Siblings are forced to share a variety of things: a house, parents and their family’s attention. But how about a classroom?Whether by choice or coincidence, many sets of siblings end up in the same classes together. Some siblings find it to be an annoyance, but others take advantage of the opportunity for extra help or time spent together during the school day.

Sophomore twins Caroline and Laura Elmendorf take precalculus together and try to stay as separate as possible while in the classroom. They don’t help each other with homework and don’t sit near each other in class in an effort to avoid tension. When it comes to tests, they say they often find themselves competing for the better grade.

Close at home but distant in the classroom, the Elmendorfs agree that there are a few perks to sharing classes. Though they find themselves constantly competing, there’s someone there for help when needed.

“It’s less fun to have a class together because it’s hard to make our own friends,” Caroline said. “On the other hand, we can study together, which is really helpful. But for the most part, we do our own work when it comes to homework.”

On the other hand, sisters junior Erin and senior Rachel Holden, enjoy being able to bond during the school day and study for tests together. The Holdens had geometry together when Erin was a freshman and Rachel was a sophomore.

Like the Elmendorfs, Rachel said she doesn’t like the competitiveness that resulted from being in the same class with her sister. But the Holdens have come to realize that they have strengths in different areas, which lessened the competition. The sisters said their teacher never compared them to each other, even if one did better than the other on a test, and never got them confused with one another because they each got to know her personally.

Math teacher Amy Hunt enjoyed teaching the Holdens and found them entertaining while in her class. Still, she believes there are positive and negative aspects to having siblings in classes together.

“If they have a good relationship there’s someone there to help reinforce the material,” she said. “But they can also bring personal disputes into the classroom. Teachers just have to be professional about it; treat them like they’re friends.”

But for the Elmendorfs, being fraternal twins still didn’t keep teachers from confusing them in class.

“No one actually gets us mixed up until we tell them we’re twins,” Laura said. “Then everyone starts to get confused because they feel unsure of themselves.”

While being in the same class may be too close for comfort for the Elmendorfs, brothers junior Josh and senior Ned Daryoush never feel like they spend too much time together. The brothers, who are also on the same sports teams year-round, find that having a class together doesn’t affect their relationship.

“Ned and I are pretty good friends so being in the same class isn’t something weird,” Josh said. “We spend so much time together with sports and other things outside of school so it doesn’t seem strange to see him in a class.”

Josh and Ned’s math teacher and football coach, Jim Kuhn, knows them both very well and therefore never compares them or mixes them up in class. And unlike both the Elmendorfs and the Holdens, Josh and Ned aren’t competitive when it comes to grades.

“Math is one of my stronger subjects so I normally do a little better, but we both tend to do pretty well,” Josh said. “When one of us does better than the other there might be some teasing, but only jokingly; there’s no serious competition.”

Still, no matter how frustrating or annoying it may be to have classes together, in the end, siblings put aside their differences while at school.

“It’s annoying to have a class with her and if we had the choice we’d probably stay separate,” Caroline Elmendorf said. “But I still love my sister.”