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The way that the tiaras glistened in the sunlight at 8 A.M., they reflected little rainbows that danced on the wall beside Winter's mirror. Every day when she woke up to get ready to go about her business, she couldn't help the way her eye wandered to the remnants of her supposed glory days.
Only that they didn't feel like her glory days. How sad would it be to have peaked at the age of 6?
Being 21 now, the black-haired girl liked to think that she had many, many more monumental years in store. If the best years of her life were already behind her, what good was life, anyway?
"Winter." Mena's voice boomed, causing the girl to jolt out of her own thoughts. "What in the world are you doing, sitting here dillydallying?"
In years past, the girl would always try her best to cause her step-mother to furrow her brows. She lived for little besides tormenting Mena, which Winter knew was the woman's just desserts, considering the fact that their roles were reversed all too often.
However, in the years since her pageant days, Mena had otherwise brought her once prideful and headstrong step-daughter to heel. She'd gotten to know Winter in the way that a prison guard learns about a prisoner: she had learned the girl's weaknesses. Mena knew them like Winter used to know all of her own favorite nursery rhymes and fairy tales, down to the last detail.
In short, she'd successfully broken Winter, something that the woman must have been planning since Dawson had slipped the diamond ring on her finger and explained he had a little girl waiting for them both at home.
"I'm not--" Winter pleaded, gathering her hairbrush and journal off of the vanity to turn around and flash her frantic brown eyes at her step-mother. "I promise!"
"Well, those weeds aren't going to kill themselves, girl. Get moving." Mena ordered.
Winter didn't think twice before bolting out of her room and towards the backyard.
Once the younger girl was gone, Mena ambled further into Winter's room. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and, after fixing her hair and checking her smile for any remnants of the kale salad she'd just eaten, was very content with what she saw.
All at once, a glimmer caught her eye and she looked up. Mena's eyes locked with the multitude of beautiful tiaras that Winter had won during her time doing pageants. A sort of pride washed over Mena, but the pride quickly turned to envy.
