Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, that belongs to the writers of HOA. The plot idea belongs to the creator of the television series "Switched at Birth"
Warning: This story will contain mentions of drugs, alcohol, sex and profanity. Read at your own risk.
"Well, maybe you should play it for me sometime." Joy suggested. His pale face turned red immediately, telling himself to stay cool Fabian Rutter put down his pencil and rested from his notes.
"Maybe I should" He responded as cool as he can.
"Rutter, Mercer keep your conversation for after class will you." spoke firmly.
"Oh, we will." Joy give him a little playful wink.
The two teenagers have been friends since they could walk and she's been head or heels for him since they learned their first words. Fabian, however was seemingly blind to all this. No matter how many times their friends Patricia and Alfie point it out or her older brother Eddie teases the two for basically be a married couple, somehow Fabian couldn't comprehend it and Joy could never admit it to him.
"Alright, class let's begin our blood type test. Use your needle to prick a drop of blood onto each of the four fields on your test card." continues the lesson.
"Honey, I'm home!" Eddie Mercer danced into the kitchen giving his mother a kiss on the cheek and handing over his marked essay. "Your favorite child got a good grade" he continued now singing.
"I thought I was the favourite child" Joy whined setting her things down on the counter.
"I love you two equally the same." Christina Mercer said as she pulled her daughter in for a group hug with her son.
"Yeah but you love me a little bit more, right?" Eddie jokingly asked as he digged into the refrigerator. The two Mercer woman rolled their eyes in harmony.
"Mum, we tested for our blood types today. I'm AB and apparently that's supposed to be extremely rare. Like less than 1% of the population has it or something." Joy sat down.
"You can't be AB, your mother and I are both A," Frederick Mercer said entering the kitchen. Grabbing the bag of chips from Eddie's hand the man continued "Meaning you have to be A or possibly O" Frederick threw the bag out.
"Dad" Eddie cried.
"You're welcome Eddie for not letting you become the poster child for McDonald's. Joy, I promise you it's genetically impossible for you to be AB" Fredrick told his kids.
"Maybe Aliens abducted mum and planted a martian baby in her and that's why Joy is so weird." Eddie suggested searching for more food.
"Yes, because I'm the weird one in this family Eddie"
"Finally, you admit it. I've been waiting seventeen years for this." Eddie gave her his signature smirk.
"We've done extensive testing on all three of you and I believe it's safe to say that it is 99.9% certain that Joy is not related to you."
"What do you mean?" Christina asks in disbelief.
"The hospital believes there's been a mix up."
"A mix-up? Did they use those words because to me those words sound like the hospital doesn't exactly know what they are doing." Frederick places a hand on Christina in hopes she'll calm down.
"I knew it." Joy quietly said to herself.
She did know it. Her entire life she's felt like she didn't somehow fit in this bubble of perfection her family had created. They were all light eyed blondes and she was not even close to that with her dark hair and brown eyes.
Like her mother, Eddie has always been musical. He had perfect pitch and the lead in a band. Meanwhile Joy couldn't name most string instruments or sing to save her life.
Her father was all about fitness and sports and sure Eddie wasn't interested in those things, however, he could still play football. In fact, he was a natural at it. Joy was the girl that was only accepted on the team so that they had extras for accidents and her father was a retired professional player that would donate gracious amounts to the school.
"Someone wasn't careful matching the ID anklets. This is extremely rare, but at a busy hospital, it could happen." The doctor paused to take a breath. " You took home someone else's child, and another family took home yours."
The trio sat stunned in silence. Letting the doctors words echo in their head, attempting to let them sink in and not seem so foreign.
"So what do we do now? What's the procedure in these types of situations?" Frederick asked.
"You find your real daughter and I find my real parents."
Authors Note: Thank you for reading this if you have gotten this far. This was a short chapter I realize that. Usually, I would write about 1,500 letters but this is just the beginning so it didn't happen that way. By the way this story is based on the television series Switched at birth on ABC Family/Freeform. It will not only be Joy's story but as well as Nina's and Eddie's because he's a family member and this effects him to. Next chapter will be Nina centric as she comes to terms with British life.