6

Wednesday night at the Spellman house was a bit different this week. It was like a having a Sabrina robot that they had to keep giving instructions. They had to tell Samantha to eat the soup they had for dinner, show her how to use a spoon, pull her away from the windows from watching the car headlights going down the street that night and keep checking on her so that she didn't try leaving the house again. By late evening, more of Sabrina's personality was starting to appear in her. She tilted her head when she smiled like her, she picked up the same bounce in her step and she started the same obsessive compulsion Sabrina had to constantly lick her finger as she turned the pages on magazines. The worst part was when Zelda tried to watch the news to catch an update on the weather for the week and instead heard the news ask for details on the whereabouts of William Samms, the seventeen-year-old high student who had vanished from school after having stomach problems. Keeping a secret as to his whereabouts was going to be difficult. Zelda and Hilda looked at each other and sighed in unison as Samantha wandered through the house getting ready for bed. She had showered and dressed herself in one of Sabrina's nightgowns, was brushing her teeth with Sabrina's toothbrush and wandering through the house carrying Salem as if he was her cat, but when she tried to go to bed, Sabrina kicked her out of her bed and her room, and Hilda had to be there to put Samantha in the guest room. However, when the rainstorm passed over Westbridge, Samantha was soon scared of the lightning and jumping into bed with Sabrina like a scared little girl.

In the morning, it was a much smoother and easier affair. Samantha had all the delusions of having come to stay with Sabrina after coming from England. She had Sabrina's memories of England, of the family and her past warped in her thoughts into a history she never quite understood. Blaming the gaps on forgetfulness, she kissed her Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda goodbye at breakfast and followed Sabrina to school at Westbridge High School. The walk up the street was littered by the mini-damage of last night's storm with twinges and branches everywhere, water still pouring down alongside the drenched street and the sun still trying to come out from behind the overcast sky. There were pools of water here and there, and Samantha quickly used her witchcraft to keep her and Sabrina from getting drenched by a passing school bus. That wasn't too bad, but along the way, Samantha retold Sabrina all of her exploits of having stayed in London and Paris with her father and of incidents from her childhood like a sister updating another about her life, but the weird part was how Samantha had connected Sabrina to people from Sabrina's past. She completely recalled Sabrina's kindergarten friendship with Abby Cosgrove and later high school friendship with Jenny Kelley, but in those memories, she replaced Abby and Jenny with Sabrina. To her, Sabrina had been her sister for years, but when it came to her recent memories, she only knew that Valerie and Harvey were Sabrina's friends and that she had been mistreated by a dark-haired girl she couldn't recall. It was almost as if any and all thoughts she had connected to Sabrina's present or her past life as William Samms didn't register, and it left Sabrina afraid what was going to happen if they all started flooding back.

At school, it was another embarrassing affair. Sabrina's classmates all looked up and pointed at different times to stop and stare as Sabrina arrived with her clone following her. Some were surprised, some were unable to look away and others were intrigued by the spectacle. Students sat on the wall lining the front of the school grounds, and others were crowding the front entrance, but they all stopped to say hello to Sabrina and then notice Sabrina… again… in another outfit grinning and trying to say hello to her friends.

"Hello…" She followed Sabrina grinning and waving to her new classmates. "Hello…" Ahead of her, Sabrina tried to be positive, but she was not enjoying the new attention.

"Hello…" Samantha waved at Leonard Dalrimple and Dale Baines, two of Harvey's buddies from the garage without any of William's memories of having known them before. They looked up once and then again. Who was this new girl who looked exactly like Sabrina?

"Hello…" Samantha stopped behind Sabrina at her locker. "Sabrina, your friends are not being very nice to me."

"Oh, they're going to be rude to you… you can't stop it." Sabrina hung her jacket in her locker and took Samantha's as well to notice something else. Her new twin sister looked exactly like her except her violet sweater seemed tighter and fuller. It was as if she was smuggling cantaloupes.

"Okay..." Sabrina's eyes rounded at them. "Those things weren't that big when we left the house."

"Maybe it's the sweater."

"Oh, sure, blame the sweater!"

"Sabrina…" Valerie came up and recognized both her best friend and the look-alike she thought was her cousin. "Hey, Samantha… Good seeing you again." They hugged. "Sabrina, is your cousin going to be transferring here?"

