Heather was sitting on the balcony having a snack of chocolate chip cookies and a cup of tea, it was a Saturday morning and she was happy to know that the weekend had arrived. Dawn had promised to let her read some of her comics and Heather felt that all was right in her world. Suddenly there was a loud buzzing noise. "Wow, that sounds like a really big fly, or maybe it's aliens in their UFO come to take me away." she thought to herself. The noise got louder and louder until it stopped. "Hmm, must have landed somewhere." She reached out her hand to take a cookie and saw what looked like a huge fly sitting on her biscuit tin!

"Ewwwwwwww, where did this huge fly come from! aaaaaaaaaaaargh, its sitting on my lunch! Get away you crummy fly! Shooo!!!!" The insect took off and flew around her a few times and and then landed on her head "HELP!!" She shouted hysterically, "I'm being attacked by a fly! HELP!! " Poor Heather, the insect had obviously taken a fancy to her and it just kept on taking off and landing on her head.

Hearing the commotion Jennifer Mae popped her head out of the door "WOW! look at the size of that fly, it's a monster! let me grab my tin of flyspray. Don't worry Heather, I'll save you!"

But when the insect took off and headed in her direction she thought better of it and ran back into the flat. Heather could take it no longer and ran through the flat, waving her arms around. She opened the front door onto the landing where she hoped the insect wouldn't follow her. Another Twinn was standing outside, poised to knock on the door. The insect had followed Heather and now it took up a holding pattern around the other Twinns head. "Louis! where have you been you naughty bug? stop bothering everybody. I am so sorry if my pet bug disturbed you." "Your pet bug?" "Yes. His name is Louis, and my name is Justyn." Heather introduced herself. "Justyn? but that's a boys name. Your hair is too long for a boy." "I know, its a long story." "Story? did you say story? if you did then I know just the Twinns to speak to." "You do? could they be the famous Tumbling Twinns by any chance?" "Yes, that's us."

"At last I have found you. I have been searching for ages trying to find this address. That's why I sent out Louis. He has a very good sense of smell you know." "Your pet bug has been doing aerobatics around my head, are you sure he isn't dangerous?" "Nah, he couldn't hurt a fly, He is very well trained and clean, an altogether intelligent bug. He is a doodle bug and quite harmless. Come, you can stroke him if you like." Heather was sceptical, but allowed Louis to land on her hand. "He is kinda cute. Come inside, let me introduce you to the rest of the girls. They are all around here somewhere."

Hearing Heather talking, Jennifer stuck her head out of the doorway, her fear of flies temporarily conquered. "Hullo there, WOW! it's that huge fly again!!! Let me go get the flyswatter!" "No wait Jen, he is not a fly, he is a doodle bug and is very friendly. He belongs to Justyn." "Justyn? but that's a boy's name. His hair is way too long for a boy." Heather smiled "I have it on good authority that Justyn is really a boy, even though he is in need of a haircut." Justyn laughed, "Yep, as I was telling Heather, it's a long story." "In that case why don't you come inside Justyn and meet the gang." "That's what we were trying to do Jen." So the 3 Twinns went inside, accompanied by Louis the doodle bug. They found Sarah and Caitlyn messing with the DVD player, while Dawn was busy doing an appraisal of a first edition comic. "Dawn, bring the fly swatter, there is a huge fly on that Twinn's shoulder." Caitlyn said. Dawn was up quick as a flash and grabbed the swatter, "Where's that fly? be afraid, be very afraid!!!"

Heather managed to stop Dawn before she swatted Louis and Amanda nearly ran away in fright when she saw him. Poor Justyn, his pet doodle bug just didn't do much to inspire fondness "I think you better tell us that story before poor Louis gets squished." Amanda remarked from her hiding place. Heather introduced Justyn to the rest of the Twinns, "I am glad you did find us Justyn, although I can't quite work out why you have such long hair." Caitlyn asked (ever the detective). "Caitlyn, I am afraid its a side effect of the treatment. I am hoping that somebody here would have a boys wig for me." "Nope, sorry Justyn, there are only girl's goodies here." Dawn said, "and I have tried all of those wigs myself so I know what I am talking about." "It's not a major disaster, I am sure if we mail the Twinns at the Continuum they will be able to help." Sarah re-assured Justyn. "My thoughts exactly." Heather said. "They can send it "Hair Freight"" Jennifer chuckled. "Why don't we give Justyn a trim, I did a bit of hairdressing when I was back at the Continuum." Brenda said. "Just until Justyn's proper hair arrives." "Hair today, gone tomorrow." Dawn said, "There are quite a few wigs we can use Bren, somewhere amongst them should be a suitable one." "Great idea Dawn. Justyn, let me go fetch my scissors and comb and we can give you a quick bonny chop. You can also wear my new Batman Tee Shirt so that we don't mess up your nice dinosaur one." So Justyn reluctantly agreed to let Brenda style him a new wig, and the finished article wasn't too bad. "I think I will keep this style Brenda, thanks a lot."

