Act Like It's Easy

Chapter One
The Academy Awards! I'm surrounded by all the amazing talent I grew up watching on the television and movie screen. Here I am, sitting in this gorgeous red Christian Lacroix dress, black Jimmy Choo’s and my Granny’s antique jewelry. Next to me sits my adoring and proud boyfriend Leon, beaming with joy as he shares this moment with me. The day had come that I was nominated for Best Actress in my first movie, It’s All Right, a movie I spent a year and a half working on. I was in the category with four great actresses: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Viola Davis and Dame Judi Dench. How I was up against that kind of talent, I will never know. But here I am, Kim Henries, a normal seventeen year old girl from the small town of Ruston, Louisiana.
Actress Liv Tyler and actor Daniel Craig walked out from backstage toward the microphone and read from the teleprompter, reminding everyone of the nominees. The time had come. “And the Oscar goes to,” said Liv as Daniel opened the scarlet envelope. I braced myself, trying to look as calm as possible for the screen. He read the name to himself and with a smile looked to Liv. She leaned to look at the name and smiled brightly. They leaned in towards the microphone, opening their mouths to speak…
******
The alarm went off at 7:15 am, as it had done every morning. I rolled over and hit the snooze button with a force that could have scared the strictest of all drill sergeants. With my eyes still closed, I huffed into my pillow thinking about the dream I was just having before Maxwell’s Pretty Wings woke me up. If you're in a good dream, you always wake up just as it gets to the good part. It never fails.
I turned my head to see my Mickey Mouse alarm clock smiling at me and I couldn’t help but feel bad that I abused it in my feeble attempt to shut it off. I wanted to go back to sleep but I had to get up because I had to go to school. Ugh, I hate that place.
I forced myself off the bed and headed to the bathroom to shower. I brushed my teeth and wiped down the foggy mirror to check my face in the mirror. Staring back at me was a coffee brown goddess with milk chocolate eyes and a messy dark brown bun. She wore a blank expression on her face but she looked happy. Unlike most girls my age and complexion, I take pride in my dark skin. That whole dark skin versus light skin rampage is nothing but bullshit. It saddens me.
Wrapped in a cream towel and some black and white Addidas flip flops, I headed back to my room to get dressed. I decided to wear my green and orange sundress with brown Gladiator shoes. I was feeling colorful this morning and it was going to be pretty warm for an October day. Then again, it's the South.
I printed out my thesis paper on Male Mortality and shoved it into my “Everything” folder. I grabbed the rest of my school supplies off my desk and threw them into my brown shoulder bag. I doused myself with perfume, slapped on some lip gloss and skipped down the steps to the kitchen.
As often as I try to avoid my father, I'm not always successful. There he was sitting at the kitchen table eating Fruity Pebbles out of his “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug. He looked up at me as I made my way over to the cabinet. I could sense that he was watching me while I fixed myself a bowl of Captain Crunch, with that smirk of his. God I hated that smirk. More importantly, I hated him. Not because he was an absentee father, nor was it because he was too strict, but because he was so loving towards me… a little too loving. You know how some people have a "funny" Uncle? I had a "funny" father.