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Chapter Two - So It IS Possible.

As it turned out, Quinne was Qianna’s missing roommate. So, after they were finished with all the group activities for the day, the two girls finally got to settle into their room. They’d just finished putting all of Quinne’s clothing away in her closet and were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the big mirror affixed to the inside of the closet door when they both paused to really look at the image they made together.

At first glance it was uncanny how similar they looked despite the obvious difference of their hair color. A random observer would automatically think they were related. And yet they weren’t completely identical. Upon closer examination, you could see lots of tiny differences between the two.   

To start with, Qianna’s skin was a shade or two paler than Quinne’s, whose more swarthy skin tone matched her long, curly, auburn hair. Quinne was also a good inch taller than the blond with the short, straight hair, and generally had a leaner build. Qianna was slightly rounder in all the right places, even though she was still slim overall.

Their faces, when seen side by side, also showed many minute differences. Quinne’s face was longer and thinner, more of a triangular shape. Qianna had a more oval face and her cheeks were rounder, especially when she smiled. Qianna’s nose turned up a little more at the tip, giving her a more playful and less serious expression. Qianna also had a wider mouth and slightly fleshy lips that accentuated her big, bright smile. Quinne had a much more serious demeanor and a more subtle smile. The one thing, though, that was identical between the two of them were their eyes - they both had beautiful, almond-shaped, hazel eyes with long, thick lashes. That one similarity was striking enough, and eye-catching enough too, that most viewers would probably overlook all their other differences.

“Wow,” Quinne finally broke the silence, shaking her head at their combined images in the mirror. “I read once that everyone has a double somewhere in the world, but I never thought I’d find mine the summer I went to Science Camp.”

“I know. It’s crazy. How can two people who come from states thousands of miles apart look so much alike?” Qianna echoed her roommate’s amazement. “If I dyed my hair, I could easily pass for your twin.”

“Well, that, and if you grew an inch or two,” Quinne teased, her smile offsetting any edge to the comment.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re a giant,” Qianna kidded right back, knocking shoulders with the other girl as she moved to close the closet door before heading over to flop down on one of the beds.

Quinne followed her new friend, settling onto her own bed a little more gently, and carefully arranging the pillows so that she was propped up against the wall. They both sat there quietly for a minute or two, lost in their own thoughts.

Quinne was the one who finally broke the silence. “You know, genetics are pretty amazing and all, but somehow I don’t see how we could have separately evolved to be almost identical without there being some connection. My dad always told me that there’s no such thing as a coincidence. There’s got to be some explanation - some connection - that we’re just not seeing. Right?”

“I don’t see how. You said you’re from Pittsburgh, right? Well, as far as I know I’ve never been there. My dad and I have lived in California my whole life. Your family didn’t ever live on the west coast, did you?”

“Nope. We did visit Disneyland once when I was about five, but that’s the only time I’ve been to California and that doesn’t explain why we look alike.” Quinne paused and thought through things for a bit before theorizing, “maybe we have some long lost distant ancestor in common or something. You know, like how people can look eerily like their great-great grandmother or something? My dad’s family is Irish and immigrated to the US in the 1920s. You’re not Irish, are you?”

“No. Not that I know of,” Qianna answered, looking doubtful. “My grandma told me her family was old money - really old - like Daughters of the American Revolution and Mayflower old. But I don’t really know much about the rest of the family. It’s always been just my dad and I.”

“Hmmm. Well, that’s clearly not it. But there’s got to be some logical explanation. We just have to find it . . .”

Quinne began chewing at her thumbnail in a gesture that caused Qianna to laugh, since she did that too.

“What?” Quinne asked when she heard the giggle.

“That thing you’re doing - chewing your thumbnail when you’re thinking - I do the same thing.” Qianna held out her right hand which showed a mangled and uneven thumbnail. “My grandmother’s always lecturing me about it, telling me it’s a horrible habit, and warning me I’ll never have nice nails if I don’t stop.”

“See, that’s just one more piece of evidence. There’s GOT to be something that connects us. I’m sure of it. We just have to find that missing connection,” Quinne insisted, leaning forward expectantly. “Let’s figure this out. You said it’s just you and your father. We can start there. Tell me about him.”

“There’s not much to tell,” Qianna explained. “He’s actually pretty boring, to be honest. He doesn’t do anything other than work all the time. Although he does have a pretty cool job - he’s the Assistant Art Director for a big-name animation studio that’s worked on pretty much every single animated movie out there. He’s sort of halfway famous, although you’d never know it by how we live since he’s kind of a hermit. We do get to go to some awesome parties sometimes though.”

