When Mia’s stepmother, Trudy, plans an elaborate party for her 45th birthday, Mia has no choice but to do as she is told, including being a hidden helper throughout the festivities. But lucky for Mia, karma seems to be on her side, ready to teach Trudy a lesson.
Grab some popcorn, folks, because this story is one of those moments when the universe steps in and delivers a cosmic smackdown right when you least expect it.
Let me introduce you to the key players of the story:
A smiling teenage girl | Source: Midjourney
I’m Mia. I’m sixteen years old and stuck in a suburban home with my dad and stepmom, Trudy. Trudy’s been around for about two years, and, oh boy, does she have the “wicked stepmother” act down perfectly.
If you looked up “entitled” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure you’d find her picture staring back at you.
Life with her has felt like living inside a bad reality show, but no one is filming, and definitely not paying me for my trouble.
A close up of an older woman | Source: Midjourney
Dad stays out of the way as much as he can. He’s the “happy wife, happy life” type of man, except that Trudy’s never really happy. She’s the type who expects the world to fall at her feet and cater to her every whim.
Now, let’s talk about last Saturday, the day of Trudy’s birthday party. It was so over-the-top that, honestly, it could have been a wedding reception.
It was her 45th birthday, and Trudy was trying to hold on to her youth in any way she could. In the week leading up to the party, she strutted around the house like some kind of queen.
A smiling older man | Source: Midjourney
“You’d better get me something special this year, Mia,” she said when she came into the kitchen as I was cutting up fruit for my morning smoothie. “A dishwasher would be nice. After all, I’ve done a lot for you.”
Yeah, sure. Good old Trudy. She’s done a lot for me… if you count bossing me around like I’m some sort of Cinderella knockoff.
A close up of a smoothie | Source: Midjourney
“Uh, Trudy,” I said, adding yogurt to the blender, “I’m kind of saving for my prom dress.”
I already knew where this conversation was going.
Her face twisted into this weird look, like she couldn’t believe I just said that.
“Your prom dress?” she scoffed. “Mia, that’s ridiculous! You can just buy something from one of the clothing stores. Something cheap. A dishwasher is much more practical. I don’t want to hear any more excuses.”
A woman standing in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney
Excuses? I was floored. This woman really expected me to drop all my savings on an appliance just because she “deserved” it. Like, where’s my fairy godmother when I need her?
And anyway, Trudy was the one who convinced my dad that I was too young to get an after-school or weekend job.
“Mia can only babysit kids on this street,” Trudy told my dad one night at dinner. “She’ll be safe and only a few houses away from home. And anyway, it’s not like she needs that much money.”
A woman sitting at a dinner table | Source: Midjourney
So, all my prom dress savings? They were from babysitting jobs that I had taken over the past year.
They wouldn’t even cover a tiny dishwasher, let alone the dress I wanted. But I was determined to still find something that I loved.
Fast forward to the day of Trudy’s 45th birthday. The house was buzzing with caterers, an event planner ran around with a clipboard, and enough floral arrangements to rival a garden center.
An outdoor birthday party setting | Source: Midjourney
Meanwhile, I was in the background, wiping down mirrors, setting up drink stations, and generally trying to avoid all eye contact.
“Jeez,” I said to myself, “are the Royal Family coming over?”
I set up the gin station and tried to leave for my room, hoping that I would make myself presentable before Trudy’s posse of friends showed up.
A gin station | Source: Midjourney
As soon as the guests arrived, Trudy transformed into some kind of celebrity. She walked around, tossing fake smiles and soaking up compliments like she was at the Oscars or something.
“Mia! Can you refill the drinks? My guests are thirsty!” she barked from the marquee outside.
Of course, I had no choice but to do so. I couldn’t say no. Not with so many people around. Trudy would probably implode.
A woman wearing a gold dress | Source: Midjourney
I did as I was told, floating around like the invisible Cinderella. I was counting down the minutes until we lit the candles on the elaborate cake and the whole day would just dwindle into nothing.
