Miss Josefina: Nobody's Princess

Lauren sneered as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. "With the way she's been slacking off, she'd be lucky to get into community college!"

Billy's expression soured at the mention of Josefina. "She's as sharp as a sack of wet mice. Remember the last test? She barely scraped together a 300."

"Ugh, that means she must've bombed the finals for sure."

"Forget about her. She's bad juju. Ruby, let's go pick out a present for tonight's celebration dinner."

A smug grin spread across Ruby's face, feeling she had one-upped Josefina. "Mom, Dad, we should invite her to celebrate with us, too. Even though she's not your flesh and blood, she's been part of our household for a while. It'd be nice to include her in the festivities," Ruby suggested, her voice tinged with a forced sweetness.

"Why the heck should we invite her? Ruby, you're too kind to her. She doesn't deserve it, not one bit," Lauren retorted, her lips curled in distaste.

"Mom, if we invite her, you can make it clear to everyone that she's not really one of us. You know how she's been since she left home, bouncing from one guy to the next. If people start recognizing her, they'll think you've raised her wrong. What would we do then?"

nodded, considering Ruby's calculated

we have a reputation to uphold. We're not like her family, selling themselves short at the drop of a hat," Lauren scoffed. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the

be the perfect opportunity to tell everyone we have nothing to do with that, Josefina," Billy

doesn't

her eyes glinting with malice. She

study, eager to sneak

to snuff, we'll sort it out. Whatever school

to have done well," Garrett

of it. Back in Milan, she could take on

Hattie hissed, "we

as Hattie accessed the scores page and entered Josefina's registration number. Garrett, heart racing, covered the screen with a sheet of paper, slowly revealing the score to ease the suspense. As the paper slid away, revealing a

shifted

All three were stunned.