Shadow of the Perfect Twin

"This isn't Mom! Why does she have horns? And why is she swinging a spatula like a weapon?!" Mom snatched the drawing I had just turned in. She slammed it right into my face.

The sharp edge of the stiff paper sliced across my cheek. A thin line of heat flared up as blood beaded on my skin.

Just a few feet away, my twin sister was completely surrounded by teachers and relatives. They wouldn't stop gushing over her.

Her drawing featured Mom in a pretty flowy dress, looking like a sweet fairy godmother. It was pinned dead center on the classroom wall. The perfect masterpiece. I'm Jade.

My twin sister is Juliet. He never realized those names would become the permanent labels branding our entire lives.

Chapter 1 During a Thanksgiving crafts class in preschool, the teacher told us to draw our mom. Juliet's drawing ended up pinned dead center on the main bulletin board.

A little stick figure in a flowy dress, flanked by perfectly symmetrical daisies. Mine was confiscated. My version of Mom sported horns and wielded a spatula like a battleaxe.

The teacher crouched down to my eye level. "Jade, why would you draw your mommy like this?" I pointed a sticky finger at Juliet. "Hers isn't Mom either.

Mom never wears dresses." After school that day, Mom gripped Juliet's hand in her left and my drawing in her right. The crease between her eyebrows was deep enough to crush a bug.

She jabbed a finger toward Juliet. "Look how beautifully your sister draws. Now look at yours." Juliet tilted her head back and smiled.

The curve of her lips was an exact carbon copy of the little figure in her drawing. On our fifth birthday, Grandpa bought us matching dresses.

Juliet slipped hers on immediately and spun in circles until the fabric flared out like a blossoming petal.

I shoved mine into the darkest, furthest corner of my closet and stuck to my denim overalls. "Why isn't Jade wearing her pretty dress?" the relatives chorused.

Mom forced a tight smile. "She's always been a tomboy." They patted Juliet's neat hair. "Juliet is so wellbehaved.

Such a good girl." I grabbed a fistful of vanilla frosting from the cake and smeared it directly across my cheek. "Jade!" Dad's voice boomed across the room.

When every head in the room snapped toward me, Juliet was delicately dabbing a crumb off her chin with a napkin. First grade, day one.

The homeroom teacher asked us to introduce ourselves. Juliet stood up. Her voice was barely louder than a kitten's purr. "I'm Juliet.

I like reading and drawing." When it was my turn, I leaped onto my chair. "I'm Jade! I can climb the doorframe!" I actually did it.

I scrambled up the molding and dangled from the top of the doorframe, swinging my legs. The teacher's face darkened like a looming storm cloud.

By the time the final bell rang, Juliet had a shiny gold star sticker pressed flat against her shirt collar.

My jeans were coated in playground dust, and a fresh hole gaped open at the knee. Dad exhaled a heavy breath. "Look at your sister.

Can you just go one day without causing a disaster?" Second grade final report cards. Juliet got straight Apluses. My grades across all subjects spelled out a perfect FUCK.

During parentteacher conferences, Mom sat at Juliet's desk, her side of the table stacked high with merit certificates.

Dad occupied my desk, staring down at three glaring detention slips and a business card for the principal's recommended therapist.

On the walk home, Dad gripped Juliet's certificates in one hand and my pink slip in the other. "Same exact DNA. How are they so different?" he muttered to himself.

I dragged my feet behind them, kicking loose gravel. One pebble ricocheted and clipped the back of Juliet's heel. She didn't tattle. She just sped up her pace. Third grade.

Juliet was elected class president. I spent an entire week in detention for digging a booby trap in the sandbox.

Once the principal got to know us, he always gave the same speech: "Juliet is a model student.

Jade, well… she's got character." Whenever the teachers brought us up, their faces twisted like they were tastetesting two completely different candies.

Juliet was a vanilla caramel—sickeningly sweet. I was Pop Rocks—making them wince, but impossible to ignore.

At the school spring parade, Juliet marched at the very front as the junior cheer captain, her custom uniform skirt fluttering in the breeze.

I sat in the bleachers at the rear, pouring a massive cup of icecold grape Gatorade straight into the lead teacher's megaphone.

When the homeroom teacher caught me, I had to sprint three laps around the track just to lose her.

While Juliet stood tall on the winner's podium wearing a shiny plastic crown, I crouched in the parking lot, spraypainting a massive middle finger onto the principal's Cadillac.

