Author's Note: Meet Katie MacNabb, little sister of Officer Buzz MacNabb. I must say, I'm quite nervous about this chapter. I do not want to offend anyone. If I do, I am truly sorry. This subject matter is something that I am dealing with and have dealt with since I was 5 years old. I hope you enjoy this. God bless
Buzz MacNabb was on the police officers at the Santa Barbara Police Department and was a good friend of Shawn's. However, he wasn't working today, he was busy helping his kid sister, Katelyn "Katie" move to California from Minnesota. Katie had recently gotten a scholarship to attend medical school at Walden University in Santa Barbara and she was moving into a house with her best friend, Charlotte "Charlie" Stevens. Charlotte knew Katie best; the two had grown up together in Minnesota and were best friends since they were little girls. In fact, Charlotte offered to have Katie move in with her since Char had lived in Santa Barbara for years. Buzz and his wife, Francine, "Franny" were helping her move into the house. After organizing everything and getting the boxes stored, Buzz and Katie sat on the front porch, looking over the ocean.
"I can't believe this," marveled Katie. "In Minnesota, the only beachy area I saw was the lake and now, I'm gonna be living and going to school by the beach. It's insane. It's amazing."
"It's amazingly insane," Buzz said.
Katie laughed and said, "Buzz, that's not a word."
"Well, excuse me, Dr. MacNabb," he said, ruffling her hair.
"Hey, it's not Dr. MacNabb for at least a few years," Katie said, as she walked to cooler and got out two bottles of water.
"Well, it will be," he said, accepting a bottled water.
Katie smiled and said, "Yeah, it will."
With that, brother and sister settled in for a night of star watching.
The next day, Charlotte threw a party to introduce Katie to her new friends. Charlotte knew this would be the best thing for Katie, since Katie was so sociable and friendly. However, Katie was nervous about meeting Charlotte's friends. From various TV shows and movies she had seen about California, Katie knew how beautiful and glamorous Southern California girls were. And she knew that she didn't fit that description. Katie was far from a stereotypical California girl; she was brunette, full-figured, and overweight. Katie had been struggling with her weight for sometime and it was not easy. She just hoped that her new friends in California would accept her. After an hour of looking through her closet, Katie settled on a modest, black two-piece swimsuit underneath of blue capris and a black tank top. She then took a flat iron and straightened her wavy brown hair. She looked in the mirror and realized she looked plain. So, she decided to try something she rarely did; wear make-up. She searched her purse and pulled out tubs of black mascara and beige lipstick. She looked at the make-up and felt intimidated. She wasn't too good at putting make-up on, she never had much experienced. But it couldn't hurt to try so Katie closed her eyes and placed the mascara on her eyes. She gobbled it on her lashes. She opened her eyes and saw the work. She was rather impressed with her eyelashes; they were long and full. If Katie did say so herself, she looked good. Satisfied with her eyes, Katie took out the lipstick, pucker she lips up, and smothered her lips with the beige color. She rubbed her lips together and blotted them with a tissue. She made sure that didn't have any lipstick on her teeth. She looked in the mirror and saw the finish product. Katie was pleased with how she looked. She suddenly felt something that she didn't feel often, pretty. Pretty and confident, Katie walked out onto the porch to the party. Beautiful people, women wearing Prada and Gucci, men in H & M, soon surrounded her. As the night went on and Katie socialized with her new friends, she couldn't help but feel insecure. Katie noticed that almost all of the women were very beautiful; they were thin, slender, and looked like models, far from what her friends back home looked like.
After the party was over and everything had been cleaned up, Charlotte and Katie sat on the beach, sharing a bottle of wine while looking at the ocean waves crash and fall in the night sky.
"Listen, Charlie, thank you so much for throwing this party for me," Katie said. "It was really, really nice of you."
They toasted our wine glasses. Charlie gave her a hug and said, "You're welcome, girl. I just wanted you to have a proper introduction to Southern California."
"Well, if you're tasking about a proper intro to Southern California, when are we going shopping on Rodeo Drive?" She asked. They both laughed.
"So, what did you think of my friends?" Charlie asked.
Katie took a deep breath and said, "They were very nice and friendly. But…."
"But what?" Charlie asked, as she slipped her wine.
"I just felt a little insecure, that's all," Katie said, running her fingers through the sand.
Charlie gave her a weird look. "Why would you feel that way?"
"Because the girls look like models, they're all lean and everything. I didn't see one full figured girl except me," Katie said. "All the girls were so beautiful." Katie looked down in deep sadness.
Charlie put her arm around Katie's shoulder. "Katie, you are beautiful," she said, softly. "You have a gorgeous face, amazing eyes, and the prettiest smile I've ever seen."
Katie looked at her friend and asked, "You really think so?"
Charlie rolled her eyes and said, sarcastically, "No, I'm lying." She turned serious. "Katie, you are a beautiful person, inside and out. You just need to believe that."
Katie smiled and said, "All right, I'll try."
With that, the two friends finished off the bottle of wine. Later that night, Charlotte went to sleep but Katie couldn't so she went into her stash of junk food in her sock drawer and pulled out a bag of M & Ms. She ate the whole bag in less than five minutes but she still felt sad.