I hid away for a few moments, finally able to get my hands on some food. At least Trudy loved her food, and she had told the caterers that she wanted elaborate meals.
“You’re hiding here, kiddo?” my dad chuckled when he caught me eating a portion of lobster mac and cheese.
A bowl of lobster mac and cheese | Source: Midjourney
“I’m starving, Dad,” I said, eating another forkful of food. “And everyone is eating anyway.”
“Take some time off, Mimi,” he said. “Eat. I’ll bring you one of those fancy milkshakes from the milkshake station.”
Soon after, it was time for the cake. My dad lit the candles while Trudy beamed like a Cheshire cat and did a little dance.
A gold and white cake | Source: Midjourney
Everyone sang for her at the top of their voices, and Trudy blew out the candles. As the party was winding down, she clinked her fork against her wine glass and fixed me with that awful, expectant glare of hers.
“Mia, since you didn’t bother to buy me a dishwasher for my birthday, the least you could do is wash all these dishes. It’s only fair.”
I stood there, stunned for a second. Everyone went quiet. Twenty pairs of eyes stared at me like I was the villain in this scenario.
She really said it. Out loud. In front of all her friends.
A smug woman in a gold dress | Source: Midjourney
“You didn’t get your mom a birthday present?” one of Trudy’s friends, Alexis, said. “That’s just… rude. And sad.”
My throat tightened, but I managed to keep my voice calm.
“Trudy, I told you, I didn’t have the money. Especially for a dishwasher. I’ve been saving for prom.”
She waved her hand like I was talking nonsense.
An upset teenage girl | Source: Midjourney
“Just wash the dishes, Mia,” she said. “Do something useful for once.”
I could have screamed. But instead, I swallowed my pride and nodded.
“Fine. I’ll get changed and started on them,” I said.
I spent the next hour elbow-deep in soapy water, scrubbing until my fingers went numb. I wanted to cry, but instead, I just scrubbed harder, imagining the day I’d finally escape this madhouse.
A teenager washing dishes | Source: Midjourney
By the time I finished, the party was over, and Trudy’s friends were long gone. I dragged myself to bed, emotionally drained.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Trudy’s shriek coming from the kitchen. I thought maybe one of her fancy new gadgets broke. She had just bought herself a lavish new coffee machine that looked like it belonged in a coffee shop.
A coffee machine | Source: Midjourney
But when I walked into the kitchen, I found her standing in the middle of a disaster zone.
The kitchen was trashed.
The smell of burnt plastic filled the air, and the floor was flooded.
“Mia!” she screamed when she saw me. “Look at what happened!”
A flooded kitchen | Source: Midjourney
I blinked, still half-asleep.
“What… what is going on?”
“The pipes!” she shrieked, flailing her arms. “Oh, my kitchen is ruined! This is going to cost a fortune to fix!”
“But everything was fine last night when I went to bed. What happened here?”
My dad stuck his head into the kitchen.
An annoyed woman | Source: Midjourney
“Trudy, did you really drop all the meat oils into the sink last night?” my dad asked.
“I did!” she said. “I didn’t know where else to throw it out. And the caterers left without taking it. But I did throw some drain cleaner down the sink, too.”
“Oh, Trudy! You’re not supposed to do that! Now look! You messed this up! I told you to just pour out a kettle of boiling water.”
Oil being poured in a sink | Source: Midjourney
My first instinct was to laugh. I know I shouldn’t have, but come on. After everything? Didn’t it just seem like karma played a part in this, too?
While Trudy was losing her mind, I couldn’t help but feel a tiny smirk tugging at my lips. I didn’t say a word.
For the next week, the kitchen was completely out of commission. My dad, bless his heart, tried to soothe her, but the damage was done. The cost of the repairs was so high that Dad announced that they’d have to cut back on expenses.
An annoyed woman | Source: Midjourney
“Except for Mia,” he said. “I have $500 for her prom dress.”
“You can’t be serious, David!” Trudy hissed. “You want me to pay for the new kitchen tiles, but you can spoil Mia?”
“You spoiled yourself for your party. I can spoil my child for her prom.”
