Marcia stared at the girl in front of her, spellbound. Had she stepped into some sort of parallel universe? Why did the girl who was introducing herself so boisterously in front of the class look exactly like her? Eyes, nose, body, everything. Including her voice. She looked around her at the rest of the class but they were equally transfixed to the sight of the girl. But not for the same reasons she was. They kept laughing at whatever she was saying. No one was turning in her direction. Weren’t they flummoxed by the anomaly in front of them?
“Pssst!” she whispered to Grace, the girl beside her. “Grace....”
“Yeah?” Grace drawled as she peeled her eyes, reluctantly from the girl in front of her and turned to Marcia. “What’s the matter?”
“Can’t you see the new girl?”
“Yeah, I can,” Grace replied, turning to laugh at another joke the new girl had cracked. “What about it?” She added impatiently.
Marcia was befuddled. “She looks exactly like me, that’s what. I can’t believe you’re not seeing that.” She wasn’t expecting the snort Grace let out in a bid to hide her burst of giggles.
“You wish you looked half as good as that, Marcia.” Her face turned serious. “If I knew this was why you called me, I’d never have answered. Stop fantasizing already.”
Marcia turned her face back to the girl when Grace had turned from her and kept a face like she dared Marcia to disturb her one more time. But the girl was beyond confused. Was she living in a dream? Before her was a girl who embodied every physical attribute of hers in the flesh. But no one saw it. Was she losing her mind? She whipped up her phone discreetly to look at the screen in front of her and then looked at the grinning girl at the front. The resemblance was exact. But-
“Miss Morales, can you share with the class what’s so important on your phone that you can’t deign to be sociable to the new student?” The teacher boomed at the front, breaking Marcia from her train of thought as she saw thirty pairs of eyes trained at her. Seeing that Marcia wasn’t forthcoming with a reply, she motioned to the new girl to take a seat at the empty chair to the right of Marcia.
Since when did Mrs. James talk to her like that? Marcia wondered.
“Hi, I’m Martha.” The girl started gleefully, stretching her hand towards Marcia for a handshake.
“Marcia. I wonder if I’m dreaming Martha but why do you look so much like me?”
Martha let out what can only be described as melodious peals of laughter.
“That’s nice. But I get that a lot. People always say they look like me. I’m flattered.”
Marcia grew frantic. “No, I’m being serious. We have the same face!”
The girl beside her looked genuinely appalled and just gave her a polite smile as she whipped her face back to her laid-out books like she had just encountered a raving lunatic.
“Just listen-”
“That’s enough Miss Marcia!” The teacher reddened like a beet.
After the class, Marcia went to the bathroom to wash her face. Maybe they were right. Maybe she was having a fever. She admitted that since her dad’s death, something had died within her. But had the trauma of her father’s death somehow started to rob her of her sanity?
Looking up into the mirror, she let out a shriek when her eyes met Martha’s. Whipping her head back, she was about to snap at the girl for sneaking up on her when Martha’s disarming smile calmed her. What was with the girl?
“Hey, Martha. I’m sorry if I freaked you out earlier in class. It’s just that I could swear that we’re carbon copies but everyone thinks otherwise and frankly, I’m also beginning to question myself as well. But if that made you uncomfortable, I apologize-”
Martha let out that laughter again. Melodious peals. But this time, it had a twinge of coldness to it.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are.”
“I don’t understand.”
Martha ambled to the other basin and began washing her hands.
“You see...” Her voice had turned bland. Devoid of life. “It was refreshing seeing the confused look on your face. I was so tempted to take a picture but my memory is photographic so I doubt I’d need it.”
Marcia was immediately alarmed but she stilled her voice. “You’re failing to make sense. And why has your voice changed? It was like mine a minute ago.”
Martha tsked. “He did say you were daft but I must have underestimated just how bad the situation was. Don’t you understand? You’re right. I do look like you. But I’m not satisfied.”
Marcia winced at her scathing remark but that didn’t stop her. “Make me understand.”
Martha smiled again, this time eerily. “You will, soon enough. For now, sit and watch as I take everything from you.” On that final note, she straightened her face to the angelic gleam it once was and stalked out of the bathroom.
Marcia stared at the door for a long time, wondering what had just happened.
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