Chapter 01

Although I've never been quite beautiful, you couldn't quite call me ugly either. I was average. the perfect type to be a side character in story with well-developed characters. I wasn't especially smart, I wasn't especially stupid. I was average. My averageness was was not from my attempts to not stand out. Unlike Kayla, my averageness came naturally to me.

Kayla, on the other hand, was the perfect Cinderella. Her father was extremely wealthy and doted on her carefully because her mother passed away during childbirth. Afraid that she would be lacking in love due to lacking a parent, he tried to make up for it by himself. But, as a businessman, he was often too busy to keep her company. Finally, feeling as though gifts were not enough to show her parental affection and the staff didn't count as family, uncle remarried.

He saw the woman with her own two daughters and found her to be quite gentle and loving. She was a gentle and loving woman, but she could not be with Kayla. Uncle always kept his assets and Auntie's assets separate. In his will, Uncle had left Kayla his business, his house, his cars, and sixty percent of his money. The other fourth percent, as though he predicted his staff would get fired as soon as he was buried, went to his staff. Each of the twenty workers, including the butler, head maid/nanny, five kitchen staff, five gardeners, five maids, and three drivers, became rich overnight.

Uncle died a few months ago. My mother was their family's nanny, my father one of the gardeners, and myself one of the maids. The maids, gardeners, and drivers were all part time since it was a small house in which lived a small family. As such, I was able to work and go to school at the same time. Since Mom was Kayla's nanny, we spent a lot of time playing together as little girls. I found that I was never jealous of her. In fact, as time went on, I pitied her quite a bit. I had loving parents around me every day, while she lost her mother and could only see her father late at night on days when he didn't have to go out of town on business.

And now, Uncle was gone too. Although Kayla and I still go to the same school (I was attending on my scholarship as one of Uncle's employee benefits and already had my tuition and uniform money as well as residence and cafeteria money paid off until my estimated graduation), I didn't get to see her as much anymore. I was no longer in her house to clean every other day, and we were never in the same class since she was so much smarter than me. We ate together sometimes during lunch, but Kayla, being so nice and pretty and smart, usually had a crowd around her, while I was disregarded as though I was air. It was to be expected from a private school. I couldn't even dream of attending here if not for the employee benefits. Uncle was rich and generous.

Auntie was not poor either. She came from a rich family and had money of her own. Even so, she resented Kayla because of the blatant favouritism Uncle showed her. It made her own two daughters feel unloved and their son, Kayla's half-brother, feel like an illegitimate child. It was really Uncle's fault that Kayla now had to suffer like this, but Uncle didn't do it on purpose. Kayla looks a lot like his late wife, and she was the last thing his late wife left him with. He couldn't help but to treasure her.

But it was very unfair to poor little Kai. He was, afterall, his biological child as well. And yet, his staff inherited more than that little boy. I'm sure Uncle knew that Auntie would take good care of him, since he was her child and her family could afford it, but it was still cruel of him to treat that boy so unfairly. Kai, Kaiden was his full name, had always been a good boy. He always treated Kayla as a proper older sister, and he continued to do so after his father's death.

My parents retired after Uncle's death. Afterall, he had nearly 700 million dollars in savings, and with just one percent of one hundred million an average person could live off of it without having to work another day in their lives, my parents with their saving and retirement funds could definitely live comfortably for the rest of their lives. As for me, I moved into the dorms. I didn't want to disturb my parents' lovey-dovey retirement honeymoon. I took an investment course at the academy this semester and was planning on investing what I inherited from Uncle.

Although my grades were not high enough to get me into the top college, they were certainly high enough to get me a scholarship at a mid-level college. And my savings from working for Uncle were more than enough to cover the rest. If I did come up short, I could always find another maid gig.

Although Auntie kicked us out before Uncle was cold in his grave, she had no hate for us. She simply did not want the staff, who would always side with and spoil Kayla, to continue working for her. We were a reminder of Uncle's favouritism. But, she still admired our work ethic and sheepishly told us that, should we need a reference for our next job beyond the letter she wrote for us, she would gladly step up. She was clearly a kind lady who had become shrewd due to the poor hand life dealt her. It was impossible to hate the woman. Each of the twenty letters were personalized according to the strengths of the person carrying it. With such a letter, I had full confidence of getting a job if I needed to in college.

Thinking about all of this, all that had happened in the past little while, my head began to ache. Just then, as I was planning my future, I remembered that my parents would be arriving at the Bahamas this morning. With a quick check of my phone, I saw that, at 11am, only an hour after they landed, they had already checked into their hotel and sent me a few pictures of themselves tanning on the beach. No pity at all for their poor daughter who was about to start her final year of high school.

A knock at the door brought me out of my thoughts. With Uncle's sponsorship, when I finally came to live in the dorms, I found that had provided a spacious double room for me. It looked like a master bedroom was cut in half and mirrored, each of us getting a spacious full bed with shelves underneath, a bookcase, an armoire, and a desk and chair. There was even a bathroom connected to be only shared by my roommate and myself. When I arrived, my roommate had yet to show, so I thought I had the whole room to myself.

Suddenly, seeing as I didn't answer the door, the person on the other side unlocked it with her key and opened the door while deftly balancing all of her luggage with the other. Seeing someone struggling in the doorway, I quickly got up to help.

"Sorry, I was a little out of it. I just finished unpacking..." I trailed off when I saw her face, "No way, Kayla?!?"

It seemed I had judged too soon earlier when I assumed I wouldn't be seeing as much of her this year. We were roommates!

"Hey Em," she said a bit breathlessly and gave me a sheepish smile.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. Auntie had fired all the staff, including the drivers. Kayla, Melanie, and Stephanie, Auntie's two biological daughters, would have a hard time getting to school before she hired new ones.

"Have a three of you moved into dorms?" I asked her, dragging one of her large cardboard boxes across the threshold into the room.

"Yeah, mom's just taking care of Kai at home," Kayla replied with a grunt as she pulled her huge suitcase with all her might.

I glared at the floor. The fluffy carpets felt amazing to walk on, but they really got in the way of moving. Kayla, having grown up with me, clearly caught my movements and laughed at me.

"Glaring at it won't make it go away," she snorted.

"No, but it may make me feel better," I replied with a smile.

Kayla simply shook her head at me and continued moving in her things. I thought my moving in was already exhausting, but lo and behold, Kayla bad more than double the amount of stuff I had. I simply didn't understand. We had uniforms, so clothes are useless, and a cafeteria means food is unnecessary, so how do all these rich kids bring so much. After that thought, I showed a self-deprecating smile, realizing that, by normal standards, I would count as one of the rich kids.

That look, Kayla didn't see. She was too busy being excited about the bed. Although she slept on a full king sized bed at home, she was expecting bunk beds or twin sized at least in the dorm. Seeing the bed, she squealed and started hopping. Kayla and I had just this one point in common: we both love our sleep.

"We get Queen sized beds?!?" she exclaimed.

"No, they're full sized. I was mixed up at first too, but my queen-sized fitted sheet was a bit big for the mattress."

We shared a look and giggled before getting to work, setting up her side of the room.

"Why do you need so much stuff?" I asked.

"I have an image to uphold," she replied with a wink.

Finally, safer putting away all her stuff, we collapsed on her bed.

"Lunch?" Kayla asked.

I groaned but dragged myself out of bed.

"Come on, get dressed."

"I am dressed," I stated

Kayla simply rolled her eyes and opened the door.

"After you," she stated.