The Promised - Book One

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Four Years Later...

Amanda

Lucinda smiles at me as she hands my diploma from NYU back to me.

"Nice job Mandy."

"Thanks," as I reach out and give her a big hug "And thanks for all the study help, I couldn't have done this without you."

Lucinda has been great, almost like a Mom. She's a retired high school teacher who was widowed years back. Somewhere along the way she was hired as a 'House Mother' for Angela's models. She tutored those who needed tutoring, or acted as a chaperone if it was felt that someone needed one. Her and her husband never had any children of their own, Lu claiming that her students (and now the models) were her children. I liked the fact that she wore her hair what some might consider unfashionably long for a woman her age which I think is in her mid-sixties, a mass pile of brown-gray hair piled onto top of her head with stray curls that always seem to spring lose. She always seemed to be there if you needed her, day or night. She had helped nurse many a broken heart, or even hangovers. If you got the flu, Lu was the person at your door with chicken soup and Tylenol. It was her job to keep us healthy, happy and moving forward.

"I'm sure you would have managed just fine," she gives me a genuine smile and ruffles my hair, which makes me laugh. "Are you sad that you're not walking at graduation?" Lucinda is folding up her laptop and putting it in her briefcase. She's been studying with me since I started at NYU.

"I don't know, maybe a little."

"I think there would be something wrong if you weren't a little melancholy, you did do a lot of work "So you're done with school – what are you going to do? Maybe a Master's Degree?"

Just thinking of continuing on for a Master's Degree exhausts me...

"I think right now I'm just going to relax, and work more. I can always go and get my Masters in the future." Lucinda had always expressed to me the importance of an education, and she really wanted me to go onto get my Masters. My thoughts were a little different. Who knew how long my "modeling window" would be open?

Lu smiled, like she scored her own private victory. I know how invested she got in us girls, and the encouragement was welcomed.

"Do you want to grab some dinner tonight?"

"I think I'm just going to stay in. I have an early call tomorrow." I begged off. Lucinda nodded knowingly as she headed out of my apartment to her own small apartment down the hall. I wondered for a moment if she got lonely. If she did she didn't show it.

"That's fine, I was thinking of binge watching that PBS baking show anyway," she tells me with a wink, "and don't forget to call your Mom!" I hear here call back to me as she walks down the hallway. She always reminded me to call my parents.

My smile turns into a grimace at the thought of calling my Mom. I can pinpoint exactly when things changed between her and I. Not that they were warm and fuzzy to begin with. On our way home from the agency that fateful day. I was so excited about meeting with Angela and having the pictures taken. The whole ride home I just bubbled over with excitement. Mom drove us home quietly, staring ahead at the highway in front of us and white knuckling the steering wheel.

"I'll discuss all of this with your Dad when he gets home – then we'll go from there," was all she said. Now honestly, I was 18 years old and perfectly capable of making this decision for myself, but it came down to respect, and I really did respect my parents. I knew when I should keep quiet and I spent the rest of the ride home looking over my pictures that had been taken, Angela had put them in an envelope for me, along with some contracts for both of my parents to sign. The contracts bored me quickly, but I did spend some time looking over the pictures. I never saw myself the way these pictures depicted me, confident, strong, and playful. I was never a fan of my hazel eyes, but seeing them now they complimented my blonde hair. Seeing these pictures stirred something within me, an urge to keep doing this. Come hell or high water I knew this was something I wanted to do, and do well.