eenagers Myst?re and Meliseanna Gibbons have disproved an old saying, it possible to pick your friends your relatives. The two girls met ten years ago, when Meliseanna?s parents Katherina and Sydney Gibbons were missionaries in the Cameroons.

Their first meeting was a rocky one. Myst?re, 18, delights in telling the story, but Meliseanna, hides her head.

?I was eight years old,? said Myst?re . ?I had gone to her neighbourhood to visit an old friend of mine. My friend didn?t remember me at all, because it had been so many years and we were both bigger. I saw her playing with Meliseanna. I went over and introduced myself, and asked if I could play.

?Meliseanna said, ?wait until the next game?. I went on the swings and waited until the next game. Then when that one ended I went to her and said ?can I play now?, and she kept putting me off. Then finally she said ?no, you can?t play with us. Go away?.?

But at their next meeting, Meliseanna seemed to have forgotten all about it, as children will.

?The next Sabbath I went to church because her father was the president of the Seventh Day Adventist conference and my father was the secretary,? said Myst?re . ?We went to the same church. I went to her, and said, ?hi do you remember me??

?She?s like, ?no?. So I said my name is Myst?re and I am going to be your neighbour. She was all excited and she went over to her mom. She said: ?Mommy, I met our new neighbours?.?

The girls became inseparable and when the Gibbons family returned to Bermuda six years later, they decided to bring Myst?re with them for the summer.

The summer quickly turned into a school term at the Bermuda Institute to learn English. Her native language was French and she didn?t speak any English. A term turned into a year.

?Her parents were fine with it, because there were more opportunities for her in Bermuda than in the Cameroons,? said Meliseanna.

The Gibbons decided to legally adopt Myst?re so that she could travel with them and remain in Bermuda.

?I didn?t feel nervous about adopting another child,? said Mrs. Gibbons. ?I always wanted to adopt.

?When we were in Africa we always had children at our house. We would take children on our travels with us. When Myst?re came she just fitted. She was like a piece of the puzzle that had been missing, and we didn?t even know.? In fact, Myst?re called her future parents mummy and daddy from the moment she met them, because she was French speaking and she heard Meliseanna and her brother calling them that.?

?I wasn?t apprehensive or nervous,? said Mrs. Gibbons. ?It was the right thing to do.?

Since the adoption both girls have done their parents proud. They are both head girls at their respective schools, Myst?re at the Bermuda Institute and Meliseanna at Saltus Grammar School. Meliseanna said that as sisters, they always try to stick up for one another.

?We defend each other,? she said. ?We warn each other about different things.

?We share stories with each other. I have one younger brother. I always wanted a sister growing up. My brother was fine, but I wanted a sister.?

Myst?re said she and her sister are both very busy, but they still enjoy spending time together.

?We are both very busy, but our family is still very close,? she said. ?We spend a lot of time together. Sometimes we take a drive somewhere, or we stay home and play games, or listen to music.?

They also like to tease each other, as sisters do, particularly about their differing musical tastes.

?I don?t know what kind of music Meliseanna likes,? said Myst?re , ?one moment she likes classical and then she likes jazz and then she likes gospel. She is confused. We both like gospel music.?

Myst?re said even though they are both head girls, they are never jealous of the attention that the other is getting. They are proud of their own accomplishments.

?I think we have done well because of our experiences,? said Meliseanna. ?Myst?re is from Africa. The dream that she has to go back to Africa is something outstanding.

?Also my experience of living in Africa for six years and the different places we have been has given me a different perspective. I think we can be role models. We are both very open and outgoing, and we both get good grades.?

Mrs. Gibbons said the secret to raising successful girls has been prayer and a strong family life.

?Both my husband and I are similar minded people,? she said.

?We also allow them to be themselves.

?We allow them to be adventuresome and we expose them to various ways of life.?

Both girls wish to be doctors when they grow up. Meliseanna wants to be a paediatric surgeon and Myst?re wants to be a missionary doctor.

?I want to specialise in emergency care,? said Meliseanna. ?I find surgery very interesting. You can repair the body. I like the little details.

?I also like working with children. When we lived in Jamaica we visited an orphanage every Saturday.

?That was a very rewarding experience to hold and feed the children. I might like to start an orphanage some day.?

When Myst?re becomes a doctor she wants to use her knowledge to help her people. ?Since I was little it was my dream to do something for my people,? she said.

?As you know poverty and health is really grave. So my goal is to become a missionary doctor. Once I accomplish that I will return home and work there for a while, for a few years, and then maybe travel around the world helping other countries.?

Myst?re has no worries that she will have trouble readjusting to her birth country.

?No, I never worry that it might be difficult to readjust once I go back,? she said.

?I am very close to my family. I try to keep in touch as much as possible. I never worried that I would have trouble readjusting. We are always going on mission trips. We have been to South Africa, to the Dominican Republic and to Jamaica. Because of this we are ready to learn to adapt to new cultures, so it is not hard to adjust to a new environment.?

Since being adopted by the Gibbons family, Myst?re has only returned to the Cameroons once.

?I still have parents in Cameroon and I keep in touch,? she said. ?I have three brothers. I had a sister but she recently died. I am the youngest. She would have been 31 this year.

?I have returned. I have only been back home once. I had to preach at a seminar for two weeks in one of the areas in the city where I was born in Douala.

?During the two weeks that I was there I had the opportunity to stay with my family. I do still speak French. It was very emotional, but in a happy way. I hadn?t seen them in six years. I was really, really excited to see them.?