Twins

TWINS

“You think you’re hot shit! You’re not!!” screamed Quinn.

”Like you’re any better!” mocked Zoe

”At least people like me!” goaded Quinn.

The twins were in Quinn’s room. Fighting. Like always. Their parents were confused—how could two people so completely alike dislike each other so completely?

Zoe picked up Quinn’s hairbrush and whipped it towards her sister’s head. Quinn had the wherewithal to duck, so the brush thumped into the wall instead of her face, leaving an indentation.

”Dad’s going to kill you for putting a hole in the wall,” said Quinn.

Zoe rolled her eyes. “You’re an idiot. It’s not a hole, it’s a dent. And, duh, it’s your room, your dent, your problem.”

Zoe turned on her heel and marched out of Quinn’s room.

Quinn grabbed a textbook and heaved it after her departing sister, missing but hitting the wall with a thump. Another dent in the wall.

”Basic bitch!” Quinn yelled after her sister.

Quinn and Zoe were identical twins. Identical twins who were not close, not anywhere near close at all. No twin-speak for Quinn and Zoe—no, just screaming and fighting until the one or the other broke.

They had never gotten along, even when they were babies. If either one was being held by someone, the other screamed and fussed until they were picked up—not by someone else, but by the same person holding their sister. They fought about high chairs and cribs. One always wanted what the other had.

Dak and Priscilla, their parents, learned quickly that everything in the girls’ lives had to be exactly the same. Anytime one got something, the other had to have one identical to her sister’s. Same thing, but different colour would not cut it. Close would not cut it. Things had to be exactly the same. They were jealous of each other, worried that the other had more, or better, or nicer.

When the girls were eight, just after Dak and Priscilla had resigned themselves that buying two of everything was a way to keep the peace, the girls changed their collective minds. Again. They decided they could not stand to have anything remotely similar to what the other had. Twin Identity Competition the literature called it. If Quinn got a dress, Zoe wanted a book. If Zoe got a skateboard, Quinn wanted a drone. And so it went. Christmases were mine fields.

But, as they got older and started to understand money, any gifts either one received had to be matched with a gift worth exactly the same amount of money. If one present was even one dollar more than the other, there were screams of “not fair” and accusations of favouritism. Dak and Priscilla often regretted their life choices every time they tried to buy gifts for their daughters.

And they were competitive. But not just I’m-better-than-you competitive. No. More along the lines of I-will-die-trying-to-be-better-than-you competitive. Sports, school, extracurriculars, familial love—everything was a competition. If Quinn got a “B+” on an assignment, Zoe would mock her relentlessly because she got an “A”. If Zoe didn’t have as many playing minutes in soccer, Quinn told everybody who would listen that Zoe was mid.

And they regularly got into fights with each other—not just screaming fights but physical fights. One of the girls would get so frustrated that they would launch herself at the other. It was like they were in the octagon. Kicking, punching, biting, hair pulling, scratching. Fights that would leave each bloody and bruised. Dak and Priscilla had suffered injuries trying to separate the girls, and often wondered if they could move away, and just let their daughters go completely feral. Who could blame then?

Zoe and Quinn couldn’t agree on anything. Couldn’t agree on which movie to watch as a family, which restaurant to go to for birthdays, or what to do during summer vacation. Each was as contrary as the other, and just as stubborn. Dak and Priscilla constantly wondered what they had done wrong.

Miraculously, now that they were in their teens and attending high school, it seemed that each twin had finally settled into their own person. Sure there was still plenty of bickering and fighting, but because they travelled in completely circles, there was more silence in the house as they pointedly ignored each other. Neither Priscilla nor Dak had expected that having two seventeen-year-olds was going to be the first time that the house was quiet. But neither one mentioned it, afraid they would jinx the détente that had unexpectedly sprung up in their home.

Both girls were in grade eleven at the same school. But it was a big school, so they didn’t see too much of each other. They had their own classes, their own friends, their own interests. And they studiously tried to have nothing to do with each other. They actually went out of their way to not enter the other’s sphere. They just happened to have the same last name and happened to look like each other. But that was it. They were not friends. Different girls, different friend groups. That was it. Nary the twain shall meet was the twin’s unspoken philosophy at school. If their paths did happen to cross, they ignored eachother as if they didn’t exist—mutual exclusion.

Zoe and her best friend Isaac belonged to the “floaters” clique—they didn’t really belong to any one group, but were accepted into a number of different ones. They were inseparable at school, always together. A lot of people thought that they were a couple, but they weren’t. They were just super-close friends who had known each other since grade five when Isaac’s family moved into the neighbourhood. They had most of the same classes, and hung out with a loose group of other “floaters”. Both tended towards the nerds but were also part of the “normie” group, although Zoe did hang out with some of the goths—she liked some of the music and black was her wardrobe staple. But she didn’t go in for the black makeup or piercings. Quinn accused her of being EMO for attention.

