They smile at each other and start running.

That weekend, they had raised about $20,000 dollars, since Keegan started helping. But, on Saturday, they had other things to worry about. The twins arrived at the meet, and Keegan rode with them. Him and their mom went to the bleachers to get a good spot so they could record the meet for the twins’ dad. The race begun, and they ran as fast as they could, Spencer a little bit behind Avery. She thought to herself, “Dad I love you, dad, you will get better, I will make you better”, and by the end of the race, she zoomed ahead to meet Avery, and, after much review, the judges decided it was a tie, the twins tied for first, for the first time ever. They embraced in the biggest hug you could ever imagine, right at the finish line, and their mom burst into tears. Keegan ran down to the track, and gave both of them a big hug. “I’m so proud of you both, and so is your mom, and your dad would be, he will be. You two are an inspiration, and never forget that. Your dad is going to get better, and it’s all because of you two.”