"Cousin?" The twin heard something that bothered her. "You told everyone I'm your cousin? That's a mean thing to say about your twin sister!"

"Sister?" Valerie reacted. "Samantha's your sister?"

"I can honestly say we've been fighting since she showed up." Sabrina and Samantha shot matching looks at each other and crossed their arms in unison with each other. They looked so much alike!

"Sabrina, I can't believe you would try to pass your sister as your cousin." She tried to admonish her. "If I had a twin sister, I'd happily scream it to the world."

"Now, you tell me…" She noticed Harvey coming toward her after horsing around with Dalrimple and Baines at the end of the hall. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they were pointing into Sabrina's direction. It didn't look like they had mentioned her twin sister since he walked away confused, but he came around Valerie to meet his girlfriend and gave Samantha a kiss.

"Hey, Sabrina…" He looked again. "Samantha?! Sabrina?!" Samantha was grinning ear to ear; Sabrina reacted about to scream. "That was an accident! I mean, I…." He groaned embarrassingly. "I'm so sorry."

"I know, Harvey, just be more…"

"Harvey, you're not going to believe this, but Samantha is Sabrina's sister, not her cousin." Valerie caught him on the news. "They've been fighting since they got back together."

"Seriously?"

"It's complicated." The Spellman twins echoed together in the hall as the first bell rang for class then looked at each other. Samantha lightly pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and Sabrina was pinning her long bangs behind her ears. For Harvey, this was going to be a very interesting experience, but he had to be more careful with who he kissed. Valerie couldn't stop staring, but she thought she saw subtle differences. Sabrina seemed more athletic in build, but Samantha appeared more bosomy with a fuller face, but they had the same moles in the same places and identical habits. They were both right-handed, widened their eyes when they lifted their heads over their classmates and lifted themselves up on the same foot to look over the heads of the crowd of students in this school of over a thousand students.

"Oh no…" Sabrina noticed Miss Trouble coming from the back of the school near the cafeteria. Her name was Liberty "Libby" Chessler, the descendant of one of the town founders and only daughter of one of the town's most successful businessmen. A cheerleader, the leader of the school's social calendar, head of the student body and one of the rudest students in this school, Libby ruled this school in her mind and treated anyone beneath her who didn't cower in fear of her wealth, popularity and power over others and no one was on her personal dart board more than Sabrina. Terrified what could happen if she met Samantha, she made an inaudible shriek and pulled her new twin sister in close to hide her behind Harvey, but that must not have been fast enough. After passing a few feet past Sabrina, Libby suddenly stopped along with the two other cheerleaders with her and slowly turned around. Did she just see Spellman standing next to… herself? She came between Valerie and Harvey.

"What the hell is this?" Her face was already contorting into an angry sneer. "Who or what is this?"

"Hi…" Samantha lit up. "I'm Samantha, Sabrina's twin sister… You look familiar? Have we met before?" Sabrina jerked her back.

"No…" Libby refused to accept this person as Valerie feared the rant about to come. "No… We already have one freak in this school, and quite frankly one too many. She can't go to school here. She has to go somewhere else."

"Libby…" Even Harvey often had his limits in dealing with her. "Come on, don't make an issue about this…"

"Issue?" Libby looked at the Spellman twins with flared eyes. "Harvey, you should know me better than that. Mr. Kraft!" She screamed for the assistant principal to do what she couldn't do.

"Libby, come on…" Valerie, Sabrina and Harvey tried imploring Libby to give into her heart and become more humane. "Even you can't be this obstinate."

"I'm only doing what's best for this school!"

"You know what I think…" Samantha stepped forward as Sabrina tried holding her back. "I think you need a hug." She reached out in hugged Libby, pulling her close to her bosom as a token of friendship, but Libby's face went white and her voice turned into an air raid siren through the school.

"Mr. Kraft!"

"Crap and a half…" Assistant Principal Willard Kraft struggled to pull his pants up in a stall of the boy's bathroom a hall away near the entrance to the gym. He'd been here only one semester so far after three years at Poughleeling High School in Delaware and three years at North Rickenbacher High School in Pawtuckett, New Jersey, and he'd already developed a reputation of being a strict and unfair disciplinarian at Westbridge. He was known as showing unfair preferential treatment to the students, showing more attention to the cheerleaders and athletic students than to the more academic students plus there were those rumors of him skimming the budgets for his own pocket and use of the school resources for his own personal use. Struggling to get to the source what imaginary crisis Libby wanted him to control, he hastened his step through the school and began parting a way to the source of the conflagration, which as he suspected once again concerned Sabrina Spellman. Kids were crowding around another Libby and Sabrina fight. He looked once and twice again. Sabrina and Sabrina again?

