She had it all. The hair, the clothes, the smarts, the cooler friends; she just had everything. On the other hand, I had nothing. No friends, no sense of style and I was shy so I always stood in the back round. No one ever noticed me but Carmen, my sister. She was my only friend. Probably because I live with her or because we were told to get along.
I woke up. It was the first day of school. I was not excited to go at all but my sister had everything laid out and ready to go. She had all the cool school supplies, because she made them herself, and she was born to be this perfect girl, in my opinion. Everyone wanted to be her including me.
Today, our mom offered to take us to school. Usually she would make us ride the bus but I guess she was in a good mood. She took those lame first day of school pictures that all moms take when they find a good opportunity.
We hoped in the car. It was so hot. The sun rays heated up the car through the windshield. I immediately turned on the air to cool off. As we rode down the street we listened to music and I thought of ways to avoid school. I really did not want to go but all my ideas had failed because we were pulling up to the drop off circle.
“Please don’t make me go!” I pleaded to my mom. “It’s a world of humiliation.”
She chuckles to herself.
“It’s not that bad. You’re over exaggerating.”
She obviously hasn't been to my school if she thinks everything is all nice and friendly. We get out of our black impala and I slowly trudge towards the gigantic doors of humiliation. My sister runs full speed past me to catch up with her friends from last year squealing and jumping. Talking selfies and feeling good about the new year as I creep up behind her in her shadows.
“OMG I haven’t seen you guys all summer like lol,” she exclaimed.
She is speaking in all these girly acronyms and I can’t keep up.
She walks in the school building with her group of five friends and I saunter behind. We all go through the security and as we were walking through the metal detector I beeped. All my sisters friends turned around in shock.
“Did you just be-,” my sister cuts her off.
“Im sure its just nothing,” as she starts patting me down. “Whats this?”
She stops by my left pocket. It makes a jingling sound. She pulls it out of my pocket. The keys dangle on a pink and blue checkered key chain.
“Oh they’re just keys.”
Yea just keys I think to myself.
The first bell of the day rings and it’s officially the start of a new school year.
5 months later…
Five months into the year and I’ve already got new friends. Everyone at school likes me for some odd reason and I am actually passing my classes.
“Hey Cambry.”
Someone says from down the hall. Someone I haven’t seen before but they knew me.
“Hey do you want to come to my party.”
“Your party?”
I’ve never been invited to a party before, especially Ambers. Everyone says that she throws the biggest parties with the most people. I can’t believe I’m getting invited.
“Sure I would like to come,” I say as I slowly take the invitation out of her hands.
“Great!” She exclaimed while she was walking away to catch up with her group of friends.
I caught up with Carmen and we walked to the car together. I told her all about how I got invited to Amber's party.
“You got invited to Amber's party,” she exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to get into one of her parties for the longest. How did you get an invitation?”
“Well… she just like walked up to me and asked if I would like to go.”
“Wait she asked you?”
“Yea. It was totally weird because I’ve never even spoke to her or became friends with her or anything.”
The invitation read…
“Come to my party
January 15
134 national parkway 45417
9:00 to whenever
Be there and you can have a plus one”
“Omg can I like please be your plus one,” she begs me. “Please!” and she gives me the puppy eyes.
“Well since you're so willing to go sure you can be my plus one.”
She jumps and screams and gives me a big hug.
“Now we have to go…”
“Please don’t say shopping…”
“Shopping!”
As we get in the car Carmen explains every little detail about the party.
“And that’s why we need to go shopping mom so please can we?”
“I mean I don’t see why not. I’ll drop you guys off at the mall and you each can have $100 to spend. Don’t go over the limit.”
She hands me her credit card.
As we pull up to the mall my sister starts making a list of all the stores we need to stop at. She mentions all these stores like Forever 21, Rue 21, Charlotte Russe and H&M. She even included a lunch break in our schedule. If you’d ask me I’d she she is pretty organized with shopping but not organized with her own life.
The first store we stop at is Forever 21 and Carmen runs in the store and sees the perfect ruby red crop top.
“This’ll be perfect for the party!” She exclaims. Then she motions me to go find something on the clearance rack.
I didn’t really want to be so dressed up for a party because it’s just a party like it’s nothing formal like a wedding or a funeral. My idea was to just wear my red hoodie, jeans and my white converse or just something a little more me.
“Why can I just wear something I already own.”
Carmen stops in her tracks.
“You do understand that this isn’t just some ordinary party,” she explains to me. “ It’s Ambers party, the most popular girl at school. You can’t just look any kind of way Cambry. If we’re going to show up we’re going to show out do you understand me?”
“But it’s her par-”
“I don't care whose party it is,” she snapped at me. “As long as we look good nothing else matters. Got it?”
She is being really selfish. I didn’t even have to invite her to this silly little party. It’s not my fault because I was chosen over her Amber just came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to her party. None of this even had to involve her but she always tries to take over and I’ve never stood up to her about it. This time maybe I will.
“You’re just jealous.” I scream at her from behind. “You’re just mad that she gave me the invite instead of you. Well if that’s how it’s going to be I will find new plus one. I don’t need you anyway.”
I walk away from her and my mom is waiting outside in the car. I didn’t want to keep her waiting so I just jumped in.
“Where is your sister,” she asks. “I know I dropped off two of you.”
I was still mad at her so I lied to my mom and said that she got a ride with another friend. I told her that I didn’t go with them because they weren’t my friends.
“Oh she should’ve called me so I could’ve known where she was. She has a phone for a reason.”
We pull off and I’m glad that we left her at the mall. She was being such a bully and I didn’t want to be surrounded by her negative energy. A few hours later, around 9 o’clock, my mom gets a call on the phone. We didn’t know who it was because my mom usually doesn’t get calls after 8:30 pm.
