copyright @Abbie Orsar

My palms are getting sweaty. Walking with Penelope towards the cafeteria seems to make the journey longer than it actually is.

"I'm going to make a quick stop at my locker." Penelope says.

" Oh, okay," I reply with slurred words.

"Do you want to put your stuff in my locker?" She asks with a small smile.

"Yeah, my locker is on the other side of the school day anyway." I smile at her and thank her for offering her locker to me.

At her locker, she puts in her combination, places her belongings in and take mine from my hands and puts them inside the locker. She then locks it up and we continue to proceed towards the cafeteria which is down the hallway.

She then takes the lead, and walks toward the table where most of the loud and popular kids sit. My anxiety level builds up and I am almost happy that I took my AEDs. The anxiety could have led to something worse. Penelope plops down on to the lunch table and I sit down right beside her. The table with all of Penelope's friends is full.

"Hey guys," Penelope says as we both squeeze in to the little space left to sit down.

"You look so much Bella." I recognize the voice as Luke. He's an all rounder which is a rare around this table. He has good grades, plays rugby alongside Derrick and even plays the guitar. It's been said that he serenades women with his beautiful songs. His only fault, he smokes to no extent. He is the definition of stoned.

I look to him and send a shy smile his way. I can't find my words so I'm definitely excited when Penelope finds them for me.

"This is Athena, her identical twin you twat."

"She looks so much Bella. It's almost creepy. Even with the different hair colors." Luke replies.

This time I find my words and answer, "Yeah, we are twins. We are identical, so we look alike." As I am about to ramble on, Luke cuts me off.

Luke says, "I wish I had a twin."

"But you don't have one so life sucks doesn't it." Replying with sarcasm in her voice, Penelope smiles a coy smile at Luke. He laughs at her sarcasm.

"I just took it in that I would love to bang you seeing that you look like Bella and everything."

"Are you high right now?" Penelope asks him and then turns to me, "Stoned like tends to express himself more than he should."

I turn my full attention towards Luke's body. I notice the subtle but continuous shaking of the left hand he's placed on the table across from me. His eyes are red. Really red. Here I am thinking he is a tired guy when he really is as high as a cloud.

Little disturbing giggles escape his mouth. "Maybe I am."

"I thought so." Penelope shakes her head at him in disapproval.

"So, what do you say other Bella?"

Words don't find their way to my mouth yet again, and Penelope speaks for me.

"Hey everyone, meet Athena, Bella's twin."

Soon Luke's voice gets lost as the whole table turn their heads towards me.

"I've seen you around before." A blonde haired girl says to me as she twirls her hair around her manicured finger.

"Why don't you ever sit with us?" Another foreign voice aims a question at me.

"Yeah, why not?" Others at the table ask and I count almost 15 heads staring at me.

"Because you guys are intimidating twats. Go back to your meaningless life, leave her alone." Penelope saves me again. How many times is that now?

"Wait, isn't this the twin that punched you?" Same blonde girl speaks up and sends tension rates up.

"We reconciled."

She takes her arm and wraps it around me and smiles. I smile back at our audience.

"Really now?" Blondie won't give up.

"Would I hug my archenemy?" Penelope lets go of me and raises an eyebrow at Blondie.

"Whatever." The girl goes back to whatever has her attention on her screen.

"Now all of you, go back to your life. There is no drama for you to film and make your meaningless lives more interesting."

Penelope being assertive gets everyone back to their personal chats. I gaze around and no eyes are on me, so I let out a breathe of relief.

Across from me where Luke was, is an empty seat.  He's gone. All the better for me.

"Sorry about that. Sometimes you have to let them know who is boss."

"Okay." I say barely getting it out.

"Also, ever since you punched me, they are too nice to me. They are soft with me and scared that I might break and kill myself or something."

"That's crazy. All of them are that respectful."

"Mention the word suicide once to Ciara," she points to Blondie, "and all your friends tiptoe with their words around you?"

The air around us feels really awkward when she says suicide. Like her friends, I feel I have to tiptoe around her. We just stare at each other.

Sweet salvation comes when familiar hands grab onto my shoulders. Due to some weird sense that Bella and I share, I know it is her.

"Athena, what are you doing here?" She asks as I turn around to face her and see Derrick standing beside her.

I don't know exactly how to sugarcoat the sentence I'm about to say so I don't, "Penelope, is my English project partner. So we reconciled and she invited me to lunch."

Bella leans in to Derrick as if she needs support when she takes in my sentence.

"Oh that's cool."

"Yea," is all I can say. Everyone around us has their eyes and ears our way again. What do teens love more than twins? Drama. Penelope, I and my twin most definitely equal drama.

