The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson Read Free Book Online

until she finally said yes. He was the star of the football team, probably on track to become valedictorian, and had everything in his life handed to him on a silver platter.
    Well, maybe I could take something away from him. Ms. Rathbone and Trent had been right. I needed to take some action in my life. It was time for the ugly stepsister to strike back.
    "What are we going to do now?" I repeated with a small, sly smile as I squeezed her hands tightly. "I'll tell you what we're going to do now. I'm going to run for senior class president."

    Chapter 6
    Ella enthusiastically agreed with my crazy plan, and assigned herself the role of campaign manager. I didn't know how she planned on doing this in addition to the 3,467 other things she had to get done every day, but she insisted. I had often wondered how Ella accomplished everything that she needed to. I suspected that Ella got by on four hours of sleep. I needed like twelve.
    She grabbed her laptop and started brainstorming campaign ideas with me when the doorbell rang. Trent. I had forgotten he was coming over to hang out. After promising to talk with Ella about the campaign later, I went to answer the door.
    I realized that I hadn't washed my tearstained face given Trent's alarmed expression. "Uh, are you okay?"
    "I'm fine," I said.
    He looked relieved. I realized the extreme disadvantage of only having guy friends. They weren't all that interested in your emotional well-being.
    I excused myself to splash water on my face and saw that things were worse than I had imagined. Dark black circles from my mascara ringed my eyes. I looked like the bedraggled love child of a sad clown and a raccoon. Loud music exploded from another room and I knew what Trent had decided to do today.
    When I came back to what my dad calls the "entertainment room," I saw that Trent had already settled in on the couch in front of the enormous flat screen TV my dad insisted was necessary even though, other than Dodgers games, I'd never actually seen him watch television. My dad had also insisted on buying a set of Alexandria speakers that had cost him about a couple hundred thousand dollars. My dad took his music very seriously, as did Trent. Trent and I typically either watched my movies or he listened to his emo music on those speakers. He kept talking about stuff like the tonal quality, but all I could hear was the loud.
    I also noticed that he wasn't alone. Ella sat on the couch with him, with her eyes closed She leaned her head back and forth as it bobbed to the beat. They were what my dad would call a study in contradictions. Blonde, tiny Ella with her hair knotted on top of her head, wearing her glasses, dressed in a pink hoodie and matching sweats, looked like the total opposite of Trent with his black spiky hair, piercings and his black T-shirt and ripped jeans.
    The song ended and Trent got up to retrieve his iPhone from the docking station attached to the speakers.
    "I really like this live version," she said.
    "Me too," Trent agreed as he sat back down next to Ella. I noticed he sat much closer to her than where he had started out.
    "You'll have to text me what other songs you recommend from the new album."
    "I don't have your number," he said.
    "Here." Ella pulled out her phone and handed it to Trent so he could put himself in her address book.
    A loud crashing sound came from the kitchen. Carlotta had the night off, which meant my dad was attempting to make dinner. Attempting being the operative word. Ella saw me standing behind the couch. We exchanged looks, and she said, "I'd better go check on him." Ella handled my dad better than I did.
    I flopped down on the couch next to Trent. He had entered his details into the phone, and then called himself to get her number. He glanced toward the kitchen and then returned to the main screen on Ella's phone. He found her music folder and opened it. He started scrolling.
    "What are you doing?"
    He gave me a withering look, like I should have known