“Sweet,” Quinne enthused. “My brother, Gus, would probably go ape shit insane if he knew I was rooming with someone whose dad was a famous animator. That’s what he wants to do when he grows up. He’s actually going to the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts, starting next fall, to learn just that. And he and my Uncle Michael have been working on this comic book together for the past year or so that they want to try and get published. Do you think your dad would give me an autograph for Gus or something?”

“Sure. He generally hates dealing with any fans, but I’m sure he’d do it for me. I am his only kid, after all. There’s got to be a few perks for being an only child, right? . . . So, what’s it like having a big brother?”

“Some days I’d kill to be an only child,” Quinne laughed but quickly relented. “Okay, that’s an exaggeration. Gus is actually pretty cool most of the time. But he’s six years older than me so we don’t have a lot in common. And he also lives with his moms most of the time; I only have to deal with him on the weekends when he comes to the house to hang out with me and dad.”

“Moms?” Qianna questioned, not sure she’d heard that correctly.

“Yeah, Gus’ bio mom is a lesbian so, when she and Aunt Mel wanted to start a family, they came to my dad for the necessary ingredients. They have another kid too - fathered by my Uncle Michael - who’s only a couple years older than me, but . . . well, JR and I don’t really get along all that well. She’s annoying and totally vain and only interested in how popular she is. I’ve got better things to do with my time than obsessing over whether or not I make the cheerleading squad. But, whatever, right?”

“It sounds like you’ve got a wild family,” Qianna replied, looking at her new friend with an almost hungry gleam in her eye. “I’m totally jelly. I always wanted a big family. Like I said, it’s just me and my dad. My grandmother lives in Virginia and she only comes to visit us a couple times a year, and I’ve also got an Aunt that lives in Washington DC, but she and my dad don’t talk since Molly ended up siding with her father who kicked my dad out before he even finished high school - long story - but that’s about it for family on my side . . . What about your mom? You haven’t mentioned her.”

“That’s ‘cause there is no ‘mom’. My dad’s about as gay as they come,” Quinne announced proudly. “Which is just fine with me. I’ve got plenty of feminine influence in my life already. There’s my Auntie Em - who’s really my Uncle Emmett only he’s the kind of ‘uncle’ that likes to dress in women’s clothing - a half dozen other gay ‘uncles’ of various types, and my Grandma Deb, who’s like a tornado of twenty grandmothers all rolled into one. Hell, even my dad’s a total drama queen half the time, not to mention that he’s way more into fashion than any girl I’ve ever met. Oh, and he also has this shoe fetish thing going for him. So, no, I’m pretty sure I don’t need a mother. You know, except for my Aunt Mel, who’s about as masculine as dykes come, I’m kinda lacking in MALE influences, to be honest.”

Both girls were rocking back and forth with laughter by the time Quinne was done detailing her eclectic family.

“That sounds wonderful if you ask me,” Qianna chimed in when she’d finally quelled her giggles. “My dad’s gay too, actually, but he tries to play it all butch most of the time. He fails, but at least he tries.” They both laughed again, bonding instantly over the tribulations of raising a gay father. “Except for all his boyfriends, who come and go on a pretty regular basis, most of the time I’m the only femme in the house.”

“Wait, so your dad’s gay too?” Quinne sat up, now excited by the turn the conversation had taken. “So how’d he get you? My dad used a surrogate . . .”

“No way! My dad used a surrogate too!” Qianna interrupted, sitting up as well and scooting over to the edge of her mattress. “Do you think . . .”

“That they maybe used the same surrogate and that’s why we look so much alike?” Quinne finished Qianna’s sentence for her. “It’s possible. But . . . how would one surrogate have two kids that are so close in age? We’re both going into eighth grade so you have to be around thirteen, right?

“Actually, I’m only twelve. I don’t turn thirteen until November. I skipped a grade in elementary school so I’m on the young side for this program,” Qianna explained with her usual pride in that achievement.

“Get out!” Quinne leapt to her feet and grabbed Qianna’s hands in her own. “We’re the same age! I skipped second grade myself and MY birthday is in November too. November 10th.”

“No way! That’s my exact birthday too!” Qianna was now on her feet as well, both girls literally bouncing with excitement as they crept closer to an answer. “I’m with your dad, here, Quinne. All these coincidences can’t be just random chance. We look alike, we have the same birthday, we even have some of the same mannerisms. And we both have gay dads who used a surrogate to get a daughter. There’s got to be more here.”

“I agree . . .” Quinne hesitated, her mouth pursing up into a twist as she thought through matters. “There’s only two problems. If we really ARE sisters, then how come we’ve never even heard of each other. And, maybe more to the point, how can we have DIFFERENT fathers? Because, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been told about a hundred times that I look like Gus, my biological brother, so I’m pretty sure my dad IS my dad.”

