Being a twin can be tough, especially in high school — waves from strangers who confuse you for your sibling, teachers mistakenly hunting you down in the hallway and constant comparisons to your twin. Roosevelt High School has seen a lot of that in the past four years — next month, six sets of twins graduate from the Makiki school.

Although that seems to be some kind of record, many people weren't aware of all the double trouble in their midst.

It took school counselor Terry Malterre several phone calls to confirm that the school indeed has six sets.

"We knew them individually, but it never occurred to us that there were so many," Malterre said.

"I've never seen anything like this before," she said, as the twins gathered for a group photo.

Even vice principal Ronald Nomura, who says he likes to hang out among pupils during lunch period, had to click through his computer to figure out that six sets of twins are on the verge of graduation.

"I think it's safe to say this is completely unheard of," Nomura said. "I know we've had a couple twins in the past, but not this many."

How exactly does one not know they are seeing double times six? For one, there's about 1,650 students at Roosevelt and about 350 in this year's graduating class. And, like most students, some sets of twins are more "visible" than others, Nomura said.

"I know the Shimamura twins because they're in talent shows, cheerleading. For others, it's harder to tell," he said.

The twins themselves didn't even realize it.

"I thought there were a few, but not this many," said 17-year-old Carolyn Shimamura.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Even though they're fraternal twins, Mahie Rattley and her sister Ka'ili are often mistaken for each other. It probably doesn't help that they have a similar style, right down to the Hawaiian jewelry.

"They switched us in the yearbook," Mahie said, outraged, in the hallway outside Roosevelt's main office. "It's that kind of stuff that gets annoying."

But both sisters, who share the same group of friends, say the benefits of being a twin outweigh the irritations.

"We're together everywhere we go. We're best friends," she said.

But not all twins are inseparable. Carolyn and her sister Marlene have their own sets of friends and they're quite different — Carolyn considers herself "girly" while Marlene refers to herself as a "rocker chick and tomboy."

But that didn't help the boy who danced all night with Marlene at a school function.

"He started talking about me. He called me a tomboy, thinking he was talking to Carolyn," Marlene said.

Regardless, Marlene, like her sister and the 10 other twins on campus, finds twinship to be an unbeatable tie that binds.

"Our life so far, we've gone through everything together. Now we get to graduate together," she said.

It's an experience, she said, that only twins can have.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.