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Chapter 11 - Our Twin Swap Plan.

“In case you’re not familiar with the term,” the Engineering grad student who was leading that week’s unit explained, “a Rube Goldberg Machine is a machine intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and over-complicated fashion. It’s named after an American cartoonist and inventor by the same name. Mr. Goldberg’s early 20th century cartoons, showing these complicated gadgets doing humorous things, caught the public’s attention and made him famous almost overnight.”

The instructor hit the remote control on the projector, displaying several of Goldberg’s fantastical Machine creations, raising laughter from all the assembled students.

“And, while his ‘Self-Operating Napkin’ or his ‘Patent Clothes Brush’, might be hilarious to look at, they are also intricate works of engineering that have inspired other inventors for years. So, this week, I’m challenging you to make your own Rube Goldberg devices. You’ll be divided up into groups and get the whole week to work on your creations. On Friday there will be a grand unveiling of all the machines and the head of Mines’ Engineering school will judge which group wins. Now, go have fun & do science!”

The camp kids were quickly sorted out into groups of five, each with their own college-aged advisor. Quinne and Qianna refused to be separated anymore, so they were put into a group with Stella, and their numbers rounded out by adding Chase and a buddy of his named Eric. Each group was given a bin full of equipment which they were allowed to supplement by using personal possessions. Then the groups were allowed to wander off to various nooks and crannies around campus where they would begin the process of designing their machines.

“This is going to be fucking awesome!” Qianna, who had been practicing her cussing assiduously all weekend, declared. “We’re going to totally kick ass on this project!”

Quinne and Stella, who agreed about the degree of their own awesomeness, squealed and fist bumped each other, but the boys merely looked askance at this new, unfamiliar, boisterous, and cussing Qianna.

The first order of business was to decide what the final objective of their Machine would be. Since they hadn’t been given any limitations by the people in charge of this project, the possibilities were literally endless. So it took them quite a while to decide on this first important aspect of the process. In the end they decided to create a Smoothie Machine where the final action would be to dump out a fully blended fruit smoothie into a glass.

Next, they dug through the bin full of gear to get a basic idea of what they had to work with. There were various sorts of levers, wheels, balls and even a large metal thing with a spiral track down the middle of it that you could roll a metal ball bearing down. It was like a Pandora’s Box of fun for anyone with an inventor’s soul. Of course, this particular group wasn’t satisfied with the items they’d been given to start with and immediately started planning a much more elaborate creation.

The planning session lasted through lunch and well into the afternoon. They were all thankful they had Qianna there with her artistic skills - she was able to draw most of their ideas in a way that let them work out their design concepts on paper so they wouldn’t waste too much time on trial and error later. When it became clear that they just didn’t have nearly enough materials to do what they wanted, they began to research ways to expand their project. The guide that was assigned to their group advised that they were welcome to use the campus woodshop if they wanted to build structures with any of the scrap wood on hand. Chase and Eric seemed to like that idea, but the girls thought that was too mundane. As an alternative, Stella suggested building whatever structures they wanted using Lego blocks. That idea mushroomed into a theme in and of itself, and before they knew it, they were planning out Lego carts and towers and ramps and . . . They texted their advisor and got permission to access the robotics lab, which already contained bins and bins of legos, and which they could use in whatever way they chose. But, since they also wanted to make their creation personal in some way, they each agreed to contribute one personal item which would be used in the structure. The end result was going to be EPIC!

They ended up working like maniacs all week to bring their grandiose idea to fruition. It took a lot of revisions and adjustments to get a final working version, but the process itself was so much fun that nobody complained too much. The most time consuming aspect of all was building the large Lego platforms, towers and ramps that were going to support the whole thing. The end product though was both colorful and creative and by late Thursday night they were all satisfied with what they’d accomplished.

Despite their preoccupation with the week’s project, the girls didn’t let up on their personal plans. They continued to work at educating each other on the things they’d need to effectuate their Twin Swap at the end of the summer. To get used to the idea of being someone else, they took to dressing in each other’s clothing and carrying each other’s bags. Qianna also began wearing shoes with heels almost all the time, trying to accustom herself to the height difference.

One afternoon, when they were browsing through the offerings in the campus bookstore, hoping to find more stuff that they could incorporate into their Smoothie Machine, they decided to purchase matching Mines’ beanie caps which would hide their biggest difference - their hair. They quickly found that, when they were seated, wearing their identical hats and the other girl’s clothing, they were frequently able to trick even their friends and acquaintances. When they finally explained their odd behavior to some of their closer companions, it all became a bit of a game for folks to try and guess which of the twins they were talking to. As the week progressed, they became more and more proficient at pretending to be each other, and were able to deceive even their closest friends. It was a good sign for their end goal.

