Jacky and Jill

Written by Girls For a Change / Huguenot Girl Action Team:

Camiyah King, Jey’tiyah Mormon, Michelle Johnson, Jon’ay Seward, Phylesha Wallace, Genisus Holland

Narrated by Michelle Johnson

Jacky and Jill came into the world screaming together one beautiful spring day. As their parents clung to one another, they knew the twin girls would be friends forever. They weren’t far off, either. Jacky and Jill did everything together. They shared their first steps, their first cry, laugh and everything else.

Ever since the girls were young, the hill at the end of their neighborhood became their safe haven. No matter what happened throughout the day, going to their special place solved everything. Spending hot summer days racing up to the water tower at the top of the hill was a favorite memory between the sisters. Though Jacky and Jill shared everything, there was one thing that separated them: their skin color.

Jill was born with beautiful sandy light brown skin and Jacky was born with gorgeous chocolate dark brown skin. Ultimately this meant in the world’s eyes the girls were to be treated differently from each other. Each sister felt this pain acutely and kept their feelings from the other, but the truth is always revealed. 

One day, Jacky and Jill would learn. It started like any normal day. Jacky and Jill woke up with a start. 

“Today’s the day!” Jill exclaimed excitedly.

“I know, we’ve been planning this for forever!” Jacky exclaimed back with equal excitement.

You see, the sisters were big on organizing community events. Fairs, cleanup days, you name it. Their latest project was a huge community water fight at their favorite place, the hill.

“You get the things ready for the fight, I get our outfits ready?” asked Jacky. To which Jill just grinned and ran downstairs to get the stuff ready. After completing their tasks, the girls said goodbye to their parents and ran to the hill they had been to so many times before. They met up with many of the neighborhood kids on the way, everyone excited for this water sport sure to get them cooled down for the humid spring days. Once they reached the top of the hill, the sisters stood at the front of the crowd.

“Okay guys, we want a clean fight, no name calling no physical contact, just water balloons and water guns. If you get dehydrated or don’t want to play, go to the well, that’s our safe zone,” Jill said in a no-nonsense voice that made everyone agree.

“What are you all doing just standing here?!? Get your water weapons ready, the battle begins...NOW!” And so with that, Jacky started the water war of the century. Balloons of all colors flew through the air, causing a kaleidoscope effect in the sky. Squelching and screeching were heard as water guns met their targets. In all the fighting and fun, the sisters ended up getting pushed off balance and fell down the hill with Jacky falling first and Jill tumbling after.

Eventually someone realized that the girls had fallen and alerted everyone so that they could check on the sisters. This is where problems arose, as everyone rushed to Jill’s aid and left Jacky to fend for herself.

“Why is no one checking up on me?!? I think I actually hurt something,” Jacky said, clutching her head.

“Well it’s just, well Jill is more delicate than you,” one girl said.

“A fall like that could have really hurt Jill,” another chimed in.

“What makes you think Jill’s softer than me? We have virtually the same everything,” Jill questioned. 

A boy reluctantly responded, “It’s just appearance-wise, Jill just seems more inclined to —”

“To what? Need help after falling down a steep cliff?! Jill looks just like me. The only difference is our skin color. So you’re telling me that you think because I’m darker, I don’t deserve the same amount of care?!?” Jacky declared in an upset voice.

Jill had finally batted away all the helping hands to find her sister arguing with some of the others and decided to interject.

“Jack-Jack, I don’t think that’s what they were saying, I’m sure it was an honest mistake,” Jill said, trying to soothe some of her twin’s distress.

“No Jilly, it wasn’t, not that you would get it, would you?!”

Fed up with her sister’s attitude, Jill gritted out a request for she and Jacky to talk at the top of the hill away from everyone else. Once they reached the top of the hill, the girls stayed quiet, not wanting to be the first to break their promise of never arguing on the hill.

Eventually the silence was broken.

“Did you see that?!” Jacky grumbled. 

Jill said, “See what?! You snap on our friends for no reason?”   

Jacky argued back, “They didn’t even try to help me! Are you really blaming me? I was really excited to go outside today. You have no idea what it is like being me!!”  

“You are just being overly sensitive. You should have had better self-control. We are more alike than you think,” Jill said, not backing down.

“Fine, you think you could handle being me and I know I could handle being you, how about we make a wish in the well and see just how good we are at experiencing each other’s life,” Jacky retorted while pulling out a coin.

“You’re on,” Jill accepted the challenge, pulling out a coin of her own.

And so the girls closed their eyes and made a wish, a wish that their sister could understand the things they go through.

The universe had plans for Jacky and Jill.

They woke up the following day, thinking everything was normal. Jacky didn’t even look around, just headed straight downstairs to the breakfast her father had made. Jill followed after she heard Jacky leave her room. During breakfast, their dad kept calling them the wrong name.

Though this is an issue most twins have to deal with, Jacky and Jill’s parents never got them confused due to their skin color. 

Jill got a little frustrated after her dad confused them for the fourth time. “Dad, I’m Jill, obviously, and that’s Jacky.”

“Yeah, Dad, we’ll have to start charging you if you get us confused again,” Jacky joked.

“Ha! Girls, that whole twin switcheroo doesn’t work when you both look different,” their dad retorted.

“What are talking about?” The girls both stumbled on their words in unison as they looked at each other for the first time since their fight. 

