ELLA ✔

Ella had lived in the same grand house in Edinburgh for the whole of her life. She was even born there, sixteen years ago. The first years of her life were happy, spent alongside her lovely Mother who taught her how to draw at a very young age.

Together they would find the greenest parts of the city amongst all the dark, stony buildings. They would sit and draw whatever they saw – trees, rivers, people. They'd go down to the Water of Leith, a beautiful river that ran all the way through the city and sometimes they would venture further East, out to the sea.

Her Mother always told Ella how much talent she had. She would look at her drawings and gasp at their spellbinding beauty. Her mother always said she must practice, practice, practice and make the most of her talents.

By the time Ella had reached high school her Mother died from an unusual disease that rarely struck anybody in those parts of the world. This left Ella alone with only her Father for company, rattling around their large house. It wasn't long however until her Father had found a new wife.

He wedded a woman who had been married before, two, maybe three times. She always wore tight dresses and high heels whatever the occasion and she had spent her life so far in many of the finest houses of Europe. She always, always had perfect nails.

After the extravagant wedding which was held in the most majestic cathedral in Edinburgh she moved into their house with her daughter, Crimson who was also sixteen years old. Things changed dramatically for Ella. She had to move to a much smaller bedroom in the basement as she had far less belongings than the two new family members and her Father saw fit that she should be the one to live downstairs.

The day they moved in, Ella had thought to herself that there might not be enough room for all their clothes, shoes, make-up, phones and computers. And soon, Ella's Dad had also bought them both smart new cars as they had asked for.

Ella asked for nothing and lived her days quietly in the basement. For her there was nothing worse than dinnertime as this was the one time in the day where she had to speak with her new family. Crimson would always poke fun at her, laughing out loud at her habits, saying she should get a haircut and that no self-respecting girl would wear the clothes that she wore. Sometimes her Father and Stepmother would laugh along too. Crimson talked endlessly about how she was going to become a famous fashion designer some day soon.

All Ella did in these days was go out for long walks alone, go to school and draw, constantly taking out her paper and pens and losing herself in her latest picture.

One day Crimson came down to Ella's room and found one of her drawings on the wall. She laughed and said it didn't make any sense, that she must be some kind of idiot. Ella ripped down the picture and began to hide her drawings underneath her bed.

Meanwhile her Dad, her Stepmother and Crimson would all go out regularly to the largest, most splendid parties in Edinburgh. All three of them would dress in the most expensive clothes, filling the house full of perfume, the smell of which made Ella feel sick. The three of them would jump into a taxi and attend latest the black tie dinner or Ambassador's Ball.

They never invited Ella to join them. Crimson always commented that Ella would have nothing to wear, saying that one had to have style to be invited to these types of parties, that it was best for Ella she wasn't invited, as she'd never fit in anyway.

There was only one thing Ella ever really wanted to do and that was to learn how to draw better and perhaps even experiment with painting. So one day when she knew her Father and Stepmother would be alone as they ate breakfast she went to them and asked if she could do a course in art.

Her Stepmother laughed and didn't believe that this was what she intended to do, asking, but why? Her Father said he didn't think it was a good idea, that money didn't grow on trees and that one day soon she would need to find a place of her own. He made it clear that he didn't expect her to stay with them forever and that he was willing to send her to college but it would be to learn some real skills to get a proper job.