by Joy Zhang ’14

Each morning, twin sisters Erica and Kerrie Prestipino get ready and drive to school together, but from there they go their different ways. Despite their usual inseparability (outside of school), identical appearance and similar hobbies, the two are markedly dissimilar in their personalities.

The sisters competed in acrobatic gymnastics for 10 years, participated in fall varsity cheer and now work at the same gym. Erica and Kerrie work on separate days at Xtreme Acro & Cheer, teaching little kids acrobatics, which must be confusing for the students to distinguish the two. Although Kerrie enjoys skiing and Erica prefers snowboarding, they still “do almost everything together besides having different boyfriends,” said Erica.

Erica and Kerrie agree that their personalities are their biggest difference. The girls captured each other perfectly, giving the same answers when asked separately.  Erica describes Kerrie as a “shy and sweet person who can be really goofy once you get to know her. She is very kind and will do anything for anyone,” while Kerrie believes Erica is more “outgoing, confident and crazy. She has a take charge, demanding attitude which can come off a little mean but she really just wants to be friends with everyone.”

Since the sisters have spent all their lives together, the idea of college can be a very stressful topic to think about. “I hope we end up going to the same school. We share just about everything so it would be hard to separate,” said Kerrie. However, Kerrie hopes to stay in Maryland while Erica is more drawn towards Virginia Tech or a school in the South.  “I know we will always be best friends no matter where we go to school so it will be okay in the end,” said Erica optimistically. For now, they still share a class together – fourth period AP Environmental Science.

The twins enter their class separately, and sit on opposite ends of the room. There’s little interaction between the two, besides the occasional glance at each other when they find something amusing. After class, the two meet up when the dismissal bell rings and walk to their lunch spot together. Erica and Kerrie sit with friends outside the Ertzman Theater, enjoying the small sliver of their school day together before they are separated again for their afternoon classes.

When the exhausting school day finally comes to an end, Erica and Kerrie ecstatically greet each other at their car and begin to recount the interesting things that happened throughout the day.

“We finish each other’s sentences all the time and we always say the same thing at the same time,” Kerrie exclaimed with a laugh.