Quinn, on the other hand, was firmly ensconced in the “popular” clique. She and her two main girlfriends, Jemma and Olivia, were on the cheer squad, involved in student government, and tended to pretty much look like each other. Even though Quinn and Zoe were the actual identical twins, Quinn and her girls were more twinny—same clothes, same hair, same accessories, same “oh my God!” moments, which caused Zoe to roll her eyes at the drama. They were the queen bees at school. In fact, the triad was known as The Three Bees—the most popular girls at the school. Everybody wanted to be their friends. Except Zoe. Quinn saw her social standing as being better than Zoe’s. Zoe saw Quinn’s school life as exhausting and performative, calling Quinn a mean girl. Each was happy they didn’t have the other’s life.

Quinn tried to flaunt her importance to Zoe. But Zoe didn’t care. She had Isaac, and that was enough. She was smart, played a bit of basketball and volleyball (never the best player, just good enough to make the team). She was also a whiz with a computer, which ticked Quinn off because if she had tech trouble she had to ask Zoe for help. Quinn hated asking Zoe for anything. And Zoe, just to rub it in, would talk to her in a condescending voice and charge her for her time. More than one screaming match had resulted from Quinn needing Zoe to solve her current phone problem.

So, life at the Beecham’s house was not a calm, cohesive home. It was full of tension, disruptions, dirty looks, and snarks. But it was better than all-out war. And quieter. Dak and Priscilla were each secretly looking forward to a future when the girls would be off at university—different universities, both far, far away from home and from each other. A parent can dream, right?

And that’s how it went—enemies related to each other and forced to live in the same house.

That is until Zoe happened to be stopped in the hall at school reading one of the reminder boards on her way to chemistry class. She had her back to the corridor, which was probably why Quinn’s best friend Jemma didn’t see her when she started talking smack about Quinn.

”God! I can’t wait to see her face when Kai dumps her!”

Kai? There was only one Kai in school and he was Quinn’s boyfriend. Zoe took out her phone and started recording, making sure to catch their reflections in the glass front of the message board.

“No kidding! She’s going to freak! I hope she ugly cries!” Zoe recognized Quinn’s other BFF Olivia by her nasally upspeak twang. Everything that came out of Olvia’s mouth sounded like a question.

”I know, right? He’s going to do it at her locker after school,” said Jemma. “She thinks she’s so important—Student Council president, head of the cheer squad.” She wagged her head side to side. “She’s even a twin, for God’s sake. She’s sooooo precious!” Zoe knew sarcasm when she heard it.

These two catty girls were supposed to be Quinn’s best friends. Apparently not. For three years Zoe had heard nothing but Jemma-this, and Olivia-that. Besties, besties, besties. The three of them were so simpatico—bought the same clothes, same haircuts, same hangers-on in their popular group. Everybody wanted to be friends with “The Bees.” It seemed like two of the Three Bees were planning a coup.

”It was the best when you told him she was cheating on him with Zoe’s weird friend, Isaac. As if!” Zoe watched Olivia in the reflection in the glass front of the notice board. Obvious eye roll.

The Bees had her full attention now. They were accusing Quinn of cheating with Isaac! The same Isaac who thought Quinn and her friends were as substantial as clouds! And they were trying to get him killed. Kia was huge, and all muscley from working out all the time. He could seriously hurt Isaac. Hell, he could seriously hurt a brick wall.

Jemma snorted. “Isaac. Can you imagine? Even Quinn wouldn’t stoop that low! But I told Kai that Isaac had a thing for twins. You know …” she slapped the heels of her hands together mimicking making out.

Olivia whinnied, “You did not!”

Jemma gave her friend a full-watt smile. “I did so, and I also offered to be there if he needed to ‘talk.’” She made air quotes around the word talk.

“Nobody messes with Kai. He’s probably going to want to fight Isaac, you know, to let everyone know not to screw with his girl—even it she is a slut.”

Jemma smiled again. “Yeah. And I’ll get to tell Kai what a big strong man he is, and tell him he had every right to defend his honour because his girlfriend is a cheating whore. I will make it sooo easy for him to move on from Quinn to me.” Jemma folded her arms across her chest looking smug. “She’s not so wonderful now, is she!”

Olivia leaned in. “Do you think she’s seen the posts yet?”

”I hope so! She’s going to ….”

The girls walked into their English class, so Zoe couldn’t hear anything else they had to say. But she’d heard enough.

Zoe stopped her recording, and thought. This was bad. Not that she really cared about the drama with Quinn and her friend group, but this was a scorched earth attack—on both of them. Nobody gets away with that.

Zoe was late to chemistry, so she didn’t have time to tell Isaac what was probably waiting for him after school. She tried to concentrate on Mr. Williams’s lecture about chemical bonds—he was talking about how important it was to understand chemical bonds so you didn’t blow yourself up. Good to know, she thought. But instead of paying attention, she fidgeted in her seat waiting for him to finish talking. When he assigned seat work, she turned to Isaac.

“Watch the video,” she said, handing him an ear bud and sliding her phone to him under the table.

