When twins Aidan and Nadia were born, the doctor said they nearly didn't make it out because they both tried to come out first. In fact they nearly came out together, and in the confusion of the delivery room the doctor lost track of which baby came out first, so rather than having one twin older than the other, they were documented as being born at exactly the same time, 11:59 pm.
Their parents chose their names because they were spelled out as exact opposites, but in reality they were fairly similar. Both were smart, athletic, driven to succeed, highly competitive and most significantly, at each others throats constantly.
Their mom said that the two of them fought even before they were born, in the womb. Throughout their childhoods, they continued fighting, always in a battle for superiority and bragging rights. One of the most contentious battles the two shared was the battle over who was born first. She liked to refer to him as little brother, and he insisted on referring to her as little sister. Up until the teen years the battles would involve bloody physical battles, and then they moved into a period of intense psychological warfare. On the occasion of their 18th birthdays, it turned into something else.
Their parents were spending the weekend away, and Aidan and Nadia had managed to organize a get together at the house with a few dozen of their friends. The problem was, neither of them was aware of the other's plans, since they rarely spoke, so at 8 pm on the night of their birthday, two very different crowds started showing up at the house. Aidan's friends tended toward the jock-cheerleader variety, whereas Nadia's friends were more of the smart-hipster type, so the battle lines came out early on. The disputes started with the music selection, gravitated over to who could eat which food, and ended up in the backyard by the pool with Aidan and Nadia toe to toe.
"You've got a lot of nerve having your toady friends here to ruin my party," Nadia yelled. "That's so typical of you to be so immature, little Aidan."
"Don't cry little sister," replied Aidan derisively. "I'm sure your friends will sing happy birthday while you play pin the tail on the donkey."
Adding insult to injury, he reached out to pat Nadia on the head, emphasizing his two inch height advantage. That was probably going too far, evidenced by the fact that Nadia pitched her half cup of beer onto Aidan's chest, which created a cheer from half the crowd. Unfortunately Aidan had a full cup of beer, which he put to good use in a well place dousing of his sister's chest, which led to a cheer from the other part of the crowd.
And then all hell broke loose. Everyone was throwing beer on everyone else. Nadia grabbed up some nearby bottles of beer and started hurling them at her brother, who was laughing and running for his life, much to the enjoyment of both crowds. Unfortunately one of the bottles went high and wide and went right through a sliding glass door with an explosive shatter.
In the chaos that ensued, the rumor got around that the cops were coming to the house, and 50 underaged teenagers fled the scene at a frantic pace that left the house empty by 10 pm, leaving an angry Aidan and Nadia in an empty house to celebrate their birthday.
Though celebrate would be the wrong word. The two moved quietly around the house, cleaning up empty bottles and broken glass, and occasionally glaring at the other sibling. After a half hour of clean up the two retired to their rooms to change out of their beer soaked clothes.
As fate would have it, they ran into each other a while later in the kitchen. Aidan had changed into boxers and an old ripped up t shirt and Nadia had on shorts and a sports bra.
"Happy birthday, asshole," she said, opening the refrigerator.
"Happy birthday, bitch," he replied, handing her a beer.
They stood there in the kitchen glaring at each other for a few moments. Then Aidan remembered something. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a joint.
"I think one of your hippy dippy friends left something behind in their haste," he said, showing Nadia the joint.
"Really," she said. "You don't think it could've been one of your jock friends?"
She got an odd grin on her face, she knew that neither of them smoked pot very often. "What are you going to do with it?"
He looked at it and then her. "Oh, I don't know. I don't think one little joint would hurt anybody, what do you think?"
She thought about it a minute. "I will if you will," she said. "But you can't tell anyone."
He lit up and took a drag. "I won't if you won't," he said, handing it over to her.
They stood their in the kitchen passing the joint back and forth. They were a little beyond halfway done with it when it started to hit them.
"Whoa, this is really strong," she said, rubbing her face with her hand.
"Yeah, this was definitely from one of your hippy friends, my friends never have shit this good," he replied.
Nadia got the giggles, and before long they were both laughing hysterically. The shared laugh eased the tension between the two.
"I'm sorry for breaking the door, I'll get it fixed tomorrow," Nadia said.
"I guess I'm half to blame for that, so I'll pay for half," Aidan said. He paused for a minute in reflection. "I don't know why it is that we fight so much, it seems silly now."
Nadia nodded in agreement. "If you would just admit that you were born second we'd be fine," she grinned.
"Right, whatever," Aidan replied. "What we really need to do is come up with a way to settle the dispute once and for all."
"What, like a coin flip?" Nadia asked.
"No, it would have to be some kind of competition," he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "How about this: five feats of physical prowess, you pick two, I pick two, and the fifth one we have to agree on. Winner gets bragging rights of being first born, loser has to agree."
Nadia thought about it for a minute. "Why not?" she said. "Bring it on little brother."
"Okay little sister, I'll pick the first competition," he grinned. "Thumb wrestling."
Nadia smiled as she recalled the numerous thumb wrestling battles they used to have when they were much younger. Aidan usually won because he had stronger hands, but she had to admit it was a fair choice.
They brought their hands together over the countertop, counted to three and set up in the classic thumb battle pose. After an initial flurry of contact and near pins, they both pulled their thumbs back into the safe position.
Aidan eyed his sister over the thumbs. "You know you are going to lose this little sister," he said. "Here's my question, why do you even care who is oldest?"
Nadia looked back at him intently, wary of his wavering thumb. "I'm not even sure," she said. "I guess it's because I never wanted to be the annoying little sister who is always getting in the way and wanting to be included, but getting left behind."
The weed had made Aidan very introspective, and he was mulling over this surprising statement from his sister in his mind and let his guard down. In a flash, she had brought her thumb into attack position and using her longer nail, had Aidan's thumb pinned painfully down. Before he knew what had hit him, she had counted off one-two-three and was whooping around the kitchen celebrating the unlikely victory as Aidan looked on in shock.
"Crap, I forgot about the fingernail advantage," he said. "Ok then 1-0, your turn to pick."
Nadia thought for a second. "Ok, let's stay with the wrestling theme. The next competition will be...toe wrestling."
"Toe wrestling?" said Aidan. "What the hell is that?"
"Ok, this is how it works," she said. "You lock up all your toes together, and then the object is to flip the other person over."
Aidan developed a mental image of this and realized why she chose it. Nadia had spent many years in swimming, gymnastics and ballet, and he was pretty sure her toes were lethal weapons. But it was her turn to pick, he had to go along. "Ok, toe wrestling it is," he said.
Nadia clapped and hooted. "Ok, we need a large, soft surface," she said. "Follow me."
She led the way into her parent's room and jumped on their large bed. "Come on bro, time to lose again," she said.
Aidan climbed onto the bed with his feet facing hers, and they spent a few moments trying to match their toes up with each other. "Ok, the object is to flip your opponent over to your right," she said. "So you try to go this way and I try to go that way."
Aidan nodded nervously as he felt the powerful grip of Nadia's toes. This was not going to be easy, he thought, looking up above the bed. His parents, in their younger days, had installed a mirror above the bed, so he could see in the reflection their toe-locked position. They counted to three and the second battle was underway. Nadia immediately took the advantage with a numbing toe squeeze that had Aidan over on one side quickly.
"Feel the wrath of the toe," Nadia said mockingly. "Surrender or you'll never walk again."
Aidan's toes were almost cramping from the squeeze. "I'm not dead yet little sister," he replied.
"So tell me," she said between grunts. "Why do you want to be the oldest so bad?"
Aidan was struggling too much to answer. "Ease up for a second and I'll tell you."