Stepsisters

Chapter Three

"Huh?" Ella's mom asked. "You're on a magazine, Chloe?"

Ella stood there, her mouth gaping and her eyebrows sky high. Her new stepsister was a celebrity.

"Ugh," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Don't pretend like you've never seen me on a magazine before. I was the cover star of Seventeen last month."

"Wait, what?" Ella's mom asked. She was confused.

Sydney piped up. "Chloe is a singer, and in the past year, she has gained popularity. She started on YouTube and now she's released her first album!"

"I'm so proud of you, Chloe," Ella's dad said. "She released her album in early May, and it hit number one on the iTunes chart in just a few hours. I forgot to tell you, Meredith. Chloe is very...popular amongst the teens and the media."

"So...you're a celebrity?" Ella's mom asked.

"Yes," Chloe said. "We've been over this like ten times."

After that, everyone went quiet. Ella's mom was upset that no one told her that her ex husband's new daughter was famous. Ella was so shocked that her new stepsister was Chloe Haywood, she was speechless.

After dinner, Ella's dad, Sydney, and Chloe went upstairs to get settled in the guest bedrooms. Ella and her mom stayed downstairs to pick up the kitchen.

"Can you believe this?" Ella whispered to her mom as she brought a plate to the sink.

Ella's mom smiled. "It's crazy, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Ella replied. "I've heard her music, and she's a really good singer. But tonight, she just seemed so..."

"Mean?" Ella's mom offered.

Ella nodded. "Yes. Very mean! She seemed so rude, stuck up, and vain."

"I agree," Ella's mom said. "It's sad that she gets to be famous when she has such a bad personality. I wish that someone nice could have had a good voice like hers, and they could be famous instead of her."

After they finished picking up, Ella's mom invited everyone downstairs to eat dessert (homemade chocolate chip cookies--Ella's specialty) and chat. Chloe stated that cookies were high in fat and sugar, so she went upstairs to Skype her friends.

"Ella," Ella's dad said, taking a bite of a cookie. "I need to tell you something."

"What?" Ella asked. This sounded important.

"You can't tell anyone that your stepsister is a celebrity. Not anyone at school, not any of your online friends, not even Jenna."

"Her name is Jenny."

"Oh," Ella's dad said. "Well, you can't tell anybody, alright?"

"Alright," Ella answered.

"Okay," Ella's mom said a few minutes later. Everyone had finished their desert. "Let's all get ready to go to bed. It's been a long day, and I'm sure everyone needs their sleep."

Everyone agreed, and went upstairs to get ready for bed.

Ella felt something nagging her in her mind, but she wasn't sure what it was. It was not a good feeling, even after the exciting events that had happened that day. She saw her dad again, met his new family, and even found out that her new stepsister was a celebrity. Yet, something deep inside of her felt wrong.

Maybe it was the fact that her dad barely saw her anymore. Maybe that he liked his new family better.

Maybe it was the fact that Ella saw a picture on Instagram of Jenny and Hannah hanging out at a coffee shop downtown. Ella knew she said no to hanging out with Jenny (only because she couldn't), but hanging out with mean Hannah? No.

Or maybe it was the fact that her new stepsister wasn't acting like a very good stepsister.