Separated At Birth [Yata Misaki]

[Shelby]

What if there was a pair of identical twins, both female, that were separated at birth and never knew of each other? With the parents having gone through a terrible divorce during the time that the twins were still in the womb of the mother, each of them wanted the babies yet they could not stand the thought of getting back together or even really seeing each other. So they came up with a compromise: Each would get one twin, no matter how hard it hurt to do such a thing. But it worked. They each had a child that they could care for, and they didn't have to bother one another. But when the twins are finally ready to embark on their lives as college students and start to attend their colleges, what happens if they happen upon one another? They've both been going to the same college for months, yet when their second semester rolls around and they share a class together, what will happen when they meet and see someone that looks very similar to them? Confusion, obviously, but would they be able to piece together their history, despite how they have different last names?







College was certainly becoming more of a challenge then she had ever expected it to be.

When, back in high school, she heard her teachers telling the senior class that college would be nothing like high school, she believed them. She believed them when they told them that it was going to be much harder, that the classes and professors were going to be much different, and that even if you did well in high school you may not do well in college. And with her believing in all of their words she tried to prepare herself; she got planners when looking for school supplies, she bought herself a new laptop with the money she made over the summer at her job with working at a bakery, and when it came time to making her schedule she made sure to get every class she needed for the first semester, and she did the same for the second semester. She thought she had been prepared; she thought that with her new calculator for her math classes she would be fine, she thought that with her good study habits she would be fine in college.

But oh, had she been wrong.

What she thought she knew in the past about her major, culinology, was nothing compared to the information that had been thrown at her that first semester. It was good of course; she loved to learn and with this being the field that she wanted to get into she threw herself into her work. But it was still hard. There were so many things to do, so much homework to finish at a certain period of time, and there were just... A lot of things for her to do. The fact that she was a double major in business didn't help with things either; it just packed on her course load to the point where she could really do nothing with her social life unless she wanted to take the chance of forgetting something for a test or homework. And that was something she absolutely refused to do. She would not fail, she would not get anything lower than an 'A' in a class, and she would just be... Herself.

Her mother had been telling her that she needed a break and that she needed to stop stressing herself out too much. "Just enjoy yourself in college," she told her one night over the winter break as they sat on the couch in the living room with low Christmas music playing in the background. "You're doing fine; you're smart, and I know you can do the work. Just don't over do it. I know how you get."

She hadn't really taken her mother's advice, but that was probably expected, and when she told her mom about the classes she would be taken this semester, the second semester, all her mother did was sigh, shrug her shoulders, and told her daughter good luck and to call her if she needed anything.

This was the second week of the second semester, and the beginning of the semester wasn't turning out to be as dreadful as the first semester had been. Though, since she was a freshman, she was still getting used to the school and just college in general, Hayden liked to think that she had things under control by this point. As she stuffed her chemistry lab book in her backpack, she zipped the bag up, slung it across her shoulders, and then sighed as she retreated out of the single bedroom dorm.

Really, she didn't understand the point of her taking the chemistry class; she liked science mind you, just not chemical science and that had been proven enough when she was in high school. She had done fine in it then, but to say that she had been confused more often than not was an understatement, and though she hated to do it she had to get help from the teacher just so that she could make sure she had everything correct so that she could get a good grade in the class. Looked like she was going to have to do the same in college if the lecture portion was any indication of how the class was going to go, no matter how much the thought made her stomach bubble and no matter how troubled she was with the thought that she may not get an 'A' in the class.

But maybe the lab would be different. Hayden wanted to be optimistic about the outcomes of the lab portion of the class, but she wasn't getting her hopes up with it. Sure, labs were fun and the fact that it was a hands on experience made the class just a little more interesting, but she couldn't deny that the thought of messing with actual chemicals worried her, maybe even scared her a little. She wasn't a chemical biologist, or what ever the hell those people were called--chemist? She liked science, but she liked food science. And she liked labs, but she liked labs that dealt with food and let her work with that. What was she supposed to gain out of this class? Know the chemical formula of iron and sodium chloride?