"I couldn't get you to sit with my friends but Penelope could." Everyone at the table says oh. Penelope and I are left to do nothing but sit there and not say anything. I realize I have to explain this and get all the attention off of me.

She seems more shocked and surprised than hurt.

"Aren't you hungry?" Attempting to sway away the tension, works out when Bella says.

"Yeah, I am. Derrick and I are gonna go up and get something to eat."

Crisis is averted. Everyone goes back to their normal conversations. Penelope looks at me and wipes a fake sweat drop off her head.

"You think me and her will ever talk normally again?"

Penelope's question throws me off. Bella does her best to stay away from Penelope. Her very best. Trying to reassure her of a non existent possibility I say,

"For sure, we are doing some of the work at my house. So there is your opportunity to talk to Bella. Slowly ease your way in and before you know it, you guys are sharing lipstick secrets."  I finish off my advice with a sure smile. Maybe I can be an actress.

"Really?"

"I'm her twin. I know her."

"Then can we just screw the 30 minute hike to the library and do all the work at your house then? I really want to start over with Bella."

"Yeah, we can kill two birds with one stone."

"Cool."

"Do you want to talk about the English work? I though I was going to try something new but I'm not even hungry anymore." Homework occupies my mind and my need for food vacates my stomach for now.

"I'm not hungry either. We can tot---,"  Bella does what she does best. She interrupts yet another person.

"Athena, Derrick and I were going to go outside on the green hill to eat." Bella returns along with Derrick with wrapped burger in hand.

"Oh."  I let out a sound.

"Remember that spot I sat with you at." Derrick smiles a full teeth smile.

I get a quick memory of Derrick and I sitting at the low hill behind the school. I remember him calling me beautiful which makes me blush and almost laugh out at the thought.

"Yeah, I thought you should finally like to get to know each other." Bella raises her eyebrow at me and I automatically know what she wants.

She needs me to get to know Derrick for the date I agreed to. Knowing her all too well, makes it easy for me to realize that this threesome between her, her boyfriend and I will not be the last time.

"It will be fun." Derrick says as if I'm ever going to enjoy them making heart eyes at each other.

I look at Penelope apologetically, "It's cool. Go with your sister. I can always message you on Facebook." Penelope portrays the part of a good trooper.

"Thank you for being so understanding," Bella's words seem forced right along with the smile awkwardly plastered on her face.

"Bye." Bye is all I say as I remove myself from the cafeteria bench and walk in tow with Bella and Derrick.

"Athena!" I hear a voice call out to me and notice that's it's Penelope's. She runs over to me and says, "Your things are about still in my locker."

"Oh yeah." Idiotic me, on our walk to the cafeteria, I had put my belongings in her locker.

"What's your third period class, I'll just bring it and give it to you then."

"I have Anthropology in Room 324."

"Great. I'll find you then. Enjoy the rest of your lunch."

Bella and Derrick just start walking off on their own and I'm forced to run to catch up. I take into mind that neither Bella or Derrick dared to speak to Penelope. I have to work with sister and sister's foe, just great for me.

We pass two hallways and walk through exit three to make our way to the hill behind our school.

The hill has a view in which many use to overlook the school's massive field. On the hill, are two benches in which have umbrellas to shade them from getting wet. I always preferred to sit on the grass. Especially, when the breeze blew it was so peaceful as most students didn't like spending their lunch on the hill.

I make the first move to sit down on the grass passing the benches.

"You know I hate grass touching my skin," Bella points to her short s that expose her olive skin. I haven't forgotten but this is payback for getting me into such a shady deal.

Derrick laughs and follows suit after me. He taps on the spot beside him and motions for Bella to sit between him and I.

"You too Derrick." She whines.

"Yah me too. Come on. Worst you'll get from the grass is a rash that could kill." He jokes with her, his hand is stretched out waiting for her.

"Don't make jokes like that." 

"Bella, we are here because you wanted us to bond remember." I raise my eyebrow trying to remind her of what we have to do.

"Whatever."

Reaching for Derrick's hand, she uses it to help her sit down. Instead of sitting in the space between us, she sits on the outside of Derrick signalling for us to scoot closer.

Great, now Derrick and I are right beside each other. This is going to be fun.

Derrick bites into his burger and Bella disregards hers.

"Hey Athena, did you know that Derrick here loves to read when he isn't winning games?" Purposely starting up a conversation, Bella secretly taps me to indulge in it. I try hard not to let out a sigh of frustration or roll my eyes.

"Really, what authors are you into?"

I look at him and notice him still chewing his food. Raising up a finger to tell me to hold on, he quickly swallows his food and says,

"I like old poetry."

