Another Black Canary!

As Camilla had been thinking only a few minutes ago, Black Canary was a hero near and dear to her heart. She had been a woman that had made it in a man's world, and one that inspired a young Camilla every day in the old superhero comics that her grandfather had saved from the Fifties and Sixties. Her costume, a testament to Camilla's hero, had been crafted with love, just as much love as Camilla felt for the actual character.

Normally a mother might be proud to see her daughter following in her footsteps, in a way. But Emily had always resisted her mother's love of superheroes. She even made fun of Wonder Woman, for Pete's sake! That was nerd-lady heresy. Camilla knew for a fact that Emily had no interest in her beloved Black Canary, but here she was at the top of the stairs, posing in a black leather leotard with a zipper down the front and a big steel ring attached to it, knee high leather boots, and those iconic fishnets that Camilla hadn't felt daring enough to wear for her own costume. Emily was Black Canary too-- the Dinah Laurel Lance to Camilla's own Dinah Drake. It was a mockery, and Camilla knew it by the way Emily was posing, her butt out and showing off the far-too-tight leather wrapped around her body.

"You are not going to the convention dressed like that, young lady," Camilla said, putting her foot down both literally and metaphorically. She couldn't help but blush a little. Her daughter's 'cosplay' was scandalously revealing, and the way she showed off her body was beyond unacceptable. Was this how she 'made friends' with the boys at her school? This was all so ridiculous.

"Mom!" Emily whined. "I am not changing! I worked hard on this costume! If you can be Black Canary, why can't I?" The high school senior scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why can't you just be cool and let me do this?"

Why can't you just be cool? Camilla could remember asking herself that dozens of times when she was a younger woman, rebuffed by some man or mocked by some woman cooler and more beautiful than herself. To hear her daughter saying those words really struck home. Am I being uncool? she asked herself. She had promised herself that she wouldn't get angry at her daughter today, after all. Camilla considered the possibility that she was just being unreasonable. In all honesty, this costume was better than some of the outfits that her daughter had worn to parties over the years. This might actually qualify as an improvement.

Emily's steps were heavy as she walked down the stairs, pouring angrily the whole way. "C'mon, Mom," she said. "I even did the younger Black Canary's costume! We match! You're the mom, I'm the daughter! Why can't we just get going already?" She said it as if she hadn't been the one causing the big hold up with her long shower and her God-knows-what in her bedroom afterward.

Camilla had to stop herself from physically recoiling in shock. By the sound of it, it seemed that her daughter had actually done some research into the character, even if it was only to use it as a way to get her mother to accept her 'costume.' And she couldn't pretend that it was a bad costume, either. Emily was certainly miles ahead of Camilla's early cosplays, back in the Nineties. Her daughter had actually invested effort into something for once. Could she really take that away from her? Plus, they were already so late. Knowing Emily, if she was **** to change she would take an hour to pick a new outfit and re-do her makeup, just to spite her mother for her rigidity. But if they got on the road now, then they would still make it to the convention in decent time.

Ultimately it was what Emily had said that made the decision. "Why can't you just be cool?" Camilla wanted so desperately to be a cool mom, one that her daughter wasn't ashamed of, one that Emily wouldn't make fun of to her friends when she thought that Camilla couldn't hear.

Camilla Shah purses her lips, giving her daughter's cosplay one last look up and down. She really couldn't turn Emily down. "Alright," she said. "Let's just get in the car, alright?"

Emily jumped up and down in place, clapping her hands excitedly. "Oh, yay!" she gasped. "Thank you thank you thank you Mommy!" She sprinted past her mother, outcof the house and into the garage, leaving Camilla to stew in the decision she had made.