“Okay, I give up,” Stella announced on Friday morning when she entered the auditorium where they were working to assemble the final product before that afternoon’s judging and saw two identical beanied girls sitting side by side on the floor. “I’m just going to call you BOTH ‘Q’ from now on and not bother trying to figure out who’s who.”

“Fucking excellent!” Qianna crowed, doing her best Cussing-Quinne imitation. “Now, if we can only manage to be as convincing when we see our fathers.”

But their fathers and everything else were soon forgotten as the team dove into the business of getting their machine ready. It was a scramble to finish on time, and they were still tweaking the setup right till the very last minute. But when the bell rang, indicating it was time to start, they knew they were as ready as they were going to get. The groups drew lots to see what order they’d be going in and then all they could do was wait while they watched the competition unfold.

The Q Team - as they called themselves - was the sixth group to demonstrate their Machine. They used Qianna’s phone as their starting mechanism. It was propped up on the very edge of an upturned and slightly tilted drinking glass and set to vibrate. When anyone called Qianna’s phone, it would start to shake atop the slippery surface, eventually falling into a netted hammock, and the added weight would pull a string, attached to a lever, that would set off the ensuing chain reaction for the rest of the creation. A series of wheels and levers and other actions eventually led to a ramp where a heavy bowling ball (borrowed from one of the unit advisors) rolled down a ramp into a lever that caused a wheel to turn. Attached the the wheel was a mannequin's leg (borrowed from the performing arts department) wearing one of Quinne’s soccer cleats. The cleat spun around, kicking into Chase’s soccer ball, which went flying into a net. The added weight of the net caused it to drop, pulling a string that lifted a block that was holding another ball in place. When that ball spun down the spiral cage holding it, it rolled over the switch on a power strip, turning on the power to Stella’s blow dryer, which blew into the sail attached to a small Lego car. The Lego car zoomed down a track into another net that operated a series of levers that eventually turned on the blender. When the net dropped far enough it also triggered a secondary chain of events that caused a Lego train to roll past the top of the blender, dumping out fruit and protein powder as it passed. The train ended up by knocking against a wheel equipped with scoops that spun through a vat of milk, scooping it out and emptying into the blender. Eventually the blender lid, which was nailed to a 2x4 weighted down with sandbags, dropped on top of the blender to seal it closed. At the same time, one of the sandbags hit a lever that activated the switch to start the blender mixing. Simultaneously, a candle was lit by another mechanism, and the flame slowly burned through a string which was holding up a stick supporting a pile of books. The books propped up Eric’s skateboard, which was the surface the blender was sitting atop. When the string burned and broke, the stick fell and the skateboard rolled down a ramp, the lid still attached to the 2x4 was pulled off, and the whole thing ended up tipping over into a large plastic drinking glass, filling the glass with a delicious smoothie concoction. Qianna proudly picked up the cup at the end and handed it off to the judge for his enjoyment.

When the process had run its course, the entire auditorium full of people cheered. It was a complete success and clearly the hand’s down winner of the week’s competition. The girls’ group erupted into screeches and screams of triumph as they jumped up and down in a massive group hug. Several members of the staff, including the Dean of the engineering school, came up to congratulate them. Meanwhile all the other groups grumbled with disappointment at the realization they were destined to lose this week’s competition.

There was a huge pizza party to celebrate after the competition was concluded, with the winning group sitting in positions of state at the head table. All five of them were ecstatic over the praise they were getting. When it was all over, though, they still had the task of disassembling their creations and carting all the stuff back to where it belonged - a dubious ending to their otherwise stellar night.

Just as they were getting the last of the Legos put into the correct bins, Chase came up behind Qianna and tapped her shoulder. “Hey, QiQi,” he said shyly. “I was wondering if, maybe, you’d like to stop off and get something that ISN’T coffee with me on the way back to the dorms.”

Qianna looked up at the taller boy and smiled. She really did like Chase. He was smart and funny, not to mention quite handsome. But then she remembered how upset her sister had been when she’d suddenly gone off with him before; Quinne was more important to her than any boy. If only there were a way to have both?

