Back-Up Plan - Book 3 - S.E.

Glee, actually

"Hi, Marley." Brittany greeted, skipping toward Marley and Winnie as the two girls walked down the hallways together. "Here's a Rolex. Merry Christmas."

"A what?" Marley gasped, taking the box Brittany was offering it and pulling it open only to reveal, in fact, a Rolex inside.

"And you, Winnie!" Brittany smiled as she turned to look at the older girl instead. "Here's a three-week vacation to Saint-Tropez."

"What?" Winnie frowned, looking down at the envelope in her hand.

"Enjoy." Brittany sang, but, before she could skip away, Winnie reached over to stop her.

"Brittany, what are you doing?" She asked, as the blonde just shrugged.

"Hum, well, last week, I decided to watch a documentary about the Mayan Apocalypse, which arrives on December 21, 2012." She said. "So I decided to cash in all my savings so my friends and I could enjoy what's left of our lives to the fullest. Enjoy. Merry Christmas, everybody."

And as Brittany skipped away, Winnie sighed. Well this was about to be a very interesting Christmas week to say the least.

***

"Winnie?" Callie asked, knocking on her sister's bedroom door and pushing it open a little. "Can you help me, please?"

"Yeah, sure I can, sweets." Winnie nodded, placing her pen down over the text books she had been reading and spinning around in her chair, just in time to see her sister walking inside with her hair done and a sparkly, fluffy dress on her body. It took Winnie all but one second to recognize the dress: it was one of the dresses she had worn in one of her beauty pageant competitions - the National one in 2008. "What are you doing so dressed up?"

"I think I want to be a beauty pageant like you." Callie smiled, all proud of herself as she walked further into her sister's room.

"You... You do?" Winnie frowned. "Why?"

Callie shrugged. If Winnie was being honest, it wasn't really that much of a surprise. After all, Callie had always shown interest in makeup and dress-up and she was a very pretty girl. Way prettier than Winnie had been at her age. Still, it worried Winnie somewhat since, the only reason she had even wanted to do that in the first place had been to impress her mom and see if she could get some attention from her if she won so, what if Callie was doing the same? After all, it had been almost three months since Pamela had even bothered staying around for dinner with the girls and Christmas was just around the corner and the three girls would always become a little clingier during that time of the year.

"Does this... Does this have to do with... Mom?" Winnie asked quietly, watching as Callie shuffled quietly in her feet. "Because... I mean, I know she said she would be travelling this year for Christmas, but you, me and your sisters are still going to have fun."

"I know." Callie nodded. "This has nothing to do with mom, I just... I wanted to be more like you."

"You don't need to be like me, love." Winnie smiled a little, flattered by the comment, while still trying not to show just how worried she actually was. "You're fine being yourself."

"But what if I do want to be a beauty pageant?" Callie asked. "I can, right?"

"Of course you can." Winnie nodded. "If... If that's what you want, sure you can."

Callie hesitated for a second then, but nodded her head anyway and turned around so her back was facing her sister. Winnie sighed but reached over to her and zipped up the back of the dress for her, spinning her around a little until she was standing in front of the mirror.