"Sarah, I don't know about this. You're already on probation," Felix whispered, as they approached a group of cheerleaders gathered by the lockers.

"Felix, this will be a piece of cake, alright? Rich bitches like them won't even know the money's missing!" Sarah smirked, opening her locker and grabbing her books.

"But we're using it to replace that vase Mrs. S!" Felix insisted. "What if she finds out we broke it while we're at school? She'll ask where we got the money, and then what do we tell her? We'll be in even more trouble!" He fidgeted nervously, smoothing out his button down shirt, and adjusting his hair in the mirror in Sarah's locker, until she pushed him back.

"Fe, stop! You know that everyone already thinks your gay, and your constant primping won't make it any better." She hated herself for saying that—truth be told, she could care less whether her brother was queer (and figured he probably was), but he was only a freshman and high school could be brutal, you know? She didn't want him to go through that.

Felix turned away and sheepishly fiddled with his collar, until Sarah turned him to face her, her voice softer, "If she figures it out, which she won't, I'll tell Mrs. S that we did housework for that old coot down the street. She doesn't remember shite anyhow, so S won't even bother going to check with her. We'll be good, yeah? Come on, I'm doing this for you! I want you to be able to audition for that stupid play or whatever, and you can't do that grounded from your bedroom, now can you?"

Felix shuffled his feet a bit, "Oh, alright. But be careful, okay?" Sarah nodded, "Now, get to class! I don't want you hanging around to fuck things up." She smiled at her brother, playfully shoving him down the hall, before slamming her locker shut.

The bell rang and the cheerleaders slowly scattered, leaving only one, a brunette, meticulously putting her books into her bag, one by one. Perfect, Sarah thought. She slyly walked up behind the brunette, and, seeing her wallet poking out of her bag, she grabbed it and calmly walked off in the other direction. Confident that she had successfully procured the money necessary to get Felix and herself out of hot water for breaking S's vase, she grinned. But suddenly—

"Ouch!" Someone was yanking on the back of her hair.

"Give it back, you filthy little ragamuffin!" the cheerleader shrieked, attempting to turn her around

"Oi, prissy! I ain't got nothing of yours," Sarah lied, trying to stuff the wallet into her pocket before anyone noticed. "Now, Christ, let go of my hair!"

"No! Give it back!" the brunette shrieked again.

"What's going on over there?" Yelled a student hall monitor from across the hall, as she began to swiftly make her way towards the scene. The cheerleader stepped in front of Sarah who was just about to sock her in the face when she stopped. This girl looked exactly like her. Well, other than the preppy, expensive clothing, the perfectly straightened hair, and the bangs anyway, they were identical. "Holy shite," whispered Sarah. But the girl, clearly shocked by Sarah's impending fist, didn't have time to notice the similarities. She already had her pepper spray out and blasted Sarah in the face. Or tried to, but it backfired, spraying her instead.

The cheerleader screamed, clutching her eyes, as Sarah stood dumbfounded. By this point, the hall monitor had arrived. "Okay, what's going on here?" But she stopped when she saw Sarah, "Woah." Sarah's eyes widened even further as she looked at this girl, who also looked exactly like her. Even more so than the screaming cheerleader.

Despite her shock, Sarah knew that, with the cheerleader's screaming, the hall monitors (the grown up ones, not the kiss-ass students) would be by any second. She grabbed the cheerleader, and shoved her into an empty classroom nearby. "In here," she urgently whispered to the hall monitor look alike, who hesitated for a moment, but ultimately, her curiosity overpowered her need to follow the rules.

Sarah closed the door. Knowing they would need something to quiet the cheerleader, looked around the room. It was a science classroom, and she hurried the girl over to the emergency eye wash to rinse the pepper spray out of her eyes. The cheerleader's whimpers quieted slightly.

"What are you doing here? That's for chemical emergencies only!" A voice rang out behind her. Sarah cursed; she thought the room was empty. "She sprayed herself with pepper spray, alright?" She turned to see where the voice was coming from, and froze. Yet another look alike, this girl with long dreadlocks and thick black glasses. Sarah sat down at a nearby desk, while the other girls looked at each other in shocked silence.

The cheerleader, having rinsed the majority of the spray from her eyes, turned off the eyewash and, slowly overcoming the disorientation, walked toward Sarah, "Now, will you give me back my wallet?" She looked at Sarah, and stopped, before looking around the room, slowly filling with terror. She began to hyper ventilate, and looked ready to scream again, when Sarah jumped up, putting a hand over her mouth, "Quiet, okay?"

"B-b-but this is impossible!" the cheerleader whispered urgently. "Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" Sarah snapped back, "But you're bloody shrieking is going to give us up and then what are we gonna do, huh?"

