Austin, Texas

Sue Ellen sat in the packed auditorium as she waited for the pageant to start; it had been a long time since she had ventured into the pageant world, she had carefully avoided almost all of Kristin's events after her own Miss America loss. Losing the Miss America pageant was a painful memory that she didn't care to remember, even though it technically didn't matter anymore because she had already attained the number one goal in her life, the primary reason she had even done pageants in the first place. Things were different for her now and her pageant days were ancient history, she was a married woman, she didn't have to base her whole identity around a 'Miss' title, she already had a better one, 'Mrs'. This wasn't Kristin's first pageant and if her sister was anything, she was confident, but Sue Ellen was still nervous and apprehensive about the whole thing, she knew how tough the competition could be, and how horrible their mother would make her feel if she didn't win the crown tonight, she hoped that Kristin did win, for her own sake. The lights dimmed and the host appeared on stage, introducing the pageant and the order of events for the night; next, the contestants walked out in a line for the introductory parade, unnaturally wide smiles and false cheerful personalities abound. As the pageant began, Sue Ellen couldn't help but smile at the realisation that she wasn't a contestant anymore and she never had to worry about impressing a large group of strangers in that way ever again, it was liberating and something she hadn't really considered before now. Patricia Shepard sat in the audience and watched the young girls as they paraded across the stage in an orderly line, each pausing for a few seconds when they reached the end of the stage so that the audience to get a closer look at each of them. Some people believed that beauty pageants were shallow and demeaning, especially for girls as young as Kristin, but Patricia thought differently; finding a wealthy husband was a lot easier when a girl was beautiful, talented, poised and well versed in social etiquette, all of which pageant training and participation taught. Sue Ellen may not have won Miss America, but that didn't matter, she had been Miss Texas, and had caught the eye of JR Ewing, a wealthy oilman; the pageant had served its purpose and had benefitted Sue Ellen well. She was a married woman, the wife of a very wealthy and important man, and any day now she would permanently cement her position in the Ewing family, she would be the mother of the next Ewing heir. Things were working out perfectly for Sue Ellen, they were exactly the way Patricia had always imagined her daughter's life, and she intended for Kristin to follow in her older sister's footsteps. "Some competition", Patricia commented under her breath, in her opinion, the other girls were no match for Kristin's beauty, grace and talent; she would easily win as long as she showed the judges her best self. Sue Ellen almost rolled her eyes at her mother's comment, she was rather presumptuous and judgemental for a woman who had never actually competed in a beauty pageant before; she had no idea what it was like to be up on stage, it wasn't as easy as she imagined it to be. Although Sue Ellen slightly agreed with her mother, the other girls were good, but Kristin was better, she was still nervous, because despite their own strong opinions, they weren't actually the ones judging the competition, and they had no control over the final result.

Dallas, Texas

"Hey Bob, come in here a minute, there's something I'd like to discuss with you", JR decided that it was time to start putting the next phase of his plan into action, starting with a favour from his brother, of course, it would be disguised as a compliment. Bobby had been a little suspicious of JR's motives when he had agreed to mentor him and really try to include him in his decisions, but he was slowly coming around to thinking that perhaps JR had really changed and wasn't as paranoid as he had been in the past. JR often acted as if he were jealous, even when he had no reason to be, and Bobby had really expected his brother to fight a little more for his position when Jock had told him that they would be working together. Bobby knew that he didn't have half the knowledge or experience that JR had and he wasn't really a real threat to him, but it didn't usually stop JR from treating him as one; this time seemed different though, JR seemed to actually be ok with his involvement and was acting more accepting than he ever had before. In the back of his mind, Bobby knew to always be a little suspicious of his brother, but right now, it didn't seem necessary, JR wasn't acting as if he was threatened by him at all, and it pleased him to be able to relax at Ewing Oil knowing that his brother wasn't plotting his downfall. "JR", Bobby entered JR's office and sat down, "buy you a drink?" JR made two drinks and handed one to his brother, carefully planning how he would approach the subject. "Now Bob, I need you to answer me honestly here ok? How confident do you feel about our work?" he didn't really need Bobby to be that good at talking business, all he needed to be good at was socialising, and he was, but he didn't need to know that JR felt that way. It was something JR had originally been annoyed about just a few months ago; it seemed as if Bobby had only had to do the fun parts of the job and none of the hard work. What JR hadn't considered at the time was that with Bobby focused on the social side of business, he didn't really have time to actually learn and interfere in the real deals, leaving JR to work independently, the way he liked it. He had been too hasty in getting annoyed at Bobby's position, it was actually better for him if his brother wasn't an equal, and he wanted to sneakily ensure that he went back to that position, he just had to make sure that his intentions weren't too obvious. Bobby smiled at JR's question, he had actually learned a lot since he had started working with JR, and he was ready to take it further and start working on his own, "confident enough to trust and want to test my ability. What did you want to discuss?" JR grinned; everything was falling into place nicely.

Austin, Texas

"Congratulations Kristin, I knew you could do it", Sue Ellen hugged her sister; "yes, congratulations dear", Patricia gave her daughter a brief hug, not lingering for too long though. "Can you believe it? Both of my daughters are pageant queens. Of course, you still have a long way to go before you're Miss Texas, but even Sue Ellen had to start small before she gained that level of success", Patricia beamed with pride, she hoped that the future held many more experiences like this, she enjoyed having two successful daughters, some women she knew didn't even have one. Kristin's smile dropped as her mother mentioned Sue Ellen again, it was bad enough living with her and hearing all about Sue Ellen's wonderful achievements, but today was supposed to be about her, and even now, after she had just won a title for herself, it was still about Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen was shocked, it was her sister's special day but for some reason her mother was focusing on her win that was years ago now instead of Kristin's current success; she really did feel bad for her sister, she saw first-hand with JR and Jock what it was like for a parent to favour one child over another. "Excuse me ma'am, did you just say Miss Texas?" a reporter from the local newspaper covering the event was hovering around as he waited for Kristin to finish speaking to her family, he was obliged to get a few quotes from the winner, but the story would be even better if he could link her to Miss Texas. Patricia looked at the man and saw only one thing, an opportunity for publicity, "yes, my eldest daughter, Sue Ellen", she motioned toward Sue Ellen, "she was Miss Texas 1967, but she started off at pageants just like this one. We're so proud of Kristin for following her wonderful example". Kristin was mortified, she hated that all anyone ever saw her as was Sue Ellen's little sister, she could never just do anything because she was her own person, it was frustrating and upsetting, and right now, she wanted to be anywhere but there. Sue Ellen cringed, she couldn't believe the way her mother acted sometimes, she really didn't care about her children's feelings at all, "yes, that's true, I was Miss Texas. But that was a long time ago and I haven't been in a pageant for years, it's Kristin's time to shine now, and we are very proud of her", she smiled and tried to hint to the reporter that he should start asking her sister questions, it was only fair. The reporter seemed to take the hint that the former Miss Texas didn't want to speak about her past, so instead of dwelling on it, he focused his attention on the younger girl; it was the less exciting story of the night, but it was the one he was actually being paid to write. The newspaper office had archives; he could find any supplementary information about the beautiful former Miss Texas there, she was a lot more interesting than her sister seemed to be. From the interview he was getting from the young girl, he was grateful that he had a backup plan; the young winner was anything but charming right now, her passive aggressiveness was almost bordering on being actually aggressive. Arriving home, Kristin went straight to her room, eventually crying herself to sleep; she hated her family sometimes, even if they didn't mean to, they had a way of ruining anything that belonged to her, it just wasn't fair.

To be continued…