Euphoria: season 1

The pros and cons of love

RUE(V.O): Maddy knew who she was from a very early age. For as long as Maddy could remember, everybody loved her. She never knew exactly what it was. She just knew that she had something special.

A young girl purple dress with gold stars the girl spins around and...we see 8 year old Maddy in full hair and makeup a headset mic over one ear.as she begins t o sing along to "Lucky Star" while performing the most intricate, heavily choreographed dance routine imaginable. Across the wowed faces of the audience as they clapto the beat.

RUE(V.O): Something intangible. Something immeasurable. And it gave her confidence.

As she finishes her routine, Maddy jumps and sails through the air and lands doing the splits causing the judges to give her 10's and the crowd to clapping at her victory. As the crowd claps Maddy was given a bouquet roses, a tiara, and a few hundred dollars as her mother and her smile for the cameras a few tears fall off of Maddy's face.

RUE(V.O): That's why she loved pageantry, because you didn't have to be the prettiest, or the tallest, or the blondest, or the whitest. You just had to have fucking confidence. And she probably would have gone on to win Miss Universe. If it weren't for this guy.

In Maddy's house Maddy and her mom Sonia watch the news and see some creepy, middle aged dude in a blue windbreaker is lead from his house in handcuffs.

NEWS REPORTER: In West Highland, a beauty pageant coach, Marcus Cutler, was arrested today on eighteen counts of child molestation.

As the two watch the news Soina gets angry at what she was looking at.

SONIA: That's it, you're done. No more pageants. This is sick.

Sonia walks out, leaving Maddy sitting alone in the glow of the TV, crying.

RUE(V.O): Her dreams were dashed by some random 50 year old creep who didn't molest her, let alone ever meet her. She refused to eat for a week out of protest.

She shuffles past her parents eating dinner, ignoring them. Sits down on the couch, and turns on the TV and puts on Keeping up with the kardashians.

Maddy now in her room does her makeup and Tries to perfect a cat eye and a smokey eye, open wings, and a double flick.

RUE(V.O): But then she realized how much she liked not doing anything. Maddy would never say it out loud, especially not today because everybody's so political, but she never really had any desire to have a career or job.

Maddy now 12 years old sitting in class bored out of her mind and trying to pass the time by looking at her phone.

RUE(V.O): She was just interested in doing what she did, just without school and the other bullshit. Her mother was an esthetician, which is a fancy way of saying she gave pedicures to rich people. And her dad was a drunk who was always pretending to hold jobs longer than he did. She quickly realized that there are two kinds of people in the world. The people who sit in the chairs, with their feet in the foot bath. And the people who kneel in front of the foot bath. She used to sit and study the women who came in. She'd pay attention to what they wore and what they'd talk about. And what she realized was that none of them actually did anything. I mean, they may have had children to raise or like, homes to decorate, but at the end of the day, they literally did nothing. They literally did...nothing. And strangely, none of them had confidence.

In a memory of a few years ago Maddy is doing her dance routine with the other cheerleaders while the football team comes down the stairs and during her dance Maddy locks eyes with Nate and the two have a small moment as they stare at each other.

RUE(V.O): She had had a thing for Nate for a while before he finally asked her out. At first he was a gentleman. Like, flowers every day kind of gentleman.