SEEING DOUBLE

By Truth or Derrick

 

Would the real Truth or Derrick please stand up?

 

Lately, a nasty rumor has been spreading around the Creek faster than the security officers drive their racing golf carts.  And now, as the year comes to a very swift close, it is time for I, the real Truth or Derrick, to stop that ferocious rumor before it accidentally hits an innocent student walking to class.

 

I am not; I repeat am not, senior Nick Chavez.

 

He is one fine-looking young man though.

 

At first I thought it absurd to be confused with another person.  I always thought, as many of you ladies did out there, that I had unique physical qualities such as lush, brown hair and honey-colored eyes that separated me, at least in some direction, from the rest.

 

But then, odd things started happening.  “Nick!” someone would shout. I’d turn around on the double, and it became apparent to me that they were shouting for the wrong person.

 

And it was happening to him too.  “Derrick, you have a twin on campus!” they’d say to him.

 

That’s the story.  But now, at the end of the year, the time has finally come to tell the world the beginnings of this tale, the “Episode I” of the galactic saga that is my and Nick’s similarities in looks; a fable that started it all, and involves a plan of world — or at least campus — domination…

 

It was a clear, blue-sky day at the beginning of the year.  The soft chirp of seagulls filled the air, the sweet smell of herbs filled the bathrooms and we had a one-minute bell.

 

Days had passed since I had made any real progress on my plan to become principal of the school, and my prospects of potential power were putrid.

 

But possible.

 

I stumbled into him on the way to sixth period.  We were both walking down the hall, and I was carrying some of my plot blueprints.  Suddenly, BAM, and my papers were everywhere.

 

“Oh, sorry about that,” a familiar-looking young man said.  “Here, let me help you.”  We both bent down at the same time and carefully, we both raised our heads to eye level, and I thought I was looking into a mirror. For a brief moment, I lifted my right arm and he lifted his left. I finally knew that I was no longer alone.

 

Now was my chance!  At once, I forgot my plans to rule the school and thought about the possibility of switching parents.  I mean, it worked for those girls in the movie, so it could work for me too, right? The first thing we did was go shopping.  We got a whole new identical wardrobe in order to really fool our unknowing families.

 

It wasn’t long before we both got a little homesick, and I had become bored of going through all the drawers of his entire house and reading his journal, so we sought new ways to relish in our physical sameness. We played tricks on bad guys.  Parking outside the mall, it wasn’t long before a shoplifter would come outside.  Nick would immediately chase after the guy, claiming to be an undercover security officer.  He’d let the shoplifter barely slip away each time, but we always made sure the thief would climb on the bus that I, in the same outfit, was on, waiting for him.

 

Oh, the memories!

 

Playing superhero was even more fun than playing “parent trap,” but both Nick and I were getting tired.  We wanted something ambitious, something exciting.  We didn’t wait long.

 

We were sitting in his attic, late at night, and the plan of a lifetime came to us like lightning comes to a tall, radioactive tree.

 

“Call me crazy,” Nick suggested that night, “but when I was staying at your house, I found some plans for school domination in your journal.”

 

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked him. And before we knew it, “Operation: Twinsies” was underway.  I had conceived the scheme one day after watching a “Full House” marathon — The Olsen twins … they are an example of twin-scheming devils.

 

But it was foiled before it was off the ground.  The plan mainly centered around the strategic use of decoy, so it depended on people not realizing there were indeed two of us.  Lately, everybody seems to know that we look like each other.

 

Nick and I aren’t sure exactly how the plan got out, but I realized that a blue-print of the plan was among those papers that fell out of my hands that fateful day when Nick and I first met…

 

ATTENTION STUDENTS OR TEACHERS WHO MAY HAVE STOLEN MY BLUE PRINT:

 

Watch out.  You’re about to learn real fast that no one steals secret plans from … “Truth or DerNick.”