I Was The Ugly Twin Who Outshone The Swan Sister Chapter 06

I Was The Ugly Twin Who Outshone The Swan Sister Chapter 06

At three o’clock, the information session was moved to the small theater on short notice.

The teacher had told me to stay in my room-the online situation was too volatile, and the school

would handle it.

But I sat on the edge of my bed, listening to the noise getting louder outside, my palms soaking

through.

Mom crying. Dad shouting. Sienna being held up by someone, telling the crowd all she wanted was

an apology.

And I was up here hiding, just like always.

Sienna in the spotlight while I stood in the back holding her water bottle. Sienna in a crown while Mom pressed a hand on my shoulder and made me look down.

They always found a way to push me back into the shadows.

I stood up. “I want to go.”

Aunt Laurel looked at me for a long moment. Then she picked up a clean jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “Then let’s go.”

The theater was packed.

Morgan and the admissions staff sat in the front row. Professor Burke and the faculty filled the second. My parents and Sienna had been seated off to the side.

Every head turned when I walked in. Curiosity, suspicion, and something uglier-all of it aimed

straight at me.

Sienna spotted me and immediately started crying.

“Brenna.” Her voice was soft, perfectly pitched for the people around her to catch every word. “Do you really have to take it this far?”

Mom’s eyes were red and fixed on me. “It’s not too late to stop this.”

› Dad’s face was stone. “In front of all these people-look them in the eye and tell them. Did you steal

money from us? Did you get surgery? Did you enter that audition just to hurt your sister?”

The floor felt unsteady under my feet. My throat wouldn’t work.

The teacher pulled up the projector.

The screen showed my application materials, my medical exam records, my ID photo. Morgan spoke clearly, “Brenna Rowan’s registration was fully compliant. Her medical records show no history of facial procedures of any kind.”

Murmurs rippled through the room.

Mom shot to her feet. “A basic exam can’t catch everything! She didn’t look anything like this

before!”

Dad slammed a stack of old photos onto the table. Me in every one of them-thick bangs, black frames, an oversized uniform swallowing my neck and shoulders, head always down.

Mom’s voice cracked. “Tell me that’s the same person.”

Sienna pressed on through her tears. “I’m not accusing her of anything. I just want to understand- why did she suddenly change like this? If she wasn’t hiding something, why did she never let any of us know she could dance?”

I wanted to speak. My lips were trembling too hard.

Then Aunt Laurel walked up to the front.

She handed the teacher a small flash drive. “Brenna didn’t suddenly learn to dance.”

Her voice was calm and steady. “And she didn’t suddenly get pretty either.”

The projection switched.

The screen filled with a video of me at ten years old-inside the practice room at Westbridge Community Arts Center, wearing sweats two sizes too big, hair plastered to my face with sweat.

A teacher pushed my leg into a stretch and I cried without making a sound, jaw locked, refusing to

give.

Then Aunt Laurel’s voice came through the speakers-younger, softer, crouching beside the

mirror.

“Brenna, chin up. You look beautiful when you dance.”

The entire theater went quiet.

I stared at myself on that screen and the tears came without warning.

Someone had kept this. Someone had held onto it all these years.

I didn’t start shining today-I’d been shining all along, in a room no one else thought to look.

Sienna’s face drained of color.

Mom lurched to her feet like she’d been struck. “You’ve been taking her behind our backs this

whole time, Laurel?!”

Aunt Laurel met her eyes without flinching. “Yes. Because you wouldn’t let her be herself.”

The room fell silent again.

Then the backstage crew hit play on the audition footage.

The full recording filled the screen, and Professor Burke’s voice came over the speakers. “Please watch Brenna Rowan’s complete professional audition from start to finish.”

On screen, I raised my arms.

Then a voice from somewhere in the audience. “Wait-this routine is completely different from the one Sienna posted on her page.”

Sienna’s head snapped up.