?Pretty’s On The Inside?
[The World thinks She’s ugly but He sees her Beauty?]
By Authoress Kamara
Episode 26
?Paris Myers?
I gritted my teeth angrily before walking into the living room. I met Aunt Jenny there talking on the phone.
I wanted to go complain to her about her daughter over-bearing attitude but I change my mind.
I let out a sigh knowing that she can’t really stop Tiffany’s behavior so I just walk past her.
“Paris, darling”. Aunt drew me back as she slipped her phone into her pocket. “Where are you heading to? Its dinner time”.
I arched my eyebrows. “Dinner time? Oh, sorry, I didn’t know”.
“You didn’t know? But I specifically told Tiffany to go call you inside since she had refused to go call Rio from his room “.
Ooh!
So thats why she stepped outside!
Instead of calling me for dinner like her Mom asked her to, she insulted me instead .
How low of her!
It shows how childish she is!
“She didn’t say anything about having dinner? Then what did you talk about? She was out on the porch, for minutes, I know that”.
Well she was exchanging words with me!
“We were just … we were just talking, yeah, thats it, just talking”. I concluded hastily.
Aunt looked at me. “Just talking? About what exactly?”.
“Just stuffs, Aunt. Girl stuffs”.
“Awww!”. She squealed cooing. “You two are bonding already? How sweet. See what I said about her, just spend a little time with her and you’ll see how sweet she is”.
Sweet, my a$$!
Does she even know who her daughter is?
Tiffany acts nothing like sweet when she’s with me.
“Yeah!”. I faked a smile. “Sweet!”.
“Mumm!!!!”. Tiffany stepped in the living room yelling a little. “You’ve seen Paris and she can go ahead to call her lame brother upstairs. Now can we eat?”.
I quickly turned to her. “Don’t you dare call Rio that!”.
“Mum! I’m hungry!”. She whined ignoring me.
Aunt Jenny gave me an apologetic glance while I simply ignore walking over to the stairs as I went up to Rio’s room.
How dare Tiffany?
Sha keeps pissing me off every second.
Who does she think she is!
Some kind of beauty goddess that every one should worship or what?
I scoffed clearing those thoughts from my mind as I stopped in front of my brother’s room knocking on the door quietly.
“Its open”.
And with that, I turned the knob opening the door as I stepped inside closing the door back behind me.
I stop seeing Rio on the bed with an Apple laptop in his hands as he seemed to be focused on what he was doing with it.
“Rio?”. I called moving close to him. “Thats a laptop”.
“Yeah ?”.
“An expensive one”. I added staring at it.
He chuckled lightly. “I know right. Aunt got it for me”.
“Wait, what? Aunt Jenny got this for you, why and when?”. I asked sitting close to him on the bed.
“During our last visit to a surgeon. As usual, I got the same old bad news from them about my legs which made me sad, obviously. And then to cheer me up, Aunt Jenny bought this super awesome laptop”.
“Geez!”. I exclaimed examining it. “This is very expensive! She really tried to get it for you! How sweet of her!”.
“I know right”. He smiled sadly. “So sweet just like how Mum was. You know, Mom and Aunt Jenny really act the same way”.
“And get along well”. I added.
Rio looked at me. “Whats this about, Paris ?”.
“Nothing”.
“I know you”. He smiled mischievously. “Is something wrong?”.
“Nothing”.
“You just said ‘nothing’ in a high-pitched tone twice. You never do that only when something’s up and in this case, it is”.
I sighed a little. “Okay fine. I do have a problem and something’s up”.
“Okay. Tell me what it is?”. Rio asked in a concerned voice.
“Its Tiffany. She keeps pissing me off all the time, saying a lot of hurtful things”. I told him through clenched teeth. “It just wanna make me rip her hair out “.
He chuckled holding my hands. “The Paris I know will never do that”.
“Well I might do that this time. She is a pest, her fake attitude fucking annoys me”.
“Woah! You just cussed! This is a serious issue”.
“Of course, its serious! And why don’t you ever reply her back whenever she calls you crippled or lame?”.
He shrugged. “Its better to leave things unsaid sometimes. And besides, I don’t find it okay to exchange words with a girl so I just let her say whatever she wants”.
