Chapter 1

The Honor Guard election list for the National Day ceremony was announced.

Someone gave my sister, Emily Saunders, and me the inside scoop.

"Congrats, Lucy! You got picked. Emily didn't make it," they said.

Lucy was so excited that she ran home.

And barely a few minutes after she'd gone, the person who told us came back.

"Oops, I mixed it up. Emily, you're actually the one who got picked."

My stomach dropped, and as I walked home, I racked my brain for words—how the heck was I going to break it to Lucy?

But then I scrolled through my phone and saw a post from my mom on her social media.

She wrote: [Some people are overconfident. Your legs and face are not good enough for an official ceremony. No wonder you didn't make it.]

I thought, 'Lucy is not that bad as Mom said at all.'

But then I saw Lucy's comment. [Haha, Mom, don't be so cruel to Emily.]

That's when it hit me. They thought I was the one who failed.

*****

My chest squeezed tightly, and I couldn't stop my hand from trembling as I gripped my phone.

The comments on my mom's post kept popping up.

Lucy: [With a face like hers, is she really worried about what people might say?]

Lucy: [The truth is harsh, but as her mom, you have to make sure she faces reality. It's for her own good.]

My mom: [Good thing I have a daughter like you, Lucy. If I didn't, I guess I'd just be doomed to a lifetime of hard work.]

My mom: [You two even share the same genes. You're gorgeous, and she's just plain ugly."

Lucy's smug replies showed up right afterward.

Lucy: [Guess I got lucky, or maybe it's some freak mutation, lol.]

Lucy: [Thank goodness I look like you, Mom! If I ended up like Emily, my life would basically be over!]

The posts stopped coming in, but I just stood there, frozen, gripping my phone.

It wasn't until drops started blotting my screen that I glanced up, a little out of it—thinking maybe it had started to rain.

But as I lifted my head, I realized it was only my own tears.

Just a moment ago, I was racking my brain, worried about how to tell Lucy without making her feel bad.

Now, honestly, it was a waste of time.

I was fretting over her feelings, yet meanwhile, she was teaming up with my mom, taking shots at me for deserving to get rejected.

My feet just carried me toward home, and all sorts of memories started rushing back.

Back when I was a kid, our house had three bedrooms. My mom didn't just give Lucy the biggest one—she even turned another into a study just for her.

I asked, "So where am I supposed to stay?"

She told me, "The storage room."

I remember how sad I looked, my eyes brimming with tears that just wouldn't fall.

"Can't I have the study instead?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"The study's for Lucy to do her homework. You need to take care of her. She's pretty. One day, she'll be famous, and maybe you'll get to ride her coattails," my mom said.

In the end, I moved into that cramped storage room—and I'd been living there ever since.

Even now, that tiny storage room is still the only corner in this house I can call my own.

Back in school, Lucy wanted to learn dance and piano, and my mom would fork over tens of thousands for her lessons without a second thought.

But when I was in high school and asked if I could join a tutoring class, my mom shut me down fast.

"You're too dumb, tutoring won't help. That'd just be throwing money away. Might as well save it for Lucy's hobbies," she told me.

But my teachers always said I was smart—if I just got a little extra help, I could totally get into a top university.

No matter how many times I said I was allergic, at dinner the table was always full of Lucy's favorite seafood.

Seeing me eat just sandwiches aside, my mom would just brush me off and say I was being fussy.

But when Lucy turned out to be allergic to mangoes, I couldn't even find a single mango-flavored candy in the house ever again.

Last year, a classmate gave me a mango. I hid it in my backpack, planning to sneak a bite later.

But my mom found out.

She didn't just toss the mango—she pointed right at my face and snapped, "Do you want to get Lucy killed or something?"