Lizzie Specter was in a foul mood. She had woken up that way, and by lunch, it was no better. The cafeteria line was unusually long and her patience was long gone. All she wanted was her favorite bag of sour cream and onion chips. That would make everything better.
Finally reaching the end of the line, she grabbed the last bag of chips, but they were immediately snatched out of her hands by someone else. "Hey! Those are mine." She glanced up at the perpetrator, and it was as if she were looking in a mirror. From her pulled up hair, down to her school uniform, the other girl looked exactly like her. They stood silently, taking each other in, before Lizzie narrowed her eyes.
"Give me my chips."
"Your chips? I had them first," the girl argued.
Lizzie grew angry. "I eat them everyday."
"I don't see your name on them."
Lizzie grabbed them back and then the girl did the same. Soon, they were playing tug of war as the chips moved back and forth. The stubborn game continued until a lunch room monitor stepped in between them and took the bag from both of them. "Get moving ladies. You're holding up the line."
The girls shot identical glares at each other as they made their way out of line and to opposite ends of the cafeteria.
Lizzie had lost her appetite by the time she made it to her lunch table. She eagerly awaited the end of lunch so that she could forget what happened, but it was hard not to glance across the room at the girl with her face.
"So you really don't know her?" asked her friend, Maya.
"I've never seen her before in my life."
Maya followed Lizzie's gaze across the room and scrunched up her nose in distaste. "She must be new. The nerve of her, coming here with your face."
Next to Maya, sat Claire, who wasted no time chiming into the conversation. "I heard she's from California. My au pair says California's full of weirdos. She's probably like…a clone or something."
"Probably an evil clone, too. I think all clones are evil," Maya insisted.
"I hate her," Claire snapped.
"Me too," added Maya.
Lizzie was the last to respond as she took one last glance at her alleged evil clone. "Me three."
Anna Paulsen hated gym class at her old school, but she hated it even more at her new school. Other than lunch, gym class was the only other period that she shared with the girl who stole her face.
"Alright girls, let's line up for soccer," the substitute teacher, Mrs. Jones, called. "I've been told that our Lizzie here is the best goalie that this school's ever seen, so let's see if we can score on her."
Anna crossed her arms as Lizzie proudly stepped into the net. Girl after girl took their shot and missed, making Lizzie's ego bigger than life. Anna couldn't stand it.
"Okay, Anna. It's your turn. Let's see what you've got."
Anna felt nervous as she took her spot in the middle of the gym. She didn't like to be the center of attention and her confidence wavered as she looked at the snickering girls around her.
"Aw. What's wrong, clone, are you scared?" someone mocked.
Several yards away, Lizzie stepped further away from the net and stuck her tongue out. "Don't be scared, Anna. It's okay if you suck."
Anna's cheeks burned with shame, but the shame quickly turned to anger. Soccer wasn't her thing, but that didn't mean that she was bad at it. Without thinking, she stepped back, aimed her foot, and launched the ball clear across the gym. It whizzed past Lizzie's head and landed in the net with a swoosh.
The gym fell into a stunned silence. Lizzie was the first to break it. "That's not fair! I wasn't ready!" Leaving the ball behind, she ran towards Anna. "You cheated!"
"I did not!" snapped Anna. "I beat you, fair and square."
Lizzie glared. "Nobody beats me, evil clone."
Anger coursed through her as she bawled her fists and stepped towards Lizzie. "Shut up, face stealer."
"Make me!"
Anna's temper overwhelmed her. "Fine, I will!" She shoved her arch nemesis hard.
Lizzie stumbled backwards, but didn't fall. The violence riled her up more. "That's the best you can do? I've been in boxing classes since I was five." She raised her fists and moved to punch, but the teacher stopped her fist mid-air.
"Girls! That's no way for sisters to behave, let alone twins."
Anna was appalled. "We're not sisters!"
"And we're definitely not twins. She looks nothing like me. I'm way prettier than her."
"You are not," snapped Anna. "Look at those ears."
Lizzie rolled her eyes. "You're one to talk. Look how close together your eyes are." She shrugged off the teacher's grip so that she could move closer.
