The Beautiful Ones

1- Opposites

Opposites.

At a first glance, that’s exactly what they look like. They look like opposites. Alice always dresses in girly colors and frilly skirts, but Zoey has more of the black leather, kick-your-ass kinda style.

So, yes, they look like opposites, so to everyone’s naked eye, it’s a mystery why they are best friends, practically sisters, actually. Spending every waking moment together and sharing everything, they have grown up with each other.

But when you dig deeper, you’ll find that these two girls are exactly the same. They both came from families of wealth, for starters.

Zoey’s grandparents had created a shipping company and when they bit the dust, they handed the wheel down to Zoey’s father, making him the CEO of the company and when he married Zoey’s mother, they decided to run the company together. Chase Shipping is now one of the leading shipping companies out there.

Alice’s mother created a shopping website, kind of like Amazon, only better, and more well-known around the world. CherryPie.com has made the Bowman family millions. And, with Alice’s father the co- CEO of his own company- a hardware company, they’re pretty set with money as well.

And by set, I mean both families are multi-billionaires. They live in the two most exquisite mansion-styled houses in all of Houston, Texas. And probably in all of Texas, really. They’re perched on top of a large, forest-covered hill, so that the whole city can forever be watching and dreaming that they lived there and walked among the Chases and Bowmans.

When Janet, Zoey’s mother, was pregnant with Zoey, and Sue was pregnant with Alice, the families were talking about some kind of partnership between Chase Shipping and CherryPie. CherryPie selling the merchandise and Chase shipping it to the buyers.

When Zoey, the eldest of the two, was born, the three adults involved were still discussing the contract, and then a few months later Alice was born, and the contract still wasn’t signed, with a few terms they needed to work on. So as they continued to talk about the companies and their contract, Zoey and Alice were spending a lot of time together in the nursery.

And even when the contract was finally signed, six months later, they were already inseparable, even as little babies. And that’s how this sisterhood started.

So now, in 2012, they find comfort in each other. They can tell each other everything, and they do. From Zoey’s overbearing parents and stuck up older sister, to Alice’s always-gone mother and her pathetic crush on Zoey’s brother, Lance, that’s been growing since the age of twelve, when Alice’s mother failed to remember her birthday and Zoey was forced to go away on some week-long trip with her parents, Lance had baked her a cake and even though it tasted horrible, they spent the whole day laughing while Lance made it the best birthday ever for Little Alice. Alice didn’t think about her busy mother once, and she would never forget that day.

They go to a normal high school, Crest Valley High School, and it’s the closest thing to normal they have, although they don’t really talk to people there, they like to keep to themselves. With their money and unfairly perfect looks, Zoey and Alice were basically celebrities and they had no idea who was talking to them for their fame, or if they genuinely liked them, so they didn’t talk to anybody except for each other. Their trust in others has diminished over the years, in everyone except for each other.

The only way they keep their sanity is by going to parties every weekend. College parties that Lance’s friends get them into. It’s a way of releasing their pent up energy, to relax and have fun for once a week. Well, not every weekend, but most.  And they don’t always drink, either. In fact, they usually only have a beer or not even that, but there are times when they break that rule.

And maybe as you read their story, you’ll see that these girls aren’t all that they seem, and maybe there are ugly secrets behind the beautiful ones.