Meilani Lin thinks Brennon Huxley is the hottest guy at her school. When Meilani got paired up with Brennon for a project, she knew it was fate. She read too many romance novels to know that they would fall in love. Except when Meilani learns that B...
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flashback - 13 years ago
Being born on Halloween is the best. I'm eight and I get free candy. I'm dressed as witch and Keiko's a black cat. I grab my plastic Jack-O-Lantern bucket on the entry table. Our neighborhood is packed with my school friends and their parents. But only Keiko is accompanying me. Our parents think Halloween is a waste of time when you could've been studying. But since it's also my birthday , they let us go out.
We decide to go in a circle in our giant neighborhood and knock on the doors one by one with a huge grin on our faces hoping to get more candy from each house. Pieces of candy goes into my bucket one by one, filling up my bucket. I start eating a Hershey bar from my collection. The chocolate melts in my mouth as I shiver from the cold October wind.
We head back to our house once we get throug most of the houses. It's a tradition for us to trade candies on the couch once we're done trick-or-treating.
Keiko opens our front door to hear shouting. My parents are fighting.
Everything happens in a blur.
Once they hear the door open, they start shouting about me. This isn't the first time they yelled at me. But this is the first time they're getting mad at me for disappointing them. I didn't do good on my math test. I got an 82. I thought an 82 was a good score.
82 is a horrible score.
The shouts get mixed in my head, each hurtful comment stabbing my heart mercilessly.
'Why couldn't you be as smart as your sister?'
'I didn't raise you to be this way'
'Why didn't you get the highest score?'
I get it now, I'm a disappointment. I'm a letdown. I'm stupid. I'm stupid enough to think that an 85 would satisfy my parents.
They're yelling at each other. Making each other take the blame. But it wasn't their fault. It was mine.
I tried. I really tried. I tried to please my parents as best as I could. I always got top grades and nice comments from my teachers. But that wasn't enough. I had failed them.
I go to bed thinking that I wasn't worthy enough for my family.
******
I stare at the cracked, beige ceiling of my dorm room. Today is my birthday. I'm twenty one. Whenever it's my birthday, I always think about that night, thirteen years ago. Since then on, I stayed up reviewing every lesson we did to get a top score on my tests. I was only in third grade.
I just wanted my parents praise. I never got it. That was my whole childhood, trying to my parent's approval. I don't even remember my life before that night. Was I happy?
