In the end

3

"Courtttnnnneyyy!!!" I heard my step-mom yell from the front door. I jumped to my feet, from the sleeping position on the couch.

"Yes ma'am?" I yelled back.

"Come help us carry these bags to our rooms!" She yelled back. I nodded and walked to the front door. I made my way to the car and dad threw his bags towards me. I groaned and carried them upstairs. Now you see, my mom and I don't have such a strong connection... Considering she's a step mom. My actual mom lives some place down town in an apartment. My actual mom and I get along really well, like we're supposed to, while my step mom hates me.

"Courtney, why is there two extra dishes in the sink?" Step Monster asks as I crawled back down the stairs. She always finds little things to torment me about.

"I had friends over, and the plates are clean." I state and she gasps.

"You had friends over while we were gone?!" She asks shocked.

"Yeah, just like you have friends over when Dad isn't here." I state and she glares at me.

"Where's Jillian?" She sasses instantly.

"She's upstairs with Johnathon." I state and she calls her downstairs. I was about to walk to talk to dad when I over-heard her conversation.

"So how's my little angel?"

"Oh yeah, you can have friends over whenever you want." She adds. I stuck my head in the door and my jaw is hanging down to the ground.

"How come she can have people over?" I sassed and she pointed towards the door. I rolled my eyes and walked upstairs to talk to dad. We were talking about the trip and he was congratulating me for being responsible.

**

"Courtney hurry up." Rachel, my step monster, calls from the end of the stairs.

"There's traffic on the stairs." I retort and hop down the two flights of stairs. I have the top floor along with the three guest beds. I skipped to the living room and saw her walking around looking for something. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the cream colored wall. I scanned over the familar walls, noticing our pictures from family things.

When mom and dad seperated, Rachel replaced any picture of me and mom and replaced them with pictures of her and Jill. Jill was too young to understand the divorce, and was very angry with my mom for some reason, when it was dad's fault they divorced.

Jill was Rachel's favorite. She was younger, girlier, and less worldly. She was eight when they split, I was 14. I knew everything and the reason why. Dad wanted to move and go join work and everything, so he did and came back a year later and wanted to fix things when Rachel showed up and ruined the spark they had.

"Courtney, don't be such a brat. Come on, we're leaving." She sasses. I turn towards her, about to say something, but bit back my tongue.

"Coming step monster." I stated and heard dad lightly chuckle.

"Why are you laughing?!" She snaps towards dad. He raises his hands in defense and we load up the cars. We all headed off to dinner, fun.