Becca washed her mouth out with water and looked in the mirror. The girl she saw wasn’t who she used to be. At one point she’d felt good about herself. She was a little quiet, but she had some friends and she had self-confidence. At some point, however, that confidence had started to disappear.

Looking at the girl in the mirror with disgust, Becca tried to remember when the decline had started. She decided it was around the time her mother had been elected Vice President. Suddenly strangers and other students started paying her more attention. She didn’t trust their attention though. She would hit it off with someone good and then they would start asking questions about her mother. After awhile it began to seem that no one was interested in her any longer. Even her family.

Becca remembered when she was little. She and Horace were inseparable. He had always been more outgoing than her, but he protected her back then. And he was her best friend. When their mom became a public figure, extra attention was paid to him too. Somehow though, he’d managed to get out of her shadow with the other students. They’d ask him questions about the Vice President, but somehow by the end of the conversation, the person was just as interested in getting to know Horace as they were his mother. Becca never understood how he could talk to those people without disappearing like she did.

After Bridges and her mother’s inauguration, the situation had deteriorated further. Not only did her mother overshadow her; she also ignored her. Becca knew in her heart that her mom didn’t mean to ignore her, but even when she was still Vice President, there was always some meeting or crisis to deal with. Becca tried to remember back to the days when she could tell Mac anything. Every night before she went to sleep as a little girl, Mac would come into her bedroom and Becca would tell her all about her day. Her mom would listen carefully to all her troubles and experiences. Then in her soothing voice, she would tell her she loved her and kiss her goodnight.

Becca stopped confiding everything in her mother by the time she got out of grammar school, but she still enjoyed spending the last moment of the day with her mom. The nightly visits had stopped completely once Mac became Vice President. It was around this time that she adopted a very conservative ideology. She had always been slightly more conservative than her mother, but now she found she could at least draw her mother into conversation by disagreeing with her on politics.

Even that attention wasn’t satisfying though. She came away from their debates, which often turned into fights, feeling depressed and useless. It didn’t help that Horace and her father always seemed to side with Mac in these arguments. Even Amy would always take Mac’s side, though she didn’t understand the fights. All the pressure began to build up and at some point, Becca had to find a way to let it escape.

At first, the throwing up had been a form of control. A way of proving she was still her own person and she still had control over her life. She could control the way she looked and in turn it made her feel better. At first it was an infrequent thing. Something she did only when she felt absolutely helpless. She might do it once or twice a month after a big fight with her parents or a awful day at school in which someone had made fun of her. That all changed when Mac became the Leader of the Free World.

Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of her mother. There were reporters following her and Horace everywhere. She began to feel as though she was a failure. There was so much attention focused on her family and she felt as though she was letting them down. Horace was popular and good at talking to people. Amy was too little to really understand any of it. Even her father was dealing well with his new role as First Gentleman. And her mother was the most powerful person on Earth. She was the outcast that hated reporters and all the attention.

Then Mike had used her. He’d shown her how worthless she really was. No one would ever like her because she was Rebecca Calloway. She was just the President’s daughter. She’d been stupid to think Mike actually liked her. Things began to get out of control. Suddenly, she didn’t feel in control of anything. Her occasional habit of throwing up meals became an obsession. It was the only thing she could control.

Becca looked away from the mirror. She knew she needed help. She knew she should ask for help. She knew she should tell someone, but whenever she considered it, she saw the looks of disappointment and disgust on her family’s faces. Plus, what if the press found out. Not only would she be disappointing her mother, she would also be hurting her public image. It certainly wouldn’t look good if the President of the United States’ daughter had an eating disorder.

Instead, Becca wore loose or thick clothing to help disguise her thin body. Some part of her mind desperately hoped her family would see through her disguise. She hoped they would realize something was wrong with her. She hoped they still noticed and cared about her enough to ask. So far though, her weight loss had gone unnoticed. It wasn’t surprising that her parents hadn’t noticed. She was lucky to see them for five minutes a day, but she’d hoped that Horace or even Amy would notice.

Becca exited her bathroom and into her brightly lit room. It was almost time to leave for school. She grabbed her heavy book bag and hoped she would be able to focus today at school.