Milestones: Teenagers

Michelle met up with Val again in the Creative Writing room for fourth period. She was already seated, so Michelle took the empty spot next to her, setting down her notebook and pen.

"So, how's your morning been so far?" Val asked before the class started.

"It's alright. I got lost once. Oh! And I met Matt's friend, Zacky. He's in my English class," Michelle said, and her sister nodded.

"Zacky's a nice guy. You should hook up with him," she smirked before opening her notebook.

"What?" Michelle asked, almost alarmed. "I barely know the guy."

"Chill, I was kidding," Val said, smiling as she looked up and the teacher walked to the front of the room.

"So, the basics of this class: You do the work I assign in class, and what isn't finished is homework. At the end of the week, you hand in your journal, which is where you do all your work, I grade them, and I hand them back on the following Monday. This is an elective course so there are no tests or quizzes, and there will only be a couple group projects. Any questions?" the teacher asked. Michelle didn't know her name, but she didn't want to ask and sound stupid.

After no one had anything to say, the teacher nodded. "Okay then, the assignment for today is written on the side board. Start working," she said, and then sat down at her desk. At once, Michelle turned to her sister.

"What's her name?" she whispered.

"Mrs. Ackerman. She's crazy, to put it shortly. She's cool though; definitely one of the more laid back teachers in the system, but she freaks out from time to time. It's funny," Val explained before looking up at the side board, reading the assignment and then getting to work. After some time, Michelle thought back to the boy she kept seeing in the hall, and figured she would ask about him.

"Hey Val? Are the kids here nice?" she asked. She had seen that boy once more, but he was too busy talking to another boy, who was rather tall and sported a large, spiked mop of bright blonde hair, and he didn't notice her.

"Some of them are. Why?" her sister asked as she looked up from her notebook.

"Well, there's this guy that I keep passing in the hall, and almost every time I see him, he'll smile or wave at me or something. I just thought it was weird," Michelle mumbled.

"What did he look like?" Val asked, tapping her pen on the desk.

"He has dark hair," Michelle supplied, causing her sister to roll her eyes.

"Because that's really going to help," she said, dripping sarcasm. Michelle sighed.

"I don't know. Dark eyes, cute smile.... I've only seem him like, three times. I don't remember every little detail about him," Michelle mumbled, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well if I'm with you the next time you see him, point him out so I can tell you if he's a creep or not," Val said, and then the two settled down to work.

Michelle had made it through the rest of the day without problems, and it was finally time for the last period of the day. She walked into the physics room and took an empty seat at the front of the classroom. She took a glance at the teacher Mr. Schwartz - as his nameplate read on the door - and furrowed her eyebrows. In short, he looked like a creepy guy that could be a child molester.

The bell rang and Mr. Schwartz started to call off names for attendance. He was able to make it halfway through before he had to stop, being greeted with silence.

"Haner? ...Haner?" he called, before looking up from his computer. "Where's Haner?" he asked.

"Not here," someone in the back said.

"Ahh, I see he's starting off the year well," Mr. Schwartz said sarcastically to himself. Michelle looked down at her chipped nail polish and began picking at it as the teacher finished attendance.

She had a feeling she would want to drop the class, indefinitely, by the end of the week.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A few days passed, and Michelle was surprised at how well school was going. Most of her teachers were easy to get along with. She hadn't really gone out of her way to meet any new people in her classes, but that one boy - the one with the dark hair and the dark eyes and the cute smile - would always nod to her or say hello as he passed her in the hall. He wasn't in any of her classes, so she had no idea who he was, and hadn't been able to point the boy out to her sister either.

School had ended on Friday and Michelle and Valary were relaxing at home. Michelle was up in her room working on homework, while Val was talking on the phone to Matt in her room down the hall.

Hanging up with Matt, Val walked down to her sister's bedroom, poking her head in to see Michelle on her stomach on the bed, furiously writing away into a notebook. Upon hearing the door open, Michelle looked up.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked, and Val took a few tentative steps into the room.

"What are you writing?" Climbing up on the edge of the bed, Val got on her knees.

"A paper for English," Michelle answered, looking up at her sister again while sticking the end of the pen in her mouth.

Raising her eyebrows, Val nodded. "Fun," she said sarcastically, her lips forming a frown. "I'm gonna hop in the shower. Matt's coming over to take me to the football game tonight, so don't freak out when he just shows up," she said, hopping back off the bed and walking backwards toward the door.

Michelle smiled. "Since when do I ever freak out when Matt just randomly shows up at the door? Hell, my day isn't complete unless it happens at least once." Smiling in return, Val walked down the hall and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Looking back down at the paper before her, Michelle drew a blank on what to write about next. She looked over some of the notes she had to try and get back into the assignment. After a few more minutes she was unable to really think about anything more to write, so Michelle dropped her pen and got up, stretching. Looking at the clock she saw it was nearly six, so she decided to go downstairs and grab something for dinner.

While she was in the kitchen making a sandwich, she heard the front door open and then shut, followed by talking. She knew it was obviously Matt, but could tell there was someone else with him. When Michelle walked out of the kitchen, intent on taking the sandwich up to her room so she could get back to work on her paper, she saw Matt sitting on the couch. And she was rather surprised to see Mystery Hall Boy, as she'd named him, was with Matt.

