La Pantera

Ch. 10 Little Stephanie

Song for Chapter: Life's Little Lessons by Just Nathaniel

Stevie had been born Stephanie Marilyn Costa to Stefano and Marie Costa on March 21, 1966 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. She had 3 older brothers : Bruce , Anthony "Tony", and Nicholas "Nicky". Her father had given her the nickname "Stevie" when he noticed her acting similar to a fellow factory worker of his named Steven.
She had grown up rebellious from the start, refusing to wear any dresses her mother gave her. She instead grabbed her brother's hand me downs and would run outside happily , wearing them with pleasure. But Marie despised this behavior, wanting Stevie to grow up into an attractive and traditional Italian woman.

One day , she took 10 year old Stevie to a modeling agency for kids, wanting to get her daughter test shots , hoping she'd fall in love with it. Stevie crossed her arms over her chest as they walked in, hating this place already. It felt like the weird waiting rooms at the doctor's offices, and it made her uncomfortable. "Is this our darling Stephanie?", the photographer asked , a bit too sweetly in Stevie's opinion. Stevie scowled hard at him, refusing to shake his hand. "My name is Stevie .", she stated with command in her voice . "It's Stephanie.", Marie said with slight annoyance. "No! I hate Stephanie!", Stevie snapped before going to where the photographer asked her to sit. "I want you to look like you're staring happily in the distance.", he said to her. Stevie instead , made an expression of boredom when the camera snapped , resulting in the picture above . Marie growled at her whilst Stevie giggled evilly , the photographer catching that as well. The little girl twisted the situation into her own hands, making faces before smiling . The photographer didn't care , whatever made the kid happy got him money .

Stevie reflected on that day with a little smirk as she made it back to the set , the sun casting a rosy hue as it now rose over the horizon. The trees stood out as an ominous black shadow, standing out over the early sunrise . No one called her Stephanie ever at this point , always finding out the hard way what happened if they did. She made it back to her trailer only for her eyes to widen as she saw Matt standing near the door . "What are you doin' up so early?", he asked her with a smirk. "Didn't realize you became Nancy Drew .", Stevie replied back , still looking cocky as ever . "Why do you keep comin' near my shit huh?", she asked more serious now . "I can't help but worry about you a little bit. You're actin' kind of off.", Matt said , looking her in the eyes . "I'm fine ...this is all me ....babydoll.", she had stepped closer to his face before saying the last bit. She then headed off to where they filmed , wanting to be left alone. Matt shook his head at her as she strutted off . He'd never met a girl like her for sure , wondering what had happened in her life to make her this way . Surely there were spunky girls everywhere , but she was more than spunk. She backed her talk up 100% and had no problem getting down to business. He walked after her quietly , before deciding forget it with a wave of his hand , wanting more sleep at this point .

Stevie sat on the steps of the house that was meant for her character Patty , playing with the necklace Martin had given her . She sniffled quietly but otherwise stared ahead , her jaw clenched in bitterness. She could already tell she was gonna be more pissed than usual with the withdrawal , and she hoped her plan would work so she wouldn't have to get drug tested on set. "I can't go back to the slammer.", she whispered to herself. She didn't want her dream to be taken away over a dumb mistake , and if this was her way of becoming sober, so be it. Let them call me crazy cuz they'll regret it when they see I'm a bad motherfucker. , she smirked to herself standing up. Her moment only lasted a second as Nick and Francis came in the room , causing her to fall from surprise and knock down a camera stand . Her eyes widened in fear for once, afraid of what Francis would do.