I’m a twin, and my mother hates the introverted me while favoring my lively and cute sister. She gives the best to my sister, raising her to be beautiful and adorable, while I’m treated more like a dog. Until one day, my mother called my sister’s name while looking at me. Suddenly, I saw hope, my eyes lighting up as I looked at my sister lying unconscious on the ground. I’ve been allergic to milk since I was little, but my mom works at a dairy factory, and breakfast is always just milk. My sister is allergic too. She breaks out in hives all over when she drinks it, but she never told mom to avoid upsetting her. My sister forces me to drink her share every day, so I’ve had red rashes on my face for years, which eventually left dark spots. Mom always calls me Freckle Face and doesn’t like how self-conscious and timid I am. She prefers my sister’s lively and cute personality. My sister hates me too because we have the same face, but mine is always covered in freckles, so she makes me cover my face with thick hair and a mask. She also makes me tell others that I’m allergic to dust and doesn’t let me admit that I’m her twin sister. At school, wherever my sister is, there’s laughter and admiration, but when I appear, even the liveliest scene instantly goes cold. They hate me, but no one wants to be the bad guy and say it out loud, so they choose to ignore me. My sister’s grades have always been good, all thanks to me cheating for her. Her grades are fake, but the admiration she gets is real. Beautiful and smart, my sister became the school belle, while I’m the school’s despised plague.
Coming home from school, I was suddenly kicked over while taking off my shoes in the entryway. He stepped on me twice, muttering about bad luck. This man is mom’s new boyfriend, a drunkard and a thug, but mom always fantasizes that he’ll give her a better life. Every time this thug comes to our house to see mom, he beats me up before leaving. I don’t know why, but he always seems particularly refreshed after beating me when he’s initially irritated. After finishing his cigarette, he flicked the butt into my collar. I frantically rolled against the wall, trying to get it out. He mocked me, saying I’m not even as good as a dog – at least other dogs would bark when bullied. But I just lower my head and stay silent when bullied. When dinner is ready, mom and my sister usually come home. I can only eat after they finish. Mom doesn’t want to eat leftovers, so I have to finish whatever they leave, which has made me fatter and uglier. I have no friends and no fixed room. I usually sleep in the attic, and sometimes when mom gets angry, she kicks me out. I sleep in the shed in the backyard. It’s big enough for me, and we’ve never actually kept a dog. One rainy day, Mrs. Wilson from next door saw me sleeping in the shed and kindly took me to her house to rest. I sat in her living room by the warm fireplace, listening to Mrs. Wilson tell stories while knitting. Mrs. Wilson is kind-hearted and often invites me over to play. She’s the only one who doesn’t despise me. I really wish she was my real grandmother. One day on my way home from school, a stone suddenly hit my head. I turned around to see a group of girls, with my sister in the middle. One of the girls said, “So, is she really a ghost? How come she doesn’t react when hit?” My sister stared at me and smiled, saying, “She’s Freckle Face. I’ve heard her mom call her that.” The group burst into laughter. I hugged my backpack tightly, wanting to run, but they surrounded me. They told me to drop out of school, saying they didn’t want to see such an unlucky person at school. I can’t drop out. I’ve been enduring everything just to stay in school, just to not leave this home. They threw my backpack into the river. Encouraged by the others, my sister stuck her chewing gum in my hair. It was dark when I finally got home, hugging my wet backpack. I didn’t dare go inside, so I went to Mrs. Wilson next door. Mrs. Wilson lit a fire for me again and helped bandage the wound on my head. I hugged her and cried, deeply moved. In this world, only Mrs. Wilson is so kind to me. Mrs. Wilson stroked my head and said that if she hadn’t said those things back then, maybe I wouldn’t be treated like this.
My crying stopped abruptly as I listened quietly to her talk about what happened after I was born. Before getting pregnant, my mom had been assaulted by a coworker at the factory, and then she had my sister and me with my dad. Mrs. Wilson discovered this and spread the news, instantly shattering the harmony in our family. My dad left, unable to bear the rumors, and my mom raised my sister and me alone. When I was five, Mrs. Wilson said in front of my mom that my sister looked more like our dad, both in temperament and appearance. From that moment, mom became convinced that I was the rapist’s child, while my sister was her child with dad. I asked Mrs. Wilson why she thought my sister looked more like dad. She said it was just a joke at the time, but she didn’t expect my mom to take it seriously. It was from that year on that mom started to despise me, treating me like an abandoned child. I asked Mrs. Wilson why she never thought to explain. She shook her head, saying she didn’t want to lose face. Because she didn’t want to lose face, Mrs. Wilson never explained her joke. She just watched me grow up like this. The next day, Mrs. Wilson passed away at home. Perhaps knowing her time was near, she told me those things the night before. I was the first to know about Mrs. Wilson’s death. She had a letter to send to her children. The letter wasn’t sent before she died, so I helped mail it out. Mrs. Wilson’s family, receiving the letter, thought she was still well and went on vacation worry-free. It wasn’t until a month later when they returned home that they saw Mrs. Wilson’s body. When I couldn’t go home, I often sat outside Mrs. Wilson’s house, not daring to go in or tell anyone. Until Mrs. Wilson’s disfigured body was carried away, and her house became empty. Mrs. Wilson had said she wanted to leave with dignity and cleanliness. I didn’t tell anyone she had died, until her body decomposed and maggots crawled over it. Let this be my little joke in return.
