Story of my Life

April 30, 2020

My name is Albany Parker. I am 15 years old. I have jet black hair with bright pink highlights, and always wear my hair in a ponytail. I stand five feet and three inches tall. I am writing this on the day of my death. No, I have not died yet, but I will soon. This is a death note for my parents, explaining how and why I killed myself, and not to alert the authorities once they find my bloody corpse on the floor of my bedroom. Perhaps, I am getting a bit ahead of myself,. I'm going to tell you why I am going to kill myself. It all started a few days ago….

The day was January 21, the year being 2020. In science class, we were talking about clones. Even though we all knew about them since they had been around for the past seven years. But, I didn't know how interested I would become in the process of cloning when we first talked about it. When I came home from school that day, I had told my parents that for my birthday, I wanted a cloning machine.

"They aren't that expensive anymore, and for my fifteenth, I would really like one. I would do better in science if I had a cloning machine." These are the exact words I used to convince my parents to buy me a cloning machine. You see, I just turned 15 three days ago. Which brings us to the day of my birthday.

When I got home from school that day, I had a large present awaiting me out on my front lawn. I thought it was a hover car, since I was getting my license that afternoon. But when I took off the wrapping paper, I found that my parents had bought me exactly what I had asked for: a cloning machine. I was so happy. At the time, I never thought that I would end up killing myself because of the gift that I had longed for. But, once again, I am getting ahead of myself. I just couldn't wait to get it started up and make a clone of myself.

After dinner, I made a mad dash for my room. When I got up there, I made a clone of myself. The only bad part about that (at the time) was that I had to spit into a tube. Well, I didn't have to. Instead I used a piece of hair, since any type of DNA was fine. But, the manual (my parents made me read it) said that the best type of DNA was saliva. But anyway, getting back to the story. Once I finished, the clone looked exactly like me. She acted exactly like me, too. But, I never would have thought that something went wrong.

I forgot to read the very last page of the manual. It was the warning signs that something went wrong with the clone. Within the first 24 hours, your clone isn't supposed to have your exact personality yet. That normally happens 24 to 48 hours after you make the clone. I didn't know that, since I got bored of reading the manual and decided to dump it in my garbage can. I decided to name her Ryann, just because it was a different name for a girl. The next day, I brought her to school with me.

Everyone said, "Albany, you have a twin?" All the attention made me smile, and sometimes even giggle.

"Of course not," I would simply answer. "My parents bought me a cloning machine for my birthday." When I told my best friends Itzeel and Mehvish, I could have sworn their eyes flashed green with envy for a moment.

"Wow." They said in unison. "You're so lucky." Itzeel said, looking at Ryann, then at me.

"I want a clone." Mehvish said, almost in a whine. I laughed at my friends.

"You guys can come by my house tonight and make one if you want." I offered. She brushed my side bangs out of my face with my index finger.

"Yes, it will be so totally awesome." Ryann spoke up, in an almost robotic, mono-tone-ish voice. Both Itzeel and Mehvish's faces went from excited to surprised.

"It can talk?" Itzeel asked, looking Ryann up and down. She was obviously shocked. This gesture reminded me why I was the smartest in the group.

"I'm not an 'it', I'm a she. And yes, I can talk. I'm not stupid." Ryann replied, becoming a bit meaner than I am. This was when I began to suspect something was wrong. But I let the suspicion slide since I sometimes had an attitude like that.

"Burn." Mehvish said, turning to Itzeel. She snickered a bit.

"Shut up!" Itzeel exclaimed, punching Mehvish hard in the arm. Mehvish rubbed her arm and both her and Itzeel walked to class.

"Come on, Ryann. We have to get to science. We're learning about clones." I told her, starting down the hall to my science class.

"Excellent, I should do very well, then." Ryann said, following me with a grim smile on her face, I took my seat and Ryann took the seat next to me. The bell rang. Everyone began talking, and I knew they were talking about me and my clone. I was the only person in my school with a clone, so I expected to be the most popular girl in school by my lunch period. I was quickly brought back to reality from my daydream when I heard the classroom door slam shut.

"Good morning, class." Mr. Motorola said as he walked into the room. He had his usual cheery smile plastered on his face. "Today, we will be learning more about the DNA of a clo-" he cut himself off as he laid eyes on my clone. "Why, Albany, I see you have a clone. What is it's name?" He asked cheerfully.

"Her-" I began to say, when I was cut off by my clone.

"I'm not an 'it', I'm a she. And my name is Ryann, if I must state it again." Ryann said, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest. I turned to my clone.