Chapter 2 "Why do you always act like this?" Juliet asked from under her covers that night. "Like what?" I shot back. "Like… purposely stirring up trouble." I didn't answer.

I just stared at the dark ceiling, tracking the steady rhythm of her breathing, and counted to a hundred before I finally drifted off. Fifthgrade field trip.

Juliet was on headcount duty. I slipped away to the concession stand and blew my allowance on a massive can of prank skunk spray.

On the bus ride back, I emptied the entire can of spray right into the hood of a boy who mocked my lack of manners.

When he leaped up, shrieking, Juliet was busy at the front, helping the teacher pass out motion sickness pills. "Jade Lin!" The homeroom teacher's roar practically rattled the windows.

Juliet held out a tissue. "Wipe your hands." I ignored it and purposely wiped my sticky palms right onto the vinyl seat. Sixthgrade placement exams.

Juliet ranked first in the entire grade.

I ranked dead last, but I shattered the starting quarterback's front teeth and broke the school's football throwing record. "If you just channeled half of that reckless energy into your studies—" Mom started. "—I could be just like my sister," I finished for her, perfectly mimicking her pitch.

Juliet practiced elegant ballet poses in her room, her back straight as a woundup steel pole.

I was out in the driveway, hurling a tennis ball against the siding, leaving a row of gray scuff marks. At our middle school graduation, Juliet gave the valedictorian speech.

I snuck into the control room and swapped her background speech music for heavy metal rock. The principal assumed Juliet was behind it.

The disappointment in his eyes hit her like a bucket of ice water. Face burning red, she delivered an impromptu speech that ended up sounding better than the original draft.

That night, I heard Juliet cry for the very first time. She buried her head beneath her quilt, her voice muffled and thick. "Why did you do that?" I didn't apologize.

I just shoved a candy bar I'd been hoarding under her blankets. Freshman year of high school. Day one.

Roll call. "Juliet Lin?" "Here." "Jade Lin?" "Right here." The homeroom teacher pushed his glasses up his nose. "You two are sisters?" The entire class turned around, their eyes pingponging between Juliet and me. "Juliet must be the older sister, right?

She looks like an honors student," the teacher chuckled. After the bell rang, a flock of girls swarmed Juliet's desk.

I slouched in the back row, folding the pages of my textbook into little boats and dropping them into the mop bucket.

By the time school let out, Juliet's backpack was stuffed with friendly notes. My desk cubby held half a stick of chalk and a dead cockroach. "You're in high school now.

Time to grow up," Dad announced over dinner. Juliet nodded, picking at her rice one grain at a time.

I picked the green peppers out of my stirfry and arranged them into a smiley face on my plate. Mom's chopsticks smacked sharply against the back of my hand. Sophomore year.

Juliet got her first love letter.

I intercepted it, saw the grammar was absolute dogshit, graded it with a giant red F, folded it into the shape of a middle finger, and shoved it back into her bag.

The next day, the guy cornered me by the bleachers. "Where's my reply?" "What reply?" I stared at him. "Stop playing dumb, Juliet," he stammered, his neck turning red.

I cracked up. "I'm Jade!" The dude looked like he had just swallowed a live fly. After that, Juliet and I shared our very first secret. But she never knew the rest.

I intercepted every single love letter aimed at her after that. I graded them for grammar with a red pen and returned them anonymously. First semester of senior year.

Juliet ranked first in the grade again.

I was still failing Math, but I snagged the MVP trophy at the regional basketball tournament. "Can basketball put food on the table?" Dad tossed my medal into a drawer.

That drawer already held three other medals, all gathering dust.

Juliet's academic certificates were framed in the center of the living room, rotated out for new ones every single month.

Chapter 3 Mom attended Juliet's honors student awards dinner.

Dad was hauled into my detention hearing, staring down five unsigned suspension warning slips. "What exactly is your endgame here?" Dad asked on the walk home. "I don't have one." I kicked at a snowbank by the curb.

Juliet walked a few paces ahead of us, her silhouette as thin and fragile as a sheet of paper. That night, I made a choice. First day of the new semester.

I walked in with a shaved head. The moment I stepped into the classroom, the background chatter flatlined.

The piece of chalk slipped from the homeroom teacher's fingers and shattered into three pieces on the floor. He aimed a shaky finger at me. "Jade Lin!

