~1982~
"It's not fair!" Vanessa threw herself down on the couch, her pretty face pulled into a frown. "Grandma I sang it the best! You know I've been practicing that song for weeks."
"Yes you have, baby." Grandma agreed. "But why are you mad? Didn't you say the part you got was the lead?"
Vanessa sat up and gave her grandma an incredulous look. "Yes, but I want to play Effie! She has all the good songs and I do them better than everybody else!"
Her grandmother gave her a stern look. "God gave you a beautiful voice but there's no need to be prideful!"
Vanessa took a deep breath and calmed down so that she could make her grandmother understand how incredibly unfair it was to be cast as stuck up Deena just because she was thin with long hair. In her heart she was Effie White even if her body wasn't large. Her heart felt every emotion that Effie felt; betrayal, loss, emptiness…it was discrimination against skinny girls!