"Be nicer!" I said, talking to her like she was a little three-year-old. I turned to the teacher. "Sorry about her, she's, erm, malfunctioning a bit." I explained to the teacher.

"Oh, its fine." Mr. Motorola said. "Clones normally act up within the first 24 hours. Anyway, getting on with today's lesson." With that, he turned his back on the class and began writing the notes on the board. Then, Ryann turned to me and started acting all sweet.

"Sorry about that. Us clones are normally unstable for the first 24 hours." She explained. She looked pretty sincere about what she had said. I sighed.

"Its alright." I replied. I opened my notebook and began to copy down the notes; Ryann just sat there. That's when my crush, Remus, turned to me.

"You got a clone?" He asked in a whisper. I felt my face turn pink. Finally finding the ability to speak again, I answered.

"Yeah," was all I was able to say. My mouth was completely dry. I hoped that he thought I was just playing it cool.

"That's cool." He replied, then turned back to his own notebook. Ryann turned to me.

"You like him?" She asked quietly. I nodded, a bit embarrassed. "He's cute." She whispered, then turned back to face the front of the room. I know, I thought.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, people asking me about Ryann, and Remus talking to me. That's what really put me in a daze. Well, I was in a daze until I walked into the lunch room. My prediction had been right; I was the most popular girl in school, and it was only noon.

"Albany, come sit over here with your clone!" "Albany, Ryann, come sit with us!" was mostly the only things I heard until I got to my table.

I took the seat across from Itzeel and Mehvish, like I always do. Ryann took the empty seat next to me.

"What's for lunch today, girls?" I asked, taking out my own brown paper bag. I opened it and took out my sandwich, which was wrapped in tinfoil. Ryann had took out hers (my mom had packed her a lunch, too).

"Peanut butter and jelly." Mehvish said, taking her sandwich out of a zip-lock bag.

"Ew." I said, making a weird face. Mehvish new I was only joking. But seriously, I don't like jelly. Just peanut butter for me.

"Turkey and ham." Itzeel spoke up, unwrapping the saran wrap that surrounded her sandwich. I nodded in approval.

"I have ham and mayo, the best sandwich on earth." I said, unwrapping the tinfoil and taking a bite from my sandwich. Ryann unwrapped her own sandwich.

"Funny, I have the same thing." She analyzed, almost searching the sandwich for something. "Has your sandwich been cloned?" She asked, finally looking at me. I swallowed and laughed.

"No, my mom just packed us the same thing for lunch." I replied, still laughing a bit.

"Oh." She said. Finally, after inspecting the sandwich one last time, Ryann took a bite. When she swallowed, she smiled. "This is good." She said.

"Of course it is." I said, taking another bite of my sandwich. The next thing I knew, Remus came over. I nearly choked.

"Hey Remus." Ryann greeted him coolly. I almost choked again. How embarrassing.

"Hey. You're Ryann, right?" Remus asked. I was taken by surprise. How could my clone have so much confidence, and me so little?

"That's me. And, as I already stated, you're Remus." Ryann answered. I swallowed and started coughing.

"Are you ok?" Mehvish asked, looking concerned. Finally, I stopped coughing.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I answered, taking a sip from my water bottle. At that point, I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

"How did you know my name?" Remus asked Ryann. I was wondering the same thing.

"I'm Albany's clone, I know everything she knows." Ryann answered. "In fact I think your kind of cute." My eyes widened. If I had been eating something, I surely would have gladly choked and died. Did she say what I think she said, I thought. I looked at Mehvish and Itzeel, who were both looking at me. Their eyes screamed, she did not! My eyes screamed back, I know! We all turned back to the scene that was going on next to me.

"Well I think you're kind of cute, too." Remus said, acting all cool. I nearly fainted. No, I'm the one you think is cute, I screamed in my head.

"So, do you want to go out with me?" Remus asked my clone. At this point, I wanted to cry. What the hell was going on? My clone was ruining my life, yet a barely suspected a thing.

"Sure." Ryann simply answered, a grim smile playing across her lips. Then, they held hands. I grabbed my stuff and got the heck out of there, almost running to the bathroom. My friends bolted after me. They found my crying silently over the sink.

"Its ok, Albany. She's your clone, you have control over her." Mehvish said in a reassuring way. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My electric blue eyes were glassy and wet from tears. I wiped my tear-stained face, then turned to my friends.

"You're right." I realized. I turned back to my reflection. I pulled the elastic out of my hair, bent over, and put my hair back up into a perfect high pony. I stood up straight. "I'll just tell her to break up with Remus when we get home." I said. I took a deep breath and grabbed my books from the floor. The bell rang.

