Chapter 1 - The Sound of Scissors
Nia Carter had imagined opening her scholarship letter a hundred different ways.
Sometimes, in her imagination, her father was standing beside her. Sometimes her grandmother was crying happy tears. Sometimes her older sister, Simone, wrapped her arms around her and promised they would celebrate with their favorite takeout.
She had never imagined the sound of scissors cutting through the most important letter of her life.
It happened on a Thursday afternoon in the living room of their family home.
Nia stood beside the coffee table, holding a thick white envelope with both hands. The return address belonged to the Larkin Community Scholarship Foundation.
For nearly a year, she had worked toward this moment.
She had stayed after school for tutoring, rewritten her application essay six times, and spent weekends preparing an engineering project that had nearly driven her to tears.
Now the answer was in her hands.
She opened the envelope carefully.
Her eyes raced across the first paragraph.
Then she gasped.
"Oh my God."
Her grandmother, Louise, glanced up from her armchair.
"What is it?"
Nia pressed her fingers against her mouth.
"I got it."
Louise lowered her reading glasses.
"Got what, baby?"
"The scholarship. Grandma, I actually got the scholarship!"
Nia laughed, almost breathless.
The letter confirmed that she had received a four-year scholarship worth thirty-six thousand dollars toward her college education.
For a girl who had spent months worrying about whether her father could afford tuition, it meant more than she could explain.
She turned toward the hallway.
"Simone! Come see!"
Her older sister appeared a moment later, still wearing the cream-colored sweater she had put on that morning.
"What's all the yelling?"
Nia held out the letter.
"I won the Larkin scholarship!"
Simone's expression changed.
Not into the delighted smile Nia expected.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Of course you did."
Nia hesitated.
"What?"
Simone walked toward her.
"Let me see."
Nia handed over the letter, still smiling.
Simone read the first few lines.
Then she looked at Nia.
"You really think you're something special now, don't you?"
Nia's smile disappeared.
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to. You've been talking about that scholarship for months."
"I was excited."
"You're always excited when everybody's looking at you."
Nia reached for the paper.
"Simone, give it back."
But Simone stepped toward the coffee table.
A pair of scissors lay beside a half-finished package Louise had been wrapping earlier.
Simone picked them up.
For one second, Nia didn't understand what was happening.
Then the blades closed through the middle of her scholarship letter.
"Simone!"
Nia lunged forward.
"Stop! Please!"
Her sister cut again.
And again.
White strips of paper fluttered onto the carpet.
"There," Simone said coldly. "Now you can stop showing off."
Nia dropped to her knees.
Her hands shook as she tried to gather the pieces.
"Why would you do that?"
Simone tossed the scissors onto the table.
"Because somebody needed to bring you back down to earth."
Nia looked toward her grandmother.
"Grandma, did you see that?"
Louise sighed.
"Lord, these girls."
"She destroyed my scholarship letter!"
"It's just a piece of paper, Nia. The world isn't ending."
Nia stared at her.
"I worked for a whole year."
"And nobody's taking that away from you," Louise replied. "You're making too much of it."
That was when the front door opened.
Their father, David Carter, entered wearing his dark work jacket.
He stopped when he saw Nia kneeling on the carpet.
"What happened?"
Nia tried to answer, but her throat tightened.
"Simone cut my scholarship letter."
David looked at the torn paper.
Then at Simone.
"You did this?"
Simone folded her arms.
"She was showing off."
David said nothing.
He walked to the couch, where Simone's expensive designer handbag rested beside her jacket.
He picked it up.
Simone immediately stepped forward.
"Dad! Put that down!"
David examined the bag.
"Why?"
"Because it's mine!"
"And it's expensive?"
"Yes!"
He looked at her.
"So your things have value, but your sister's don't?"
Simone opened her mouth, then closed it.
David placed the handbag carefully back on the couch.
He wasn't going to destroy her property.
He wanted her to understand what she had been willing to destroy for someone else.
Then he held out his hand.
"Your phone."
"What?"
"Give it to me."
"Dad, seriously?"
"Now, Simone."
She slapped the phone into his palm.
Louise stood up.
"David, that's enough. It's only paper."
David turned toward his mother.
"Please don't say that again."
"I'm just trying to keep the peace."
"Then start by acknowledging who broke it."
He crouched beside Nia.
"Sweetheart, we're going to contact the scholarship office. They'll help us get another copy."
Nia wiped her cheeks.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Then he looked back at Simone.
"And you owe your sister an apology."
Simone stared at the floor.
David began gathering the scattered pieces.
But Nia quietly touched his wrist.
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
Her voice was barely audible.
"I never told you when I became a finalist."
David stopped moving.
"Why not?"
Nia glanced toward her grandmother.
"Because Grandma said it would upset Simone."
The room went silent.
"And I thought..." Nia swallowed. "I thought if I actually won, maybe everybody would finally let me be happy about something."
David looked down at the torn letter in his hands.
May you like
For the first time, he realized this wasn't really about one afternoon.
It was about how long his younger daughter had been learning to hide her happiness inside her own home.
