Meet Mito. She loves to play hockey. Every week, she practices for hours, perfecting her skills. 

The only thing missing in her life, was a hockey team, so she decided to attend try outs.

When she got there, it was just her and the coach. 

"Hi! I'm Coach Nuc!" he boomed.

CELL ARENA

"Hi. I'm Mito," she said wearily. "Am I in the wrong place? I wanted to try out for the hockey team.

Coach Nuc smiled in understanding. "You are in the right place, Mito! Welcome to Cell Arena. Today we'll practice division."

Mito smiled like she knew what Coach was talking about and nodded her head, this was the coach after all and she knew she needed to respect him. But division? Like math? There is only one of her! 

Coach Nuc skated toward Mito. “Let me show you the plan in my playbook. If you want a team, you must make one. I’ll quickly show you the steps and then you can go onto the ice and I’ll help you through it.”

DNA PLAYBOOK

Phase 1: Interphase

Phase 2: Prophase

Phase 3: Metaphase

Mito peers over Coach’s arm and looks at the playbook. According to phase one, which was also called interphase, she needs to double how much she loves hockey.

Phase 4: Anaphase

Phase 5: Telophase

Final Phase: cytokinesis

How can she double her love of hockey when it’s something she already loves so much? But she nods her head and heads out onto the ice.

“Close your eyes Mito,” Coach Nuc calls from across the arena. “Think of all the reasons you love hockey.”

Mito closes her eyes and thinks of all the reasons hockey brings her joy. She loves the way the cold ice feels on her face as she skates fast. She loves the way people cheer for her when she makes a goal. But she also loves the quiet focus she has while on the ice and the way the frozen puck sounds as it slams against the stick. The more she thought of her love of hockey, the more it grew inside of her. She could feel her love of hockey doubling! 

She continued to focus on things she loved: skating, quality time with friends, practicing, the smell of ice…. As her love grew, her confidence did too. She knew she could do this phase! 

“Great!” Coach Nuc calls. “Keep thinking! In Phase 2, prophase, you will start to hear Zambonis coming out onto the ice. Let them clean the ice around you and behind you. They are setting you up to divide. They’re clearing the path.”

ZZZZZZZ

Mito nods as she keeps her eyes closed as listens to the Zamboni drive around her. 

Coach Nuc calls out again, but sounds more distant this time, like he is still there, but less…put together. “The next phase is metaphase. Right now, everything you love about hockey probably feels a bit jumbled inside you.”

Mito nods her head in agreement. 

Now that you’ve doubled that love, go ahead and start organizing them. Pair them up and line them up like you’re doing to have them do a drill.”

Mito starts to organize all the things she loves, pairing things up and placing them next to each other, creating a clean, straight line. Everything she loves about hockey, all lined up right where it belonged. She loved seeing this, but she also felt so FULL. All this love became so big she wasn’t sure she could contain it all anymore. 

“I see it!” Coach Nuc calls. “You’re doing it, Mito! Keep up that hard work!” 

“The next phase is anaphase.” Coach calls again from a distance. “Stay where you are on the goal line but think about connecting half of those identical twin pairs with freshly Zamboni-ed ice and start tugging them apart.”

“Keep that Zamboni running until it reaches the other end of the ice! You need that entire sheet of ice clean!”

Mito feels herself pulling apart, but it feels good. It is almost like she could feel too much love for hockey and this is about to be a release.

Streeeeeeeetch

“The next phase is telophase!” Coach calls again. On the other end of the ice, where the Zamboni stopped, she can feel the heat of another player form, so she peeks one eye open to view across the rink.

Directly in front of her, on the other side of the arena, a glowing orb shone brightly, FULL of all the things she loves about hockey.

“You did it Mito!” Coach Nuc shouts. You made another heart that is ready to play hockey!” 

“Now finish with the last step, cytokinesis. Close your eyes again, let go of that half that feels overwhelming and then slowly open your eyes.”

With a POP and a sudden release of overwhelm, Mito slowly opens her eyes. When she looks across the ice, she sees…herself! 

Standing there, perfectly, was…her! She had her same hazel eyes, light brown hair, blue jersey with the number 5 on it. She even had the same name and voice! Mito was amazed. She couldn’t believe that she was able to make another hockey player!

Coach skates out onto center ice and calls them both over to him.

“You did great Mito. Now, in order to make a team, you need to do this again until you have at eight players. But the new Mito sis can help you replicate as well. You must also do this process whenever a player gets hurt and can no longer play on the ice.”

Mito and her new sis look at each other and smile, closing their eyes and duplicating like before. 

Once the eight players were created, they went out onto the ice and practiced together. Every play was effortlessly synced. They knew what the other needed without saying anything to the others, passing the puck at the perfect intervals and scoring goal after goal.

But something still felt like it was missing. They had their team, and it was the perfect team! But they wanted to be able to play against someone else. They wanted to have a real game. 

Team Mito skated to Coach Nuc on the bench. “We want to play a game, Coach. We think we are ready.” Coach Nuc smiles in understanding and whistles, a high trill echoing across the stands. 

PRIIII!!