TRIPLET BUT DIFFERENT
608 Words
TRIPLET BUT DIFFERENT
Chapter One — Born Different
The storm that hit Seattle the night the triplets were born was one people would remember for years. Rain slammed against the windows of Mercy General Hospital while thunder echoed across the city.
Inside the delivery room, Emily Carter gripped the hospital bed tightly as doctors rushed around her.
“You’re doing great, Emily,” the doctor encouraged. “Just one more push!”
A loud baby cry filled the room.
“It’s a girl!”
Before Emily could even catch her breath, another cry followed.
“Second girl!”
The nurses exchanged surprised smiles.
But seconds later, a third cry echoed through the room.
Silence followed.
“Triplets,” the doctor finally said with disbelief.
Jacob Carter stared at his newborn daughters in shock. He and Emily had prepared for one baby, maybe twins at most, but never three girls at once.
The babies were placed side by side in tiny hospital blankets.
The first baby had tan skin, dark curls, and screamed louder than the others.
The second baby looked calm and peaceful, blinking slowly at the bright hospital lights.
But the third baby immediately caught everyone’s attention.
She had pale skin, silver-grey eyes, and soft blonde curls.
One nurse frowned slightly.
“She doesn’t look like the others…”
Emily heard the whisper immediately.
“She’s my daughter,” she said firmly, holding the baby close to her chest.
The girls were named Mandy, Radi, and Dira.
From the beginning, everyone noticed how different they were.
Mandy was loud, fearless, and always wanted attention.
Radi was sweet, smart, and quiet.
Dira…
Dira was different.
As the girls grew older in their quiet suburban neighborhood outside Seattle, people constantly stared at Dira.
Her unusual grey eyes made strangers uncomfortable. Kids at school whispered about her behind her back.
“Are you adopted?”
“Why do you look nothing like your sisters?”
“Your eyes are creepy.”
Every comment slowly chipped away at Dira’s confidence.
At sixteen, the triplets started junior year at West Valley High School.
Mandy quickly became one of the most popular girls in school. She played soccer, loved parties, and never cared what anyone thought.
Radi focused on grades and dreamed of attending Harvard someday.
But Dira kept mostly to herself.
She loved photography, rainy afternoons, and sitting alone near the school football field after classes ended.
One afternoon, while Dira was editing pictures in the library, a group of girls walked past her table.
“That’s the weird triplet,” one whispered loudly.
“The one with the creepy eyes?”
Dira pretended not to hear them, but her chest tightened painfully.
Suddenly, Mandy slammed her books onto the table beside them.
“Say it again,” Mandy snapped.
The girls immediately walked away.
Radi sighed as she joined them.
“You don’t have to fight everybody, Mandy.”
“Well somebody has to defend her,” Mandy replied.
Dira stayed silent.
Even though her sisters loved her, she still felt alone.
That night, Dira stood in front of her bathroom mirror staring at herself.
Her pale skin.
Her silver eyes.
Her blonde curls.
Nothing about her matched the rest of her family.
And for the first time in her life, a terrifying thought entered her mind.
What if she truly didn’t belong to them?
Downstairs, Emily and Jacob argued quietly in the kitchen.
“We can’t keep hiding this forever,” Emily whispered nervously.
Jacob rubbed his face tiredly.
“If Dira finds out the truth, it could destroy this family.”
Dira froze at the top of the stairs.
- Writer
