Just A Mask

“You can’t play soccer anymore.” Francesca Baker stated with a tired huff from cleaning up the whole house. She swiped her sweaty brows with her right hand and turned to the little pretty 10 year old brunette wearing her soccer uniform. As early as ten the little girl shouldn’t be roughing it out at the field. Girls at her age should be all pink and frilly with her BFFs and be looking all perfect. And with a face like the girl’s, she’d grow up making boys chase her around. The girl would be a model, unlike Francesca. It wasn’t that Francesca wasn’t beautiful, she was, and it’s just that she didn’t have the money for all her needs.

“What? Why? You’re my maid, not my mother.” Stubborn little Gabrielle Wright stomped her soccer cleat clad foot, making the kitchen floor dirty. It was wrong that her nanny was telling her things that her parent’s only should. This was happening more often, almost every single day.

t started when Gabrielle was painting her nails in the living room. Her gorgeous brown golden hair flowing down to her waist, blue sparkling eyes fixed on her toenails as she was trying her best not to get black polish on her skin. Then when Francesca moved on from the foyer to the living room, she saw the little girl almost bundled up like a ball to her feet painting her nails. Chesca smiled to herself to find that Gaby was painting her nails.

“Hey Gabs,” She greeted with a proud smile.

Gaby looked up from her nails and greeted her with a timid smile, “Hey Ms. B, done with work now?” She pointed to Chesca who was holding a mop and a dish rag. Then Gaby went back to her toenails.

“Yeah, and what did I tell you about calling me Ms. B? It’s Chesca, GG.” She only called Gaby, GG when she’s up to something, which was very often as possible. It means Gorgeous Gaby. “So, you’re painting your nails?”

“Yup,” Gaby didn’t make conversation that much when she was focusing on something.

Knowing it as well, Chesca abandoned the mop and rag on the floor and sat next to Gaby on the couch. She felt giddy inside knowing that Gaby would be into that kind of stuff when grooming herself. Pushing blond strands out of her face, she focused on Gaby’s nail which was a very hard thing to do when Gaby was covering all of it with her hair. She raised her hand to push Gaby’s hair behind her ears to be able to see the color of her nails. She’d bet they were hot pink or lavender to be much gentler.

But Chesca’s face didn’t go all dreamy, it became confused. Why was it black? Her face was scrunched up like a paper ball being thrown in a garbage can. Did her eyes deceive her? A bottle of nail polish was set on the coffee table in front of her. She picked it up and focused on the name trying to block the color with her hands. Gothic Black. With a gasp, she placed the bottle on the table with a loud clunk.

Gaby paused awhile from her nail painting and turned to look at Chesca. She looked at her questioningly, “Is something wrong?” She asked.

Chesca looked at her with wide eyes. Was something wrong? Yes, in fact there is something very wrong. “Gabs! You’re painting your nails black for crying out loud. Are you color blind or something?” She cried. How could a ten year old want black nails? Unless they wanted dead nails, which were gross.

“No…” Gaby drifted, confused with the situation. Is it so bad to use black nail polish? “I want my nails black. I’ve been listening to Fall out Boy and Simple Plan. I could relate to their music. Listening to Britney Spears and JoJo is kind of overrated for me.” She shrugged and went back to her toenails.

“You’re ten, Gabs.” Chesca stated as a matter of fact. “You should be having sleepovers and using pink nail polish.” In a swift movement, she stood up and left the room with another sound.

While Gaby just sat there staring at the path Chesca went filled with anger and confusion but she went back to finishing her nails.