Wyrd: Book One of the Witch War Trilogy - WATTYS 2018 WINNER!

Chapter 24: Where the Winnifreds Play 'I Spy'

Fred was hiding away among the towers of the Citadel, where she had once discovered a narrow winding stone staircase that lead up and up and up to the tiptop of the very tallest minaret. She sighed into the heavenly silence that engulfed her favourite private perch, scratching words into the parchment of her diary.

              She savored the quiet provided by the wee hours of the morning. This was her favourite time of day. Before her sisters awoke, their opinions vying for attention in her brain; before the clamor of the world below became too loud to tune out. As the pink light of the dawning sun dyed the sandy stones of her little heaven rose-gold, she peered out the small rectangular window from her stone bench inset into the wall. The sun was rising over the rooftops and the winding paths of the ancient sandy city below.

              She sighed gratefully.

              This is where I belong. 

              While her identical sisters longed for adventure, Fred yearned for the tranquility and cool of the library that lay somewhere beneath her feet. She thrived on the steady rhythms of routine, and the lessons she learned in her classes. Of the triplets, Fred knew she was the most reserved, "the quiet one." But also, the most thoughtful and watchful. Perhaps the cleverest, when she needed to be. And definitely the most well read. 

              Winnie, aka the first Winnifred, had come out stubborn and precocious; She was fiery. Determined. And she cared deeply. Winnie is going to change the world. Fred admired how brave and outgoing Winnie was, as if she exuded passion. But Fred, in contrast, was calm and collected next to Winnie's overly excitable nature. Fred was the rock in the storm.

              Whereas their third sister, Fredrica, or Rica, was the one who caused the storm, but she was also the missing link between Winnie and Fred, temperament-wise. An aloof trickster, she was always joking sarcastically, which somehow made her the coolest kid in school. Fredrica was Miss Popularity. She honestly didn't care what people thought about her and that just made other kids think she was awesome. Rica made people laugh, came up with sneaky plans, disobeyed the rules, and looked for fun down every alley. Fred took her thrills from story books, thank you very much. To her, getting grounded or having detention would have been the end of the world. "We're only young once!" Rica would prompt, attempting to galvanize her siblings into action. And somehow, she often managed to convince Winnie AND FRED to join in. If Fred didn't go along with the shenanigans, something would always end up going terribly wrong and her sisters would get caught.  They needed Fred, so she came along, if somewhat begrudgingly.

              All three girls looked so alike; if they'd dressed the same, even their father wouldn't have been able to tell which girl was which.  So their parents had called them all Winnifred, until distinctions in their personalities had become apparent. Now, it was much easier to tell who was who: Fred was none other than Fred, Winnie, Winnie, and Rica definitely Rica. Their outfit choices differed enough that others were confident in telling them apart. Girly dresses in loud colours for Winnie. She also always wore her hair in a natural fro. Fredrica would have on something fashionable and trendy (but generally wouldn't put too much visible effort into it), and she wore  her hair in braids or straightned. Fred, on the other hand, leaned toward simple dresses in muted tones, outfits that helped her blend into the environment while she watched or read, happy to be ignored. She usually just tied her hair into a short ponytail or a bun.

              Fred finished up writing about the far-too-exciting-for-her-taste voyage and then shut her journal, placing it carefully in her satchel with the rest of her school books. She'd recorded it for posterity's sake. Time, however, was ticking on and she needed to get her siblings up for school.