A husband and wife walked cautiously from their house onto the sidewalk. The young wife wrapped one hand around her husband's arm as her other arm protected her round, pregnant belly.
"Hunny, be careful okay? You're not feeling uncomfortable, right?" the husband fretted over his wife as they walked. His wife smiled, gently.
"I'm quite fine, my dear. You worry way, too much. Light exercise is good for pregnancy, you know? I'm not clumsy either, so you're being a worrywart," the young wife replied as she pat her husband's hand.
As the couple walked towards a corner, a figure rushed around the corner, crashing into them, nearly knocking the mother-to-be over. Her husband steadied her feet before turning around to verbally thrash the person who dared to knock into his wife.
"Hey, you almost injured my wife and baby, you, bas--!"
The husband became slackjawed as he turned to see a teen boy who looked like he walk out of a model's magazine.
The teen had gorgeous face that looked as if it had been chiseled from marble. He had long dark lashes that fanned from his warm, brown eyes. His raven hair was combed neatly to the side with his bangs sweeping his forehead.
"Oh", the boy replied. Dazzled by the boy's beauty the couple nearly forgot what they were planning to say. Until another voice cut in.
"Is that all you have to say?"
The couple turned their heads and noticed another boy the same age as the other.
This boy looked similar to the other boy and held the same level of attractiveness. But the couple couldn't help reacting differently compared to the other boy. This other kid, despite being just as attractive, looked super scary! If the other boy looked like a gentle angel, this one looked like a scary devil.
He had the same chiseled marble features as the first boy, but his face seemed slightly sharper and rugged. His eyes had the same long lashes, but they shielded sharp hazel eyes instead of brown. His black hair was trimmed shorter and choppier. And a prominent jagged scar could be seen on his left brow.
The couple trembled as the scary teen came closer to them. When the teen came to the other boy's side, he raised his hand. The couple flinched expecting the boy to hit them, but to their surprise he hit the other boy instead on the head.
"Ow, Conner. Why'd you do that?" the angelic boy asked the devilish boy, holding his head in his hands. The other boy rolled his eyes.
"For someone who is number one in studies, you should use your head a little more, Trevor," the boy named Conner replied. He turned his head back to the couple and lightly bowed his head.
"I'm sorry my brother bumped into you. We were in a hurry to get to school but that was still irresponsible of us to run recklessly like that. I hope we didnt hurt either of you", Conner said.
The couple stared baffled at the scary boy's surprising politeness.
"oh!" Trevor said in a sudden realization and quickly bowed his head as well.
"I'm sorry for my recklessness! Ma'am, are you okay? I was too careless!" the angelic boy said, apologetically.
"Er- It's fine! It's n-no problem!" the wife said struggling not to stutter at the two beautiful boys. Her husband only could wordlessly nod his head, like a bobblehead.
"Are you sure?" Conner asked as his eyes surveyed her for injuries. His intense staring made one feel embarrassed. The wife blushed and shook her head, rigorously.
"You two can head t-to school," she said looking at her husband and motioning him to continue their walk. They both quickly turned around the corner and escaped from the boys.
"Wow those boys were beyond beautiful!" the wife whispered under her breath to her husband. "Do you think our son will look half as handsome as either of them?"
Her husband grimaced. "Hey our baby has our genes. Why will he only be half as handsome?" he asked, pouting. His wife laughed.
"I was just kidding. Our child will be beautiful! But those boys are definitely lookers. Too bad one of them looks scary even though he turned out to be nice," she said thoughtfully. The intertwined their fingers in each other's hands and continued down the street.
********
The two boys finally arrived at school gates 10 minutes before class started. As they walked through the gate, they garnered a large amount of attention from girls. They began whispering among themselves.
"Omg. The Cheng twins are here!"
"They're both super hot."
" I more into Trevor. He seems more laid back and gentle. He's handsome and super nice. I'm sure he'd be really considerate as a boyfriend."
"But you know I wouldn't mind if Conner ever asked me out. He's super hot and gives off a bad boy vibe. I bet he's super experienced and is super dominant in a relationship. "
"That's true, but I heard he gets in fights a lot and gets angry easily. It's scary to talk with him. I'm afraid he'll get annoyed if I talk to him. He is always scowling or glaring at people. "
Conner stayed painfully oblivious to the gossip about him, while Trevor heard most of it. He forced an awkward smile while feeling disgusted by the misunderstandings the girls had about them.
Conner raised a brow at his brother. "What are you thinking about?" he asked. Trevor laughed, sarcastically.
"Nothing much. Would you say I'm a nice person?" Trevor asked his brother. Connor tilted his head in confusion.
"Well you're outgoing and polite," Connor tried to word carefully. Trevor smiled, meaningfully.
"But that's not equal to being nice", Trevor said with a smirk. Conner closed his mouth and stayed silent, not daring to agree or disagree with him.
"Hey Conner are you experienced?" Trevor asked with a mischievous smile. Conner creased his brows.
"Experienced in what?" he asked, innocently. Trevor resisted the urge to laugh at his brother's pure response.
