Seeing Three
Sarah was having a normal day when a girl walked straight into her.
A look of involuntary shock crossed Sarah's face but the girl's eyes never left the floor. The girl had on a pair of fashionable skinny jeans paired with a sparkly pink shirt but she didn't look as happy as her clothes would have conveyed. Or even interested in her surroundings at all, for that matter. Her brown hair was a tangled frizzy mess and her eyes were hidden behind frameless glasses but Sarah could see the deep purple bags underneath. The girl was paler than anyone she had ever seen and she had on a pair of boots with visibly uncomfortable heels.
The girl mumbled, "Sorry. I'm gonna be late if I don't find that stupid room. Leave it to Trithiny to leave me in the middle of the hall without a clue where to go." The girl looked up and sad green eyes hit Sarah with a look of hopelessness.
Sarah opened her mouth but the girl cut in, "You don't happen to know where room 209 is, do you?"
Sarah gave her a smile and said, "I'm headed there now. Who are you?"
The girl gave her a half smile and said, "I'm Cassidy Lennox."
Sarah motioned for her to follow, "Welcome to our 'gifted' program, Cassidy. Don't worry. We aren't that freaky."
Cassidy gave a small snort in reply, "You haven't seen strange yet."
Sarah raised an eyebrow but Cassidy merely kept silent. When they arrived in the room, Sarah did a double take. The girl she had been walking with was already chatting with Amanda. She looked to her side and no one was there. She looked back and there were two Cassidys. They were yelling at each other.
The Cassidy that had just walked in shouted to the Cassidy sitting next to Amanda, "Traitor! I can't believe you abandoned me just to throw yourself into the popular crowd."
The other Cassidy looked very different but Sarah could see the resemblance. They both had green eyes, brown hair, light skin, slim bodies and rounded noses as well as long heart shaped faces. But the other Cassidy was wearing eye shadow, mascara and lip gloss and her hair was straighter. They were wearing almost the exact same outfit but the Cassidy she had walked in with had a jean jacket on her arm while the other had a small cloth jacket covering a pink camisole.
The other Cassidy said, "Chill, Cass. You always overreact. Can't you relax?"
The Cassidy that Sarah just met said, "Sarah, meet my sister Trithiny." Cassidy quickly looked around the room and then hissed to Trithiny, "Where the hell is Hope?"
Trithiny's glossed lips fell in a perfect o, "I have absolutely no idea."
Cassidy went into panic mode, "Mom is gonna kill us if we lost her. How could you not know where she is? She was following you when you left me."
Trithiny replied, "I don't know. Hope is slippery. She will arrive soon enough."
"Yeah, listen to the all wise Trithiny. Remember last time someone listened to you. Six people ended up in the hospital, not including Hope. Like mom is ever gonna trust you again."
"You know what, Cassidy? I hope that mom does kill you. It means I have one less copy of myself."
"Yeah right. I was born first. Mom had a video of it. Proof that I was born first. You are a copy of me, smarty head."
"I don't care." Trithiny said with boredom leaking out of her voice.
"Like you care about anything, Trit. All you care about is being popular, making sure your makeup is perfect and what the latest gossip is in school. You could care less about me and Hope. Mom is already ashamed of what happened last year."
"No she's not…" Trithiny started but Cassidy cut her off.
"Yes, she is. Was leaving our relatives, moving six states and changing every phone number we had not a big enough clue for you? She hates what you did, Trit. You can't ignore that."
"Like she could forget what happened on your 12th birthday. That was a mess." Trithiny shot back.
"But I took care of it. You just stood gawking at your mess and waited for mom and me to clean it up." Cassidy pointed out.
Before Trithiny could respond to Cassidy's remark, Emily said, "Someone's coming."
A hesitant knock arrived at the door three minutes later. Martin opened it and yet another copy of Cassidy walked through. Cassidy ran to the girl and said, "You can't be doing that to me. We nearly had World War 3 in here."
Jenna whispered to Sarah, "They have serious problems. Is there anyway that you could…"
Sarah cut her off, "No. I'm not gonna do it."
Madame's voice silenced everyone as she said, "Hello class. Girls, could you introduce yourselves?"
The class turned to the three identical girls and Cassidy smiled, "Hello. My name is Cassidy Lennox and these are my sisters Hope and Trithiny. We are identical triplets, as you could probably guess."
Madame asked politely, "Would you care to tell us what you can do?"
Hope gave a little smile and said, "I can control time."
The class raised their eyebrows. Everyone thought that Sarah had been special because she could control people but this Hope Lennox could control time. Sarah imagined what kind of people would come after a person like Hope.
