Chapter 2: The Cotton Candy Goddess

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Once upon a time, in a small town in California, there was a young girl with dreams of making it as a professional ballerina. From an early age, she managed to twirl and leap her way into everyone's hearts. Charm her way out of trouble. And bat her long eyelashes in the direction of anything she wanted and successfully obtain it. Then one day, this girl was offered an opportunity of a lifetime — a full-ride dance scholarship to Juilliard in New York City. She leaped into the air with perfect grace as her parents wrapped their arms around her. They called her grandmother. Emailed her judgemental aunt to rub it in her face. Their daughter had done it. She was well on her way to escaping the claustrophobia-inducing perimeters of the town and doing something more. But life has a funny way of hitting you hard at an early age. It took hardly any time for the girl to realize she wasn't cut out for the rigid lifestyle at school. Away from the close gaze of her parents, she found herself finally free. And she soaked in that feeling to the Nth degree. If only she knew her change in lifestyle would bring her as much trouble as it inevitably would...

"Yes, mom. Everything is good here!" She applies a light dusting of rose-colored blush on her cheeks and a minuscule coat of mascara. The camera zooms in on her phone. She's spent 40 minutes on the line with her parents talking in circles. Telling the same story she's been telling them for the last few years. Funny how when you tell a lie so many times it starts to feel like your reality. You forget it's all a huge veil over your true life. She'll tell them one day though. Just not now. "I'm getting ready to go to my last class and then I might go out with the girls later tonight... No... Sure... Yes, the sweater fits perfectly. I'm just sorry I couldn't come for Christmas or New Years... At least I got to come for Thanksgiving though. I'll be back for a bit in the summer before you know it. I love you too. Give dad a hug for me. Okay... Yep... Bye."

It's always the same feeling on her walk to work. Some people go to an office job to stay stuck behind a computer. Some people spend their days in construction or some other job working with their hands. She's a stripper.

The occupation was slightly embarrassing at first but she'd fallen in love with it along the way despite her parents thinking she was a waitress while still attending Juilliard. When she left her hometown, she was practically sent off with a parade. She was going to be the one to restore everyone's reputation. She'd return at some point in the future, Louis Vuitton luggage in one hand and a Tiffany's gift bag in the other. She'd be on TV and radio and be on stage in a pink tutu as the lead in Nutcracker. They weren't technically wrong when they said she'd be on stage though.

"Sara!" She calls to one of the owners of the club. The Candy Store is her home away from home. She weaves her way through the crowd of drooling men and steps up to the music booth. "Hey! You wanted me on tonight, right?"

"Of course!" Sara replies from beside the club's DJ. She's flipping through a catalog of music and directing the next set of songs. "Amethyst apparently had a bad breakup and Maggie's on the phone in the back talking to her right now. Amethyst says it's impossible to get out of bed. We need you more than ever."

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