No One Can Stand In Her Way

"I'll be praying for you Eleta. God has really blessed you these many years and I'm thankful to Him for that."

The 18-year-old, fair skinned brunette quickly put the dishes away in the sink as she picked up the phone with an elderly woman's sweet face displayed on the entire screen. Eleta continued to watch her as she combed her hair into a perfect gray bun.

"Thank you, grandmother, I hope God is blessing you as well?"

"Ahh, yes so far my treatments have been successful so you don't need to worry, dear."

Her grandmother's face still radiated even with all the hundreds of treatments she had to go through over the last 3 years. People would have lost faith in being cured at this point, but her grandmother, Katiara, put her faith in God, believing that He would be able to cure her.

"I don't know how you keep doing that, grandma." Eleta sighed as she pushed her long brown hair behind her ears.

Katiara tilted her head to the side with her forest green eyes brimming with water as she looked at Eleta meaningfully.

"I know it's been hard for you ever since you were ten, Eleta. But God has his reasons when it comes to difficulties in life."

"But what did my parents do to die…when all they were doing was speaking God's word to the people in those villages. They ended up murdered by those people! And not only that but he also moved you to Israel and…made you have breast cancer when I was only 15. All these years I had to struggle to keep my apartment and live on my own by working everyday…"

Eleta tried to hold back in the pain that had been brewing in her for 8 years. Nothing could cure what she was going through. Feeling alone with her only support miles away from where she was how could God let this happen. Katiara looked into her only granddaughter's hazel eyes and sighed.

"Eleta, God does everything for a reason. Good and bad things happen to everyone so they know to lean on God rather than on themselves. Out of all these things that has happened, look at the good that has happened out of it. Your parents are now in heaven because they have become martyrs for Christ's sake. Even though I'm far from where you are, we were still able to bond with each other for the past 3 years before I even had my diagnosis. As for your hard work at home…"

Katiara's eyes crinkled as her dimples appeared.

"You've become the most responsible and independent child I've ever seen, Eleta."

Eleta's hazel eyes began to well up. Her grandmother was right…on all of it. She had been too blinded by negative emotions that she hadn't looked through God's perspective in all of this.

"Count your blessings, and name them one by one. You'll be surprised by what the Lord has done."

A smile broke out on Eleta's face as she listened to her grandmother's quoted words from an old hymn. When Katiara finally found her granddaughter at ease, a thought crossed her mind as she raised her thin eyebrows.

"Speaking of your work, how is that upcoming audition coming along?"

"Oh, I forgot about that!"

It was already 12:30 and auditions start at 1! Eleta wiped her eyes and quickly ran towards her bed and rummaged through the mess of clothes laying there. Her grandmother laughed.

"I'll call you back later then."

Her phone turned off and Eleta increased her pace as she left her apartment with her music notes at hand. Since Eleta couldn't drive she had to run to the company called Best Hits Entertainment a few streets down.

She always dreamed of being a singer one day and even created music related to the struggles in her life and how God would one day lift her up somehow. She never showed them to anybody worrying that they would just see her lyrics as terrible and laugh at them.

She indeed had a good voice to where she surprised her high school music professor one day in her class when she was asked to give an example of vibrato. Her professor then encouraged Eleta to audition for bigger companies seeing that she had potential. Eleta believed this might be a talent that God wanted her to use so she quickly signed up for one under Best Hits which was a known entertainment industry locally. If she could nail this audition, she might just be hired into bigger companies.

A smile appeared across Eleta's face as the BHE building came into view. She crossed the street and headed towards the building.

Upon entering the building at exactly one in the afternoon, she was approached by a woman with lots of makeup and who was dressed very formally. The lady smiled warmly at Eleta and assisted her to a waiting room where there were several others bubbling with excitement or nervousness. Eleta took her seat and looked through her papers nervously while praying that her audition would be a success.

____________________________________________________________

Mallory moved strands of her blonde hair back into place as she impatiently called out to her driver.

"How much longer?"

"We're almost there, miss." The driver adjusted his mirror glancing at Mallory with no expression.

Mallory rolled her eyes in annoyance and scanned through her phone as she read through her script. She was finally allowed to audition to become the company's next new actress and she couldn't be late. Mallory wanted to show everyone from school how much better she is than that new girl Eleta. Her brain wanders back in memory as the first day of freshman year flashes through her mind again.

Wearing a pleaded gray skirt with a long blue ribbon across her white top, Mallory's beauty had made a great impression on a lot of the students as she walked into high school for the first time. Her long blonde hair flowed and gleamed in the light while exuding confidence in her every step. Many eyes followed her every move as she stood in front of her bare locker. People whispered around her.

