Finding Beauty: Prologue

[saveourpeeps]

Yes, I'm starting a new story, just like I mentioned a few months ago that I wanted to do. This doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my legacies, and I already mentioned I will update Rosewood sometime in the future, but if I have different styles of projects, it's easier to update at least one thing, and that's what's important. So this is a story about some Pleasantview characters that everyone knows, although I'm going to add my own twist to the story. I'm not sure how long this story is going to last, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to update as quickly as some people would like, but I'm going to try my best and I will hopefully write this story through to the end, whenever that arrives. But let's not worry about the end yet - here's the prologue of Finding Beauty!


Bella Goth stood in front of her new house in the small town of Eastport. It was quite plain, with white siding and a white door, but Bella didn't mind. It was nice to finally have something to call her own, after the past year she'd had. Even if this place had crappy heating and air conditioning, and it needed some serious work, it seemed like it could become a home. Maybe even more of a home than the Goth mansion had been.
Bella picked up the newspaper that was laying next to her front door. It was nice looking at the headlines and not seeing her name somewhere, not even on the society pages. A year ago, her name would be splashed all over it, talking about intimate details about her personal life, either praising her name or dragging it through the mud - the media was a fickle friend, and Bella was glad to be done with it. No one knew who she was in Eastport; she had given her name as Bella Bachelor, which had been her maiden name, before she married Mortimer. No one recognized her either, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Taking the newspaper with her, Bella walked into her new house. The walls were bare - she had yet to paint them, and the walls were slightly grungy and unwelcoming, but a gallon or two of paint should fix that right away, so Bella didn't mind it. It was like a fresh start, just waiting for her to start her new life.
She sat down cross-legged on the floor, smiling at the thought of a fresh start. After the past year she'd had, she needed to be able to start over and pretend that her life was perfectly normal and nothing strange had ever happened to her.

Bella still remembered that day, as if it were only yesterday, even though it had been nearly a year ago.
 
She had woken up in the middle of nowhere, a smile on her face, although she couldn't remember why she was smiling. She didn't see anyone near her, and there was absolutely nothing on the horizon. She was wearing underwear, a t-shirt, and argyle knee socks, none of which she recognized. Her hair was longer than it had been last she remembered, and the necklace Mortimer had given her on their third date was now gone. She had no idea where he was, or her daughter or son. Home seemed to be so far away - Pleasantview was a lush oasis of suburban charm, with no deserts anywhere near it, and no fields devoid of grass.

Bella looked around her, the smile remaining on her face even though she didn't feel very happy. She was worried - the last thing she remembered was visiting her daughter's boyfriend, Don Lothario, who had shown her his high-tech telescope, since he knew she loved stargazing, somethign she always forced her daughter to do with her. It had been a beautiful night, and she had had fun with Don. She remembered falling asleep, taking a nap on Don's couch, but she couldn't find any memories of anything after that.

As she was trying to remember what was happening, she saw something in the sky. She got up, her eyes narrowed to try and catch sight of it.
She also noticed a pile of clothes lying next to her. She pulled on the dress, glad to see it. Then she refocused on the thing she saw in the sky, unable to see any details from the distance.

Then she noticed a pair of binoculars on the ground next to her, having fallen out of the pile of clothes when she pulled them on. She grabbed them, hoping it'd help her see the object in the sky.

She put them to her eyes, trying to locate the object again, knowing it couldn't have gotten too far.
She found it again, and then nearly gasped. It looked...
it looked like a spacecraft quickly flying away from her, leaving her alone in the desert.

Bella pulled herself from the memory. She got up from the floor and headed back outside, wanting to be in the sunshine instead of the dark house. The day had been a long time ago, nearly a year, and there was no reason to relive it over and over again; she already did that enough in her dreams. She just wanted to move on and start her new life, with no thoughts of the family that she used to know. There was no point in trying to find them - she didn't know how much time she had lost before she woke up, and she didn't know if they even knew the truth, or if they had been behind her disappearance. She didn't want to believe that her husband and daughter would try to get rid of her, but stranger things had happened in Pleasantview, along with Strangetown, the town near the desert, where she had recently been living until she could afford a new house in Eastport, far away from both Strangetown and Pleasantview.

Bella grabbed a watering can from the side of the house and set to work on her tiny garden, wanting to get her mind off of certain things. She didn't want to think about her old life, not when she had a new life.

The flowers seemed to instantly perk up as she splashed water over them, thankful for the gulp of water. Even though Eastport was no where near as dry as Strangetown had been, it was currently the middle of July, and the weather was hot and dry, so the flowers had been thirsty for a while. Bella was happy to see that something needed her, even if they were just flowers.

