Perfecting Amelia

“I Swear Amelia, if things don’t improve my threat still stands.” She pulled me into a tight embrace, no doubt leaving bruises on my arm. With that pecking my cheek, and whispering that she meant it, I would be dead. This was my mother though. Marie Blackstone. Aspiring Architect with the no doubt perfect family. And that was the Blackstone’s in a sum. Perfect. I could see it now my mother’s new advertising poster as the train zipped by.

It was a good picture I must admit, all of us in beige with a blue design. I’m leaning into my oldest brother Colby, his hand on the small of my back. My mother is on the left corner, I’m leaning into her my body relaxing into her. My two older sisters are in front of Colby and me. I tower over them. Sitting on the ground are the triplets sitting in a foolish ten year old way. My father is next to Colby his arm draped around his shoulder, his hand resting in my hair. In his arms is Baby Margret our house in the back.

The perfect Family, The perfect house, the perfect life. Let us help you create yours.

It read, and it did look perfect all of us so relaxed. Our family was a window, with ten perfect panes of glass. One of them though ruined the window. This one pane was broken and scuffed up. With nothing in its future but being replaced. That pane was me. Amelia Jane Blackstone ruined the perfect window.

I mean at first I was a great addition to the perfect world my parents created. My father was a shy extremely awkward man. He was six foot five and had a charming face. My mother was a true beauty, the body of a goddess, long loose curled blonde hair and was only five three. That didn’t take away from her flawless features though. Marie was the party girl who dragged my father under. They were bound to create a perfect family. It was fate.

So that’s what they did. First came Kelly with pin straight blonde hair, a curvy body pale white skin and a little spit fire. She was that girl. The prom queen girl who everyone loved. Not even a year later came Tiffany. She was a blondie too, the shorter one at 5 foot four. Only by two inches though. She was the softball girl who took up being the scholar of the family.

Next came Colby, younger by six years. Colby was my favorite though, he was a charmer. He was six one with charming Green eyes, extremely toned with Hazel hair. He became the extreme athlete taking up every sport. Including being my wall. When he turned eighteen he left to join the army. It was the worst time for me, taking Colby away.

Then CRAAACKKK my pane. Amelia was a name after my grandmother and I was going to be the sole perfect in the family. I wasn’t a disappointment at first. As I grew up my sisters used to tell me I was the definition of beauty. I was tall, five ten to be exact. I had wavy raven black hair that had red in the right light. I never got freckles or any sort of pimples. My cheek bones were defined, highlighting my bright green eyes. I was curvy, and as my brothers friends always told me, a rack they would kill to do. I took up modeling at a young age, scouts wanted to take my picture. I was a good student, A- average, and I played some amazing ball.

Where’s the crack though? The crack was Ryan, because he threw the ball that broke my pane. Crack, one day he was there, me on his lap at Christmas dinner. Sitting in our big house, part of the family, the perfect boyfriend. H fit right into place in our perfect family. Until he started throwing the ball. Crack, a bruise on my arm, crack, a bloody nose, crack he was caught. And I broke. Ryan was gone, taken out of my grasp as I retreated to the dugout. I dented the family as I became I depressed shy thing.

This is it though. As I sat on the train to my aunt’s house in dusty rich Dallas Texas for the summer. “Amelia, you need to get back on track. Nobody wants to take your picture. It’s disgusting to watch you sometimes.” That was it. Done. Off to Aunt Lizzie’s. I had to improve before I ruined the whole window. I needed to be replaced, and fast.

Around three months after I did get modeling offers. Everyone was calling me. My agent Lisa was in her glory days. “Look at this Mia! Look what this magazine says.” She toned her voice into a man’s tune, cracking me up. “Amelia, or Lea, Blackstone, is the hot new thing. You’re guaranteed to sell everything out with this gem stone. Lea is your ride to success, Lea is what everyone wants.” That was a happy day where Lisa’s phone rang all day, demanding I modeled something. I mean who did these people think I was? I sure as hell was not for sale; I could make choices, damnit! So that’s what I did, with the help from Lisa. One she didn’t want me to take was the lingerie line. The woman’s name was Bambi. She called as I was sending in my answers and her voice was high pitched and annoying. I could sell out every one of her competitors. I had the body. I had it all. So I did it.

Lisa and my mother weren’t happy with my first shot. “Its child pornography!” Lisa’s husband had said his face turning red, throwing down the catalogue. I was the front page, in a pink lacey garment with a giant red bow under my breasts. I had a straight face on, my feet planted firm on a white sheet, scattered with love notes and candles. Behind me was a taller than me male model (not an easy thing to find I was basically the tallest.) I’m leaning into him my hands reaching back behind his neck tangled in his curly brown hair. His hands are on my waist, his face crocked in my neck.

He was two years older, seventeen and nineteen, only four months ago was the picture taken. The picture along with others are tucked into my purse. Ryan and I were hired to do shots together a lot, we, “Created a sexual tension like no other, so strong it was able to come in picture form.”  So naturally we became a thing. Totally in love. Totally head over heels in love.

My career really took off as I was invited to Europe to do a run way show With Riley, an amazing designer. The thing was though I had to pick up my act before I left. I had in till December. Possible, but a hard task. Was it possible to stop visiting Ryan after all he’d done? Possible to drop my act, settle down and find “A dependent man.” Mother’s words not mine.

The train was nice, I guess. If you removed the people. I was hot in my jeans and sweatshirt. No problemo Amelia, take it off. Taking off my shirt was not the answer not with the males around me. Everyone in my cart had a penis, which drove me insane. Not that I was complaining too much, considering that there was a baseball team around my age sitting to my right. Game on, I thought trying to force down my grin. Game on.