"Hey Matt," Michelle said as she walked past them toward the stairs. He nodded his head in response like he always did.

"What, you're not gonna stay and chat, Val? I thought we were going to the game," Mystery Hall Boy said. Michelle saw Matt try to hide a smile, and rolled her eyes before going back up to her room.

Mystery Hall Boy was obviously a friend of Matt and Val and the reason he kept greeting her in the halls was because he thought she was her sister. It all made perfect sense to her now.

She sighed when she made it all the way up to her room and realized she had completely forgotten to get a drink. She went back downstairs, passing Matt and Mystery Boy, who had his eyes on her as she walked through. Rooting through the fridge, Michelle grabbed an iced tea.

"Val?" Mystery Boy called out. "Val, come here." Michelle knew that Val was still upstairs, as she had heard the shower water turn off when she had headed back down the stairs for a drink. Shutting the fridge, Michelle went back into the living room and stood a few feet from the couch.

"What do you want?" she asked, completely unamused. She hated that she and V al always got mixed up. It happened more when they were younger, but once they got older it started to fade. But, this time she decided to let it slide, as Mystery Boy didn't even know who she was.

"Why do you keep ignoring me?" he asked. Raising a brow, Michelle just looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "You know, when a friend says hello to you, it's polite to say it back."

She glanced at Matt again, who was still trying to hide a smile; he found the situation rather funny, so Michelle figured she might as well play along.

"I'm ignoring you because you're a pain in my ass," Michelle said, smirking. Mystery Boy looked crestfallen.

"I'm always a pain in your ass, but that's never stopped you before," he said with a pout. Michelle had to admit it: he was very good looking.

She looked over at Matt and winked discretely, as a way of telling him to go along with anything she said or did. Understanding, Matt nodded. Huffing, Michelle walked over to him and sat sideways on his lap while resting her head on his shoulder.

"Matt, will you make him go away?" she wined, and Matt placed his arm around her waist as he smiled.

"You heard her, Brian."

So, Mystery Boy has a name, Michelle thought to herself.

"You two are so mean to me. Why?" Brian asked, noticing something different about the way the two were interacting.

"I'm not gonna lie man, you really are a pain in the ass sometimes," Matt replied and then turned to look at Michelle with a smile.

"Tch, that's a first. It's usually always Zack who's a pain in the ass to you, Matt," Brian said, slouching back.

"No, it's just you. I think it was a recent development," Michelle said, chuckling as Matt joined in. She leaned in to kiss his cheek lightly - after all, they were trying to make their show believable.

Hearing movement from up above them, moving toward the stairs, Michelle and Matt looked at each other, knowing that they encounter was about to get better. Val had come out of the shower, gotten dressed, and fixed her hair and make-up before venturing downstairs - she had heard voices and knew Matt was there.

Upon her emergence into the living room, Val was surprised to see her sister draped across Matt. "Whoa... May I ask why you're sitting on my boyfriend?" she asked, and Matt and Michelle looked up with smirks on their faces. Brian also looked up, and he felt a shiver of confusion run through him when he saw Val standing in front of him, and another Val sitting on Matt's lap. Laughing at the bewildered look on Brian's face, Michelle got up and stood next to her sister, who was smiling at Brian as well.

"I -- what... Hold on. Val, since when are there two of you?" Brian asked, raking his hand through his hair, squinting his eyes. Turning to Matt, his mouth agape, he asked, "Dude, I didn't get high before I came here, right?" All three of the others began to laugh wildly at him.

"This is my twin, Brian," Val explained, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Since when do you have a sister, let alone a twin? And which one of you is really Val?"

"I'm Val, idiot," she replied. "And, you see Brian, about seventeen years ago, our parents had sex and-"

"Ew, stop! I get it! Jesus... I don't wanna hear about your parents and... that," Brian said, shoving his fingers in his ears to block out the sounds - though that didn't help erase the mental image in his head.

Looking back up at the girls, he finally settled. "So if you're Val," he said, pointing at her, "then who are you?" He was looking right at Michelle. She smiled.

"I'm Michelle," she answered, her eyes flickering to her sister as she went and sat in Matt's lap, where Michelle had been just seconds before.

"Okay then, Michelle. I'm Brian."

Smirking, Michelle looked down on him. "I figured as much."

"So are you guys ready to go, or what?" Val asked, looking at the two.

"Yeah, let's go." Brian stood and edged toward the door.

Looking toward her sister, Val's eyes lit up as she stood. "Michelle, do you wanna come?"

"Oh, I don't know. I still have that paper for English that I've got to get done-"

"That paper's not due till next week," Brian cut in, looking at Michelle with a smile. Looking her over, he realized that while both she and Val were identical twins, there was something different between them. He had to admit - she was pretty.

"How do you know that?" Michelle asked, looking back at him as he stood rather sure of himself. "You're not even in that class."

"I might not be, but Zack is, and he told me that paper was due next Monday."

"I see... I guess I'll go then, since you two seem so adamant that I join you," Michelle said with a sigh, looking between her sister and Brian. Telling them she'd be back down in a moment, she ran up to her room and slipped on a hoodie, going back downstairs and going out to Matt's car with the others.