Life can be wild

        The autism diagnosis shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Rachel and Nora’s parents. Young Nora had always been different from other kids; including her twin sister, Rachel. Nora has always been closed off, less social, and she wasn’t able to communicate what she wanted very well. The lack of eye contact seemed to drive their parents absolutely insane. The diagnosis answered a lot of questions, but it didn’t change the fact that they could not connect with their daughter. They didn’t know how to communicate with Nora, so they just gave up. As a result, they focused all their energy on Rachel, the child that they could communicate with. In their minds just because Nora could not be reached doesn’t mean Rachel had to be put in the same box.

        While the twins became inseparable their parents were preparing to send their girls to school for the first time. Rachel didn’t know why her sister was so different from other kids, but she knew she wanted to protect and look out for Nora no matter what. She never knew why her parents spent more time with her instead of her sister but Nora, within her own right, never likes being around a lot of people, but loves spending a lot of time with her sister. For Nora it’s never been about doing something with Rachel but having her in the same room has always been enough.

       When they were put into different kindergarten classes, they were not happy. Angela and James thought keeping the girls separate would be beneficial for both of them. That was until the third meltdown between the girls that first day of school. The first happened when Rachel walked into Mr. Eli’s classroom and noticed her sister was no longer following her. Rachel turned around so fast and started screaming. When Angela kneeled in front of Rachel to explain, the young girl pushed her mother to try to reach her sister. Angela had to grab Rachel and hold her hands to her side as she started swinging. When Nora tried to walk up to Rachel, James grabbed her arm to hold her in place, which just made Rachel even more angry. They eventually decided that James needed to take Nora to her class so Rachel would calm down.

       After James and Nora walked away, they headed for Mrs. Jenny’s classroom. Nora seemed fine until James left the room. Without anyone familiar close by Nora started to get overwhelmed by the noise and the yelling. Nora dropped her bag and ran to the hallway; she sat on the floor covering her ears as she started to rock back and forth. She wasn’t found until Jason and Angela left Mr. Eli’s room and happened to look down the hallway. It took a while for them to get Nora to relax, even then they had to get Rachel since she is the only one able to get close to Nora when she is overstimulated.

      Afterwards Rachel once again asked to be in the same class but was told no. Rachel’s next blowup wasn’t until an hour later when a kid, who happened to be in the hall with his dad during Nora’s meltdown called Nora weird. Which lead to Rachel punching him in the face. James and Angela reluctantly came back to the school after they were called about the last incident. After a long conversation with the principal, it was agreed that the girls would be put in the same classroom. Even being put into Mrs. Jenny’s room together didn’t seem to help the girls as Rachel acted like a guard dog, being very standoffish to the other kids that approach and wouldn’t let them get too close. That was until one small kid walked up to them, without fear of Rachel, who was standing in front of Nora as she was drawing. Rachel immediately recognized the other girl as one of the kids who keeps getting in trouble for wrestling. She was wearing a T-shirt two sizes too big and jeans with holes at the knees.

      Rachel immediately assumed the girl was there to pick a fight whether with Rachel or Nora she wasn’t sure. Rachels anxiety, however, spiked when the scrawny kid looked past Rachel over to Nora. She could see something change in the girl’s face as she looked between Nora and Rachel. Rachel was about to question what the girl wanted when she spoke up.

      “Wow, you look just alike…is one of you a clone?”

        Rachel was about to yell at the girl to leave them alone when she heard a long-forgotten sound, Nora’s laugh. When Rachel turned around, she saw an amazing sight, Nora, who at this point had stopped drawing, was smiling, and laughing at what the girl had said. Despite this, five-year-old Rachel refused to smile and tried her hardest to keep a scold on her face, and asked the girl “What’s a Clone and what made you think we were one?”

       “It’s an identical copy of something.” Nora managed to say though her laughs.

       “Johnny made me watch a movie about clones and now its all I think about.”

       This is when Rachel finally cracks a smile; mostly because Nora still hasn’t stopped laughing.

        “Daddy says we are twins.” Rachel finally answered.

        “What does that mean?”

        “There was two of us when mommy asked the stork for a baby.”

        The scrawny girl thought about it for a minute and then finally said “I still like the clone idea more.”

       Ok maybe this kid was alright, if anything she at least got Nora to laugh. She also hasn’t said a word about how Nora hasn’t looked at either of them or the fact that Nora immediately went back to drawing while the conversation continued.

        When the girl asked to draw with them Rachel was very reluctant to allow it. She eventually said yes, so they drew, well in Rachel and the new girl’s case they colored, in silence until it was broken by something unexpected. Nora, surprising Rachel, spoke up to ask, “What’s your name?”

     “Toni Shalifoe”

      “I’m Nora Reid, that’s my sister Rachel.”

      Rachel took this opening of conversation to ask her own question “You fight with that girl Dorothy a lot…why?”

      “She likes to wrestle, and I like to win. No one can beat me!”

      Nora responded in a matter-of-fact voice “My sister can.”

       Toni looked at Rachel as her eyes got wide “you think?!”

       Rachel looked back at Toni, for a reason the escapes her she feels the need to compete with Toni and says, “Yes I can!”

      “Ok, lets do it!” Toni says in an excited voice. Toni moved out of her seat, but Rachel was paralyzed for a second as she stared at her sister. After a long moment Rachel discovered her sister would be ok by herself and finally stood up to follow Toni.

       They both moved to the mat in the center of the room, after checking that the teacher was distracted with another student, they reached for each other’s shoulders and tried to knock each other over. This first match would become one of many, it would become the start of a competition that will go on for years between the two athletes. This seemingly small interaction causes Rachel to smile for what feels like the first time.

      If Nora notices the other kids joining the wrestling match or sitting with her to color, she doesn’t mention it. Nora doesn’t even look up until she hears Toni cheering after she took down Rachel, Dorothy, and a girl named Fatin, one right after the other. She was prepared for her sister, who normally was a sore loser, to be mad and start yelling. Imagine her surprise when she noticed Rachel smiling at Toni and even accepting the hand Toni offered to get off the floor. That’s when she finally noticed the girl sitting next to her reading a book meant for older children. When she asked the girl named Leah about the book it led to a conversation about tree houses and history.

      After a while Rachel finally looked at Nora again and smiled. Maybe her sister didn’t need her protection from everyone; maybe every once in a while, they could just play and be happy. “Toni! Are you ok?” Fatin yelled.

      Rachel turned to where Dorothy was playing with two other girls named Martha and Shelby. Toni and Fatin had started to wrestle again, and Fatin had knocked Toni over. Toni had fallen into the blocks the three girls were playing with and knocked over their structure. Rachel tensed up; she was afraid her new friend was going to get into a fight. The anxious feeling went away as soon as Martha started laughing at Toni; followed quickly by the other children. Toni stood up, dusted herself off, and yelled at Fain “Let’s go again!” Toni had never smiled so brightly before.

      With her anxiety finally gone Rachel could relax and Nora, who finally looked up after all the noise, thought, maybe this weird group of kids could mean something to Nora and her sister. If Toni, however, ended up in timeout at some point that day, none of them mention it later on.