"What the hell?" He looked over and through his glasses then removed them to clean them.

"Mr. Kraft…" Harvey tried to explain. "Libby is raising a stink just because Sabrina's twin sister is transferring here from England."

"Why can't she go to school here, Libby?" Valerie asked.

"Because if given the chance we should be getting rid of Sabrina, not adding to her presence here." Libby started down the twins.

"What's the matter, Libby?" Sabrina defended Samantha. "Is your giant ego really taking up that much space?" Libby started screaming again, and Harvey tried pushing her back trying to protect Sabrina. Pressed against the lockers, Samantha gasped and looked to Valerie.

"Is it always this like here?"

"Pretty much." Valerie grinned and bonded with her.

"Miss Spellman!" Kraft once again jumped on Libby's bandwagon against Sabrina while blocking the hot-heated brunette high school princess from causing an altercation. "Now…" He caught his breath and adjusted his tie. "As far as I know, I haven't received any files about new students coming here to apply here. Where is your sister's school file?"

"Her file?" Sabrina looked to Mr. Kraft then to Libby's smug face as the school bell ran again. Students started breaking off and heading off the class. "You didn't get it yet? I could have sworn…"

"Sabrina?" Samantha stepped to her. "You lost my school file?" She looked to Mr. Kraft. "I bet its somewhere in her locker. Let me look…" Scowling confusingly, she turned and blocked his view of the inside of Sabrina's school locker in order to pretend to move her textbooks around, but she was actually lifting her finger and zapping up a manila colored envelope which she pretended to find pressed to the back.

"Here it is!" She whipped it out as Sabrina rolled her eyes.

"Let me see that…" Kraft tore the seal on it to read it as Libby crowded in to take a peek. Sabrina, Harvey and Valerie casually glanced to Samantha as she lip-synced smugly the same words Kraft was reading. "A-Student, Swim Team, Drama Club, Chess Club…" His voice trailed off.

"Yes!" Justin Heinrie, one of the school geeks from the Chess Club, stopped to eavesdrop and suddenly cheered and called to his friends. "Hey guys, we finally have a girl in the club! And she's hot!" He hurried off to his first period math class.

"Mr. Kraft…" Libby stood her ground. "She just can't go to school here!"

"Miss Chessler…" Kraft looked at her and tucked the file under his arm. "This school makes money for each student who goes here, and if we can get a student from England, it will do wonders for our status and prestige." He reached for Samantha. "Now, Miss Spellman, let me help you get your class schedule and locker assignment. You know, I once spent some time in England…" They trailed away as Samantha shined briefly to Sabrina as she was lead away to the office.

"I think I'm going like having your sister around." Harvey answered.

"I think I'm going to vomit." Sabrina mumbled.

"Sabrina…" Valerie reacted on that comment. "Why do you hate your sister?"

"I don't hate her exactly…" Sabrina felt she already had a twin sister too long. "It's just this knack she has of getting on my nerves..."

"Really?" Libby overheard and smiled as if she was plotting something. "Maybe I'm going to like her after all…" She walked away laughing. Sighing under her breath, Sabrina folded her arms across her chest and extended her finger to Libby under her arm as a strip of toilet paper attached to the brunette diva and clung to the back of her shoe.

"Forget Libby…" Harvey replied and looked back briefly to notice the sudden strip of toilet paper on her shoe. Chuckling a bit, he turned back to his girlfriend. "Sabrina, I almost forgot." He looked back at her. "There's a police officer here who wants to talk to you about William." The police investigation in his disappearance had reached the school. They looked up to a large figure in an all black police uniform. A former Marine, Russell Coleman had been in the Westbridge Police Department for just almost two years now and this was his first disappearance case. Sabrina looked over to him with his large shaved head and noticed him gesturing to her. Sabrina made an annoyed noise of regret. This was her first spell whose results had ramifications far beyond school, and she was more worried than scared.

"Can this day get any worse?" She scuffed her feet dramatically to indicate this was against her will. Whether Coleman took that behavior as her reluctance to be helpful was something else.