My So Called Cinderella Life

It was 2:34 in the morning. My eyes hadn't stopped staring at the clock on my desk, blaring out it's red digital numbers ever since 6 in the evening. I would expect to be sleeping by 2:35 in the morning, but nope, I was "helping" Jessica work on her stupid British literature homework.

Her asking me for "help" was basically, her asking me how to analyze sentence after sentence, grammar after grammar, what word did this mean, what word did that mean, what was the meaning of the scene in this paragraph and so many more questions. After I ended up "helping" her a little too much, she shoved all the books and assignnments into my face, making me do them all since I apparently understood all the material.

My main goal was to sleep by 3:00 but the span of time was only 25 minutes and I was only halfway on the second to last book. I was currently reading Jane Eyre that was written by Charlotte Bronte and all I could get out of my head was that it was the most boring book I have ever read. I'd never been a fan of romantic novels because they were so corny and cheesy, and the dialogue that was written was always so overrated and overexaggerated. Or, maybe I'm just not a romanticism enough to be understanding and knowing about love.

Why did I have to read all these books that I wasn't even interested in?

I've been doing them since 6 in the evening and these assignments don't even affect me one bit.

Oh, now I remember why.

All these British Literature books I had been reading since 6 happened to be Jessica's summer assignments that were given to her during the beginning of June. It was September 3 already and school started tomorrow. Well, I found out that Jessica never even started them or bothered to even pick up the assignments during summer at all... when she knew that there were eight freaking ปbooks to read. She told Margaret that she was gonna start today but all I seen her doing is drool over the television over some celebrity named...

I forgot the name, began with a K...

or was it a J?

No, it completely slipped my mind. Some celebrity that was part of a boy band. Her and Tiffany both, just sat the the sofa right in front of the large wide screen television, drooling over this guy.

Ugh, this was too long to keep myself mentally sane. I had my first day of senior year tomorrow starting at 8 AM which meant that I had to wake up super early in order to make it in time for everything to process for me. Why was I still sitting here doing my stepsister's assignments?

Maybe I should stop complaining.

So I'm Marissa Gallagher, some people call me Riss or Rissa to be short. I'm 17 years old and my life is an absolute hell hole. I have lived in San Diego, California for my entire life and I don't think I've ever stepped foot out of the city. Not even near the boarder, ever. I have always just been here, in San Diego, my entire life. I'm not saying I don't like San Diego, but I've just never seen anywhere different besides this place. I live with my three stepsisters; Jessica, whose a year younger than me... Tiffany, whose two years younger than me and my wicked stepmother of the west. Well, she's pretty wicked in all parts of the compass, so make it wicked stepmother of the west, east, north and south.

They're all just indivious.

Well, actually, there is Kaley. Whose the nicest sister out of all of them, surprisingly... and she's exactly the same age as me.

Maybe I should just start from the beginning about how my life came to be like this.

My parents were born on the exact same day and grew up together ever since the early 1980s. My Father's name was Paul Gallagher, who everyone called Pauly G, for some odd reason, and he was one of the most famous music producers around the late 1990's or early 2000's in Los Angeles, California. My mother was named Eliana Park, which Dad told me everyone called her Elly. My mother was more of a stay at home mother because she had me at such a young age, so she couldn't pursue her PHd and become the college professor that she dreamed on being.

I'm going to guess they started dating during high school because Dad always told me that they were so in love that they had to have me at such a young age.

Young age as in junior year of high school.

Mom was 16 when she was pregnant with me.

So I was born January 18, 1996.

I know, it was a pretty big screw up, but apparently Dad said he never regretted having me. They loved each other so much that they had to go to the exact same university, which was University of California, Los Angeles. But that didn't happen because Mom had to quit school during her junior year and raise herself to be healthy in order to give birth to me and raise her own child.

Dad... Well, he ended up graduating high school and eventually ended up graduating UCLA in order to keep his image, because after all, he was one of the biggest singers there were in California. And his popularity had expanded into Europe and Asia, where he was able to land a career as a music executive, giving him a pretty big name in the industry. They kept me pretty down low because he had to keep up this image for himself, but he still raised me well, even though no one in the music industry knew who I was.