"If you don't understand, you don't need to worry about it. I know the answer", Trevor replied, knowingly, leaving Conner even more puzzled. Trevor ignored his brother's inquiring gaze and smiled to himself. He couldn't help but think that all the girls who believed his brother was a "bad boy" would be severely shocked if they actually bothered to get to know him.
Conner had an intimidating face and overwhelming presence, so caused many misunderstandings. Conner did have a huge temper, but he was overall a softy who had hard time interacting with others. His awkwardness combined with his overwhelming aura often caused others to misinterpret his emotions and actions as hostile and standoffish. And being compared to his seemingly gentle faced twin, the misunderstandings only spread wider and bigger.
Although, it was true that Conner got into fights often, he was never one to start fights. Others always challenged him again due to their misunderstanding of his character. Luckily, Conner was good enough at fighting, so it wasn't easily bullied. Though, he rarely saw the same person challenge him twice to a fight. People who had originally picked on him rarely chose to mess with him twice. Conner never beat them badly, so their fear of him after the fights baffled him.
Both of the brothers entered into their classroom. Their first period English teacher, Mr. Davis, looked over to them with a warm smile. He had dark brown skin and grey faded hair, accompanyed with dark warm eyes. The two greeted him with a nod and sat in their respective desks. The desks were assigned in alphabetically, so naturally the twins sat next to each other.
Other students steadily streamed into the class room minutes before the school bell rang. As the bell rang, a girl sped into the room with visibly clenched and flaring nostrils. She had think coke bottle like glasses and her brown hair pulled into short pig tails at the top of her head. Her clothes clung to her at all the wrong angles and her outfit hardly matched with each other. The girl clearly had no care for her image.
"Safe!" she exclaimed as she dove towards her seat. Other students could not help feel repulsed by both her behavior and appearance. While Mr. Davis simply let out a loud sigh.
"Please try to get here a little bit earlier, Annelise", Mr. Davis asked the strange student, though, this was simply said out of routine since she almost always came this late.
"Yes, yes," she replied with confidence, despite everyone else's doubts.
Aside from the twins who barely looked the girl's way, others began whispering amongst themselves about her.
"She's such a weirdo."
"She's always late. I reckon she probably wakes up late. Look she doesn't look like she ever puts in time for her appearance."
"I heard that she's friends with Camilla. Is that true? How does someone that weird and ugly hang out with someone has pretty and fashionable as Camilla."
"Right! Camilla, is one of the prettiest girls in the school, why does she hang out with Annelise?"
"She has an interesting taste in friends. Do you think she just keeps Annelise around to make herself look better?"
"Maybe, Annelise does her homework for her?"
"Oh, God. Get that stereotype out of here about smart people wearing glasses! Annelise has horrible grades! She has one of the lowest scores in our class!"
"For reals? So does Annelise have any other benefits?"
"I don't think so. She always glares at people when she hears people who talk bad about Annelise."
"Perhaps, Camilla is just too caring and nice. So she decided to be friends with the friendless weirdo."
"Maybe that's why that weirdo has so much unfounded confidence in herself-"
The conversation became silent when they noticed Connor's piercing gaze on them. Crap, did our talking annoy, Conner, they thought in panic. Were we too loud. They all sat forward, ending their gossip session.
Conner felt annoyed he lost his opportunity to talk to others. He did not pay attention or hear what they were talking about, and simply wanted to be friendly with them. He wanted to try joining, but he wasn't sure how to interject in the conversation. He was afraid of being accused of interrupting, so he had stayed quiet, simply looking for an opportunity to say something. However, the conversation ended and they put their focus to the teacher, without him being able to say anything. Unknown to him, he was the reason.
Trevor who sat behind him, understood what happened and tried his best not to laugh at his brother's expense.
"Good Mornin, everyone," Mr. Davis said surveying the class, "I hope you did your reading yesterday. We'll be discussing it during class. But in the mean time, I'm passing out your previous test. I finished grading the last few assignments early this morning." He began handing out the papers.
He came to the twins and gave them both a smile. "Good job you two. You got the top 2 scores in the class, again. only a 2 point difference in score from each other, too" He then looked at Conner with sympathy. Conner frowned and grimaced at his brother.
"You're the one with the higher score aren't you?" Conner asked, depressed. Trevor raised a peace sign with his hand. But his face remained straight faced. He didnt care about the score being higher than his brother.
"Sorry. I got a 98%. Did you get a 96%?" Trevor asked with low enthusiasm.
"How do I always manage to get 2nd place to you in everything? You get better grades, are better at sports, and you're super popular! why can't I beat you at anything??" Conner asked wanting to cry. Trevor sighed.
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Conner. I always barely beat you. I wouldn't be able to beat you without trying my hardest", Trevor replied. Conner's face grew a shade darker.
"What? but I should still be able to do something better. It's not fair. I'll definitely beat you at something!" Conner said with an arrogant smile. He then faced the front of the class as Mr. Davis began his discussion.
"If you say so," Trevor said, hiding a mysterious, yet bitter smile.