“That is weird. Everyone says I have the same smile as my dad, too. And you and I aren’t EXACTLY alike so . . . I know twins don’t always look alike but can they have different dads altogether?” Qianna looked as confused as her doppelganger by that point.

Quinne grinned and spun around, picking up her tablet computer off the desk behind her. “I don’t know, but I bet Google knows! Are you up for some research?”

The next hour was spent clicking around from site to site, reading through everything the girls could find on the biology of twins. What they found wasn’t always easy to understand for two twelve year olds, but they were both smart and curious and driven. Before long, with the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, the NIH and a score of other random sites they’d found, they’d mastered pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about how twins happened. They knew all about the differences between identical and fraternal twins. They discovered the strange term, ‘Superfecundation’ - the fertilization of two or more ova from the same cycle by sperm from different donors. And finally, just as the counsellors were coming around and knocking on doors to tell the students it was time for lights out, they finished watching a highly educational video about ‘Heteropaternal Superfecundation’. According to all their research it seemed that, in rare situations, fraternal twins could indeed have different fathers if two separate ova were fertilized by two different fathers’ sperm. The video even noted that this occurred more frequently in cases of artificial insemination than in nature, which would fit perfectly with their circumstances. The resulting offspring would be genetically only half siblings rather than true genetic twins, but since they had the same mother, they would still potentially share a lot of similarities. So it WAS possible, if improbable, that they might be related.

“Computers off, ladies,” Pooh Bear ordered as she reached the girls’ room. “We’ve got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow and you’re going to want to be rested and ready to do some serious science in the morning. Good night.”

Quinne obediently set her tablet aside on the desk as Pooh Bear turned off the big overhead lights and pulled the door shut. The girls weren’t the least bit sleepy though. They were too jazzed by their crazy discovery.  

“So it IS possible that we’re related even if we have two different fathers,” Qianna whispered excitedly. “I wonder how we prove it though?”

“That’s easy. There’s all sorts of companies these days that you can pay to get DNA tests done. Hell, we can probably do some basic tests ourselves if we can use the equipment in one of those cool labs we saw on the tour today.” Quinne sounded confident that they could do all the science needed by themselves if given the chance. “The bigger question is HOW did this happen? What’s the connection between our dads and why did we get separated?”

“Yeah, why . . .” Qianna’s voice, coming out of the darkness from the bed on the right side of the room, sounded a little angry. “You know, I can’t believe my dad would do something like this. He knows how much I’ve always wanted a bigger family. When I was, like, five, I even asked him to give me a little brother or sister - I spent a whole year asking for that as my present for every holiday and my birthday - and he just told me that it probably wouldn’t ever happen. And now I find that I’ve had a sister - a twin sister - that he’s kept secret from me this whole time? Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think it was intentional. My father never lies - at least not to me - and he didn’t tell me about you either,” Quinne insisted. “Which leads me to think that something really out of the ordinary must have happened. Maybe there was a mix up at the lab or something - like that case they were talking about in the video?”

“That doesn’t make any sense, though,” Qianna puzzled through the confusion. “I mean, the surrogate would have had to know she had twins when we were born, right? So even if there was a mix up at a lab, they obviously knew there were two babies. And if they knew we had separate fathers, and that was why they divided us up, then why not tell us? None of this makes any sense.”

“Why would both our fathers have been using the same surrogate at the same time anyway?” Quinne agreed with her newfound sibling. “Something had to have gone seriously wrong here. But I still don’t think my Pops would have hidden this from me. Or, if he did, there had to be a pretty damn good reason. It’s just not like him. Brian Kinney’s not the kind of person to hide ANYTHING - the good, the bad, or the ugly - he always owns up to pretty much everything, whether I want to know about it or not. And it’s not like I don’t already have a half-brother and a sorta sister from a different father. Why wouldn’t he have just brought you and your dad into our crazy extended family? Trust me, he wouldn’t keep something this important from me unless he had to.”

“So what are we gonna do? Should we confront them about it? Ask why they separated us and demand the truth?” Qianna asked, not quite as sure as Quinne about whether or not her father would have kept such a secret.

“I say we keep quiet for now. At least until we confirm for sure that we ARE really twins.”

“Good idea. And in the meantime we can do a little more digging around, maybe ask a few careful questions, and try to figure this out on our own. Or at least have a better idea of what we’re accusing our fathers of doing.”

They both fell silent, caught up in their own thoughts for a moment, until Qianna finally broke the peace one last time. “Hey, Quinne? I hope it’s true, because I’d really like a sister like you.”

“Ditto, Qianna,” the other girl answered sincerely. “Night, sis.”

“Night, sis,” came the echo from the opposite bed before they both drifted off to sleep.

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