(Scene opens with Heather, the younger and smaller of the two sisters applying make up to Melissa, the older and bigger of the two.)
Melissa: My best friend Shelia always told me there are two things she has to do: stay black and die. (Laughs) Which is true for her, for us it’s stay white but you get the idea. Because your race and death are the only two things in life you have no control over, everything else you can basically change.
Heather: We control our destiny.
Melissa: Right.
Heather: Right. (Beat, they look in the mirror together) You look amazing big sis.
Melissa: I do don’t I. Pretty damn good.
Heather: You have to win this one for all the big girls out there. Show them that they are just as beautiful as- (Beat)
Melissa: It’s okay little sis you can say it.
Heather: As beautiful as us.
Melissa: Consider it done. (They embrace)
Heather: My sister Melissa has always been my idol. We were just two years apart so we were the odd sisters growing up. I was small and she was-
Melissa: -slightly bigger than this skinny bitch. (Laughs)
Heather: Yes, slightly. (Laughs) But she was the one I wanted to be. I wanted to be funny like her. Have the strength that she had. I mean, she knew that she wasn’t the typical girl but she didn’t care. She never cared. When I was six our mother put me in my first pageant.
Melissa: (Beat) And she put me in my first voice class. She said, “Mel, since your fat and your sister is skinny and pretty we’re going to let her be the beauty queen and you can be her backup singer.” We were kids. When you mother tells you your fat and smiles while she says it you think it’s a good thing.
(As children)
Heather: (Talking to herself) Walk, walk, walk, turn, wave, smile and walk, walk, walk…
Melissa: That seems so stupid. You can’t walk and turn without saying it out loud? What are you going to do when you get on the runway?
Heather: You wouldn’t understand Mel.
Melissa: Well you wouldn’t understand singing.