"She's so pretty!"

"Is she a senior? She looks so mature!"

"She'll definitely attract all the guys here."

Her ear listened attentively to all the gossip flowing around her as she was made the center of attention. She was used to this. There was never a time where someone else outshone her. Not until the spring of freshman year.

Mallory's eyes went cold as her brain fast forwarded to a few months later.

"Mallory, you're so good at tests! I can never understand the stuff that's on there. It's like I'm seeing it for the first time!"

Her friend, Halley moved her mouth nonstop as she sat her lunch next to Mallory whose eyes had drifted to a new girl in the corner of the cafeteria.

"Earth to Mallory."

A hand waved in front of Mallory's zoned out expression. Mallory looked at Naomi's hand expressionless and picked her fork back up to pierce into her salad. She looked back up at the two people staring back at her. Halley had just dyed her hair light red complimenting her almond shaped brown eyes, delicate nose and red lips. Naomi had a refined look with narrow green eyes, long thin lips and curly black hair. They weren't the prettiest but they definitely knew how to improve their looks with makeup. Mallory's red lips stretched across her face.

"Sorry, I was just looking at that new girl over there."

Her thin fingers pointed to the brunette whose head was dipped looking at her phone.

"Oh, she's the new transfer student that came in. I think she's in our class. She covers her face a lot with that hair. I wonder if she's hiding something," Naomi answered as she giggled.

"Or maybe she's got acne."

Halley chimed in.

As the two continued to make cruel jokes, Mallory looked back at the girl who had just left the cafeteria. As time went by, lunch became fifth period and students hustled into their classrooms. Mallory, Halley, and Naomi sat in the back as they normally did. Mallory stretched her toned legs out while the brown-haired girl appeared through the door way.

"Stunning."

Some people mumbled as the transfer student made her way to a desk in the front. Mallory's eyes quickly shot up as if she had heard a threat. Her eyes glazed over to the new girl's back who was now poised gracefully. Everyone was whispering now.

"Is she the new transfer student?"

"I didn't know foreigners can be that pretty."

"I wonder why she was hiding her face all this morning."

Mallory's eyebrows cocked upward. Pretty? No one can be pretty and hide their face. Just as Mallory was about to walk up to the new girl, the teacher walked in the classroom and everyone quickly took their seats.

"Alright, class. I'm sure you've seen we have a new student with us today."

The teacher set her bag down and adjusted her glasses against her narrow nose as her piercing eyes wandered to the transfer student.

"Please introduce yourself."

The brunette stood from her seat and gracefully made her way to the front. As she turned around, Mallory eyes widened as she noticed why everyone was reacting differently towards the new girl. Her complexion was stunning and every feature from her hazel eyes to her perfect lips complimented each other. It was as if everyone had seen an angel standing in front of them.

"My name is Eleta Alon. I've just moved around here a few weeks ago."

Her expression was aloof but confident which made many of the students stare at her with admiration.

"You're so cool!" a guy blurted which made a few kids snicker at his bluntness. Eleta glanced at the guy unfazed but began to laugh gently as her perfect white teeth shined from under her lips.

"Thanks!"

Some of their mouths dropped as they were astounded by Eleta's expression. Mallory's teeth grinded together with her cheeks flaring up. She had never felt such hatred towards a person before, especially one she barely met.

Mallory snapped her blue eyes back to her surroundings in her limo. Her memory running through everything that Eleta took from her from that day on when she had dazzled everyone with her presence. Winning homecoming queen every year, earning multiple awards for achieving the highest grades, winning the presidency for every club. Mallory's eyes grew darker.

Each victory Eleta earned; Mallory was only second by comparison. She was the perfect girl everyone looked to and Mallory was only second best. Out of all the clubs in the school however, there was one club Eleta wasn't in, and that was drama club. It was filled with people desiring to be actors and actresses. Mallory was one of them as she thought of the fame that she could get out of it. Everyone would be focusing on her and her accomplishments, not Eleta. She would outshine everyone else because of her talent and become the center of attention again and step on anyone who came in her way.

"We are here, miss."

Mallory snapped back from her day dreaming and huffed at the driver as he opened the limo door for her. Making her way towards the BHE building in her expensive clothing brands, she cat-walked her way towards one of the assistants.

"Excuse me, where's the auditions?"

Mallory smiled sweetly with her perfect face at the male assistant standing there. Dazed by her beauty, the man led her to the auditioning room. After thanking him, she turned around and smirked as she knew that in no time, she would be able to rise to the top and no one can stand in her way.