Chapter I: Happy Smiles

As a child, there were many words I described myself as- brisk, reserved, and calm being at the top of the list. It had never crossed my mind to call myself “cold.”

Cold is not a nice word, nor a friendly one. I did not find being called “cold-hearted” a pleasant experience, but I dealt with it calmly.

A tinkling laugh like the chiming of the church bells filled the room as I turned away and walked away from the boy who had called me such a dreaded thing.

My pace was brisk, and I remember hearing the click of my gray boots clicking on the wooden floor, echoing through my fuming head like the basses in a car with a radio that shakes every house it passes by.

“Olivia,” a voice called out, bringing me out of my head.

“Yes, Vivian?” I asked sweetly, knowing without a doubt that the melodic voice belonged to my shy, black haired twin.

“Are you okay?” Vivian asked me, racing towards me, her ebony black hair flying into her face and covering her big brown eyes, widened with her concern and ever-present curiosity. “Drake was not being the nicest he can be. I wanted to make sure his words didn’t hurt you.”

My gray eyes darted to the ground. “Untruths do not affect me. The truth however-”

Vivian stood on her tiptoes to reach my eye level, placing fists on her hips. “Then you are not affected, because you aren’t cold! People like Drake just don’t know the real you. They don’t know you like I do!”

I smiled slightly at my sister, reaching up to grab a brown strand of my hair to play with, only to remember it was pulled back, as it had been everyday for months, possibly even years.

“Anyways, Liv, we should head to the library!” Vivian announced cheerfully. “You promised to help me with my homework on Fairy Tales!”

That was how afternoons went for Vivian and I, when we lived in our carefree world that was fifth grade. Vivian would take me to the library every afternoon to help her with her reading, her writing, her spelling, before taking my math homework out of my bag and setting it on the table to help me, knowing I needed her without asking,

She was so sweet and shy, clinging on to me in public, but lifted me up when we were alone.

I was always the opposite. I read people from the background, but when someone dared to mess with my sister, they felt fear deep in the depths of their hearts.

This is why people tend to call us ‘the opposite twins’. Vivian is known as an angel, I’m known as, to put it in simple words, a human.

We went through life together, as sisters, until the day everything changed. The day that would haunt us for the rest of our lives. That is my story- and this story’s beginning was like the beginning of any- a normal day with an unexpected outcome.