A few days after I was born, Mom passed away with some problem that the doctors never seemed to figure out; Dad never really wanted to talk about it... He said it was possibly a heart failure giving birth to me. I always grew up to think that it was my fault that I was the reason for her death. But Dad always said that it was never my dault and he was the one who should be blaming himself because of his "screw ups".

I grew up with Dad living in this huge, gigantic house in the city of San Diego and it was my greatest years living with him. He was also able to study further, being able to get his PHd so he was known as Dr. Gallagher, or Dr. Paul, one of the biggest music executive producers and also one of the greatest professors at San Diego State University.

My years with him were great... Well, right up until the day he met Margaret. I remember I was just seven years old. One day, he had a meeting to attend with the San Diego State Universtiy Board and unfortunately, met Margaret Jun. I do not know the entire story about how they met or even fell for one another, but apparently, they did. I don't even want to know the entire story about how that happened.

I met Margaret just three or four months before they got married. At first, she came across as a nice and sweet individual, saying that she had three daughters she would bring by to have them play with me and such.

That never happened.

I met Jessica, Tiffany and Kaley on the day of Dad and Margaret's wedding. They were absolutely horrid to me, well, Jessica and Tiffany were; Kaley was surprisingly the extremely good-hearted person out of the four of them because the three of them just had no hearts, whatsoever. Jessica and Tiffany, first time, called me brace face, four eyed, ugly, what they state as an "orphan", no Mom and everything they could do in their will power to make me cry. Kaley, came sit by my side when I was crying by myself on the sidewalk, where she patted my back and continiously told me "it's going to be okay".

After the wedding day, the four of them moved in with Dad and I in our lovely home. Right when they came, Jessica said she wanted my room because it was the second biggest from the master bedroom, which was Dad's bedroom.

At first, I didn't want to give up my own bedroom, but Dad's words were "Please just give it to them. If it's their happiness, please, I beg you just give it to them."

It's like Dad didn't care about my happiness at all. He didn't even ask me if I was okay marrying Margaret. He always said he loved Mom and she would never leave his heart so I have no idea why he had to marry a cruel individual like Margaret.

I ended up moving into the smallest room in the house which was normally the room that we used to store our stuff in. It was a decent sized room for only one person but I couldn't really fit anything. Like no big book shelves or big desks or big television sets could actually really go in here.

The only thing that ever stuck to me was that, I know Dad didn't love Margaret as much as he loved Mom. I could see it within the pictures he kept, the way he talked about her and just everything. But I felt like his reason for having Margaret was because he felt like it was just time to move on with his life.

About a year later, when I was about to turn nine, the house received a phone call saying that Dr. Gallagher had died in a car crash instantly. That was when my world came crashing down. I raged for days because I didn't believe it, but when I finally did believe it, all I could do was cry silently because Margaret was constantly yelling at me for crying so loud. She seemed a bit sad for a few days, but after she got over her sad stage, it looked like nothing happened after that. I honestly do not know if Tiffany and Jessica even understand the definition of "being sad" because they were the same when that phone call arrived to our ears. Kaley was the only one who was sad and supported me throughout my rough times because she had become so close to Dad over the year that they lived together.

I lost the greatest father that I ever had and I was even more depressed to not know what or how Mom was like. Dad also passed away without anyone knowing that I was his daughter. He never really opened me up as his daughter or anything because it had passed such a long time ago. All the press and the entertainment industry knew that he married Margaret and the only daughters everyone knew of was Jessica, Tiffany and Kaley. But that wasn't really important to anyone as much. I was pretty much invisible to everyone.

Entering 6th grade, Margaret had taken me out of public school, in my terms, the reality world, and said that she would hire the best tutor in the city for me to learn at home. She wanted to save money for Jessica, Tiffany and Kaley in order for them to enter the best schools and she didn't want to waste it on someone who wasn't her actual daughter.

I knew she was pretty mean, but after that conversation of putting me through home school, I realized what a cold-hearted person she really was. And never understood why Dad chose her.

So I was home-schooled up a good portion of my lifetime. I never really had a social life because I was inside studying half the time. The only friends that truly stuck with me, were my friends from kindergarten, Bobby and Krystal. They were always beside me throughout everything I did and every hurt I was feeling, and we just never lost in touch ever since I became a homeschooled student.

