They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 01

They Made My Life A Joke For 18 Years, I Stopped Laughing Chapter 01

On move-in day, I arrived at Pacific Crest University alone, my enrollment packet clutched in both hands.

But before I could even get through the entrance, two campus security officers stopped me and escorted me right back out.

Mortified, I called my best friend.

Sienna laughed the second she picked up.

“Willa Sutton, four eyes and you still can’t read? The packet you took was the fake one I printed. The real one’s still at home.”

I booked the first flight back to San Diego and tore through the house, sweating through my clothes as I searched.

Nothing. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t find it.

Then the ringtone I’d assigned only to Sienna went off.

“Willa, stop looking.”

“I had Ethan bring it to you. He’s in Irvine.”

I caught the next train to Irvine.

The second I stepped out of the station, Sienna FaceTimed me.

“Oh my God. You didn’t actually go all the way to Irvine looking for Ethan, did you?”

“I was messing with you.”

“Security didn’t send you away because of the packet. I told them you might be carrying a weapon…”

She swung the camera around. Ethan Cole, my childhood friend, sat beside her, casually fanning her with a brochure.

And right behind him was Gavin, my brother, who was supposed to be vacationing in Europe.

“Willa, what’s with that face? Have a sense of humor.”

Gavin said it with a laugh.

I stood there, frozen.

So the Europe trip had been an excuse. He had really come to see Sienna off to college.

Every face on my screen was smiling.

And suddenly, I was exhausted.

After eighteen years as everyone’s favorite punch line, I was done being the joke.

***

By the time I hauled my sixty-six-pound suitcase back to Pacific Crest University alone, Gavin and Ethan were laughing so hard they could barely stand.

Sienna pulled out a tissue and dabbed the sweat from my forehead.

“Willa, seriously, how did someone with your brain get into PCU?”

“I made one little joke and you actually fell for it.”

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

I looked down at the sneaker I’d lost somewhere in the chaos and rubbed my hands together, not knowing what to do with them.

My eyes stung with hurt.

“Sienna, that wasn’t funny.”

That pointless back-and-forth had burned through most of the $250 my parents had given me for the month. I had only $35 left. How was I supposed to make it through the next twenty-nine days?

“That’s not what I meant.”

Sienna watched me for a few seconds. Then her eyes slowly reddened.

Ethan walked over and rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Willa, it’s move-in day. Don’t make this a whole thing.”

I looked to Gavin, still hoping he would say something fair for once.

Instead, he frowned at me like I was the problem.

“Willa, don’t be such a sore loser. If you take everything this personally, no one’s going to want to be around you in college.”

“All right, all right.” Sienna hooked an arm around my shoulders and pulled me toward campus.

“I didn’t mean anything by it. You’re reading way too much into this.”

“And don’t worry, I’m not trying to steal your brother. He’s basically my brother too.”

I stopped walking.

“Wh… what are you talking about?”

She leaned close to my ear and lowered her voice like she was sharing a secret. “You’re adopted. I’m their real daughter. Why else do you think they treat me better?”

A high-pitched buzz filled my head.

I thought of all those family dinners when Sienna and Ethan got the drumsticks and I was left with scraps.

At Christmas, they each got a $5,000 check. I got twenty bucks.

When she saw me freeze, Sienna grinned and thumped me hard between the shoulder blades.

“God, Willa. You fell for it again?”

Gavin snorted with laughter.

Ethan gave a helpless little smile and messed up my hair.

“Look at that face.”

“You lucked your way into PCU. If you had to do it over, you’d probably end up at community college.”

I looked up at Ethan through tear-blurred eyes.

We’d sat beside each other through all four years of high school. No one knew better than he did how hard I’d worked.

I got up at five every morning and studied until midnight. I’d gone through 167 pens and filled sixteen notebooks with scratch work.

And now he had the nerve to say I’d gotten into one of the most selective schools in the country by luck?

“I’ve never liked being the punch line. Not when we were kids. Not now.”

“So… stop doing this to me.”

For the first time, I said out loud what I’d swallowed for years.

Silence hung there for a beat.

Then everyone around me exploded with laughter.