The Day I Aced Provincials, My Parents Feted My Sister

After I placed first in the state and became valedictorian, my parents threw a college acceptance party for my sister.

The banner strung across the party read, Thank you, Eudora Simmons, for giving up your spot so your sister could go.

Relatives and family friends crowded around Eudora, praise pouring out on every side. "Eudora really is such a good girl, giving up her chance at college for her sister."

Eudora accepted it gladly. "It would be too much for Mom and Dad to put both of us through school at once."

The truth had nothing to do with sparing our parents the burden. She'd gotten into trouble at school and been expelled.

Watching them all cluster around Eudora with their toasts, I sat alone in the corner, chewing on a dinner roll.

After the party ended, my father called me over. "Your hundred-thousand-dollar scholarship goes to your sister."

"No. That scholarship is mine. That's for my education."

My mother flared up the moment she heard it. "You're on a tuition-free teaching scholarship. What tuition do you even have to pay?"

I froze, then shot up off the couch. "Mom, I applied to Harvard and Stanford. How did that turn into a tuition-free teaching scholarship?"

...

Once the question was out, I kept my eyes fixed on her, waiting for an answer.

She tossed the clothes in her hands aside, impatience all over her face. "What good is a place at Harvard or Stanford? A tuition-free teaching scholarship is a great deal. No cost, plus a living stipend. You should be grateful."

"Now hurry up and hand over your bank card. Your sister's still waiting to register at her arts school."

She reached over as she spoke, trying to search me.

I dodged and pushed back. "Mom, I could have gone to Harvard or Stanford. Why did you secretly change my applications?"

"I'm changing it back."

I turned and headed straight for the computer.

My father's hand shot out and grabbed me. "Enough, Daphne Simmons. Tuition-free teaching scholarship or Harvard, once you graduate you're a college grad either way."

His grip was strong, and his fingers on my wrist hurt.

I fought against him with everything I had, because I knew this was my last chance to get out of here.

"Dad, I'm begging you, let me change the applications back. Harvard and Stanford are my dream, I want to go, I won't use any of the family's money, I have the scholarship, I can work part-time too."

I couldn't pry his hand loose, so all I could do was beg him through my tears.

But he had no intention of letting go.

"Daphne, we're your parents, do you really think we'd hurt you? It wasn't easy for your mother and me to raise you two. Dora's been so understanding, giving up college for you. Shouldn't you be a little understanding too?"

He was using Eudora's not going to school against me again, hammering that same point, that she'd given up her chance so I could have mine.

I couldn't stand it. "She didn't give up her chance for me. The truth is she"

"Oh, come on, sis, Mom and Dad really do have our best interests at heart. Think about it, Harvard and Stanford are so far away, so far from home, but the teaching scholarship is right here in town, close by. Whenever we miss you, we can come see you anytime."

Eudora walked out of her room with a face mask on. Her words always landed straight in our parents' hearts.

Mom went to her side and took her hand, tender with affection. When her eyes swung back to me, they were full of nothing but distaste.

"Daphne, you're the older sister, born a full twelve minutes before Eudora. Why aren't you half as understanding as she is?"

She had already crossed the room to me as she said it, and she raised her hand and slapped me across the face.

My father made a show of stepping in to break it up, but his words chilled me just the same.

"Your mother and I aren't playing favorites. It's just that you've got a hotter temper, so we've been a little stricter with you. We hope you can understand we mean well."

"These days everyone throws a college acceptance party. You got yours, just like you wanted. Now stay home and get yourself ready for school."

The college acceptance party. All I could do was laugh.

"Was this party thrown for me? I'm the one who earned the score. I'm the one who brought you the pride. And you didn't say a single word about me, but you hung a banner for Eudora."

Before I could finish, my mother's hand cracked across my face again.

"Daphne, do you still not get it? If Dora hadn't dropped out on her own, if she hadn't given you the chance to go to school, would you even have gotten to take the SATs?"

"I raised an ungrateful little snake."

"When I gave birth to you two, why couldn't you have been the one born later? Dora came out after you, and the lack of oxygen is why studying gives her headaches. If she didn't have that problem, do you think it would ever have been your turn to go to college?"

"Now get back to your room and think hard about what you've done."