Without Mrs. Wilson’s companionship, my life seemed to get harder. Luke wanted to break up with mom. Mom quit her job, spending her days drinking and coming home late. As soon as mom gets home, she goes to the attic to beat me, saying it’s my bad luck that made Luke not want to see her anymore. The first time I saw mom cry was because of that thug Luke. The next day, I waited outside the bar where Luke usually hangs out. After waiting all night without seeing him come out, I was about to leave when I was kicked down again. Luke dragged me into an alley and beat me up. It was clear he had been in a bad mood lately because he hit harder than usual. As he was pulling open my collar, he saw the whiteness of my neck and suddenly became interested. “You little Freckle Face, your skin’s not bad. Let me see what it looks like inside,” Luke said as he tried to tear off my clothes. I got scared and frantically grabbed a tree branch, stabbing his eye and blinding it. Luke kicked me hard in anger. During the interval when he was howling and covering his eye, I quickly got up and ran. I had only come to find him to ask him to go see my mom and not make her sad anymore. I didn’t expect to blind his eye. Luke roared that he would kill me once his eye healed. I’m not afraid of him, but I’m scared of what mom would do if she found out. Would she kick me out for good? When I got home, I collapsed on the floor, clutching my stomach in pain. My sister and mom were home, but they didn’t care about me at all. In my daze, I felt like I was about to be beaten to death. It wasn’t until mom came home late at night and kicked me as she passed by that I woke up. I responded softly. Knowing I was still alive, mom seemed a bit disappointed. As she was about to go back to her room, I grabbed her foot. Like a dog that wouldn’t let go, no matter how much she kicked. “You little Freckle Face, you’re getting more and more annoying!” Mom said as she kicked me away, “You won’t be going to school next year. As long as Zoey gets into Harvard, we’ll move to another city.” At that time, they’ll abandon me, right? I don’t want to be abandoned. Before next year comes, I need to do something for myself.
I pushed open Zoey’s door. Seeing me, she threw a book at me in annoyance. I picked up the book from the floor and smiled at Zoey, saying, “I can help you cheat and get the top grade in the year.” Zoey was a bit skeptical. In previous exams, my guessing of questions at most helped her rank in the top fifty of the year. “With the top grade in the year, you can get early admission to Harvard. When you do, please ask mom to let me continue school.” Hearing my offer, Zoey smiled and casually agreed. I left Zoey’s room and started studying hard, looking forward to the day I could change my fate. During the school fair, I was assigned to wear a mascot costume and hand out flyers. The hot weather almost gave me heatstroke. A group of basketball players rushed by, and I was about to lose my balance when suddenly a guy grabbed my hand. It was Jack from the school basketball team, sunny and handsome, liked by many girls. After steadying me, he was worried I might get heatstroke, so he specially bought a bottle of water and handed it to me. I stammered a thank you. He said, “Your voice sounds really nice.” He smiled, curiously trying to peek at what the girl under the mascot looked like. I remembered how everyone at school despised me and got scared, immediately sitting down on the ground. If he found out I was the unlucky ghost of the school, he would be very disappointed, right? Thinking this, I immediately ran away, avoiding him. I hadn’t finished handing out the flyers when the girls from my class locked me in a bathroom stall. I was still daydreaming about Jack’s smile when I was suddenly awakened by a bucket of dirty water. As the sound of laughter gradually faded away, I curled up on the toilet, quietly waiting for someone to find me the next day. Surprisingly, the door opened after just a few minutes. It was a girl with a bruised face. I was puzzled why she didn’t show any disgust when she looked at me. Her name was Ava. She said she was also bullied by them, so she was willing to help me. “What’s your name?” My name is Zoe, Zoe Xu. Apart from Mrs. Wilson, Ava was the first person to call me by my name. “Zoe, you should stand up straight, keep yourself clean, lose some weight, and get rid of the freckles on your face.” Those are dark spots, they can’t be removed. “How can they not be removed? Have you really tried everything to do it?” I looked up at her in confusion. She blinked her big eyes, still bruised, flashing with energy. I hadn’t tried everything to get myself out of this mire. But after hearing Ava’s words, I was motivated to make some changes.
