The Back-to-School Gift My Parents Gave Me Was Three Apples

With school about to start, Mom and Dad said they'd put together back-to-school gift bundles for my sister and me, and we'd draw lots to decide who got what.

Round one: my sister drew the iPhone, and I drew a Fuji apple.

Round two: my sister drew the iPad, and I drew a Golden Delicious apple.

Round three: my sister drew the MacBook, and I drew a Honeycrisp apple.

I didn't know what to say. My luck had always been terrible.

Mom and Dad comforted me, saying three apples were pretty great tooapples were healthy, tasty, and good for the complexion.

Then they said there was still one super gift left. It turned out to be a BMW worth over three hundred thousand.

My eyes lit up. I prayed that this time my luck would finally turn.

And I actually drew it.

But Mom and Dad said, "Your sister broke the rules that round, doesn't count. Do it again."

When the SAT scores came out, I'd gotten into a top-tier university, while my sister only made it into a community college.

Mom and Dad said it didn't mattergood grades or bad, we were both their treasures, and they loved us just the same.

They also said they'd prepared back-to-school gift bundles, one each for my sister and me.

I'd looked forward to it for so long.

But on the day the surprise was supposed to be revealed, Mom and Dad suddenly changed their minds and said we'd draw lots for it.

"Your dad and I thought it over and over, and we still think drawing lots is the fairest way. Good or bad, it's down to your own luck. If you draw the good one, don't gloat, and if you draw the bad one, no crying, okay?"

I deflated on the spot.

This method that looked so fair was, for me, the least fair of all.

My luck had always been bad. I'd never once won a drawing.

Every time, Mom and Dad said a bet was a bet, no backing out.

And once they decided something, it never changed. My objecting made no difference.

"Same rules as always, one draw each.

"Your sister goes first."

Dad tossed two crumpled paper balls onto the table in front of us. Whoever picked the one with writing on it won the grand prize.

The other one got a consolation prize.

My sister picked one at random.

"Bless me, bless me, let me get the iPhone."

She cupped the paper ball in both hands like she was praying, then slowly unfolded it.

"Ah, I really got it, it's the iPhone!"

She jumped up with joy, took Mom and Dad's faces in her hands, and kissed each of them.

"Thank you Dad, thank you Mom, I love you!"

Mom immediately, all smiles, produced a beautifully wrapped iPhone and placed it in my sister's hands.

Then she handed me a Fuji apple, wrapped just as beautifully.

It's fine, there's still a chance.

I told myself.

Round two, it was my turn to draw first.

The iPhone had already gone to my sister, and I didn't dare hope for another onean ordinary phone would do just fine.

I was about to start college, after all. I couldn't keep using a kids' phone.

Nervously, I picked the paper ball closer to me.

I copied the way my sister had prayed, hoping it would bring me luck.

But when I unfolded the paper, no surprise at all, it was blank.

"Yay, I won again!"

My sister danced around in excitement.

"Ugh."

I sighed. My luck was as bad as ever.

That round, my sister got the iPad, and I got a Golden Delicious apple.

Round three, my sister's turn again.

The first two rounds had turned up the phone and the tablet, so this round had to be the computer.

I prayed silently: don't let my sister get it.

I still had nothing. I really needed a computer.

"Ah, the laptop, my laptop!"

Almost without a hitch, my sister struck lucky yet again.

What kind of rotten luck was this? I wanted to blow up but had nowhere to aim itwho told me to be so useless.

I was so agitated I wanted to tear that paper ball apart, only to find the other one had disappeared.

Watching me search around, Mom spread her palm open.

"It's right here. So suspicious."

She smoothed the paper ball flat. It was blank, clean as could be.

"Don't be so petty. Apples are great toohealthy and good for the complexion, all kinds of benefits."

Mom pressed a Honeycrisp apple into my hand.

"Your sister got an apple, and you got an apple too. Everyone's happy."

Dad even had to make his little pun.

But I couldn't be happy.

An apple and an Apple were both apples, but this apple was not that Apple. They were worlds apart.

"All right, don't say your parents don't care about youthere's still one super surprise coming!"

Mom and Dad were being all mysterious, saying they'd reveal it after lunch.

