I really think that someone needs to explain the concept of being a loser to the twins. Because at the rate they’re going, saying hello to me every day, it’s only going to be so long before some of my loser stink rubs off on them. Don’t they have losers in London? Maybe high school in London is the way that grown-ups say the “rest of your life” is here. As in, “Those popular kids are peaking now, and you and the rest of the late bloomers have the rest of your life to shine.” Maybe in London everyone shines at the same time. Or maybe it’s just like here, where there doesn’t seem to be room enough for everyone to be happy at once. I’ll be happy. As soon as Karen’s better, as soon as Mom and Dad are back together, and as soon as I stop being such a dork. That’ll be my time to shine.
For now, though, I’m sticking to the invisibility plan. It’s the reason that I can stand here unnoticed, around the corner from where the twins are sitting in front of their open lockers. We’re all late to class. Together, but not together. Sheila is crying, “We have names you know? How hard is it to say ‘Sheila’ and ‘Rodney’? Are they so lazy that they can’t spare the extra syllables? They can only say ‘the twins, the twins, the twins.’”
Rodney starts to answer, but Sheila is on a roll. “And have they never met someone who isn’t white before? How could Dad move us to the one school in the whole ‘celebrate diversity’ United States that had never seen a person of color that wasn’t on the telly? Our school in Virginia was much more diverse than this one!”
I hear them both stand and close their lockers and begin to walk away. I peek around the corner and watch them, Sheila’s angry voice bouncing off the lockers. “I can’t tell if they’re terrified or repulsed by us! You realize that the one person we’ve tried to talk to has never even talked back to us? What is wrong with these people? They should be fascinated by us! We’re from London, for Christ’s sake! There’s not a city in this bloody country that comes close to London! Ask us what it’s like to live there! Ask us if we miss it! These are not hard questions! But these are stupid, stupid people.”
I laugh out loud and have to duck back behind the corner as they turn around and look in my direction. Karen’s going to love this.