Unintimidated, Anna stepped right into her face. The girls glared at each other until Mrs. Jones' whistle pierced through the air. "That's it. You've both just won a trip to the principal's office."
Donna wasn't famous by any stretch of the imagination, but she had worked steadily as an actress for several years. After leaving New York with a two year old Anna in tow, she had taken numerous guest roles in television shows and even played smaller parts in a few movies. She was rarely recognized, which helped her live a mostly normal life.
One of the perks of living a normal life was that she was completely comfortable walking around the streets of New York. No one bothered her. No one noticed her, not even when she frequented Parker's Coffee shop on 52nd street day after day.
Like every other morning after she dropped Anna off at school, Donna sat in her favorite window seat, watching the world go by. The place had been there for years. It was tucked just far enough away from the towering office buildings to remain off the radar, but it had a successful following of regulars. Donna herself, had been one of those regulars.
Twelve years ago, heavily pregnant and sweltering in the summer heat, she had stumbled upon the coffee shop on her way to meet Harvey for lunch at Pearson Hardman. The decaf coffee with a bit of vanilla was the perfect way to ease her pregnancy woes. Once she realized that they had the best coffee around, she encouraged Harvey to join her as well. It quickly became their favorite meet up spot.
Eleven years ago, she had drifted into the coffee shop, with one baby strapped to her chest and the other under her arm. Harvey had stayed overnight at the firm, again, leaving her to handle the nighttime feedings. She was desperate for coffee to make it through the day. Harvey joined her once in a while and they liked to pretend that things were easy. They liked to pretend that things hadn't changed.
Ten years ago, with two energetic toddlers racing around her legs, and Harvey nowhere to be found, she had ordered her usual cup of coffee with tears in her eyes as her marriage crumbled around her.
And finally, nine years ago, that was the last time she had ventured into the coffee shop before leaving the city. She had Anna with her. Elizabeth was with Harvey, and Harvey…well, Harvey had just signed off on the papers that had officially ended their marriage.
"Donna?"
For a second, she thought she had imagined it. Surely that voice…his voice couldn't be real. But she was proven wrong when she looked up to find her ex-husband standing beside her. Flustered, she stood up in a rush, bumping her leg against the table as she went.
His name fell from her lips in a whisper. "Harvey."
"I thought that was you."
Her gaze drifted from his well coiffed hair down to his shiny leather shoe clad feet, trying to read him. When she couldn't, she gave up. "You don't seem all that surprised to me…which is weird, because I'm very surprised to see you."
Harvey ran his thumb over the bridge of his nose and then down to his lips. At his clear sign of nervousness, Donna felt more confident. Even after all this time, he had the same tells. "I saw you getting into a cab last week."
"Here?"
"Yeah, I was getting coffee before a meeting."
He had gone back to their place? Despite her racing heart and her suddenly clammy hands, Donna pretended that she wasn't phased. "And you came back to see if I would come here again?"
Harvey's ears went red. "Well, no…" he cleared his throat and avoided her gaze. "Okay, maybe? I don't know. I went out for coffee and ended up here." His eyes moved to the floor, up her body, and then back to her face. "So, you're back?"
"I just started rehearsals for a play on Broadway. It runs for the next six months."
"Wow. Congratulations. That's amazing." He sent her a genuine smile and then glanced around. "And you brought her, you brought Anna?"
Donna swallowed down a lump that had appeared in her throat. "Yeah, she just started at school here on Monday." He didn't respond to her words and they fell into an awkward silence that she was desperate to get out of. "And Elizabeth…how is she?"
Harvey blinked several times as if he hadn't heard her before stating, "Lizzie, she likes to be called Lizzie."
Donna's chest tightened at his response and guilt crept back into her psyche. The fact that she didn't know something so important about her own child made her want to scream in despair, but she quickly got a hold of herself. Choices had been made back then and there was no changing it now.
"She's good. Really good," Harvey said. Then, with a slightly nervous chuckle he added, "it's just so weird to see you here, considering the last time I saw you you threw a hairdryer at my head."
