The Lucky Winner (The Lucky Series Book 1) Read online

“Honey. What’s bothering you?” she asked, leaning in, to give me her full attention.

  Here we go.

  Attending church every Sunday for decades could turn anyone into an amateur priest. Whenever I sounded rebellious, she always asked that question, her voice calmer than ever.

  “Don’t you want things to change sometimes? Doesn’t anything new excite you? Don’t you want to have fun?”

  “Fun is only a fleeting pleasure, Ella. It’s not the true source of happiness. Happiness comes from within. When you’re comfortable with yourself. Your wealth lies within yourself. Inside.” Her index finger gently tapped my heart.

  I turned around to roll my eyes. I wasn’t so harsh as to do that right to her face. I didn’t need reminding—I knew all about her principles, and virtues of living a modest, predictable life. For my mom, leaving here was like the revolution of the century.

  “I have a dream. I want to become an actress! I need to live in Hollywood to go to auditions.”

  “Oh, that reminds me,” she snapped her fingers. “I saw an ad at the library the other day. They’re auditioning for cheerleaders, for the community marathon. I heard it’s going to be featured on the cover of Littleside Daily.” She smiled, as if she were certain that would excite me no end.

  I had to sigh. “Mom. I’m not talking about those kind of auditions. I’m talking about the real deal! I want to become a movie star. Don’t you understand that at all? I can make a whole lot of money!”

  There was a pause.

  “We aren’t moving anywhere. Okay?”

  My grandparents, from both sides, were all born, raised and died here, the last only a few months ago. Following their example was like preserving a precious family tradition. Our family’s plots were lined up next to each other, in the cemetery a couple of blocks away.

  “Then are you going to fly me over there every time I get an audition?” That sounded crazy, even for me, but still I had to say it.

  She stared at me, as if watching a three-year-old throwing a public tantrum. “Of course not.”

  Still, like the kind mother she was, she attempted to compromise, adding, “I hate to say this, but, if you’re really serious about pursuing your dream, you know you can always move out on your own later.”

  Although she seemed to really hate the thought of us being separated, she knew that was just how life was: kids grew up, and eventually left home. Though she’d never actually done that herself.

  “But I need money! Starting right now!” I hadn’t intended to scream, but it came out that way.

  She studied my face with a stunned look on hers. “Why are you so obsessed with money?” She paused. “Money can’t make you rich. Wealth comes from your heart.”

  She looked genuinely concerned. I knew why: my dream clashed with the teachings of the church, and her goal of living a modest life; Be like-minded, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble… Mom was always quoting her favorite verses from the Bible, and I knew them by heart, having heard them so frequently as a kid.

  CHAPTER 4

  Dad came home from work after being gone for a week. Even though he didn’t complain out loud how much he hated being away from home so frequently, I knew he did. He was a good family man and wanted to provide everything he could for us. Being away so often made it difficult and inconvenient at times to do that. The only advantage he had, compared to other truckers, was living so close to the truck terminal. At least, he didn’t have to spend extra time driving home from the terminal like most of the others did.

  “Hi, honey,” Mom greeted him with a hug. “You look really tired. I’ll fix us dinner as soon as possible. You just rest ‘til then.”

  “Thank you, honey.”

  My parents were always so polite and nice to each other. I never saw them fight. Zoe’s parents fought all the time. They cursed at each other like there was no point in censorship. It was crazy. But even crazier when they made up. They’d kiss and make out right in front of everyone: in the car, in public restaurants…everywhere they could. Then after making up, they’d go right back to being a seventy-year-old married couple—until their next fight.

  I never knew how often my parents were physically intimate. I highly suspected they were not, in any shape or form. Sure, they were always nice to each other, but were they still attracted to each other romantically?

