Chapter 2

"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.