Next Top Beauty (part two)

Lucette was the last to return home, and the family assumed she had simply been out with her friends so they did not bother asking, all except for Gregory.

Lucette looked at him and simply said, "I went to an audition."

Silence spread across the dining room before Abelle stated, "Lucy, honey, I don't think the entertainment industry is a very good idea."

Lucette was confused, this family of hers did not seem to care very much about her, so why did they care if she entered the Entertain Industry?

What was the sudden concern?

Though she took a single look at Annette's direction and spotted a script in her hands and immediately realized that they simply did not want her to be any competition to their sweet Anne.

Lucette stopped eating, a disappointed look on her face as she slowly stood up, "I see..."

Despite the clear favoritism, Lucette had hoped that at one point she could salvage the relationship of this body with her parents, though now it seemed a little more impossible.

"I understand."

She was pained.

In all her lives, it was the same.

Familial love was an unknown subject to her.

A territory she was yet to explore.

She knew so much and yet in moments like this she couldn't help but feel less than intelligent.

She couldn't help but feel that perhaps, it was her fault that her parents refused to love her.

Lucette left the dinning room in silence and shut herself in her room for the rest of the day, nestling herself in the safety of a sketchbook completely detached from reality.

Meanwhile, the dining room had been filled with an awkward silence as Gregory shot accusatory glances at his parents, not bothering to finish his lunch as he walked to his own room.

He had grown up with Lucette, and Annette to him was nothing but a spoiled and rude stranger who relied on the names of her parents to get her through life, very rarely doing anything for herself.

In a way, Gregory and Lucette were very similar.

Though to a much lower scale, for a long time Gregory was neglected by his parents and it was in these times when he would question why they ever decided to be parents in the first place.

However, they would later come to him with soft smiles and kind words and warm food and he would forget all about the dark period until it would happen all over again.

It was a never ending cycle that made him believe his parents actually cared about him, even for a second, and then he would end up heart broken back in Lucette's arms.

She was a wonderful older sister and more of a mother figure to him than Abelle had ever been, and so before he could think about it, he found himself in Lucette's room, on her couch as they both drew their problems away.

"What is the show about?"

Lucette did not look up even for a second as she said, "Modeling."

Gregory leaned back, "Be honest Lucy, you're in it for the cash price right?"

"Mmhmm."

Gregory gave her a knowing look before saying, "If... no, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 you leave, take me with you."

Lucette finally looked up from her sketchbook, "Are you sure?"

When he firmly nodded, Lucette shrugged and went back to drawing, though she seemed visibly more relaxed.

Gregory put his own sketchbook down before saying, "Sis, remember when we were younger that we would talk about how we would start our own business one day?"

Lucette twirled a strand of hair in her finger as she went through the memories of the original host before nodding, "You still want to do so."

It was a statement, not a question.

When he nodded, Lucette stated, "One of the prices for winning the competition, is the right to showcase any work at fashion week, if you are serious, we could take advantage of that."

Gregory smiled, genuinely before returning to his sketchbook.

𐂂𐂂𐂂

The following day, Lucette and Gregory left early and spent their day idling the streets until Lucette came to a stop infront of a billboard.

Gregory smiled, "Valerian Foresteir, he's held the title of Artist of the Year for three years, ever since his debut."

Lucette turned to her brother, "I'm hungry."

They ended up at the same café Lucette had been in the day before, it was called Mariposa and it was a wonderful place to eat and relax, not to mention their food was delicious.

Lucette was happily eating when suddenly, her phone begun to ring.

"Hello," Lucette said.

"𝙸𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙻𝚞𝚌𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎 𝙻𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚎?"

"This is her."

"𝚆𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚃𝚘𝚙 𝙱𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚢, 𝚊𝚗 𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚘 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚑."

"I understand."

Lucette put her phone diem and resumed her breakfast as Gregory looked at her with curiosity, wondering who the call had been from.

Once Lucette noticed his curious gaze she stated, "I made it in."

It was safe to say that Gregory was more excited than Lucette herself, thigh she could not hide the small smile that worked its way into her face.

She then got to work on creating an Instabo account and simply left it as such, a simple selfie as her profile picture and her user set up as @ .StrawberryLucette.

The name was randomly generated using her own name and she did not care enough to change it, though Gregory was still ecstatic infront of her.

Gregory held his sister's hand, a pleased smile on his face before he said, "You better win Lucy. I'm counting on you to get us out of that place."

Lucette chuckled and said, "Mm, I'll do my best."

Gregory and Lucette did not return home for dinner either, instead opting to spend the evening at the park and only returning home once it was time to sleep.

They would not be seeing each other for a very long time since Lucette had been accepted into the competition, and so they decided to make the most of their time together.

Lucette would take some times out of the month she had left to practice on her walk which she knew was not all that great, and with her brother's help it gradually improved.

Lucette had to admit, this brother of hers was quite the persona.