"Look at this, though!" I said, pointing to a comment in italics. It read The "evil twin".

"Whoa! What does that mean?" Maisie asked. "Mrs. Wix, evil? I don't believe it. It's impossible."

"Why on earth would you want to be a boy?" Susan repeated.

"I don't know," I said, squirming. "I was stupid. What can I say?"

"I can't imagine..." Susan said. She looked at me as though she was trying to mentally subtract my female attributes. Then she shook her head. "And you made people call you Mark?"

"Can we talk about something else?" I begged.

"Like what?" Maisie asked, as she crunched on a piece of celery.

"Like how Ms. Overmore knew that, ah... how did she know that my house was where Mrs. Wix grew up?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Susan said. "They used to go to school here together. They were classmates."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"After Honororia told us that Mrs. Wix was a student here, I went to the library and found the old yearbook. It turns out that they were friends back then."

"Friends?" I asked. "Mrs. Wix and Ms. Overmore? Friends? I didn't even think they were the same *age*!"

It was hard to think of two people more different, or of a more unlikely friendship. One woman was fashionable, young, and energetic, and the other was old, frumpy, and slow. (And honestly, I'm not trying to be mean! I really like Mrs. Wix.)

Susan nodded and gave a cute shrug.

"I don't think they're friends now," Maisie commented. "They avoid each other in the hall, and they only talk when they *have* to. And then, they're really stiff with each other."

"Huh," I said. "Can we go look at that yearbook after lunch?"

Susan nodded.

Maisie said, "Anything you say, Mark."

"Don't call me that!"

The three of us crowded together at a library table, Susan in the middle. "You have to see this picture on page 19," she said, opening the book to a photo of the teenaged Wix and Overmore, smiling and holding a poster together.

Ms. Overmore was even more striking back then: her cheeks were fuller, her skin looked a little darker, and she had a sassy smile that looked like something out of a fashion magazine. The young Mrs. Wix was cute, pale, big eyed, slim, and smiling. Very different from the Mrs. Wix we knew.

The two girls were shoulder to shoulder, and looked like the best of friends. "See?" Susan said. "I told you!"

Maisie read the caption aloud, "Misty Sabatino and Yvette Collinson designed the fund-raiser's poster."

"Misty?" I echoed. The name didn't suit Mrs. Wix at all. I couldn't imagine anyone ever calling her Misty.

"It must have been her nickname," Susan said.

"Yeah, but...," I objected.

Pointing to the young Ms. Overmore, Maisie noted, "Her name used to be Collinson." She tapped her index finger loudly. "That means that Ms. Overmore was married, too — or is married."

The was married too jarred my ear, so I asked, "Is Mrs. Wix *still* married?"

Susan and Maisie replied with one voice, "Mr. Wix was killed in a car accident."

I was startled, and they both laughed, which startled me even more.

"Oh, we shouldn't laugh..." Susan began, putting her hand on her lips.

"... but it's an old, tired story..." Maisie continued, rolling her eyes.

"Mrs. Wix tells it all the time. Don't worry, you'll hear it. It's the tragedy of her life," Susan concluded. Her mouth was working as if she was trying not to laugh.

Maisie caught my look and said, "Oh, come on! We're not heartless. It's just that after you hear it ten times... twenty times... I don't know. It kind of loses its punch."

I wasn't convinced, but didn't feel like arguing the point.

Susan looked at me with raised eyebrows and a little smile. "Back to the pictures?"

She turned to the individual portraits, and found Ms. Overmore.

"She was already beautiful," Maisie commented.

"She's amazing," I agreed. "She could be a movie star."

"And here," said Susan, turning pages, "is Mrs. Wix." She showed us a photo captioned, "Margaret (Maisie) Sabatino."

"Oh, crud!" Maisie cried, "She's a Maisie! I picked this nickname because nobody else would have it. And who has to be Maisie but that old cow!"

"Maybe nobody calls her that now," I offered.

Susan nodded. "The other teachers all call her Margaret or Marge."

Maisie huffed with great indignation, but Susan's comment seemed to mollify her, at least a little.

"Look at this, though!" I said, pointing to a comment in italics under the name. It read The "evil twin".

"Whoa! What does that mean?" Maisie asked. "Mrs. Wix, evil? I don't believe it. It's impossible."

I had an idea. Mrs. Wix's picture was the last one on the right-hand page. I reached over and turned the page, and there was the answer: the first picture on the next page was Mrs. Wix's twin!

"Mary (Misty) Sabatino," Susan read. "She has a twin!"

Under her name was written In Memoriam.

"Had a twin," I commented.

"Freaky," Maisie said.

Suddenly, a voice behind us made us jump. It was the librarian. "Can you girls please keep it down? There are people here trying to study. It *is* a library, after all."

"Sorry, sister," we three sang.

Her eyes fell on the book, where Susan's finger rested under Misty's picture. "Oh, Misty," she said sadly.

"Did you know her?" Maisie asked.

"Of course I knew her. Didn't you know? I've been here since the dawn of time." The nun smiled thinly. "Misty was a wonderful girl, always positive, full of life. And she loved to dance." She gazed at Misty's picture with a pious look, and said in a church whisper, "The poor girl died March 17, 1993."

"The day I was born," I said.

"St. Patrick's Day," Susan said in the same moment.

"Mmm," the librarian said, making a point of ignoring our references. "She was killed by a drunk driver. Pray for her soul, girls, and keep your voices down."

© 2007 Kaleigh Way