Rolling with the punches

“Choose.” She pointed her chin towards the two glowing orbs in each of her hands. Blue in her left, green in her right.

Allison frowned. She had two choices—only two; and in within a short moment, she had to choose one.

She scrutinized her choices.

On one hand, she could be the most talented person in the world, on the other, she would finally have a loving family.

Just a week ago, if someone were to say she’d be making such impossible choices, she would’ve laughed right in their faces.

And yet, here she was. In front of a goddess-like being, deciding how her life would change.

Talent was something you were born with, the talented will always surpass the commons. You need to be lucky to be born talented.

Similarly, so is a loving family. You can’t make a loving family no matter how hard you try. You had to be born into one.

So the fact that she’d be able to make such a change to her life was so implausible it was hilarious.

If not for the display of magic—it couldn't have been anything else—she was shown, Allison would never have believed any of this was reality.

Honestly, right now, she still wasn’t sure, this could all just be one very surreal dream. What was it called again? She racked through her memories, lu- lu- something right?

Oh, Right! Lucid dreaming!

Allison was pretty sure that was the term.

The more she thought about it, the more certain she felt.

This probably wasn’t even real, no matter how vivid it all seemed.

Besides, why would a girl like her of all people be given such a choice?

Clearly she was delusional. She nodded her head, that must be it.

The polite sound of a throat being cleared broke her out of her thoughts.

Ah, right. She had something to do.

This was just a dream, there wouldn’t be any consequences. Nothing would change.

Frankly, she knew what she wanted. Or at least what she hoped she wanted.

...She’d never had a nice family, so she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

But she’d heard a lot from her friends and... she felt like it’d be really nice to so...

Besides, this was just a fantasy. She could indulge herself, couldn’t she? Just this once?

She straightened herself. “Green, the right one. I’d like to have a nice family.” Then, almost hurriedly, she quickly tacked on a please. It wouldn’t do to be rude, even in a dream.

”Alright. Good luck.”

And then, she blanked out.

—————

Allison woke up.

She looked down at herself, at the fluffy green blanket covering her, feeling disappointed and immediately hating herself for getting her own hopes up.

Of course nothing happened, it was a dream.

Three evenly spaced out knocks made her move.

Slightly wary, she stopped by the door, resting a hand on the handle. Nobody ever knocked. The door wasn’t even locked, it never was.

She opened the door, only to be greeted by the smiling face of Angie, her elder sister.

Smiling.

Angie never smiled, not at Allison.

She wondered if she was still dreaming.

——————————

Things only got weirder from then on.

——————————

Allison sighed in relief once she shut the door.

It had taken a disturbing amount of time to convince Angie to leave.

She had counted.

Two hundred sixty eight words. That was how much Angie had spoken to her.

Angie had, in maybe fifteen minutes, spoken more than she’d ever spoken to Allison in the entire month.

And so unlike the past her, well, using the word past makes it sound like it was a long while ago.

Unlike the Angie from yesterday, she wasn’t even— or at least she didn’t sound— disdainful, as though Allison was just scum scraped off her shoe.

She treated Allison like a sister.

A sister!

Allison could hardly believe it.

Maybe the dream wasn’t a dream, after all? A small, hopeful part of her spoke up.

But the overwhelming cynical side of her immediately shot it down. For all she knew, this could just be a prank.

A damn terrifying one.

Allison was used to the Angie who, if she wasn’t ignoring her, was very obviously disgusted by her sheer presence.

She wasn’t used to the Angie who acted nice.

This was all just a very deliberate prank to humiliate her.

Who knows, maybe her parents were also into it.

Maybe they were hoping that by getting her to lower her guard , then allowing her to foster some hope, that they would be able to get the perfect chance to utterly destroy her.

She had to admit, as much as it made her sad, this was something her family would definitely do to her if they got the chance to.

Well, she wasn’t going to let them.

She mentally prepared herself as she went through her morning routine.

——————————

Now dressed, she entered the dining room.

Allison walked in, expecting either the usual nonchalance and disregard or the cloying act they would put up for her.

Although she was expecting it, she still didn’t expect them to greet her so warmly.

They were— were— they were treating her like they treat Angie?

She was expecting them to act nicer to her to some extent.

But to the point where they’d treat her as though she was Angie, as though she was their actual daughter?

That was unexpected.

——————————

Time passed.

Allison waited for the other shoe to drop, for them to stop treating her so nicely.

——————————

It never happened.

——————————

Months passed, and they had only grown nicer to her, even taking time to apologize to her for everything they’d done in the past.

They apologized everyday.

Every. Day.

———————————

Maybe that wasn’t just a dream?

Oh, who was she kidding? Of course it wasn't.

Still, Allison dared to allow herself to hope even as the rational part of herself screamed and raged.

After all, if it was so easy to change their attitudes towards her, did it really mean anything?

Especially since she wasn’t even the catalyst to this change.

No, it was that weird dream.

——————————

...Well, if it was going to give her such a gift, she shouldn’t let it go to waste right?

After all, all this might end someday.

For now, she’ll cling to this dream. It was all she could bear to do.