The Kippens

A New Start

It feels like it's been centuries since I last entered Shadyside. But nothing's changed really. The Jefferson Middle School is still as vibrant as ever. Cloud Ten still sits on 1st Avenue. The Spoon's still there.

"C'mon, Tommy! You haven't given me the full tour yet! We still have to go to those swingsets at the playground before you can indulge in your greasy food," DJ says, pulling on my sleeve. 

"Why do we have to do this, Dani?" I groan as I sit back in the driver's seat. DJ's riding shotgun and AJ's content to sprawl on the backseat of the Mercedez we got for our 16th birthday. Technically, we have three identical ones (My license plate is TommyJ2, Dani's is DaniJ3, and Andy's is AndyJ1) but we like to ride together most of the time. It's been our thing after being separated for so long.

"You must take the positives of your time here before the negatives. Besides, I want to see the town, and your insistence on only going to the one place is stupid," she says. She's always on my case about trying to let go of the past by remembering and forgiving, not repressing and hating. It's how she loves our parents so much, even after she was separated from us, her triplet brothers, for almost seven years.

"Can we make it fast? I'm starving," AJ complains. Dani throws a pillow at him.

I suppose I should explain. I'm Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Kippen, also known as TJ. I'm the middle triplet, born 30 seconds after Andrew James "Andy" Kippen, also known as AJ. We were super identical as kids, but puberty hit and our faces changed too. Danielle Jane "Dani" Kippen, also known as DJ, is the youngest of us three, born a minute after me. We all had dirty blonde hair as kids, but it lightened when we were about ten.

In Pasadena, we were known as the J's, or the Kippen siblings. People used to fear us. I was the varsity basketball captain after getting on the varsity team freshman year. AJ was the ASB president and drama lead for every play and musical. DJ was the captain of the dance team, The Strimas, leading them to two Regional, National, and International titles both years. We had high jurisdiction. But then we started to lighten up. I let go of the childhood nickname and became just Tommy. Andrew liked being called Andy, so he became that. Danielle always liked being Dani, thought Danielle was too stuffy but DJ too masculine.

The one constant in my life has been my siblings. Even if it meant Dani getting in trouble for contacting us, we made sure to talk every single day. It's why we know each other so well. 

I let Dani drag me all over the park, and I push her on the swings. She motions for me to get on the swing by standing. We try it but it doesn't work. We then decide for me to sit and her to climb on my shoulders (she's super limber and I have a super high weight tolerance due to working out a lot). AJ takes a picture then pushes us playfully.

Finally, we get to The Spoon. And of course, the first people I see are Cyrus the Puppet, Andi the Immature, Jonah the Asshole, and Buffy the Bitch, alongside Amber, Iris, Walker, and Marty. Basing from the pairings, I'm glad Buffy's with Marty and Andi's not with Jonah but I hate that Cyrus is with Jonah still.

Dani leads us to the table right next to them. She picks up a menu and flips through, then groans, "I'm going to have to do so many hours of dance practice after eating even a burger from here. I'll take a hamburger and a mocha frappucino."

"How do you think I stayed in shape after Barley's? That stuff is addictive, but so greasy. I doubled my workouts to work off the calories. I'll take a cheeseburger and a vanilla cream soda."

"And I... don't really care. I'll take two cheeseburgers, a large coke, and fries," Andy says, completing the order and handing our menus off to the waitress.

Buffy is first to approach. To my surprise, she goes to Dani, "You're a dancer?"

"Yup. I was captain of the dance team back home."

"And you two?"

"Varsity Basketball captain and the occasional Water Polo player," I respond, hoping she doesn't recognize me.

"ASB President, Drama Lead Male, and I occasionally make time to play Varsity tennis."

"Way to updo us," I shoot back at the suddenly cocky AJ. He just smirks.

"How old are you?" Andi asks.

"We're all juniors."

"You look way older."

"We get that a lot. Hi, I'm Danielle, but you can call me Dani."

"I'm Thomas, but you can call me Tommy," I say, hoping my ways of incognito-ness work.

'And I'm Andrew, but you can also call me Andy."

"I'm Andi Quinn. This is Buffy Driscoll and Cyrus Goodman, my best friends. And this is Walker Brodsky, my boyfriend, Marty Jones, Buffy's boyfriend, and Jonah Beck, Cyrus' boyfriend. Also with us are Amber Goodman, Cyrus' cousin, and Iris James, her girlfriend."

"Nice to meet you all. I can see why you'd feel awkward to call me Andy. You can call me Andy J," AJ says for all of us.

"Which one of you guys is dating who?" Buffy asks curiously and the three of us start laughing hard.

"You think we're dating?" DJ manages to get out.

"Well, Tommy and Andy J look like twins. I'd suppose you were the girlfriend of either."

"We're triplets," I explain, "Andy and I are identical and Dani's fraternal. We used to look exactly the same, but puberty changed us. Like Dylan and Cole Sprouse, or Becky and Milly Rosso."

"Oh, that makes more sense. Well, it's nice to meet you. We have to get going. We have to get to our extracurriculars."

"Nice to meet you," we say politely.

As they leave the restaurant, I see Cyrus' eyes linger on us. Especially on me. I take the moment to take the extra-long sip.

Andrew notices and rests his hand on my shoulder, "We won't let him recognize you. Not until you're ready."

"They're not going to hurt you again," Danielle promises.

And that's really that.

A.N.: The triplets use nicknames interchangeably. If you see Andy, Andrew, Andy J, or AJ, it's the oldest, Andrew James. If you see Tom, Tommy, Thomas, or TJ, it's Thomas Jacob "TJ". And if you see Dani, Dani J, Danielle, or DJ, it's Danielle Jane, the youngest. Their license plates reflect their order of birth: AndyJ1 is Andrew because he was born first, TommyJ2 is TJ because he was born second, and DaniJ3 is Dani because she was born last.