  Dad was forty-three and even though he had wrinkles on his face and some grey growing on his temples, I could tell he was quite good-looking when he was young. He actually was—I’d seen the pictures from his younger days. I was sure he’d been very popular back then, if any girls had been around. He probably hadn’t met too many. Dad wasn’t the type to go out and party—not now or then. Being an introvert in a small town was equal to a death sentence in the dating world. You’d most likely end up marrying one of the few people you’d ever met in your life—like buying a house when the inventory was scarce.

  I bet there were still some people who found him attractive. However, he was just a struggling trucker with a family to feed, living in an old, two-bedroom house in Littleside. That probably discouraged anyone from looking at him and thinking he was attractive, I assumed. Besides, women around his age were already married with kids. It wasn’t like they could blow him a kiss, even if they wanted to. That would have been wrong. And even worse, they all knew each other! Looking at someone else’s husband in a flirtatious manner would have been equivalent to cheating with your best friend’s groom on their wedding day. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but you got the picture.

  Mom was thirty-nine. She was as plain and uncomplicated as a prairie field that spread out to the horizon. She never wore any makeup, and her hair was always the same—she just tied it back every single day. She wore a non-descript shirt and pants, never skirts except when she went to church. Even then, it was rare and the hems were always below-the-knee. To her, practicality was something she worshiped. If I were to choose between two shoes—one pair being super comfortable and easy to walk in; and the other being super cute and impossible to walk in, I would, without any doubt, choose the latter. Of course, you'd know what Mom would choose, even though fifty-year-old women paraded around in six-inch heels in Hollywood!

  Sometimes, however, I wondered what really happened with my parents behind closed doors. But then again, did I really want to know about them being intimate? Heck, no! I just knew that I could never live my life like them. If I were already dying of boredom at age sixteen, how could I not expect to be dead by age forty if my life went on unchanged? I knew that burning, passionate romance didn’t last forever. I also knew that crushes and love were different. But why did it have to be that way? Would it exhaust you to keep loving the same person passionately? Did my parents have a steamy, lust-loving crush when they first met? They must have, and it must have lasted until some point. It wasn’t like their marriage was arranged. I had to wonder, did the romance end with the marriage? Or after becoming parents?

  I hadn’t had my first crush yet—well, who was there really?—and I had very high expectations about my impending romance. After I moved to Los Angeles, my plan was to meet the most gorgeous, successful, wealthy man and fall in love. We'd fall for each other so hard that we couldn’t stand to be apart even for five minutes. There was no way I could settle for, Okay, we had our romance when we met, so now let’s just be two people who politely cohabitate and eventually die.

  That thought frightened me to death.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Oh, hey, Kyle,” said Jerry with a sneer.

  Kyle was putting things in his locker when Jerry spotted him and approached him. How could he miss a perfect opportunity to harass Kyle, right?

  My brother embarrassed me more than anything else I could possibly think of. I’d always wanted a tough, cool, popular brother, one that everybody would envy me for—basically, the complete opposite of Kyle.

  We went to the same school (of course) and everybody knew we were siblings. His hair always looked like Jim Carrey’s in Dumb and Dumber and he wore Milton glasses. Couldn’t he at least have gotten a better haircut and thinner lenses or worn contacts? Or gotten Lasik surgery even? Well, I supposed that was off the table because he didn't have any money for it.

  He always wore ill-fitting jeans and the most out-of-style clothes he could find, such as paisley patterned shirts. They didn’t even sell them in stores anymore. I seriously wondered how and where he managed to find those. I supposed that was sort of his skillset—let’s just leave it at that.

  But the most embarrassing reason of all—and the one that tortured me the most—was that he had a crush on Sophia! Yes, my Sophia! Why did he have to choose her? Not that there were a million choices in this town, but he could still have chosen someone else, someone who wasn’t my BFF, couldn’t he have?

  Jerry Harris, Jr. was a senior in high school and the son of County Chief Deputy Sheriff, Jerry Harris, Sr. He was a quarterback (typical, right?) and popular. He was also a jerk, but he knew how to manipulate the girls. He could be coolly romantic on the first date. Then he’d go back to being his true self, aka a jerk, but a lot of girls stayed with him anyway, at least until he moved onto the next one. After all, a lot of girls liked assholes in high school, didn’t they? He had good looks and six-pack abs. He dressed cool, walked cool, and talked cool.