You… what did you…" "What?" I ran a palm over my smooth scalp. "The dress code doesn't say anything about buzz cuts." Juliet's head snapped up from her workbook, her eyes wide enough to catch flies.

After the final bell, the principal called me into his office. I tapped my bare head. "Now nobody will mistake me for Juliet." The principal blinked behind his wirerimmed glasses.

Then, a dry chuckle slipped out. "Creative," he said. "But don't make a habit of it." That was the first time I was remembered for being "creative" instead of being a "disaster." Juliet was waiting by the front doors, clutching a knit beanie.

She held it out. "Put it on. You'll catch a cold." I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked right past her into the biting wind. The freezing air stung my scalp.

But my chest burned hot. I was finally no longer just "Juliet's twin." I was Jade Lin. The bald one. In the hallways, kids pointed and whispered. Some choked back laughs.

A few covertly angled their phones to snap pictures. I kept my gaze dead ahead, striding past them, completely buzzing with adrenaline. Finally. Nobody was calling me Juliet. Mr.

Dawson, my homeroom teacher, called me into his office.

He pushed his glasses up his nose, his expression twisted. "Jade, you know that while the school handbook doesn't explicitly ban shaved heads, your… image…" "The handbook says 'neat and tidy appearance.' A shaved head is extremely tidy." I patted my head. "No dandruff.

No crazy dye jobs. Completely up to code." Mr. Dawson choked on his next word. He just waved a dismissive hand toward the door. "Forget it.

Get out of here." I walked out and bumped right into Jace from the class next door.

He was a starter on the varsity basketball team and usually strutted around like he owned the building. He stopped dead in his tracks, then cracked a grin. "Damn, Jade.

That is one hardcore look." I arched an eyebrow. "What, wanna try it yourself?" He didn't even throw sass back.

He actually rubbed his own buzz cut. "It's honestly pretty badass." I definitely didn't expect a shaved head to earn me respect from the school's biggest jock.

On the walk home, Juliet paced beside me, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

I kicked a pebble off the sidewalk. "Spit it out." She hesitated. "Mom is going to lose her mind." I shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time." Sure enough, the second I stepped through the front door, the kitchen knife nearly slipped from Mom's grip.

She slammed it onto the cutting board. "Jade Lin!

Are you out of your damn mind?!" Dad vaulted off the sofa, staring at me like I had sprouted a second head. "What is wrong with your brain?" Juliet quietly slipped into her bedroom.

I stood dead center in the living room, letting them launch their artillery. "Do you know how people are going to look at you?

A girl with a shaved head?" Mom's hands physically shook. "Your sister has never given me a single day of grief in her entire life. And you?" "Yeah.

She's the perfect angel, and I'm your worst nightmare." I flashed a teethbaring grin. "If I'm such an embarrassment, just tell your country club friends I got terminal cancer and just had brain surgery.

That way they can pity you and maybe donate some cash." "Keeps the universe balanced. It's a good system." Dad furiously grabbed a golf club off the table and hurled it at me.

I threw up a middle finger, spun on my heel, sprinted into my room, and slammed the door shut, throwing the deadbolt.

Chapter 4 Outside my bedroom door, Mom was still screeching. "Look at your sister!

Then look at yourself!" I flopped back onto my mattress and stared up at the ceiling, silently ticking off the seconds in my head. One. Two. Three.

Right at twentyseven, Juliet tapped lightly on the wood. "Jade. Dinner." I didn't move a muscle. She tapped again. "Mom promised she's done yelling.

Just come eat." I rolled off the bed and yanked the door open.

Juliet stood in the hallway, gripping a massive bowl of rice piled high with stirfry. "You smuggled that out?" I raised an eyebrow.

She gave a tiny nod. "Waited until they turned their backs." I snatched the bowl and practically inhaled the food.

Juliet perched on the edge of my mattress, watching me chew. "It actually… looks pretty badass," she mumbled.

I nearly choked on a piece of chicken. "Excuse me?" She pressed her lips together, dropping her voice to a whisper. "I said, the buzz cut looks cool." I stared dead at her, then barked out a laugh. "Juliet Lin.

You finally said something that actually sounds human." She nudged my knee with her foot, but the corner of her mouth ticked upward.

The Great Shaved Head Incident of sophomore year shifted the tectonic plates of my high school hierarchy.

I used to be "Juliet's sister." Now, I was "Jade Lin, the girl with the buzz cut." Even the varsity basketball coach gave me a second look during practice. "That haircut… aerodynamics are off the charts." I flashed my teeth. "Wanna grab some clippers and match?" He actually ran a hand through his thinning hair, pausing for two solid seconds. "Pass.