"Hello there."
Bella looked up behind her. A woman stood there, dressed only in a skimpy French maid outfit. She reminded Bella of the expensive Frech maids that everyone seemed to hire back in Pleasantview.
"I'm Faye Carlson. I live nearby, and I just wanted to stop by and welcome you to Eastport."
Bella smiled at the woman. It was nice to meet someone who was so friendly, even if she did remind her of her old life.
As Bella began to talk to Faye, she realized something; even though some things were similar to her old life, Faye was definitely not. She was friendly, and offered to take Bella out to the coolest places in Eastport, to help her settle in. Bella smiled, glad to be far away from Pleasantview.
*                         *                         *

Cassandra Goth sat down on the living room floor of the Goth mansion, her diary in her lap. She was writing in a diary daily so that she could later sell it to all the people who were obsessed with her family. She pretended that she hated the attention from the media, but really she loved it and relished her role as Pleasantview's biggest socialite - sort of like Paris Hilton, only without the jail time and the sex tape.

She started writing, trying to come across as a mourning girl who can't deal with the disappearance of her mother.



Cassandra smiled down at the entry, rereading it. It was a real winner - if she were on a soap opera, she'd been breaking down and sobbing as she recited the words to the audience. This was a perfect addition to her life's story - now she just needed a few more huge events in her life before she released the book to the public, and she'd been rolling in even more money than she already was. But it was the fame she really wanted, and she would do anything to get it.
*                         *                         *

"...and then she offered me a hundred bucks to keep quiet! Like I would take that tiny sum!"
Dina laughed at his story, pretending to find it as he clearly was. She was a great actress - she should have gone to Hollywood instead of Pleasantview! But then she wouldn't have met the wealthy Mortimer Goth, so maybe it was a good thing her sister, Nina, had chosen this town.

After Mortimer finished his story, Dina turned up the charm. She had been getting closer to Mortimer ever since she first moved in about three months ago, and she was continually frustrated by how slow Mortimer was taking things. Sure, his wife had only been missing for one year, but why wouldn't he be jumping at the chance to bed a hot chick like Dina? All the other men she had met had been easy to seduce, especially the elder Michael Bachelor, who happened to have been Mortimer's brother-in-law, before he died a few years ago, leaving Dina with a pile of cash.

Mortimer blushed at Dina's advances, but this time he didn't try to change the subject. Instead, he smiled shyly, like he were a little schoolboy talking to the hot head cheerleader.

Encouraged by his reaction, Dina suddenly grabbed him, planting a huge kiss on his open mouth and shoving her body against his. She was glad when, after he got over his shock, he returned the kiss. Things were movely on quite nicely...

Nina, meanwhile, was upstairs in her sister's bedroom, ignoring Dina making out with her geezer of a wanna-be-boyfriend. Mortimer was even older than Dina's first husband, although Nina knew that was part of the appeal to her sister. Nina, personally, could care less about getting money from temporary husbands - she would rather spend her time having fun and dating as many men as possible. If only the one man she really wanted wasn't so blind to her...

Nina thought about him. Darren Dreamer was single, but he was totally in love with Cassandra Goth, the fiancée of Don Lothario, one of Nina's flings. She knew it was stupid to be with a guy like Don, and some people considered her a slut and way too easy, but no one took the time to get to know her. If they knew her, then they'd know that she only slept around with guys because it made her feel like she was wanted, since the man she wanted never noticed her.

Nina heard her sister and Mortimer enter the house, and she quickly left her sister's room; if her sister was entering the next stage of her plan, which was sleeping with Mortimer, then she definitely didn't want to be anywhere near them. Instead she headed downstairs, grabbing the newspaper from the coffee table. The Pleasantview Post tended to be boring, but she loved reading Page Six, the society section, which was really just Pleasantview's version of celebrity gossip, all about the local celebrities. Her sister was considered a bit of a celebrity, because of her relationship with Mortimer, and sometimes Nina herself even showed up among the articles, although it was never very flattering.

Nina instantly spotted an article with her sister's name in it. She read it, rolling her eyes at the comment from Cassandra Goth about her sister.



The phone rang from the other room, and Nina hurried, hoping that it would be from Darren, although she was pretty sure that he didn't know where she lived, let alone her phone number.
"Hello?"
"Hey, baby. Wanna come over to my place to help christen my new hot tub?"
Nina sighed, hearing the smirk in Don's voice. She really just wanted to go upstairs to the bathroom and take a nice long bubble bath. And yet she found herself saying, "I'll be there as soon as possible, and I'll bring the champange."
Nina hoped that when she got home, her sister would be alone, so she didn't have to see her sister being with someone who loved her, while she was all alone.

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- The first part will hopefully be up sometime this month, with more pictures. Any constructive criticism or comments are always welcome, so I can figure out if things are good or if I need to change some things. I hope you enjoyed this!

Next >> Chapter 1