My face burned. Eudora stood beside our mother and shot me a smug, taunting look, then wrapped her arms around Mom's arm to butter her up. "Mom, if you leave her alone in there, won't she just secretly change the applications back?"

The words were barely out of her mouth when my father snatched my phone. Then he took my laptop, my ID, and every other document I had.

"Get in there and reflect. You don't set foot anywhere until school starts."

I lunged to grab the things out of his hands, but he passed them straight to Eudora, who stuck her tongue out at me and carried everything into her room.

Then my father shoved me back into mine. My arm slammed into the sliding door with a pain that shot to the bone.

I heard the lock click outside.

I threw myself at the door and pounded on it. "Dad, please give me my phone. I swear I won't touch the applications."

But begging did nothing. In this house my voice had never counted for anything.

They called it my room. Really it was a space partitioned off from the balcony, just wide enough for a single bed.

In my junior year of high school, Eudora suddenly decided she wanted to learn drums, and without a word of discussion my parents turned my room into her practice space.

After that, whenever I studied at home, there was always the drumming in the background.

Eventually there came a day when I got used to studying and sleeping through that deafening, jarring noise.

Eudora and I are twins. I was born only ten-odd minutes ahead of her, but those ten-odd minutes made me the older sister, and to this day the thing I've heard most is: you're the older one, give in to your sister.

But when it came to school, my parents always said it was Eudora who gave in to me.

A moment ago I'd been thinking I could quietly change the applications back. Maybe because we're twins, every time I have a thought, she can sense it.

Now the laptop was gone, so I couldn't change the applications. The phone was gone, so I couldn't reach anyone.

Even my ID had been taken, so even if I escaped, even if I ran, I'd have nowhere to run.

They had me completely cornered.

I didn't stop begging. I shouted until my throat went hoarse, but not one of the three of them came to spare me a glance.

About an hour later, I heard Eudora's voice. "Mom, Dad, it's fine if she won't transfer the money to me. I know her PIN anyway."

Hearing that jolted something into place. Eudora and I are identical twins. We look so alike that even people who see us often can't always tell us apart.

I was locked up now, with nowhere to go. What good was holding on to the scholarship?

If they found my bank card, Eudora could probably unlock it herself. Better to hand the card over myself.

The moment the idea came to me, I called out to them. "Mom, Dad, I'll give the scholarship to Eudora."

For a second there was nothing. Then footsteps, coming toward my door.

"You mean it? I'm warning you, Daphne. If you try to pull anything, I won't let it go."

My mother had always looked at me like I was hiding something. There were times the sheer hardness in her made me wonder if I was even her real daughter.

I swallowed the urge to argue and made myself sound meek.

"What could I possibly pull? You're holding my household papers."

I could hear them muttering out there. Honestly, I was afraid Eudora would guess what I was really thinking.

But she didn't. They opened the door.

Eudora stared at me with big, pleading eyes. "Daph, it's not like I want your money. The arts school Mom and Dad enrolled me in has a payment deadline coming up."

She looked at me like she'd already won. I held up the card. "You can have the card, but you give me back my phone."

The card was still in my hand. As long as it was, I could still set terms.

The second my mother saw that, she blew up and swung at me. My father caught her arm.

"If she wants the phone, let her have it. We're not letting her out anyway, and we still have her ID."

She hadn't landed the hit, and it showed on her face.

Eudora was probably too eager to get my money, because she joined in on my father's side. "Mom, just give her the phone. Dad's right. We just won't let her leave the house."

They weighed it for a moment, and in the end we made the trade, phone for card.

Eudora took the bank card and blew on it. But I hadn't counted on her keeping one move in reserve. She snatched the phone right back out of my hand.

"Eudora, what are you doing? Give it back"

There was a crack as she slammed my phone down on the floor as hard as she could, and the junk thing shattered into pieces in an instant.

"I said you could have the phone. I never said it'd be in one piece. Mom, Dad, let's go."

She turned and floated off like a happy little swallow, and I was locked in again.

I knelt on the floor and picked up the broken pieces one by one, grinding my teeth. I really had underestimated how shameless Eudora could be.

It took forever, but I managed to fit the shattered phone back together. I tried it, and apart from the cracked screen it still turned on. Small mercy in a run of bad luck.

I went online right away and checked. The application deadline had already passed. Even if I wanted to change my choices now, I couldn't.

