Sunday, Jul. 01, 2007
The Teacher Trap
The first week of my summer program is over and it was very successful.
Of course, it wasn't without drama.
On the first day, I had one kid who barely spoke to anyone, including myself. She stayed secluded all day and just looked absoultely miserable. I went up to her several times and asked her if she was okay and if she didn't want to be here, etc, etc. She kept saying she was fine.
The next day was more of the same. I just figured that maybe her parents were forcing her to come and she wasn't happy about it.
On Wednesday, she came in all smiles and was all out going and loud and interacting with the other kids. Same on Thursday. I went up to ask her a question about her enrollment paperwork and was taken aback at how different her voice was, that she was looking me in the eye and speaking loudly, and also that she looked kind of different.
In my mind, I'm thinking, "This is a completely different person than the girl who was here the first two days." But then I thought I was putting too much thought into it and that maybe she was just having a bad couple days.
Come to find out, the girl is a TWIN!! She couldn't make it the first 2 days, so she/her parents sent her sister in her place. When I found out, I was like NO FRICKEN WAY! But I knew, I could tell that there was something odd going on.
Even odder is that both girls have the same name, just spelled differently. One is Jessie and the other is Jezzie. I noticed the spelling change when I asked the Jezzie (the one who is not signed up for the program) to fill out something on the first day. I thought maybe she was just one of those teenagers who wanted their name to look cool because all her other paperwork spelled her name with an "S". But that was before I realized that was the other one.
So on Thursday, after I realized the whole Parent Trap situation, I went up to Jessie to ask about her paperwork because I couldn't find it. I had no intention of calling her out, but I just couldn't resist when she told me that she had handed it in on Monday, knowing that she hadn't been there. So I said, "Oh you mean your sister handed it in".
The look of shock on her face was priceless. Hers eyes widened and she said, "How did you know".
I said, "Sweetie, you guys are not alike. You don't even look alike!"
"Yes we do!" She yelled, which was the same thing her sister said on Friday, when I called her out, because they had switched again. From the time Jezzie walked through the classroom door on Friday morning, I knew it was her, and not the one who was supposed to be there.
Later on that afternoon, I told Jezzie that if her and her sister both wanted to do the summer program that it was fine with me and that it was perfectly okay for them to occupy the same space at the same time. She was shocked that I could tell them apart, and she made me tell her how I knew which one I was talking to. It was too funny.
I'm interested in seeing which one shows up tomorrow.
And I thought shit like that only happened on TV.
summerroll at 11:47 a.m.