A/N: Hey, guys! Remember me? Long time no update, I know. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter.
"Oh my god!" Kate shouts when she sees her locker door. It's covered with black and gold wrapping paper, her favorite colors, with her favorite candies and notes from her friends sharing birthday wishes taped all over it.
"Don't you just love it!?" Her friend Gregory asks coming towards her.
"It's amazing! I love it! Thank you!" Kate shouts diving into his arms for a hug.
"Well, Ana helped, but I mostly did it," Gregory brags.
"Yeah, sure she helped," Kate replied dryly, knowing her friend's knack for somehow getting out of doing any work on group projects, but taking all the credit for it. She opens her locker and puts her books away, grabbing others for first period. Kate stuffs her backpack inside last, and slams the door shut, praying it doesn't get jammed again.
The hallways are full of student's now, talking and laughing and as Kate and Gregory walk down the hall, they have to dodge kids walking too close in the opposite direction and shove through groups stopped right in the middle.
"Ugh! Sixth Graders!" Gregory scoffs, even though they had been those same sixth graders only a few months prior.
"I know," Kate agrees, following her best friend up the stairs. Gregory gets dropped off first at his first-period science class and Kate continues on, across the school, to her first period alone.
The Language Arts classroom is quiet; only a few kids in the room sit at their desks reading or rushing to finish homework. Kate makes her way to her desk and sets out her binder and pencil case, leaving the rest of her books in the basket beneath her seat.
"Kate, come here for a second," her teacher, Mr. Holt, calls.
She walks over and smiles at the new pictures of his twin sons her teacher had hung on the filing cabinet behind his desk. "What's up?"
"Happy birthday," Mr. Holt smiles, handing her a card and a Twix bar, her favorite.
"Thank you," Kate smiles, turning back to her seat. She opens the envelope and pulls out the card. It's the simple, generic one given to all the kids in her class: blue background with multicolored balloons on it with a simple, typed message that reads 'Have a happy birthday! From, Mr. Holt.' stapled to the card is a 'Homework Pass' that gets Kate out of doing an assignment without losing credit for it. She smiles and slips the card into her binder and the candy bar into the pocket of her sweatshirt.
A minute later the warning bell rings and the rest of the class rushes into the room as to not be marked tardy. The official bell rings, signaling the start of the day, and a moment later the morning announcements start over the TV hung in the corner. They stand for the Pledge and then listen to the eighth graders presenting on TV.
"Reminder: the eighth-grade boys' basketball team will have their first practice next Monday in the large gym. Make sure to bring all signed forms and proper clothes. We will be playing," The girl presenter says.
"And finally: we'd like to wish these Lynx a very happy birthday," the other presenter says, listing off names as more scroll through at the bottom of the screen. "...Lexi Anderson, Dashiell Castle, Mason Greer, Kate Ross, and Erin Shields."
Kate smiles, embarrassed when her name is called and she hides in her textbook to avoid her classmates looks.
When the announcements end, Mr. Holt flips off the TV, stands from his desk, claps his hands and starts the day.
The rest of the day goes pretty normally; they took a quiz and then started a new unit in Science. And in Pre-Algebra, Kate discovered she had gotten a 98% on her most recent test (which she thought for sure she had failed). Kate went into lunch very happy and enjoying her pre-birthday birthday. When she sits down at their regular table, a tray of pizza and salad in front of her, Kate's best friend Ana slides over a container full of her mom's famous Dulce De Leche cake that Kate absolutely adores.
"Oh! Yay!" Kate cheers, ignoring her food and diving into the treat. "Thank you, Tita," Kate says, knowing her friend will pass along the message. The table of friends spend the remaining time gossiping, and Kate does eventually eat her actual lunch.
Art is Kate's last class of the day, and as she sits at the table, her sketchbook propped up in front of her, she lets out a growl and madly erases her lines.