“But I can’t do that. All she ever says to me is so mean, I don’t think I can take that”.
“Just ignore her, sis. Its the best thing to do”.
“Yeah, you are right”. I finally said getting up from the bed. “And oh! Aunt Jenny calls you for dinner, I’ll help you get downstairs”.
“So you are just going to leave without telling me about the contest”. He spoke up.
“What contest?”.
Rio scoffed. “The supernova contest, I do know you know about it, Paris”.
“Well I know about it but I’m not contesting “.
“What? Didn’t you read their flyer? Winner gets full training at the industry’s camp, gets to be signed as a singer, a whole lot of other prizes too. Come on, Paris, this has been your dream, you have always wanted to have this kind of opportunity. Why refuse it now?”.
“Did you finish reading it?”. I asked him lowly. “It says three months world tour with Xavier Marion”.
“Well you have a crush on him, don’t you? So this is your only chance with w
“Its not that, Rio. I’m going to stay three whole full months away from you”. I say feeling a little bitter about it.
“Thats it? Thats the stupid excuse you are going to use, Paris, I’m not a little child. So what if you leave? I have Aunt Jenny to take care of me, okay?”.
“But__”.
“But nothing”. He cut me off bringing his laptop closer. “You are signing in for that competition and thats it”.
“Rio, come on. I don’t want to be separated from you, we’ve never been far from each other before and you are the only one I have now”.
“Paris, I’m always with you. But you have to go live your dream of being a pop star like you wanted. At least, one of us will get to the top”.
“One of us?”. I whispered. “Why can’t it be the two of us?”.
“You know the reason”. He answered me coldly.
“Rio, just because you can’t walk now doesn’t mean__”.
“Here”. He handed me his laptop. “Sing”.
“Why?”.
“I need to record your voice and send it as a clip to the industry before the time runs out”.
“But I’m not sure I want to do this”.
“Paris, you will do this. Now sing. Any song of your choice, but I think one of those songs you usually compose so that you will get a better chance of getting in”.
I sighed and drew the laptop close to me.
I guess I’m doing this after all.
*
*
Next Morning
*
*
?Xavier Marion?
“Okay, this is crazy. You brought me here this early so I could listen to what?”.
“We’ve selected our top forty nine for the contest. And your father insists that you should be the one to select the last female contestant”. Alex, my manager said.
I groaned a little before straightening up on the chair while the other board members stared at me waiting for my reply.
I sighed. “Okay fine. What do you have?”.
“We have ten voice clips from here in Miami”.
“Let me hear them”.
Alex sat next to me calling it out. “Golden Martins. Cheryl Pelt. Stephanie Peters. Amy Winston. Paris Myers … “.
My ears perked up as he called out that name.
Wait. She’s contesting?
Why?
I know she loves music but didn’t know she wants to be a superstar.
“And thats it”.
“Play the voice clip of Paris Myers”.
“Is that your pick?”. The blonde woman asked. “Out of those ten? Or you just did a random choosing?”.
“Why asking me that question?”. I directed back at her. “Do you need to question me on my choices now?”.
She scoffed and turned to another woman saying something low. “He’s just rude and grumpy like his father”.
It was a whisper but I heard it anyways.
I pay attention to the sound of a guitar playing as I unconsciously smiled realizing that she used a guitar as her instrument.
And then her voice came up.
“Hi, I’m Paris Myers. And I’ll love to sing to you all my very own song composed by me, ‘Dream'”.
She composed it herself.
She’s sure to get in the top fifty.
?I have a dream
?To be prettier than this
?But I know it can’t be fulfilled
?When you have people who jeer at you
?You’ll be forced to live beyond
?And thats why I have a dream
?To be prettier than this
I look around the large room noticing the way some of the board members nodded their head to the lyrics and the beat.
But I noticed the way Paris’s voice sounds emotional. Too emotional.
?We have hope even though its a little
?We have hope even though its faint
Okay, it looks she’s actually crying? Her tone sounds that way.
?I have hope, to be prettier than this
?He has hope, to dump those crutches
?We have hope even though its a little
?We have hope even though its faint
?And then again, yet I say, I have a dream.
I turned to Alex. “Add her name among the top fifty! She’s in this competition “.
.
.
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