Seniors and fraternal twins Eleanor (Ellie) Apple and Jane Apple have almost always come as a package, as they went from being called “the Apple twins” in elementary school to Jane and Ellie as they spend their last school year together.
“We always rely on each other,” Ellie Apple said. “We spend every single minute of the day together, as much as we want to or not, and I can talk to her about anything.”
According to Ellie Apple, the two were close in a different way and more dependent on each other when they were younger, but as they got older and more mature, they were able to form a “genuine friendship.”
“Now we have a lot more shared experiences and spend more time together,” Ellie Apple said. “I think our relationship in the grand scheme of things, compared to a lot of sibling relationships, is really good. At the end of the day, she knows everything about me, and so I can talk to her about anything.”
Most of the twins interviewed said that they didn’t spend much time together on weekends – at most an hour or two. Jane and Ellie Apple were a different case.
“We have different rooms, thank God,” Ellie Apple said. “But on the weekends, we’ll go to the gym together, we’ll go on walks together. We have a lot of the same friends, so we hang out together a lot. I’d say we low-key hang out the whole weekend.”
Ellie Apple plays golf and works at Mathnasium outside of school, while also being involved in multiple clubs, such as the French NHS. Jane plays lacrosse, is the treasurer of the Italian NHS and is a Yearbook photographer. As their schedules look different, each of them having their own drivers licenses and sharing a car is “really the only way that it’s manageable.”
“We do have to split the car a lot,” Ellie Apple said. “I usually take my dad’s car to work because she takes our car to lacrosse. In the car, we’ll just talk about the most random things or rant about something stupid.”
Talking to strangers and meeting new people is no problem with “a built-in best friend,” as Jane Apple said that it has made her “more outgoing.”
“I can’t imagine going through life without having someone with me constantly,” Jane Apple said. “I don’t have to be afraid of being alone. From the time when I was little, I would always have someone to walk with me, to talk to strangers, to meet new people.”
Although they have different personalities, they have inevitably faced comparison throughout their lives.
“A lot of the time we’re grouped in as the same person,” Jane Apple said. “We’re considered as ‘the Apples’ instead of Jane and Ellie. Sometimes people will be like, ‘Oh, who’s the funny one, the more athletic one?’ It’s like being perceived as one.”
The most common response from twins when asked how they resolved disputes was putting space in between themselves, but it takes a little less for Ellie Apple and Jane Apple.
“Actually the other day, we were really mad at each other and we weren’t talking to each other in the car,” Jane Apple said. “And then we’re like, ‘oh my god, is that somebody from school?’ and then we were just fine. It always kind of just resolves itself. Sometimes we’ll apologize to each other, but most of the time we just move on, because we know that whatever happened, it’s just not that deep.”
Ellie Apple and Jane Apple will most likely be attending different colleges, meaning separation for the first time in 18 years.
“That’s very, very intimidating for me,” Jane Apple said. “I think the longest amount of time we’ve spent apart from each other is like two weeks, and then to now be like 3000 miles away from each other, it just seems so scary.”
When asked what she thinks her life would be like if she didn’t have a twin, according to Jane, “that’d be terrible.”
“I think I rely on her a lot,” Jane Apple said. “For having someone to talk to, having someone to laugh with and having someone to ask for advice. The biggest blessing in my life is being a twin sister.”
