Chapter 2

Julian scoffed.

"Who are you trying to scare?"

"Besides us, who would want some shabby farm girl from the middle of nowhere?"

Nearby, Mireille stared at the phone and muttered in dissatisfaction.

"This is the only one that's even usable, but the lighting is still wrong."

I glanced at the picture.

"It looks fine. Let's sign the—"

Dad cut me off.

"If your sister wants to fix it, let her. We still have more than ten minutes. What's the rush?"

Mom patted my back and told me to relax.

After tapping at the screen for a while, Mireille suddenly looked up.

"No. My hair is messy."

"This is the first picture of Elowen coming home. I can't look terrible in it."

She ran back to the car and returned with a comb and hairspray.

Mom immediately followed to straighten her collar.

Mireille smiled at me.

"Three minutes, Elowen. That's all."

Once her hair was fixed, she tugged at her dress.

"It's wrinkled too. Why does everything have to go wrong on such an important day?"

Grandma couldn't take it anymore.

"Adrian, she's being childish, but why are you encouraging her? There are only ten minutes left!"

Dad helped Grandma sit down, his voice strangely reproachful.

"Mom, I know you love Elowen, but you don't have to make your favoritism so obvious."

"Mireille put real effort into welcoming her sister. By rushing her, you're deliberately embarrassing her."

I almost laughed.

Grandma defended me once, and that made her biased.

They abandoned me for Mireille again and again, then called it keeping the family together.

I looked at Dad, my voice rough.

"Dad, ten minutes. If you sign now, the clerk can still accept the filing."

Mireille ran back with her hair fixed, looking sweet and innocent.

"I'm ready, Elowen. It only took two minutes."

Julian immediately praised her.

"You usually need at least half an hour to get ready. Two minutes today? Elowen must be pretty important."

They all laughed.

Mireille rearranged everyone and deliberately pushed me into the middle.

"Elowen is the star today."

Right before the camera clicked, she slapped a hand to her forehead.

"Oh! My college acceptance letter came too."

"We should put it in the picture. Today is already such a special occasion."

She pulled her USC acceptance letter from her purse.

My hand instinctively slipped into my backpack.

"I got one too—"

Before I could finish, Julian sneered.

"Mireille got into USC. Don't compare that to some random community college in the sticks."

My hand went still, then slowly withdrew.

Grandma started to speak, but I shook my head at her.

Mom was beaming.

"Mireille has made us so proud. Even Julian's acceptance wasn't this impressive."

Dad looked just as delighted.

"Mom, your favorite granddaughter got into USC. Tell everyone at church."

Grandma gave a cold laugh.

"USC is a fine school, but is it Stanford?"

Julian rolled his eyes.

"Grandma, don't believe every wild story you hear. You really think a town nobody can find on a map produced a Stanford student?"

The acceptance letter pressed against my palm inside the bag.

I didn't take it out.

"Nine minutes. If you're taking the picture, hurry."

The clerk had already begun organizing the day's files.

Mireille mistook my silence for embarrassment and comforted me thoughtfully.

"Don't feel bad, Elowen. Even if your applications didn't go well, you're still the star today."

I ignored her.

When the picture was finally taken, she looked at it and frowned again.

"No. My hair still looks flat. Let's do one more."

I raised my hand to stop her and asked my parents one last time.

"Seven minutes. Are you signing or not?"

Julian shoved my hand away.

"Mireille only wants to look her best while welcoming you. What did she do wrong?"

"Can you stop hounding us like a debt collector?"

I nodded.

"Fine."

"One way or another, I'm settling the question of my family today."