To Acquire Fame

To Acquire Old Friends and New Friends

"Your name is Fraise?"

"Yes. It is. What of it?" The boy in front of me shook head in an attempt to get his shaggy, strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes. What was a guy who worked for a modeling agency doing advertising in a park?

"Doesn't that mean strawberry in some language?" I found that slightly ironic considering the kid's hair color.

"Miss, are you interested in modeling; yes or no?" he asked dodging what I has said.

"That depends...Is your parent around; yes or no?" Fraise's face turned a bright red. Looks like strawberry kid was turning into a tomato!

"I am 23, Miss. My parents live in house on the other side of the country."  The poor little boy's attempt of sounding threatening was actually really hilarious.

"Of course they do. Now go on and play tag with the rest of your friends and leave the adults to do their own business." The eight year old- well, self proclaimed twenty-three year old hissed at me.

"Hissing is for cats." I said flatly.

"Miss, here's my card." He handed me a white business card with the name of a modeling agency on the top, "If you change your mind call the number at the bottom of the card." Fraise stormed off as I dropped the card into the bottom of my purse, long forgotten as the familiar music of the ice cream truck blared into the streets. I would have never guessed who I would run into while merrily licking my newlly bought vanilla cone, though.

"Mom?" I nearly dropped my ice cream. She was in line, waiting for the people in front of her to finish their order.

 The surprise of the sight of me was evident on her face. "Honey! How are you?"

"Good, and you?" I kept myself composed despite the urge I had to smash my ice cream in her whore-ish face. I wasn’t just saying it to be rude. There was truth behind my words.

"I'm fine." She gave me a smile that looked so fake that I actually cringed at it. "Hey, did you know Jessica's pregnant? We're going to throw her a baby shower on Tuesday! Why don't you come?"

Jessica was my Stepdad's daughter. I don't know where that put her in technical terms, but one thing I did know was that she was no more than sixteen, leaving something clearly wrong in this situation.

"Mom..I'm actually kind of busy..." Lie. And I knew it. Looks like either way my mother wasn't going to give up on me going though. Her mouth thinned into a flat-looking line.

"Honey," she stretched out the word in a way that made the word sound slightly...deadly. "These things don't come around very often. I insist that you show up."

"I'll see what I can do." I told her without any actual intent to show up to the stupid baby shower, and walked away with my now melted vanilla cone.

I threw it at a squirrel.

My mood had decreased tenfold.

Normally at times like these I'd call Jen. I was in the park. Alone. On a Saturday. That was completely out of the norm for me. Usually, for the very least, I'd be auditioning for parts in upcoming movies. Yet here I was doing none of that, and worst of all I was alone.  Our fight though still wasn't resolved- Well, rather, I hadn't manned up and apologized yet. I kept telling myself I didn't need her and God knows if it were true. I have to admit though, what I said was harsh and even though I knew she deserved an apology, it was still hard to actually say that simple word and admit I was wrong to her.

"Why is life so difficult!" I screamed out to no one in particular and leaned my head back on the park bench I was sitting on.

I was greeted with the gift of the sight of approximately eight people who looked like models playing some balancing game. They had ropes tied to the barks of six trees, making a perimeter for themselves, with people trying to balance on the ropes and get from one tree to the other.