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Clearance Rack Daughter
Clearance Rack Daughter
Author: Orange Star

Chapter 1

Author: Orange Star
I carried that oversized, ill-fitting black suit back to my room.

Mom watched me go, her face full of quiet satisfaction. "You've always been the sensible one, giving way to your sister since you were little. You're not like her. She's always out running around all day with her head in the clouds."

Whatever she said, the smile never left her face, and it was plainly doting.

I didn't look back. My steps only faltered for a moment.

Mom's voice chased after me. "Oh, and I never asked. How did the interview go today? Is a big company like that hard to get into?"

"It was fine." I pushed the door open and left those two words behind in the hallway.

I hung up the suit and sat down at my desk, thinking back to the satisfied smile on Charlie Gilbert's face. Mr. Gilbert, the department head, had told me privately that he had a merit-admission spot open.

If I could land it, I'd go straight into his design department as an intern and skip the usual six-month rotation.

I'd been thrilled just to make it to the second round of interviews.

But after seeing that oversized, clearance-rack suit that clearly wasn't made for me, I'd lost the urge to share the good news with my mother.

There were seven days left until Wednesday's second interview. I told her I needed to prepare and asked her not to bother me for the next few days.

She said happily, "Really? All right, take your time and get ready. I promise I won't bother you."

I pulled out all my notes from my design classes and wrote out the project directions Mr. Gilbert had mentioned in passing during the interview, sketching and revising until I'd filled several pages with ideas.

For the following week, I barely left my room.

The day Molly left with her suitcase, I heard Mom outside fussing over her endlessly. "Pack another jacket. Text me when you get there. Do you have enough money?"

I worked myself ragged for a week and finally had a rough draft of the design ready.

I collapsed into bed and slept over ten hours straight before I felt human again.

When I woke up, Mom was sitting at my computer.

The screen was lit up. She had her reading glasses on, staring intently at something.

I walked over and realized she was watching a drama.

The male and female leads on screen were pouring their hearts out to each other, and Mom dabbed at her eyes as she watched.

She heard my footsteps, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eyes. "My tablet died. I'm just watching a bit on your computer."

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  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 9

    Sara stared at the brand-new phone, then thought of the years Cathy had spent using that battered knockoff phone, and the regret inside her burned even hotter.How could she have thrown away something so precious over a fool like this?She grabbed the phone and hurled it to the ground.Molly didn't even have time to snatch it back before she watched it hit the floor and warp out of shape."You're paying me back for my phone!" She and Sara grappled with each other, and in the struggle she shoved Sara hard to the ground.Sara hit the floor, and her leg broke clean through.Something in her hardened. She cut off Molly's allowance entirely, told her to go find a job on her own, and forbade her from living at home.Molly cried and raged, but none of it earned Sara's forgiveness, and she slunk off to take a factory job.Sara kept trying to reach Cathy's friends and teachers, hoping to learn where she'd gone.But not one of them was willing to tell her.…I didn't see Sara again un

  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 8

    After a week of coasting at the company, Molly finally got caught in a morning meeting.Mr. Gilbert praised the design draft she'd brought in and asked her to come up and walk everyone through her concept and the direction of the final version.Molly broke into a cold sweat instantly. She had no idea what the concept even was.Every class she'd skipped in college had finally come back to bite her.Under Mr. Gilbert's prompting and encouragement, she dragged herself up to the front.She stared at the design projected on the screen, her mind blank, unable to get a single word out."The concept behind this design is, um, the direction is, um..."Molly was nearly in tears, scrambling to string together anything that might get her through the meeting.Mr. Gilbert gave a cold snort. "Can't come up with anything, can you? You steal someone else's work, dress it up as your own, and you're pretty proud of yourself, aren't you?"Molly shrieked her denial. "I didn't! I didn't steal anyth

  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 7

    After I sent the messages, I tucked the phone back into my pocket and pressed my forehead against the cold train window.The rails clattered past in steady bursts. The lights outside thinned, then thickened, then thinned again. The city fell away behind, and the fields and hills blurred into inky shadows in the dark.…At that same moment, Sara got the messages.She was in the middle of helping Molly pick out a commuter bag at the mall when her phone buzzed in her pocket.She pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and her brows knotted. She shoved the phone back into her pocket.Her chest heaved once, twice. She grabbed Molly, who hadn't even finished shopping yet, and turned back toward home."We're going home! Right now! Let's see what kind of scene she thinks she's making!"When they got back, the living room was empty, and Cathy's room was empty too. Empty like no one had ever lived there at all.Sara called Cathy's teachers and friends, but not one of them knew where she'd

  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 6

    Stealing my spot, I'd swallowed that. Molly was bound to slip up sooner or later anyway.Smashing my computer, I'd swallowed that too. The design was all in my head regardless.But them stealing my money meant I couldn't even buy a plane ticket to get to my new job.That was ruining my future. That, I could not let go.I grabbed the purse Mom had left on the arm of the couch and turned to run for the door.Mom lunged and grabbed the strap. "You're rebelling against me now?"I shouted, "Give me back my money!"Mom's eyes went red, and she screeched, "What do you mean, your money? I raised you this whole time, shouldn't you be paying me back? You've barely graduated and already think you're too good for this family!"She swung her hand and slapped me.I heard the whistle of air before the sting exploded across my cheek. I staggered sideways, my knee slamming into the leg of the coffee table, and I went down hard.Pain shot up from my knee like a red-hot iron rod dragged through

  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 5

    They wrote back with a simple "okay," and nothing more.I dug my suitcase out from the back of the closet. It was a small one, its wheels a little stiff, rattling every time I pulled it along.I started packing clothes: short sleeves for summer, a light jacket for fall, a few textbooks.The computer with the cracked screen was still sitting in the corner where I'd tossed it after bringing it home. I thought about it for a moment, then picked it up and tucked it into the bottom of the suitcase.Once I'd finished packing, I opened my phone to buy a plane ticket from home to Dakota.I picked out a flight and tapped to pay.Payment failed. Insufficient balance.Failed? That couldn't be right. I still had two thousand dollars in there.My hands shook as I pulled up the transaction history.The most recent charge was a two-thousand-dollar transfer.It had gone out the night before last, to my mother's account.I walked barefoot into the living room. Molly was curled up on the couc

  • Clearance Rack Daughter   Chapter 4

    Molly's face flushed red, and she shot to her feet. "What's that supposed to mean? Who are you looking down on? I'm not allowed to learn?"My voice stayed even. "You're not looking for anything. You're checking whether there's anything left here you can still steal. "You skipped every one of your classes. You can't even understand the design draft Mr. Gilbert asked for. You can't tell Photoshop from CorelDRAW. "You stole my work and handed it in, and now you're worried I kept a copy, so you want to wipe it clean. Isn't that it?"She glared at me, then suddenly grabbed the computer off the desk and hurled it to the floor.The screen shattered with a crack, cracks spreading out like a spiderweb, the keyboard popping loose and skidding into the corner.A shard flew up and nicked the top of my foot. A thin line of blood welled up.By the time Mom rushed in, Molly was already crouched on the floor, hands over her face, her cries drawn out and shrill."Mom! She's been guarding agai

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