I lived my entire life being wronged. I deserved the same life that every fourteen year old had. I deserved a house that I could call home. I deserved a loving family. But what I wanted most was money—not for luxury, but to live without worrying about food, clothes or hygiene. A good lifestyle was what I wanted and yearned for. My life started like any other: I was born. Then my mom and dad treated me with care and taught me to talk and walk. They took pictures of my proudest moments and also took pictures of my failures. I even won a spelling bee at 8 years old. They were proud, happy and ecstatic about my future. A week later:
" E-X-S-T-A-T-I-C ", I said.
" Wrong! "
I failed in the last stage of my second competition. I felt humiliated and depressed. I looked at my parents and they looked back at me, but it was different. They used to look at me with an amused look when I failed at practices, yet now they were talking to each other while looking at me. I knew it was bad and their expressions said it all.
It traumatized me.
I could never go to a spelling bee ever again without extensive practice was what the psychiatrist said to me.
Those words were the first words I memorized in seconds. I never knew that it was the start of my descent. They never brought me to another competition and never talked about my loss again. I talked vaguely about it to my primary school teacher and she then talked to my parents. I heard an argument break out with insults, shouts and screams. My teacher tried to make them understand that even if they were nobles, they shouldn't expect a child to be perfect. My mom retorted quickly saying that she had no voice in this matter and that my education could go however they wanted.
I heard that she got fired the day after. Yeah, I forgot to mention that, but my biological parents were nobles. A social class that gave you spots in a top university with an 80% mark in math.
Seriously!
I knew because that is how my cousin, a 22 year old, went into one of them without studying for more than 20 minutes each day.
" Why did your parents care about that spelling bee competition anyway? It doesn't matter. ", Jim said.
The truth was I never knew. Over the years, I had accumulated many hypotheticals and never got a response from them. The best hypothetical I could think of was that they lost a bet because of me or got humiliated in front of nobles because of me.
Might be both.
" I don't know ! Now shut up and let me talk "
- " Okay, okay poor fellow, ", he said sarcastically.
As I said, she got fired. A week later, I saw her on the street and she told me that I shouldn't be sad about her departure.
I was then told that I would have a younger sister. She was gifted. She was so smart that she had the knowledge at 4 years old of what I had at 8. The moment my parents found out, they showed her to the whole world because she wasn't a bit better than average like me, she was a genius. She could read and explain what she read at 4. She was destined for greatness.
Then a private academy where only the best young masters could enter gave a spot in their academy to our family. My parents were forced to a simple choice: either me or my sister could go to this prestigious academy.
In the end, father gave the spot to her.