They both made mirrored gestures of disbelief and stared at their hands. They were in their sister’s body. They both screamed and ran up to Jacky’s room together.

“What do we do?!” said Jacky.

“Calm down, calm down…okay I’m freaking out, I have no idea what’s happening! Say something — you’re the one who usually comes up with the plan!” Jill exclaimed, her voice getting higher with every word.

Jacky screeched back, “Well for once in my life, I truly have no idea what’s happening.” 

“All right, maybe this is like that movie we watched all the time as kids, you know two characters get into a fight, switch bodies and learn about the other’s life, and in the end they are better —”

“Blah, blah, blah, this isn’t a fairy tale, Jill, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life!”

“Well it’s happening today, it’s the only explanation.”

“So you want us to just go ahead and live each other’s lives? You wouldn’t last a day, Jillian.”

“Oh please, you’ll tap out way before me, Jacqueline.”

Their father knocked on the door “I’m going to ignore that mini-freakout as hormones, but y’all still have to go to school.”

They got ready for school like they normally would. They finally got on the bus and walked to their seat. Already the girls could feel the difference in being in each other’s bodies. Jacky was on cloud nine, enjoying the way people step aside for her while she was in Jill’s body. Jill on the other hand had to constantly step over the shoes of people who wouldn’t move their feet. As Jacky glided to her seat, Jill stumbled to sit next to her.

Jacky turned to Jill with a smug look, obviously seeing the problems her twin had already experienced in her body.

“Not a word,” Jill huffed. She continued with, “If you think you’re about to have an easy breezy day, you’re wrong. You have African Studies today.”

“And what’s so bad about that?” Jacky scoffed.

“You’ll see.”

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. The bus reached the school and Jacky and Jill went their separate ways to their own classes. 

Jacky (now in Jill’s body) walked into African Studies class and immediately spotted a group of girls that she’d always been friendly with. As she approached them, they gave her weird looks.

“What are you doing?” one of them said, looking her up and down.

“Well I thought I’d sit with you all today.”

“And why would you do that? We don’t hang out with uptight little princesses,” another laughed.

“You’ve hung out with me and Ji- I mean Jacky, before?”

“Do you see Jacky here? No, didn’t think so, you better find somewhere else to sit.” And with that, Jacky had been dismissed.

Jacky sat down somewhere else closer to the front.

The teacher began, “Okay class, pull out your notebooks and open up to page 36 of your African Studies book.” 

Jacky felt a kick behind her seat and turned around to see a pretty, popular girl say, “You are not Black, why are you even in this class?!” She and her friends snickered.

You see, Jacky and Jill were fairly popular girls with sparkling personalities and beautiful features that they got from their Nigerian grandmother. But some kids did not like Jill. Mostly the darker girls at school, because they believed Jill thought she was better than everybody else. This hurt Jill, as all she wanted to do was be accepted into her own community. She played it off really well because she never wanted people to see her hurting, especially her twin.

On the other side of the school, Jill (now in Jacky’s body) was going through her own struggle. Jill pushed through the hallway as no one moved to give her any room. Jill felt herself get tripped up as a purposeful foot locked around her ankle.

“Ugh, here we go,” Jill groaned. Jill fell and turned around to see a group laughing at her. Suddenly a figure was blocking her view and as she looked up, she saw a tall boy glaring down at her.

“Look guys, we have the ugly twin in the building!” he laughed.

Jill stood up and the teasing continued as she rushed away.

She pushed through more and more of the hallway, no one trying to assist her or comfort her.

She walked in the bathroom, opened the stall and cried. Not because someone called her ugly, but because somebody had called her sister ugly. It didn’t make any sense — her sister had model-worthy looks. Maybe Jacky was right: the only reason people put her down instead of Jill was because of her skin. She had no idea that people treated her twin like this on a regular basis.

All of a sudden, you could hear a loud group of girls coming through the bathroom door. They were giggling and gossiping. Jill looked under the door.

“Oh my gosh, did you see Jacky get tripped up in the hall today? It was hilarious,” someone said and she could hear some other girls agree with laughter in their voices.

Jill wanted to go give them a piece of her mind but realized she had to fix her face before she could walk out. She sniffled, fixed her hair, and wiped her eyes.

“Hello ladies!” said Jill.

“Hey Jacky, I like your……. outfit,” said one of the girls. You could sense her sarcasm as she looked around to all the girls who were giggling in their hands as if Jacky was a joke. 

Jill, being the girl she was, asked what was funny. She started to get choked up. Jill knew after this day she was never going to let a single person bully her sister again.

As the day went on, the two girls got to truly live life as their twin and by the end of the day, they felt the gap between them close.

After her last class, Jacky got a text from her sister: “Meet me at our spot after school.” She began trekking to the hill.

By the time she got to the top, Jill was already there.

They both looked at each other in silence. And they ran to hug each other.

Both girls were exhausted and more understanding of each other. Jacky started sobbing in the embrace.

“You never told me what those girls say about you!”

“Well, you never told me how everyone puts you down,” Jill scolded while tearing up.

In each other’s arms they knew they were safe from harm and ridicule. And for once in their lives, they felt heard.

When they opened their eyes they were back in their own bodies.

They smiled at each other and ended the story just how it began. On the hill. This time closer than ever with no secrets. 

They made a pact that from that day forward they would protect each other, stand tall from the bullies, and most of all be friends forever just like their parents always thought.

The End.