Page 2 of Voices

Congratulations on your acceptance to Columbia University…

Congratulations! I am delighted to offer you admission to Princeton’s Class of 2026…

Igot into my top three schools! Running downstairs with my laptop tucked under my arm, I look around for my twin brother, Benji. He’s not watching TV, so I head for the dining room, sure that he’s stuffing his face with food that our chef Gloria made.

I slide into the dining room and come to a sudden stop when I see my brother…and father, sitting at the table. I swallow back my excitement and slowly walk towards my brother.

“What ya got there Charlie boy,” Benji asks with a mouth full of food.

Not wanting to have my father’s attention on me, I shake my head and sit in my chair next to Benji. I place my laptop on my lap and grab an apple so it looks like that’s why I came down.

“You never walk around with your laptop, dude. It looked like you were excited to tell me something,” he says with a pump of his eyebrows and a shit-eating grin.

Rolling my eyes, I keep quiet and pick at the stem of my apple.

But the next thing I knew, Benji had swiped my laptop and opened it.

Damn, his hockey speed.

It’s useless trying to get it back, so I sit here and watch him seamlessly type in my password and read my acceptance letters.

“Holy shit! Holy fucking shit, you did it, Charlie! How many more do you have?”

Benji is all but jumping in his seat as he reads through three more letters welcoming me into their college. It took years of hard work and patience to get those scores.

Not knowing what to do or say, I peek at my father from the corner of my eye. He has stopped looking through paperwork and is staring right at me. Feeling my face flush, I look down at the table with my shoulders up to my ears.

“What’s that all about Benjamin,” he asks.

Benji stands up and walks over to Father. Turning the computer around, he scrolls through my emails, showing him the letters.

If you thought he’d be proud of his son for getting accepted into some of the top universities in the country, you’d be wrong.

He has a stern look in his eye as he looks at my emails. He squints at one then lets out a ‘yeah right’ followed by a dark laugh.

It’s one of the evilest sounds I’ve ever heard.

I knew he wasn’t going to be excited, but I was secretly hoping for a ‘well done’ or even a ‘good job’. But I didn’t expect him to shit all over my hard work.

Closing the laptop, he slides it to me and looks me in the eyes.

“I believe they clicked accept instead of decline by mistake. Because there’s absolutelynoway in hell someone as dim-witted as you got into those prestigious schools with that childish trash you call art.”

Sinking further down in my chair, my heart sinks. All my dreams are in those schools. They have some of the top Fine Arts programs to help me sharpen my skills and reach my dream of becoming a successful artist and owning my own art gallery.

Who are you kidding? Nobody is going to pay for your scribbles.

Trash!

Childish!

A waste of time!

I shake my head to clear the voices and stand up. Grabbing my laptop, I turn to go back to my room when Father speaks.

“You do know you won’t be attending any of those colleges, don’t you?”

Turning around, I look at him with my eyes bugged out. What does he mean I won’t be attending those schools? I got in! All I have to do is formally accept one and I’m in. I can finally leave this hell hole.

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