CHAPTER TEN

The hallways were a confusing twist and turn of identical slate blue walls banked with walls of lockers, the only differentiating features being the posters and flyers stapled to cork boards or else sometimes just taped onto the walls. It hadn't been that long since he was in a high school, but it had taken him the three years he had been in that one in order to even hope to find his way around. He felt the crisp manila folder in his grip crinkle slightly as he clutched it, sweat from his palms making it awkward and uncomfortable to hold. He looked dumbly between the classroom doors on either side of the hall, half hoping that the boy he was searching for would simply jump out and go 'boo'. It would certainly make it easier to find him.

"Robins!" He heard the name being called and wheeled around on instinct at the noise, hoping that whoever it was could help him find the room he was looking for. "Robbins, what are you doing out of class?"

Glancing over his shoulder as if to see who else the man could possibly be talking to, he looked back at the somewhat imposing high school administrator before pointing vaguely at his own chest. "Me?"

"Oh very cute Robbins. Yeah, you. Come on. Back to class with you. I don't care what kind of war you've got going with the perfs this week, I can't have you people just wandering the halls whenever you like. This school isn't just here for your band to hold practices you know, you are actually supposed to be learning something while you're here. Why did Mr. March let you out of class in the first place?"

"Uh…?" he started, completely at a loss as to how to even begin explaining the situation he currently found himself in.

"You know what? It doesn't even matter. I'm going to have a word with Mr. March about letting his students wander the hallways. Come on Robbins!"

The administrator took off without checking to see if he was still behind him, obviously just assuming the boy would follow. Shrugging to himself, he did just that, following briskly only a few paces behind him, having to almost jog to keep up with the older man's longer strides. This wasn't exactly how he had planned for things to go down, but at least he wasn't lost anymore.

Mr. March was standing in front of a room full of students, trying to convince them that the Prussian Wars were actually really cool as he hopped around the front of the room, talking animatedly and throwing in words like 'dope' and 'supah-fly' on a regular basis.

Zander was sitting in his usual seat, tapping his pencil in a beat against the desk in between scribbling lyrics in his notebook. Stevie's head was bobbing to the music coming softly through one of the headphones hidden underneath her hair. Kayce was up front, a fashion magazine hidden between the pages of her history book. Only Nelson and Kevin actually looked like they were paying attention to what Mr. March was saying, and while he was pretty sure that Kevin was actually taking notes, it looked a lot like Nelson was drawing out characters for his new video game.

Try as he might (although to be fair he wasn't really trying that hard at all) he just couldn't seem to concentrate, the past three days passing in a blur of half remembered conversations and long silences. Sunday he had been fortunate enough that his parents were out doing things during most of the day while he had hidden in his room. He had been forced to go out at night in order to stave off the inevitable excited questions his parents had for him, eager to hear about how the concert had gone the previous night. A few half formed answers had seemed to satisfy him, although Carol had seemed concerned. No, mom, he thought. His Mother had seemed concerned for him, afraid that maybe the concert had not been what he had hoped. No matter what happened in the days to come, Carol would always be his mom. She always had been, the fact that he was his step-mom hadn't even occurred to him in years. She had always just been there for him. The thought of replacing her with a more biologically accurate model made him feel vaguely disgusted. He didn't think that he could do that to her. But Charlie… If Charlie was really his brother… that complicated things somewhat. The other boy hadn't done anything wrong, and he wasn't exactly sure what the other kid might be looking for. It was entirely possible that Charlie wanted nothing to do with him, which, he was willing to admit, would certainly sting a little. But was he ready to have a brother? Whichever way things unfolded, neither of which he was at all prepared for, at this point he just needed confirmation. One way or another, he just needed to know.

"March! What did I say about letting the students roam the halls?" Principal Kersey cried as he barged into the room, making Mr. March loose his balance and fall flat on his back in a tumble of wiry limbs. Someone else was standing behind Kersey, but everyone else was too distracted by Mr. March's hilarious but still rather painful looking fall to bother really taking a good look at the figure leaning against the door frame to the classroom.

"Oh! Mr. March, are you okay?" Kacey asked in concern. Both Kevin and Kacey, being the closest to the front, surged forward to help the older man up. Zander had gotten hallway out of his seat when March went down, but seeing that the situation was being handled, got back in his seat. Mr. March signaled his well being and ushered his students to move back to their seats, Kacey retreating quickly but Kevin still hovering close by the older man in case he were to take another spill. Mr. March was still brushing himself off as Kersey continued.

"I found Robbins just wandering the halls. I thought we had talked about this March. I know you have an… unusual teaching style, but you still need to actually keep your students in the room!"

"What are you talking about? Zander is right here," Mr. March asked, clearly confused. Zander was confused too, looking between his principal and his teacher as everyone else in the room just turned to look at him.

"Then who…?" Principal Kersey turned back to the figure that was still looming somewhere in the general direction of the open doorway. There, leaning casually against the wooden door frame in his typical black leather jacket and fedora, sunglasses tucked into the crook of a gray V-neck t-shirt, was Zanders mirror image, smiling in a somewhat sheepish and apologetic manner at the chaos and confusion that he had inadvertently caused and fingering the crisp manila envelope in his hands somewhat nervously.

"Sorry about all the fuss. I had been hoping to be a bit more subtle about all this."

"Whuh- but, uh," Mr. March said elegantly, glancing back and forth between his student sitting rigidly in his seat and the clone leaning casually against the door frame before slumping on top of his desk in hopeless confusion. "I don't…"

"Wait, so who are you?" Principal Kersey asked stiffly, flustered to the extreme, his annoyance only tempered by confusion.

"I'm Charlie." The boy at the door introduced in what Kersey felt was a particularly unhelpful manner. The boy at the door looked over at Zander, a breath filling his chest before he smiled vaguely, and unreadable expression on his face as he watched his own reflection stare back at him from halfway across the room. "I'm his brother."