Farming clout with Katie and Khloe

As you’re heading out of your recording session, you suddenly get hit by two texts at once.

Katie: Hey Alex!

Khloe: You take good photos, right?

You stare at your phone. The twins didn’t make a group chat. They just sent you individual texts. Who are you supposed to reply to? You end up texting back Khloe, since she was the one that asked a question.

Maybe… whatcha thinkin’?

Katie’s the one that replies: We need something to put up on Insta.

Oh. In that case…

Yeah, I take good photos, you write, replying to Katie’s (pseudo-)double text.

Meet us in Rothman then? Khloe instantly texts back.

We’ll be there in 10, Katie writes.

Sweet. This is a prime chance to hang out with two hot babes on your soccer team—take photos of them, in fact, and that thought gets your blood pumping fast. Sometimes, the blonde twins are so in sync that it freaks you out a bit. But not today. If you’re thinking perverted thoughts, then, well, freaky is good…

You make your way towards Rothman, the small art museum on campus. They’re known for hosting weird exhibits. Case in point, as you come around the side of the building, you see the huge splotch of angry burgundy paint dried there. That was a piece of modern art titled “Watch Paint Dry”, a supposedly thrilling experience.

Katie and Khloe are standing right outside the front door, dressed in matching white strapless smocked dresses. The ruffled fabric hugs their bust and lithe frames, before billowing out around their ankles. Katie wears a simple gold necklace with the letter K on it. So does Khloe. In fact, everything about their outfits and their make-up, down to the last streak of eyeliner, looks identical. Makes sense for identical twins.

“Hey Alex,” Katie says, giving you a quick hug from the side. Khloe joins on the other side, and then she frowns a bit.

“Do you not have a camera?” she asks.

“Uh… no,” you say sheepishly, wondering if you’ve already been outed as a bad photographer. “But hey, phones these days pack a pretty good camera. Besides, it’s just for Instagram.”

“Just for Instagram,” Katie says, putting scare quotes around the word. “Which is a damn big deal. That’s like, most of our presence online.”

“Do you know how many followers we get from a good post?” Khloe asks.

“I tend to get zero,” you laugh, shrugging.

“I checked the analytics last week,” Katie says. “It’s something like thirty. Thirty! Thirty people who’ll follow us and hear what we say and see what we do.”

“That’s big,” you say. “We gotta make these photos count then!” The girls nod, glad that you’re finally appreciating what’s at stake here.

With that, the three of you head into the museum, taking a quick stroll through the entire place to decide on what would make the best background for an artsy photo. It takes less than ten minutes, since the museum only holds nine rooms, and after a brief but serious discussion, you eventually decide to go with “Every Single Piece of Art that Gregory Chilenski Has Ever Produced” over the gender-bent Bhagavad Gita statues.

The twins have clearly done this countless times before, as they fall into natural poses that complement the artwork behind them. You, tasked with capturing both their erudition and feminine graces, are constantly hitting the shutter, making small adjustments between each photo to give the girls something good to select.

“This Chilenski guy clearly was not a very prolific artist,” Katie laughs as she looks around the room, surveying the couple landscapes and portraits on display. Click, you capture the moment.

“I mean, had you heard of him before?” Khloe asks, smirking into the camera. Click, you capture the moment.

“Yeah, totally, he was my best friend in middle school,” you quip, drawing a laugh from both the girls. Click, you capture the moment.

“Okay, a couple more serious ones now,” you say, and the ladies straighten up, somber expressions crossing their faces as they ponder the pastels in depth.

You take a couple paces to the right and tug on the curtains by the window to get some better lighting, and capture a dramatic shot of the twins pacing around a painting. Their austere expressions, nubile figures on display in front of the vast landscape, creates an air of class that you find striking. Beauty goes well with beauty, you have to say, and you start to think that you actually have a knack for photography (never mind the hundred other photos you took today that turned out total bunk).

Another twenty minutes fly as you rotate through three more rooms, trying to see if you can take a better photo, but you know that one you took of Katie and Khloe pacing was the best of the bunch.

“Can we take a look?” Khloe asks as the session draws to an end.

You and Katie look over her shoulder as she flicks through the collection of photos that you took. Eventually, she pauses on the photo of her pacing with her twin, and pulls it up, staring at it for a few good seconds.

“Good, right?” Khloe says, glancing over her shoulder at her sister.

“Love it,” Katie smiles. “This one can go up, once we touch it up.”

Khloe nods and turns her head the other way, glancing up at you. She cranes her neck just a little further and playfully pecks you on the lips, catching you off guard.

“Thanks Alex,” Katie murmurs in your ear, running a hand across your back. She leans in and gives you a quick peck too, and then the twins giggle at your temporarily stunned face.

“The pleasure was all mine,” you say, trying to recover smoothly.

“We’ll have thirty new followers after this photo goes up, but near a hundred thousand old ones will see you credited in the photo. So you might benefit too, hmm?” Khloe smiles, giving your arm a quick squeeze before she heads off.

The rest of the study session goes by without a hitch, and then you head over to psychology, which too flies by. You decide to catch up on your homework and then slide into soccer practice with barely a minute to spare (Daphne throws you a sharp look—she really doesn’t like people being late), and you get so caught up in training that you don’t get the chance to chat with Mars or Val until you’re coming back out the locker room, freshly spruced up.

Mars is wearing her usual, a cute dark top that exposes a bit of midriff, while Valentine seems to have gone all out. She’s changed into a deep V-cut sleeveless dress studded with white rhinestones—the kind of thing that you’d expect to see at a club, not casualwear to change into after soccer practice. The plunging neckline exposes a sharp amount of cleavage that’s plenty distracting as you approach the girls.

“You’re insane,” Mars says to Valentine. “Today’s a Monday! How could you possibly think that going into New York’s a good idea?”

“It’s a phenomenal idea,” Val laughs, causing her bust to jiggle against her dress. She winks and flashes you a knowing smile. “New York, concrete streets where dreams are made of…”

“Wait, going to New York was the secret plan that Val was talking about yesterday?” you exclaim, staring at her in confusion. “What are you going to do there?”

“What does it look like I’m going to do?” she says.

“Um… visit the UN?” you say, trying to figure out why she’s all dressed up like this.

“She’s going clubbing, Alex,” Mars says with a roll of her eyes.

Oh. That makes much more sense.

“I knew that,” you say with a confident nod of your head, which makes both the girls snort.

“You want to join me, Alex?” Val says, extending a hand towards you. “Train leaves in half an hour. We could have a wild, wild night together…”

“And I am not joining her, because I am not insane,” Mars interjects. “It’s one thing to try to use a fake on campus, but do you even know where you’re going tonight? If I want to get drunk, I’m going to go to the Theta fundraiser tonight, and there’s no chance I’ll be denied entrance. I’ve heard rumors about this fundraiser. They say it’s going to be a wild one too.”

You look back and forth between the girls, pondering the options that they’ve presented.

“Yeah, but New York is New York,” Val laughs, waving a hand. Then, she extends it back towards you again. “So, you coming or not?”

Katie +15
Khloe +15