Perfect

Chapter 1

Casey Allen smoothed down the folds of her short plaid skirt and crossed her legs so she could admire her new shiny black-and-white Chanel spectator oxfords. They looked so cute with her thick cashmere socks scrunched down just above the ankles. She had been wearing the same green plaid uniform to Westchester School of Arts all her life, but now she was a senior- which meant saying goodbye to her boring old Buster Browns and hello to her first ever prom.

She leaned back in the plush, baby-soft leather seat in her dad's sparkling Bentley Continental and pressed a button that flipped a mirror console in front of her. Casey admired her killer new Mystic spray tan, and her shoulder-length brown hair that shone with reddish and golden highlights. 

"Nervous?" a voice asked from the driver's seat.

Casey stopped preening and raised a carefully plucked eyebrow at the speaker via the rearview mirror.  "Should I be?" she asked Mr. Henry, her father's 50-year old chauffeur and co-founder of her dad's business. Mr. Henry laughed as Casey smiled.

The car pulled up to the main gates, where a slew of expensive European cars were lined up, depositing their precious rosy-cheeked daughters on the entrance sidewalk. Several girls who lived just down the street in multimillion-dollar townhouses Casey just passed, were casually walking up the hill, Marc by Marc Jacobs messenger bags slung across their chests.

Casey spied her three best friends in their usual before-school hangout by the stone bench in front of the playground, the three of them holding matching venti decaf soy lattes and laughing over a funny joke someone told.

This was going to be a good year.

"Good afternoon Case, how was your last first day of school?" Lillian, her mother, called from the kitchen, where Casey found her lounging around, reading a Vogue magazine.

She planted a Mac-lipstick kiss on her mother's cheek. "It was pretty good." 

Grabbing a green apple, her favorite, Casey wandered out of the large kitchen into the sunroom of her family's palatial home, gazing idly at the huge lake in the distance. 

A shimmer in the corner of her eye, caught her attention. Her white grand piano sat proudly, taking up most of the room in the small side area. She sat gracefully on the cold, hard stool and started to play, her mind getting lost in the movement of her fingers on the keys.