What ever. She tried her best to stay out of the class for at least another semester, but her adviser insisted that she take the class now so that she could be done and over with it so that she could focus more on her other classes later on.

A group of guys were throwing around a football in the street of the cul de sac that the dormitory she stayed in sat on when she walked out of the building. Weren't they cold? Well, she guessed not. Running around trying to catch the football made people sweat, and she only knew that because of the fact that one of her friends was in said group of guys. Her walking out of the building must have grabbed his attention because as soon as Hayden she heard her name being called.

She turned her head and looked at him, watching as that goofy grin of his stretched across his lips as he waved his hand in the air, saying 'hey' to her before he turned his attention back onto the game that he was playing. Goofy guy; she had met him within the first couple of weeks of the last semester, and while, in the beginning, she had been persistent in trying to get away from him because something about him just seemed overly annoying, there was something about him that she couldn't resist, and it was something that pulled her into him. Not in a romantic type of way; oh God no, Hayden could never see herself dating Jared. He had this weird older brother vibe to him that she liked, and she had come to think of him as her brother of sorts. The fact that he, not that long ago, said that she was more like a sister to him than anything only solidified her views on him. At least now she didn't have to feel bad about keeping him in the 'friend zone' since he seemed to be doing the same with her.

Bypassing the street and walking more onto the middle of campus where students were milling about and heading to their classes, Hayden blinked her eyes and turned to look. Now, where was that building... She pursed her lips and walked in the direction she believed it to be, and once stopping in front of a building with a familiar name she pulled out her schedule and confirmed that it was the right building. Great. And with ten minutes left before class started.

She headed into the building and looked for the class, finding it on the first floor all the way at the back of one hall. The lab was large, or at least as large as it should be, and there were already a few students in the lab standing at different tables that were numbered off. Hayden walked over to an empty table and sat her backpack down and grabbed her lab book out to rest it on the desk, along with her pencil.

Now to just wait for class to start.

 

[Yatagarasu]

College...how fun!

That wasn't sarcastic. Unlike most people, Marla had actually been enjoying college for the most of the time. She had met so many good people throughout her first year only. However, she did agree with one thing, there was just way too much homework to do these days. It didn't help that she decided to do a degree in Interior Designing, as it meant that she had to keep a gigantic folio that was already overflowing with her sketches and her theoretical worksheets. Pulling all-nighters later became a breeze for Marla after a while, since if she didn't stay up late to do her homework would instantly result in her falling way behind from the rest of the class. Oh well, they did say college is a huge jump from high school.

The campus was still way too big for someone like her. She still got lost quite a lot, but she was always able to refer to the school map and get to class just on time. This time, the walk to her lecture hall was a longer than it usually was, since she had some random general science class on today. She wasn't that interested in all that science stuff, and she only did it because it was one of the core classes she had to take. Nevertheless, Marla was still able to keep a passing grade in that particular class. Walking up two floors with her books, Marla walked along the balcony that stretched across the entire building she was in. After a few minutes more of walking, she finally arrived at the laboratory, and quickly found an empty spot to put her textbooks down. There was still around one or two minutes till class, and naturally, Marla pulled our her phone and casually checked her Facebook and stuff.

At that moment, one of her good and extremely goofy friends, Adam, had arrived in her classroom. As soon as he had arrived, Marla tilted her head up, before putting her phone back into her pocket. "Hi Adam," Marla greeted cheerfully, before punching the boy in the arm."

"Hello, Marla," Adam rubbed her head in an affectionate manner. They were childhood friends for a really long time, but at least for Marla, she never had many romantic for Adam, although people around her see them having chemistry. "You excited for chemical science?"
"You should already know that answer." Marla giggled loudly, and she had wanted to say something back, but before she could, the bell had rang and everyone had to get into their seats as their professor entered the room.

"Alright class," the professor began, before handing out a worksheet to everyone in the lab. "I know it's still early into the second semester, but I would like to get you guys started on this project right now, as there are going to be more to come and I don't want you guys to feel overwhelmed at the end of the semester. This project will count for 10% of your total score at the end of the year. This is also a partners-project, but instead of getting you guys to choose, I have already picked them out for you."

