HER PATH TO HAPPINESS

PROLOGUE:              

                    Nine year old Cassandra sat at the dining table waiting for her mother to set up breakfast. She was always the first one there and her older sister Farah always came downstairs few minutes before her mother showed up to make bacon and eggs for them. It was a Tuesday, bacon and eggs were always served on a Tuesday. Today, Farah didn’t show up by the time Mrs. Howe showed up. “Morning mom” Cassandra said gleefully. Her mother didn’t as much as glance at her as she was getting the pans down and bringing out a pack of bacon and some eggs from the fridge “Morning sweetie. Sleep well?”

“Excellent” Cassandra said looking brightly at her mother that she adored. Mrs. Jane Howe was a tall beautiful woman with long blonde hair and the most beautiful gray eyes Cassandra had ever seen. Mrs. Howe was like a sorority queen who never lost her elegant, rich, Barbie doll looks and apparently she had passed it down to her first daughter, Farah Howe who was the 11 year old version of her beautiful mother. Cassandra Howe always felt out of place because of her dark brown hair and hazel colored eyes. She was tall and slim with the weirdest smile-or so she thought she had. She had gotten her dark colored hair from her grandmother because both her parents were blonde. Mrs. Howe glanced at her daughter after she had put the bacon on fire and frowned “Where’s your sister?” Cassandra shrugged and Mrs. Howe started with long strides out of the kitchen and up the stairs to Farah’s room with Cassandra following behind. Farah knew she looked like a Barbie doll and to emphasize it a little, kept her room that way. From her queen sized bed that was covered in princess bedding's to the bright pink Persian rug on the floor to the pink colored wallpaper on her wall that was covered with magazine pages from different  magazines she had bought and all the outfits she had cut out on her wall, she stopped at nothing to get them. That was probably why she was the most popular girl in Greenfield Middle school. Farah sat in front of her mirror in one of her over the top to die for outfits and turned her head sharply to her mother and sister that just entered her room. “Morning” she said greeting both of them cheerfully. Mrs. Howe walked into the room and sat beside her daughter on the long pink dresser chair. “You’re supposed to be down for breakfast Angel. I was worried. Are you sick?” Farah was Mrs. Howe’s ‘angel’ and Cassandra was her ‘sweetheart’ and she always freaked out if anything happened to her babies or at least her angel because Farah seemed to bring all the attention to herself. Farah smirked “No mom, I’m not sick. I just don’t wanna get fat after y’know” she said motioning to the other side of her room where a crown was kept on a chair and a sash hung on the wall beside it saying MISS MAYFLOWER. She had won the mayflower pageant a few days ago. Mrs. Howe laughed “You’re not getting fat angel. I’m even surprised you feel that way because here I was thinking you needed to put on a little weight”

“What did you do after you won your first pageant?”

“I ate everything in my fridge because I was afraid I would be too skinny for the next one”. Cassandra giggled at the doorway but none of them turned to look at her, like they hadn’t even heard her. Mrs. Howe had tried to sign both her daughters up for the pageant to take after her pageant glory but Cassandra wasn’t up to the age and she could only enter one.

“I don’t wanna feel fat.” Farah said knowing full well that Mrs. Howe was kidding about her first statement.

“You’re incredibly beautiful angel fat or not fat. Its just breakfast by the way, you don’t wanna look anorexic before you even turn 16 do you?” Farah shook her head quickly and Jane Howe smiled “I thought so. Besides, you’d be in high school soon and nobody likes a scrawny kid in high school”. Mother and daughter laughed in unison and the smoke detector started to go off in the kitchen. Mrs. Howe stood up quickly and flashed an angry look at Cassandra who was leaning at the doorway. “You were supposed to be watching the bacon and eggs Cassandra”