"Shoot, we better get to English. If I'm late again, Mrs. Gennosa will kill me!" Mehvish said, darting out of the bathroom. Itzeel and I laughed as we walked out of the bathroom. We caught up with Mehvish. That's when I spotted Ryann and Remus. They were holding hands. Lovely. I took a deep, calming breath, and walked over to them.

"Come on Ryann. We have English now." I told her. She turned to Remus.

"See you later." She said with a flirty smile. This made me internally spazz out. Thank God they didn't hug, I would have seriously ended up killing her. Itzeel, Mehvish, Ryann and I began walking down the hall.

"Hey Albany." I heard someone call from behind. I turned around to find that my friend Evan had been the one who said "hi". He had short blonde curly hair, blue eyes, and rectangular glasses.

"Oh, hey." I said with a smile. Everyone in the school knew that he liked me, even I knew. He had asked me out last year, which was when I said "Not in a million years!" in an extremely mean way. I regret that to this day, because he and I have been a bit distant since then. Evan is also in my English class; he sits next to me.

"Did we have any English homework?" He asked. Now walked next to me.

"I hope not. Because if we did, I didn't do it." I answered, laughing at myself a bit.

"Hey, since when do you have a twin?" He said, looking at Ryann. He almost looked like he wasn't sure if he was actually talking to me.

"Oh, you haven't heard? This is Ryann, my clone." I answered. Ryann looked Evan up and down.

"Hey." she said with a polite smile. We walked into English class and took our seats. Mehvish agreed to move one seat back so that Ryann could sit behind me. When the bell rang, Mrs. Gennosa came into the room. At this point, Evan and I were talking about the next community service project we were both going to do for Confirmation credits (we both go to the same church).

"Good morning boys and girls." Mrs. Gennosa said. I cringed a little. I always hated how she said boys and girls instead of guys. Or people. I really didn't care, she could have said good morning children, anything but boys and girls. It made me feel so, well, little.

We were watching the movie The Outsiders that day. Mehvish moved her desk to my left side; Evan moved his desk to my right. Bad for me, since I sometimes get a little claustrophobic. But I didn't that day. Mrs. Gennosa turned the movie on. Twenty minutes into the movie, Mehvish, Itzeel and I were drooling over the person playing Ponyboy. I could tell Evan was getting jealous, seeing the look on his face. Oh, and we weren't literally drooling. I was just over exadurating to get my point across. Another twenty minutes later, the bell rang. I gather up my stuff and Ryann and I were out of the class first.

"Dance Friday night. Think you're going to go with Remus?" I asked Ryann, looking in the direction of my locker.

"Probably." She said nonchalantly. Evan came walking up to Ryann and I and joined us.

"Hey Evan. You going to the dance Friday?" I asked him, now walking backwards.

"Nah, I normally don't go to dances." He said. Seriously, I thought. He's in tenth grade and he hasn't been to a single dance? Now that's just not normal.

"Why not?" I asked him, a confused look on my face.

"I can never find a date." He replied with a shrug. We continued to walk down the hall.

"You don't need a date to go to the dance. I'm going and I don't have a date." I told him.

"Well, I guess I might." He said. He probably changed his mind because he found out I was going.

"Cool. Maybe see you there." I said with a giggle. And with that, I stopped at my locker and opened it. I put my English binder away and grabbed by backpack, then slammed it shut. English is my last class of the day, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. I suppose I should skip to two days later. Nothing happened the day after that.

I decided to take a day off from clone-sitting for a day and didn't bring Ryann to school with me. But she came on her own. With spray paint. Lost and lost of spray paint. How was she not caught? She used a backpack to carry it in. The moment she walked into school, she walked straight into the bathroom and graffitied "Albany Wuz Here" on the wall. I'm the only Albany in the school, so it wasn't that hard to figure out who did it. But they had the wrong girl.

I had no idea why I had been called down to the principal's office until I got there. Now I knew that Ryann was ruining my life. But I wasn't sure if she was doing it on purpose or if she was just malfunctioning. I received after school detention for a month and a phone call home to my parents. Lucky, they were at work.

I stayed after science class to ask Mr. Motorola a question that day. "Mr. Motorola?" I said in a sweet voice. Ryann and Remus has already left holding hands.

"Yes Albany?" He said, looking through some papers on his desk. He looked up at me and then stood up.

"My clone is acting really weird. She spray painted 'Albany Wuz Here' on the bathroom walls and I got in trouble. She was just fine the first 24 hours…" I was interrupted by Mr. Motorola.

"Oh no, you say she was fine the first twenty four hours?" He asked concerned. I nodded, a bit scared of what was coming next. "Do you remember the man we talked about when we first began the clone unit?" He said.

