双生児

There’s a tall, bespectacled sixth grader who never speaks English in class. During the ten-minute breaks between periods or during recess time, he comes and hangs out in the English classroom. He asks me a million questions that I can’t answer because they’re all in rapid-fire Japanese. He’s walks around the room scrutinizing every poster and bulletin board as if seeing them for the first time.  Then, if I’m not near the desk, he touches the computer. He’s annoying, but I tolerate him because I suspect that he doesn’t go to recess because nobody will play with the socially awkward kid. Being different in a society that values uniformity can be excruciating for a child, so I always try to look out for the odd ones.

Earlier this month, on a particularly hectic Tuesday, I felt like he’d come in at every single period break. So I kicked him out. I felt bad, but I really needed a few child-free minutes to regroup that day. Then the last period of the day, his homeroom came for their lesson. I was confused. Hadn’t I already taught him in the morning? Or was it because he had come during all the breaks? I greeted him and checked to see if he was upset that I’d thrown him out earlier. He seemed fine. But he sat in the center back. Didn’t he usually sit in the back near the door? And wasn’t he wearing a burgundy sweat shirt earlier? He was wearing a green one now. What is going on? Am I going nuts?

The next week I paid special attention to him and discovered that both of the sixth grade homerooms have one of him. It had taken me almost four months to realize that I was teaching identical twins! The reason why I felt like they were always in my room is because they were taking turns hanging out.  

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There are also identical twin fifth-graders, but I figured that one out earlier because one is very sensitive (he cried when he got an answer wrong) while the other is more outgoing and let’s things roll off his back. I figured it had to be twins or a kid with a personality disorder.