Maymie was never very social, even as a kid living in small town America.
No one really wanted to be around her, for some reason. Many of the other kids she grew up around and even a few of the older ones, like cousin Mike, said she was 'stuck up', or thought too highly of herself because she was an only child, and what she wanted would always end up hers in one way or another.
Cousin Mike, a Marine who was nearly seven years older than her, had called the other day from Japan to tell her to get a job.
Maymie didn't want a job.
She wanted to read, and travel, and maybe fall in love.
Mike, an old babysitter of hers procedded to tell her off for making life harder for her parents, and that she should start pulling her weight now that she was sixteen. Didn't she know how hard they were working just so she could have a new dress for every weekend party she had?
Maymie had ended the call, crying harder than she had in years.
She was just a kid, let her have her books and dresses and music!
Cousin Mike and his new girlfriend, Raina had both talked to her that night, both not hiding their disapointment in her for not taking a job, even if it was just her school teacher mother's tailor shop. Maymie refused, stating that she needed more time to herself in order to study for Spanish class.
She'd hung up, crying and needing comfort from her mother.
It wasn't that she didn't try, it was just sort of how it happened. The way the dice had been rolled.
No one really wanted to be around her, for some reason. Even her was just how it was, and Maymie knew she couldn't change that. And that was fine, as far as she was concerned. Books liked hanging around, which was good enough for her. What she ignored, however, was that she believed that she was better than everyone.
It was true, wasn't it?
She had the highest grades, the nicest clothes, and if she were to join a competition of any kind, she was sure she'd win top three every time. She didn't even have to work on farms like her peers. Even her biggest pageant rival, Patsi, Missy's future teen mother, had to work for their family's living. Outside of her father's yearly meat hog's feeding, Maymie could do what she pleased.
(Too bad she never actually did much of anything competition-wise other than pageants like Teen Swim Model, Top Teen, and Miss Teen Missouri, and maybe cameo as the bottom in cheerleading pyramids at football games, of which they'd always get beat.)
She stayed in her books, while girls like Patsi, snickered behind her back after inviting her to hang around Uncle Barney's diner. Patsi liked inviting Maymie, along with her catty friends, to Daisy's or school functions, then titter-tatter behind the Sophomore girl's back.
Maymie had inherited her father's height, standing nearly six feet when the cool thing was to be five six or less and wear the latest and greatest. However, she stood tall and proud where ever she walked, no, strut, towering over her competitors and intimidating the few people who gave a shit.
Problem was, she had little to no luck with boys. The ones she liked were either fictional, lived a county over, or thought she was a bitch and flocked to girls like Patsi and her generic friends. Patsi was number two but still pulling number one varsity athletes like Custer or Redkae.
Hmph.
After another day of realizing she wasn't appreciated nearly as much as she should be by her peers, Maymie went home to do her homework. But not before grabbing the mail.
She flipped the envelopes over to see the addresses.
Bills… bills, bills… oh, what? Me? That can't be right…
Yes, it was!
Maymie's name was written across the address from the state.
Could it be?Could it?!She tossed the other pieces of mail onto the kitchen table and ran into her room, slumping into the chair in front of her Victorian secretary's desk after dropping her school bags with glee. Practically bouncing in her chair as her hands shook, she slipped a tapered finger under the paper flap.Her shoulders slumped.The letter was a few days late.But that wasn't what worried her.What worried her was what was written inside;
'Dear sir or madam, the Rotary Club of America have decided that your qualifications (grades, age, etc...) do not permit you for a trip to Rome….'
No! Maymie wanted to slump onto her bed and cry until she withered away and came back as a ghost to wail some more.
She face-planted into the desk, utterly heartbroken.What did she do? Was it the C she got in third grade? Did the Universe at large hate her that much?!
No, that was silly, it wasn't, right? Mama didn't raise a quitter. Maymie pulled herself up and out of her anxieties to read further.
'You are, however, qualified for a trip to England.'WHAT?!That was actually better than Rome!And cheaper, according to this letter!
Maymie jumped up and danced, laughing and crying. She put on a record she got for her fourteenth birthday to play on the used player she'd also received.
"Girlie, what's wrong?" Murial padded in, brushing her hands on the yellow apron she always wore.
"I'm goin' t'England!"