Le choix de Juliette

Salut mes amis, 

I have a lot of things to catch you up on. Where to start? Oh, that's right.

It was a cold Saturday morning in February, and I was looking at the valentines I'd received from my friends in the States. I was still on une interruption from school while grieving my beloved grandpère, and - despite the triste circumstances - I was still happy to be back in Paris for a little while. I can't believe how much I've missed my hometown! 

Juliette was prettying up in la salle de bains, the bathroom. Why, I don't know, as we weren't going anywhere, but she was in there just the same and was taking quite a long time.  What was she doing in there?                                            
I'd pretty much decided to open her valentines, too . . . if she didn't hurry up. I was that bored!  Just as I stuck my hand in the gift bag to pull out her jigsaw puzzle from Inky (merci beaucoup, Inky!), Juliette burst into the room.

"Et voilà!" Juliette said, raising her arms in a dramatic pose, "Que penses-tu? What do you think? I decided I'd had enough of being your twin. Je suis désolée, Sophie, but tu sais that my natural hair color isn't black. The dye was seriously needing to be retouched anyway, and I decided that I just didn't want to do it anymore. I like my dark brown hair! I also decided to give my eyes a break and take out the colored contacts. You know how much I adore Maman's green eyes! I'd almost forgotten that my eyes weren't brown. So . . . it was fun pretending to be twins, Sophie, but it's time I resume my own original look."

I'd blinked a few times to be sure that I wasn't seeing things. Nope, I wasn't. Juliette was indeed standing in front of me with her wavy dark brown hair and hazel eyes, the color which always reminded me of Maman's (I, on the other hand, received Papa's chocolatey brown eyes). I'd nearly forgotten how I'd convinced Juliette to dye her hair darker and to put on colored contacts. I'd always feared that my little sister was prettier than me, and she'd somehow decided to go along with my little plan to turn us into twins . . . 

. . . and yes, I did say that she's my little sister. We might as well be twins - we're only ten months apart! We do like to celebrate our summer birthdays together, but technically it's my birthday that falls on the 9th of August. Juliette's birthday falls on the 9th of June, and she'll turn 13 while I'll turn 14 two months later.

I know that this comes as a surprise to many of you. You've come to expect Juliette as my identical twin, and I'll confess that it was fun while it lasted. However, I hope you'll eventually come to love Juliette as she is truly meant to be. We're still close. Nothing has changed otherwise. Juliette is still my shy sister who lives and breathes ballet . . . and I'm still the less pretty older sister, but what can I say?

Ton amie,
Sophie