Miss Americana and The Hearbreak Princess

Chapter Two - Lucky You

"I was born on December the thirteenth," Becca said, a glazed look in her eyes as she spoke, staring at the grey sky outside, thinking about how best to explain the beginning of her life. 

There were very few people who knew the truth about her birth, and the circumstances surrounding the early years of her life, and it was most definitely not public knowledge, which left her feeling a little uneasy as she spoke about it.

"In nineteen eighty-nine, right? Your album..."

A quick smile flitted across Becca's face as she focused on Mei for a moment, "yeah, exactly."

People had always talked about the eighties with a fondness. Good music, outlandish outfits, and a nostalgia for better times. Becca had missed all of that. 

She'd been born nearly halfway through December, spending a little over two weeks in the eighties, before the decade rolled over to the nineties, yet the way that people spoke about the eighties had left a profound impact on her. 

She'd spent countless hours listening to the music from that decade, and that music had shaped the path for her when she'd made the switch from country to pop music. It had felt right to name it after the year she'd been born in, being, in a sense, reborn into a different genre of music.

Softly sighing, she closed her eyes for a moment, before drawing in a deep breath and opening them again to face the view outside her windows. 

It had been a long time since she'd spoken about her childhood, although much of it was documented in her earlier albums, before she'd been dealt harsh life lessons and learnt a little bit about love. 

She'd changed a lot since then, and in a way, it was because of the childhood that she'd had that had led her through the series of Events leading to the big changes in her life. If it hadn't been for the way her childhood had played out, she would every have become famous. 

Sure, she would've written - songs, poems, stories - but she wasn't so sure she would've become famous. That alone stood on the shoulders of the fact that she'd been raised by the Armstrong's.

She hadn't been born into the family, although she was her father's daughter. For the first four years of her life, she'd spent it with her mother - the one that had given birth to her. 

Robert and Rawee had known about her existence, of course, and paid off her mother to keep her quiet when she'd shown up with a baby, but four years later, she'd died. They'd been visiting relatives in Killarney when her mother had drowned, and her father had come for her, taking her back to Wexford with him. Rawee had accepted the arrangement, and that had been it. 

As far as everyone they knew was concerned, the Armstrong's had adopted her, and no one knew of her father's affair with another woman. To the rest of the world, she had been born to both of her parents, a decision that had been made at the start of her career to protect her image.

It was a well-kept secret, one that had every been questioned. Out of both parents, most people would agree that she took after Rawee. It had become such a hushed-up fact, that it had every been spoken about outside of their family, and Becca felt almost guilty as she revealed the fact to Mei, as if she was snubbing Rawee as her real mother. 

Aside from a few snatches of memories, she couldn't remember the woman who had given birth to her at all. All she had were vague recollections of water splashing as she watched her drown, the smell of her perfume, and a fuzzy image of a woman giving her a teddy bear.

For all intents and purposes, Rawee had been her mother, and it had every made a difference to Becca. Growing up, she'd wanted to be just like Rawee. 

Over the years, her mother had been her greatest comfort, although there were times when they disagreed on things, argued and fell out. But her mum was her mum, and she always had Becca's best interests at heart.