At a beauty pageant

Lauren had tried everything in order to avoid attending her little cousin's beauty pageant. She had more important things to do and felt that these pageants were ridiculous and demeaning. So she said she was busy anyway. She said she felt sick. She had even claimed to be out of the country. Her mother however saw through all her lies and insisted that she attend. Her mother told her for the umpteenth time that her sister, Janice, had been very kind and VERY generous to her and Lauren regretfully had to admit that she was correct.

When her parents had fallen on hard times during the recession it had been Janice's family that had come through with the money to keep her in college. If they had not done that she would probably be working some lowly menial job somewhere right now rather than preparing to transfer to a much more prestigious school this coming fall. So despite her distaste for beauty pageants she found herself waiting by the entrance to the Northridge convention center for her relatives so she could support her cousin. They were late and Lauren was about to jet out when they appeared from inside and grabbed her by the arm.

Leading her inside Lauren could tell something was up but no one would tell her what. "What's going on? Slow down! Where are we going?" She asked to no avail. It wasn't until they were all backstage in a little dressing room, Lauren's mom, Janice and her cousin Mindy, the one who was in the contest and her, that she was told what was the problem.

"It's so terrible," her Aunt told her, "Mindy has sprained her leg and won't be able to participate in the pageant."

"Yeah, It got slammed in the car door on the way over." Mindy whined clearly distraught, "And now I won't be able to go on."

"I'm sorry, Mindy, that's a real shame," Lauren tried to sound sympathetic but she really couldn't see the big deal. If anything she thought Mindy was dodging a bullet not being able to participate. Now she could go home and do whatever she liked to do. Anything in Lauren's opinion would be a better use of her time then this. "Why don't I take you to the ice cream parlor? You can get whatever you like, that'll make you feel better."

"I wish it were that simple," Lauren's mom said taking her aside, "Unfortunately it's a bit more complicated. You see Mindy isn't just doing this pageant because she wants to. She's doing it for the prize money. Janice's business isn't doing so well and they're worried about paying for Mindy's college. She's very bright and it would be a shame if she wasn't able to go to the school of her choice."

"I see." Lauren replied, "I wish there was something I could do to help, but I don't think there's much I or anyone can do..."

"That's where your wrong," Janice said turning Lauren to face her and looked her up and down in a way that made her uncomfortable, "You can be of big help."