But Maxine and I couldn't wait a second longer.

So they gave in and announced it early.

"The super surprise is a BMW worth over three hundred thousand!"

"Wow!"

"Wow!"

Maxine and I both jumped up and down.

A car worth over three hundred thousand. If I actually won it, it would be the most valuable gift I'd received in my whole life.

Next to that BMW, the phone, the tablet, the laptop were nothing.

Mom and Dad said they needed to get things ready and we'd draw in a bit.

This time it was my turn to pick.

I hurried off to the bathroom, wanting to wash my hands nice and clean. This time my luck was going to turn.

"You ready? Don't mess this up."

Dad's voice was pushed way down, leaking faintly through the gap in the master bedroom door.

Mom answered under her breath. "Relax. This round it's Rebecca's turn. Both slips are blank."

"Good. Same as always. Once she's picked, you draw her attention and I'll swap out the other one. Don't let her catch on."

I stood in the doorway, and something went off in my head like a bomb.

Why?

Why, exactly?

Since I was little, I'd never once won a drawing.

Every time, Mom and Dad said I just had bad luck, that some people are simply born with a losing touch.

They said it so often I ended up believing it too.

Only now did I understand. There was no fate, no destiny. It had all been done on purpose.

And the ones behind it were my own parents.

Maxine and I were twins. Born together, raised together, faces exactly alike.

If I hadn't been their real daughter, treating us differently might at least have made some sense.

But that was impossible.

Thinking of how, for all these years, my own parents had rigged this together, the last bit of hope I had left died.

"Heh."

My whole chest was bitter, so blocked I couldn't breathe, my eyes swollen like they might burst.

"What are you doing outside Mom and Dad's door, putting on the pitiful act to fish for sympathy?

"You've got bad luck yourself, so now you pull a cheap trick like this. You have no shame!"

Maxine spat out her poisonous little theory.

She was the favored one. The illusion our parents built for her had her convinced that everything was hers by right.

If I ever won, it could only be because I'd cheated.

"I'm not as disgusting as you. I'll beat you fair and square, and you'll have nothing to say about it."

I forced the tears back down.

It was the first time I'd ever talked back to Maxine over a drawing, the first time I'd said I would beat her.

She couldn't stand me taking that tone with her, and she actually chased after me, cursing.

Seeing us fight, Mom and Dad rushed over to smooth things out.

Once they'd calmed the two of us down, they had us draw for the grand prize right away.

"By the rules, this round is Rebecca's turn," Dad announced.

I hadn't even picked yet, and Maxine was already upset.

"Mom, Dad, this isn't fair," she complained.

"Go on, tell us. How is it not fair?"

"Compared to the BMW, the first three rounds were all small prizes. Why does she get to go first the second there's a big one?

"If I'd known the last round was a BMW, I definitely would've let her draw first."

Maxine pouted and worked her charm on our parents, begging to go first.

"No. That wouldn't be fair to your sister. You're the older one, you should set an example and respect the rules of the game."

Dad put on a stern face, scolded Maxine, and firmly shut down her objection.

They looked fair, but they were full of calculation.

If they really let Maxine pick first, their precious daughter would actually lose.

"All right, enough fussing. Let's just get started."

Mom pulled two paper slips out of her pocket and held them up in front of me.

I stared coldly at the two crumpled slips and picked one at random.

A faint, offhand smile touched my mother's face.

"Go on, open it and see."

Under their steady urging, I slowly unfolded the paper.

"All right, you didn't win"

Before I even had it fully open, my mother rushed to announce that I'd lost.

Too bad for her.

This time I'd grabbed the slip with writing on it.

"That's impossible. How is that possible!"

She snatched the slip and checked it over and over, her hands shaking.

"Something must have gone wrong somewhere."

She hurried to open the other crumpled slip in her hand.

The paper was blank.

My father, who'd been sitting calm on the sofa, panicked too. He shot to his feet, pulled off his heavy glasses, and inspected it again and again, his brow furrowed so tight it could have crushed a fly.

The two of them exchanged a look, both starting to speak and stopping.

My sister fell apart. She'd never once lost a drawing, and this time she'd lost on the biggest prize of all.

She wailed and threw a fit.

