Theme: Stars

Title: Star Bright

Characters: Wilhelmina, Nico

"But I want my curtains to be open Mommy."

"Nico, darling, you won't be able to sleep with light coming in." Wilhelmina reached for the end of the curtain, preparing to close it. Nico hid herself under the covers and turned away from her mother.

Wilhelmina sighed, not another hissy fit from the 8 year old.

"Alright, I'll let it be open.." she walked over to the bed and sat down. Nico still hid under the covers, but she was grinning - happy that she won again.

"Why do you want it open anyway?" Wilhelmina lifted the cover to let her out, she sat up and leaned on her mother's shoulder and pointed outside the window.

"Pretty stars." she said in a quiet but pitchy voice. She looked over to her mother and saw her looking outside the window.

"Aren't they pretty?"

"Yes, of course.." she looked at the child and put an arm around her.

"You know if you wanted to see stars, you could have just said, I'll have those ceiling stars installed here." Nico hugged her.

"But they're not the same stars Mommy... These ones are a lot prettier and.. Brighter!"

"Okay. Fair enough. Now you need to go to sleep." Wilhelmina kissed her forehead before getting up. She watched as her daughter laid down on the bed before she tucked her in, pulling the covers up to her chest; like how Nico likes it.

"Good night." she said once more before turning off the lamp next to the bed, and then she went out of the room.

--

Later that night, she heard her phone ringing. She picked it up from the side table.

"Wilhelmina Slater."

"Miss Slater."

"Oh, hello there." she bit her bottom lip.

"I just called to say that our school would be honored to have you daughter in our school here in London. I would just like to confirm that you're still going ahead wit it."

Long pause.

"...I am, thank you."

"Well, then we'll see Nico in a few weeks then." Wilhelmina hung up, she frowned as tears threatened to spill from her eyes, she pulled the bed covers closer to her chest as she tried to sleep.

She couldn't sleep, maybe the light from the lamp wasn't helping much, or it could be the light from outside the window - not that there was much, but she wasn't sure which was disturbing her the most. She made a disgruntled noise and opened her eyes, she stared outside the window and saw stars, they were a lot brighter now. Much brighter than the ones in Nico's room. She wasn't sure why, like they were only stars, they're all the same right?

Wilhelmina sat up. Here she was, one of the most powerful women in the magazine industry, deciding whether the stars from her bedroom were brighter than the ones in her daughter's bedroom. She was sure why this was all happening. Guilt. She could feel it all over her body, her heart was heavy and her mind was just messed up. She didn't really want to send her daughter to boarding school, God no. But she had no choice, her career's more important. Well, she actually had a choice, Fey said it was alright for her daughter to stay with her, but just make sure that she won't get in the way of their plans. So she could have Nico with her and work too, but she convinced herself that separation would make them both of them stronger.

"Mommy." she heard a small voice coming from the door. She looked over there and found Nico.

"Nico, why are you still up?"

Nico walked over to her bed and climbed up, cuddling her mother.

"I want to make sure you were okay."

"Why won't I be okay?" she looked down to see that the child had already closed her eyes. She stroked Nico's hair. Then she carefully reached for her phone and dialed a number slowly but she seemed sure.

"Uh, hello. Yes, this is Wilhelmina Slater. I just want to say that I've changed my mind, I won't be sending my daughter over anymore.. Yes, I think I'm sure. Thank you anyway." she smiled then hung up.

"Who was that?" Nico asked in a groggy voice.

"Oh, nothing."

"I'm staying with you right Mommy?"

Wilhelmina turned off the lamp and hugged her daughter.

"I'm afraid so." she laughed quietly and kissed Nico on the head.

End.