i never knew why
but i always seemed to annoy my parents
it wasn't as if they didn't like kids
they absolutely adored my brother john
he was always being showered with
expensive gifts
in my case they never even remembered my
birthday
on my 10th birthday i came downstairs
and saw a tiny wrap box on the kitchen
table
i ripped it open only to have mom walk
in and snatch it away from me
that's not for you look she's torn the
wrapping
just then john walked in and they were
all smiles
they handed the box to him and inside
was a key to a porsche
he screamed into light and followed them
outside he jumped into his new car
mom dad let me take you around the block
with this baby
and they were all off together john was
failing high school and was mostly just
partying with girls but that never
seemed to bother my parents
last christmas he brought two gorgeous
girls home and my parents looked like
they couldn't be prouder
i had the duty of serving everyone
drinks and food i pretended to trip up
and spilled an entire tray of drinks on
jon and his guests
mom sent me to my room and i was more
than happy having dinner on my own
a couple of weeks later he turned up
with another girl alina
and said they were in a serious
relationship and she was moving in with
us
i wasn't even allowed to have friends
over to study with if i ever wanted to
ask someone
mom would say are you too stupid to do
your work on your own
and here my parents were welcoming elena
with open arms
to my horror i heard mom say oh john
probably doesn't have enough closet
space
why don't you put your things in gwyn's
closet she can put her clothes under her
bed
as i started cleaning out my closet i
said you know this is whisker's favorite
sleeping spot
i hope he doesn't scratch all your
pretty clothes
alina street picked up all her dresses
and ran off later that year
my brother and his dumb girlfriend
became proud parents to little mike
my parents practically sobbed with joy
at being grandparents
and i became the official babysitter
anytime they were heading out to a party
they'd dump the baby on me and tell me
they'd be late
which usually meant i'd be staying up
till two
trying to juggle schoolwork and diapers
to make matters worse
alina was a mess mom ordered me to do
everything she asked
and she had me running around constantly
because as she said
taking care of little mikey is so
exhausting
one time she sent me to get her favorite
chinese takeout and suddenly the paper
bag ripped and all the food boxes fell
out
i stood there staring at the mess for a
minute and then i just scooped up the
noodles from the pavement and put them
right back in the box
she didn't have to know she popped into
my room one day to try on one of her
designer dresses
and she started crying when she couldn't
get the zipper up because she'd gotten
so
fat i helped her out of it but inside i
felt
so happy served her right for stuffing
her face all day
one day while alina was taking one of
her many naps
i was watching over mike and he just
wouldn't stop crying
john barged into my room and snatched
him from me seriously why are you so
useless you can't even get a baby to be
quiet that was
it i was done with the thankless job and
these selfish people i decided that
things had to change now
anytime they tried to leave mic with me
i would say i was too busy with exams
and projects
and lock myself in my room i started
having my friends over too
one time while a friend called stella
and i were working on a project
mom walked in and said rudely it's
getting late
it's time for stella to go home i took
stella's hand and walked up to my room
slammed the door and started playing
loud music
and guess what my parents said they'd
had enough of me
they sent me off to live with one of my
aunts she was in her late 20s
i thought anywhere was better than my
house and i was almost looking forward
to it
but i was so wrong my aunt's ex-husband
had been in the army and i guess that's
where she got her military discipline
from
she had stupid rules for everything i
turned up for dinner
two minutes later than eight on the
first night and she said i could only
eat salad
she had a list of chores i had to manage
with school every day
i had to obey her rules otherwise i'd be
homeless
the only good thing about being there
was that her stepson paul
lived with her he was just a couple of
years older than me
and boy was he handsome he seemed glad
to have my company
and we became friends pretty quickly he
would ask me to join his buddies
whenever they were over
i totally wanted us to be more than just
friends of course and it was so exciting
to live in the room
next to my crush stella was over at my
place one day and
i told her i'd written a song for paul i
sing it for her
and she absolutely loved it well at
least someone got to hear it
the next day at school people seem to be
looking at me a lot more than usual
a girl from my class said wow i had no
idea you had such an amazing voice
another said oh my god why haven't you
auditioned for american idol already
wait what another girl pulled out her
phone and said
have you seen the views on your video
yet i looked in
horror at myself seeing in my room i
couldn't believe stella had recorded me
and uploaded the video to youtube
and it looked like everyone was loving
it the video
went viral suddenly every girl wanted to
be me
and every boy wanted to be with me i
could see the admiration in paul's eyes
too
if only he knew he was the inspiration
jacob
one of the most popular jocks in school
came up to me one lunch
he leaned on the table and said wanna go
out with me sometime
i said casually you're going to have to
impress me first
i made a dare and the next thing i knew
had jumped up on the table and was
taking his jersey off
everyone in the cafeteria had turned
around and there were
loud cheers and claps from the audience
boy
he was totally ripped but i looked at
him and said
nah i've seen better and with that i
walked away
jacob hadn't even noticed my existence
so i became popular
he totally deserved it soon enough
though i got a call to go to the
principal's office
the principal glared at me as i walked
in i knew she only liked the nerds
she called my parents and of course they
had nothing nice to say about me
she warned me that if i wanted to stay
in the school i'd better follow the
rules and be a good little girl
i felt so angry i was so
tired of everyone's rules i got up from
my chair and said
please don't talk to me like i'm a kid
i'm literally the most popular girl in
this stupid high school right now
the principal looked absolutely furious
she said