"I kinda like the new hairstyle, gives him a certain suave look don't you think Sarah?" Brenda said, admiring her handiwork.

"Right, somebody owes us a story, gather around everybody, Justyn's going to spill the beans." Caitlyn said. The Twinns settled down and Justyn told his tale. "When I was a young Twinn I aspired to become a chemist. The only place I could get an internship was at a laboratory owned by Hiheel Pharmaceuticals." "Now where have we heard that name before? That dratted Mme Heel, is there just no end to her fiendishness?" Dawn asked. "It was a very junior position and in those days interns were used to do all the dirty work around a lab. We emptied test tubes and took temperatures, we swept up broken glass from experiments and repainted purple walls when things went wrong. I was roped into an experiment carried out by a certain Dr Badpooh who was a fashion doll clone. She was not a very nice person and didn't really care much for her staff. Most of her assistants just disappeared and many were carried out on a stretcher. Needless to say I was very apprehensive about this whole thing. All went well until the day when the strange liquid in the beaker labelled "DANGER" went awry. Heaps of smoke and choking fumes filled the lab and many of the lab rats just keeled over and died. We had a doodle bug which we used as a gas monitor. When they detect strange gases they make a loud shrieking noise and are very sensitive to toxic fumes. We used to call him "Pretty Boy" because he reminded us of a budgie. When this experiment went awry poor Pretty Boy just couldn't do much except keel over with his legs in the air and choke! I grabbed him out of his cage and made a run for the door, Dr Badpooh conveniently was outside the lab when this happened and made no effort to help." "Sheesh, these fashion dolls just don't care do they?" Brenda said.

"Poor Pretty Boy, I was forced to give him CPR and only once he recovered was I able to think about myself. I used to be a strong healthy Twinn before that accident, but now I was laid low by a mysterious illness." "Oh, that's a terrible thing to happen." Amanda said, wiping a tear from her eye. "It gets worse Amanda. The company doctor (who was one of Mme Heel's cronies), decided that I was faking it and recommended that I be dismissed for taking too much sick leave. Dr Badpooh agreed and they kicked Pretty Boy and I out of the laboratory with no severance pay." "Blimey, the way these companies treat their staff is disgraceful!" Jennifer added, patting Justyn on the arm. "While standing in the queue at the local clinic I met up with another Twinn who said I should go see Nurse Meko at the Twinn Continuum. I managed to scrape enough money together to make the trip and she immediately booked me into the sickbay where she treated me. I had also brought along poor Pretty Boy to see if she could help him, but alas he too was very ill. The long term effects of that experiment gone wrong had caused irreparable damage to his sensory organs and there was no way he would ever work again. I couldn't turn my back on him and decided that the 2 of us would go somewhere and find ourselves a new home when I was better. The climate in Pennsylvania didn't really agree with me so Kimmie suggested I come across to South Africa and see if I would feel better over here. The Twinns all collected money for my airfare and I left shortly after Meko pronounced me fit to travel. When I arrived at the airport my luggage was run over by a rampaging luggage cart and I was forced to hitch a ride to Johannesburg. I did have a letter of introduction but that went missing too and I found shelter in a drainpipe while Pretty Boy (who I renamed Louis), went forth to find all of you." "Wow, that is one smart bug!" "There is still only one teensy problem though." Caitlyn said. "What's that Cait?" everybody asked. "In case you have all forgotten, Justyn is a B.O.Y!" "Boys... eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Heather said jokingly. "Aw, please don't hold it against me. I promise I wont be naughty or pull your hair or do any of those other boy things." "Drat!" said Dawn, "and here I was hoping you would teach me how to climb trees and play in the mud." "We will have to put him on probation Cait." Sarah suggested. "Probation? never mind that. We have a more pressing problem." Amanda remembered. "What is that Amanda?" "Just how do we explain to the Bossman that there is another Twinn in the house, and that he has a pet bug!" "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it Amanda," Dawn said. "I kinda like the idea of a large bug, I used to have a comic with huge insects in it once upon a time, as well as a few comics with flies squished inside of them too." Everybody shuddered at the mental image that created. Louis the doodle bug landed on Amanda's hand. "I think he likes you Amanda."

Amanda was flustered, "He is a really jaunty little bug, just like a small puppy, but with wings." Everybody burst out laughing, "I think Justyn will do well here, I dabs the first date with him." Jennifer said. "Me next." said Heather. "Then me." shouted Brenda. "I think we will have to draw straws for the first date. Anybody got any straws?" Sarah said, ever the sensible one. And so Justyn came to Tumbling Twinns, he brought along a strange new exotic pet and a really cool story. The Twinns decided they wouldn't hold being a boy against him and he has settled down quite well. Louis the doodle bug has become a firm favourite amongst the Twinns too, Amanda in particular has taken a shine to him and he now accompanies her and Waffles on their morning walk. © D.R. Walker. 2005. Revised 12 June 2008.