Chapter 1

Mankind's First Virtue

I didn't come from an ordinary family in the slightest. There were thirteen of us in the home growing up, not including our pets. Three parents, which consisted of my mother and fathers, and us ten kids, made up our household. I'm the youngest of the ten, having been born and welcomed into my family in the year 2050 when my oldest sibling, Athena, was sixteen. Now, I'm the age that she was when I was born, and I'm about to have my seventeenth birthday!

You're probably a little thrown off by the fact that I have three parents, as if there being ten of us kids wasn't enough. See, my mom and dads were a polyamorous triad that fell in love as teenagers. No one wanted to pick one person or the other to live their life with, so they basically went against societal norms and had a three-way wedding in the year 2033 when they were all twenty-five years old. Athena was born just nine months later in the year 2034.

No, it really isn't that complicated raising a family with one mom and two dads! In fact, it's way easier with three parents, especially when there's so many of us kids! We all view both dads as our fathers, regardless of who our biological father is. This is especially true for me because, well.. I'm not biologically related to anyone in my family. I'm adopted.

My mother originally didn't plan on telling me that I was adopted. She wanted to raise me as if I was her birth child. But as I grew out of infancy, it became apparent to me that I wasn't like my family. Their skin was pristine white, and mine was caramel brown. It lead me to ask questions. It lead other kids my age to ask questions. My parents had to provide an answer.

Hera Preston and Tosh Campelle, my mother and one of my fathers, were both adopted. That's why they decided to volunteer at an orphanage here in Angeles Bay. It was the same one that was housing me as a baby!

Being a doctor, it didn't take mom very long to realize that I was very sick. Dad told one of the orphanage employees, but they already knew. Nothing could be done on their end, because they were so underfunded. The employee knew that mom worked at a prestigious hospital, and begged dad for them to take me there so that I would have a shot at survival. I think mom already had that idea in mind herself. That was how I ended up admitted to Caduceus at less than a year old, and also how I met my other father, Jacques Swanson. He worked at Caduceus as a surgeon alongside mom.

My prognosis wasn't very good. They discovered a mass in my abdomen the size of a baseball, or something like that. I was in an institution chock full of the latest medical technology and the greatest doctors that the west coast had to offer, but there was a teensy problem. The orphanage, being so underfunded, wouldn't have been able to afford my medical bills. The doctors responsible for treating me, however, had great insurance plans, and the story of how I got adopted kind of tells itself from there! I was officially "Amphitrite Preston". Mom was the one who named me, by the way. Coming from a biological family where everyone, including herself, is named after a Greek deity, Mom wanted to continue that naming convention in her children. But aside from the fact that all of us except for my dads are named after Greek deities, there's another reason why my family is unusual.

My mom and siblings are what's called "Sinners".

It's a term coined by a bioterrorist organization that ran rampant when Mom and my dads were younger. Basically, when Mom was a little girl, they implanted her with a pathogen that she couldn't be cured of to ensure that the disease they manufactured could never go away. That's what makes her a Sinner. Fifty-four years have passed since then, and Mom gave birth to nine children who all inherited their own pathogen just like hers, called a "lung bat". Having not been born from Mom, I'm the only one of her kids that doesn't have one. She's grateful for that. (

Despite not being her biological daughter, I'm a bluenette, just like Mom. Except Mom's hair is dyed brandeis blue with magenta swirls and I was born with hair very similar to the color of blue cornflowers. I guess that makes my hair cornflower blue. Hair colors like mine aren't unusual. Mom's adoptive mother, my Grandma Leslie, had naturally green hair before she went gray.

Mom's eyes are naturally a palatinate blue, just like my dad that used to be blonde before he went gray. He's the same one who's a surgeon at Caduceus like her. Although mom's eyes are naturally blue, she almost always wears bright yellow contact lenses. She has been ever since she was a little girl, and it's part of her identity.

Mom thinks that my eyes are exquisite, because they're tricolored. They're a very light, almost grayish blue mixed with cyan and pink. She has no idea how that happened, but she loves it, anyways.

