She truly appreciated her genetic heritage. However, despite their high pedigrees, the Sisters had never tried to use their ancestry to their advantage. Neither girl had mentioned their lineage in class before, even though everyone knew that the two siblings were gee-emms. It was one thing to have a weird last name; it was another for someone to spell out exactly what that name meant.

This revelation caused quite a kerfuffle amongst her fellow students. In mere seconds, the room went from relative silence to gasps of shock, to exclamations of surprise amidst the girls. Despite Mrs. Dyke's best efforts to settle things down, she could not quell the disturbance because everyone started speaking at once. Both Christiana and Haruhi-nee were being asked rapid-fire questions by the children sitting at the surrounding desks. So many people were talking to them at once that neither girl could understand their peers' queries, so the duo also began asking their classmates to simmer down.

After two or three minutes, things finally calmed down enough for the lecturer to be heard above the din. If Mrs. Dyke had been frowning before, at this point, she was scowling.

"Girls, you know better!" the instructor was all but yelling. "If you do not calm down right now, then I will get the headmistress," the history teacher snarled.

That got the girl's attention, and the turmoil settled down to whispers in a handful of seconds. No one wanted the headmistress to become entangled in the situation. While Mrs. Dyke was on the strict side, headmistress Perkins was on a whole different level. Just her being summoned to a classroom would lead to a long tongue lashing and a vid' conference with the Mother of every girl present.

'The last thing I want is for that woman to get involved,' Christiana thought as the color drained from her face. Since it was her fault that the disruption began, Mrs. Perkins wouldn't stop with a call home. Even though she was only answering a question from Mrs. Dyke, she knew from experience that things would only escalate if she tried to explain the current circumstances. Any interaction between a student and the headmistress was a lose-lose situation.

Now that her students were quiet, the educator once again singled her out. "Christiana, it is a well-known fact that all the eggs harvested from The Chosen returned with them to Sol," she began with a smug smirk on her face. "Thus there is no way that either of your geneMothers could have been one of The Chosen."

"Yes, ma'am, that is true," she replied. "That is why I said that both of our geneMothers were closely associated with The Chosen, not that they were the Chosen." Then it was the girl's turn to grin. "For instance, Haruhi-nee's geneMother was the 'cousin' and best friend of Keiko Kayashima," the girl continued, "Her gee-emm was Kanna Hirohito from Destiny."

With this, yet another murmur arose among the classmates, but it quieted under Mrs. Dyke's sharp glare. Before Mrs. Dyke could resume her interrogation, Christiana pressed forward. "It is interesting to note that on Old Earth Miss Hirohito was from the more prestigious clan. That was because she was directly related to the emperor of Nippon. Meanwhile, Miss Kayashima was from a branch family of the Hirohitos. Unfortunately, Ms. Kayashima lost her parents and siblings at a very young age and the main household adopted her to be Ms. Hirohito's close friend and companion."

Then, before her instructor had the chance to interrupt her, she continued, "My geneMother was the geneSister of Christy Harris, Mary Harris. Both girls were Spacers from the innermost asteroid belt. While the younger sister Christy Harris was Chosen and returned to Sol on Hope, Mary Harris settled here on Cooper's World."

Once again the room erupted with the sound of girl's voices. While the term "cousin" was virtually unknown to the youngsters in the class, everyone knew what a geneSister was. While uncommon for a girl to run into someone who had the same geneMother as they did, it was not unheard of. In fact, there were many popular vids for children about that very subject. It was common for girls Christiana and Haruhi-nee's age to contact the Labs to find out if they had any living geneSisters hoping to reach them. The Labs, of course, could not give out that kind of information since it was a breach of privacy.

After contacting the Labs for this data and being turned down, the Sisters had tried to hack their way into the Labs' systems. By working together, the girls broke into the Washington's primary security system. They then piggybacked on that computer and used it and its advanced features to breach the outermost firewall belonging to the Labs' network. However, despite their' finest efforts, they could not break the data's encryption without risking detection. As a result, they decided it was best to quit trying if they did not want to get in trouble for tampering with government intelligence.

Since Christiana's classmates understood what a geneSister was, they could grasp how closely she was related to Christy Harris. To them, it was almost as if they found out that one of their friends was the geneDaughter of the colony's President.

Mrs. Dyke's eyes grew large as she appeared to recognize the genetic potentials of the girls she had repeatedly singled out throughout the school Year. Of course, the Sisters being Washingtons should have been enough to make the nagging teacher think twice before harassing them. Even the naïve child understood that getting on the bad side of one of the most powerful families in Simmon's Town was not in someone's best interest. That was especially true if she wanted to live a peaceful life and retire here.

She was slightly ashamed because felt a bit of joy at the teacher's obvious discomfort. Both she and Haruhi-nee had been on the receiving end of Mrs. Dyke's sharp tongue. While she was not all that worried about herself, she couldn't forgive Mrs. Dyke for harassing her womb-mate. 'I don't care if you are a teacher,' she thought to herself, 'You shouldn't pick on us because we already know the information that you are presenting to the class.' After all, both girls had given adequate answers to every question the instructor had asked them throughout the term. Besides, it wasn't as if either child was causing a distraction for their classmates by texting over the network and ignoring the lectures.

After Mrs. Dyke quieted the students down once again, she did her very best to steer the rest of the lecture away from the Chosen. She also totally ignored the two Sisters even though the duo had stopped trying to hide their nonstop typing.

Then, when the class dispersed, the older educator would not meet Christiana's gaze. Instead, she hurried out of the room right after the period ended. Christiana smiled when she realized that the nasty teacher had fled. The black-haired sibling laughed out loud after Mrs. Dyke rushed into the hallway.

"Looks like she finally understands who we are," the Haruhi-nee said.

Then Haruhi-nee rose from her desk and walked towards her Sister making slow progress through the students who were milling about. The girls had gym the next period, so they were all heading to the locker room to change. Since their sensei did not give them much time to put on their gym uniforms, there was always chaos in the lecture hall immediately after history class. After all, the faster the pupils made it to the gymnasium, the longer they had to dress.

When she reached Christiana's desk, Haruhi-nee had an enormous grin plastered across her pretty face. "I can't believe that Mrs. Dyke left the classroom that quickly," Haruhi-nee declared. "Usually she keeps one or two girls after class 'to talk.' I suspect that she just likes to make us suffer."

She burst into giggles. "Do you think it was something I said?" she quipped as she rose to her feet. On this occasion, it was Haruhi-nee's turn to laugh as the duo exited the classroom.