Narrated by Nicole

I could hear the noises outside. I shivered, curling up like a shrimp. The noises grew louder and louder. I didn’t know what to do. Nancy was outside fighting for me, but I could do nothing.

“Nicole did nothing wrong, so please don’t blame her anymore!” Nancy cried.

The next day, I slowly opened the door, and saw Nancy sitting on the table, her legs dangling.

“Hi Nicole!” she exclaimed.

My name is Nicole, I’m a timid useless person. My twin sister is called Nancy. There were things that bothered me all the time, like the dog next door that always tried to bite me, and my parents who often slapped me on the face. But the main thing that bothered me was that Nancy and I looked the same. We were like two ants crawling on the tree, exactly the same. I was having my breakfast, slowly, when “Squeak…!” I leapt high and ran to the living room.

“Oh my, Nicole!” said Nancy. “It is just a baby mouse, look at it!”

I slowly bent down and hopped away.

“Hey, do you want to go to the mall? I want to buy some pencils for school,” Nancy asked me.

“Sure.”

I went upstairs and changed my clothes. We held our hands and walked outside, the people around us whispering.

“Oh my God, they look the same!”

I shivered and held Nancy’s hand tighter.

“They are like, exactly same!”

Nancy held my hand and ran. I needed to change. I didn’t want to be the same as Nancy. I needed to do something.

“Hey, Nancy, can I go to the hair salon?”

“Yeah, sure, let’s meet at five O’clock!”

I nodded. Then I went to find a salon. There were lots of salons on the street, and I didn’t know which one to pick.

Narrated by Nancy

I had just arrived at the mall, and I was thinking about which stationery store I would go to. Finally I chose MUJI and entered the store. I wanted to buy a ballpoint pen, a highlight pen and a propelling pencil. I knew that the average prices in MUJI were cheap so I could buy a lot. When I finished paying, I thought that I wouldn’t need to buy stationery for at least another year. I looked at my watch. It was already 5 p.m.

As I went out the gate, I saw a girl with short black hair, looking a bit miserable. I walked up to that girl, step by step, each step tensed and tentative.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You don’t know me?” exclaimed the girl unbelievingly, “I’m Nicole!”

“What? Nicole, you…”

The end

They looked at each other in the eyes. Nancy felt that Nicole had made a big change in herself. She felt happy for Nicole. She also hoped the neighbors would not laugh at her anymore.

“Nicole, you don’t need to care about other people.” said Nancy. “In my eyes you are the only sister of mine.”

Nicole smiled, “ Nancy, I really appreciate that I have such a good sister. But after going through so many things, I also realized that I needed to change, I want to live a different life. “

“ Okay, I will let you. I believe you can!” Nancy said seriously.

From then on, they are Nancy and Nicole. Nancy is Nancy, Nicole is Nicole. No one think of them as the same again.