Jack and Jill Torrance were half-siblings; their parents divorcees going on ten years. When Jack was barely a year old, his dad, Bob, and his mother divorced and soon after Bob met a beautiful divorcee named Janet whom he married a year later. Janet became pregnant not long after and gave birth to a girl that she and Bob named Jill. The joke was not received well by the siblings once they got into grade school and the famous tale was introduced to them, along with the childish giggles of their elementary school chums.
Jack was a college junior now and Jill a college sophomore and both were coasting through school with straight As. The siblings were always model students and stayed out of trouble; When they were in high school, Jack was on the varsity baseball team and Jill a member of the drama club. Their friends were the harmless types they were never afraid to bring home to meet their parents. Neither one of them had a dark streak and had similar interests in music; soft rock, classical, even jazz and techno. And, aside from their above-average intelligence, the siblings were typical in every other respect; Jack was of average height, weight, build and Jill was the same. Both siblings were blonde haired (Although Jill's hair was considerably darker than her brother's) and blue-eyed with Germanic/Swedish descent, from their mothers and father, respectively.
The economic downturn made it a very attractive proposition for Jack and Jill to continue living with their parents while they worked and saved for the future. Not that their parents minded; in fact, they'd have preferred for the siblings live with them forever!
The family lived in a claustrophobic suburban town that was growing by leaps and bounds with every passing year. The real estate in the area had blossomed thanks to the booming local job market and every empty lot was sprouting with new homes, condos or apartment buildings. The traffic was becoming horrendous but the denizens gladly accepted the inconvenience for the fat paychecks their jobs were providing them. Every other car was a brightly colored Humvee or a foreign sports car. It was, by all accounts, a very affluent area. Bob and Janet, though, weren't charmed by the proximity of all their new neighbors. The sleepy little town they'd set up shop in when the siblings were little was becoming a overpopulated urban sprawl, one they no longer enjoyed living in, regardless of how affluent it had become.
Bob and Janet were hippies at heart and, after selling their souls to corporate America, both promised someday to leave all that behind once they'd reaped the benefits of living in the fast lane. Now that they'd saved a bundle, they were planning on moving to a place where the pulse was closer to catatonic narcoleptic than caffeine-addled crack fiend. They were eyeing real estate out in the country, a place where they knew the siblings were less likely to encounter the evils of the city.
Jack and Jill weren't thrilled to be moving away from the only place they knew as home. They'd established a safe haven there. All their friends were there, the stores they were familiar with, the streets, the houses, it was everything they knew. But, after several less than heated conversations with the parents, (Jack and Jill were horrible at being typical angry young adults) the siblings were convinced that the change of scenery would benefit all of them.
They had an uncle that lived hundreds of miles away in the country, and was going to help Bob and Janet pick out some real estate to build a home on. Jack and Jill would have to tag along to stay at their uncle's place while the adults dealt with the droll objective of dealing numbers, acreage, building costs, etc. with the local real estate agencies. Once they got to Uncle Harold's house, though, Jack and Jill were disappointed to discover that, despite Harold having a large house; it only had two-bedrooms; one for him and one for their parents. What he did have to accommodate them, though, was a small guest room in the back of the house.
When they pushed open the door to the guest room, their eyes widened; it was barely big enough to fit the queen-sized bed that was shoved up against the far wall, which wasn't very far at all. There was maybe a foot and a half from the foot of the bed to the entertainment center where the 19" color TV was, and the TV itself looked like it was a decade old. Thank goodness for them it had its own cable box. They looked around at the meager accommodations.
"Well..." Jack said. "...it is a guest room."
Jill wasn't so optimistic, but spoke under her breath, trying to remain calm. "The room's barely bigger than a prison cell, Jack. How are we supposed to do anything in here?"
"We're not." he said, hopping on the bed. "We're just tagging along with mom and dad. This trip isn't for us so we're just gonna have to deal. It's not the Hilton, but who cares?"
"But we won't have any privacy!" she declared, still forcing the words calmly through her tensed lips.
"What do you mean? Of course we will. Mom, dad and Uncle Harold are on the other side of the house." he noted.
"I mean, from each other." she finally whined. "And I am not sharing the bed with you."
"Hey, it should be me complaining. You're the one whose feet stink all the time."
"Shut up. It's just that stupid fungus. That stuff the podiatrist gave me will get rid of it."
"So, then, where am I supposed to sleep?" he asked. "In the eight inches between the bed and the wall?"
She sulked. "Fine. Just don't rub up against me during the night."
"It'd be the first time a guy ever did..." he muttered under his breath. She heard him though and gasped, punching him in the arm.
"Ass." she said.
He rubbed his arm. "Oww."
She rubbed his arm woefully. "Sorry."
He didn't mean what he said and she didn't mean to hit him so hard. They were always on friendly terms with each other, even though they did argue and fight quite often. The fighting never crossed that breaking point, though, to where they hated each other's guts. They loved each other and never let arguments go too far. Either Jeff would apologize first, or Jill would, or they'd just slowly work things back to normalcy without acknowledging the previous spat.
As he channel-surfed the TV with the remote control, Jack scooted over, giving Jill room to sit, which she did. She seemed listless, apathetic. "So, what did you bring with you?"
"Not much..." he said, eyes fixed on the TV. "my phone, Switch, a few other things. You?"
"Not much. My phone, some girl stuff."
"Eww, stop right there. But it's good you brought your stuff. I don't want you bleeding all over this place."
"You are so gross..." she said, disgusted.
"No wonder you've been so bitch-tastic lately. You're ovumolating."
"It's ovulating, Einstein. And I'm starting to see why Sylvia left you."
"Sylvia left me because she had a bad case of whore-itis. That and big boobs."
"I knew the only reason you were with her was because she had a huge chest. You are so predictable. All guys are."
"That's not true at all. You have a huge chest and I wouldn't touch you with someone else's hand."
She stared daggers into him. "But you'll sleep next to me."
"While wearing thick, protective clothing? Yes."
She sighed and looked away, defeated. Jack was joking and snickered, seeing she wasn't playing anymore. "Hey, I was just messing around. Don't get your boobs all twisted." he said, lightly pinching her thigh.
She didn't respond or look at him. She merely watched the TV indifferently. "I know."
"I hungry. Gun go eat now." Jack said, playing stupid and climbed over Jill, leaving the room.
