Revenge so Sweet
by Kristi Stokes
She doesn't say much. Only a few words at a time. But that doesn't matter. She's gorgeous in every way, in every sense of the word. She has big, beautiful brown eyes that seem to look right through you. Her smile lights up the room every time she flashes it. Anyone who ever comes in contact with her loves her immediately. She puts strangers at ease and makes her friends feel as though they are the only one she cares about.
Perhaps that is why Lily Masters is so popular at her school. She knows how to draw everyone's attention without making any effort whatsoever. She is good at everything she does, no matter what it is. She is my sister, my twin, my exact opposite.
No one even knows that I exist. I am good at only one thing. It's the one thing Lily has never tried to do publicly-writing. As the editor of the school paper, I am in charge of choosing what goes into the paper and what does not. Many of the stories I receive seem to revolve around my dear sister. There are more photos taken of her at every school event than I care to mention.
"Sam! Hey Sam! Are you in there?" Randy asked, waving a hand in front of my face and interrupting my writing.
"Yeah, I'm here,” I said, blinking a few times. “What do you need?"
"I've got another story here for you to review."
I stretched my arms over my head, stiff from sitting in the same position too long. "All right. Leave it on my desk."
Randy set the pages down and walked from the room. Turning back to my work, I attempted to get back into the right train of thought. I conjured up an image in my mind of my seemingly perfect sister. I had to finish this front-page story. Everyone needed to know that she was not perfect. A satisfied smile crept across my face as I remembered the horrible news about her that I had stumbled upon. It was something she wouldn't want anyone to know. It was something that I would tell everyone in our next issue. This would teach her a lesson. This would get me noticed for once.
Though everyone seems to think that my sister is perfect, she is not. I have discovered her secret. I know what she has been hiding for the last few months. You see, Lily Masters is pregnant.
A sinister laugh escaped my lips as I read back over my work. Yes, this would destroy her. No one would think her innocent and sweet once this was printed. Instead of being spoken highly of, she would be spoken about. She'd be the object of ridicule as her stomach grew with each passing month until, finally, no one even remembered how popular she once was.
It was the ultimate revenge. Killing, shooting, suicide. None of them held any clout with me. I was not interested in hurting anyone physically. No, emotional pain was far better. Lily was only the first on my list. There would be many more articles revealing many more secrets as the months wore on. That is how I would reverse the popular and the unpopular. Suddenly, for the first time in school history I bet, the unpopular would rule the school. Instead of Friday night football games, kids would swarm to the Saturday morning chess tournaments.
"What's this?" Kady asked holding up the article I had been working on. Her eyes grew wide as she read what I'd written. "You can't print this! It would destroy your sister!" She threw an angry look in my direction.
Feeling a flash of shame, I looked down at my hands. "Maybe you're right," I said finally. I crumpled up the pages and threw them in the trash as Kady walked out of the room. As usual, my weakness was Lily's gain. Suddenly a thought occurred to me. Why should I be weak, letting my emotions take over? Lily deserved every bit of what she was about to get from me. I reached over to the trash can and dug around for the wrinkled pages. No, this story needs to be run tomorrow I decided.
The next morning, after the first copies of the school paper were distributed to each student, I looked around the hallways for Lily. For a moment I couldn't find her, and then I heard her. A blood-curdling scream sounded across the hallways of the school and I couldn't help but smile to myself as I realized that Lily had just seen the article about her.
It was my finest work by far to date. In it, I had printed copies of several of her private journal entries-but only the most recent ones. They were entries that couldn't be found in any blog. They were full of information meant only for Lily's eyes; now the entire school was reading them, including the principal who would find the second entry about the test she cheated on quite interesting to be sure. Perhaps the most interesting of all the entries though, was the last. It was the one entry that would destroy her. It was the evidence I needed to prove what I had written about her. In it she wrote about how she became pregnant.
I frowned as I thought about the consequences I was sure to face back at home and possibly from my supervising teacher for the paper. Would he fire me from my position as editor? What would I say when my parents asked why I had done this? I can't tell them that it was for revenge. They wouldn't understand, wouldn't care what she'd done to me. All that would matter was that I caused a fight, a rift between us. But wasn't that the point of what I did? Either fight for my rights as a human being, a student, a sister, and a friend, or run from it all. I'm bigger than that, and stronger than that, and so I have chosen to stay and fight.
I raised my chin and held my head up high as I walked firmly toward Lily at the other end of the hall. Fire burned in her eyes as she looked at me. Never have I felt more hatred pour from my sister or seen more sorrow in her eyes. In that moment, I began to doubt all I'd done. Maybe she hadn't known how unhappy I was. Maybe it was all a big mistake. Or was it?