Quinne herself approached right then, loading a full bin of equipment onto one of the dollys they were going to use to get all the stuff back to the dorm. “Hey, guys. Looks like we’re ready to go. Pick a stack of stuff and let’s head out.”

With a nod to her sister, Qianna turned back to answer Chase. “How about we help the others get this stuff back to the dorm first and then I’ll change real quick and meet you down in the lounge and we can go do something then?” she offered in compromise.

“Sweet,” Chase agreed, and then took up one end of the extra bin that didn’t fit on the dolly while Eric hoisted the other.

With everyone helping it didn’t take too long to get everything put away where it belonged and then they all headed up to their individual rooms. As soon as they had some privacy, Qianna broached the topic of her not-coffee date with Chase. She made sure to tell her sister that she wasn’t abandoning her and that if Quinne really objected she would cancel with Chase, but that she did, kinda, like him and would really, really, really like to go out with him for coffee and . . .

“Stop, QiQi,” Quinne ordered. “It’s okay if you’re into him. I’m over being jealous. Promise. But . . .”

“But what?” Qianna asked with trepidation.

“Well, if you want to really test out how well we’ll do at our Twin Swap Plan, we could start trying it out now with Chase.”

“Okaaaayyyy . . .”

“Don’t sound so worried, Sis,” Quinne laughed at the way Qianna had scrunched her face up causing worry lines to mar her forehead. “I promise I won’t screw things up for you. I’ll be the perfect little QiQi. I won’t even curse at him once.”

“If he finds out, he’s going to be so pissed at me.”

“He won’t find out. And if he does, I’ll take all the blame. I’ll tell him it was all my idea and I forced you into it. I really don’t think he’ll catch us, though. We totally have this thing down.”

After another five minutes of ardent persuasion, Qianna reluctantly capitulated. Qianna helped Quinne get dressed, insisting that the tomboy put on a dress since that was more ‘QiQi-ish’. They scrambled to find something that would still work with the beanie hat that would hide Quinne’s hair but eventually came up with a denim skirt and dark-colored, layered shirt look that sort of pulled it off. When Quinne thought she was ready, Qianna made her stand still and did one last scan to make sure everything passed examination.

“Wait!” she exclaimed when she saw one item that didn’t fit. “Trade phones,” she ordered, offering up her phone in it’s sparkly gold case in exchange for the sturdy black otterbox-cased phone of her sister. “There. Now you’re perfect.”

“Thanks, Sis!” Quinne smiled - trying to make her grin as big as one of Qianna’s best smiles - and tucked a stray lock of auburn under the edge of the beanie so it wouldn’t give her away.

“Go. But please be nice to him,” Qianna pleaded. “I kinda DO like him a little bit.”

“I’ll be all sugar and spice nice, Sis. Trust me.” She leaned in and gave her sister a peck on the cheek before waltzing out the door on the way to meet Chase for Qianna’s date.

“Famous last words . . .” Qianna mumbled as soon as her sister was gone.

Then she flung herself down on the bed, nibbling with worry at her thumbnail as she thought about everything that might go wrong and wondering how much Chase would hate her if they did get caught. She hadn’t fallen too far into her cauldron of concern, though, before she was distracted by Quinne’s phone ringing. The caller ID showed a handsome picture of Brian, disclosing exactly who was trying to reach her sister. At first she wasn’t going to answer the call - she’d just let it go to voicemail and Quinne could return it later - but then she thought again. If Quinne was going to play her for the evening, she might as well do the same.  

So, before she could chicken out, she pressed the ‘accept’ button and burbled a Quinne-like, “Hey, Pops. What’s up?”

“Hey, Spark! Just calling to check in. I haven’t heard from you all week. Wanted to make sure you hadn’t managed to work out the formula to transport yourself to an alternate dimension and got stuck over there or something,” Brian replied with a deep baritone chuckle at his own witty answer.

“Not yet, Pops. But if that cold fusion experiment we’ve got scheduled for next week goes astray you never know,” Qianna laughed as she played along with the joke. “Sorry I didn’t call, but you should see the Rube Goldberg Machine we created this week for the Engineering unit. We totally kicked ass. Hang on a sec and I’ll send you the video . . .” She tapped at Quinne’s phone till she found the video of their final, competition-winning run, and quickly texted it to Brian. “There. It was so fucking amazing. The Dean of the Engineering Department even came up to us afterwards and offered to write letters of recommendation for any of our team if we ever want to go to School of Mines.”

“Way to show the rest of them how it’s done, Spark!” Brian sounded impressed and she could tell that he was watching the video in the background. “Let me guess, the soccer kick was your idea?”

