Chapter 2

I hovered in midair, completely at a loss.

Time and again, I tried to get back into my body, desperate to make my limp frame stand upright like my classmates, but it was all in vain.

When I still didn't respond, Mom, who had always cared deeply about her image, felt even more humiliated. Finally, she snapped and kicked me hard several times.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" she shrieked. "Just because you came in first but didn't get the Outstanding Freshman Award, you picked a moment like this to humiliate me and get back at me?"

Her words grew even harsher. "When your dad and I divorced, why did I fight so hard to keep a scheming, vicious, worthless brat like you?"

The entire field fell deathly silent, as if everyone present could hear the shattered pieces of my heart hitting the ground.

I wanted so badly to tell Mom that I really had tried.

Back then, Dad was determined to get a divorce. Mom was just a housewife, and he forced her to leave the marriage with nothing.

Yet when it came to custody, she didn't hesitate for a second. She chose to keep me and had me take her last name.

To support me, she went back to work and became a professor. Juggling her job and raising me on her own, she worked her way up and eventually became a well-respected college dean.

Only I had witnessed the countless nights she broke down in helpless tears after suffering setbacks at work or seeing me lying in a hospital bed.

That was why I did everything I could to lighten her load and protect her reputation for fairness.

When I first enrolled, I was the top-ranked freshman. But to keep anyone from accusing her of favoritism, she asked me to give up the Outstanding Freshman Award to a student in financial need. I agreed.

When an opportunity came up to study abroad as an exchange student, I was the most qualified candidate by every measure. But she used my asthma as an excuse, saying she would worry if I went overseas.

Then she gave the spot to the child of one of her subordinates and even used my scholarship money to pay for their airfare.

Each time, I simply went along with it until I grew numb, as though none of those honors had ever been mine to begin with.

But moments ago, all I wanted was my inhaler.

When I still didn't move, Roxanne grew exasperated, grabbed me by the collar, and hauled me up.

"Your mom is a woman I've always admired, but you're such a disappointment! You can't even stand at attention without trying to weasel your way out of it. After everything Ms. Sheldon went through to get where she is today, how can you even look her in the eye?"

"I'm giving you one last chance," she snapped. "Get up right now, and stop bringing shame to your mom! Otherwise, every minute you spend lying there is another minute your classmates have to stand out here with you!"

But no matter how hard she shook me, I didn't respond.

When she saw that I still wasn't moving, Mom's rage boiled over. She kicked me square in the chest. "Faking sick wasn't enough, so now you're playing dead? Get up right now! Don't make me get even rougher with you!"

My classmates were losing their patience too.

"Isabelle, that's enough. Get up already, and stop dragging the rest of us into this."

"Thank God Ms. Sheldon doesn't play favorites, or you'd have us stuck out here all day!"

"It must be nice getting to lie down while the rest of us have to stand. How can you be so selfish?"

I circled anxiously above them, filled with hurt and frustration.

I was already dead. Why wouldn't a single one of them believe me?

When I still didn't so much as twitch, Mom lost what little composure she had left and pointed at the heavy metal manhole cover at the edge of the field.

"She likes lying around in the heat, doesn't she? Carry her over there and put her on it. Let's see how long she can keep this act up!"