For as long as I can remember, I've been wearing my hair in what's called an "odango" style. Basically, two buns. Specifically, I wear mine with little strands coming out of the bottom of the buns, bangs framing either side of my face, and the rest of my hair in two braids going down my back. One of my dads said that Mom wore her hair in two braids when she was my age, even though hers were worn in the front and not the back. Now you know the basics of my appearance and can picture me, right?

Awesome! I've been laying in bed all this time waiting for you to get up to this point so that I can start my day with you. Let's get the show on the road!

I gazed around at my ocean themed bedroom. Like my brother, Triton, I'm named after a deity of the sea. I take that very seriously, even though our current house is a ways away from the bay. I love the ocean and go there as often as I can, which is the opposite of Mom due to some ocean-based trauma that she experienced as a child.

I glanced over at the locally produced calendar next to my bed. It was June 23rd of 2067, the day of my seventeenth birthday. I immediately got up out of bed and changed out of my flowy nightgown and into my favorite, cream dress with the bell shaped skirt. I threw my cornflower blue sailor blouse on over that, followed by my blue striped socks that came up just below my knees.

After slipping on a comfortable pair of shoes, I sat in front of the scallop shell shaped mirror of my vanity station, brushing out my cornflower blue hair. I styled my hair up in my usual style that I told you about earlier, then adorned my buns with a pair of hairclips resembling Robinson's red painted daisies. After a dollop of red lipstick, my usual look was complete.

I hurried downstairs from my room as my older brother, Triton, sleepily exited his room into the hallway. "Hi, Triton!" I called to the brunette as I raced past and bounded over to the kitchen and dining room area where my parents were waiting.

"Happy birthday, sweetie!" Mom called out first from where she was cooking breakfast at the stove.

"Thanks! Mom, you aren't working today?" I came over and hugged her before glancing over at my fathers reading the newspaper and watching a sports game respectively.

"Your father and I don't start our shifts until later today." Mom responded, referring to the long-haired father that was currently reading the paper. "..And since it's a Saturday, your other father doesn't have to be at the school." That was in reference to my short-haired dad who works as a sports coach. He was the one who was watching a soccer game on the TV.

Short-haired dad suddenly turned to me when he saw that I was standing there. "Happy birthday, Amphy! We have a big surprise for you!"

I balled my hands into excited fists and bent over a bit so that I was at dad's level, seeing as he was seated on the couch. "Really? When do I get it?" I asked excitedly.

"You get it right now! Go look outside."

My chest tightened in excitement. One year for her birthday, my sister, Artemis, was lead outside and surprised with a pony as her birthday gift. What would I be getting outside? I glanced out the living room window.

Parked in our driveway was a red and black car colored to resemble a ladybug. There were decorative eyelashes on the headlights like Grandma Leslie's car has, and an adhesive bow stuck to the hood. It was perfect!

I squealed in delight and stomped my feet in rapid little motions. "Thank you, Mommy, Daddies!" I raced out the front door just as Triton entered and sat down at the dining table.

I ran out to what I assumed to be my new car, carefully yet eagerly pulling the adhesive bow off of the hood. I inspected the car from all angles. The exterior made the car appear new. The interior, while clean, gave off more of a used vibe. I didn't mind at all. It was new to me!

I ran back into the house so that I could thank my parents properly. I hugged all of my parents eagerly, repeating "Thank you!" over and over again.

"I'm guessing she liked the car." Triton mumbled around his breakfast as our older sibling, Ares, joined him at the table.

"I sure did!" I responded as I hugged my long-haired father, who had put his newspaper aside to hug me back. "Daddy, may I please drive the car to Grandma Leslie's?"

"You have your license, I don't see why not." Dad responded. "Don't you want to stay for breakfast?"

I shook my head, smiling. "Ares can have my share. Besides.. I bet Grandma Leslie will want to cook a big breakfast for Grandpa Tyler and I!"

"Just don't forget your license!" Dad called out as I raced upstairs to my room to retrieve my purse with my wallet and a few other basic belongings in it.

