Like every morning before heading off to school, Bella consulted her personal scale, and then her mirror. It was a part of her daily routine ever since she remembered.
As always, she was dressed to impress. A pair of perfect, dark, skin-tight jeans, the size none of her girl friends could fit into, and a black, brand shirt. She looked like a model, rather than a high school student, good looking, tall and skinny. Never mind the unhealthy colour of her skin or the dark rings under her eyes, those could be covered.
Better than a few extra kilograms, her mum would say, every time that Bella pointed them out to her.
Ever since she was around five-years-old, and started to understand at least something of what her mother was telling her, she was taught about the importance of her looks.
Beauty is important, her mother would say through gritted teeth, while snatching a lollipop from her daughter's small hands. You mustn't eat these, or you'll become like one of them, she would tell her, pointing to a random passer by that looked slightly overweight.
So, while her friends danced, painted or rode horses after school, Bella had to pose for photographers of children's fashion magazines, or cameramen of publicity spots.
At first it was fun, she felt special when her friends admired her newest achievements and sudden popularity. Bella even sacrificed all the birthday parties with their sweets and cakes, that all the other kids seemed to be going to very often. She didn't care. At least not too much.
Then, she grew up some more, and her body started to change. Despite dieting constantly, the little girl morphed into a skinny woman. Her flat body acquired new curves, and those were making her look fat, according to the 'artists' she worked with. Eventually, they started contacting her mum less.
Her mother, who felt let down, deceived by her own daughter, forced Bella on yet another, more drastic diet. Bella obliged, she would do anything to change the contemptuous look in her mum's eyes.
She is doing it for me, Bella thought each morning, while looking in the mirror reflecting her skeletal form.
That mirror, once, would reflect a little girl dressed in bright skirts and braids, surrounded by iridescent, rainbow colours, that seem to emanate from inside of her.
Later, like Bella's energy and liveliness, the colours started to fade, becoming as dull as her hair, and smile.
Today, only a weak, grey aura seemed to radiate from her tired, lanky and emaciated body, dressed all in black.
What will happen when it all fades to black? She wondered silently, before she dragged herself downstairs.
Maybe she should do something about it, to try and bring back some colours in her life. Eat a full bowl of some sugar-coated cereals instead of a half grapefruit for breakfast. But right now she felt too exhausted to rebel against her mother.
Bella wished she could sleep all day, every day...