Isaac’s face paled as he watched. When he finished, he handed her back her phone and ear bud, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

”Shit. I’m dead,” was all he said.

Zoe shook her head. “I’m not worried. You’ve got moves. But I want to stop this before it’s a thing.”

”How?”

Zoe sighed loudly,thinking over her options. Mr. Williams looked at her. “Everything okay, Miss Beecham?”

”Yup,” said Zoe, opening her chem textbook to the pages written on the board. Isaac followed suit. When Mr. Williams returned to his desk, Zoe leaned towards Isaac, and spoke quietly. “I’m going to have to go into the lion’s den.”

Isaac’s eyes widened. “No! You’re not!”

”Yup. I’m going to have to talk to Quinn. In public. At school.”

Chemistry was the second-to-last class of the day. Zoe had to find Quinn before the end of the day, to warn her, and to stop Kai from pulverizing Isaac. Zoe knew that Quinn’s last class was AP English. Zoe hustled to the other end of the school to catch her sister.

Quinn saw her running towards her, and stepped back. “Eww. Get away from me!” she said, holding out her hands like she was a traffic cop.

Zoe ignored her, pulling her phone out of her pocket and starting the video. She shoved the phone into Quinn’s face.

”What are you—“ she started. Then stopped. And listened and watched. When the clip was over, Zoe turned the phone off and looked at her twin. Quinn pulled out her own phone and checked the grade eleven chat. Her face paled. She turned her phone so Zoe could read.

According to an account that was supposedly Quinn’s, she was sleeping with Isaac, had said that Kai was a muscle-bound idiot, had talked trash about everyone in their social group, debased the entire cheer squad, and called the entire Student Council losers. As well, Quinn and Zoe were supposedly going to fight each other today after school—the winner got Isaac, like he was some sort of trophy.

Zoe stared at the posts, then swiped her finger across the screen. ”All the posts were made during lunch, today,” said Zoe. “Did you hang out with Olivia and Jemma at lunch?”

”No, I had a Student Council meeting with the principal and the prom committee.” She shook her head.. “I didn’t write any of this.” She looked imploringly at her sister. “What am I going to do?” she whispered.

Zoe had computer class next, and she had a plan. “Meet me at my locker after school. Don’t go to your locker—you want to avoid Kai.”

Zoe jogged to her class, and slid into the room just as the bell signalled the beginning of class. Today was a work period, so Zoe got to work—just not on the class assignment. Instead, she copied then deleted all of the offending posts. She then created a few new posts that included her video, another post showing that Quinn’s account had been spoofed, and showed evidence that the original posts were from Jemma’s phone, not Quinn’s. Just to make sure there was no confusion, she included CCTV clips of Quinn meeting with the principal at lunch, then Jemma and Olivia in the cafeteria, leaning together, laughing as Jemma typed something on her phone. She knew that she was probably going to get suspended for hacking the school CCTV, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She was going to wait until after school to post her evidence.

But she did send the video directly to Kai’s phone—hopefully he’d see it before he beat the crap out of Isaac.

After class, Quinn was waiting for Zoe at her locker. She looked grim.

“Everybody’s acting weird. They’ve read the posts. Joey, one of the cheer squad catchers called me a slut.” Her eyes welled up. “I thought he liked me.”

“Shake it off,” said Zoe. “According to the posts we’re supposed to fight after school. Let’s go fight.”

They found a group of about fifteen people waiting for them by the blind spot outside the gym.

Jemma and Olivia looked smug. Zoe opened her phone, pressed “post,” and smiled. Dings sounded all through the group. Everyone pulled out their phones and opened their notifications.

Zoe could hear Jemma and Olivia’s tinny voices overlapping as everyone watched the video. People started looking from Jemma and Olivia to Quinn and Zoe. Whispers travelled through the group.

Jemma’s head snapped up, fixing on Quinn and Zoe. “You bitches!” She yelled.

Olivia just stood there with her mouth open, catching flies.

Zoe just smiled at them. The crowd continued to mumble and point. Jemma twisted her head side to side, searching for a sympathetic face, and failing. Olivia just stood there, stunned.

”I’m going to kill you!” screamed Jemma, rushing towards Zoe, hands hooked into claws, ready to scratch Quinn and Zoe’s eyes out.

”Bring it!” said Quinn, a malevolent smile on her face.

Jemma and Olivia rushed the twins.

*****

Quinn and Zoe sat outside the principal’s office, waiting for Dak and Priscilla to come and get them. They didn’t look any worse for wear, onside ring that they’d just been in a fight. The same could not be said for Jemma and Olivia. A lifetime of fighting with each other had prepared them for today’s battle.

They were both getting a two day suspension for fighting. Luckily, people in the crowd had uploaded the fight video, and the principal had seen Jemma and Olivia make the first moves, so they were gone for a week.

”Thanks,” said Quinn, quietly.

”Shut up,” said Zoe. “Don’t talk to me.”

They both smiled, not looking at the other.