Disgraced

[Grace POV]

"SpongeBob, where are we now? I think we're lost!"

"No, Patrick, I know where we are! We just have to find--"

"Ugh, seriously?! Do you have to watch that right now?"

The voice of my older sister, Faith, interrupting the favorite pastime TV show that I've been hooked on for what felt like most of my young childhood was not something that I wanted to be hearing right now and I reached over to pick up the black remote, my tiny pale delicate fingers fiddling with the remote before my clumsy fingertips finally managed turn up the volume on the television set.

I didn't want to listen to my sister yapping at me, I just wanted to watch my favorite show since I had already gotten all of my important stuff done before.

Like my schoolwork and my chores.

I was a good girl and even though my parents, Bethany and Peter, left for the evening for their usual date night out, I still did what I was supposed to do.

But the same couldn't really be said for my older sister, Faith, who seemed more then annoyed that I was watching SpongeBob SquarePants then the fact that she hadn't bothered to start her homework until it was nearly dinnertime.

A loudly exasperated sigh resounded from the dining room just several feet away and from the corner of my eye, I could watch as my sister huffed with indigence before she hopped out of the straight back wooden chair at the long wooden dining table, her small feet clad in slightly dirty white socks from wearing sneakers all day storming into the living room.

Leaning down when she drew closer, my sister then practically ripped the remote out of my hands as she aggressively pressed the volume button to turn down the TV until it was almost muted before she threw the remote controller back into my lap as I sat crisscrossed on the floor in front of the brown leather sofa couch that my parents said looked too nice to stain with the apple juice in a plastic cup that I always have on hand.

Faith, my older sister by only three years and two months, glared down at me like I was the sole cause of all of her problems in the whole entire world.

"Can't you watch that any other time when I'm not doing shit?"

Faith exclaimed with visible frustration seeming to boil from the bottom of her chest as her eyes practically narrowed into tiny slits and steam was almost shooting from her ears like a cartoon character, much like the ones she was currently stopping me from watching.

"No."

I said a bit bluntly and Ashton, my younger sister, giggled happily alongside me as her tiny hands twisted and pulled at the plastic doll set she had been given to at Christmastime last year.

Ash was the youngest out of the three of us, she was only four but she was more than eager enough to tell someone all about her newest "inventions", which are really just her making weird mud pies and calling them inventions.

I may only be seven but I wasn't dumb, anyone could see through her wants for attention.

She was the baby of the family after all, she got the most attention along with Faith, who was the oldest out of the Matthews Sisters Trio that our parents so lovingly referred to us as.

It was a little bit better then The Three Musketeers that Luzana Estrada, our mostly babysitter-part time nanny, used to refer to talking about us but I didn't care.

I liked that saying anyways, since it reminds me of the chocolate bar that I can sometimes convince Mom to let me buy when we go to the supermarket.

Faith visibly grew angrier and she opened her mouth to spew another curse word at me but Luzana, who was listening at the doorway of the kitchen leading out into the open concept for a living room, was even quicker to correct her.

"Do you ever shut--"

"Ay! No cursing in this household, you two!"

Luzana interrupted with a sharp tone to her voice, one of her darkly tanned hands pointing a wooden spoon at us while her expression was one of a slow brewing annoyance.

Luzana Estrada was not a woman that you wanted to get mad, intentionally or not.

She wasn't really hotheaded but she said what needed to be said and she had no problem putting anybody back in their places.

And right now, anybody meant Fay and I.

Faith huffed with indigence, her little arms crossing over the graphic print on her white t-shirt as she pointed an accusing finger at me.

"But Grace started it! She always watches that stupid--"

Luzana cut her off with a sharp knowing look in her dark brown eyes,

"I do not care who started it, I am ending it. Now hush, you two, or nobody will have any churros with dinner, alright?"

Both Faith and I gave a heavy sigh of understanding, our expressions withdrawn and saddened by now.

We all enjoyed churros, it was practically a staple for a dessert in our household and it meant serious business if Luzana was threatening to withhold them to get us to stop our bickering.

"Fine...I'm sorry, Luzana."

Faith apologized first and I nodded in agreement,

"Yeah, me too."

Luzana smiled at us then, seemingly happier now that we had resolved our issue and Ash suddenly spoke up beside me, the waves of mocha brown hair upon her head shiny and a touch bit darker than the color of my and Faith's chestnut brown hair.

"I'm hungry..."

Ash said quietly but Luzana still heard her and Luzana shook her head with her smile widening further.

"I know, baby, and dinner will be done soon, I promise."

Ash hummed with contentment, her focus now back on her dolls as she spoke to them as if they could answer her back.

"Okay! Let's go over here now..."

My little sister walked her dolls around the side of the couch and Luzana shook her head before she walked over to where I still sat in front of the TV, her gaze flickering between the television screen and my prone stature as my eyes remained otherwise glued to the screen.

"What's this thing that you two are fighting over? Some children's TV show program?"

Luzana questioned me and I shrugged noncommittally, my attention still fixated on the television until Luzana walked over and abruptly switched the channel from the kid's TV show playing to one of a pre-recorded program of a pretty brown haired, brown eyed singer whose voice nearly vibrated the walls of the house through the TV alone.

"Hey! I wanted to watch that!"

I exclaimed and Luzana shushed me instead, her fingers tapping on the sides of the boxy black TV.

"These technology things? They fry your brain out! But if you are going to fry out your brain then you can do it watching Selena instead of that awful children's program. Because she is true entertainment, not those weird cartoons you three watch all the time."

Luzana explained as she pointed to the television screen and I huffed with annoyance as I crossed my arms over my chest, practically mirroring Faith's posture from earlier but Luzana only made a tsking sound before she stepped closer and gently patted the top of my head with her hand.

"Ahh, chica. Watch this for a little while, see for yourself. Because Selena Quintanilla is as close as it gets to pure perfección."

Luzana said before she strolled off back into the kitchen and I dropped my chin into my palms, propping it up with little effort as I watched the beautiful singer on the television set instead of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Her voice was rather pretty too, that small mental comment slipping through my head like sand slipping through the cracks in-between my fingers and my knuckles.

One day...I wanna be like her.

A pretty girl with a pretty voice singing to a pretty huge crowd.

I wanna be her.

That thought pushed through the chaos that was my tiny mind and even as I knew that it couldn't possibly happen, that I couldn't possibly be somebody like her, but I still chose to believe in it anyways.

To believe in that little thought inside the back of my mind.

Because even though my life was about to turn topsy-turvy and I wouldn't even know it except within the next few minutes, when there would be a knock at the door from a policeman who came to the house to inform Luzana that my parents were involved in a car accident, I still chose to believe that I could be something great.

Become someone inspirational.

Even though the odds were against me, I still believed I would prevail after all.

But only time would truly tell.