A Mistaken Identity

By the time morning came, I found myself well-versed in exactly what my twin sister’s life was like. Thanks to a little help from the Weimar sisters. From merely talking with Amanda and Betsy, I was able to uncover some facts about my family that I didn’t know. Evidently, my family was much larger than I had imagined. Aside from my parents and twin sister, there was also a paternal uncle in New York practicing medicine as a neurologist—someone that Amanda seemed to have known quite well—and a second uncle with unknown whereabouts. Apparently, Karleigh had only known of our second uncle’s existence, but never met him and found out where he was hiding the past seventeen years.

When it came time for me to start getting ready for the Weimar sisters’ wedding, I found myself almost eager to do so. The Weimar sisters were the only ones helping me to realize what my twin sister was like and what was going on with my family. As a result, I would do what I could to help them. After all, they were the only ones to know that Karleigh was dead and that I had taken her place for the time being, so that the girls’ wedding would be remembered as a happy, auspicious occasion, not the melancholy day after my twin’s death. While I was busy getting into the peach dress that my sister was supposed to have worn at the wedding, I wondered who would want to kill my sister; she wasn’t even eighteen. Why would she die? Based on the information that I had been able to gather from each of the Weimar sisters, I knew of absolutely no one who might want to see my sister dead. So, why was she? Who could possibly want to see her dead prior to this wedding?

“Everything okay?” Amanda asked.

“To a certain extent,” I said. “It’s just that I really don’t want to be here. Like I said before, I hate the Jonas Brothers vehemently. During the past four and a half years, I’ve had to deal with all of the orphans talking non-stop about the boys. I couldn’t stand it. With me being here, taking my sister’s place in order to try to get to know the parents I never got to spend any time with, I’m also going to have to pretend to be Nick’s girlfriend. It’s going to be hard for me to impersonate my twin sister, particularly when that aspect of the role comes into play. Why did my sister have to be his girlfriend anyway?”

“I’m afraid that you’re just going to have to deal with it,” Amanda said as she got ready for the impending wedding. “The fact of the matter is that, if you really do intend on taking your sister’s place to get to know the parents who abandoned you, that comes with the territory. We told you how Karleigh and Nick came to meet; it was all because of me and my seizure at the beginning of 2009. Then, it was your uncle who treated me. Nick and Karleigh stayed close after that and ultimately started dating in late February of that same year. So, despite your hatred of them, this is just something that will have to be dealt with because of everything that’s happened over the past few years. Plus, as we’ve mentioned before, you’re basically in the same situation as Betsy’s and my parents. They hated the fact that Betsy and I liked listening to the Jonas Brothers. It was even worse when we decided that we were going to move out to California to live with them particularly with us dating them.” She sighed. “Let’s see, what would be the best way for me to explain all of this? Oh, I know. Tell me, have you ever heard of a boy band called Hanson?”

“No,” I replied.

“See, that’s exactly my point. Hanson was a popular boy band fourteen years ago in 1997. They were a one-hit wonder though, with their only popular song having been Mmmbop, before losing the limelight and fading away in obscurity. That was always the future that my parents had foreseen for the boys, that they were going to fade away into obscurity. That never happened though. Despite what our parents thought, the Jonas Brothers never became a second Hanson,” Amanda explained as she continued getting ready.

“And your parents are okay with you and your sister getting married to guys they hate?” I asked. If my family was around at all during my life, I was pretty sure of the fact that they wouldn’t want me to be marrying a guy that they had an obvious disdain for What about them?

“So long as we’re happy, they’re pretty okay with it, despite the fact that they obviously don’t like the Jonas Brothers,” Betsy explained. “They want us to be happy in our lives.”

“Not like the last time Kevin was going to get married,” Amanda said. Remember, no one liked Allison and the wedding was stopped before Kallison was married.”

“What’s this thing about Allison?” I asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Amanda said. “It was a year that we don’t like to remember, despite the fact that it was the very same year in which we met Karleigh. Despite the fact that it was supposed to have been a good year, the fact that I nearly lost Kevin made it terrible. Now, come on. We need to keep getting ready. If this wedding doesn’t start on time, I have this gut feeling that something very bad is going to happen. Betsy, you know that as well as I do, particularly with what we did a few years ago. So, let’s get going.”