My purse at the time was a small, cross-body bag shaped and colored like a clownfish. Inside of it was a wallet with an intricate jellyfish design on it, a coin purse made from a seashell, and a few of my other belongings, such as my cell phone and a spare lipstick. I put the purse across my body and eagerly raced back downstairs.

"Thank you, Mommy! Daddies! Love you, Triton and Ares!" I called out to my family and snatched the car keys out of my dad's hand where he was holding them out to me as I ran past.

I eagerly unlocked my new car using the key fob before getting in and setting my purse in the passenger seat. I closed my door and buckled up, pressing the start button on the car that immediately roared to life.

The drive to Grandma Leslie's is nice because you can smell the ocean air and feel the breeze of the sea. Grandma Leslie has lived in a beach house ever since Mom was a teenager, and Mom's nearly sixty now. So, in other words, it's been a really long time.

I pulled into the driveway, parking behind Grandpa Tyler's convertible. I got out of the car with my stuff, locking the vehicle before rushing to the front door.

Grandpa Tyler opened the door before I even had a chance to do it myself, wrapping his arms around me. "Hey, Kiddo!"

"Hi, Grandpa!" I smiled, hugging him back as he did his best to give me a bear hug in his old age. Grandpa Tyler and Grandma Leslie were in their seventies or so and were both retired by now, having been a surgeon and nurse respectively at Caduceus for many, many years.

"How is my baby girl doing?" Grandma Leslie smiled at me from the kitchen after Grandpa Tyler and I stopped hugging and entered the house. "You're seventeen today, dancing queen!"

I giggled. "I know, isn't it awesome? I'm doing great, Grandma. Did you see my new car?"

"I sure did!" Grandma Leslie responded as she cooked sizzling bacon at the stove. "Tosh has been talking about getting you that car for weeks! He immediately thought of you when he laid eyes on it!"

"He sure has been talking about it for what feels like a month." Grandpa Tyler chimed in, seating himself at the table. "It was him who came up with the idea, wasn't it?"

"I think it was." Grandma Leslie responded to her husband before turning to me. "Breakfast will still be awhile. Why don't you go out and explore the beach for a bit? I know that's your favorite thing to do here."

"Yeah, I'd love to!" I began to take my shoes and socks off so that I could walk the sandy stretch of beach in my bare feet. I maintained my clownfish purse across my body, wanting to keep it with me to collect seashells and other beach treasures in.

I eagerly headed out the sliding glass door in the living room onto the patio, heading down the steps onto the powdery sand. I closed my eyes and breathed in the ocean air before proceeding down towards the water.

When I first saw something sparkling on the wet sand down by the waves, I thought that my eyes were tricking me. However, as I got closer, I realized that there really was something there. I ran across the beach towards the sparkling object, kicking up sand as I went.

My tricolored eyes widened when I saw what the sparkling object was. How did something like this wash up on the beach. Grandma Leslie's stretch of beach, no less?

I bent down and quickly scooped up the circlet, examining it in my hands. I wiped grains of sand away from its surface. I had no idea what kind of metal it was made from, but the color made me think of yellow gold.

The circlet was not the type of crown that one wears on top of their head, but rather, around it. My chest tightened as I gazed down at the shiny circlet. What a cool find!

I moved my bangs out of the way and placed the circlet around my head. The tightening sensation in my chest suddenly became constrictive, and my eyes widened. Was this the sensation that my mother and siblings often described occurring in their lungs?

I clutched my chest and fell to my knees on the wet sand, gasping for air. I closed my eyes as the pressure built up in my chest. Was this a heart attack? Was I dying, at the age of seventeen?

As my head dropped, the sensation suddenly passed. I slowly lifted my head, fearing that the sensation would return if I moved too much too quickly. Seeing as it hadn't, I rose to my feet, took one last look at the spot I had retrieved the circlet from, and raced back into the house.

That was kind of short, huh? I bet you're dying to know what happens next! I promise I'll write more for you next time, okay?

XOXO,

Amphitrite Preston