𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 14

An evil idea slides its way from the back of my brain into my thoughts.

"I know how to get revenge."

"How?"

"By dating Shawn obviously. She likes him, she's too easy to read."

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Jasmine POV

If anybody told me how much my mum didn't want me 'wasting' away my life on a dream that I won't ever achieve, I would've never auditioned for the musical. It's one thing to make your mum mad, but it's another to make her disappointed in you.

I can still remember last night, excitingly going up the stairs into her office, and while I stood at the door she was praising Claudia on passing her final viola exam. Mind you, I had completed my final piano exam last year, but my mum had never praised me about it. In fact, somehow she managed to make it all about Claudia.

We had all sat down at this fancy Chinese restaurant, all of our family relatives sat around holding hot cups of tea in their hands. My mum started speaking in Chinese to the whole family, saying something about how the only reason why I even passed my piano exam was because I always played accompiant to Claudia's viola.

I think all of my relatives were confused that my mum was making it about Claudia, because my grandma sympathetically looked at me while my grand-uncle looked pissed off. Almost none of my relatives had actually congratulated Claudia on her achievement, and when my mum raised her glass every reluctantly took up their china teacups. Most of dinner was filled with silence, and an occasional whisper about how this dinner should've been about me.

My grand-uncle is a music professor at Juilliard. Or he was, until he retired a couple of years ago. He taught me how to play piano since I was three, and I'm forever thankful for that.

I wish I was three again, I liked his classes. He was one of those teachers that somehow managed to make piano fun for everyone, but also made it really effective. Mum doesn't like him though, apparently when she was younger he refused to teach her piano. I think this might be because she called him an old buffoon like Lao-Lao told me, but mum always says it's because he told her that her fingers weren't long enough.

Her fingers were the opposite of short,

Claudia brightly smiled, in a formal striking revealing red dress. Once mum had finished her speech, she had placed her hand on Claudia's exposed shoulders, and I swore I heard my aunt say in mandarin that Claudia looked like a stripper, or a prostitute.

I'm not gonna argue with that, but getting back to the present; I was waiting at her office door while mum was talking to Claudia about how she had a very bright future. I carefully knocked on the clean door, and it naturally slowly swung open to reveal me.

"What do you want," Claudia sniffed as she glanced over at me. "Mum and I are celebrating my good news."

"I have good news too," I confidently say. "I got the lead in our school musical."

I expected mum to be happy for me, or maybe even give me some form of a congratulations. Or even just give me a small nod of approval; But she didn't, and instead, she frowned. Even the painting behind her of a very angry man looked happier than she did.

"What do you mean?" She annoyingly said, putting down Claudia's framed certificate in her hands. I can barely see what grade she got, but I think it says Claudia got a credit in her exam. "You mean you're going to waste your time on this?"

"Mum I didn't mea-"

"Okay whatever," she angrily said, cutting me off. "If you want to be a failure in life, go ahead. I don't care."

My heart stopped as my cheeks went scarlet. Claudia glanced over at me with a look of victory as a smile tugged at her lips, showing off her perfect teeth.

The books on my mum's shelf were all laughing at me, pages spilling out in euphoria while the book shelves that sat still looked like they were staring at me in pity.

My fingers started fidgeting around, tangling with each other and falling apart as I avoided eye contact with the two of them. I wonder what dad's reaction would've been if I told him, he'd probably be happy for me; but then again I don't see him around that often so I wouldn't know.

I instantly pivoted, running for my room before everything could catch up with me. Slamming the door behind me, I flicked the lock on and I immediately headed for my bed, grabbing my pillow and silently crying into it.

Finally after my pillow had been soaked, I took out my notebook from earlier; tears dripping slowly out of my eyes and running down my face like an olympic runner at a race. I grabbed my shiny silver pen that was conveniently laying undisturbed on my flowery sheets, and I scribbled down more words to add to the poem I had started.

I thought you changed, but I guess you didn't

I thought you could say sorry and everything would be fine between us

What happened to our trust?

Suddenly, a pinging noise goes off with my phone. I put down my notebook, and grabbed my Minecraft sheep covered phone. I swiped to check who it was across the smooth glass screen, the eyes of a creeper staring into my soul. The recipient said Shawn.

Shawn- Heyyyyyy

Me- Hii

Shawn- How's your day been?

Me- ehhh, it was okay. Have u rehearsed all ur lines yet?

Shawn- I'm trying to, kinda hard though if I'm being honest. I'm not good at memorising stuff.

Me- Oh, that sucks. I'm actually thinking about quitting the musical.

Shawn- Why? Ur so good.

Me- Mum isn't too happy with it. Practically yelled at me.

Shawn- so? That doesn't mean you should give up on it.

Me- yeah but its my mum...

Shawn- Listen, i know you really care about your mom's opinion but do something for yourself okay? You're really talented.

My heart stops for a moment, and then I can't stop this overflowing feeling of happiness that pours out of my heart, and then tugs a small smile at my lips.

Me- aw thanks. Okay, fine, I'll stay in the musical.

Shawn- :) also, have you've seen tootsie showsocks new email today?

Me- no? What did she send this time?

Shawn- she sent a picture of her in her sue sylvester outfit.

Me- aight i'll just ignore that then.

Shawn- Your funny

My heart gets all fuzzy again, and an even bigger smile forms on my dry lips. I shake off the feeling, and I close my notebook, tucking it away in my backpack in case I wanted to vent again. But I don't think I'll be venting anytime soon if I'm being completely honest.

I close off my phone, and flick off the lights in my room. Fixing my eye mask on, as I lay still in my bed, staring up into the dark fluffy piece of cloth I laid over my eyes.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day, because tomorrow was a Saturday and I had all the time in the world to myself. I could sleep in, watch TV all day and finally stop doing homework assignments. I could even play Minecraft with Emily and Lorelei, or even play a game of Fortnite with Tina.