「故事·听力」I Pretended To Be Rich And Lost All My Friends
I Pretended To Be Rich And Lost All My Friends
Hi, this is Kelly, and she would like to share with you the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to her. But first, let her tell you a little about her family.
Kelly comes from a completely normal family. Her dad works in an office and her mom is a hairdresser. So they don’t struggle financially, but at the same time they’re not like, super-rich. About two months ago her dad was transferred to a new branch office, and he immediately realized that his new commute was going to be hellish. That’s why they moved, relocating closer to her dad’s new office. This meant she had to go to a new school, one with a peculiar reputation for having a huge number of rich kids. To be honest, she wasn’t really happy about it because she didn’t want to feel like some kind of outsider. So she shared her concerns with her mom, her dad and her older sister during breakfast on the first day of school, and her sister said she should just pretend to be a rich girl. Her dad just laughed, but her mom advised her to not pretend to be someone else.
When Kelly arrived at the school, she saw a huge, beautiful building. It felt like the new school was three times bigger than her previous one. With a little effort she managed to find her class, and the teacher introduced her to her new classmates. But no one paid much attention to her. At that moment she thought that maybe she shouldn’t have worried; it seemed that nobody would even notice her. But when she sat at her desk, the girl sitting closest to her struck up a conversation. You know, the things that people usually ask newcomers, like: “Where are you from?” or “What music do you like?” or “Are you on Instagram?” – stuff like that. Luckily, they were sitting way in the back, so the teacher didn’t hear them whispering to each other. Her name was Sonia and, two minutes into their first conversation, Kelly knew they would be friends.
To her surprise, right after the class finished a group of really cool-looking girls walked up to her. Expensive, branded clothing; confident, slow-paced walk – this type of girl was exactly the reason she hadn’t wanted to transfer to the school. She froze. As she stared at them she silently imagined these rich girls making fun of her because she wasn’t like them. The girls introduced themselves and one of them, who seemed to be the leader (her name was Keisha), asked her to tell them something about herself. At that moment, she thought about what her mom had advised her to do that morning: “Never lie to others about who you are. Be yourself and then you’ll find your true friends.” And so she told the girls that…her dad was the CEO of a very large company and that they moved to the area because there were big beautiful houses there, and they had bought one of the biggest ones. The girls seemed fascinated, while she thought to herself “Oh my God, what did you just say, dummy?”
Her new friends surrounded her and started asking her different questions, like how many cars her dad had, or if they had a helicopter, and stuff like that. Sonia stood there waiting for her for a while, but instead of going with her, she chose to stay. Unfortunately, that one lie led to so many more. She had to create more lies in order to back up her original lie. She completely lost control over the situation, and it made her feel so miserable. On the one hand, she had instantaneously became popular like never before. But on the other, she knew she was popular only because she had lied.
During lunch they decided to throw a pajama party together, and Keisha suggested they do it at Kelly’s house. The girls were excited, but Kelly sensed a disaster approaching, because once her new friends saw the real house she lived in, they would know she’d lied.
When she got home, Kelly rushed to her mom and told her everything. She wasn’t particularly happy about her lies, but she was glad that Kelly had decided to share her problem with her. Her mom advised her to just tell her new friends the truth and maybe they wouldn’t be super mad at her.
The next day she gathered them together and told them the truth. It really wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. Keisha said that they still wanted to be friends with her. She was so happy to hear that! At that moment she felt such relief; she didn’t have to lie any more and she had managed to save her new friendships! But then Keisha continued, saying that no matter how much they wanted to, they couldn’t be friends with somebody who made up so many lies. Kelly felt so ashamed and her face turned bright red.
You might wonder why she’s telling you all this, so here's why: because this silly story has taught her a lot of important lessons.