How Babe Snatched Her Twin Sister's Boyfriend

Maryjane and Annette were two peas in a pod. The twins were
identical in every way. Aside from their mom, it was very difficult for
other people, including friends and family, to identify one from the
other.
Maryjane and Annette took advantage of this feature and got away
with numerous pranks. Their mother, Arden, had enrolled them in the
same secondary school but an incident made her separate them. One
day, Annette was caught when she tried to impersonate and write an
impromptu test for Maryjane...
Her sister had broken the hostel rules and gone for a friend’s birthday
party in a neighbouring city. Unknown to her, the mathematics
teacher organised an impromptu test at the end of the class. When
she got wind of the test, Annette quickly sneaked into the class when
she taught the teacher was not watching. At the end of the exercise,
the teacher informed her that he was aware of what she had done.
The matter was brought to the notice of the principal, who
immediately summoned their mother. The principal threatened to expel
Annette and gave their mother an ultimatum— she either withdrew
Annette from the school or have the twins expelled. As a result, the
girls were separated from each other for the first time since birth.
Maryjane could not face being separated from Annette. She wept
bitterly and fell ill. Annette assured her that they would always visit
each other in school. Their mother ensured that Annette was enrolled
in a nearby school.
The incident sobered Maryjane and she became more serious with her
studies. She never played pranks in school again. Her sister visited
her whenever she had time between classes and they hung out at the
school cafeteria together. At the end of the school year, Maryjane
emerged top of her class. Annette also took top position in her class.
That year, their mother took them on a summer vacation abroad.
Although she had raised them as a single mother, Arden took great
pride in the way her twins turned out. She was not ashamed of the
fact that they were a product of a casual fling with a visiting diplomat
from the Caribbean Island.
The man, Peter Thompson, was married and Elizabeth did not think it
would be proper to break another woman’s home since he only spent
one month in Nigeria on official duty.
When the children sought to know about their father, she came up
with this explanation: “Your father was a visiting sailor.
Unfortunately, by the time you were born, I lost touch with him.’’
Since then, however, Maryjane and Annette had secretly tried to locate
their father. They gathered data, asked questions and looked up every
Peter Thompson in phone books and other records. Their mother had
no idea that they were looking for their father.
One day, they were able to locate a man by that name on the yellow
pages but the man was listed as a diplomat from the Caribbean
Island and not a sailor as their mother made them to believe. They
eventually gave up the search and continued with their lives.
Arden worked in an advertising and public relations agency. As one of
the top managers, she was entitled to a lot of privileges including
foreign trips once a year. The company also made provision for
scholarship scheme for children of senior staff. After their secondary
education, Maryjane and Annette were placed on the company’s list
of beneficiaries. Both had wanted to study law but their mother kicked
against the idea. “Both of you cannot be in the same discipline. You
have to be separated at a certain point in your life, no matter how
dreadful that sounds. That is the only way you can grow up as
independent women,’’ she advised them.
So, while Maryjane chose medicine, Annette settled for law in different
universities.
“One thing I would not have you do is board the same flight home
whenever you are on holidays. When we travel out of the country we
can afford to board the same flight. When you are on vacation, don’t
wait for each other. I am not saying something bad would happen but
it is better to take precautions,” their mother also advised.
But the two tried as much as possible to stay close. They went to
each other’s school whenever they could get away. In her third year in
school, Annette met and fell in love with George, a 400 level medical
student. George was from the Niger Delta region and his family was
very influential. He was head over heels in love with Annette and
always said he could not wait for the semester to end in order to take
her home and introduce her to his parents.
The semester finally ended and Annette and George started making
preparations to travel to Delta State to visit his parents. George knew
Annette had a twin sister but he had not met her. Each time Maryjane
came around, George was either busy or out of campus.
Annette had insisted, however, that for the trip to Delta State,
Maryjane would have to accompany them. George was excited at the
prospect. He would finally get to meet Annette’s twin. They fixed the
trip for the Christmas holidays.
Arden knew about the whole arrangement because her daughter had
told her so much about the young man. She had also spoken to him
several times on phone and he sounded like a responsible man. She
was the one who suggested that Maryjane accompany her sister to
Delta State. The idea was for them to look after each other.
They travelled a week after their semester exams and Maryjane came
to school to join them. George saw her for the first time and to him
the resemblance was uncanny. “I would never be able to tell them
apart in a million years,” he told himself.
They boarded the morning flight and in 30 minutes, they arrived in
Delta State. The parents and relations of George were awed by the
twins and could not stop fussing over them.
Maryjane and Annette spent three days in Delta State. They were to
spend one week and then leave for Lagos to see their mother. But
things went horribly wrong.
To be continued....