The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Liv and Maddie)

2

Salt meets wound

Liv knew who she was from a very early age. For as long as she could remember, everybody loved her. She never knew exactly what it was. She just knew that she had something special. Something intangible. Something immeasurable. And it gave her confidence. That's why she loved acting, singing and most importantly pageantry, because you didn't have to be the prettiest, or the tallest, or the blondest, or the whitest. Even though she was all those things. You just had to have that confidence. And she probably would have gone on to win miss universe, if it weren't for a beauty pageant coach, Marcus cutler.

Arrested on eighteen counts of child molestation.

"That's it, you're done. No more pageants. This is sick." Karen said after seeing the news.

Her dreams were dashed by some random 50-year-old creep who didn't molest her, let alone even get the chance to meet her.

She refused to eat for a week out of protest. But then she realized how much she liked not doing anything.

She 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. The only thing she liked was spending time with maddie and often sing in front of people for the only purpose of getting complemented.

When she moved to Los Angeles she had a revelation. Now that she was actually doing something with her life and enjoying it, she knew exactly what her dream was, what she lived for, shine, entertain people. She loved that. And of course, she was well paid. By the age of fourteen she already had enough money to buy her own house and sustain herself for at least ten years, living with all the accommodations that a respectable and successful Hollywood star would have.

Coming to California was like discovering uncharted waters, a whole new world. Back in Wisconsin, she was pretty much locked inside her house, interesting stuff only happened on tv, no crime in the neighborhood, her life was calmed. But then, it turned into a new reality.

The things she'd see on the streets and in her aunt's house were out of pocket and even some would say, weird. Her aunt was an esthetician, which is a fancy way of saying she gave pedicures to rich people. And her husband was a drunk, who was always pretending to hold jobs longer than he did. Liv had never seen a person drink so much before, it caused her curiosity what it felt like.

"You know little girl. Might sound weird to you, but this solves all your problems...." My aunt's husband, Richard, said while laying on the couch he had for himself, drinking bear while watching tv. Looking back, could there be a more noticeable trait for an unhappy forty-something year old man than that one?

He continued, "What you say, you wanna try one for the first time?".

Mind you, she was only thirteen at the time. She stared blankly at him for a few seconds and then left, weirded out by what he said.

She'd always think about that city being an alternate reality because this was the city that made her notice there was something seriously wrong with the world.

At age ten, she only knew about princesses, fairytales, finding your charming prince, and most importantly, she thought everyone was just as happy as her. Oh boy, how wrong was she.

She discovered almost everybody was miserable. She'd often ask herself will that be my future?.

While seeing her aunt work in the salon, 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. Liv 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 homes to decorate, but at the end of the day, they literally did nothing.