Oh. That’s what this is about. Kaytelin’s ‘super important’ hair curler. She uses it every morning to... Well, to curl out her straight and rather frizzy hair every morning. I don’t think Kyler took it. I don’t even think he would know what it looks like. 

“I didn’t take it. Why would you think I took it? What even is it?” Yup, that confirms it. Kyler has no clue what a hair curler is. 

“Yeah, right. It just grew legs and walked away. Where is it!” Sarcasm doesn’t suit my sister very well. She should stick to sassiness and shouting. 

“I don’t know where it is,” Kyler shouted right back. “You probably lost it!” 

“Give. Me. Back. My. HAIR CURLER!” Kaytelin shrieked. I think my eardrums just burst. 

As my ears rang faintly, I turned to Braydon. He looked at me expectantly. I bet his ears were ringing, too. 

“Maybe you should go to your room,” I told him. 

He nodded his agreement and gathered up his homework. He stood up and, very confidently and courageously, walked toward the violently battling cyclones. I pushed my chair away from the table and stood up, too, turning to follow behind him as he approached the twins. 

“Excuse me,” he quietly asked as he reached them. Surprisingly, they parted enough to let him pass them and exit the kitchen. I heard him softly pat down the hall and enter his room. I, however, stopped next to the fighting twins at a distance where our elbows were bumping against each other. 

When I heard the door close, I took a deep breath. This could get ugly, but I must deescalate this situation. 

“Kyler. Kaytelin.” 

I spoke very soft and gentle, in hopes to encourage the other two to lower their own voices to match my own. Or to at least come down from the impossibly and very painfully loud volume they were currently at. 

Unfortunately, they ignored me. How was I supposed to calm the situation but also grab their attention? I am literally being asked to do the impossible. 

“Kyler. Kaytelin.” 

I raised my voice a bit louder than before, less gently, and slightly more stern. They still ignored me, but I thought I saw Kaytelin cut me a scathing glare. It was believable that they hadn’t heard me the first time, but much less so that they didn’t the second time. 

I took a step closer to the twins, moving in between them to get their attention better. 

“Kyler. Kaytelin.” 

The gentleness and softness was gone. I was speaking in a very strict and demanding tone, louder than either of the first two times I spoke their names. This time, they finally turned to look at me, an annoyed look on both of their faces. 

“Stop fighting. We can resolve this if we all calm down,” I told them, knowing that they would both object. 

“It’s not my fault! He stole my hair curler!” 

“No I didn’t! Why would I take it?” 

Would you look at that? I was right. 

“Okay, what part of ‘calm down’ did neither of you understand? Now, Kyler-” 

“Wh- It’s not MY fault!” 

“You didn’t let me finish. Kyler, go sit down at the kitchen table.” I pointed to his usual chair, the one closest to the hooks that our bags were hanging on. He obeyed, moving to sit in the chair without any comment or objection. 

“Kaytelin. Over there.” This time, I pointed to my usual chair, by the door. This was the one that I had been sitting at to do my homework. 

I sat at Kaytelin’s usual chair, in between them and across from Braydon’s usual chair. This setup was different, but, as they needed to be far from each other with me between them, this would hopefully prevent them from going at each other. 

“Okay. One at a time, Kaytelin first,” I offered. Kyler crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. 

“He stole my hair curler,” Kaytelin accused, glaring and pointing at our brother. 

Kyler gave a scoff of indignation and stated, “I did not!” 

“Did too!” 

“Did not!” 

“Did-” 

“OKAY. Kyler, your turn!” I interrupted their childish blame-game to continue to untangle the situation. 

“I am being falsely accused of stealing Kaytelin’s hair curler, which I did not do!” Kyler told me, his arms recrossed after he had uncrossed them to have his kindergarten shouting match with his twin. 

“Well, there is an easy way to figure out the answer to this. Check both of your rooms!” I stood up and pushed in my chair. “This isn’t an optional check. We are going to check every room in this house until we either find it or determine it is lost. Let's go.” 

I turned around and started moving toward Braydon and Kyler’s room. The twins stumbled after me to catch up. I could almost feel them glaring at each other and having a silent argument. 

When I reached Braydon’s room, I knocked very gently on the door. “Braydon? Can we come in?” I called. 

“Sure.” 

I opened the door and immediately spotted Braydon at his desk, working on his homework. I walked over to him and read what he was working on over his shoulder. 

“Having trouble?” I asked him. 

“Yeah, but I think I can figure it out,” he told me confidently. 

“Okay, then. We’re gonna be here to look for Kaytelin’s hair curler,” I said to him. Then, in a lower voice, I whispered, “Though I doubt that it’s even in here.” 

He softly laughed with me, then I straightened and turned to the twins who were glaring at each other by the door. 

“Alright. The three of us are going to look for the curler.” I turned to Kyler, and said, “A hair curler is like a long and very strange pair of tongs, and I believe it is black?” The last part was a question I asked Kaytelin. She nodded stiffly at me. 

“Okay, search.” 

We all began to search, overturning everything. Kaytelin was definitely the most enthusiastic about looking, searching through both closets and in the drawers. She probably would have searched under and through the desks, but I took care of that before she could tear through them and disturb Braydon. Kyler rummaged under his and Braydon’s bed and came out covered in dust and with a faint bump on the top of his head. 

“Well, it’s not in here,” he coughed out, massaging the lump on his head. 

“It has to be! We just haven’t found it yet! Keep looking!” Kaytelin began digging through the blankets and under the pillows of the two beds, making a mess of the neatly made sheets. 

“It’s not here, Kaytelin. Let’s move on,” Kyler told her, exasperated at her mess making. 

“He’s right. Let’s go look in your room, now Kaytelin.” 

She rolled her eyes, but followed Kyler out of the room. Well, what she really did was stomp after him. 

“It won’t be in my room. If it was, then I would have found it already!” Kaytelin was shouting at Kyler out in the hall again. 

“Well, maybe you didn’t look hard enough!” Kyler retorted back. 

Oh, great. They’re gonna start fighting again. 

I followed them out, shutting the door behind me. They had already reached Kaytelin’s room, and I could hear them bickering inside. 

I walked in behind them and interrupted them. “What happened this morning?” I asked Kaytelin. 

“Well, I woke up an hour before we left, and started getting ready. I put on these clothes, which I had picked out yesterday, but my jacket was gone. I told Kyler and asked him where it was. Then-” 

“Wait, when did that happen? I don’t remember you ‘telling me’ then ‘asking me’! You just shouted about having lost it!” 

“Yeah, because you took that, too!” Kaytelin aggressively said to him. 

“No, I didn’t take-” 

“Kyler, please. Let Kaytelin finish,” I interrupted their own interruptions. 

“Anyway, then I got my hair curler and my makeup kit and went to the bathroom. When the bathroom was finally empty, I went in, curled my hair, did my makeup, then left the bathroom. I went back to my room, put my makeup bag in my backpack, and put the hair curler in my desk drawer.” 

When Kaytelin finished her retelling of this morning, I asked, “Which drawer?” 

My older sister moved over to her vanity/desk and opened the first right hand drawer. “This one,” she said rather rudely. 

The drawer in question was empty. 

“Well, let’s look for it,” I said. 

We silently started searching. Kaytelin combed through her closet and her vanity. Kyler searched under her bed. I tried to help out by looking through drawers and boxes that were scattered around her room. 

We also searched my own room, our mother’s room, the kitchen, the bathroom, and even in the small cupboard in the hallway. Everywhere in the apartment that we could think of. Everywhere in the apartment that could possibly have it. 

We did not find her lost hair curler. Or her new jacket, for that matter.