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tamingthemuseTitle: Elizabeth Jacobs
Fandom: Original
Prompt: 444 - Money Lies
Word Count: 505
Warnings: N/A
Rating: G
Summary: Elizabeth Jacobs was like any of her friends, on the surface. Underneath, money told the lies she wanted it to about her social standing, even if it might also end her.
Elizabeth Jacobs was, on the surface, quite like everyone else in her group of friends.
All of them were the sons and daughters of the upper middle-class and rich, showing off their latest purchases as they strode across campus. Of course, it wasn’t to make anyone else on campus feel bad. Perhaps if they had gone to one of the state schools it would have been, but they all went to one of the private colleges, and that was that.
Elizabeth fit in with that group. Her hair was dyed to perfection, her makeup and nails were always perfect in the most effortless way possible, and she had a shoe collection that many of her friends expressed a willingness to die in order to own.
What the rest of them didn’t know was that she was poor.
When the others read works that said that the best weapon of the oppressed was language, she would always agree, never saying that it only worked that way if one could mimic with absolute confidence the people above them. Similarly, it was quite possible to be fashionable as long as one was willing to put the time in to find things at a cheaper price, and was willing to budget down on food in order to be able to buy it.
Then one could simply cultivate a reputation of being obsessed with classes and close oneself in their room all week to study, regretfully saying that she couldn’t go shopping, she simply had to study for this next test, and it was the perfect excuse.
Of course, there was a certain sense of bitterness that went along with it.
But her schoolbooks had always had a theme – it didn’t matter how brilliant a person was, if they weren’t also able to pass themselves off as being part of the group, it was less likely they would succeed. And she wasn’t one of the brave ones, willing to risk it all to try and bring attention to how things were at the bottom.
Besides, she liked her bleached hair. It was her, even if she wasn’t trying to pass herself off as one of them. She could appreciate how much better it made her look.
She was still desperate to bring herself up in life. So she spent her money carefully, because money was both one of the things that propped up her lies so that they appeared to be the truth, and one of the things that could completely ruin her and reveal her for exactly what she was. A few dollars here, a lipstick there, and she was good.
And if there wasn't always money left at the end to buy good food, well, she could pass it off as the newest diet. Because she was going to be somebody, and if she had to lie her way through all of it, she would.
Nobody ever said the world was fair, but nobody ever said the people the world was unfair to had to fight fair either.
Fandom: Original
Prompt: 444 - Money Lies
Word Count: 505
Warnings: N/A
Rating: G
Summary: Elizabeth Jacobs was like any of her friends, on the surface. Underneath, money told the lies she wanted it to about her social standing, even if it might also end her.
Elizabeth Jacobs was, on the surface, quite like everyone else in her group of friends.
All of them were the sons and daughters of the upper middle-class and rich, showing off their latest purchases as they strode across campus. Of course, it wasn’t to make anyone else on campus feel bad. Perhaps if they had gone to one of the state schools it would have been, but they all went to one of the private colleges, and that was that.
Elizabeth fit in with that group. Her hair was dyed to perfection, her makeup and nails were always perfect in the most effortless way possible, and she had a shoe collection that many of her friends expressed a willingness to die in order to own.
What the rest of them didn’t know was that she was poor.
When the others read works that said that the best weapon of the oppressed was language, she would always agree, never saying that it only worked that way if one could mimic with absolute confidence the people above them. Similarly, it was quite possible to be fashionable as long as one was willing to put the time in to find things at a cheaper price, and was willing to budget down on food in order to be able to buy it.
Then one could simply cultivate a reputation of being obsessed with classes and close oneself in their room all week to study, regretfully saying that she couldn’t go shopping, she simply had to study for this next test, and it was the perfect excuse.
Of course, there was a certain sense of bitterness that went along with it.
But her schoolbooks had always had a theme – it didn’t matter how brilliant a person was, if they weren’t also able to pass themselves off as being part of the group, it was less likely they would succeed. And she wasn’t one of the brave ones, willing to risk it all to try and bring attention to how things were at the bottom.
Besides, she liked her bleached hair. It was her, even if she wasn’t trying to pass herself off as one of them. She could appreciate how much better it made her look.
She was still desperate to bring herself up in life. So she spent her money carefully, because money was both one of the things that propped up her lies so that they appeared to be the truth, and one of the things that could completely ruin her and reveal her for exactly what she was. A few dollars here, a lipstick there, and she was good.
And if there wasn't always money left at the end to buy good food, well, she could pass it off as the newest diet. Because she was going to be somebody, and if she had to lie her way through all of it, she would.
Nobody ever said the world was fair, but nobody ever said the people the world was unfair to had to fight fair either.