“Are you coming to get us?” Carmen yells through the phone. “It’s 9:10 and a school night where are you. Cambry and I are still here but I don’t know which store she is in.”
“Cambry is not at the mall. She is home with me.”
She gasps.
“Ahh that traitor. Can you please come pick me up?”
“Yea but you better be outside when I pull up. I’ll be there in 30 mins.”
“I thought you said she got a ride with her friends?” my mom asked.
“Well that’s what she told me,” I lied straight to her face. “ I guess she changed her mind.”
My mom left to get Carmen from the mall. When they returned, Carmen busted in the house ferocious as ever.
“CAMBRY!” she yelled for my name. “We need to talk!”
She marched up the carpeted stairs and busted my bedroom door open with her foot.
“Why did you leave me at the MALL!” She screamed.
“Because you were being mean and I didn’t like the way you were over exaggerating about some literal clothes. Did you at least find you an outfit?”
“Yes I did. But only because I had an extra 30 minutes to look around since mom drives so slow.”
“Well. That's good isn’t it. You got what you wanted so you should be happy for it. It’s not everyday that we go to the mall you know.”
“Well it’s not everyday that you get left either.”
I start to ignore Carmen’s rude remarks and I lay in my bed and go to sleep. While I’m sleep I dream about what Ambers party would look like.
A few days later…
I woke up excited because today was Amber's party. I threw on my red sweatshirt, jeans and my white converse. I already knew today was going to be a good day.
I had a good day at school. I didn’t have any homework and it was a Friday. I was so ready for the party. We left the house around 8:45 so I would not be too early or too late. I called my sister. She was my plus one so she was supposed to ride with me.
“Hey are you coming along. You’re supposed to com-”
“Oh its okay I got a ride.”
“You sure we were supposed to go togeth-”
“Yup I’m totally fine.”
She hangs the phone up quickly. That seemed very strange to me.
We arrive to the party. A big sign in front says “No invitation No party.” Good thing I brought mine. I reach in my pocket to insure that I have it. As I feel my pocket I don’t feel the little bump. I check the other one. Nothing. I really start to panic because my invitation is nowhere to be found. I start feeling all over my body and I don’t feel my folded up invitation anywhere. I look out the window and see my sister and her guilty little follower of a friend proudly walking into Ambers party. I was enraged. Not only did she use me to get new clothes, she also took my ticket and brought one of her own crappy little friends to Amber's party. At this point I was so enraged that I walked my confident little self up to her and confronted her about it.
“And what do you think you’re doing!” I said to her while I blocked her from going in. “You are such a traitor.”
“Me? Traitor? Oh no honey you got things messed up. You see. You left me at the mall and I was all alone. With no one to call.”
“You literally called my mo-.”
“That’s besides the point. What I’m trying to say is that you left me after I have been there for you. I watched over you. I cared for you.”
“Dang this getting a little deep,” her friend remarks.
“I’ve tried my best to be a great role model and you repay me like this. What kind of a sister are you?”
“Oh I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it affected you like this. I’m truly sorry. You guys go on in and enjoy the party I’ll call mom to come pick me up.”
“Thankyou.” She says as she sniffles her nose. “I am so glad that you truly understand.”
What a phony. She really thinks she can get off the hook like that as if I’m really going to believe that she is actually sorry. She wouldn’t even be sorry if she hadn’t stole my ticket in the first place. I needed to find a way in.
I sneak around back and I see an opened door. I know that door leads to the party because I hear music coming out of it. I sneak in and I am truly amazed. All these purple and pink neon lights fill the air. Everyone is dancing and having fun and all the way across the room I see Carmen and her friend. I really need to get over there. The party room was underground so when I walked in, it lead to an indoor balcony. The balcony has a huge furnace off to the right and it has a gigantic video camera, like the ones they use in music videos. I turned the camera on and it started recording. I tried walking to the right then I tripped over the cord. It unplugged and the slideshow of Amber on the projector shut off. Lots of people gasped because they didn't know what was going on. The projector ended up connecting to the video camera, wirelessly, and Carmen and her little friend were shown on the screen.
“I don’t know why she would literally believe such a phony story. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.”
“Right did you see the look on her poor little face when you made her feel guilty.”
“Right she looked like a little sad puppy. But I only pretended to be all buddy buddy with her because I knew she had the ticket. And that’s why we are here right now and nowhere to be found by my annoyingly depressed sister Cambry.
“Got ya!” I say to her from behind. She turns around so sharply that she hits her friend in the nose and it starts to bleed. I see her friend dash for the bathroom.
“How did you get in I thought you were-”
“On the way home? Yeah right. I figured you’d be up to something because you were acting so nice. I obviously knew that you were lying.”
“Well how did you hear about the conversation.”
“Simple eavesdropping.”
I looked up from where Carmen and I were arguing and the whole center floor had been cleared with every one in a circle around us. I felt so embarrassed because I’m usually not the center of attention. I didn’t want to look like a chicken so I just stayed there.
Amber came through the crowd pushing and stumbling trying to get to the center. She finally made it through.
“What is going on here?” She asks in a very confused way. “Why aren’t you guys partying?”
“Long story short,” I explain to her. “Carmen stole my invite and used it to get into your party.”
“That’s not good. SECURITY!” Amber yells. “ Please take these two girls Carmen and whatever her friends name is out of my party thank you.”
As I watch my sister and her friend get escorted by security, the party quickly resumes as if nothing actually happened. I felt a small tug on my arm. I turned around and it was Amber
“Sorry about what you had to go through sis. I’ve been in your shoes before so I know how you feel.”
“Gee thanks. It’s not every day that you find someone that can relate to you.”
We turn and walk back into the party together as new best friends.