"Sisters": An unfinished free-writing thing, + plus mini life update because I can't bear not talking about myself apparently

Hey guys! Blog followers. Random internet people. Friends! Enemies *narrows eyes*. Joking, I don't have any actual enemies, and if I did they probably wouldn't read this blog. Anyway, hi! How are you all doing? Is it the summer holidays for you already? Are you enjoying the summer weather? If you live in the southern hemisphere, are you enjoying winter? (It's so weird to think that while I'm sitting here in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, on the other side of the world people are wrapping up for winter... that feels like time travel to me.) (IDK I'm a weird child)

It's almost the summer holidays for me, I only have one more exam left, my final maths exam on Tuesday. ONE MORE EXAM. AND THEN FREEEDOOOOMM!! YAAAASS. Honestly my head is so full of maths formulas right now I think I'm going slightly more insane than I already was; I'm literally DREAMING about solving maths problems and equations and just no. This is not good. But I only have to remember it all until Tuesday! Then I can forget everything and NEVER DO MATHS AGAIN. Yahoo.

I can't believe it's already June like what the actual frick?? WE'RE HALFWAY THROUGH 2018. THAT IS CRAZY. THAT IS NUTS. THAT IS INSANE. That is other words that mean "crazy". I can't believe time has gone so fast?? Where is this year going omg. Remember my summer trip to Paris and Amsterdam, the one I was so excited about but that always felt like it was aaagggeees away? IT'S JUST OVER A WEEK AWAY NOW. WHAT. EVEN. In nine days' time I'm going to be getting on a flight to Paris. It's crazy. I'm still super-excited about it, but I just can't believe it's so soon.

Anyway, the other day I was looking through old documents on my laptop and I discovered an unfinished short story/writing exercise thing. I wrote it a few months ago when I was suffering from writer's block and feeling very frustrated about my WIP, so I decided to just sit down and free-write something completely unrelated to my WIP and that hadn't been planned. I used an idea that I'd had earlier, about five girls who had been used in a top-secret science experiment when they were babies and were basically clones of each other, but now they're just normal teens who tell everyone they're identical quintuplets. I didn't really plan what was going to happen, just sat down and wrote the first thing that came into my head without worrying about grammar and things making sense, which was pretty damn awesome considering how obsessive I usually am over my writing and how easily I get into a flap about things not being perfect. It's sort of messy, and the style is very different from my usual style, but I just wanted to try something different. Unfortunately I didn't get to write much - see, my plan to free-write something that didn't have anything to do with my WIP worked, which was great! But it meant that I only worked on this story for a day or two and only wrote about 1500 words before I went back to working on my WIP. It's unfinished, but I thought I'd share it here with you guys, since I'm unlikely to keep writing it and I enjoyed reading through it just now, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it too? Maybe? Maaaybe... ?

Enjoy.

                                                                                                           

"Sisters"

I’m woken up the way I am 90% of the time: by the sound of two people yelling at each other.

I groan and turn over in bed. Why can’t those two just quit? I grumble to myself in my head.

I know who it is that’s doing the yelling: my sisters Katherine and Anna-Rose. Those two are always at each other’s throats, no matter what. It’s like they’re completely unable to agree on anything, and they always have to disagree in the loudest possible way. In a weird kind of way, though, it’s almost comforting. Kat and Anna arguing means I’m home.

I groan and roll out of bed, padding out in my slippers into the landing. I poke my head into Cassie’s bedroom on the way, and see she’s not there anymore. Probably downstairs making breakfast, trying to keep the peace between the other two and being systematically ignored.

I look into Tessa’s room next, and see her hunched over her desk, typing frantically at her laptop. Always studying, is Tessa. It’s like the only thing in life that makes her happy. Not that Tessa is often happy. She’s always in a pretty bad mood as far as I can tell. Stressed out by her workload. She brings it all on herself though. Signs up for a billion clubs at school and is only ever satisfied if she gets straight As in all her classes. Me, I don’t see why you’d put yourself through that, but to each their own.

“Hi,” I say, lingering by her open doorway.

She squints up at me from her laptop, as though wondering what the hell I’m doing there. Her face is the exact copy of mine, only thinner, and she’s been wearing glasses since she was twelve. Her dark hair is pulled into a ponytail. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” I say, stepping out towards the stairs.

She calls after me. “Tell Anna and Kat to shut the hell up! Some of us are trying to study!”

I roll my eyes because she could do that herself, but never mind, I was going to tell them anyway. I hop downstairs, jumping the last three steps in one go the way I usually do, and enter the kitchen, a.k.a the battlefield.

Kat and Anna are standing on opposite sides of the kitchen, looking like they’re in the middle of World War Three. They both have their arms folded and are shooting death glares at each other across the room. Cassie stands behind the counter, mixing pancake mix and looking distraught the way she often does whenever any of us fight.

Anna turns the moment I enter. “Why don’t you say that again in front of Robyn, huh?” she yells. “See if you dare!”

Kat snorts. “Why the hell should I care who’s listening or not? The facts don’t change.”

