Diamonds and Stones

“Uh, me llamo Juliette, y... Y me habla español solo un poco.”
“Bien. Siéntate.”

I took my seat, opening my notebook. I was one of the first students in the class, and I sat there, looking around. I heard people chattering in the halls, footsteps, laughs, just about everything. It had been a while since I had been around so many other teenagers, without Lizzy around me, and I was starting to get nervous.
Just then, a boy walked in with a skateboard under his arm, and a Muse tee-shirt. Well, this was going to be interesting.
He sat at the single table beside mine, then looked over at me and smiled.
“Hi, I'm Dan.”
He was rather attractive, but eh.
“Um... I'm Juliette.”
“New chick. Where you from?”
“It's complicated, but I just moved here from New York.”
“Why's it complicated?”
“Because, well... It's a long story.”
“Right, right... So anyways, Juliette, I'm Dan. And if you wanna get around this school, you can come to me, okay?”
“Okay... Uh, thank you.”
“Yeah, no problem. By the way, you don't have a New York-ish accent.”
“I've been told.”
“Ah... Well, uh. Do you wa-”
“Daniel, be quiet and pay attention.”
“Yes, miss.”
She gave him a long, hard look, as if saying, "You don't want to be in the situation you were in before." Then she turned around and started a long tirade in Spanish.
I looked up her. I was so confused. I had taken one year of Spanish, in 8th grade. But that was before... Before the accident.
Yes, Lizzy was a huge help remembering the little I knew during the two years after that, but if all classes was like this, I'd be screwed.
15 minutes into the class, and I had understood very little.
“You’re lost, aren’t you,” Dan said.
“Okay, fine, maybe just a little.”
He pulled his chair closer to mine, and said, “Look,” and explained most of the stuff to me.
“What’s your next class?” he asked me as I packed my books and walked out of the classroom.
“Um, robotics.”
“Ey, new chick’s smart! I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, bye, and thank you for today.”
He just did a military type salutation and walked off.
I took a deep breath and walked to the labs.
“Lab two, lab two…” I mumbled under my breath.
I found it, pushed the door open, and was greeted by a rather perky teacher, with thick glasses and wispy white hair.
“Hello! Are you the new student who’s supposedly very good with technology?”
“Y-Yes, I think so, sir.”
He laughed. “Good. What’s your name?”
“Juliette.”
“Ah, excellent. Well do sit down.”
I sat at a table in the middle of the class. Kids filed in, and as the class started, I realized that I must’ve left my pen in the Spanish classroom. Just great.
“Uh, excuse me,” I said, tapping the shoulder of the light brown haired boy sitting in front of me. “Do you have an extra pen I could borrow?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Here.”
He passed me one, and I thanked him. During class at one point, he turned around and said, “So you’re one of the- Oh, you’re left handed?”
“Um, yeah, I am.”
“That’s cool. I’m Jack, by the way.”
“Juliette,” I replied.
“Cool. So you’re one of the new girls?”
“News travels fast around here.”
“We haven’t had new kids in a while,” he shrugged. “So two in the same class is quite the news. Do you know the other one?”
“She’s my sister, actually.”
“Oh, that’s cool! Who’s… Who’s older?”
“Technically, her.”
“Twins?”
I laughed. “Not yes, but not no.”
“What?” he asked, giving me a confused look.
“Never mind,” I chuckled.
“Oh, okay. Well… By the way, I also have a twin brother. Well, if you can consider your… Oh gosh, I’m confused.”
I laughed. “Let’s just say I have a twin.”
“Okay, well, I have a twin brother, too. So if you see another guy pretty much identical to me, it’s him… Or I guess it could be me, too.”
I smiled. “Alright, that’s cool.”
“Yep.”
“Oh, um, your pen, I’ll give it back to you at the end of class.”
“Nah, keep it. Saves you the hassle.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” he smiled, then turned back around.

Lunch break came sooner than I expected, and just as I was opening the door to the lunch room, someone jumped up from behind me.
“Hey!”
“You scared me!”
Dan just laughed. “That was my goal. You wanna eat with us?”
“Us?”
“My friends and I.”
“Duh, Juliette,” I said, smacking myself on the forehead. “But sure, I’d like that.”
“Alright then! Come along.”
I followed him, got my lunch, then sat down at one of the round tables which was empty. I looked around but I couldn't see Lizzy anywhere.
“So why were you saying that where you come from is 'complicated'?” Dan asked.
“Well, I don't really want to bore you with the story, and, well..”
“I get it, we just met. Don't worry!”
He smiled and I smiled back. Two other guys joined us at the table. I looked over at them. Holy shit, they were identical!
“Oh hey Juliette!” one of them said. I'm guessing that one was Jack.
“Hey, Jack, and...”
“Finn,” his twin replied. “Hi.”
We smiled at each other, then Dan said, “You know them?”
“Only Jack.”
“We have Robotics together,” he explained through bites of his sandwich.
“Aah.”
“So where's your sister?” Jack asked me.
“Um...”
I looked around the lunch room then finally spotted her not too far away, sitting with two other girls.
“There,” I said, nodding in her direction. “The one with the glasses and My Ch-”
“Oh my god she likes My Chemical Romance!” Dan cried, and I laughed.
“We both do, just her more than me.”
“That's freaking awesome!”
We all laughed at Dan's fanboying.
“You two don't really look alike,” Finn pointed out.
“That's funny. Loads of people used to mistake us for sisters when we.. Weren't sisters.”
All three of them gave me the most confused look, and I said, “Well, we're sisters through adoption. Makes sense?”
“A bit,” Dan said, while the twins nodded.
“As I said: complicated.”
“I get it.”
I just smiled slightly and resumed eating my lunch.
“And that's only the beginning,” I said to myself.