2
The past played in my head, and I gripped my
fingers.
Brittany assumed I was giving in, so she
grabbed my arm and started crying.
“I’m not just doing this for me! I’m doing it for
the family.
“I do better in school anyway, so I can get a
better job than you and help the family out…”
I pulled my arm and looked at my parents.
“Mom, Dad, we said whoever got the highest
grades got to go.
<
“I scored higher on the SATs than Brittany, so
that’s that.”
Brittany looked at me dumbfounded.
“I just didn’t do as good on the SATS! You just
got lucky! You’ve never been as smart as me,
so I’m the one who deserves to go!”
Brittany was right, I’ve never been smarter than
her.
She’s had a high IQ and was one of the
smartest students in the class.
My parents always favored her, so they always
made her the priority.
They paid for her tutors and all that, and I had
to do chores and cook her lunch to help her
study.
I started to fall behind and my parents started
<
to favor Brittany even more.
But I was always diligent and would study extra
hard to keep up with Brittany. Until I did well
enough to go to Berkeley.
And Brittany spent the last few months of
school on her laptop, falling in love with some
online stranger, wasting money at an internet
café, and slacking off.
The parents faces were starting to look tense.
Dad took a drag from his cigarette and tried to
calm me down. “I know you want to go too, but
we can only afford one. Brittany has worked
hard for this.”
Mom followed. “She’s doing this for the family.
She’ll take care of you later.”
Take care of me?
<
11:19
She dragged me to hell in my last life.
I got up and stopped arguing.
“Rules don’t change. Whoever deserves it gets
it.”
For a decade I was obedient.
Whenever I was treated unfairly, I would ignore
- it.
They never saw me that cold.
Brittany froze then cried into my mom’s arms. “Mom! Why is she acting like this! We’re
family!”
My dad looked pale. “If you’re being like this,
you won’t take care of the family in the future.
It’s hard for us to pay for you…”
“I don’t need your money.” I calmly replied. “I’m
88
<
not giving my things away to other people
anymore.”
Even my own family.
