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It is the first day of the Swan twins's second year at the Phoenix Gemini School, Apollo High, and this time around Alli isn't soliciting reassurance from her sister about conspiracy theories that the schools are designed to brainwash, de-power, or otherwise mishandle their charges. It's basically just high school, with unconventional gym requirements and an above-average proportion of superpowered faculty. And way more money than most public schools, and excellent diversity because the entry requirement cuts neatly across all demographics.
Well, in most conventional demographic respects.
There are no only children here.
Alli and Bella have all their classes together, which is nice - that wasn't always possible in elementary and middle school; here it's a matter of course.
This year they're signed up for gym but they can skip until two weeks into term, at which point they'll have their basics and Bella will be just as competent as anyone else. More so, relative to the general population. She has no idea what bonus she'll get and she's excited anyway. She's going to be able to actually go to dances, and dance at them, if she wants. Not the homecoming dance because that's not for underclassmen, but there will be others.
"Uuuugh," says Alli, "math first thing in the morning."
"Wouldn't it be funny if you said that and you got a math boost of some kind for your bonus?"
"No, that would just be horrible. And sad. Be sad for me if that happens, Bella."
"All right. What do you want to get?"
"I don't even know, is there a point? I'll just get something and so will you and that'll be that."
"Suit yourself."
The bus pulls in and out they get, uniform skirts swishing around their knees, swan emblems matching on their sleeves so everyone can tell who is whose twin.
point_b
alli_oop
"It got really, like, layered, trying to be like 'well I wanna do this but the other me is probably thinking the same thing so I could do this other thing' like sixteen of that in a row until we both just threw paper, it was stupid."
alli_oop
"And then I started doing less of the sixteen-of-that but I both did that at the same time!"
point_b
"I'm actually not sure why the fact that they appear in different places and therefore looking at slightly different things doesn't do more than it seems to. Alli says it doesn't feel like they're in any kind of mental contact and they can't even twine each other."
alli_oop
"It's mostly just me and anybody who gets assigned to work with her in a group project, and I really don't mind," shrugs Alli, "not when I think about it."
blink_and
"Wasn't saying you were," she says gently. "I'm just explaining her. Coordinating in that kind of situation is useful."
alli_oop
"Yeah. Eventually maybe I will stop feeling silly when I go 'Bella tell us which of us has to go to the corner store' and she picks one and that one complains and the other one's smug and then I'm both of them later."
you_miss_it
Savannah giggles. "I feel like if I had that power I would end up getting into fights with myself all the time."
point_b
"That actually hasn't happened yet, which I suppose is good, because they can't just stay split up as long as they want, it wears off after a few hours."