They look alike.
They act alike.
They take the same classes and share the same career goals.
In fact, senior best friends Emmanuel Johnson and David Jones share so many similarities that “We are mistaken as twins every other day,” Jones said, smiling.
The shy seniors with the close-cropped afros even have three of the same classes – Senior English, Beginning Calculus and Business Technology – and are often seen walking together to class. Last semester they shared four of the same classes.
“They do look alike and have similar personalities,” said social studies teacher Richard Crist, who has taught both of them.
Johnson is three weeks older than Jones and one inch taller, but their afros make them look the same height.
With the last names “Jones” and “Johnson” they often wind up sitting next to each other in classes with alphabetical seating charts.
Jones said, “If you look close, Emmanuel has facial hair and wears glasses, and I don’t.”
But the differences pretty much stop there.
Sophomore Alexis Williams says that she sees them together throughout the school day and can’t tell them apart unless she looks closely.
Williams says she always thought they were at least brothers, but now that she knows they are just friends, she’ll try harder to distinguish who’s who during their last few months at Southfield High School.
Both seniors prove the “twin theory” even more by planning to continue their education together in the fall at Lawrence Technological University, in Southfield, majoring in graphic design.
Surprisingly, Johnson actually has a biological brother named Isaiah Johnson who has an afro as well, but no one ever guesses them to be brothers.
Even the real brother says the “twin” friends look like real twins: “They are like the same person, really.”
Johnson says that he and Jones are more than just look-alikes: “I found a lifelong friend in David.”
In fact, the two say they might even work together in the field of computer engineering and design after they graduate from college.
But for now, the two are mainly focused on graduating from high school.