this is my last warning behave or you'll
be expelled
this wasn't over the principal needed to
treat me with respect
i was going to find a way to bring her
down the chance came sooner than i could
have hoped for
and it was so much better than any of my
original ideas
my aunt had sent me to get food from her
favorite restaurant one evening
and i stopped short when i looked in
through the window and saw two women
kissing
it was the principal and our science
teacher
last time i checked that was definitely
against the rules
i quickly whipped out my phone and made
a video of the two
that video was an overnight sensation
the principal and the teacher were both
forced to quit and everyone was ecstatic
that we were rid of the horrible
principle and i
was the one who made it happen i was
crazy popular now
one day in the science lab i caught
alexa staring right at me
she smiled at me when our eyes met alexa
was really popular
the lab instructor told us to pair up
and she quickly came to my side
we became friends and started hanging
out a lot at one of her parties
i told her she looked really good and
she blushed she took my hand
and led me to the dance floor i could
tell she was really into me
and to my shock i realized that i might
be a little into her too
i invited her to my aunts one day paul
and some of his friends were watching
the game and asked us to join them
my aunt walked in with some snacks and
she instantly seemed to warm up to alexa
i had never seen her look so
affectionately at anyone
alexa and paul really seemed to hit it
off too and after a while
i felt a little bit left out of their
conversation soon after that
alexa started hanging out with me less
and whenever i'd call
she'd say she was busy paul seemed to be
homeless often too
i wondered if the two were hanging out
together without me
one day when i got home from school i
heard laughter from the lounge
it was alexa and my aunt alexa said
uh hi gwen i was just here to see paul
i didn't care if my aunt liked alexa
better i just couldn't afford to lose
paul
i decided to tell him how i felt about
him the next evening
i texted paul to meet me in the garden
after dinner he seemed really surprised
to see me all dressed up he said
hey gwen what's going on i took his hand
looked deeply in his eyes and said i'm
just a girl
standing in front of a boy asking him to
love her
i closed my eyes and leaned in to kiss
him but i suddenly felt him gently
push me back paul looked completely
shocked
he slowly said um gwen i'm a boy who's
into
other boys i thought you would have
figured that out
i have a boyfriend actually i ran away
from the scene as fast as i could
high school was about to end and i
didn't want to live with my aunt anymore
things were really awkward with paul
since that night and besides
i was making enough for my youtube
seeing videos to afford a small
apartment on my own
one afternoon the draw ball rang and i
was really surprised to see that it was
alina
she'd lost a ton of weight and looked
fab
she said she needed my help so i
reluctantly let her in
she said your jerk brother cheated on me
she and john had broken up and my
parents had sent him away to join the
army
they were taking care of mike since
selena's parents had stopped talking to
her after she got pregnant
she had nowhere to go she begged me to
let her crash at my place
until she could figure something out i
could hardly say no to that beautiful
face
so i agreed i thought i'd hate having
her around
but i guess not being with my brother
made her less of a jerk
in fact she was going out of her way to
cook my favorite meals
and kept the house clean i realized she
was really good company
she was great at styling and helped me
look amazing for my videos
one evening i came home to a candlelit
dinner for two
alina looked stunning suddenly
she pulled me in for a kiss and i kissed
her back we were super happy together
our video series became more and more
popular
and we were now a famous youtube couple
we were making really good money
and we moved into a bigger house alina
asked me one day
if i'd have dinner with her sister i
knew she really missed her family so i
happily agreed
when her sister arrived at our table i
almost fell off my chair
it was alexa and she was with someone it
was my aunt
needless to say that was one awkward
dinner i just wanted to put the past and
these people behind me already
i spoke too soon just a few days later i
got a text from my brother
saying he wanted to come see us i was
curious about what he wanted
so i invited him over the next day when
he turned up
he looked around the house and said well
quinny
you've done really well for yourself
just then
elena walked in and sat down next to me
john looked a bit angry
i said yes as you can see i have a much
better life than you
i have everything you could possibly
want he forced a smile and said
well yes so here's the thing i have a
great business plan
i need a hundred thousand dollars for it
though can you lend me the money
why was i not surprised i said i'd
rather throw the money in the gutter
than give it to someone as selfish as
you
that seemed to be too much for him he
jumped to his feet and shouted no matter
how rich or famous you get
mom and dad will always like me more
mom and dad will always like me more will always be alone no matter what
will always be alone no matter what
will always be alone no matter what do
do
with that he stormed out i smiled at
alina
and pointed to the camera that had been
running the whole time i uploaded the
video to my channel
and told my viewers all about how my
family had mistreated me
a few weeks later my parents showed up
with mike turned out
john had sunk all their money in a
stupid business investment
and had come to ask me for money to pay
his debts
he couldn't get a loan from anywhere and
they had to sell their house
they cut ties with him completely now
and begged me to help them
i couldn't forget how they treated me
but i was better than them
plus they had looked after michael these
years i forgave them
and alina and i moved them into a
separate wing of our mansion
at our grand new year's party alexa came
by looking absolutely stunning
apparently she was no longer with my
aunt she kept flirting with me all
evening and was conveniently by my side
when it struck 12.
she said i guess i'll have to kiss you
now i pushed her aside
and walked off i joined elena on the
balcony and took her hand
i said the best thing to happen to me is
you
she smiled and said my life with
she smiled and said my life with is just perfect and we kissed under the
is just perfect and we kissed under the
stars