Lily
It’s really embarrassing. Most people get clothes and music for their birthday, along with cake and ice cream. Me? Try a membership to the gym, plus some gluten-free cookies that tasted like cardboard.
“Thanks Carla,” I said dubiously, looking at the brochure for the gym. “I appreciate it.”
My stepmother tossed her hair back, the blonde curls big and bouncy like a Victoria’s Secret model.
“Of course,” she purred. “All ladies need to be sexy, but for you, we’ll be starting at step one, hmmm? Getting into shape is a first before you put on your first piece of really nice lingerie.”
I colored a little.
“Um, I don’t have any nice lingerie,” I said, hanging my head so that brown hair covered my cheeks. “I just wear cotton undies from the department store.”
“Exactly!” crowed Carla, tapping her red nails together. She’d gotten a manicure that made her nails look like red claws, complete with sparkly stick-ons. “Before we move to step two, you need to take care of step one,” she purred again, slyly shooting me a sideways look. “Men like va-va-voom but they don’t want your type of va-va-voom,” she said in a near hiss. “They want va-va-voom that’s sexy!”
My face pulled down in an embarrassed frown. Because I knew what Carla was talking about. There’s big sexy, and then there’s me. There are the girls in advertisements for plus-size wear, and they’re really pretty. Their curves are in all the right places, defying gravity even if they’re over-sized. By contrast, my curves weren’t just big, they were ginormous. I’ve got huge tits and ass, far more than you see in any magazine, plus size or otherwise. So yeah, I got what Carla was saying.
I tried to be enthusiastic.
“I’ve been eating better,” was my chirpy statement. “No more frozen Girl Scout cookies.”
“Nonsense,” said Carla. “That’s not enough. You have to work out,” she said with emphasis, lifting one arm to curl her bicep. Her arm was dried out and stringy looking, but sure enough, a tiny egg formed under her sleeve. “See? Working out is what’s going to get you places.”
I nodded unhappily, staring at the brochure again.
“But which gym is this for?” I asked. “There have to be a million options on here.”
Carla nodded with a knowing smile on her face.
“Your father and I got you a universal membership,” she said smoothly, red lips parting in a rictus of humor. “You get your choice of any of the gyms on that list.”
I frowned.
“But there have to be at least two hundred here,” I protested. “Which one is better? This Better Barre Beautiful or the one called TKO Base? How do I even tell the difference?”
Carla smirked.
“All of them are good,” she said smoothly. “But William and I have made your birthday gift contingent on one thing. You have to go every day in order for your trust fund to stay in place. If you don’t go every day, then poof! We’re taking it away.”
“No!” I gasped, eyes wide. “That money’s meant for me to go to college. My mom left it for me!” I protested.
Carla’s smile grew more evil.
“Every day,” she reiterated with a purr. “That’s not so hard, is it? After all, I go every day and it’s not so bad. Besides, you have your choice of gyms. You can go two blocks away or clear across the city, wherever you want. So what’s so hard about that?”
I sat there, dumbfounded. What’s so hard about it is that I’m a curvy girl through and through. I’m not a gym rat, not by a long shot. I’m the type of girl whose idea of a good time is reading a steamy romance novel curled up on the couch with a comfy throw and a box of chocolates nearby. My book boyfriends keep me happy and satisfied, thank you very much.
So to hear that suddenly, I was going to have to go to the gym every single day in order to keep my college money was a shock. How would this work? I wasn’t even sure if I owned any sports bras or shorts.
I took a deep breath.
“Carla,” came my firm voice. “That money was left to me by my mom. Rhonda willed it to me so that I’d have tuition money for college, and I was counting on that. My applications are already out, and I’m expecting to hear from a couple schools any day now.”
Carla simpered.
“That’s right. And you’ll get in, won’t you, Lily? You’re so smart, always with your nose in your books.”
I nodded, and spoke in what I hoped was a forceful manner.
“That’s right, and all my financial aid stuff is turned in as well. I won’t be getting anything because we disclosed the fact that I have a trust fund. No school’s going to give me a scholarship knowing that my mom left me money especially for my college education.”
Carla’s blue eyes gleamed.
“Well then, I guess you have a choice then, don’t you?” she simpered. “Either you go to the gym every single day, or you miss out on school in the fall. It’s a tough choice, I know,” she said with faux sympathy, “but it’s not that hard, trust me. You can make it to the gym. Lots of people do,” she said carelessly.
That did it. I’d had enough. Bouncing off the couch, my eyes snapped.
“You can’t do this,” I said tightly. “Rhonda left me that money. It’s mine.”
My stepmom shook her head with fake sympathy.
“We can,” she said silkily. “And we already have. Your dad is the custodian of your trust fund until you turn twenty-one, and we’ve already put a lock on it until these conditions are met. So what do you say honey? The gym? Or poverty?”
That was a harsh way of putting it. What were they thinking? Were they trying to steal my inheritance?
It was possible, seeing that these last three years, my dad has changed. It used to be just me and William after my mom died, and life was okay. Not great because we were mourning the passing of my mom, but okay.
But three years ago, Carla came along. She started as a secretary at my dad’s company and got herself transferred to the executive suite somehow. And then my dad started coming home later and later, until some nights, I didn’t see him at all.
Predictably, the excuses started as well. There was a board meeting. Some clients that he had to see. And before I knew it, this woman had wormed her way into his life, and mine by extension.
So now, I had an impossible choice: go to the gym every day or lose my opportunity to get out of this house. Because I wanted to go to college desperately, but without my mom’s money, there was simply no way. Sure, my dad does well at his job, but not that well. Plus, Carla has turned William into a big spender. They take lavish vacations to far-flung locales now, and she’s also convinced him to a buy a boat as well as two top of the line Mercedes, one for him and one for her.
So without my mom’s money, I knew I was screwed. I’d be stuck at home with my dad and stepmom breathing over my shoulder and making nasty comments, instead of starting life as an adult on my own. It wasn’t fair! How could this be happening?
But it was, and taking a deep breath, I forced myself to leave the living room as graciously as possible, my back ramrod straight and head held high. Unfortunately, my curves swayed as always, making my stepmom titter.
“Every day!” she called after me in a singsong voice. “Remember that, Lily!”
And I grimaced, although she couldn’t see. Because life wasn’t fair, but I’d find a way to survive … even if this killed me.