Super Model's Daughter

Chapter Four

FOUR

Charlotte walked into her penthouse that night alone, because Ava had already gone home and wasn't really in the mood for socializing anyway at the moment. After being bashed by bitchy backstabbers at the debut, Char couldn't blame Ava for wanting to be home and in bed, probably crying about Lyle and Shay and their apparent fling.

Char walked into her room and pulled out her phone to text Ava that she'd return the golden dress that she was wearing another day. She had a family reunion in Burbank the next day, so then wasn't a good time. She walked over to her closet to get out something to sleep in when she stopped and saw the picture of her and her mom, Magdalena, hugging and smiling before her parents split almost a year before. She hadn't even seen her mom since then. She wished her dad would invite her to the penthouse every now and then, and call her Maggie and fix her favorite snack (cucumbers with Greek yogurt and tea on the side) and give her kisses just like old times.

But she knew it was no use to dream, because unfortunately nothing she dreamed of would come true.

Maybe Maggie would go to the family reunion, if she even cared about seeing her daughter ever again, for this could be the only chance for them to meet. If she really cared, she'd catch a flight from New York to Los Angeles just to see the people she once said she'd loved and she'd die for. Now, that didn't seem true to Charlotte.

"I'm going to bed now, Dad!" she shouted down the hall to her football star dad, Trent, and he replied with an "Okay" as Char closed her door and took off the snazzy dress.

"Rise and shine, pumpkin!" Charlotte's dad knocked on her door that summer Monday morning, unusually happy.

"I'm up!" she yelled back, sitting up in her bed and slipping off her velvet sleeping mask. She pulled her hair up into a messy chocolate-colored chignon and padded into her all-white bathroom to begin the pore-cleansing process.

She did that every morning she had to go somewhere special, or she was arriving back to school after a long break. It was a great way to make a fresh start so everyone could see that she was perfect, and everyone believed her beautiful skin was natural. Char wished that were true.

She rubbed St. Ives facial cream all around her face and let it sit for ten minutes, and then she washed it off. Next she spread Garnier BB Cream all over her skin to give it a caramel-colored glow. Then she applied dark makeups that matched her cappuccino tinted skin and topped it off with putting multiple ripples in her dark brown hair.

She smiled, and then she walked out of her room and into the kitchen where her dad was fixing Apple Jacks and Folgers coffee. "Morning, Dad."

"Hey, sweetie. Sleep okay?" Trent asked, dipping a spoon in a bowl of Apple Jacks and sliding it across the island to where Charlotte was sitting.

She nodded slightly, kind of unsure. She didn't fall asleep till probably past midnight, and thinking about her mother and how miserable her best friend must be was sickening to her. She wanted to erase it all.

"Are you ready to go see everyone today? Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Sal?"

Char smiled. "Yeah...I'll try to have fun."

"Try? What's the matter?" he asked, sipping black coffee.

She sighed. "Well...I've just been going through some hard times. Well, Ava has. And I know how she feels." Char did know how Ava felt-in eighth grade, she thought she was in love with this boy named Wesley. He was all she thought about...his hazel eyes, his spiky blond hair, cute smile...but he'd crushed her. Got her thinking he liked her too but really he just used her to get to her friend, Blair, who they called "Muffy" at their snooty school. Blair had sort of become part of an elite group where they all had ridiculous nicknames, and that's when Charlotte broke apart from that crowd because Blair had insisted that Char should be called "Cookie"; she'd taken that as racist and offensive though.