I wasn't like them, I just knew it, it was more than my thick dark waves of hair, or my sparkly blue eyes, or my skin that made me feel like Snow White, compared to their frizzy blonde hair, light brown eyes, and evenly tanned skin. They told me it was probably a recessive gene, but we also had different personalities, all my sisters and my mother were girlish and pretty, while I was up in my room all day with my secret rock CD collection, and my Tim Burton movie posters I kept in my closet, as well as the movies to go with them.
It was the day I turned eighteen, June 21, 2012, I went downstairs, to ask my mom for the bazillion'th time why I was different, because it seemed that the older I got the worse it was. I'd even been experiencing random attacks from random animals and people. Mom was making breakfast, I sniffed, pancakes, again. I thought.
"Hey, mom!"
She jumped a little. "Oh, Melody! I didn't see you there!"
I smiled, and walked into the kitchen, "What's up?" I jumped onto the counter to sit facing her on the counter across from the stove.
"Making breakfast!"
"Smells good," I lied. "Pancakes?"
"Yep."
I nodded, quickly bored I ran to Daisy's room, we all have stupid names like that, Daisy, Melody, Ray, Charm, etcetera.
"Hey, Daze, 'sup?"
Daisy sat up in a, well, a daze. She yawned, "Mornin' Mel." She started climbing out of bed.
"So... 'Sup?"
"I had a dream that Dada was a chicken."
"Weird." I leaned on the door frame, "Was I in the dream..?"
She rubbed her eyes. "Yeah, you had to catch him and turn him into chicken nuggets for McDonalds, except it wasn't McDonalds, it was actually Dairy Queen... Sorta."
"I dreamed that I had to kill you, or the world would end."
She gave me a confused look. "How horrible! What did you do?"
I shrugged. "I saved the world, of course."
She looked stunned.
"Just kidding! Jeez, it was just a dream, anyway, I had no volition!"
"What's volition?"
"It means you're stupid," I walked over and gave her a good hug.
"You're stupid," She smiled and leaned into the hug.
"Well, you're ugly!" I tickled her belly, and she let out a squeal.
"Don't do that!"
"Do what? This?" I grabbed her arms and tickled her more, she screamed and we hit the floor, a ball of giggling ticklishness.
"Breakfast!"
Daisy and I jumped up, "Race you down?"
She nodded, and we zoomed downstairs to the kitchen as fast as we could run.
"Hey! Slow down girls!"
"Sorry Mama!" We said in unison as we plopped down at the table.
Daisy inhaled sharply, "Mm! Pancakes!"
I couldn't help rolling my eyes, every day? You get tired of pancakes quickly.
"Ooh! I smell something yummy cooking! Is that pancakes?" Dad came walking down the stairs.
"Dada!" Daisy called.
"Mornin' Daze."
"Good morning!"
This is pretty much your typical day in my house, girly, Easter colored, boring.
Later that day, as my extended family was leaving, one of my old blonde aunts made a remark about how different I looked from the rest of my family. I looked at my parents, my dad just laughed and agreed, but my mom seemed nervous, wiggling under my stare.
"Mom? Can I talk to you in the kitchen?"
"Uh-um.. Yeah, sure sweaty." She followed me in, and as soon as we were out of hearing range, I asked.
"So, what do you know about this?"
She looked startled and confused. "About what?"
"About me! Being different!"
"I-it's like your father says-"
"Stop it mom! I know you know something! Why do I look so different?"
Her eyes began to water, falling down her thin brown cheeks, which were much different from my round white ones. "I-I-I-" She sputtered.
"Yes?"
"You aren't Ray's daughter." She said it so quietly I wasn't sure I had heard right.
"What?" I backed up a few steps.
"Ray is not your father." She said, slightly louder.
"What are you talking about?"
"Eighteen years, and about nine months ago, I had an affair."
"WHAT?" I felt like my face was disintegrating. "An affair?"
She nodded sadly. "That's where you came from, I had been hoping you would be Ray's, but the older you got the more you looked like-"
"NO! I don't want to know who he was!" I put my hands over my ears, and ran upstairs. I sat on my bed and slowly started crying. How could she do this? She's gotta be joking, right? I knew she was serious, and I threw open my closet doors, that's where I keep my secret stuff, the stuff my mom would never allow, my black clothes and dark makeup, I threw on some clothes and eyeliner and started stuffing things into my school backpack, (it's the largest carrier I have), then I looked in the mirror, seeing a whole new girl, instead of my eyes being shrunken looking from the yellows and pinks, they looked larger, more... Right. And I the black clothes made my skin look even paler, complementing it. I picked up the scissors and went for my hair, to stop only centimeters from my hair, angry, I stuffed them in the bag without touching my hair. I already had a perfect alibi, I wasn't gonna let Dada know what Mom had done, I scribbled out a note about my boyfriend, and climbed out the window, my plan: get to Susan's house as fast as possible.
