Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers: The Same But Different

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers uses a picture prompt and asks for stories between 75-175 words.

This picture

Inspired my story:

Alison and Melinda met in kindergarten. They both had long hair and a smattering of freckles. They quickly became inseparable. When they were out with their parent’s people would stop and ask if they were twins.

By the third grade their personalities were beginning to distinguish them. Allison wanted to write. She would create plays for her friends to act out in the back yard.

Melinda wanted to be the star. If Allison would make up a play in which she wasn’t the star Melinda did not want to play.

Melinda liked to dance. She liked to brush her hair until it came out straight and silky. Allison put her hair in a bun and liked to write.

Every year Melinda’s parents took a picture of the girls together in front of the Christmas tree. This year was no different but when the picture was uploaded everyone said how beautiful Melinda was, and almost as an afterthought, that Allison was pretty too.

Allison saw the difference with sadness. The girls had just turned 15 and were spending fewer weekends together.

Allison looked back through the album of photographs from the two six-year-old girls who were inseparable to the two 15-year-olds who were worlds apart. She closed the book with a sigh and went on to write this story.