A World of Their Own

Chapter 4: Perfectly Imperfect

Bailey was conflicted.

Distance running had never really been her favorite activity in the world, but according to her older brother and younger sister, she was particularly good at it. So for the past six years of her life, she had devoted countless hours to it, practicing at the local track, going on morning runs on a daily basis, and perfecting her running times so that she would be well above average.

She laughed bitterly to herself as she tossed her duffel bag onto her bed. As if anyone cared if you could run five kilometers in under twenty minutes or ten meters in eleven seconds in a wartime like this.

Silently, she thanked her lucky stars that her parents had allowed her to take a break from the activity for the next week. It was tedious and exhausting to practice for the sport every day, and taking a break from it would definitely help clear her mind. The storm outside had not let up at all in the last few hours, which was dampening her spirits – both metaphorically and physically. She had been out running when it had started to downpour, and she had had to sprint home.

However, Bailey was not the type of person to give up that easily. She was determined to be the best at her events – the 5000 meter run, the 200 meter run, and the 4 x 100, which she ran with her friends – even though she was far from it right now.

A commotion from downstairs that sounded very much like pots and pans banging together caused her to snap out of her reverie, walk out of her bedroom and into the hallway, and peek over the banister that separated the upstairs from the downstairs living room. "Everything okay down there?"

"I'm all good!" her father laughed heartily, and a smile crossed Bailey's face. She could smell the scent of something delicious wafting upstairs from the kitchen, and her mouth watered. It was most likely another one of her father's cakes, baked for some client or another. That smell was mixed with the smell of something else she couldn't quite identify – was that lasagna? She deduced that the source of the other smell was her mother's cooking, and with a sigh, she went back into her bedroom and locked it.

Right now, she was dressed in a black t-shirt with floral patterns printed on the front and back along with a pair of navy blue running shorts that barely went past her mid-thigh. Bailey paced around her small room for a while, then stopped in front of her full-length body mirror that wasn't quite "full-length" anymore, since she had hit her growth spurt a few months ago and had shot up three inches to five feet, six inches tall. The mirror leaning against her wall cut her head off at the top, much to her dismay.

Bailey examined herself in the mirror for what seemed like the millionth time that day and frowned. She still wasn't happy with the way she looked. Everything about her current appearance disappointed her, from the way her short chestnut-colored hair fell slightly uneven around her shoulders, to the barely noticeable – but present nevertheless – flecks of gold in her hazel eyes, to the uneven tan lines on her arms and legs, to how much fat she had on her stomach, to how much skinnier her legs needed to be if she was going to do better at her sport.

Her coach always lectured the team about how each and every one of them needed to have a good and balanced diet, with a good, balanced intake between every food group. He always talked about staying in shape and maintaining a good, healthy diet and body.

Bailey would have taken his words into account a long time ago, if not for the fact that she was trying to lose weight to get a more perfect-looking body. Everyone in her family was perfect, far better than her in their chosen fields of expertise – her father was an expert baker, her mother was a wonderful chef, her seventeen-year old brother, Julian, had performed at multiple piano recitals and had been praised for his outstanding performances, and her ten-year old younger sister, Lyra, competed on a dance team that had won multiple competitions across the city and kingdom and had even performed in front of the royal family themselves, which was rare for a dancing school for commoners like her family. Everyone in her immediate family had managed to reach the top of every field that they had chosen, everyone except for her, the middle child, at fifteen years old.