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Her name was Jessica Amelia Prentice. Her adoring fans knew her as Jessica, the Queen of Pop Music. Anyone who knew her personally called her Jess. No one ever called her Jesse if they knew her painful story.
She lived in a house that would be small for most middle class people. It was tiny for a famous, rich star like Jess. MTV would never do a special show about her house because there wouldn't be enough to say. It had one bathroom, one bedroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a carport. The port shielded a purple convertible with a California license plate reading: "POP STAR." Her room had two twin-size beds, but there was no one to use the second one. Jess didn't need a big house because she lived alone. Her only relative was her mother, who disliked California and preferred to stay in the small town in Pennsylvania where Jess had grown up.
She was perched on her sofa, talking on her hands-free phone, on a day that would change her life forever. She didn't know it at the time, but she would soon find out. A record company executive was explaining a new project. "Jessica," he was saying, "we have a project for you. We're sending you a little girl named Lucky. You have five months to turn her into a huge pop phenomenon. However, no one except you can hear her sing until the time is up."
Jess nodded her head. "Okay. I'm up for a challenge."
"Good. She should be on your doorstep."
After Jess had turned off her phone and untangled the cord from her long, pitch-black hair, she opened her front door. She looked around, expecting some pretty girl in expensive, designer label-covered clothing like herself. Someone who would never dream of sitting on a dirty doorstep like the small, grimy teenager that was huddled on the step.
"Lucky?" Jess asked gently.
The girl turned and looked up through ice-blue eyes hidden by tangled brown hair. She rose and Jess got a good look at her. She was short, and her body was hardly composed of any curves. A smile spread on her chapped lips. "Jessica, hi. I'm Lucky. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Life at the orphanage and school was just so boring."
Jess couldn't help a kind-hearted smile. "You're welcome, Lucky. Come inside." She stepped aside to let Lucky through and closed the door behind her. She suddenly felt ashamed of her home, for some crazy, inexplicable reason. "I know it's not much of a house, but."
"What do you mean? It's beautiful!" Lucky's eyes sparkled with admiration.
Jess smiled again. She had never known any orphans before, but if they're anything like Lucky, she should do more charity work for them. "I'll give you the grand tour," she said. "This is the living room. Over here you'll see the kitchen. That's where we eat. Down here's my bedroom; I guess it's yours now, too. You'll have the bed on the right. And here's the bathroom. You can put your stuff in our room."
"I didn't bring anything. They said you would provide."
"Well, they never told me that. We'll have to go shopping. Now, my job is to make you a star, correct?"
"Yes."
Jess approached Lucky and moved the brown hair away from the orphan girl's face. "You have a very pretty face. it just needs some makeup or something." She led Lucky to a mirror. "And a good haircut will flatter it," she added, bending the ends of Lucky's hair to show different lengths and angles. Jess steeped away and scrutinized the girl's body. "You've got a nice shape there, kinda flat, but that will change. A nice wardrobe will work."
Lucky looked sadly at her reflection in the mirror of Jess's bathroom. "You don't have to say that. I'm ugly and I know it."
"Who told you that?"
"Timmy Connors."
"A boy?" Jess asked in clear disgust.
"He's a guy at my school. His friends dared him to take me to the Homecoming Dance before he knew who I was. He took the dare and his friends arranged everything. I met him at the dance, and he said I was really ugly and spat in my face."
Jess's eyes burned angrily. She pulled Lucky's face away from the mirror and held it eye to eye with her own face. "What's your last name?"
"Starlet."
"Are you kidding? Lucky Starlet? That is the coolest name!" She took on a serious tone. "Now, Lucky Starlet, no matter what any lowly scumbag tells you, you're gorgeous. Boys are idiots, okay? They know nothing. Never trust what they say. You need to look in the mirror and say, 'I'm beautiful on the outside and the inside.'"
"I'm beautiful on the outside and the inside," repeated Lucky while gazing at her face in the mirror.
"Don't you feel better now?"
"Yes. Thanks, Jessica."
"Please, call me Jess. Now, why don't you take a nice shower? Then we'll hit the mall."

~~~~~~~ Please review so I'll know if I should put up more! Thank you for reading!
~Papi Sierra