The whole class was visibly annoyed when the professor said the last sentence, including Marla to an extent, although in the end, she saw this as more of an opportunity to make another friend. Meanwhile, the professor read the names down from his list that he had organised earlier, and the students got with their partners pretty quickly, and then Marla's name was called.

"Marla Redian" The professor cleared his throat. "You will work with Hayden Thompson."

Marla quickly stood up and tried to find Hayden. She did manage to, but only to confront with something quite...'eerie', if that was the right word to use. Why does she look so much...like me? No way, I think I'm just tired. After all, I only slept for about three hours last night...well it was more like three hours this morning.

Marla walked over to where Hayden was sitting, before placing her textbooks and stationeries next to Hayden's. Making sure to give a good impression of herself, Marla stretched her hand out in front of Hayden, as the former wanted to shake hands. "Hi!" Marla smiled sweetly. "I'm Marla, you're Hayden right? Good to see you."

 

[Shelby]

The chattering of students continued to rise as the rest of the class came into the lab. Instead of trying to start up a conversation with anyone like other people were seeming to do, Hayden stuck to herself and looked down at her phone as she waited for the beginning of class to start, which wasn't too much longer. The TA professor stood at the front of the class and introduced himself as Walter Johnson before he went on to explain more about the lab portion of the class while he passed out the syllabus to every person. Hayden looked down at the paper as it was given to her, herself pursing her lips and furrowing her brows as she looked through the schedule that mapped out what they were going to be doing for the entire semester with every experiment placed in the spot with the day that it was going to be worked on, along with the page numbers that went along with it in the lab book.

She huffed out a small breath after looking through it all, as well as after looking through the rest of what the syllabus talked about; just the general requirements for the class, the TA's office hours, the expectations of the class, and the policies that outlined how the grades were calculated and how they were be graded by the end of the semester. Nothing that she hadn't seen before, since most professors had their syllabuses like this one.

Hayden listened back to the TA as he spoke, and as soon as the mention of a project was spoken of she couldn't help but roll her eyes. Great, so that were going to have to do something else outside of class besides the pre-lab worksheets that were in their lab books? The fact that it was a partner based project wasn't making it any better either, especially since they weren't going to be able to pick their own partner. Not that she knew anyone in the class anyway, but still; they were all adults there. Did he not trust them to pick their own partners without fighting? She couldn't help but snort at the thought of that. She knew that they were going to have partners in the lab since it was against policy for one person to work on an experiment alone, so she had been expecting that, just not outside of class. Fine, what ever. It was only ten percent of their grade anyway, hardly anything to worry about in her opinion. The regular class experiments totaled out to be a higher percentage than that one project, so she wasn't all that worried about it. The man did also add, however, that this wasn't an optional project and that it was mandatory and that if it wasn't turned in they would fail the class. Well... That upped the stakes a bit, but that still didn't remove the fact that it didn't have that high of a percentage for their grade.

She looked at that paper too as it was passed over to her. It didn't seem like it was going to be a hard project; just a research paper that had to be at least five pages long. Nothing too difficult, though Hayden could only hope that she would be getting a good partner with this, one who wouldn't take it lightly and one who would actually want to do the work instead of leaving her to do it all herself. She had dealt with that enough in high school; hopefully the people here were a little more mature.

With every name that was being called to pair up, Hayden listened up in case her name ever came up. When it didn't until the end of this list, however, she had already been able to pinpoint out her partner; after all, there had only been one other person in the room that hadn't moved to stand next to their partners at the various stations that were located around the room. Hayden raised her hand after her name was called to show who she was and where she was standing, and before she was able to move to seek her partner out a girl had already come over to stand right next to her. Great; she seemed like a regular air head, or just someone who was too bubbly for their own good. She frowned at the thought, and when the girl stuck her hand out to her Hayden could only look at it before she looked back up at the girl's face.

