As the Wind Changes (Camren)

Chapter 2

"You have the choice to fill your heart with kindness and only kindness."

According to research, 40% of twins develop their own language. The phenomenon is called idioglossia. It's a mechanism in which one twin models the disordered or incorrect speech of the other, leading to both twins using the same grammatical or speech sound errors. To the parents, it would sound like a foreign language and they'd be either fascinated or confused by it.

Mike and Clara were unmistakably the kind of parents who always got fascinated by their children so when Lauren and Mikaela developed some kind of secretive communication cues, they let them be. Their children were smart and creative so who were they to stop them from making up words and motions to interact with each other? They thought it was cute anyway.

Something that their parents didn't know about was that Lauren and Mikaela didn't start doing it because one of them had a hard time developing their speech. Sure, for some, Lauren was deemed a bit behind because she was so quiet compared to Mikaela. Now that girl really couldn't shut up. She could practically join the debate team by the time she was 6.

But Mikaela knew, as far as a 6 year old could comprehend, that her sister didn't have any trouble pronouncing words or anything like that, Lauren just didn't feel like words were necessary to express her emotions and such. Mikaela knew that Lauren communicated in a different way and so she learned to read all of Lauren's expressions and gestures.

Later on she told Lauren that whenever Lauren felt like the words were eluding her, she could just use their secret gestures. They came up with the gestures together and they felt like geniuses because they thought they had developed some sort of special sign language. Their parents could only agree and so they kept doing it.

This lasted all throughout their childhood and by the time they were 10, people assumed that their secret sign language was a thing of the past. They weren't completely wrong, but they just didn't know better. Lauren and Mikaela always remembered it though, how could they ever forget? And they were reminded about it again when something eventful happened in 6th grade.

When Lauren was 11, she punched a boy in the courtyard and then ran away from school. Her parents were frantic and they hurriedly went on a search for her. They had told Mikaela to just stay at home but the girl insisted that she had to come, that Lauren needed her. They spent the whole afternoon driving around the neighborhood looking for Lauren but to no avail.

Until Mikaela thought of something she couldn't believe she had overlooked. She practically ordered her parents to change direction and assured them that she knew what she was talking about. Mike and Clara didn't even question the girl. They knew how both of their daughters were. Strong-headed once they made up their minds.

To Mike and Clara's relief, Mikaela had been right and they found Lauren by the beach, making sand castles like nothing was wrong. Lauren could see her family approaching her but she paid them no mind. So her family decided to just sit down a couple of feet away from her, waiting for Lauren to finish the last tower of her castle.

When Lauren was satisfied with her work, she finally acknowledged them, making her way towards her family, head bowed and eyes darting aimlessly.

"Can we go home now?" She asked under her breath, fiddling with her fingers. From the corner of her eye, she saw Mikaela standing up and the next thing she knew, her sister was beside her. Mikaela didn't say or do anything else, she just stood there.

Mike hummed, brushing his chin in contemplation. "That depends."

"On what?" Lauren looked up, noticing that Mikaela had also bunched up her eyebrows in confusion.