"Yeah, Aaron McRunch." I said. I remembered that lesson, but not too clearly. I wondered where he was going with this.

"Do you remember what happened to him?" Mr. Motorola said, sitting on the edge of his desk. I wondered why he was giving me a random oral quiz when I was trying to ask him a question.

"Yeah, didn't his clone kill him or something?" I asked, trying to remember if that answer was right.

"Yes. His clone did kill him. And do you know why?" the teacher asked. I shook my head. "His clone was absolutely fine the first twenty four hours, which isn't supposed to happen. Clones aren't stable for the first day. But since his was, it went bad. His clone proceeded to ruin his life because the clone wanted to take over the man's life. So the clone killed his owner." He explained.

The color drained from my face. "You are to face the same fate unless you destroy your clone, and soon." He said. I nodded, my mouth half open.

"Thanks Mr. Motorola." I said in a daze. I left the classroom in a state of shock. My clone was ruining my life and I didn't even know it up until then. I walked to my locker and opened it. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Ryann and Remus were making out right in the middle of the hallway. My eyes widened. I wanted to cry. I felt like I was going to pass out.

I took a deep breath. "Ryann!" I shouted. I felt really weird making them stop kissing, almost like a teacher, Ryann and Remus immediately stopped kissing and both looked over at me. "Come here." I told her. She sighed.

"One second." She said in a small whisper to Remus. She winked, then walked over to me. "What?"

I took a deep breath. For so long, I had wanted a clone, and now that I finally had one, I had to destroy it. I had to destroy my own DNA. "I have to destroy you." I said sadly.

"What?" Ryann asked me, very confused. That was a completely different reaction from what I had expected. I took another deep breath. "Something went wrong when I cloned myself and I have to destroy you or…" I cut myself off. I couldn't tell her that she would destroy my life if I didn't destroy her. She might have killed me. "Or I'll die. You don't want tat, do you?" I said, thinking quickly.

"Are you so sure about that?" Ryann said with a devilish half smile. And with that, she walked back to Remus. They walked away holding hands. I could barely breath. I leaned against the locker, slid down the wall, and then all went black.

About two hours later, I woke up in the hospital. I sat up in bed quickly. I realized that I was hooked up to an IV. I had passed out. A nurse came in to check on me.

"Ah, you're awake." She said happily. I'll go get your friends." With a smile, the nurse walked out and about two minutes later, Mehvish and Itzeel walked in. Well, more like they ran in and scared me half to death. Mehvish practically crashed into the IV. But she didn't.

"Are you ok!?" They screamed simultaneously.

"I'm fine. Except for Mehvish almost crashing into the IV and you both screaming quite loud. But otherwise, I'm ok." I said with a smile. We all laughed.

"Good," Mehvish said, after we all calmed down. "We don't know what we would do without you." She finished her sentence. Itzeel nodded in agreement. I smiled.

"What happened?" I asked. My parents weren't there because they were in Hawaii at the moment on a business trip.

"We're not exactly sure. They're watching the video tapes at the school right now to see why and exactly when you fainted." Itzeel explained. "All of a sudden from our class, we heard something crash again the lockers, so we ran outside and found you on the floor unconscious." She finished.

"I screamed, naturally." Mehvish said, looking a little embarrassed at this fact.

"Only Mehvish." I said with a small giggle. Its an inside joke, don't ask.

"Hey!" Mehvish explained, placing her hands on her hips and looking at me in a defensive way.

"You know its true!" I exclaimed, pointing at her in an incriminating way. The nurse came in again with a T-phone.

"You have a T-phone call." The nurse said, placing the T-phone on the table next to me. She turned on the screen and I saw my parents.

"Albany! We're so glad to hear you're ok!" My mother exclaimed. I smiled again.

"I'm fine, mom." I said with a smile. I played with a piece of my hair. That's when I realized that it wasn't up in a ponytail. I grabbed the hairpiece on the table next to the T-phone and put my hair up.

"Well, we have to go. We'll see you in a few days." My mom said with a smile.

"Ok, bye." I smiled t my mother as the monitor of the T-phone went blank. The nurse came in and took the T-phone out of the room. In case you didn't know, a T-phone is a five by five inch screen. Kind of like a webcam and a screen. Finally, I realized it was dark outside. "What time is it?" I asked, turning back to my friends. Mehvish took out her cell phone.

"Ten." She said, looking at the screen, then at me.

"Ten?" I repeated, astonished. My eyes were wide. I couldn't believe it was that late. "At night?" I asked.

