Pt 2

As she stepped up to take her turn, Chelsea thought about her sister who had won the year before. It had been her first year of competing and it was almost unheard of for a first-time competitor to win but she had, impressing the judges with her skill, natural talent and enthusiasm! She had been proud of her of course, as she enthusiastically mounted the stage to have her cute, six year old head cut off by the Mayor, as the youngest among the champions, but equally she could not help smarting a little at the memory, feeling that at the very least she should also have been among the line of naked girls queuing up to be beheaded. Instead, a foolish mistake that could have been avoided with just a little more concentration had cost her first place.

The pretty eleven year old knew that her mum still kept the “magic pellet” that had been given to her sister, the small metal vibrator given to all the girls at the foot of the steps before their beheading to help ease the stress of their imminent decapitation, inside the trophy cup which the winners’ families were given to take home as a memento of the special occasion. Her mum liked to keep the cup in the centre of the mantle-piece as a talking point but Chelsea had a habit of sliding it slightly to one side or the other whenever her mum wasn’t looking so that there was a space for two cups to stand side by side. She was determined that, this year, her parents would be going home with a second cup to stand beside the first.

She had loved her little sister very much, of course, and was immensely proud of her unprecedented achievement, yet her sister’s success only served to compound and remind her of her own failure. To add insult to injury, her sister’s cute little head had been one in the raffle by her best friend Emiy’s older brother who, being a fifteen year old boy with only one thing on his mind, had of course opted to have it preserved in the “Happy Ending” style. She had grown accustomed, during her visits to Emily’s house, to find it laying around in various different places. No matter how many times the boy had been told to keep it in his bedroom, it was often to be found in the bathroom and, less frequently, in the living room. Once, Chelsea had even come across it in the kitchen when she went to get herself a drink, although she was fairly sure that he had placed it there just to mess with her.

It wasn’t so much that seeing her late sister’s head and knowing what it was used for upset her – none of the girls would have gone in for the competition if they had any issues with the prize and, if anything, it was quite a comfort to see her sister’s pretty, preserved face again from time to time and know that she was continuing to make at least one person very happy. Instead, like the trophy on the mantle piece at home, seeing the head reminded her afresh every time that she had not won as she felt she had deserved to. This year, however, she was going to make up for that!

As she stepped up to begin her routine, Chelsea took a deep breath and readied herself. No mistakes this time!