My wife would murder me in my sleep." Game day rolled around. I was riding the bench. Coach had zero intention of putting me in, until our starting point guard twisted her ankle.

He scanned the bench and jabbed a finger in my direction. "Jade! You're up." I cracked my knuckles and stepped onto the hardwood. The opposing team clocked me.

One of their forwards blinked, then let out a snort. "A chick with a shaved head? Is this halftime entertainment?" I didn't spare her a glance.

I caught the inbound pass, took two hard dribbles, and hit the gas.

A lightningfast crossover shattered her ankles, dropping her flat on her ass before I effortlessly sank a perfect layup right over her head. The gym flatlined for one solid second.

Then, the bleachers erupted. Jace threw me a thumbsup from the sidelines. "Sick!" We took home the win.

Coach clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder in the locker room. "You're starting next week." On the walk home, Juliet did the unthinkable.

She broke the silence first. "You were… pretty insane on the court today." I cocked an eyebrow. "What? Finally realizing your twin isn't a total screwup?" She didn't take the bait.

She just kept her eyes on the sidewalk. "I've actually… always thought you were pretty amazing." My feet stopped moving. Juliet did not hand out compliments. Ever.

She kept her head down, her voice practically vanishing into the wind. "I just… never knew how to tell you." I stared at her for a long beat.

Then, I reached out and aggressively ruffled her perfectly brushed hair.

She was an inch taller than me, but she still jumped at the contact. "Juliet Lin," I flashed a grin. "Every once in a blue moon, you don't completely suck." Her cheeks flared red as she swatted my hand away. "Shut up." The weekend rolled around, bringing the extended family invasion.

The second Auntie crossed the threshold, the screeching commenced. "Oh my god, Juliet! You shot up like a weed!

And you're just getting prettier by the day!" Then her eyes snapped to me. The smile froze on her face, turning brittle. "Jade… wow.

That haircut is… a bold choice." Mom forced a dry, hollow laugh from the sidelines. "She's just… going through a phase." We corralled around the dining table.

Auntie practically leaned over her plate toward my sister. "I heard you ranked in the top ten for midterms again?" Juliet gave a demure, textbookperfect nod. "Yes.

Ranked ninth." "Incredible!" Auntie beamed.

Then, she rotated her gaze to me, like a turret locking onto a target. "And what about you, Jade?" Chapter 5 I picked at a piece of rib, completely deadpan. "A solid 1.0 GPA." "Excuse me?" "Barely scratching the school's passing line." The dining table flatlined.

Dad's face darkened like a thundercloud. Mom scrambled for immediate damage control. "Jade is very athletic.

She plays a great game of basketball…" Auntie forced out a dry, rattling laugh. "Oh. Right. That's nice…" After dinner, I made a beeline for my bedroom.

Juliet was left behind to play the perfect hostess. I flopped onto my mattress, shoved my earbuds in, and cranked the volume until my eardrums vibrated.

A while later, my door clicked open. Juliet slipped inside, clutching two funsized chocolate bars. "Auntie gave them to us." She held one out.

I snatched it, ripped the wrapper off, and tossed it into my mouth. Sickeningly sweet. "They gone?" I asked.

Juliet nodded. "Dad's walking them to their car." I let out a sharp scoff. "Finally done playing the golden child?" She didn't bite back.

She just sank onto the edge of my bed, letting out a breath that sounded hollow. "Jade," she murmured. "I'm actually… so exhausted." My head snapped toward her.

Her fingers twisted the fabric of her skirt into tight knots. Her voice dropped to a barelythere whisper. "Every time they praise me, my stomach just… drops. I'm terrified.

Terrified that I'll bomb the next test. Terrified of letting them down." My brain shortcircuited. That was the first time those words had ever crossed Juliet's perfect lips.

She looked up.

The rims of her eyes were tinged with red. "Sometimes… I'm really jealous of you." "Jealous of me?" I barked a laugh. "Jealous that I get screamed at every single day?" "Jealous that you aren't afraid to just be yourself," she said softly.

I stared at her. A heavy, unsettling realization crashed into me—I didn't know Juliet Lin at all. Her words detonated in my skull.

I searched her face, waiting for the punchline, looking for a crack in her mask. But she just kept her head down.

