Page 60 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

I thought he might be teasing me about the name I'd used at the dance the night before. "Oh, that's just a nickname my family uses for me. Only people who love me get to call me Tilly."

He reached across the cake to cup the side of my face with his hand. "Then I guess I'll be calling you Tilly."

And then, just like the movie, he leaned across the cake and kissed me. An actual, real kiss, and not the weird lip-mashing thing I'd done at a party once.

A curl your toes, steal your breath, heart-pounding, stomach-dropping, lose track of time, perfect kind of kiss.

* * *

I let go of my List of Grievances given my current circumstances. I made a List of Rights instead.

Right the First: Jake Ryan Kingston was my boyfriend. MY BOYFRIEND!!! Sorry, it just never got old saying it. He made me feel beautiful and smart and like I could conquer the entire world. It was amazing. And I got to ride in his car every single day.

Right the Second: Scott declined his win for vice-president since Ms. Rathbone banned Mercedes from being on student council given her inappropriate behavior by showing up at the dance. So I got to appoint my own cabinet. Jake, Ella and Trent joined me and helped me get hearings with the board on the lunch, parking and uniform issues. Nothing had happened yet, but we were all hopeful. It also changed my standing at school. Where I had been mostly invisible before, people I hadn't spoken to in years came up to tell me that they had voted for me and hoped that I could change all the things I wanted to change. It made me more determined to get the board to listen to us.

Right the Third: Ella and I became closer than ever. This was helped by the fact that she finally saw the wisdom of my philosophy in not threatening Carlotta's job. In addition to spending less time cleaning, she dropped half of her volunteer work and gave up her job. I felt sad that I'd spent so much time being envious of her when all she wanted was to have a relationship with me. I was sorry for the time we wasted, but glad that we were in a better spot now. We didn't double date or anything though. That would be way too weird. She also convinced me to add some color to my wardrobe and to give Andre a second chance. I was actually digging the red hair.

Right the Fourth: Things with my dad had improved too. Mrs. Putnam, I mean, Jennifer, made him spend more time with us as a family. She got him eating right and exercising and leaving his studio. I told him what happened with Pearl, and he was not forcing either one of us to spend any more time Skyping. I think things got better because I finally understood what it meant to be really in love and I would never want to take that away from him. Because, as we could all tell, what he had with Jennifer was the real thing. We also came to an understanding about Pearl. He understood that I was better off without her in my life, and I understood that I would not be responsible for my actions if he ever tried to make me talk to her again.

Right the Fifth: Ella had been right about Mercedes wanting Jake. If living well was the best revenge, I had revenged all over Mercedes stupid Bentley. I could see how insane it made her that Jake and I were together, despite all her fake smiles.

Right the Best: Jake's dad made good on his threat to cut Jake off financially if he didn't go to Yale. So Jake took the full-ride baseball scholarship to UC Santa Ana. (Although after several weeks his father, despite still wanting him to go to Yale, had come around to respecting Jake's "personal drive.") I also received my acceptance letter to UC Santa Ana. The head of the art department wrote me a personal note to tell me that he was looking forward to working with me as he had enjoyed my portfolio. I suspected my father had something to do with that. But I was going to study what I loved and for the next four years, I'd be doing it alongside the guy I loved. There were no words to describe what that level of hope and excitement feels like.

Which made me finally understand why they lived happily ever after in those fairytales. Because there was a lot of happy to be had with a boy who loved you and kissed you like nothing else in the world mattered.

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