“Well, say it then! Go on!”

Kat grins the way she does whenever she’s about to say something thoroughly unpleasant. “You look like you’re wearing clown make-up. Though it ain’t hard to make you look like a clown.”

Anna looks like she’s about to explode. I get a look at her face and it’s sort of true; her make-up today is quite bright and excessive. Not that Kat needs to point it out like that. “Take it back! Now!”

“What? You gonna make me?” Kat spreads her hands out wide. “I’d like to see you try!”

Anna actually takes a few steps forward, then thinks the better of it and stops, because attacking Kat usually ends badly for the attacker. I remember back when we were seven some older kid tried to bully her because of her being a tomboy. Poor kid ended up in hospital with stitches.

“Guys! Stop! Please!” says Cassie in a pleading tone. She’s holding the bowl slightly titled and pancake mix is slowly dripping onto the floor, but she doesn’t notice.

“Just because no amount of make-up can make you pretty doesn’t mean you have the right to go around insulting people!” shrieks Anna.

Kat laughs loudly. “Did you honestly just call me ugly, you dumbass? We’re freaking identical!”

Anna just stands there, spluttering angrily, and no amount of make-up can hide the fact that her face has gone bright red.

Because it’s true. They are identical. Well, their faces, anyhow. It’s fascinating how different two people with the same features can look just by how they dress and what they do with their hair. Anna’s dark hair is long and straight because she straightens it, except for the ends which are curly because she curls them. She’s wearing a tight-fitting white T-shirt and skinny jeans, and shoes with small high heels on them. And the make-up, of course, which isn’t actually so bad now I look closer, even though her eyeshadow is bright blue and her lips are bright pink and she’s wearing just a little bit too much foundation and mascara. Kat, on the other hand, is wearing a faded grey hoodie that’s about a billion years old and a pair of tatty tracksuit bottoms. It’s probably the first thing she found lying around in her room when she got dressed this morning. Her hair is cut short, like a boy’s, and it’s sort of sticking up a little today but she probably hasn’t noticed because I don’t think Kat looks in the mirror all that much. And if she has, then she doesn’t care.

I join Cassie behind the counter, where she’s realised she’s dripped pancake mix and is scrubbing frantically at the floor with a sheet of kitchen roll. I drop down and help her. If it was any of my other sisters who had made a mess in the kitchen I would just leave them to it, it’s their fault after all, but I always help Cassie, it’s not her fault she’s a bit accident-prone and anyway, she would do the same for me.

Cassie’s the nicest out of all of us. Always goes out of her way to help others. Hates it when we fight. She gets along with all of us, even though we often ignore her, and I don’t think she’s ever been in an argument. Her passion is baking. If you’re looking for her, there’s an 80% chance you’ll find her in the kitchen, baking and decorating cupcakes or cookies, which she then is happy to share with anyone who wants some. Which is mostly everyone in the house.

Maybe because she likes cakes so much, she’s the plumpest out of all of us, even though Anna is convinced that she’s the plumpest, which is dumb because Anna’s a stick insect, but she’s always complaining that she’s too fat. Cassie’s got these round cheeks which make her look a little bit different to the rest of us, even though all her other features are the same, and I think that’s a good thing because no-one ever confuses her with the rest of us the way they sometimes do with me and the others. Even now that we’re older and we don’t look as identical as we did when we were kids – Kat with her short hair and Tessa with her glasses and Anna with her make-up – people still occasionally get confused and call us by the wrong name, which is a complete pain because sometimes you don’t know if you’re being spoken to or if they’re speaking to one of your sisters.

The door opens and Tessa enters, looking peeved. “Do you guys mind? I’m trying to study up there.”

“Oh yeah? What’cha studying?” Kat has gotten bored with her fight with Anna and is sprawled out on the sofa, flicking through a gossip magazine. Not because she’s interested in the gossip, you understand, but because she likes mocking the celebrities. Laughing at their clothes and the dumb stuff they say. Sometimes I join her. Though sometimes I think she’s a bit too cruel.

“For the tests next week.” Tessa glares at Kat. Kat is the bane of Tessa’s life, mostly because Kat gets the same amazing grades as Tessa, but the difference is that Tessa is always studying and Kat never studies. Ever. But she still does well in school. And Tessa finds that extremely irritating.

“Stay down for breakfast,” says Cassie as Tessa looks like she’s about to leave. “I’m making pancakes.” Which is a bit redundant considering we can all see that she’s pouring pancake mix into the pan. But still.

                                                                                        

And that's all I got around to writing... I sort of wish there was more, I want to keep readinggg. It's so annoying when you're reading something you've written and suddenly it just cuts off and you're left wondering what the heck is going to happen next, and you can't remember what you had planned because it was too long ago. I honestly have no clue where this was going or even if it was going anywhere. But I hope you all liked this! Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And tell me what's going on in your life! Do you have anything planned for the summer? Anything interesting happening in your life right now? Have you ever tried free-writing? TELL ME ALL THE THINGS.

Stay wild,

> > > A n d r e a < < < 

*melts into the shadows*