I was grateful to have Kaley, who was always there for me as well; however, no one knows that if she doesn't obey her own mother and sisters, what kind of horrific things will go down to both me and her. We always just secretly talked (even though we lived in the same house), IMed each other and text messaged each other all the time. Even send secret notes to each other sometimes.

Kaley is the oldest sister out of the three being the same age as I. She's currently a senior to the school I'm about to attend, La Jolla Country Day School. Jessica is a year younger than I am, making her a junior while Tiffany is two years younger, being a sophomore at the same school. Margaret constantly talks about how she has to save money for her precious daughters to go to college but honestly, with me doing all of Jessica and Tiffany's homework more than 95% of the time, I do not know how they are going to survive in the real world.

During homeschool hours, I started searching for colleges and universities to see which decent ones would accept me with my grades. Because I wanted to follow Dad's footsteps, my dream university ended up being UCLA. That's where Dad attended and taught for good time in his lifetime before moving to San Diego State University to further his teaching career. I wanted to enter as a Media Studies major like Dad and possibly end up being a successful music producer. I figured graduating from a good high school to receive a diploma was the best way.

A big dream, I know... but I was never going to back down. I knew every part in my heart, that I had to get out of this hell house when I had the right to.

I literally went down on my knees and begged Margaret to go to the same high school that Jessica, Tiffany and Kaley they were currently going to. She only gave in when I said I would be paying for my own tuition.

I began working at a diner hall nearby my house and started saving money to pay for my last year at La Jolla Country Day School. When I was basically a standing senior in high school and had enough money to pay for my last year at this private high school, I applied to the school and got accepted within two months and I was ready to enter my first year there as a senior.

Daring, I know, but it was the only way I could get out into the real world again.

I was lucky that Krystal, Bobby and Kaley all attended that high school so I would not be the only one left without a friend.

Then, once in a while, when Jessica and Tiffany had huge homework assignments, they would usually tell me to "help" them, then end up giving me the entire thing to do. I know she would purposely give it to me a little later during the day, saying she forget or that she did other homework assignments and wasn't able to get this certain one... Blah, blah, blah... All the same crap I deal with every day.

I know she did it on purpose so it would reach her satisfaction of torturing me.

My house phone suddenly rang and I quickly jumped, wondering who the heck was calling at almost 3 in the morning.

I sat on my bed, picking up my cord phone that was on my nightstand, "Hello?"

"Marissa!" I heard Jessica's voice scream on the other side of the line, "Have you finished my assignments yet? They're due first period tomorrow."

"You really had to call the house phone?" I replied, very sarcastically.

"That doesn't matter. Are you done yet?"

I sighed, "Almost. I need to answer the Jane Eyre questions, then read The Pride and The Prejudice, then answer those questions then I'll be all set."

"Why are you giving me the names of the book?" She asked me, very scoffingly, "All I care is that you have to get it done. They're due first period tomorrow, I expect them before I leave for school tomorrow."

I counted that repetitive sentence twice within 30 seconds of our conversation.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" I asked, trying to change the topic.

"That doesn't matter, Marissa. I just want to know if you're gonna get it done by tonight."

I sighed, "Yeah, I'll be done soon."

"Good," She replied. "I'm downstairs, still watching television. Bring it down here when you're done. If it's not done by tonight, I'll have Mom punish you for not listening to me."

"Why aren't you sleeping?" I asked, trying to ignore the topic about her Mom. "Still drooling over that boy band on television?"

I could hear her tone rising up by telephone, "I am not drooling, Marissa. It's called admiring. Something you don't know how to do with guys because you're probably just not attracted to them. Listen, I only called so you can hurry up, this assignment is due tomorrow and I can't afford to get a bad grade on it."

"You mean, Margaret can't afford for you to get a bad grade on it?"

"Marissa!" She threatened by exclaiming at me.

"Ok," I sighed loudly, "I'll go downstairs when I'm done. Give me a few, I need to read one more book."

"Perfect," She said, while I could hear her voice practically smiling through the phone, "Bye."

She abruptly hung up the phone and I placed my phone receiver back on its stand, scratching my head.

I sighed loudly, shaking my head and realized I was just so bored of her that my brain has numbed to everything she said.

Going back to sit at the desk, I pulled out my phone from drawer, went to my favorites list, dialing Bobby's number and putting him on speaker.

