It's a Match! Read Online Free PDF Page B

plus a part of her would always feel like that little girl who only wanted her parents to love and accept her for who she was. She wanted the kind of relationship that Cole and his father had. She often wondered if her parents even loved her at all. Maybe someday they would come around, but she wasn’t about to hold her breath. She would have given up all the riches in the world and lived in a trailer if it meant her parents would love her. She remembered the exact moment she realized her parents thought she was destined to become a failure, just like it was yesterday….

    It was eighth grade graduation day and Sutton was sitting on her bed writing a short story on her laptop. She was spinning a tale about a little girl who grew up in a beautiful forest, surrounded by magical beings. She was granted three wishes by a fairy and they were as follows:
    1.I want my family to be safe from all that lurks in the shadows. I want to keep them protected.
    2.I want the world to see me as I am, as one who walks forth without fear.  
    3.And a pony. Because what little girl doesn’t want a magical pony?
    Just as Sutton was writing a fight scene between the Beast of Argathia and the main character, Xenia Gainsborough, there was a knock at her door. “Come in.” She closed her laptop as Justine entered the room.  
    “Are you almost ready?” Justine asked impatiently.
    “Yeah, I was just finishing up this story.”
    “You’re graduating today. What homework could you possibly have?”
    “It’s not homework. It’s just something I’m writing for fun.”
    “Fun,” Justine replied, flatly. Sutton wasn’t sure if it was a question or merely a scoff. It was most likely the latter.
    “Yes, fun, mother. Have you ever heard of it?”
    Justine ignored the question, which was meant to be rhetorical anyway. “We’ll be downstairs. You have one minute, or we’re leaving without you.”
    “To my graduation without me? What’s the point?”
      “We’ve donated a lot of money to that school. It would be incredibly impolite not to attend.”
    Sutton rolled her eyes. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
    Justine left the room and Sutton placed her laptop on her bedside table. She stood up and walked to the full-length mirror on her bathroom door, then looked herself up and down for a moment. The teal ballgown-type creation could not be less Sutton, but Justine had paid a fortune for it and surprised her with it one day, so Sutton felt obligated to wear it.  
    Sutton took one last look at the stranger in the mirror, then grabbed her stuff and walked downstairs to meet her impatient-looking parents.
    “It’s about time,” Scott said, tapping his grotesquely expensive Cartier watch.
    “Did you finish your speech?” Justine asked. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t let us proof it first.”
    “I’m entirely capable of proofreading my own speech. Plus, it’s supposed to be a surprise,” Sutton replied, heading out of the house and up to her mother’s Lexus SUV. She took a seat in the back and looked outside of the window as Justine began the drive to Sutton’s school.  
    Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into an extremely packed parking lot. Sutton made sure her speech was in her purse (which she realized she probably should have done before she left the house), and luckily it was there. Public speaking never really bothered Sutton, but she was mildly nervous that day, mostly since she really wanted to make her parents proud. When she told them she had been chosen for valedictorian, they’d seemed fairly underwhelmed, as if it wasn’t a big accomplishment at all.  
    The three of them followed the hordes of people walking toward the soccer field, which was covered with maroon and grey balloons and streamers. Classical music floated around the field as they made the way to their assigned seats. Sutton only had a few minutes before she was to line up for her graduation walk.  
    “I’m going to go get my cap and