"A guy who's not afraid to talk about poetry let alone his like for it is rare."  I say to him.

He laughs and then replies, "Why should I be shy to talk about it? My masculinity is already evident and it's not I need to validate it for others."

I notice really quickly, he is not Bella's usual boyfriends. Just the way he talks makes he notice he is more than an athlete, he seems to have an academic mind as well.

There is some silence. Derrick looks at me and since Bella sits behind him, he doesn't see her urging me to continue the conversation.

"But here's the real question, which author is your favourite?"

"You are going to think I'm really basic but I love Edgar Allen Poe."

"Everyone loves Edgar Allen Poe." I raise an eyebrow at him. Bella makes a face for me to inquire more. She picked the right spot to sit and intimidate me from.

"Not Bella." He turns to her and laughs as he reaches to hold her hand.

"I'm not the poetry gal but Athena is." She smoothly removes her hand from his pretending that she needed to smooth her hair down. So smoothly that Derrick doesn't notice anything is off.

Derrick is still looking at her, so I ask,
"You have to love someone other than Edgar. I love him but he is an answer that most go to. So there has to be someone else."

His gaze turns to me and Bella smiles and gives me a thumbs up quickly. This conversation with him feels more natural than it should. Maybe it's because poetry and books are an easy topic for me and Bella knows that. That is the reason she introduced it in the first place.

"You're good at inquiring for more." Derrick laughs his classic full laugh.

"I am?" My face scrunches up with a confused look.

"You are and now you get a good answer."

"I really like Thomas Hood. Poe is good but too dark. Hood has moments when his poems insinuate more than simple was and happiness but not as heavily as  Poe." His reply has me thinking of how insightful he just is.

"What's your favourite poem by him?" He takes a moment to think about it. I take the time to stare at him, truly stare at him. His blue eyes, I'd noticed before but not his thin lips and rock hard jawline that framed his most attractive face. The sun made his long brown hair shine as it reflected off of it. Derrick's hair was parted in the middle, it was thin but reached his cheeks.

"It has to be, I remember I remember. Every line in the poem was lit." His face shows such excitement as he talks about his favourite poem by Thomas Hood.
 
Little did I know that I would ever use the word "lit" to describe a poem. There is a first time for everything right. Apparently with a life like mine, there is also a first time for interviewing you sister's boyfriend so you can date him with her approval.

"I love that poem. That poem had moments when he talked about about wanting to die in the night out simply. That is kind of dark don't you think." I raise an eyebrow at him.

"But not as dark as Poe." He smirks at me.

I laugh so easily at his remark, "That's true. Definitely true."

Bella mouths to me, "Keep going." And that's what I do.

"So what else do you do except read Thomas Hood?" I ask more questions to keep my twin pleased.

Good question Athena, I applaud myself in my mind.

Derrick seems to be thinking but gives me a small sweet smile before saying, "Watching tv, playing guitar, parties sometimes, all the basic teen stuff."

"Pretty basic teen stuff." I repeat his words.

He shakes his head and laughs at my response. I see Bella's face behind him and she seems amused and happy that her boyfriend and I get along.

"You know you've been asking me questions and I haven't got to ask any."

When he says, I do my best not to sigh. I don't want to be analyzed.

"Let's go back to poetry."

"Okay," I gulp down some saliva nervous for a reason even I don't know. Derrick seems chill so I shouldn't be nervous. I suppose the nervous really comes from knowing that this is really an interview session to prepare me for when I have to impersonate Bella.

"Who is your  favourite poet if you have one?

I don't have to think about it, I just answer, "Emily Dickinson."

The school bell then rings to signal the end of the lunch hour. Time sure went by fast. I see kids on the field, with my view from the hill begin to walk towards the entrance to the school. They are all heading back to class which is what I should be doing.

"Everyone loves Emily Dickinson."

Derrick aims my words back at me. There is surprise on my face.

Helping himself and Bella up, Derrick then laughs and walks off with Bella after they say their goodbyes to me. I am left to be confused and amazed by how Derrick got me back with my own words.

Today poses the thought that I might enjoy the "date" with him and that thought is scary.

Instead of getting up and going to class, I put my forehead into my hands and let out a giant sigh. What will I do?

Author's BRIEF Note:

Oh my gosh, Bella is actually letting this happen. She is actually letting her sister interview her boyfriend. Derrick isn't just a jock, oh my so hot!

You guys get to learn about Derrick. Tell me your favorite poet or if you would let your twin, if you had one, do something like this.

Thank you so much for reading.

Oh also please tell me who you think should be Derrick.