Despite All Obstacles Part II

Two Unusual Twins

PATTHEW'S STORY

Tuesday, September 4th

This morning.

I wake up for another day of sophomore year. I look at myself in the mirror and see a fifteen-year-old boy with long straight blonde hair, a left brown eye and a right blue eye. It's called heterochromia, which means everyone else with normal eyes have "homochromia". See what I did there?

After I took a shower and did my daily hair wash, I go back into my room to find something to wear. I'm planning on wearing my new red plaid shirt. But it's not in the closet.

I roll my eyes and annoyedly sigh. This happens a lot. I walk to my brother's room and bang on the door. His pop music is so loud, I'm not sure if he could hear me knocking.

"MATT!" I roar and slap the door even harder. The doorknob clicks and I open the door.

Once I open the door, the pop music is even louder. The F....

He's wearing my new shirt. Jerk. I cross my arms.

"That's my shirt, jerk," I curse at him. I usually think actual curse words when I'm at home.

He slowly turns around from the mirror and looks at me. This is Matthew, my identical twin. Unfortunately, he's three minutes older than me. We look exactly alike, except his hair is light brunette like our mom's and our eyes are mirrors to each other.

"What, bro? Don't I look good?" He brags.

"You look like a con artist," I answer.

"It was a rhetorical question, Patty." He smiles at me.

I hate when he calls me that. It's like saying my name is Patricia instead of Patrick. No one knows anyone named Patthew, but everyone knows a Matthew, even his name is in the Bible. Also, I'm the only blonde in this family. I call it the "magic gene".

"When I get my own place, I'm making sure you don't take anything from it. I'll be watching you like a dog," I warn him.

"Ouch. What if I have to use the bathroom?"

He really thinks it's funny. "I'll be standing at the door."

"What if you have to use the bathroom?" Annoying, much?

"You'll have to wait outside with the front door locked on your way out until I'm finished, and you can come back in, unless I have a dog. I'll train it to treat you like a suspect."

"That's funny, bro. You know we have telepathy against each other, right?"

I shrug. "And that's why when you visit, it'll be either me or someone else to make sure you don't stay out of my sight." Yes, I'm that petty.

"Wooow. That's pretty harsh of you, Patty. I'll wash your shirt this weekend. Happy?" He usually does wash my clothes after wearing them, which is blackmail for me to wash his.

"Yes." I give him a passive-aggressive smile. Jerk.

After getting dressed, we rush downstairs for homemade breakfast. Mom can really cook. She made grits, flapjacks and hash browns. She doesn't eat pork because she's Jewish.

"Good morning, my grown baby boys!" She happily hugs us tight and kisses each of us on the foreheads.

"'Morning," we both say at the same time as we dive in.

Her name is Clareese Thanksgiving, but dad calls her Clare, and her maiden name is St. Patrick. What is with the holiday names, mom? Anyway, she's a journalist and a housekeeper. She works at a motel during school hours and does journaling on the weekends. She can be overbearing, overprotective and meddling. Matt and dad can't stand it. I just tolerate it because I know she worries. She is where Matt and I have longer hair, where it grows really fast on our heads.

"Boys, I know your birthdays are coming up on Tuesday, so I will need you both to come straight home after school for a family gathering for your birthdays," our dad announces.

"Okay," we say with our mouths full. His name is Vincent Thanksgiving, but mom calls him Vince. He's a meteorologist for FOX 11 News. He does the afternoons and evenings. It's like he has psychic powers when it comes to the weather. The whole California loves him for it. He can be so strict and serious. He only cares that we do well in school and go to a good college. Also, he's Christian, and he can eat pork, but just not in front of mom.

Because our parents are in different religions, we go to mom's synagogue on Saturday mornings and dad's church on Sunday mornings. Matt and I liked dad's church better, so we decided to become Christians and eat pork. However, dad wants us to stay Hebrew for mom, despite eating pork for choosing Christianity over Judaism by heart.

After breakfast, Matt and I shove each other and race to the front seat of mom's car. Of course, he beats me, again.

I go to the backseat and pout at him. He smiles at me through the rearview mirror, and I stick my tongue out at him.

Mom comes into the car. "All right, boys. You will be sixteen, next week. No more fighting over the seat."

She drives us to Palm Trees Sr. High, a gifted private school for tenth to twelfth grade. We even went to their junior high in seventh to ninth grade and its elementary in third to sixth grade. All three schools have palm trees at the entrances and backs, but built differently, in one spot.

We transferred from Palos Hills Elementary because no one was doing anything for the fraternal twins who were the only African American students there. They were a boy and a girl, named Jerome and Jerrica Woods. Palos Hills was a predominantly Caucasian public school, even though there were also some Chinese students and adults. We were there for pre-k to second grade.

The twins were racially bullied, and mom wrote a story about it and gave the story to dad to show his job. Matt told her. He showed his job, and they reported it on the news and the principal was suspended for three days. It made mom furious that the principal didn't get fired that she pulled us out from Palos Hills to Palm Trees, which is a diverse private school.

She loved Palm Trees Elementary so much, she decided Palm Trees should be our lives, which she did made happen. Most of our peers at Palm Trees Sr. High actually went to both junior high and elementary. So, whoever didn't go to those schools at all are the new ones.

After mom drops us off, Matt and I go our separate ways. We fist bump and salute "see-ya" as we walk away from each other. He joins the football team, the Parrots, and I join my best friend for seven years, Ryan Hogsburg, and our good friend from music, China Xi. I call Ryan bro, because he doesn't have a nickname, and I call China Shortcake, because she's short.

Bro, Shortcake and I take music together on Day B's. Bro plays the piano; Shortcake plays the violin; and I play the saxophone. We're like the band geeks as Matt is like a jock in high school movies. We know Shortcake from last year in junior high when she was new, and we became cool ever since. We go to the library to study and do homework and go to each other's houses to do hobbies and practice for the marching band. We are the best band ever.

When Matt and I were new to Palm Trees Elementary, we had our first class together. A classmate called us "the alien twins" and everyone laughed. Bro was the first to defend us by calling us cool. "I think they're cool. Because they are cool. They look cool too."

"Thanks," I said. "Uh-huh," Matt said. On that day, bro became a good friend to us. He started sitting with us during lunch, every day, when we had no one else.

Matt, bro and I became The Three Stooges. We were going to call each other The Three Musketeers, but the name was too common by other trios and decided something different. We became best friends.

We did a lot of fun stuff together and we were the reason The Hawks, our baseball team, became champions and went on fun trips.

Once all three of us started sixth grade, popularity took my brother. We used to have a lot of things in common. He was tired of being seen as an unusual twin and thought popularity was going to help him make friends easily, so he joined the football team and is a pro-QB.

He hung out with the popular crowd and flirted with girls a lot in junior high. He seems to really love being popular because it pays off. I wasn't interested in being popular, neither was bro. I would say popularity changed Matt a little bit. He became more confident and outgoing, and bro and I don't really see him that much, but he does come around to just play video games and sit with us during lunch, as we are still The Three Stooges 'til this day.