"Need some help?" Her teacher, Ms. Upton, asks, coming to stand beside the seventh grader
"It just doesn't look right," Kate says, frustrated.
"How about if you do this-" and the veteran artist gently coaches her student on how to make the eyes on her sketch look exactly right; showing her exactly where to put her pencil and how heavy to press down. After a little while, Ms. Upton pats Kate on the shoulder, causing the tween to look up at her. "You're doing great, Kate. You have talent."
When she walks away, Kate takes in the compliment; the individualized attention her teacher had given her. There weren't twenty-three other kids in her class, just her. Just Kate.
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The best thing about going to different schools than your twin sister is that, after seven years together, you can finally be seen as an individual. You're no longer identified as 'The Ross Twins' or 'Tess and Kate'. There is no 'we'. Just Tess.
At least that's what the seventh-grader thought as she walked down the hall of her middle school the morning of the last day before Thanksgiving Break. They had found out about the private arts and sciences school from a booth at a street fair when the twins were in fourth grade. As the youngest year a student can attend is sixth grade, Tess had to anxiously wait an entire year to officially apply, and even then it took an additional school year on a waiting list to get the official acceptance. But once she was in, Tess Ross was instantly at home and comfortable; she had found her place.
She turns into a pod of Lockers and discovers her's is covered in wrapping paper and notes and there are balloons tied to her padlock. As she gets closer, Tess discovers there is glitter everywhere, and the second she gets close enough to touch, it transfers to her hands. Tess quickly opens her locker and grabs supplies for her first few classes. Slamming it shut, and clicking the lock in place, she heads off to the choir room.
Desi and Braden are behind the piano when she walks in, and as soon as her peer see her, they begin to play the 'Happy Birthday' song and start to sing to her. Most of the other kids in the class sing too, and Tess blushes.
"Come on, you love it," Braden cheers, coming to her and wrapping her in a tight hug.
"I do," Tess agrees, with a smile and an eye roll. She goes to her spot on the risers with the other Soprano 2's, dropping her folder and water bottle before joining her friends at the piano. Desi starts to play a jazzy beat and looks over at Tess with a wide smile. You know this one. Tess returns the smile, takes a breath and jumps in with the well-known lyrics. "Bless my soul! Herc was on a roll. Person on the week in every Greek opinion poll." The song continues, the upbeat Disney tune filling the room; Tess' ideal way to spend her birthday: music and friends.
Before long, the trio at the piano has been replaced with their beloved Choir director who starts warming up her group of rowdy kids. Though Tess and her friends do stay standing around the piano, and by the end of warm-ups, nearly the entire class is around the piano, having so much fun with songs they have memorized.
After Choir, comes Band where Tess wins a challenge and moves from fifth to fourth chair of the clarinet section. They are presented with their selections for their upcoming Christmas concert, and after warming up, sight read one of them.
Tess slogs through science, doodling in her notebook, and half-listening to her ancient teacher drone on as he goes through the power point.
During passing period, Tess' friend Jasmine hands her a purple gift bag. "Happy birthday!" she cheers, pausing in the hallway to watch her friend open the gift.
"Thank you!" Take says, pulling out the white tissue paper and reaching inside. "Oh my god!" Tess gasps, looking at the crisp Playbill. The iconic poster of the two witches sharing a secret with the title written in green script. Wicked "Thank you! This is amazing!"
"There's more," Jasmine encourages.
"Oh wow!" Tess says, revealing a t-shirt from the show. "You're the best!" Tess says, hugging her friend.
"Eh, it was nothing," Jasmine shrugs. "But you better bring me something when you go see Newsies." excited for her friend's upcoming trip to New York City, and plans to see the newest hit musical all their friends were talking about.
"You know I will," Tess nods, putting everything back into the bag.
"Come on, Ladies," Their Social Studies teacher, who was manning the hallways, warns the girls to not be late for class.
"Sorry, Ms. Scott," Tess smiles. And into class they go.