“Of course!” Qianna admitted. “Don’t you recognize the cleats?”

“Shit! That thing is pretty fucking elaborate. No wonder you were AWOL all week. Well done, Spark.”

“Thanks, Pops. It was a team effort though. We all busted our asses to get it done on time. Well, except for Eric. Eric is a total slacker and annoys the hell out of me. I think the only reason he’s here is to fulfill his parents’ overachievement-by-proxy fantasies. I won’t be teaming up with him on any future projects though,” Qianna explained. “Thankfully, there aren’t too many like Eric at this camp. Most of us are really enjoying ourselves and want to be here.”

“There’s always one. At least you know who it is and can avoid him now,” Brian summed up. “So, what’s left on your agenda? How many more months is this camp gonna last anyway?”

“We only have three and a half more weeks, Pops. One more week of Engineering, then Environmental Science, and a week of Individual Study, plus an end of summer wrap up,” Qianna explained to ‘her’ father. “You know, I’m really enjoying this summer and all, but can’t wait to see you! How’s everyone back home?”

“Same old, same old,” Brian answered with a tinge of disgust. “Mostly everyone’s been busy with their own summer plans. Except for Lindsey, who’s being a real pain lately - last week she changed her mind about Gus living on campus his first year at PIFA. She’s trying to insist that he live at home and commute. I tried to talk her down but she’s being all overprotective and bitchy about it. I don’t see what she’s worried about; She lived on campus the first two years we were at Pitts together and we survived despite all the shit we got up to.”

“Maybe that’s why she’s worried,” Qianna suggested. “She’s thinking Gus will be just as crazy as she was? Or worse, as wild as you?”

“I think you hit the nail on the head there, Spark,” Brian laughed. “Gus is way more level-headed than either of us were at that age, though. Oh well, if I can’t talk her down, I’ll just go over her head and sick Debbie on her. That should at least distract her long enough for Gus to make it to safety.” They both broke out laughing at the image that statement brought to mind. “Well, I should let you go so you can get back to your science shit. Fuck knows I wouldn’t want to interrupt your plans to invent the first flying car or anything.”

“Thanks, Pops. I’ll get right on that.”

“Miss you kiddo.”

“Same. See you in three and a half weeks, Pops. Love you.”

“Ditto, Kiddo. Later!”

Qianna tapped the icon to end the call and then let out a happy squeal! “I did it! I did it! He totally bought that I was Quinne. I can’t wait to get to The Pitts and see if it works on everyone else!”

And she was still beaming, full of self-satisfaction, when her roommate came waltzing in a half hour later.

“How’d it go?” Qianna demanded before Quinne had even shut the door behind her.

“Meh,” was the lukewarm response from Quinne. “I almost messed up right at the beginning when I forgot you don’t like coffee and actually ordered a latte. I had to think quick and make an excuse that I was trying to get used to the taste. I don’t think he realized I wasn’t you, but I had a tough time thinking of topics you’d want to talk about so we didn’t really say a lot. I think he was just as bored as I was by the end.”

“Oh . . . That sucks. He’ll probably never ask me out again.”

“Well, then, YOU should ask him. And, if he’s still reluctant, just kiss him and I’m sure he’ll be putty in your hands,” Quinne teased as she pulled off her beanie disguise and shimmied out of Qianna’s skirt before pulling on a pair of shorts in its place.

“I couldn’t,” Qianna insisted. “And I wouldn’t know how to ask a guy out anyway.”

“Well, if it helps we could double,” Quinne offered. “I’ve been thinking about asking out that girl who was on the Rocket Launch Machine team - Christa. I’ve caught her looking at me a couple of times so I figure she might be interested. We’ve just been too busy so far to get around to me finding out for sure.”

“Wow! I mean, you didn’t tell me you were queer. Shouldn’t that be something important that you’d put on the spreadsheet?”

Quinne just shrugged. “I don’t know what I am yet. Pops said there’s no timeline so I don’t have to decide until I decide. I’m really not into labels anyway, so I’m just going to stay open and take whatever love comes my way for the time being. Besides, most of the guys here are totally immature geeks, so there’s no way I’d be interested in any of THEM. And Christa’s the hottest chick here - besides you and me, of course.”

“Of course,” Qianna laughed at her wild sister’s nonchalance. “Then we’ll do it. As long as I know you have my back, I think I could do anything.”

“Ditto, Sis.”

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