Sophie Ackerman has to attend boarding school while impersonating her twin sister, but things get complicated when she bumps into her former best friend.
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Sophie Ackerman is...
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"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."
"Which Father you are apologizing to?" Sophie Ackerman asked, sitting by herself on the long wooden chair in the church's front row. "Our father or the Big Guy Upstairs? It gets hard to differentiate the two honestly."
The girl who was praying did not bow or kneel in front of the altar, as one was supposed to when praying in a Catholic church in their hometown. The hometown that Sophie had lived for the rest of her life and the one that Vivian had left behind, following her father in the aftermath of the divorce. Vivian Ackerman was casually sitting on the spot beside Sophie, not even bothering to make a cross sign gesture with her hands. Apparently, Vivian was still as unapologetic as ever.
Then again, Sophie had not been talking to her twin sister for a long time, only meeting twice a year during important family holidays. And their interactions were always held back by the awkwardness that stemmed from their parents' destroyed marriage.
"Viv, you are not answering the question."
"Well, for your information, Sophie," Vivian turned her head and faced Sophie, a sinister smile tugging on her lips, "The apology I said was meant to be a sarcastic jab."
"Is it meant for Dad or the Lord himself?"
Vivian laughed, and the sound was always pleasant to Sophie's ears even if the humor was absent and replaced with a bitter undertone. "Like you just said, it is getting harder to differentiate the two."
"Only with you I can talk about religion and my faith freely, Viv," Sophie admitted. "In what context do you think that Dad and God are similar because they are the absent father figures in our lives?"
Both of them were raised as Roman Catholics, an aspect in their family which their mother Irina always insisted on being practiced. It was not long before Sophie's faith had faded away when she was old enough to understand that her high intelligence often questioned and contradicted the teachings her mother tried to instill into her heart. At the same time, Vivian's probably faded and never instilled in the first place because her twin sister just refused to live by anything other than her own terms and moral compass. The fact that she was the one who lived with their father in New York City probably contributed to wash away the last remnants of their mother's influence.
Truth to be told, Sophie never envied her twin sister, despite the fact people thought she should be.
"You can say that," Vivian stated simply, her voice was strangely devoid of any emotions. "I feel really disappointed towards them both, honestly. But that is where the similarity ends. Our father is certainly not as virtuous to be called religious."
"What are you doing here, in Pine Creek after such a long time?" Sophie questioned, not quite understanding her sister's motivation to suddenly get into a plane and grace their hometown in Idaho with her presence. "If there is something you want to talk about, don't waste your time bitching about Dad."
