Glass Sneakers

6th ♕

6th ♕

"Mom, talk to me." I cornered her in the kitchen. Our kitchen was five steps wide, which made it easier for me to just spread around my legs and block the path. Today was the day of the final interview. I was scared as hell, and it would be a lot easier for me to go there with a light heart, and not with her hating me.

She sighed. "Okay, I'm talking now. Are you happy?"

"I'm sorry that this is happening," I said.

"Why are you doing this, George? Is not like you want to," Mom no. 2 told me. "Everybody keeps on saying how you're not going to win this. There's no way you're going to be the next princess. They even bet at work!"

"I don't even know what happened. But after getting into the top ten, I don't want give up just because they told me that I can't do it."

"You're so hardheaded. You know you don't want this," Mom no. 2 pointed out.

"I know. I don't like staying up late at night to put on all those lotions that Lenora told me to use. I hated it when they made me stand still or walk with a book over my head. I felt like the book would squeeze inside my head and I'd die because it was in there," I said, while reenacting the things that Lenora and her team made me do. "But since I'm doing all this, it's also because I want to give it a try."

"No, you don't."

"I've made it to the top ten, so who knows? Maybe the panel will be insane today. Plus the shelter can only give me one shift a week. There's no other job I could think of," I confessed.

And I had made a deal with Victhur Arzen.

"But a job in the palace? And it's not just a job. Let's say, something crazy happens, you get chosen, and you're up to be the next princess. Then, is that it? Is that the life you wanted? Cozying smiles and dressing up like a paper doll all your life?" Mom no. 2 was getting even more worked up.

"I don't know."

"You have to know what you want. If you go along with this, your whole life will change before you realize it."

"Mom, I just want to live at this moment, and this is me living. This is me doing what I should do for today. I don't know what's in tomorrow. But if I'm doing my best right now, maybe, just maybe tomorrow will be kind to me."

"But you're doing this against your will," Mom no. 2 argued.

"Maybe yes, since I don't like 99% of it. But the remaining 1% is like a haunting cry. It keeps on telling me to go. And for the record, my life never went right. I'll try going wrong this time."

"You're insane."

"I'm your daughter, what can I say? But insane as it is, can you please cheer me on?" I asked her. She went silent. "I could really use some comforting words. Like, maybe I still have someone I can go home to if this day will turn out to be the greatest humiliation of my life. I'm planning to wear an overall jeans."

"Of course you can come back here," she said, her voice softening. "And don't you dare wear anything like that."

"How about your blazer?"

"Not that one! You're seventeen. Wear something suitable for girls your age," she told me.

"Hmm... I'm still in the middle of thinking what exactly girls around my age should wear. Did you know that one girl wore neon lights to the first interview?"

"Neon lights? Did she glow?"

"Totally."

"That's weird. You should wear something normal. Did you already get your pick?"