Her knuckles were stark white where she gripped the hem of her shirt. "Are you serious?" I demanded. She didn't answer.

She just shot up from the mattress, powerwalked out of my room, and clicked the door shut behind her. The sound barely registered. I sat frozen on my bed.

The cloying sweetness of cheap chocolate still coated my tongue, but a sour, tight knot twisted in my gut. Juliet Lin. The golden child.

The flawless, straightA prodigy… was jealous of me? You've gotta be kidding me. The next morning, Juliet was back on script. Up at six sharp. A ghost in the bathroom.

Sitting perfectly straight at the dining table, quietly chewing her toast. I dragged myself out of my room, scratching at the new peach fuzz on my scalp and stifling a yawn.

She swallowed the last drop of her milk and started zipping her backpack. "Forget what I said last night," she stated, not even glancing up.

I yanked out a chair, grabbed a piece of toast, and shoved it into my mouth. "Which part?

The part where you're jealous of my sparkling personality?" Her fingers froze on the zipper for a microsecond.

Then, she smoothed her features back to neutral. "Just pretend it never happened." Mom poked her head out from the kitchen. "Juliet, did you take your vitamins?" "Yes, Mom," Juliet answered on cue. "Jade, what about yours?" "Trashed them." I ripped off a bite of toast. "They taste like chalk." Mom shot me a death glare, then turned back to Juliet. "Don't pick up your sister's habits." Juliet gave a curt nod and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Heading to school." The second the front door clicked shut, Mom slammed a plastic supplement bottle onto the table right in front of my face. "One a day.

Swallow it!" I picked up the bottle and rotated the label.

Stress Relief & Sleep Support. "Juliet takes these?" I asked. "She hasn't been sleeping well." Mom let out a heavy sigh. "She dropped two ranks in the last mock exam.

The pressure is getting to her." My grip tightened around the plastic bottle. The image of Juliet's redrimmed eyes from last night flashed in my brain.

Chapter 6 So the perfect honors student actually loses sleep? During gym class, I ran a threeonthree with the varsity guys. Jace passed me the ball.

I caught it, faked out my defender, and drove straight to the hoop for a layup. "Sick!" He jogged over and offered a highfive. "We've got an offcampus street game this weekend.

You in?" "Is there a cash prize?" I asked. "Two hundred bucks a head if we win." "I'm in." The bell rang. I grabbed my hoodie and headed back toward the main building.

As I rounded the corner by the stairwell, a muffled sob stopped me in my tracks. I slowed my pace and peeked around the brick wall. It was Juliet.

She was crouched in the corner, her face buried in her knees. Her shoulders trembled. Her fingers were whiteknuckling a crumpled transcript. I froze. I had never seen Juliet cry.

Even when we were kids and she scraped her knees raw, she would just bite her lip and wait in dead silence for an adult to bandage her up.

But right now, she was bawling like a lost kid. I paused in the heavy shadows, then stepped forward. "Hey." Her head snapped up. Tear tracks stained her cheeks.

When she saw it was me, she frantically scrubbed her face with her sleeve. "What are you doing here?" I pointed at the crumpled paper in her fist. "Bombed a test?" She tightened her grip on the paper, her voice cracking. "A Bplus." "That's passing." "It's AP Physics." She bit down hard on her lip. "My perfect Ivy League GPA is ruined.

Mom and Dad are going to kill me." I crouched down to meet her eye level. "So what?" She blinked, thrown off. "What?" "Is a Bplus going to literally kill you?" I asked.

She opened her mouth, but another sob ripped out of her throat. "You don't understand…" "I don't." I shrugged. "But I do know that even if you score a perfect hundred, all they're gonna say is, 'Keep it up for next time.'" She just stared at me, stunned. "Juliet," I flashed a halfsmile. "You're living way too hard." After school that day, Juliet didn't head straight home.

She was waiting for me by the front gates. "Let's walk together," she said.

I arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid people will see you hanging out with the delinquent?" She didn't answer.

She just tugged lightly on the sleeve of my jacket. "I want junk food." I stared at her in pure shock. "You? Fast food?" Juliet had a sensitive stomach since we were kids.

Heavy grease made her sick, so Mom never let her near a drivethru.

She nodded, a flicker of stubbornness sparking in her eyes. "Just for today." We hopped the chainlink fence and hit up a drivein diner three blocks away.

She ordered a double cheeseburger with a massive vanilla milkshake. I got a black coffee.