Her eyes narrowed at the sight. What the... The girl in front of her looked familiar, familiar enough to the point where Hayden saw that face every morning when she looked in the mirror to do her hair and put on what little make up she knew how to put on. But that couldn't be right; there was only one of her. "Um, right," she finally spoke up, still not reaching out to take the girl's hand and instead let her hands rest against the table top. "I'm Hayden. Nice to meet you too."

After the pairs were partnered up and introduced themselves, the TA started to talk again. He let everyone know that they were going to be given a lab coat and goggles for the semester for the course but that they would stay in the lab the entire time; no taking them out for any reasons. Each pair would have a cabinet for themselves for their lab coats and goggles, one that would be shared, and after he explained that he called every one up one by one and let them grab their things before they went back to their stations.

"This is going to be one of the easiest labs of the semester," he started, "so turn to chapter one in your lab manual and I'll let you all get started on it so that you can leave as soon as you're done." They were all instructed to put on their lab coats and goggles on despite not really having to use them for this experiment; it was all a part of the policy that when in the lab you always had to wear both of those before working on anything.

Hayden sighed and looked down at her lab manual and looked through chapter one which mainly talked about the scientific method, conversion factors, and measurements. Nothing unexpected for a science class, especially for the beginning of one. The TA talked about a few things and told them to look at the procedures for the experiment and told them to do it and to ask if they had any questions. All they had to do for the experiment was take a few measurements, fill a graduated cylinder and figure out the volume with two different numbers, and then convert everything and show all of their work in the in class lab report that had to be turned in once they were finished. "You know how to take measurements, right?" Hayden asked Marla as she gave her a side ward glance and adjusted her goggles again. "And how to do conversions?"

 

[Yatagarasu]

In the back of Marla's mind, she was kind of annoyed with the fact that Hayden didn't bother shaking hands with her at all, as the latter had just rested her hands on the table. It wasn't like I was going to rip your arm off if I were to shake your hands. But it wasn't something that Marla should worry about, after all to her at least, Hayden seemed like a cool person to talk to. Instinctively, when the professor told them to flip to a specific chapter, Marla opened her book to find the experiment they were going to perform. It's one of those measurement experiments, no big deal but a drag.

Marla went to the back of the room to grab her lab coat and goggles, before coming back to the table and sat back down. "I can do the conversions." Marla answered, pulling out her workbook that was underneath her textbook that had the weight of a stack of bricks, before grabbing out a pen to write down the conversions and volume measurements down. "Then can you please do the practical stuff? I'll help you set up if you need help." Marla lightly smiled out of courtesy. "Though, you gotta tell me the measurements."

And so, Marla paid close attention to what was happening in the experiment they were doing right now. Like she said she was going to do, Marla did all the conversions, making sure to convert the measurements of the volumes correctly. It wasn't that difficult compared the maths she had to do in her core classes. In fact, the kind of maths she had to learn in that particular class was an absolute pain for her. She wasn't exactly hopeless in maths, like she still needed to apply some form of maths in her main course, but even so, all those complicated formulas that she had to remember. Regardless, Marla was quick to finish the conversions, and started on the lab report. Now, now, she wasn't exactly the type that would do homework that was due within a week right now, but since this was a partner-project, she needed to do something, or else it her partner would probably get extremely angry with her for not doing anything.

Already as she was typing up the introduction, Marla got stumped. She didn't really know what to write, as all the science crap she had done in high school had gone out the window completely. Scratching her head, she set her laptop screen a little closer to Hayden so the latter could see what was on the monitor. "To be honest...I have no idea what I am writing."Marla let out a nervous chuckle. "Can you help me?"

Just then, the bell had gone, meaning that class was over. "Alright guys," Professor Johnson shouted atop of the chairs that skid across the shiny floor and the sinks being turned on at full blast to clean the chemicals. "Make sure to finish the report by this time next week. See you next time." Likewise with the others, Marla began packing her stuff up, as she had another class straight after this one. Throwing all of her books and other necessities into her bag, Marla then turned back to Hayden. "Do you want to work on it after school so we can get it over and done with?" Marla asked, before throwing her bag over her shoulder. "That's if you don't mind me coming over to your dorm room. Mine's a mess."

((IT'S SHORT I AM SO SORRY ;-;))