Title: A Tale of Two Sisters
Other Info: Sequel to Janine's Story
Author: Yellow Rose of Texas
Rating: PG
Summary: Joy and Jyll Yamakawa are two sisters who don't understand each other. Their aunt Claudia and mother Janine have been there before. Hard times brought Claudia and Janine together. When Jyll and Joy experience a similar trial, will the result be the same?
"...Therefore, of course, the equation is balanced when both sides contain the same amount of each element. Most of you seem to understand this, but some of you seem to be trouble coming up with the correct numbers to balance out..."
Joyanna Yamakawa picked up a piece of what her chemistry teacher was saying, but he soon faded into the background as her own thoughts took over. She really ought to have been paying more attention since he was going over the daily quiz that had just been handed back.
But who could be expected to pay attention at a time like this? Today was a very important day. As soon as her final class (this class) was over, she would race over to the drama room. Why? Posted on the door would be the cast for the fall play. Aside from the one-act play in the spring, the fall play was the single most important thing to the drama students at Stoneybrook High School. And this year, it looked like Joyanna, who was usually called Joy, just might get the lead.
Someone sitting behind her gently kicked her heel. Joy responded by furtively placing her cupped hand behind her chair. She was rewarded with a folded up piece of paper, compliments of her newest friend whose name was Michelle.
It said: "Could this class get any longer? Race you to the drama room when the bell rings!"
Michelle was another drama student who had transferred to Stoneybrook at the beginning of the year. The friendship between Joy and Michelle was only a week old, but it seemed like they had been friends much longer. Both girls were competing for roles in the fall play, but luckily, they were not competing against each other for the lead. Michelle had decided to go for a different part instead, saying it was a much better showcase of her talents.
"...faced with an odd number of oxygen atoms on one side and an even number on the other side, you would then double..."
Joy glanced down at her quiz as though she were following along and once again, she winced at the failing grade that was staring back at her. Sure, it was just a quiz. But if it was any indication of what her future test grades would be like, Joy knew she had better figure out the reason why anyone would even care whether or not the equation was balanced, in addition to figuring out how to do it.
Ding - ding - ding...
The bell! Stoneybrook High School had just installed a new bell. Instead of the traditional Brrrriiing! sound, the new bell simply dinged. Seven times to be exact. It was especially helpful to a student trying to be on time to class. Many times, Joy had just barely made it into her seat by the time the bell had uttered its final ding.
Upon hearing it, Joy had to literally bite her own tongue to hold back cried of celebration. She couldn't help remembering that the last time she had expressed herself in that way at the end of the day, she had been given the assignment of writing an essay about the importance of decorum in the classroom.
It was Friday! Not only that, but they had a three-day weekend; Monday was Labor day. At last, the dreaded first week of school is over. And now... to the drama room!
Jyllina Yamakawa scribbled furiously in her notebook. At last, a challange had been prescribed to the curious young girl who had been waiting for one all week. After a terribly repetitive lesson in solving for more than one variable in an equation, the teacher finally put an especially long equation on the board and promised to reward the student who answered first.
High school doesn't seem much different than middle school thus far, Jyll thought bitterly, while solving for the last variable.The first week is still a tedious review.
Jyllina, who was usually called Jyll, shot her hand up in the air. She looked around the room and noticed that noone else had put their hand up yet. She had been first! In fact, the other students did not appear interested in being the first to solve the algebraic equation. A couple of girls were passing notes; one boy was secretly playing a game of Snake on his cell phone.
"Jyllina," her teacher, Mrs. Wheaton said. "Would you tell us your answers?"
"X equals 17," Jyll spoke softly, always embarrassed about having to speak in front of a large group of people. Particularly, the high school students who were two or three or even four years older than she was. "Y equals 8. And Z equals 2.5."
"Very good," Mrs. Wheaton smiled as she spoke. "I am impressed that you were able to solve such a complex equation so quickly. Who would ever believe that you were only twelve?" She stuck a blowpop on Jyllina's desk as her "reward."
"More like ten, from the looks of her," a voice whispered. The whisper was loud enough for Jyll to hear and apparently, that was the intention. Jyll felt her cheeks growing hot. It was true she was small and wore young-looking clothes, but she was sure that she looked older than ten.
Don't I?
Just then, the bell sounded. Jyll gathered up her books slowly, while the other students (most of whom had put their books away when they noticed that school would be out soon) rushed for the door, talking loudly all at once, all of them eager for a long weekend of freedom.
"Mrs. Wheaton," Looking at her shoes instead of her teacher, Jyll spoke in a voice so soft, it was nearly a whisper. "I should tell you... I'm thirteen now. Today is my birthday."
"Oh!" Mrs. Wheaton mused. "Forgive me, dear. Happy Birthday."
"Yes ma'am, thank you," a faint smile appeared on the lips of the shy girl. And then, in her usual quiet way, she gave a little wave as she slipped out the door.
Hazel Wheaton shook her head slightly out of sympathy for the girl. She had overheard the comment made earlier that was meant to be out of her earshot. And many other similar comments had preceded that one in the past week. Her youngest pupil may have been capable of the work, but Hazel wasn't so sure she was ready for the tough environment of high school. In fact, it was doubtful as to whether the girl would ever be ready, from the looks of her.
So different from her sister, Hazel thought. She remembered the older one, Joyanna, who had been in her Algebra class two years ago. The one who had been talkative and popular, yet unattentive and unenthusiastic and had barely managed to make a C in the class.
Sisters with no common ground.
Polar opposites.
Where had she seen such a pair before?
Hazel, who was getting older now and closer to retirement, let her mind wander back to a time, more than twenty years ago, when a similar pair had resided at Stoneybrook High School.
Janine and Claudia Kishi.
The only difference in this new case of opposites and the first was that the older sister had been the shy genius and the younger had been the popular one with poor study habits.
She wasn't sure which was the stranger case... the case of the mother and her sister or the case of her two daughters.
"Hey, guys, what's..." Lacey McMill stopped, looking very puzzled as two of her friends flew past her without so much as a hello. She watched them go, slightly annoyed at being brushed off.
"Can't talk!" Michelle called over her shoulder. "Drama room! Casting!"
"Oh!" Lacey remembered their conversation at lunch; this was a big day for her friends. She promptly hoisted her bookbag over her shoulder and joined in on the chase. On the way, she passed another friend, Christi Thompson.
"Casting!" Lacey reminded her.
"Oh, yeah!" Christi eagerly joined the dash to the drama room.
Joy halted at the cast list to wait for the others who had gotten stuck in the hallway traffic and were a few paces behind her. She refrained from glancing at the list until Michelle and her other friends had caught up. Her heart pounded as she contemplated her reaction if she won the role and then... her reaction if she did not.
She had plenty of experience in not getting the role she wanted. Last year, she had played a maid in the fall-show and child #2 in the one-act play. The year before, she had been a crew member and an alternate for both shows. Of course, those were good experiences. Humbling ones, too. Now, however, she was an upperclassman and nearly all of the people who won the big roles in the past shows had graduated. It was her time to shine.
"Ready for this?" Michelle looked equally nervous.
"When you are," Joy wrung her hands, her eyes dying to look just to her right.
"Okay, look!"
Collectively, they looked. And gasped.