She took a cautious sip of the milkshake, then her eyes fluttered shut in pure satisfaction. "It's so sweet." I watched her and let out a dry laugh. "Juliet, your rebellious phase is about ten years late." She nudged my sneaker with hers, but the corner of her mouth ticked up.

On the walk back, she broke the silence. "Actually… I've always wanted to try being like you." "Like getting screamed at?" "Like… just not giving a damn." I stopped walking and turned to face her. "Who said I don't give a damn?" She blinked, caught off guard. "I just don't care about their opinions." I crushed the empty paper coffee cup in my fist. "But I have things I care about." "Like basketball?" "Yeah." She nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly asked, "That game this weekend.

Can I come watch?" I stared at her, genuinely shocked. "You want to watch me play?" "Is that not allowed?" "It's allowed." I flashed a grin. "Just remember to bring a banner that says 'Jade is the coolest.'" She shoved my shoulder with a laugh. "In your dreams." Chapter 7 The weekend street game was at the community gym.

Our opponents were our absolute rivals, that elite private high school boasting the best indoor courts in the entire state.

While I was running warmup drills, I spotted Juliet slipping in quietly and taking a seat in the back row of the bleachers.

She wore a simple white tee and distressed jeans, her hair pulled into a high ponytail. She actually showed up.

Jace elbowed my ribs. "Is that your twin?" "Yeah." "She's here to watch you play?" He looked entirely bewildered. "I thought you two hated each other." I rolled out my wrists. "Mind your own business." The buzzer sounded.

We quickly fell behind by five points. The prep school players had serious height and locked down the defense. My first few drives to the paint got completely shut down.

During halftime, I glanced up at the bleachers. Juliet was whiteknuckling a plastic water bottle, her eyes tracking my every move. "Don't sweat it.

Pace yourself," Jace said, wiping his face with his jersey. "They don't have our stamina." Second half. We adjusted our offense.

I constantly cut offball, using sheer speed to shake my defenders. Final minute on the clock. Score tied. The ball hit my palms. Two hard dribbles.

A lethal crossover shattered my defender's stance. I pulled up for a jumper from way behind the threepoint line. Swish. Nothing but net. The gym exploded.

Jace charged over and practically tackled me. "You're a beast!" I shoved him off and looked straight up at the bleachers.

Juliet was on her feet, clapping her hands high above her head. A massive, radiant smile broke across her face—one I had never seen before. She literally jumped up and down.

After the game, Juliet was waiting by the gym doors. "You were incredible out there," she said.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead. "I did alright." She held out the water bottle. "Here." I grabbed it, noticing the plastic cap was already twisted loose. "The way you were jumping up and down," I said, taking a massive gulp and fighting a grin. "You looked like a total idiot." Her face flushed. "I did not jump!" "You totally did.

You almost chucked your water bottle at someone's head." She swung a halfhearted punch at my shoulder.

I ducked out of the way, and we spent the walk home shoving and laughing like normal siblings.

Passing by a coffee shop, she suddenly hit the brakes. "I want a drink." I arched an eyebrow. "Are you off your meds?

Fast food and now this?" "Just for today," she insisted, her tone completely stubborn. We walked in.

She ordered a Venti Frappuccino drowned in double whipped cream and caramel syrup. I grabbed a can of Monster Energy from the cooler.

She took a massive drag from the green straw and let out a deeply satisfied sigh. "So good." I studied her for a second. "Seriously, what's with the sudden personality transplant today?" She chewed on her straw, letting the silence stretch. "Because… I'm exhausted." "Exhausted from what?" "From playing the perfect golden child." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "My entire life, I've been terrified of stepping out of line.

Terrified of bombing a test.

Terrified of being a disappointment…" Her voice faded into the ambient noise of the street. "But today, I just wanted to see what it felt like… to actually breathe." I stared at her, then reached out and aggressively ruffled her hair. "Juliet Lin.

Welcome to the dark side." She laughed, her eyes catching the streetlights. By the time we pushed the front door open, it was pushing six o'clock.

Mom and Dad were planted on the living room sofa.

The air in the room was thick and heavy. "Where were you?" Dad demanded, his tone icecold. "Hoops," I replied flatly. "And Juliet?" Mom's eyes locked like lasers onto her.

Juliet's knuckles turned white around her plastic cup. Her voice was barely a whisper. "I went to watch Jade play." The living room plunged into a dead, suffocating silence