"Yup." Mehvish said, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Wow." I wondered how long I had been knocked out for. The nurse came back in and took the IV out of my arm, which was quite painful since the tape stuck to my arm like glue.

"You can go home," She said as she finished. "Your friends are going to sleep over your house tonight to make sure you're alright." I smiled my thanks. I hopped out of bed and went into the bathroom to get changed back into my normal clothes. When I came out of the bathroom, I gathered my things and Mehvish, Itzeel and I left the hospital together.

When we got to my house, we all went into my room and got changed into pajamas. When we went into the kitchen to get a late night snack, we saw that Ryann was in there.

"Since when do you have a house key?" I asked curiously.

"Since when do you need to be aware of what I do and don't have?" Ryann asked back. That was it, I had snapped.

"Itzeel, Mehvish, go wait in my room." I ordered, glaring at Ryann. Ryann got up to leave. "Not you." I said. She sat back down. Itzeel and Mehvish left.

"What's up, Albany?" Ryann asked in a sweet, innocent voice. Slowly, I made my way to the silver wear draw.

"Ryann, ever since I made you, I have regretted I had done so." I opened the draw and clenched a sharp stake knife in my hand. I continued with my speech. "You've ruined me life to the point where there is no chance of me ever getting it back. So with this, I say good-bye to you." I said. I was ready. Ready to kill Ryann, once and for all.

"Good-bye?" She asked in a confused voice, turning around just in time to see a stake knife flying toward her chest. The last thing heard from her was an ear-piercing scream, then, silence. As the blood flowed from her chest, along the knife, to my hand, I felt accomplished. I felt happy. I felt as thought a burden was lifted off my shoulders.

Before any more blood made it to my hands, Ryann's body glitched, then disappeared like a hologram. I put the knife in the sink and washed my hands. As I turned off the faucet, Itzeel and Mehvish ran into the kitchen.

"What happened!?" Mehvish screamed.

"We heard you screaming, is everything ok? Did you see a ghost?" Itzeel asked, very concerned.

"I'm fine. Mehvish, don't have a heart attack." I said with a smile. Itzeel looked around the room.

"Wasn't Ryann in here when we left?" She asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, she was in here before. Where is she now?" Mehvish also looked around the room. They looked as though they were waiting for Ryann to jump out from under the table and scream 'Surprise!'.

"Well," I began. "Ryann had a bit of a…" I paused for a moment, searching for the right words to use. "Accident." I finished.

"What do you mean?" Mehvish asked, brushing some of her hair out of her eyes.

"You guys might want to sit down." I advised them. Itzeel and Mehvish did as they were told. I sat down across the table from them. "You see, Albany was evil." I began with my story. "She planned on killing me from the start, So when I told you guys to wait in my room for me, I wanted to talk to Ryann. But while my back was turned, Ryann took out a steak knife. When I turned back around, Ryann had an evil smile on her face and was walking toward me. I asked her what she was going to do and she said, 'You'll fine out.'" Itzeel and Mehvish leaned forward, as if being told a scary story.

"As she came closer to me, she tripped over her own feet, stabbing herself in the heart by accident. I grabbed her body, her blood now traveling from the knife to my hands. Before any more blood could spill, her body disappeared, and the knife dropped to the floor. She screamed as she fell, which is what you guys hear, I washed the knife and my hands in the sink, and that's when you guys came running." I finished.

"Wow, what a sad way to die." Itzeel said.

That night, Mehvish and Itzeel went to bed with sorrow in their hearts. My heart was light, free. My heart was like a caged bird that was finally set free. I was happy that that I had killed Ryann, and even happier that Mehvish and Itzeel had believed my lie. That was an advantage of being a good actress.

But still, my life was not back to normal. It would never be. That's why after a whole night of thinking, I decided to kill myself the next day, which is today, the day I am writing this note. That night, Itzeel and Mehvish fell asleep without knowing what fate I had decided for myself.

This morning, we got dressed, ate breakfast, and Itzeel and Mehvish left. I waved them good-bye with what I thought was the biggest smile in the history of the world. I walked back into my house with a heavy heart. I walked into my bedroom and began writing this note. And with this, I say good-bye to this world, my friends, and my family.

May 1, 2020,

This is Mehvish, writing on Albany's note. I just thought that I would let Albany's parents know how she died. I witnessed her death first hand, and couldn't believe it. As I walked back into Albany's room to get the sweatshirt I had forgotten, I watched Albany stab herself in the heart with a butcher knife. As the blood spilled from her body, tears spilled from my eyes. I'm sorry for Albany's death, and know for a fact that Itzeel, Evan, Remus and I will do anything we can to help with the funeral.