"And how are we going to figure this out on our own?" the cheerleader retorted, clearly seeing no reason to trust this punk thief, even if she did look just like her.

"Well, let's start with introductions," interjected dreadlocks. The other three turned to her, surprised by such a simple suggestion amidst such a strange occurrence. "I'm Cosima."

There was a tense pause. "Beth," responded the hall monitor, though if they had been paying attention, they could have guessed it from her nametag.

"Alison," squeaked out the cheerleader.

"Sarah," the punk finally responded.

They stood in shocked silence for another minute, before Sarah, responded, "Okay? Now what?"

"What? Nothing! This is clearly impossible," snapped Alison, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Is it?" replied Cosima, "I mean, I know it seems unbelievable, but here we are!" She was the only one of the girls who appeared to be excited by the mystery, rather than just freaked out.

They sat in silence for another moment, before Beth hesitantly mumbled, "Well, I'm adopted."

"Yeah? Good for you. What's that got to do with anything?" Sarah snarked.

"I just mean," she continued, "that I don't know my biological family. So… I mean, what if this is one of those separated at birth things?"

"I'm adopted too," Cosima added, smiling slightly, the cogs turning in her head.

"Yeah, I'm an orphan," Sarah interjected. "I've got a foster mom and a foster brother, but no biological family."

The three girls turned to Alison, who looked at them smugly. "Well, sorry to disappoint. I was raised by my real parents." Sarah scowled. Bitch.

Cosima smiled at her hesitantly, "Alison, um… well, is it at all possible that maybe you were adopted?" Alison looked at her horrified, "No, dreadlocks! It's not! How dare you even suggest that!"

"Okay, I'm sorry, it's just…" Cosima proceeded gently, "It's just that, I didn't know either until about a year ago. I mean, I had kind of suspected. I'm so different from the rest of my family. Then last year, we figured out our blood types in AP Biology. I'm type A. Both my parents are type B. I found it on their Red Cross donor cards. So, it's impossible for them to be my biological parents, you see, because of the genetic—"

"Okay, we get it, geek," Sarah interjected. Cosima rolled her eyes, and continued, "I just mean, Alison… look at us? How else would it be possible?"

Alison looked away, her eyes filling with tears, "But, I mean, why wouldn't they tell me? And how do I find out?"

Cosima, thinking through a plan, began, "Well, if you give me a sample of your blood I could compare—"

"If I give you what?" Alison shrieked. "Oi, keep quiet!" hissed Sarah. Beth took a deep breath, and put a hand on Alison's shoulder, which she promptly shrugged away, but Beth stepped closer anyway, "Maybe you could start by just asking?"

Alison stepped back from the other three, "Why? Why would I do that? What if I don't want to know? I mean, sure, we look similar. Eerily so. But is that any reason to turn our lives upside down?"

Cosima threw her hands up in exasperation, "Don't you want to know? Aren't you curious?" Beth and Sarah looked at her sympathetically. Both had wondered about their biological families before as well. Who wouldn't?

"Well," said Beth, "We should probably be getting to class, don't you think?" Sarah rolled her eyes, "Look at Miss Goodie Two shoes over here—"

"You all can stay here," said Cosima. "It's my independent research period—"

"Your what?" Sarah scoffed.

"Independent research. I've taken all the science classes the school has to offer, so until I can go to college next year, I talked the school into letting me do a free period to research microbiology. And no one ever checks up on me, so—"

"Bloody genius," Sarah stood up. Beth began again, "I mean, I wasn't thinking that we would get caught, just that we should maybe meet again another time?" She seemed to sense that a bit of time and space to process might be helpful, especially for Alison.

"Yeah? Where do you suggest we do that?" Sarah began to pace, "I mean, we can't exactly just hang out in the cafeteria. We all look the same."

"I'm surprised we haven't seen each other already," mused Cosima.

"It's a big school," provided Beth. "And it's not as if we take the same classes or do the same things. We're so different."

Cosima nodded, "How about we meet in my lab?"

"What?" the other three said in unison.

"I'll explain later. But it's private. No one will bother us," Cosima went on, "Just go to the back of the science building. There's a staircase at back that looks like it's leading to a dead end. Follow it down, there's a door at the bottom. Open it, and then go to the third door on the right. Knock three times, and I'll let you in. Okay?"

The three girls just nodded, dumbfounded.

"Alright, I'll meet you later this afternoon. After school. But nobody tell anyone about this alright?" Sarah said curtly.

"What do you think would happen if someone found out?" Alison asked.

"Look, I don't know. I just feel like it's best if this stays between us, yeah?"

The other three nodded, and then, one by one, left the science room to their perspective classes.