A smiling man | Source: Midjourney
And that was how Trudy learned not to cross my dad. But she did change her tune a bit. She allowed me to get my part-time job, and she tried to actually mend things with me.
“I’ll come with you when you go looking for your dress, Mia,” she said.
Do you think it will last?
9 Celebs Who Ditched Cosmetic Procedures and Decided to Return to a Natural Look
Many of us find flaws in our looks or want to stop the aging process. In such cases, we might turn to plastic surgery. However, these procedures don’t always guarantee that the results will be to our liking. Some celebrities have faced these problems too, and they’ve admitted to regretting going under the knife, preferring to not repeat the same mistake in the future.
1. Simon Cowell
“There was a stage where I might have gone a bit too far. I saw a picture of me from ’before’ the other day and didn’t recognize it as me, first of all,” the TV personality admitted last year. Since then, Simon Cowell vowed to never use fillers again and is trying to regain his natural looks. Cowell also confessed that he had overdone it with Botox when he tried the procedure, stating that he currently prefers more simple facials.
2. Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz is another Hollywood star who had Botox regrets. “It changed my face in such a weird way that I was like, ’No, I don’t want to be like that,’ — I’d rather see my face aging than a face that doesn’t belong to me at all,” the actress said. Since then, Diaz has fully embraced the natural aging process, especially her laugh lines, which, according to her, only prove that she has “smiled her whole life.”
3. Anna Faris
Unsatisfied with her thin lips, Anna Faris turned to fillers to make them look plumper. And although she never went overboard, she came to later regret the procedures, as she couldn’t go back to her original lip shape. On the other hand, the actress doesn’t regret the breast augmentation that she also had around the same time.
4. Jamie Lee Curtis
After constantly being told she had puffy eyes, Jamie Lee Curtis decided to go under the knife and change their look. She’s also tried Botox, but was unsatisfied with the results in both cases. Nowadays, Curtis is a huge advocate of aging gracefully and has famously said, “Why do you want to look 17 when you’re 70? I want to look 70 when I’m 70.”
5. Heidi Montag
Years ago, people were shocked to find out that Heidi Montag underwent 10 procedures in a single day. Because of so many surgeries in a very short period of time, her health also suffered. “I wish I had waited and not made a decision so young because I have long-term health complications,” she admitted years later, adding, “Plastic surgery isn’t something that should be glorified. Take it seriously.”
6. Reid Ewing
Before rising to fame as part of the cast of the successful sitcom, Modern Family, Reid Ewing felt dissatisfied with his looks and thought that changing them would help his career as well. In total, Ewing had 8 cosmetic procedures and later came to regret all of them. “I wish I could go back and undo all the surgeries. Now I can see that I was fine to begin with and didn’t need the surgeries after all.”
7. Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda opened up about getting a facelift, but also added that she’s not proud of it. The actress also decided to never undergo plastic surgery again, scared that she would end up looking “distorted.” Since then, Fonda has preferred to take care of herself in a simpler and more natural manner. “I don’t spend a lot of money on face creams or anything like that, but I stay moisturized, I sleep, I move, I stay out of the sun, and I have good friends who make me laugh,” she said.
8. Bella Hadid
Last year, the supermodel finally cleared up plastic surgery rumors when she admitted to having had a nose job when she was only 14 years old. Hadid confessed that when she was a teenager, she felt very insecure about her looks, and being the younger sister of Gigi Hadid didn’t help that. However, she now thinks she could have learned to love the nose she was born with and regrets changing it.
9. Melissa Gilbert
The Little House on the Prairie star had a breast augmentation and a nose job, as well as some Botox and fillers. But in more recent years, Gilbert decided to remove her breast implants and embrace her natural looks instead. “I had my breast implants removed, and I’m no longer doing fillers or Botox because I’m a 53-year-old woman, and I’m trying to embrace this process of aging,” she said back in 2018.
Have you ever considered plastic surgery? What do you think about these procedures?
Preview photo credit PopularImages / Depositphotos.com, camerondiaz / Instagram
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