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My Life is Based on Lottery Winnings

My Life is Based on Lottery Winnings

Cerita Pendek · Emotional Realism
Oleh:  Mimi WinterrestTamat
Bahasa: English
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11Bab
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Sinopsis

Familial Bond

Feel-Good Story

Bias

Family Emotions

Face Slapping

My parents used lottery tickets to decide our allowances because they wanted to train and educate my younger sister, Elena Carter, and me. Every week before we returned to school, we would be given five lottery tickets. Whatever amount we scratched would be our weekly allowance. Elena was always lucky. She would always win at least a hundred dollars, and she would spend the money on good meals, dresses, and even buying her roommates coffee. The most I had won was 15 dollars, and most of the day, all I got was a few dollars. At the height of my bad luck, all five lottery tickets would end up being losing tickets. I had to rely on the two dollars I managed to save last week. When I asked my parents to give me a regular allowance of 20 dollars per week, my mother rejected my request, looking upset. "The same rule applies to both of you. Why are you blaming us when you purely have bad luck?" Once, I was starving so badly that I opened the cupboard where they kept the lottery tickets while they were not home. There were two stacks of lottery tickets. One stack had my name, and the other had Elena's. For some reason, I picked a ticket from Elena's stack and quietly scratched it in my room. I won 30 dollars, and I excitedly ran to the convenience store to get my cash, but when the owner saw my lottery ticket, he laughed. "Stop kidding around, young lady. This is a customized ticket. You can't exchange any cash for this." At that moment, my heart was filled with despair.

