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Lisa Cuddy
Age 10
"Lisa can't do anything; she's just a dumb old girl!"
Lisa Cuddy hated being the youngest. She loathed being the only girl. But she absolutely despised being the youngest girl in a family of six. Not including her parents. She often wondered what had possessed them to have five boys. Five. It still baffled her, even when her mother lovingly told her that they were trying for a girl, every time.
"Lisa, darling, come inside and help Mommy in the kitchen. Don't you want to learn how to make apple pie?"
She wanted to say that NO, she didn't want to become a slave to the kitchen the way her mother had. She would much rather go outside and steal her youngest brother's blue jeans and shoot birds with a BB gun, just to see what their insides looked like.
But instead she was forced to be her mother's doll, wearing dresses every day, with bows and shiny shoes, and learning how to iron clothes and make dinner. Honestly, you would think she was living in the Victorian Era, the way her mother just assumed that her daughter would want nothing more than to marry a nice boy right out of high school and have a big family and be a housewife.
Lisa was already determined to be her own person, not some a puppet to some man. She went to the library after school every day and claimed she was at the neighbors' house, because she knew her mother didn't see the importance of the library.
It was almost pitiable, really, the way Lisa already looked down on her own mother. She knew that back when her mom was her age, college was out of the question for most girls. H3ll, it was out of the question for many boys, too. They lived in a small town, still stuck in the past. Girls, like children, were seen and not heard.
"Really, Lisa, you'd think you weren't even interested! You have to put cinnamon and sugar on the apples, or the pie will be sour and no good to eat. Don't you want your pie to be sweet?"
Sweet. Lisa despised being sweet. She wanted to be strong and independent, like Wonder Woman on TV. Not that she ever got to watch an entire episode of Wonder Woman. One of her imbecile brothers always changed the channel, so she had to watch their moronic shows.
"Lisa! Are you even listening to me? For the last time, go call your brothers, its dinner time. And make sure they wipe their feet and wash their hands, I just cleaned the house."
That's when Lisa snapped.
"NO! I don't want to call my brothers, call them yourself! And I don't care about how much sugar goes in a stupid apple pie, and I sure as h3ll don't give a dmn whether or not they wash their hands. They can get Salmonella and die, for all I care!"
She threw the pot holder she'd been holding to the floor and stormed up to her room. It was the sole good thing about being the only girl, really; she got her own bedroom.
Lisa knew she'd broken her mother's heart that day, but it was too late to worry about that. She was bent on going to college and becoming a doctor, the best doctor, and she wasn't about to let her parents ruin her dreams with apple pies and propriety.
Present Day
"Dr. Cuddy? Dr. Cuddy!"
She woke up with a jolt.
"Sorry, dozed off there, what were you saying, Dr. Wu?"
Her mind was still thinking about the dream she'd had. It wasn't actually a dream; it was more of a memory. It was ironic, really, how she was dressed in bows and shiny shoes 30 years after she swore she'd never wear them again. But that was the price she had to pay for being the best. She'd become distant, lonely. But she had achieved her goal. So she should be happy, right?