After a good eight seconds, Bobby's voice at the other side of the line picked up, "Hello hello, baby girl..."

"Bobby!" I exclaimed, happily, "Yay. You're still up. I've been meaning to call you but I've been stuck on Jessica's homework for the past eight hours."

"You're still doing homework for her?"

"Yeah, been doing it since 6."

"Oh no," He laughed, "I meant, at this age, you're still doing homework for her?"

I chuckled a little, bending my head down at the table a bit, "What else is new? She still doesn't make the effort to learn while she's in school."

"What's up?" He laughed, "Why'd you call so late at night?"

"I was wonderingggg," I began, expanding my words a little, "If you can still pick me up tomorrow."

"You're not riding with your lovely stepsisters?"

"My lovely stepsisters would drop me off at the school bus stop and make me walk, Bobby... I don't want to be humiliated on my first day of high school."

He giggled a bit, "Yeah don't worry. I got you. I can pick you up. You won't be humiliated on your first. This best friend isn't making you walk or take a bus by yourself to school, Marissa. That'd be a little harsh."

"Thank you, you are absolutely the best."

"I can pick both you and Kaley up, you two aren't the problem," He gave a little pause and I was waited for his answer after his hummed softly for quite some good time.

"Is there a problem?"

He chuckled sarcastically, adding, "I just don't want you to bring Jessica or Tiffany into my car. They kind of intimidate me."

I laughed a bit, replying, "You really think I want that to happen? I'll even wake up extra early tomorrow in order to beat her from leaving the house so she won't be able to ride with you."

"Ha ha, that's good for me to hear," Bobby said, sounding relieved.

"I could've sworn you had class with her last semester."

"Unfortunately I did. It was a partner class too, but I try my best to arrive with my friend so I can be partners with him. First of all, she tried asking me out mad times and second of all, she is just straight up annoying, asking me so many questions about life and what not."

I covered my mouth trying to laugh and placed my elbows on the table, having my cheek rest on my palm. I always loved talking to Bobby; he was just this hilarious, care-free guy that always had my back and he instantly made me feel better by the way he talked. He was so sincere and funny, that it was never a bad time to be with him or even talk to him on the phone.

"Thanks so much though. I'm so glad you go to this school, if you and Krystal and Kaley weren't here, I'd probably have to put a plastic bag over to cover my head."

"It's really no problem. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. Haven't seen you in forever."

I chuckled a bit and he sighed, "Hey Riss. No need to dress all flashy to impress tomorrow, okay?"

"Huh?"

"I know it's your first day," He replied, "but I want you to be yourself. No need to dress to impress attract people. I think you're a cutie the way you are."

"Bobby, I don't think I'm gonna dress to impress anyone."

"I know you well, Marissa. You're insecure about looks and I don't want Tiffany or Jessica telling you that you have to dress a certain way in order to fit in. I just need you to be yourself tomorrow, okay?"

I smiled, knowing that he was cutely worried about me, "Okay Master. I will be myself tomorrow. All natural, sound good?"

"That's the girl I need," He said, so confidently.

"Alright, Bobby. I'll see you tomorrow morning then."

"Yupp, make sure to wake up Kaley so she can come with."

"Will do."

I hung up the phone and sighed, beginng to finish the questions I was halfway with Jane Eyre. After this novel, I'll only have one more novel to read and then I will be officially done with all her summer assignments that she has to hand in tomorrow. And I will finally be able to sleep.

Suddenly, my phone rang that it got a text message so I placed it between my hands, seeing the message from Bobby.

Hey Marissa.

Forget to tell you don't forget to bring your skateboard tomorrow. There's a new skateboarding park that opened near the school and it's mad cool. Gotta take you to it. I think you would absolutely love it.

Smiling, I just replied with an "OK" and got back to doing Jessica's homework.

Skateboarding was one of my hobbies; along with many other sports that people would not expect girls to play. And especially with a girl like me, I think people would understand why I get called the tomboy.

I have dark, medium length hair with side bangs and my fashion outfit consists of jeans, jeans, jeans, jeans and more jeans. I also wear t-shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, tank tops and all that casual stuff. Which is why I laugh when Bobby said that I shouldn't dress to impress anyone, because I never do. I'm so insecure about myself that I have no confidence to go out and where things that girls would love to wear.