  He was also Sophia’s ex.

  They’d dated briefly when she was in eighth grade. They got intimate and went all the way but it was only for a mere second because his thingy was way too big for her to bear. When he demanded to try it again and began to force her like an ass, she broke up with him. Nobody had ever dumped him before her, so he didn’t take that very well. He was a dictator in his relationships and always the one who decided
when to call it quits. So he called Sophia disgusting names publicly, leaking false information to embarrass her. All the nasty stuff. Sophia couldn’t hate him more.

  Kyle hid his crush for Sophia for a long time until I finally insisted he confess it. I suspected it long before but I was too scared to confront the truth. I just wished he’d change his mind before I had to deal with it. God knew how long he harbored that secret crush. I thought his only crush was Candy!

  After his feelings toward my best friend surfaced, I became so aware of it, it made me very uncomfortable whenever he saw me with her. I couldn’t help but notice his eyes blinking unnecessarily or shifting abruptly. His face would often turn red like an overripe tomato. Heck, I could even see his heart beating so fast, his shirt would tremble! I could not ignore all the details I saw to the point that I felt superhuman, just like Bella in Twilight when she was turned into a newborn vampire.

  There was no way Sophia would go out with Kyle. He should have known that. He should have known better. But that was the thing about nerds like him, they didn’t know any better.

  When she came to my house to drop off a movie she borrowed, Kyle answered the door, and there she was, the love of his life, standing right before him. It was still a mystery what was going through his head, but either he had an irrational, impulsive, adrenaline rush to appear thick-skinned, or he simply couldn’t hold back his feelings any longer. Whatever the case, he had to tell her. When I rushed to the door, it was already too late. The damage was already done. I saw my best friend’s eyes shifting uncomfortably.

  “Hi,” Kyle answered Jerry, keeping it brief.

  The thing was—the rumor had already spread throughout the school and now everybody knew Kyle liked Sophia. Sophia had told Zoe—what did you expect? Girlfriends didn’t keep anything from each other, not even something as embarrassing as the habit of eating an apple while pooping.

  Of course Sophia told Zoe to keep it strictly between them. So how did it leak? Zoe must have told someone else, after saying, Don’t tell anyone, and that person must have passed it on to another, saying, Don’t tell anyone. Then another, and another. That was how rumors were spread, wasn’t it?

  When the rumor got to the ears of Jerry, he found it very amusing. He was so bored he was glad to finally have some real entertainment.

  “So you like Sophia, huh?” asked Jerry with the same sneer.

  Kyle and Jerry had nothing in common and certainly nothing to talk about—not until then. Now they shared Sophia in common.

  Not that Kyle didn’t know the rumor was out, he simply didn’t want to talk about it. Especially with Jerry. So he decided to just leave the premises.

  “Hey!” Jerry hurried after him and grabbed Kyle’s shoulder, turning him around to face him. “Nobody ignores me.” His sneer changed to anger.

  Jerry had lots of muscles. Kyle had none. No one got muscles by sitting all day and playing video games. Jerry played tackle football and lifted weights at least two hours a day.

  Kyle stuttered as he repositioned his glasses with his index finger. “What do you want me to say…?”

  “Shouldn’t you be picking someone from your own nerdy circle of friends?” said Jerry. He was still gripping Kyle’s shoulder tightly as he continued, “You know I dated her, right?”

  Of course he knew. Who didn’t know? Jerry used to advertise it as much as if he were running a political campaign in town.

  “Yes…” Kyle’s eyes avoided Jerry’s.

  “Well, I fucked her. Did you think you can fuck her? Did you ask her that?” Jerry’s voice became unnecessarily loud.

  Kyle didn’t like the direction the conversation was going. “No,” he replied, then he repeated, “No, no. Of course not.”

