I had to go back to school. However, this was my first time in school as "Christina", so I was way more nervous than I would have been otherwise. However, something I didn't expect would happen that morning. Phil and his younger sister, Katrielle came over to my place. Phil had always been a little taller than me, with somewhat messy blonde hair and blue eyes.
His sister had the same eyes, but her hair was black and reached her shoulders. Phil was more of the mature and responsible type while his sister was a lot more energetic than playful. Seeing him show up made me nervous than it did back when I was Christopher. I saw him scratching the back of his neck when he saw me. Was something bothering him?
"You must be Christina." said Phil, "Sam told us about you."
"Wow, you're so cute!" commented Katrielle.
"T-thank you?" I responded.
"So you're cousins?" asked Phil, "You look more like you could be Christopher's twin."
"I-is that so?" I replied.
"Ah, you're here." said Sam, when he was the two of them.
"Why did Christopher have to leave?" asked Katrielle.
"An opportunity came up and he had to take it." answered Sam, "He'll be back eventually."
"So you two are Christopher's friends?" I asked.
"That's right." answered Phil, "I hope we can get along too."
"Uh, y-yeah." I said.
"Why don't we walk to school together?" suggested Katrielle.
The walk to school was awkward. I knew these two, but they didn't know the current me. I couldn't tell them we were the same person but if they somehow found out, how would they even react?
"I'm a little surprised." said Katrielle.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"You and your cousin have similar names." she answered, "Don't you think it's weird how his name is Christopher and yours is Christina."
"Um... I don't get how it happened either." I replied.
"I heard you even have the same birthday as him." added Phil.
"Oh, uh, yeah." I answered, "I don't know how that happened either."
"It's an interesting coincidence, isn't it?" said Sam.
"Hmmm..." said Katrielle.
"What?" I said.
"It's nothing." she responded.
When we got to school, I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I guess this kind of thing happened when you were a new face at a school. Especially if you were a girl. To be honest, it made feel really uncomfortable. Luckily, I was able to get the same classes that my old self had so that meant my homeroom was the same as Phil's.
"Oh, wow." he said, "You've got all the same classes your cousin had."
"That's weird." I replied.
In what should have been a familiar room, I just felt uneasy. I should have felt comfortable in this environment. However, because of my new body, I was even more nervous than I should have been. Some time passed and the class was silent, before I was introduced to everybody.
"We've got a new student today," our teacher said, "her name is Christina Triggs and she's Christopher's cousin."
After that, I could hear everyone whispering to each other. From what I could pick up, they were commenting on our similar sounding names.
"You can sit in that seat over there." the teacher said, pointing to my old desk, "Your cousin won't be using it anymore."
"Th-thank you." I replied.
My desk was right next to Phil's. But for some reason, sitting right next to him made me feel nervous. I felt fine sitting next to him before, so why was I so uncomfortable now?
"I can't believe we have the same class." he said.
"Oh, r-right." I said.
"If you ever need any help," he said, "don't be afraid to ask."
I couldn't help but smile. This guy was still as reliable as he always was, even if he didn't know my true identity. The day was pretty normal, but I had some people ask some questions about where I came from and why I was suddenly living with my "aunt and uncle".
The worst part of the day was when I almost walked into the boys' bathroom and then I remembered I couldn't do that anymore, so I hesitantly went into the girls'. I even had to switch locker rooms for gym and I knew that was going to take me forever to get used to. To make things even weirder, Phil seemed to have his eyes on me today because he wanted to talk to me about something.
"You're a lot like your cousin." he commented.
"I get that a lot." I responded.
"Well, I guess there's no doubt the two of you are related." he said.
"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" I asked.
"Yeah, for now." he said, "See you later."
After that, he left. When I got home, I got on my computer to find some messages from Phil. He was asking the old me about my "cousin" who had only recently come into existence. He wanted to know why I never mentioned her and also said if he wasn't told about us being cousins, he'd think we were siblings.
"Sorry, there were some complicated family circumstances."
"So, it's something you can't mention?"
"Something like that. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
"I didn't mean to keep it from you."
"Your cousin is a lot like you, isn't she?"
"Yeah... it seems that way."
"Almost too much like you."
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"It's nothing. Forget I said anything."
"Is something wrong with you now?"
"It's just... something feels off about her."