Caught with her hand on the door, nearly fully recovered from time lost at the closet, Vixen shoulders slumped and she turned.
“Up, up.” Her mother directed as she stood and made her way over.
Two minutes play room before a DNA test would be required.
Vixen raised her chin and squared her shoulders, thrusting forward her newly formed chest. Her breasts came out even further than she expected after months of hiding them in binding. She was going to have to be careful not to hit things with them, like she did with her suddenly too long arms and legs. Being clumsy was frustrating.
“Spin, there is a love.” Her mother’s first wrinkles stood out when she smiled. “My girl is all grown up. Not even the uniform can hide your beauty.” She tapped the belt on her designer outfit, considering. “I’m going to see if a closet update is possible; the tailoring on that blouse isn’t quite right.”
Her mother always had appreciated appearance over brains even though Tamatha’s ability to memorize every script in a single read proved her brains outweighed even her famous beauty. Father would not have contracted a fool, no matter how beautiful or famous, though he admitted once he was still fairly infatuated with Tamatha despite their contact being dissolved for years.
Vixen returned the smile, forcing her face to react as it would have yesterday. Before she knew, before she understood. An aging starlet getting fewer and fewer parts every year, no matter how skilled an actress she was, would become depressed. Unfortunately her brains and acting ability would let her hide her mental state from the monitors until it was too late. The question was who would die first, the daughter by cleansing or the mother by suicide.
“Air kisses mom?” Inside the carefully constructed bored and indifferent but not quite indifferent exterior a teenager would have – acting was much harder than it looked – Vixen searched the future for paths to help her mother.
The hologram leaned in and kissed the air either side of the half-helm before whispering, “Tell Osantos you are not allowed to watch any more rated entertainment at his place.”
Dashing out the door sadly gratified by another day won with her mother, Vixen realized she hadn’t needed to use her Unnatural abilities at all. Lesson learned: physic abilities are not always needed.
Mental puzzles entertained the actress. Searching out information real-time without being obvious to her daughter had challenged her, not knowing Vixen could see exactly what she had done as soon as Tamatha had finished it. Maybe mom would even change the program for the kitchen. Vixen could not see the action clearly, her mother was less predictable than the wind. But today her parent will live; the poison purchased would stay in its box.
The question was, would Vixen? Would she survive the next hour, let alone the next day?
(words 486; first published 11/10/2019)