  Kyle was an introvert. He wasn’t used to talking in that fashion out loud. Nor did he want to.

  “I have to run,” Kyle replied before he fled from him.

  “Hey!” Jerry chased after him and came to where Sophia, Zoe and I happened to be.

  What a show.

  “Oh, this is interesting,” sneered Jerry to us as he caught up with Kyle and grabbed him.

  “So, Sophia. Are you going to let him fuck you like we did in my bathroom?” Jerry was being a pure jerk. Sophia’s face turned red, mad and embarrassed, as she looked around nervously to see if anyone had overheard what he’d just said.

  “Stop it right now!” Sophia demanded as she jabbed her index finger in his chest.

  “Oh, are you defending this guy?” Jerry’s voice rose, and his anger was evident. After all, he still wasn’t over Sophia dumping him. Nobody ever dumped Jerry Harris, Jr.

  “You’re not saying you actually like this geek, are you?” He leaned over, giving her a threatening look.

  “Just go away, Jerry. This is too messed up. You’re nothing to her. She dumped you. Remember?” Zoe cut in. She wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything.

  “Was I talking to you? Shut your pie hole,” Jerry rudely replied.

  “Don’t talk to my friend like that. You’re being a total ass.” Sophia was strong, too.

  “What?” Jerry closed the distance between him and Sophia, trying to intimidate her.

  “Hey, stop.” Kyle pulled Jerry’s shoulder, trying to get him away from her.

  I supposed love did make people strong. Kyle would have never done that if he weren’t so much in love.

  “Do not,” just as the words emerged from his mouth, Jerry turned around and punched Kyle in the face.

  CHAPTER 6

  It was a spaghetti and meatballs night.

  Mom often made pasta dishes because they were easy and cheap. A dollar for the spaghetti, two dollars for the sauce. The meatballs were on sale that day, so she bought those too. Most nights, she didn’t even add meat because it was too expensive. I hated eating like a vegetarian when I wasn’t a vegetarian.

  Dad was home and had a few days until he went back on the road. All four of us sat down and ate together.

  “What happened to your eye?” asked Dad.

  Kyle got a black eye from Jerry’s punch. His gaze shifted down to the floor as he slumped his narrow shoulders forward.

  I didn't say anything. Looking at his black eye, I actually pitied my brother for once. I just wished he’d start working out. Which, I knew, was not going to happen no matter how much I longed for it.

  It was pretty obvious to anyone that Kyle was punched in the face. How else could you get a black eye? Falling off the bed, hitting your eye on the floor?

  Not very likely.

  “I fell off the bed and hit my eye.”

  Seriously?

  It was now official. My brother was dumb. No wonder he wore the Dumb and Dumber hairstyle.

  “You need to be more careful, honey.”

  And Mom…

  Dad looked at his teenaged son and seemed to study him. He chose not to say anything about it. Perhaps he’d gone through the same misery when he was a teenager. High schools sure were nothing less than war zones to introverts.

  “I’m going to Home Depot tomorrow. The Nick’s didn’t have the right tool. Let me know if you guys need anything from there.”

  The Nick’s was a hardware store in the neighborhood and Home Depot was thirty miles away. Dad’s latest project was fixing the roof. It leaked whenever it rained.

  “There is something I need,” I lifted my head and said with hope.

  “What is it?” Dad turned to me.

  “Doors.”

  Mom was well aware of my fervent desire to install a set of doors to my den, but I’d never mentioned it to Dad. Mom had refused to agree to it and since the two of them always discussed just about everything, if Mom said no, there was no point in me bringing it up to Dad.

  However, I wanted to bring it up at that moment. If I really wanted to have anything, I had to be persistent. That was my late grandpa’s wisdom.

  “Doors?” Dad furrowed his eyebrows.

  Apparently, Mom hadn’t told him about it yet. She didn’t approve, so she probably saw no point in discussing it with Dad.

  “Yes, a set of doors to my room.” I felt like a brave soldier. I was all in to win.