Martin said in his whiny voice, "Yeah right. And I can raise the dead. No one person can control time. It's not possible."
Hope gave him a defiant look and she glanced to her sisters. They both grinned wickedly and Hope slightly blushed. One moment, Martin was sitting in his seat, the next; his chair was right next to Madame's desk while he sat shocked on the floor. Sarah heard chuckling in the back corner and she saw the triplets high fiving each other.
Trithiny then announced, "I can detect when a person is lying and control myself so that no one knows if I'm lying."
Jenna challenged, "So tell me if I'm lying. I live with my mom and dad uptown in an apartment building. My parents take me to church every weekend and they hold seminars against any dangerous substance. My life is perfect but I chose to rebel."
Trithiny didn't even ponder it. "No, but an imposter did claim to be him and your mother is currently buying a drink at a day bar three towns away. I sense confusion instead of rebellion though. You crave attention like that puny little momma's boy Martin. But you don't beat yourself up about it. You just indulge yourself in other people's minds so then you don't have to go exploring in yours."
Jenna looked furious and Martin was turning red. Amanda asked, "So what can the other Trithiny do?"
Cassidy walked straight up to Amanda and slammed her desk. "My name is Cassidy and I can seize powers. Beat that, body snatcher."
An audible gasp went through the room.
Cassidy paid no mind and she went up to Emily. She grabbed the startled girl's shoulders and everyone crowded behind Emily. Sarah watched in awe as Cassidy's eyes turned to the color of liquid silver and the color began to swirl rapidly in a circle through her irises.
Emily looked pale for a moment when Cassidy stepped back but she turned back to normal when Cassidy blinked her silver eyes back to green.
Cassidy then stated, "Six robberies of convenience stores are to be committed in Tallahassee, Florida next week by a group of five young teenagers. They will then be apprehended within two days and sent to a juvenile detention where one of them, a boy named Will, will commit suicide."
Emily's wide eyes grew even larger and Sarah's mouth fell open. Emily had had this power for years and this Cassidy girl just got it barely a minute ago but Cassidy had just made a very clear and accurate prediction while Emily had never gotten even close to that kind of accuracy.
Emily whispered, "You have to teach me that."
Cassidy gave her a knowing smile, "Wish I could. It comes with the gift. I gain ultimate control of them but clarity like that can be rare. I only have to use eye contact on gifts that deal with the mind. The other kinds don't need that much focus."
She then approached the still seat- less Martin and grabbed his elbow.
Martin had already been in a bad mood when Hope dumped him out of his chair so he crunched the table he had been standing by.
He then turned to Cassidy, who had released his elbow but was still standing nearby. Cassidy then grabbed his hand and flipped him to the floor. Martin slowly raised himself back up and he shoved Cassidy. She didn't defend herself against the blow and she was knocked against the back wall. He walked closer and she punched him in the chest and kicked him in the gut. He grabbed her leg but he wasn't skilled enough at fighting to keep his balance steady.
They both fell to the floor and Cassidy looked ready to fight more but Hope held her back. Meanwhile, Ken, Amanda and Trithiny were restraining Martin.
Sarah realized that Cassidy's eyes were still silver. She tapped at her powers and forced Cassidy to blink. She did and her eyes turned back to normal.
Hope mouthed to Sarah, "Thanks."
Cassidy shook her head and said, "Sorry. Hazard of strength and me is that my body happens to like the fighting. I copied a gift from a pro fighter in Tokyo and it's just itching to get out. And to clarify one thing, it is called power seizing but I actually just make a copy of your powers mentally and my mind makes a record of what you can do. It allows me to use any gift I have ever passed by whenever I need to. It just doesn't help when powers mix. Like when I brushed your invisible friend. It requires mental effort but the effect is physical. Now I can turn invisible."
To prove her point, she released herself from Hope and disappeared. She appeared next to Madame's desk. She grabbed the chair and said, "Sorry for the interruption. My sisters and I are kind of volatile with our gifts. It's the reason why we left Massachusetts. Trithiny had a little accident. Scratch that. A very big accident and we needed to find a place that could help us." She pushed to chair to Martin and he grudgingly took it back.
Madame asked, "What happened?"
The triplets replied in unison, "A tale for another day."
Madame nodded in understanding and she continued with a lesson.
But the usually attentive Sarah couldn't drag her mind away from the destructive triplets.
How did they find this place?
Who told them about the gifted class?
And what did they do in Massachusetts that forced them to move away?
And one very important question ebbed at the back of Sarah's mind. How did they learn to use their powers before they got here?