I click. It’s a reflex. I can’t control it.

Dear Clementine,

Yes, if you decide to attend First Year Bulldog Camp, we would likely be able to fulfill your dorm request. Though the final say would be up to your camp adviser. I believe you would be with Julia. This is her second year doing Bulldog Camp and I think you two will really hit it off. Testing out your dorm is a great idea. I actually stayed in Hawthorne for my first two years of undergrad and loved it. My roommate was even in my wedding!

I know you have yet to commit to UG, but as a reminder, our extended deadline is right around the corner in a few weeks. Please don’t hesitate if you have any more questions.

-Paulina

Paulina Fernandez

Admissions Adviser

University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia

I snap the laptop shut like it’s a can of worms.

What. The. Fuck. I scrub my hands through my curls, like that might somehow erase everything I just saw. Clem can’t be going to Georgia. Georgia? Why Athens, Georgia? If she’s going to leave me, she might as well make it worth it. Everyone knows cities in the south named after European cities are total duds. You don’t see people lining up to go to Paris, Texas, do you?

I go back to my own room and take a few deep breaths. Clem and I aren’t just twins. We’re best friends. But we have boundaries too. Text messages. Emails. Those are things we don’t go tromping through, so even though I am aching with confusion and hurt feelings, I’m not about to get caught snooping through her emails.

After marking the email as unread, I settle into my own bed, and it hits me harder. Forget snooping through emails! Clem is about to betray me in the biggest way. She’s abandoning me. On top of that, she’s not even offering me the decency of a warning.

My twin—the person who I am so closely synced with that when I lose my keys she always knows where I left them—is considering leaving me. And worse than that: she kept it a secret. Does Hannah know? Our parents? Grammy? Surely Grammy would have told me. If Clem is considering her dorm prospects, then this is more than her feeling out her options.

An alert buzzes on my phone, jarring me back to the present. I grab my phone and swipe to find an Instagram post from @FiercestOfThemAllOfficial. The image is of a crown on a red velvet pedestal, and below that, the caption reads: Season 16’s queen has been crowned, but the search for Season 17’s queen begins now! Click the link in our bio and send in your audition video today. Who knows? You might just be the Fiercest of Them All!