Chapter 3

Kaya Hinton, my teacher, had been holding back, but when she saw my parents each holding Evelyn by the hand as they walked down the red carpet behind me, her face finally fell.

As soon as the three of them stepped off the red carpet, Kaya marched over, looking furious.

"Fine, you never show up to parent-teacher conferences, but this is her coming-of-age ceremony! Couldn't one of you at least show up and walk Maddison down the red carpet?" Kaya snapped.

"Every other student had their parents with them, but Maddison had to walk alone. That's pretty cold for parents," Kaya added.

The other parents around us just figured out how we're all related, and they started giving my parents weird looks.

"What kind of parents are they, playing favorites like that?" someone muttered.

"So Maddison and Evelyn are sisters? Evelyn lives it up like she's loaded at school, while Maddison gets treated like she's broke. And now they're not even trying to hide it. Talk about playing favorites," another parent whispered.

My dad's face turned bright red under all those stares. He cleared his throat and said, "Maddison and Evelyn are twins. They're inseparable. It really doesn't matter who we walk down the red carpet with, it's all the same."

"We've always been fair to both of them. There's absolutely no favoritism in our family!" he insisted.

My mom gave me a discreet shove, making sure no one else noticed.

She raised her voice so everyone could hear. "Maddison didn't want us to walk the red carpet with her, isn't that right, Maddison?"

Kaya stepped right in front of me, blocking my parents.

"So now you're letting the kid run the show? How many times have you actually bothered to show up for Maddison's parent-teacher meetings over the years? Don't tell me it was Maddison who kept you from coming every single time?" Kaya fired back.

With more and more people staring, my mom started to feel embarrassed.

She dropped her voice and muttered, "It's just the red carpet, right? If we stick with Maddison for the rest of the ceremony, isn't that enough?"

Kaya was about to say more, but I gave her sleeve a quick tug to stop her.

My parents hustled Evelyn out of there as fast as they could.

For the rest of the ceremony, they stuck to Evelyn like glue.

I turned to Kaya. "Ms. Hinton, I've made up my mind about the direct admission."

Kaya looked surprised. "Aren't you going to run it by your family first?"

I shook my head. "Not necessary."

After the coming-of-age ceremony, the SATs were just around the corner.

On the evening of the second day of the SATs, Evelyn suddenly asked me at dinner, "Maddison, how do you think you did?"

I kept my head down. "Not bad."

Evelyn's expression soured a bit.

"What do you mean by 'not bad'?" she pressed.

I shot her a quick look. "Ivy League's a sure thing for me."

With that, I went back to eating, pretending not to see Evelyn's face contort with jealousy.

On the day of the last exam, Evelyn just flat-out refused to go in for the test.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she started bawling, "Mom, Dad, I don't know if it's because of what happened at the coming-of-age ceremony, but I've just been totally out of it these past few days.

"I'm sure I messed up so bad. I couldn't even do half as well as I did on the practice tests."

My parents instantly panicked.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Mom blurted out.

Evelyn gave me a look that said she was up to something, then snuggled up to me and put on her sweetest voice.

"I want to repeat senior year with Maddison and go for it again next year," she said.

I stared at her in shock, my eyes wide.

But my parents put their foot down right away. "Looks like there's no other choice. Maddison will repeat senior year with you and take the SATs again next year," they declared.

I couldn't help but raise my voice. "Why do I have to? I did way better than usual. I'm not repeating senior year and retaking the SATs!"

But my dad shot me a nasty glare. "This is all on you! If you hadn't acted all pitiful at the coming-of-age ceremony, Evelyn wouldn't have ended up getting talked about by her classmates and thrown off for the SATs."

"Don't tell me you planned to trash your sister's reputation at the ceremony just so you could step on her and play the genius, huh?" he snapped.

My mom insisted, her tone unyielding. "Evelyn's dropping out of this year's SATs, so you have to do it too. That's what fairness looks like."

"We've always said we'd never play favorites between you two. If Evelyn has to repeat senior year and you head off to college, your living costs and tuition will be totally different. Then you'll just say we're favoring one of you over the other again," she declared.

My mom tried to coax me. "Maddison, you're already at the top of your class. If you repeat senior year, you might even land a spot at an Ivy League school. Honestly, this could be a win for you. If you really think about it, Evelyn's the one who's losing out here."

These three were unbelievable. I rolled my eyes at their nonsense before storming out the door.

"I'm not going along with this. It's totally unfair to me," I snapped.

The moment I tried to leave, someone snatched my backpack right out of my hands.

My dad instantly pulled out my SATs admission slip.

My eyes widened in shock. "No!" I screamed.

Without hesitation, my dad ripped the ticket to pieces.

He looked at me with a triumphant glint in his eyes, clearly proud of what he'd done.