She's four and is having a hard time standing still as she waits for the pageant host to finish her speech and announce who the winners are. Occasionally, the pounding of her heart quiets down enough for her to hear the words being said but they don't seem to make a lot of sense. 'Everyone' and ' special' gets thrown around a lot but that doesn't make sense. Those words don't belong together, if everyone was special, then who'd be the best?
Then her name is called and she's given flowers and a trophy that's almost as big as she is. There's clapping and lights in her face, it's so bright that she can barely see where she's putting her feet and she trips. If it wasn't a strong hand on her shoulder, steadying her, she'd have dropped everything and smudged her makeup.
"Someone seems a little stage shy. Let's give another round of applause for Miss Victoria Best everyone!"
More clapping. The hand that caught her has moved to her back and gently nudges her back to line as another name is called.
After all the rewards have been given out, she finds herself sitting alone waiting for her mother to finish talking to the pageant people. It feels like she's been talking for hours, they aren't any other kids left to talk to...not that she's supposed to. Competition once conquered are ignored. Whatever that means.
Instead, she entertains herself by pulling the petals off her flowers and watching them fall over her feet. Like rain. Flower rain.
Just as she's letting go of another handful of petals, a firm hand closes tightly around her wrist. Raising her head slightly, she finds herself face to face with her mother.
Her mother's face is stiff and angry and she feels cold the longer she stares up at her.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just playin..."
Her mother pulls back slightly and sniffs, her face now wiped of any emotion as it returns to that careful mask she always wears.
"Well don't. You're making a dreadful mess all over the floor." her mother's gaze flicks over her to the ruined flowers and the large trophy placed rather sloppily on the floor.
"Was that the biggest trophy they had?"
Victoria shrugs. She doesn't know. They all sorta looked the same in her opinion. A small crack breaks through her mother's mask. Disdain.
"Hmph. I didn't dump my money into this pageant so you could win a trinket. Come along Victoria. And don't let that touch the floor. A Best never leaves her trophies touching the ground."
She's seven now and is in love with her gymnastics class. She's the best in it and her parents have attended every session and have heaped praise after praise after every performance. She loves it when she sticks a landing after letting go of the rings one last time, almost as much as she loves seeing the pride in her mother's eyes as they leave the building as she gushes to her father over what a rising star their daughter is becoming.
The rush of jumping and leaping over the balancing beam, spinning through the air with the rings, and her parents adoration of her more than make up for the hours practicing piano, the cello, the recorder, and every other instrument under the sun.
So when the season ends with a mock tournament, she is horrified when her instructor hands her a pink participation ribbon.
"I-Isn't there a trophy for this? I was the best! Wasn't I?!"
The instructor just chuckles and pats her shoulder. "There are no trophies handed out here. Too much pressure for kids your age. Everyone gets a nice ribbon."
Another pat and he walks away. Leaving Victoria to stare at her ribbon and shake.
When her parents find out there are no trophies, they are livid.
She never returns for another gymnastics class.
She's twelve and all anyone ever talks about is Becky Bottsford or WordGirl. Wordgirl this and WordGirl that.
WordGirl WordGirl WordGirl!
A glass snowglobe shatters against her wall as she sinks to her knees and cries. It's no fair! How can she be THE BEST if some girl has super powers?
No matter how hard she could push herself, she would never be able to be as strong as WordGirl or as fast or as popular.
Gradually, the tears stop and Victoria finds herself against a wall staring blankly at another as she tightly holds her knees against her chest.
If there's a silver lining to any of this, her parents aren't home. They're on some cruise somewhere and won't be back for another month. They won't know how badly she'd been shown up by some superpowered freak for the tenth time in a row. She doesn't want to know what they'd do if they found she wasn't the best at something.
Wiping her eyes one more time, she began to clean her room of all the broken little glass from trinkets she'd thrown in her anger.
After all, if there was one thing Victoria was the best in, it was in hiding her breakdowns.
She's fifteen now and just outside her window, she can hear the sound of a basketball going through a hoop. Over and over again. Distracting her from her homework. It's a lot harder nowadays than when she was in middle school but she'll be damned if she's not the top of her class.
Slamming her book shut, she runs downstairs and bangs the door open to glare at the perpetrator. Unsurprisingly, it's her brother.
"Don't you have homework to do?"
"Who cares?"
He makes another basket and Victoria can barely believe he'd be so dismissive of homework.
"Who cares? Mom and Dad care! Don't you want to be the best?"
He throws the ball again and it barely makes its way into the basket. When he speaks, she's not sure what shocks her more. The venom in his voice, or his reply.