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11 Bab
Chapter 1
I stood in front of the counter for a long time without moving. When the convenience store owner saw the upset look on my face, he flipped the lottery ticket over and pointed at the number behind it. "Real lottery tickets have the tickets' information behind them and aren't made of flimsy material like this."This ticket looks pretty authentic. It was probably custom-made by someone online. Were your classmates playing a trick on you?" I stared at the images on the scratched card and felt my hands go cold. It was not my classmates who did this. The ticket was dug out from a cupboard at home. The cupboard was always locked, and the key was kept with a ring of other keys that belonged to my mother. This morning, my parents took my younger sister out to get a new phone, and my mother left the key near the entrance. It was the first time I had opened the cupboard, and inside were two stacks of lottery tickets placed tidily next to each other.The stack on the left had my name, Nina
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Chapter 2
When I got home, Elena was sitting on the couch, playing with her new phone. She waved me over to her happily when she saw me. "Nina, help me transfer my pictures to the new phone."However, I ignored her and headed straight to the dinner table. Ten lottery tickets were already spread out on the table, and my mother pushed five tickets toward me. "Hurry up and scratch them. Your father and I need to take a nap later. Don't waste our time."I did not take the tickets, which made my father frown. "What are you still standing there for?" That was when I placed the lottery ticket I took from the cupboard onto the table. When the ticket floated gently down, my mother's expression changed. "Who said you could go through my cupboard?"She did not ask why I had the lottery ticket or where I had gone. Her first reaction was to get mad at me for opening her cupboard, and that killed the last hope inside of me."That ticket is fake," I heard my voice trembling. "Every ticket you gave us was
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Chapter 3
When I got back to school, I put my three dollars away.Chelsea Sanders, who sat next to me in class, glanced over. "Is that all you have for today?"I put the money away and shook my head. "That's for the week.""How is three dollars supposed to last a week at school?""I still have food left in my dorm room," I lied. All I had left in the cupboard of my dormitory was half a packet of stale cookies.That night, Elena bought dinner for her roommates. She shared a picture of the feast they enjoyed that night on her social media account. The entire table was filled with food, and in the middle of it was a birthday cake.Her caption read: [This has been a lucky week. Thank you for shining a light on me, Goddess of Luck.]Comments from envious classmates flooded her post. Someone asked how she was lucky enough to strike the lottery so many times.She replied: [Maybe it's because I'm a good person.]I stared at her picture and post for a long time before turning off my phone.The
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Chapter 4
When we returned home on Friday, my mother was cooking in the kitchen.Elena's new phone was on the dining table, looking pretty with a pink case and dazzling accessories on it. When my father saw me, he pointed at the couch. "Sit down. We need to have a chat."However, I did not listen to him.My mother walked out of the kitchen, looking upset. "What ridiculous story did you tell the school? Your class teacher called to ask if I was starving you at home.""All I did was tell the truth.""What truth? Are you saying we didn't give you any weekly allowance?""How is three dollars an allowance?" My father raised his voice, "There are ways to live with excess money, and there are ways to live with less money. We're training you how to deal with emergency situations.""If that's what you're trying to do, why doesn't Elena need to deal with emergency situations?"The question choked my father, and my mother slammed the plates on the table. "Your sister has not been in good health
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Chapter 5
I thought I had heard wrong. "But I'm still in school.""So what if you are? Aren't you capable enough of making your own money?" My mother took out her phone to show me an accounting sheet she had just drawn up. It stated that it cost 12 dollars for water and utilities, 60 dollars for my room, and 28 dollars for my meals at home during the weekend. The total came up to a hundred dollars.She pushed her phone into my face. "We treat both of you the same. Elena is not making any money right now, which means she doesn't need to pay anything to us. Since you've started making money, you should learn to take responsibility for your family."Here she was again, talking about how they were treating me the same. Every time they played favorites, they would always make it sound like they were being fair. I pushed her phone away. "I'm not paying."My father's face fell. "Say that again.""I spent sleepless nights going through my classmates' work to earn that money. I'm not giving it t
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Chapter 6
The bus drove for three hours before finally stopping at the east gate of Medloc University.We were led inside by the teachers to register for our dormitory. Two people were assigned to one dorm room. Each bed had a new mattress, and we each had an access card that was placed on the table."The cards contain your meal fees for these two months. You are allocated 20 dollars a day, and you can use it at the school canteen or the convenience stores within the campus."I clenched the card, but did not put it away. "Do we need to spend all our allocation in one day?" The teacher, Anna Grant, was taken aback. "That's not necessary. The full allocation is given out according to the number of days that you are here. We won't make you return the money even if you don't finish it.""What happens after this initiative ends?" "We'll take the cards back, but you don't need to pay anything back to us."I was still worried. "Do I need to pay for the accommodation and the mattress?" Anna l
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Chapter 7
When I returned to my dorm room, Eva was cleaning the table. She had placed the milk on my side of the room with a note below it: [I really can't finish all my milk. If you refuse to have it for free, give me a Math lesson the next time.]I stared at the note for a long time, and in the end, I opened the small box of milk and slowly finished it. It was the first time I had tried to believe that a box of milk would not cause me to end up in debt.The Young Sprouts Initiative was not a summer camp. On the first day, Anna placed a thick stack of papers in front of us, informing us that we would need to complete a minor research project in two months. After that, they would hold a public Q&A about it.I picked the subject of the campus water conservation system.The first research draft went well, but when I started to collect the data to support my research, I began to face problems. The sensor reading was off, and the piping blueprints did not match the actual piping.Even the data
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Chapter 8
When I returned to the lab, I did not force myself to continue working on it alone. Instead, I sent a text to the group chat: [Something is wrong with my calculation model. Is anyone willing to help me take a second look at it?]It took less than a minute for Eva to reply: [I'll be there in 10 minutes.]Two other team members replied as well: [We're on our way.]We worked on it until 3:00 am, and we finally found out the problem was with the data format. When the computer screen displayed a curved line, Eva cheered while leaning on the table. I looked at everyone's exhausted yet happy faces, and for the first time, I realized that asking for help was not a sign of weakness.…The next afternoon, I bought everyone lunch. Eva bit into a wing and asked, "Is this your payment for the milk yesterday?"I gave it some serious thought and answered, "Nope."Eva laughed. "Did you finally think things through?"I nodded. "The milk has nothing to do with this. I just wanted to buy all of
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Chapter 9
After my parents left, the research project came to its busiest phase. I got second-to-last in the first mid-project presentation. The judges pointed out that my research topic was too general, and the data I collected was clearly deviated. My palms were sweating when the projector displaying my presentation was finally turned off.When I walked out of the room, I heard someone whispering behind me, "Didn't she come in first during the selection process? Her work turned out to be pretty mediocre.""She must have done really well in the paper exam."I paused in my steps. At that moment, my mother's text came flooding into my mind: [There are so many people out there better than you are, and you'll find out one day that you're nothing.]I did not return to my room, but hugged my laptop and sat at the staircase for a long time. When Eva found me, I was about to delete the folder containing my entire research project. She quickly stopped me."Are you crazy?""My research direction
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Chapter 10
After the experimental camp ended, I moved back to the school's dormitory. My parents followed the mediation agreement and transferred 150 dollars to me in the first month. My mother added a remark on the transaction.[We're providing for you. Remember to be grateful.]I stared at it for a long time, but did not reply.After my return to school, I reduced my usual part-time work helping others with their homework and only worked on two essays every weekend. The rest of my time was spent preparing for the SATs.During the first exam of my senior year, my placement in class rose from 27th to 9th. When my class teacher sent the report cards to the parents, my father kept calling me that night. There were dozens of missed calls as I did not pick up any of his calls.When he could not get me on the phone, he texted me: [I know you're a bright student. We were strict with you because you are stronger than your sister. What you've achieved proves that we weren't wrong with how we brought
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