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Limelight
By Karisma

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Chapter One

Serena Kinsley rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around her blurry room, trying to discern what had stirred her from her precious sleep. The answer came soon enough when a sharp rapping came from her front door. Groaning, she hefted the floral covers off her flannel-clad frame and slipped into her robe.

"Coming!" She called when the knocking came once again. In the hallway of her one-bedroom apartment, she caught sight of the clock. 1:30 in the morning. She yanked open the door. "What?" She demanded grumpily, wincing at the harshness of the fake light flooding her apartment.

"Serena?" A familiar voice asked, filled with hesitation.

Serena lifted her head up, daring to hope. She knew that voice, she had known that voice her entire life. Slowly she brought her eyes up to look into the face she knew better than anybody’s. The face that was her own.


“You want to what?” Serena asked, flabbergasted. What she was asking her to do…

“Please, Serena,” Mina Kinsley pleaded, her tearful aqua eyes begging a matching pairs. “I need a break…Serena, I know it’s a lot to ask, especially considering…”

“Even if I did agree to such a-a ludicrous thing, it wouldn’t work!” Serena insisted, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.

“Sure it would,” Mina pursued, leaning forward on the sofa. “My movie is done-you’d only have to go to the premiere. I’d tell you everything else.”

“You don’t know the first thing about me and my life…vice versa.”

It wasn’t mean to cut, but it did. Mina lowered her gaze and stared at the cream carpet in guilt. She deserved that.

Serena silently got up and walked over to her small kitchen to make some hot chocolate. Mina sighed and followed her.

“Serena, I’m sorry.” She pleaded. “But this could work, I know it could. Please, Serena. I-I need you, I need my sister.”

That was it. Hook, line, and sinker. Because deep in her heart, Serena knew that no matter what one of the twins did to the other, the other, usually Serena, would help out the other one, usually Mina.

Mina took her silence as encouragement and coax. “It could work. It’ll be easy. For two weeks you’ll have it easy. And I’ll-what do you do again?”

Serena’s face had softened, but at the recognition that her own flesh and blood didn’t know any thing personal about her, her face hardened with a mixture of hurt and anger.

“I’m a physicist,” she said coolly, roughly handing Mina a hot mug.

“Just like you wanted!” Mina squealed gleefully, flashing that valuable smile of hers.

“I’m surprised you remembered,” Serena spat bitterly. “I would have thought Hollywood would have erased all your memories of a small town like Campton that apparently wasn’t good enough for you.”

Mina was silent for a moment, choking back tears. “Serena, that’s not fair. You knew how much I wanted to be famous-make something of myself. You knew! And that just couldn’t happen in Campton. And then when Mom died-“

“You ran,” Serena completed, her tone icy and clipped.

“Serena, please don’t be like this,” Mina cried.

Her twin sighed and turned around. “I’m sorry, I know.” She sipped from her mug. “But at least your dream came true. Campton’s been bragging about their very own Mina Kinsley and how she’s on the silver screen. I loved your last movie: Tears on My Pillow.”

Mina grinned broadly at the praise. “Then you’ll love this new one, Only You. But it has such a sad ending.

They were quiet for a moment, each staring at the other over rim of their mugs. Then Mina placed her mug on the counter and walked over to Serena and embraced her tightly.

“I missed you,” she whispered hoarsely and Serena felt tears prick the back of her eyelids. After they parted, wiped their eyes, and shared a round of light laughter, Serena piped up.

“I have a vacation coming up and I think you should take it.”

“No! I couldn’t.” Mina said, appalled.

“Mina, just think of you in my lab performing experiments as me.”

Mina looked terrified for a moment before regaining her composure and agreeing.

“So what do I need to know? Where do I go?” Serena asked, throwing her arms out in a wide gesture.

Mina laughed and they both walked back to the couch and sat down. For the next hour, Mina explained where her penthouse in New York was, details about her close friends, including her agent, Lita Swanson, described the plot of her new movie, and gave Serena a ridiculously stuffed day planner. As Serena flipped through the jam-packed pages, she realized that Mina Kinsley was a very busy woman.

They let the air be quiet for a second, each trying to think of any last minute details they may have forgotten. Suddenly, Serena’s blue eyes widened at a thought.

“Mina,” she cleared her throat and blushed. “There isn’t anyone that you-uh-have intimate relations with that I would be expected to…”

Her twin looked confused before a wave of realization dawned her face. “Oh, no! No, there isn’t anyone…well, there’s Darien, but-“ she debated whether or not to tell her sister and then decided not to. “But he’s in the Bahamas and won’t be back long after we switch back.”

“Darien…” Serena’s eyebrows furrowed in thought as she recalled the name. “Darien Eddington? Isn’t he in the movie with you?”

Mina looked uncomfortable for a split second before her trademark coolness, which she usually reserved for the press, swept in its place. “Yes, we met on the set.”

Serena frowned at what her sister was keeping from her and then dismissed it. “Two weeks, huh?”

Mina nodded. “We’ll meet back here at your apartment to switch back.”

Serena nodded also, moving her head slowly. She then thought to the reservations she would have to make if she wanted to be back for the cast meeting in New York that would take place tomorrow afternoon. Or rather, later today. She scurried to the phone and quickly dialed. She winked at Mina as the phone was picked up.

“Hello? This is Mina Kinsley,” she rolled her eyes at the attendant’s shock and Mina smothered her snorts. “I need a seat on your next flight out to New York…”


Serena stood in the airport nervously, holding her sister’s hand as they waited for the final boarding call.

“I can’t believe we even think we can pull this off,” Serena muttered worriedly, fingering her new beading purse Mina had insisted on.

“Relax,” Mina took on her usual role as the calmer, cooler one. “We’ve pulled off bigger scams than this. Remember Bobby Franklin?”

Serena laughed outright. They had made the poor boy think they were one person with magical powers to transport themselves everywhere. “He cried all the way home!”

They laughed for a moment before silence enveloped them.

“Announcing the final boarding call for flight 98 going nonstop to New York City.” The shrill voice came through.

“That’s me,” Serena said unnecessarily. She took a deep breath and squeezed her younger sister by two minutes’ hand.

“Serena, I promise after this, we'll be as close as two sisters can possibly be," Mina sniffed and they wordlessly hooked pinkies and crossed an 'X' over their hearts.

"Twin sisters," Serena added. "I better go. They probably won't hold the plane for even Mina Kinsley!"

Mina giggled and pulled Serena in another hug. Serena pulled away after a moment and made her way down to the terminal, slightly wobbling in the heels that matched the knee-length silver skirt and stylish, dark blue top that Mina had also been adamant about. She reached the smiling attendant and handed her the ticket. As the woman checked it, she turned around to meet Mina’s tearful eyes. Mina waved slowly and Serena gave a watery smile.

She headed toward the tunnel like structure that would take her into the plane. A few steps later, she halted and slowly turned around to look at Mina. “I love you,” she mouthed and Serena bit her lip before whispering:

“I love you too, Mina. I love you too.”

And with that Serena Kinsley-now Mina Kinsley-walked with her head high toward her new-but temporary-life for the next two weeks.