My Handsome Cousin

- Ah!!!! I'd just taken three steps into the school playground when I was assaulted by the blazing midday sun. I rushed back to the shade under the marquee at the entrance to the college and said: - I feel like a fish that's been taken out of the freezer and put in an oven! Fanya, my fake twin, bursts out laughing. We're not sisters, but since she and I look a bit alike physically and a lot alike in character, people who don't know us think we're twins. People who don't know us think we're twins. That's why I introduce her as my false twin. In fact, we hit it off straight away when we met for the first time on the first day of school in the college. Nabilla, my best friend since elementary school, rolls her eyes at me and says: - What nonsense!!! Are you going to tell me you know how fish feel when they're taken out of the freezer and put in the oven? I shrug my shoulders to show how simple it is. - I'm sure since they died in the process they don't feel anything. I say. But if they were to feel anything, it would be that burning sensation I've just felt under this sun! Fania laughs harder and says: - Miranda miss theory has struck again. And the three of us burst out laughing. I'm Miranda and the three of us, I mean Fanya, Nabilla and I, forme "The troublemakers". We have fun writing songs that we sing to piss the world off. We have one thing in common. All three of us have lost our fathers. Nabilla's father was poisoned by her stepmother, Fania doesn't know where hers disappeared to and mine was too old so he ended up dying. I'm not going to cry for that spécially cause I didn't live whith him or my real mother. Anyway, let's move on... - Since when do you take fish out of the freezer and put it in the oven? Amélie's voice can be heard from behind us. Amélie has been my best friend since my first day at school. She's got a beautiful model's body as well as being intelligent. We were never separated when we were at primary school, but when we got to college we were separated for two years before meeting up again in the third year. Despite all that, we never lost touch. I shrug my shoulders and smile wickedly. - I don't know, I say. Since I decided... Amélie laughs and shakes her head saying. - That's how you recognise a girl who never melts in the kitchen! And we burst out laughing again. Just afterwards, Fanya and Nabilla left me with Amélie, with whom I stayed to chat for a while, still under the shade of the big top. We exchanged a few words of news before Amélie's gaze fell on the school clock, which indicated that it would soon be time to go to class. We said goodbye, then went our separate ways, each heading for her own class. As I walk towards the room where my class is, I see someone in the distance. This year I'm in my fourth year. I left the European class, where we had in-depth language lessons, especially in French, to go to the science class, where we studied science subjects in depth, especially physics and chemistry, which is my favourite subject. As a result, I'm no longer with my best friends. We'd all applied for the science class, but at the start of the school year, the head teacher of the science class told me that the headmaster had refused to take students from the euro class and had to take just one, and as he said, he chose the best one, which was me. I feel too boastful to say that, but that's what he said. We were all good, especially Amélie and Fanya. But I was the best, I got the maximum score all last year in physics and mathematics. And in Life and Earth Sciences lesson, my scores ranged between 85 and the maximum score. I was so proud of myself. - Hey Nachma!!! I know practically everyone in the new class. There are old classmates from primary school, old neighbours and others I only know by sight. The only person I've never seen before is a very shy girl, Nachma. Despite her shyness, Nachma really enjoys listening to other people talk. The problem is that very few people like talking to people who don't say anything. As for me, I'm very talkative. And we became fast friends. I spotted her in the distance and was hurrying towards her when all of a sudden... - Ow!!! I'm bumping into someone. - Do you feel obliged to bump into me? Youness say. Youness is in the same class as me this year. Apparently he was in the same class as Nachma in previous years. I only knew him by sight because last year I interviewed him on a subject I can't remember for the school newspaper, which was never published. He's a very intelligent boy. Since the beginning of the year, he's been top of the class. He steals the place I've had all through school. I really like setting myself challenges, and above all I don't like anyone being superior to me, especially not a boy. That's why my aim this year is to overtake him. I want to regain my place at the top of the class. There's no way I'm going to let him pass me for the whole year. But it's no easy task, because he's very good at everything, even PE lessons. Which is my biggest weakness. I'm too lazy to beat him easily. So he always has an average of about 90% and I'm still at 80% because of these ridiculous sports classes. I think this course should be removed from school subjects.