It was her turn to blush. Glancing down at her polished nails, she took a beat before speaking. Over the years, she had often wondered what she would say to him if she ever saw him again. She never could come up with anything appropriate. "That was…not my finest moment. I'll admit."
"Luckily it missed," came his quick witted response.
Feeling oddly defensive, Donna gestured towards the space between them. "I did a lot of waiting around for you here, you know." She glanced over at the back wall which held a row of bookshelves filled with books. "The girls loved to pull all the books off. I could always bank on it entertaining them while I waited."
Harvey's face blanched at her words. She didn't need to read him to know what he was thinking. "I didn't know that you came that often."
"You didn't know a lot of things," she bit back, without thinking. Then, realizing how harsh the words sounded, she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It's just…" Donna didn't get to finish the rest of her thought before he cut in.
"Have lunch with me."
As he stepped closer, his familiar cologne made her shiver. "What?"
"I've got a break in between client meetings today." He glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist before adding, "it's only 9:30. Why don't we meet back here around 1:00?"
Donna's head spun. Everything was happening too fast and yet, she couldn't find it in herself to say no. Instead, she said nothing and he continued to plead his case.
"It'll be good for us to catch up and now that we're all in the same city we should talk about things…about the girls and what we should do."
Her eyes widened. "What we should do?"
"Yes. What we should do," came his confident retort.
Her lips moved, but no sound came out. This was the same man who had persuaded her endlessly at the DA's office until she had broken her 'no dating' rule and agreed to go out with him. How could she forget how persistent he could be?
"Donna, please?"
It was her name that did it. She could never resist his soft cadence. "Okay. I'll meet you back here." The huge grin that she received in return felt like death by a thousand cuts.
Mrs. Folsom had only been the principal of the Walden School for Girls since the start of the school year. Her predecessor, a woman in her 70's named Dr. McManus, had retired on a whim, leaving her the reins. So far, the school year had gotten off to a rocky start. The pre-teens sitting before her were no exception.
"Miss Specter. Miss Paulsen. You mean to tell me that you aren't twins?" she glanced between the identical pair with a skeptical frown.
"We're not sisters," Lizzie stated.
"We're not even cousins," added Anna.
Mrs. Folsom put her reading glasses on and flipped through their files. There had been no time to look through the student records before taking over the school. "I just assumed your parents had unconventional naming customs and gave you each a different last name."
The girls were stubbornly avoiding each other, which meant that they had nowhere else to look but at her. It made her uneasy, like she was seeing double. "Well, we'll let your parents discuss all of that. I need to call them about your little gym class incident." She picked up the phone to start dialing Ms. Paulsen's number when both girls interrupted at the same time.
"Don't call my mom!"
"Don't call my dad!"
Mrs. Folsom's glasses slid down her nose as she narrowed her eyes and set the phone down. "Bullying and violence will not be tolerated at this school. Your parents need to know."
Lizzie sat up straight and clasped her hands in front of her. "My dad's a lawyer, the best in the city. He's been busy and he hates being interrupted. Please don't call him."
"I'm sure he will want to know this," Mrs. Folsom insisted. "But I was going to start with her mother, anyway." She pointed towards Anna, who jumped out of her seat.
"Please don't call her. Do you know that she's an actress? She's in the middle of a big play on Broadway. She won't want to be bothered."
"Your mom's an actress?" Lizzie questioned. Forgetting that she disliked the girl, she continued, "that's so cool. So are you from Hollywood? Do you know movie stars?"
Anna shrugged in indifference. "Not really." Then, eyeing up Lizzie, she added, "I think your dad being a lawyer is a lot cooler. I was on the debate team at my old school."
Mrs. Folsom looked back and forth between the girls. She grew more and more curious about them as an idea came to mind. "Instead of involving them in this, maybe it would be best if we handled it amongst ourselves."
With a relieved sigh, Anna sat back down in her seat. "I love that idea."
"Me too," Lizzie added.
"Finally, something that the two of you can agree on."
Having spent six years attending a summer camp in New England, she knew just what to do with girls who couldn't get along.