It looked like the tuition-free teaching scholarship was my only option left.

I'd barely finished looking over the application status when the three of them came back.

I could hear Eudora chattering away. Sounded like they'd had a great time out.

I hid the phone. They couldn't find out I'd fixed it.

At dinner they brought the food into my room, a bowl of plain white rice with some hash browns.

I didn't feel like eating, but starving myself only hurt me, and I still had to find a way out of this house.

For the next several days I kept quiet, and little by little they let their guard down.

The twenty-ninth on the lunar calendar was mine and Eudora's birthday, and that day became my day of pardon. They let me out.

Mom and Dad had made a whole table of food, and in the center sat a big pink cake. Pink was Eudora's favorite color. On the birthday the two of us shared, I knew I was nothing more than the backdrop.

Eudora had a few of her friends over, and they were tearing around in her room having a wild time.

I'd just been let out, and standing in the living room felt awkward, like I didn't belong.

When Mom and Dad carried the last dish to the table, Eudora and her friends came out of the room too.

Eudora's smile faltered a little when she saw me, but she recovered fast and waved me over. Come on, sis, come celebrate with us.

I was invisible in this house, and I was just as invisible to Eudora's friends.

She called me over, but I didn't move. I knew she was only going through the motions. Mom turned and shot me a look. She doesn't need to come over. There's food set aside for her in the kitchen. As long as she eats something, that's fine.

I took the hint and went into the kitchen. This time I meant to be more obedient. Maybe if I was, they'd leave me alone.

I ate a few quick bites in the kitchen, and while they were all busy playing, I slipped into Eudora's room. Mom and Dad doted on Eudora, so much that they kept even important things in her room.

I wanted to see if my ID was in there.

I didn't find my ID. But I found something far more important.

The paperwork from when Eudora was expelled from her school. She was bold, keeping it right there in her own room. Or maybe she was just that confident in how much our parents loved her.

She knew they'd never go through her things, and that was why she was so brazen.

I photographed the documents. No ID, but the papers were a find in their own right.

I did one more important thing while I was at it. I turned the internet back on.

To keep me offline, they'd locked my phone down.

I came out of Eudora's room, and none of them noticed. I went quietly back to my own room.

Just as I was about to step inside, I heard Mom say, Daphne's got four years of college, and when she graduates she'll be placed right here in the city. Even after she marries, she can still help you out.

I heard every word clearly. I gave a cold little smile. The arrangement they'd made for Eudora really was seamless.

They kept playing until well past midnight before everyone left.

After that I logged in to the college admissions site. The school was the city's teachers college.

I had to go to this school. If I didn't, I'd lose the one chance I had to change my fate.

But I wasn't going to walk the rest of my road the way Mom and Dad had planned.

In the days that followed, I used the times they were out to prepare a lot of paperwork. As my enrollment date drew near, they probably decided I wasn't acting out anymore, so they stopped restricting me.

I was on a tuition-free teaching scholarship, but I still needed money to live on. When I saw there was a financial-aid application, I asked their permission and decided to apply.

The truth was, the aid itself wasn't the point. I could take a job. What I wanted was another signature.

The day school started, it poured. It also happened to be the day Eudora left to enroll at her arts school.

I'd packed up everything from the balcony. I'd lived here nineteen years, and all of it fit easily into a single suitcase.

I called an Uber in the rain and gave the driver the school's address. When the car pulled out, I didn't even look back.

But when it rains, it pours. The car I was riding in got into an accident on the way, and I lay on the ground while the downpour hammered down on me.

By the time the ambulance took me to the hospital and they asked about my family, my head was still spinning.

Miss, you need to contact your family right away. Your leg is badly hurt and needs surgery, and we can't operate without a family member's signature.

Sure enough, a fierce pain shot through my leg. I hadn't wanted to make the call, but with their urging I dialed my mother.

It took three tries before she picked up, and her voice came roaring through the receiver. Daphne, are you trying to send me to an early grave? Dora's about to board her flight...

Mom, I've been in a car accident. I need you to sign so they can do the surgery...

We don't have time for this. Just wait a while longer... Before she'd even finished, the line went dead with a string of flat beeps.

A single tear slid down without a sound. After that call, I finally gave up for good. I hung up, reached into my bag, and handed the doctor a statement.

Doctor, my life is mine to decide.