"I said it wasn't fair, it isn't fair, why did she get to pick first?

"If I'd gone first, I definitely would have won. I won't have it, I won't, the BMW is mine, it's mine."

The living room was all crying and shouting, one big uproar.

I had no interest in watching them perform any longer.

I only said, coldly, "A bet's a bet. Keep your promise."

"No!" My mother's voice went sharp.

"You broke the rules just now. This round doesn't count."

"Four of us, eight eyes watching. What rule did I break?" I demanded.

"The slips always get tossed onto the table first, then you grab. You grabbed straight out of my handthat's a violation, obviously." She twisted the logic to suit her.

"Right, right, exactly, this round can't stand."

Having found their excuse, my father and mother fell instantly into step with each other.

"Even if grabbing it from your hand is against the rules, you're the ones who handed it to me. How is that on me?" I shot back.

"Wrong!

"I was about to put it on the table. Before I could, you grabbed it early. Clearly you're the one who didn't play fair."

My mother said it with full conviction.

To favor my sister, they could find even an angle as twisted as that.

"I won't accept this. How can you be so biased? You go back on your word. I hate you!"

"You little wretch!"

Crack. My father's hand cut across my face.

"Who taught you to talk to your parents like that?"

I held my burning cheek, tears rolling down in fat drops.

Seeing me struck, my sister stopped her crying at once and gave me a taunting little smile.

She was warning me: don't even think about fighting her for it.

"How could you hit the child?

"Come here, let me look."

My mother came at me with fake concern.

I dodged her.

Her raised hand met empty air. She put on an apology. "All right, all right, Mom and Dad were wrong, it was our fault.

"For fairness' sake, let's do this round over. You still go first. That's fine now, isn't it?"

My mother pitied me with that fake, syrupy voice.

My father crushed me with his authority.

One played the kind one, the other the villain.

They gave me what looked like fair treatment, when they had never once meant to let me win.

If it had really been fair, they would have kept their promise and given me the BMW.

Not staged another round.

"Enough. It wouldn't matter how many times we did it over."

I lifted my chin and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.

"I'm done playing this fairness game with you."

Seeing me walk out in anger, Maxine yelled after me, "You quit on your own, nobody forced you out. Now the car's mine, so don't go crying to Mom and Dad about it later."

After they handed the BMW to Maxine, they signed her up for driving school right away.

I shut myself in my room all day, avoiding them.

When I'd gone several days without speaking to them, my mother flew into a rage at me.

"What is it you want? Say it, then. Are you trying to kill me, keeping silent like this?"

"Hmph."

I let out a cold laugh and shot back, "And if I say it, will you actually give it to me?"

She fell silent.

"I'm not asking you to favor me. I only want to be treated fairly.

"At the start you said the back-to-school gift would be one for each of us.

"But in the end you'd rather spend over three hundred thousand on a BMW for Maxine than a thousand on a laptop, tablet, and phone for me.

"You know I'm starting college any day now, and I'm still wearing a kids' smartwatch. Do you really think that's okay?

"There's homework, papers, course registrationevery bit of it needs a computer. Is that request of mine really so outrageous?"

"Shut up. You're giving me a headache."

My mother cut me off and rubbed her ear, impatient.

"Don't come at me with this guilt-trip nonsense. Giving birth to you was a kindness, raising you was a kindness. You're eighteen now. We don't owe you anything.

"As for the laptop, tablet, and phone, that was just your bad luck. Don't blame the world for it."

She glared at me, her eyes full of disgust.

My heart went cold, all the way through.

"You say I have bad luck?

"That day I slipped a folded slip into your pocket. Two blank, one with writing.

"You drew two out at random, and I picked one of those two myself.

"Those aren't even fifty-fifty odds, and I still drew the one with the writing. You tell meis that bad luck?"

I laid out the whole truth of that day in one breath.

My mother's hand flew across my face.

"So it was you. I kept saying I'd prepared two blank slipshow did an extra one with writing end up in there.

"Your father even blamed me for being careless.

"You really are a scheming little thing.

"Ah"

She let out a shriek.

Realizing what she'd let slip, she clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

"You finally admit it. There was never any good luck or bad luck. From the day we were born, you were the ones rigging it all along."