Apex Twins

I never meant to kill my ex-boyfriend. Oh wait, I did mean to kill him. I’m so happy I’ve finally escaped Astrophilia. But not everything is perfect now. But it’s gotten better now that I live somewhere else. My name is Karma.

“Karma!”, Jessie waved at me. She grinned and caught up to me. Then she wrapped her arms around me.

“Hey.”, I said. Jessie’s hand plunged deep into her bag and she fished out her cell phone.

“I heard the funniest story yesterday.”, Jessie started. I didn’t hear her finish because I didn’t care. Her story was probably about the cool/popular kids group chat. Jessie was really only my friend outside of school. Deep down in her soul, she was a popular cheerleader. It didn’t matter at this point.

“And that was just so funny. OMG KATIE HEY GIRL!”, Jessie ran off to talk to her other friends. It still doesn’t matter to me. I better get looking for Destiny. I walked down the hallway and avoided any eye contact.

“Hey look who it is….”, a voice says. It’s Jimmy the “coolest kid in school” and the smartest kid on the football team. I turn to face him and my daily dose of abuse.

“Hey wimpy cry baby.”, he said in a fake baby voice. I roll my eyes. My sister is the only one who would cry when being bullied. I take that back. I’m sure plenty of people have cried in front of a bully. Just not me.

“What do you want, Jimmy?”, I say. I still don’t understand how people still can’t tell Destiny and me apart. We dress differently, we have different personalities, and our voices are very different. I have a slightly deeper voice and her voice is like a squeak.

“Oh whoops wrong twin.”, he grinned. Somehow the entire hallway thought this was hilarious. And then I bitch slapped him. Again. For the five hundredth time. Every day he tries to make a joke about me or Destiny and I slap him as hard as possible. Which is why I’m such a good friend with the detention teacher whose name I’ve yet to learn. I know what I’m doing. All the teachers had seen the slap and every single one of them kept trying to get me expelled except that the principal actually doesn’t care. I head right over to the detention room and sit down. Right on schedule. The detention lady smiled at me. She always hated Jimmy. And she told me every single detention.

“I always hated that Jimmy boy.”, she said, “I’m sure he got what he deserved.” She smiled at me and opened a romance novel. The third one this week in fact. Fifty shades of grey. huh.

“Did you know, miss, that fifty shades of grey was actually a fanfiction of Twilight.”, I blurt out. She looked up and smiled again.

“Really? You know what? Why don’t you go back to class? I will write you a pass.”, she said and pulled out a post-it note. I’m pretty sure I haven’t served an entire detention since I arrived at this school. I grin as I walk out of the detention room triumphant. Jimmy’s face when I entered math class was priceless. Destiny slapped the back of my neck when I sat down.

“Stupid. Stop getting detention.”, she whispered. I pretended to be really hurt by her slap but it had been more like a pat. I grin at her then turn back to the teacher whose name I never cared to learn.

“How do you keep getting out of detention?”, Jimmy growled. I hardly look up from my locker.

“Why are you so obsessed with me?”, I ask. He looked taken aback.

“I-I’m not.”, he stuttered. I smile and slam my locker shut. I wave and walk off to Destiny.

“I hate you.”, she said as we turn to get to our next class.

“I know you do.”, I say. She rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. I’m going to hang out with the art kids at lunch.”, Destiny told me. I shrugged and we started up the stairs.

“Oh crap.”, Destiny exclaimed. She smacked her forehead and started running back down the stairs.

“What?”, I called after her.

“I forgot something. I’ll see you after school,” she shouted over her shoulder. I scrunch up my nose.

“You do realize how cute you are when you do that, right?”, Liam said. I look around and see him. Two steps behind me with his crooked grin. I smile back and wait for him to catch up. Liam the school flirt and one of my only friends.

“So who are you sitting with at lunch?”, he asks. I shrug and he looks at me. “What?”, I ask back. He shakes his head.

“You should sit with me and my friends.”, he says. We start down the hallway that leads to the art room.

“Nah. you don’t want me.”, I say. He raises his eyebrows.

“Shut up, beautiful.”, he says and I smile. He opens the classroom door and gives a small bow. I roll my eyes.

“No really you should hang with me.”, he said. I push him away.

“I’ll think about it.”, I say finally. He grins at me just as the bell rings.

I look around the cafeteria looking for Liam. He and his gang were nowhere to be seen. I continue to look around when I fall forward. Jimmy and HIS gang were laughing with the rest of the cafeteria. I stand up brushing myself off. And this time instead of slapping him I decide to stand over him so I can tell him off.

“Whoops I thought you were the other one.”, he laughed loudly at his own joke. The same joke he’d been making since I came.

“Destiny doesn’t do emo.”, I say sarcastically and with that, I leave the cafeteria. I’m surprised to see Liam looking around the halls for me.

“Hey, I was going to tell you. We sneak off campus usually.”, he says, “Maybe not today though.”

“Cool.”, I answer. Liam turned away and bent over the water fountain. He stood straight and wiped his upper lip.

“C’mon.”, he says. I follow him down a hallway. I watch his hair. It’s dark matching his eyes. It also bounces when he walks. His hair isn’t really that long though. He notices my staring and flashes one of his girl-winning smiles. I roll my eyes but still smile.

“I hate you.”, I say. He shrugs.

“Why? I’m lovely.”, he answers and we laugh. We finally made it to the end of the hallway where his friends were. Outside of this hallway, I’m sure they were called ‘the weird kids’.

“Everyone. I’m sure you remember Karma.”, Liam introduced me. There are about four of them. Nora is a horse girl. She’s had her braces since grade school. Then there was Fiona, the only girl in the entire school who was still obsessed with Billie Elish. Her hair has been green since Middle school. Ivor was born and raised in Russia. He moved to America in elementary school and had to learn English. And then there was Mikey. The kid who got lost in the woods every other week. I’m pretty sure his mom is a nervous wreck. They all wave at me. These are the kids who were constantly targets of Jimmy’s abuse.

“Hi Karma.”, Fiona said. She turned back to Ivor and they resumed their deep conversation about music.

“Hey Karma.”, Mikey grinned. He waved and then bit into his sandwich. Nora patted the ground next to her. I went and sat down. They were sitting in a sort of circle.

“Guys.”, Charlie dashed around the corner. We all looked up and he slowed down and panted for a second.

“There’s a new teacher coming this way.”, he gasped plopping down on the floor. Everyone looked at each other excitedly. I was a little confused. Then I realized. A new teacher means a new perspective. Someone to stop the bullying. She appeared at the corner.

“Oh. I didn’t realize anyone was over here.”, she said apologetically. She surveyed everyone.

“Are y’all some sort of club?”, she asked. She spoke with a thick southern accent. We all shook our heads.

“Just some kids looking to escape abuse.”, Ivor said. He slapped his hand over his mouth.

“He was joking.”, Fiona said fake laughing. Her fake laugh was high and squeaky. We all smile widely. The teacher looked a little weirded out.

“Mind if I join you?”, she asked which surprised us all. We all nod and she had a seat between Liam and me. And that is how I found my first adult ally in this school.