"The best? The best! There is no such thing as being the best!"
"O-Of course there is! It's in our name, we're THE best. At everything!"
He's shaking, and only now does he turn to face her. "No one can be the best at everything! A-And even if there was, what's the point of me trying if you're the one who's the best? Huh?! 'That's nice Victor, but your sister had a higher score on that test when she was your age' 'Are you sure that's the first place trophy? Victoria's was much larger than that thing when she competed' I've had enough!"
If she wasn't the best at catching things, the basketball would have hit her square in the face. Instead, she watches her brother storm off of their courtyard. Confused, she stares down at the ball in her hands. If Victor was having a hard time being the best, the answer was clear. He'd just have to try harder. That's what she did, and things worked out.
Shrugging, she let go of the ball and headed back into the house. He'd calm down and come back. He always did.
The next day he's gone.
She knows he's gone because he doesn't try beating her to the bathroom in the morning or beating her downstairs for breakfast.
And if there had been any doubt he was gone for good, that he was only going to be gone for a few days to cool off, it was crushed as she watched people come in and out of her brother's room, taking his trophies to be melted down, giving her his books, turning his room in a luxurious guest room...
It was amazing really. The depths their parents took to erasing him from their home. Even the family pictures were taken and edited to show only three people in the Best family.
She didn't know what he had said to them to lead them to do this or if it was simply because he had ran away, but the result was the same. By the end of the week, it was as if Victor Best had never existed.
But she knew he had. Even if she pretended he hadn't, she'd still see him in school occasionally, or walking on the street. If she hadn't known him his whole life, she might not have recognized him. Gone were the designer clothes, the gelled hair. He looked like any riffraff kid that attended the school.
She never said anything to him or acknowledged him in the hallways or he to her. If there was one thing they were both the best at, it was ignoring the other.
She's eighteen and attending her high school graduation. There's a ball of bitterness in her gut as she watches Bottsford give the Valedictorian speech to the graduating class and their families.
It should have been her up there.
She was the best in the class. Had the highest GPA. But no. Bottsford stole the honor. Somehow her essay, her grades had been better.
And all Victoria had to show for the hours she'd spent pouring over her homework, checking and rechecking and checking again that every single answer was correct was a piece of colored string on her shoulder signifying she was part of the honor society.
Finally, they start handing out diplomas and she feels an enormous sense of gratification that she gets hers before Bottsford. She's tempted to leave after that, it's not as if she cares about whether or not the rest of the class gets their diplomas, but she doesn't want to go home early and face her parents' disappointment.
Not getting Valedictorian was hard enough. Ditching the rest of the ceremonies and facing them would be torture.
So, she returned to her seat and tuned everyone out. Rising again only to toss her cap into the air before sitting down again and wait for everyone to leave.
She doesn't know how long she's been sitting there when someone slides into the seat beside her. She doesn't have to turn her head to know it's her most hated rival. She's torn over whether she should leave or just ignore Bottsford till she gets the message to go away.
"Hey Victoria...I know I'm probably the last person you would want to see, but, I want to say I'm sorry."
That makes her turn her head. Bottsford? Sorry?
"For what?"
"A couple of things I guess. Being Valedictorian, not getting why you had to be the best at everything...I thought it was just a ego thing. I didn't know...how much it meant to you."
Victoria snorted and moved to leave but found Bottsford had a firm grasp on her hand. The girl had a surprisingly strong grip.
"Look Victoria. There's an old saying; 'jack of all trades but master of none'. It means you can be good at a lot of things, but not be the best at a single one of them."
Victoria scowled and pulled her hand away.
"And what would you know about being the best at nothing? You're little Miss Perfect! Besides, I am the best at stuff! It's in my name! Besides my life is none of your business to be snooping in-"
"Victoria. I didn't snoop. Your brother told me. About your parents, not a lot...but enough. He actually showed up to see you graduate. Did you know that?"
Victoria stood there. Frozen, trying to wrap her mind about why Victor would show up, would tell Bottsford of all people about their parents.
A squeeze to her hands brought her back to the present, to Bottsford's stupid face.
"You don't have to impress them forever you know. Good luck Victoria."
She don't know how long she stood there, repeating Bottsford's words over again in her mind.
She'd be going to college soon, to one of the best schools in the campus. For the first time, she began to think what that might mean.
No more demanding parents looking over her shoulder, pushing her to be the best. On the contrary, they'd be far far away.
She would be free to do whatever she wanted. Sleep in, party, maybe even never see another trophy for the rest of her life.
For the first time in a long time, she looked forward to the future. What it could bring, where she'd end up. She could be free.