Morning all and Happy Monday. Let’s jump right on into our first prompt of the week and see what comes up. Timers set for fifteen minutes and let’s get going.
I like the set up of this. It has come around in my prompts before. One child over looked in favor of others but planning a rise to success. I need to collect all the various ones and formulate a plan beyond just the idea. I think I have about eight characters both male and female with this bent.
Monday, April 13th: It was depressing.
It was depressing. Ella smiled nonetheless and tried to look pleased. Her step brother dissected his victory on the field. The game was won and he played a role. It wasn’t a big game. It clinched no series or won any awards and from what Ella saw, his role was a minor one. Yet he was part of the team and she long ago learned that any victory either of her step brothers had was celebrated with gusto.
It was depressing when none of her wins were even acknowledged.
There was now even a mild annoyance. Once when she was still trying to gain recognition for her achievements she was told that she needed to take more of an interest in her step brothers and enjoy their victories.
So she had. She studied football for Calvin and Baseball for Elliot. He parents seemed pleased by her efforts and thrilled that she now seemed to get why the boy’s achievements were so great. They would go on to get scholarships and eventually brilliant careers.
Except the more she learned about either sport the more she realized that their skills were mediocre at best. She watched the games and dissected them with the knowledge, first to show interest, second to make certain she understood all of the principles at play. Once she did that, she realized that not only were her brothers not the superstars her parents believed them to be but the coaches weren’t the greatest either. They were good enough for the school and the leagues they played in but if any college was going to notice their teams it was because a naturally gifted athlete fell into their laps and they recognized it enough to get the player the training they needed to be scouted.
Neither Elliot nor Calvin fell into that category.
As for brilliant careers beyond, Ella was a little hesitant to agree with that as well. She knew they skated by classes using sports to cushion their grades. They worked just enough to keep their grades up so they could stay on the team but nothing beyond. ‘And half of their assignments were completed by others.’
Ella was one of the few who didn’t think they were fabulous so both of them had people willing to do their work for them.
She knew pointing any of this out would be pointless. In fact, it would be worse then pointless as she would be accused of not only raining on their parade but sabotaging their self-confidence.
So Ella looked pleased for the minor victory and kept her mouth shut. She also took the extra classes her school offered for the academically gifted and worked part time jobs through the school year. By the time she graduated in the spring she would not only have her high school diploma but two years’ worth of college requirements under her belt. She also had an acceptance letter from three separate schools and enough in her savings to cover the rest of her undergrad degree.
She knew full well there would be no assistance for her further education. Once she turned eighteen she would be on her own. There were a few factors working in her advantage. The first one being that because she was smaller than both her step brothers, everyone forgot that she was a year older than they were. As no one ever attended anything for her, she knew there would be no marking of her graduation. She also would still be seventeen when she graduated. She was hoping no one noticed she finished high school until she had at least one year of college under her belt and made certain she could pay tuition as well as rent on an apartment. The longer she could stay at home the better. Now instead of craving recognition, Ella looked for invisibility.
It was however, quite depressing.
Ten til Midnight 