There is always a certain amount of electricity in the atmosphere on the first day of school. But this year there was an extra buzz in the air. By lunch time on the first day of classes, I had several of Annika’s classmates –my former students- come up to me and tell me that there was a new girl Emma in ninth grade and she looked exactly like Annika.
Well, I was a little dubious, to say the least.
First, I am her father, so this girl may look like Annika to her classmates, but that’s only because they don’t know her as well as I do. And second of all, the kids telling me this were Chinese, so I was inclined to take it with a grain of salt.
Later that morning I saw Annika on the fourth floor. Her back was toward me but I could see her long brownish-blond hair sticking out above a sea of dark heads. I wanted to know how her first day of high school was going, so I picked up my pace and started to call out her name, but she couldn’t hear me above the noise in the hall. I got to within arms-length of her and was about to tap her on the shoulder when I yanked my arm back.
Whoa, wait a minute, that’s not Annika. Bizarre. It’s Annika, yet it’s . . . not . . . Annika.
Turns out my former students were right: the two girls did look shockingly similar.
Once Annika realized that Emma didn’t have horns growing out of her head, she decided to flow with it. For the next three nights at dinner, our family had to get updates on how Annika and Emma were so twin-like: both are left handed, both are first-born, both have the middle name “Elizabeth.” Weird.
As much fun as the two girls are having with it, it has gotten a little tiresome having her classmates continuously point out the obvious day after day.
The other night at dinner, Annika told me “Dad, next time one of my classmates tells me that Emma and I look so much alike, I’m going to say ‘Ah well, you know us white folks, we all look alike.’”
Atta girls, way to keep your edgy sense of humor about you.
-Jack
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