Switching Places

For two years, Tiffany “Tiff” Sterling, the school’s queen bee, made my life a living hell.

She’d use her lit cigarette to burn me, leaving my arms a mangled mess of scars. Then I found out, she wasn’t even a real Sterling heiress. I was.

The moment I moved into the mansion, I knew Tiff’s party was over. Every day, I’d make her existence a misery.

1

Tiff, with that practiced cruelty of hers, jammed a cigarette against my arm.

It wasn’t her arm, it was mine.

That familiar burning pain shot through me. I bit back a scream; she’d only hit me harder if I made a peep.

"Ooh, look at this, what's that new one on your leg?" Tiff quickly spotted the latest scar. “Was it your abusive old man?”

I just nodded.

Tiff’s pretty face broke into a smile. "Someone like you, beat down by your father as a kid? Probably gonna get your face punched by your husband, too, when you grow up. I'm just toughening you up now. You should be thanking me.”

So, I dropped to my knees.

My self-respect had been flicked away like cigarette ash, and it was nothing more than dirt at this point.

“Maybe I should just shave your head, put a bald patch or two on top to keep you from marrying some loser,” she said, a gleam in her eye.

I looked up, terrified. "Don’t touch my hair!"

Tiff, though, was too excited by her idea. She was about to light another smoke, when her phone rang, luckily for me, sending her goons to fetch scissors.

"Mom? Miss me? Uh-huh. Got it, I’ll be home early." She hung up, looking annoyed. "Guess your lucky day. I gotta bounce.”

I heard her sidekick, Chad, ask, “What’s up, Tiff?”

"Nothing, just they found my long lost sister.”

--

"Sarah, this is your new home."

That was the first thing Mrs. Sterling said to me as I walked through the door of their mansion.

I didn't say anything, just looked around.

Mr. Sterling was excited and my "brother," Josh, was grinning. They all seemed genuinely happy to have me there.

Then I saw Tiff.

"Sarah?!" she screeched.

"You know Sarah?" Mrs. Sterling looked confused.

"…Yeah, we're in the same school." Tiff managed a weak smile, staring at me, her eyes screaming threats, “Right, Sarah...uh, Sterling?”

"Oh, how nice. You're all at the same high school, that's good.”

Mrs. Sterling took my hand. "Sarah, you know, Tiff’s lived with us for a long time, we think of her as our own. So, we'll just say you're Tiff’s younger sister, okay? You two will get along great, right?"

I couldn't see my expression, but I knew it must be ugly because Mrs. Sterling frowned.

"No." I said.

Mrs. Sterling's face did a double take, thinking I didn’t want to share my place with Tiff, since she'd been here for twenty years.

“Sarah, Tiff has always been so sweet and easy to get along with. You’ll like her if you just give her a chance.”

I shook my head stiffly.

"See, I told you," Tiff said, her eyes suddenly tearing up, hiding behind Josh. “She’s already gonna say I bullied her.”

--

The Sterlings knew I’d been abused by my foster ...