I'd always felt like the black sheep in my family.

 I'd always felt like the black sheep in my family. It was not just a feeling, though. It was pretty obvious when you looked at how differently my parents treated me and my younger brother, Daniel.

When I was 17, we moved to a two-bedroom house, and my parents decided Daniel needed his own room. Instead of sharing like normal siblings, they shoved me into our unfinished basement.

Meanwhile, he got this huge, bright room upstairs, complete with brand-new everything, like furniture, decorations, and even a gaming setup. Me? I got whatever junk they could scrounge up from the garage.

I remember the day they showed me my new "room."

Mom gestured around the cold, concrete space like it was some kind of prize. "Elena, honey, isn't this exciting? You'll have so much space down here!"

I stared at the bare bulb dangling from the ceiling, the cobwebs in the corners, and the musty smell that clung to everything. "Yeah, Mom. Super exciting."

Dad clapped me on the shoulder. "That's the spirit, kiddo! And hey, maybe we can fix it up a bit later, huh?"

Later never came, of course. But I wasn't about to live in a dungeon forever.

I picked up an after-school job at the local grocery store, bagging groceries and pushing carts. It wasn't glamorous, but every paycheck brought me closer to transforming my basement prison.

My Aunt Teresa was my saving grace through it all. She's the only one who knew what my life was like at home.

So, when she heard what I was doing with the basement, she started coming over on weekends, armed with paintbrushes and a contagious enthusiasm.

"Alright, Ellie-girl," she'd say, tying back her wild curls. "Let's make this place shine!"

We started with paint, turning the dingy walls into a soft lavender. Then came curtains to hide the tiny windows, area rugs to cover the cold floor, and string lights to chase away the shadows.

It took months because my job didn't exactly pay much, but slowly, the basement became mine. I hung up posters of my favorite bands, arranged my books on salvaged shelves, and even managed to snag a secondhand desk for homework.

The day I hung up the final touch, a set of LED lights around my bed, I stepped back and felt something I hadn't in a long time or perhaps my entire life: pride.

I was admiring my handiwork when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Mom and Dad appeared and looked around with raised eyebrows.

"Well, well," Dad said, his eyes narrowing. "Looks like someone's been busy."

I waited for praise, or at least acknowledgment of my hard work. Instead, Mom pursed her lips.

"Elena, if you have money for all this," she waved her hand at my carefully curated space, "then you can start contributing to the household."

My jaw dropped. "What?"

"That's right," Dad nodded. "We think it's time you started paying rent."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Rent? I'm 17! I'm still in high school!"

"And clearly making enough to redecorate," Mom countered, crossing her arms. "It's time you learned some financial responsibility."

I wanted to scream. Daniel had a room three times the size of mine, fully furnished and decorated on their dime, and he'd never worked a day in his life. Yes, he was younger, but still, it was more of their unfairness.

Unfortunately, I knew I couldn't argue with them, so I bit my tongue. "Fine," I managed. "How much?"

They named a figure that made my stomach sink. It was doable, but it meant saying goodbye to any hopes of saving for college, which was my plan now that the basement was done.

As if to add insult to injury, Daniel chose that moment to thunder down the stairs. He took one look around and let out a low whistle.

"Whoa, sis. Nice cave." His eyes landed on my LED lights. "Hey, are these strong?"

Before I could stop him, he reached up and yanked on the strip. The lights came down with a sad flicker, leaving a trail of peeled paint behind them.

"Daniel!" I cried. But my parents rushed to him, asked if something was wrong, and just shrugged at me.

"Boys will be boys," Dad chuckled as if his golden boy hadn't just destroyed something I'd worked months for.

So, there I was, standing in my once-again darkened room, fighting back tears of frustration. In the grand scheme of things, Daniel had only ruined my lights, and I could fix that up. But in truth, it was more than that.

It was a symbol of my life; always second best, always the afterthought. But karma, as they say, has a way of evening the score.

A few weeks later, my parents invited Aunt Teresa over for dinner along with some friends. She brought along a woman named Ava, an interior designer from her book club.

We all sat around the dining table and picked at Mom's overcooked pot roast while she gushed about Daniel and his football team.

But suddenly, Aunt Teresa spoke up. "Ava, you've got to see what my niece has done with the basement. It's incredible!"

I felt my cheeks heat up as all eyes turned to me. "It's not that big a deal," I mumbled.

But Ava was intrigued. "I'd love to see it. Do you mind?"

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