All Chapters of Living on Rigged Scratch Cards: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I stood in front of the convenience store counter for a long time, completely motionless.When the convenience store clerk saw the incredulous expression on my face, she flipped the scratch-off ticket to the back and pointed to the serial number."Real lottery tickets have anti-counterfeiting codes in the back. They also wouldn't use this kind of paper. But yours looks like a pretty good dupe. It was probably custom-made online. Did a classmate use it to prank you or something?"I stared at the scratched-off amount on the ticket and felt my fingers growing cold.It wasn't a classmate.This lottery ticket had come from the cabinet at home that was locked all the time, and the key was always on Dad's keychain. I had only opened the cabinet for the first time when he left the keys at home while he and Mom took my younger brother, Daryl Gray, to buy a new phone.There had been two neat stacks of lottery tickets in it, with my name, Dustin Gray, written on the left stack, and Daryl's

After going back to school, I reloaded the 15 dollars into my student meal card. My deskmate, Leroy Harmon, leaned over and glanced at it."Are you sure you didn't miss putting another '0' at the end?" he asked in surprise.I put my card away and shook my head. "No.""Dude, how are you supposed to survive on 15 dollars a week?""I still have food at the dorm," I lied. But actually, I only had half a stale granola bar left inside my shelf.That night, Daryl treated his classmates to a birthday pizza party with all the sides. He posted all the photos of the massive spread on his social media account, complete with a birthday cake from a famous bakery.The caption read, "I got super lucky this week! Thank you, lottery gods!"The post was then filled with birthday wishes and envy from his other friends and classmates. Someone even asked him how he managed to always win so much money in the lottery every time, and Daryl replied, "Maybe it's because I'm kind and generous?"I stared a

I thought that I'd heard Dad wrongly."I'm still a student," I said."So what? You're already earning your own money now, aren't you?" Dad said with a scoff. He then took out his phone and showed me a list of bills he'd already prepared."Water: 75 dollars. Room and lodging: 200 dollars. Food for weekends: 125 dollars."It amounted perfectly to 400 dollars.He shoved the list toward me and said, "You brothers must be treated fairly. But Daryl isn't earning any money, so he doesn't need to pay rent just yet. You're the one earning money now, so you must learn to shoulder household responsibilities with us."There he went with his twisted fair treatment again. It was obvious that he was biased against me every time, but he'd always gaslight me into thinking that it was just for fairness.I shoved his phone back at him."I'm not paying a single cent."Mom's face turned dark at once."I dare you to repeat that, young man.""I stayed up all night to earn the money. I will never g

When I returned to the dorm, Alvin was tidying up his desk. He'd placed the carton of milk on my desk with a sticky note underneath it."I really can't finish them all. If you don't want to take it for free, then you can help me with a math problem next time."I stared at the words for a very long time. Finally, I picked up the milk carton, opened it, and took small sips.This was the first time I tried to believe that a carton of milk wouldn't leave me with an insurmountable debt.The Maynard Summer School Program wasn't just any summer camp.On the first day, Dr. Woods placed a thick stack of materials in front of us. He told us that we had to complete a small research project within two months, culminating in a public defense.I chose to work on a topic about the campus water conservation system.The first draft went smoothly. However, when we began collecting data, my problems kept coming, one after another.Sensor readings drifted, pipeline diagrams didn't match the actual

After Mom and Dad left, we entered into the busiest phase of our projects.During the first mid-term presentation, I ranked second-to-last in the group. The reviewing lecturer told me that my topic was too broad and that there were significant biases in my data collection.My palms were sweaty when the projector was turned off. As I walked out of the classroom, I heard the other students whispering and gossiping behind me."Didn't he rank first during the selection? And yet, this was all he could do?""Maybe he's just better on paper."I froze in my steps.Dad's words rang in my ears again just then.There were plenty of outstanding people in the world. And soon, I'd find out just how little I was worth without Mom and Dad.I didn't return to my dorm room that night. I just hugged my laptop and sat in the stairwell for a long time.When Alvin found me, I was already prepared to delete the entire research folder from my laptop. He grabbed my hand at once to stop me."Are you o