Dead Twin

2

I threw the goddamn thing off my desk. Yes, I threw my phone off my desk. Was I proud? No. Of course not. But it got me awake. I shot up as if caffeinated to the max and picked my phone up off the wooden ground, giving it a small hug. Typical; the girl who couldn't live without her phone.

It was half seven in the morning, which meant I only had half an hour to get ready for the first day at my new school. My room had finally looked tidy. After a week of settling, unpacking and having small tours of the towns, my room was finally how I wanted it: with not a single piece of clothing in sight and not a single object out of place. White as light curtains draped over the large, protruding window, which overlooked into a beautifully organised garden that was full of colours. The pale doors of the closet was shut and my burnt-oak dresser was finally clear of stranded socks and misplaced bras. Although my arms were low-key aching from all the tidying, I got out of bed feeling accomplished, yet still guilt-ridden, and got ready for school. The uniform was a huge difference for me since we never wore a uniform and the dress code was pretty fair.

Since I had missed the bus, I had to get dropped off at school.

"Wake up a bit earlier, next time." My father smiled at me as I got out of the car. He then drove away because he doesn't start work yet.

How dare he?

He left me at this school, where I bet no one wanted me to be at. I was a bit tired to focus on whether this was real or not.

First day. First day at this crappy school without...

I didn't want to walk up to the small school nor did I want to walk up the stairs and through the doors.

I memorized the route... maybe I could turn back?

Who was I kidding? I had no guts to do such a thing.

Just by looking at the school, I could already predict what kind of school this was, one where all students knew each other, and all teachers knew all the students, meaning every teacher knew and understood the patterns of every child and every child knew and understood the school and its curriculum, all of which was about to undergo a disturbance due to the foreigner. The students all swarmed in like herd of angry wasps. There wasn't many students, of course, since the towns were exceptionally small, yet I could still see the younger and shorter students looking for paths up the stairs where they can avoid trampling. A few deep breaths later, after entering through the doors, I started to walk through the twists and turns of the student hallway. One minute inside the school and I was already lost. I had no timetable or anything because I was supposed to find my way to the main office. Instead I found the janitor's closet.

"Excuse me..."

I struggled to listen.

"We are all supposed to be at the assembly hall..."

A tiny, timid voice. A shy voice. Behind me was a pale girl with thin specs the size of her face. Her messy black fringe and hair fell around her face. She was only a bit smaller than me. She clutched her bag tight as I spun round. Her knuckles bared a snow-white as she avoided my gaze. At first I was stunned as I had thought she was a ghost.

"Where... is the assembly hall?" I asked.

She looked up; her grey eyes shot right through mine. It was breathtakingly hypnotizing and I wondered why that was. For some reason, something didn't feel right looking at her. A thick blur hovered over my eyes for a split second. Her whole face became blurred, with her eyes covered by huge black spots. When I blinked, everything went back to normal again. Maybe I'm just tired, I thought.

"Oh... you're new." She mumbled, loud enough for me to hear.

"How long did it take you to figure that out?"