On top of skateboarding and playing a lot of guyish sports, I did get some good genes from Dad. Dad was a talented music artist during his younger years, where he was able to sing, dance, rap and create his own music. So I was able to inherit the musical side of him, but no one ever really knew. I just loved singing and dancing. I paid for dance classes for a while and the dance fitness knew me pretty well enough so I was able to get my own studio room from time to time, in order to practice dancing. It ended being a big part of my life, but sadly, I had to keep it all to myself.

So the only hobbies that stuck to me were the hobbies that everyone considered to be "guyish", "tomboyish", "not ladylike", and all that shenagigans.

At 3:45 in the morning, I finally finished Jessica's assignments, slowly walking downstairs to give it to her. I walked towards the living room, seeing herself passed out on the sofa, watching some television on this boy band that she had been following ever since I came back home from work.

I really didn't know about music bands or music trends because I usually just shuffled dance songs on the radio station and practiced my dances to that. I looked at the television seeing a bunch of guys dressed up nicely getting ready to perform for a variety show somewhere on a beach and I smiled, knowing that Jessica was so obsessed with these boys.

I placed all the books and the homework assignments on the table that was in front of her, while she was passed out sleeping, and let go of everything as it quietly got placed on the glass table.

"Thank God!" I heard her scream, while her eyes shot wide open and she got up real quick. I was so startled that I let out a little gasp, because she really did scare me. I thought she was sleeping.

"Oh goodness, that scared me."

"About time you got that done. Took you so long."

"If you had given it to me a little earlier, it might've been done before 4 in the morning today."

"Don't give me any sass, sissy," She said, scoffingly. "Mom told me that you would do anything for us, so what's wrong with helping your little stepsister do some homework? It didn't kill you, right?"

I wanted to roll my eyes at her so badly, but instead, I crossed my eyes, looking away.

A simple thank you couldn't even get by her brain.

What was she made of?

I looked at her with very stiff eyes, shaking my head and began walking back upstairs.

She stopped me when I was about to reach the first step, "Wait!"

I turned around, leaned against the wall near the stairs, crossing my arms, "What's up?"

"How are you getting to school tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"Well, Tiffany wants to use the car tomorrow to pick up her friends and I'm stuck alone here. I don't wanna walk or take the bus, that's something that losers do."

I rolled my eyes upward then back down, to try to contain my moodiness towards her.

"Are you gonna answer me?" She asked, when I just stood there looking at her with a stiff face.

"Getting a ride."

She jumped up and down, "Bobby, right?"

I slightly smiled, nodding my head very slowly and she clapped her hands together, "Perfect, I'll go with you guys then. No need to humiliate myself. You can go now, that's all I needed."

Ugh. She was honestly, so snobby and cold-hearted. Just like her own mother.

I took a glance at the clock seeing that it was 3:58 in the morning. She was still watching this boy band sing and dance on television at this time of night.

Well, thinking to myself, Bobby was getting me at home at 7:00 in the morning. That meant I had to wake up at 6 to 6:30, and there was no way Jessica would be able to get up that early.

"Good night, Jessica." I said, very shortly.

She didn't reply back to me, but she went to sit on the sofa again and continued watching that boy band she had been drooling over for too long.

When I got back into the room, I immediately collapsed onto the bed, pulling the covers to cover my stomach, while my arms were still hanging out. I stared upon the ceiling, looking at the decorated stars and flowers that I used to make this room a bit more homey than it first started out as. I grabbed the picture frame of Dad and I that was taken 12 years ago and I rubbed the glass cover slowly.

"I miss you, Daddy," I said, sadly. "Soon, I'll be on my own. I hope you accept my decision, Daddy. I truly can't stand to live here anymore. But no matter what, this girl will still always love you."

I stared into the picture for a good thirty seconds more before placing it back on the nightstand.

Tomorrow, I start school.

Tomorrow, I'm going back to the real world.

Tomorrow, I'm facing far worse things than just Margaret, Tiffany and Jessica.

Thinking by minute, I started to wondering about fitting in, about getting around, about making friends.

I'd been isolated from the real world of public school for so long that I wasn't sure how anything worked anymore.

How was I going to get through with this?

Where's Daddy when I need him?