“Fine.” I write my number on the ripped paper and hand it to her.

At lunch, Gaby and Rebecca won’t leave me alone.

“I still can’t believe that new girl,” Gaby says. The three of us look over at Mattie, who is sitting at the lunch table with the dorkiest kids in seventh grade. I never thought I would meet her, but if I did, I always thought she would probably be a lot like me—you know, pretty cool. I never would’ve guessed she’d actually look like me… but be nothing like me.

Gaby explains to Rebecca, “She’s this un-cool version of our girl. Like, if Mercedes didn’t dress like Mercedes.” Gaby is obsessed with clothes. She used to always ask to borrow mine, but over the summer her chest grew and my clothes don’t fit her anymore. Gaby has always been the flaky one, Rebecca is the serious one, and I’m the perfect one—the one with the wealthy mom, cool shoes, cute little brother, and fun ideas.

“That’s so weird! How is it even possible?” asks Rebecca, staring at Mattie Gómez from across the lunchroom. “For someone to look just like you?”

“It’s called a doppelgänger.” After social studies, I looked up the word on my phone. A ghostly and often negative double of a living person. Standing at my locker, getting jostled by the sixth graders heading to phys ed, I read the definition over and over. Negative? The zing I felt earlier zinged again, right into my stomach.

“A what?”

“A doppelgänger,” I repeat. They both give me a funny look. Weird as it sounds, saying I have a doppelgänger seems like a better alternative than telling them the whole story.

“Doppel-what?” Rebecca says.

“She’s in a gang?” asks Gaby.

Ugh. The three of us have been friends since first grade, but sometimes they can be so annoying. I explain, “A doppelgänger is someone who looks like your twin but isn’t.” I don’t mention the bad luck part. “Like, you know how Cristina looks like Gal Gadot?”

They giggle. Ever since Mom hired a nanny to take care of my little brother, we’ve been arguing with her about this. Cristina insists she doesn’t look anything like the movie star, but we keep telling her she does.

“Gaby, your doppelgänger is that girl in that one show,” Rebecca says.

Gaby laughs harder. “You never know the names of any celebrities, do you, Becca?”

“Your doppelgänger is Zendaya!”

Phew. I’m glad they’ve stopped asking questions about me. About Mattie.