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I remember reading this at school when I was 12 or 13, so I assume this is a sci-fi story for kids. I also remember that the story is a bit old too.

The story, from what I remember, is about a boy who goes into a doctor's/scientist's lab and finds out he created a cloning machine. I can't really remember if the doctor cloned himself, but I believe he did, and that both the clone and the original killed each other (or something like this).

After that, the boy clones himself and hides this clone from his family. At first, things go well, until both of them get into a fight in the lab, which ends up with one of the boys dying. The plot-twist is that the narrator is the clone and we find that out in the end, when the clone sees that a mole on his face is on the other side. Basically, the clone did not know he was the clone, because he had the memories of the original boy. The reason the mole is on the other side is because clones are a mirrored version of the original.

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    Hi, welcome to the site. In roughly which year (or range of years) did you read this, and when do you think it might've been published? Also, did you read it in an anthology, a magazine, or online? Commented Jun 9, 2022 at 14:46
  • Hi! i read this around 7 years ago but i remember my teacher telling us it was an old story and how it was still very futuristic even though it was written a while ago. And yes it was on an anthology, but it was made by my teacher, who i believe would photocopy diferent short stories and then make them into a booklet. Thank you very much and sorry i have such little information! Commented Jun 9, 2022 at 15:31

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This is possibly "The Copy" by Paul Jennings. To quote an entry from TV Tropes's Tomato in the Mirror page for literature:

The short story The Copy by Paul Jennings features a copy machine (which creates a mirror-image replica of objects put into it) which a boy uses to copy himself so he can beat down a bully, but becomes jealous of his copy and kills him. Afterwards, his mother remarks that it's odd — his mole used to be on the other cheek, and he's writing with his left hand instead of his right...

Found with a search for clone "mole" mirror "other side" (quotation marks used to force "mole" as a search item rather than a synonym).

It's available to check out from the Internet Archive.

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