I stopped obediently eating all the leftovers. I would secretly pour away the milk Zoey made me drink, and I started learning ways from the internet to gradually remove the spots on my body. One day, while Zoey was eating breakfast, she told me to drink her milk as usual. I agreed readily, but she suddenly insisted on watching me drink it. I was in the recovery period of treating my rashes, and if I continued to drink the milk I was allergic to, it would all be in vain. “If you want to get the top grade, don’t always force me to do things.” Zoey was silent for a moment, then smiled and stuck her chewing gum in my hair. She said, “I do need you to help me get the top grade in the year, but that doesn’t give you the right to negotiate with me.” Zoey knows how to please mom and make everyone like her, so she’s always been able to act with impunity. As for me, I looked at the milk, more determined than ever to change everything. From then on, I would get up at five every morning to jog and lose weight, then do homework and practice questions. Sometimes I’d be so focused I’d forget to make breakfast. Mom, hungover, would angrily beat me. The mother and daughter duo would insult and mock me in turns. They laughed at me for paving the way for someone else’s future. I was shocked and grabbed Zoey, asking, didn’t she promise to speak up for me and let me continue school? Zoey pushed me away in disgust, saying even if she spoke up, mom wouldn’t let me continue school, but if I didn’t keep helping her, I wouldn’t even have a home. We’re twins, both mom’s children, yet I have to beg just to have a home. I’m not resigned to this.
After the midterm exams, the school would conduct a monthly test. This time, my assigned seat was right behind Zoey. This way, I didn’t need to guess the questions, I could directly pass the answers to Zoey during the exam. For seven consecutive exams, Zoey managed to copy all the answers I gave her without a hitch. On the day the results came out, I stared at Zoey’s name, nervously scanning down the list until I finally saw Zoey’s name at the twentieth position. Zoey was surrounded by everyone, with praise and admiration rising and falling. Zoey was very happy at the center of attention. While I, in the corner, secretly glanced at Zoe’s name. Zoe’s grades were in the top fifty of the year. Zoe, that’s pretty good too. In the following exams, Zoey’s ranking gradually rose, and everyone admired Zoey’s beauty and talent. She also gradually lost some of her humble facade in this game of fame and fortune. Until the last monthly test, Zoey had reached third in the year. With Zoey’s grades improving dramatically, her classmates and friends all wanted to ask her for help with their studies. She was usually poor in her studies and couldn’t answer any of their questions. She brushed them off, preferring to talk with the boys who blindly admired her rather than explaining to her friends why she wouldn’t teach them. Gradually, Zoey lost her close friends and was left with only a group of admirers circling around her. I enjoyed watching the girls gossip about her, spreading rumors and slandering her from the corner. I was a bit happy. Now we were like twin sisters both disliked. But Zoey would still arrogantly throw books at my head. She was very angry, “Now all the girls in the class are targeting me. Is this the benefit of being top of the year?” I consoled her, “You should be more humble. They don’t like you being too showy and proud.” Zoey picked up the book and hit me again. “It’s all because of you! Now they’re spreading rumors that I’m a fraud, that I’m a slut who seduced teachers for grades.” Hearing this, I couldn’t help but feel happy, because I was the one who took the photos that sparked the rumors. It was a scene of a teacher talking to Zoey, but with a slight misalignment in the shot, it created a photo that could be misunderstood. Zoey is so beautiful, it’s normal for her to be favored by teachers, but I didn’t make them spread such extreme rumors. Seeing me smirking, Zoey grabbed my hair fiercely and said, “What are you laughing at? You think this makes you more like me?” She said if it was discovered that I deliberately set her up, I would be dead. “Don’t you think we’re becoming more and more like sisters?” Zoey looked at me with disdain, “Are you worthy of being my sister? You’re just the daughter of a rapist. But, to be like me, you have to drag me down, to make me as dirty and despicable as you?” She was despising the meanness in my thoughts, but wasn’t she the one who led the bullying against me, breaking that window of human nature?
For the final exams, the school leaders started strict inspections. Zoey, caught in the whirlwind of rumors, was called to the office for questioning. To test if Zoey’s grades were real, the leaders had her complete several difficult test papers in front of all the teachers. After a morning of repeated grading by the teachers, Zoey’s test papers were almost all perfect scores, confirming her true academic ability. And the one who made all this happen was me. It was me who took Zoey’s identity to do the test papers. The rumors about Zoey cheating were temporarily suppressed. Without the gossip, Zoey was very happy. I was happy too, because on this day when I substituted for Zoey, I didn’t have to lower my head or hide behind thick hair. Previously, when we knew there would be an inspection by the leaders, Zoey had stayed up all night at her desk. But cramming for a few days couldn’t make up for all the knowledge. Besides, Zoey had never liked studying since she was little. With an invisible sister helping her cheat, why would she waste time studying? When the lie was about to be exposed, when the high pedestal supporting her was about to collapse. She finally agreed to let me take her place and take the test for her.
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