You know that story with the princess and the prince and the glass slipper, and how it’s a fairytale? Well my life was like. A fairytale.
I remember everything about where I lived. It was my palace, and if I became the new face of Victoria’s Secret, I would have completed my life long dream. If I did, I would be on the front page of Vogue and everyone in the fashion world would know my face. And that’s how my story begins, right here at The Valentino Mansion.

* * * * *

It was summer time and I was hosting one of the best pool parties ever at my sorority house called The Valentino Mansion. There were super popular people there and my friend Zane even made us his signature martinis. Later that day I would turn 27 and life would be even more perfect than it already was. Oh, and by the way, my name is Nikki.
My life was pretty much complete. All I needed was to become the new face of Victoria’s Secret and my life would be complete. I was on the path to success until the terrible morning after my amazing 21th birthday party, when it all came crashing down on me.
I had just woken up after an amazing night of partying and glamorous fun, when I received a letter from Larry, the man who supervised the mansion. It looked to me as though he were giving me a birthday card, but boy, I sure was wrong!
My friend Zane had brought me breakfast and the letter, so he was waiting for me to read it to him. I opened a folded piece of paper and read: “Dear Nikki. Ooh! That’s me!” I exclaimed. I continued on to read: “We wish you a very happy birthday! Awe! How thoughtful! We understand that it is such short notice, but starting right now, you have 2 hours to collect your belongings and leave the mansion forever. My apologies, Larry.”
I felt like my world was ending. “Leave the mansion? But it’s my home! Where will I go? What am I gonna do Zane?” I hopped out of bed and ran out of my room. “Larry? Larry?” I knocked on his door a lot. “He’s not here Nikki. Larry just left for Hawii.” Said Zane. “Okay” was all that I could manage to say.

* * * * *

As soon as I stepped out of the mansion there was a black car waiting for me. I knew that I didn’t want to go home dressed like I was, so I told them to take me to a hotel. I knew they just had to love me.
I was taking a walk around outside when I saw some girls that were dressed like we used to at the mansion, so I followed them back to their house. I walked inside and asked if I could live there. The girl that I asked giggled and said, “Why do you want to live here? You don’t go to school do you?” Then she walked over to some other girls and started whispering to them.
I decided to take a look around, and walked into a nice living room. I saw some older ladies and said, “Do you go to school here too?” They laughed and said, “Of course not! We supervise the girls of this sorority.” I asked them if I could be a housemother too, and they laughed again and said no very sharply. As I walked away slowly one of the women came out and said that one of the sororities down the street needed a housemother. “Thank you so much. Your very nice.” I said, and with that I left her sorority house. I decided that I would go over and ask the girls in the Gamma house if I could be their housemother.

* * * * *

As I walked up the sidewalk towards the house, it was clear that these girls weren’t popular. The house looked old and worn out. Not a very cheerful place, I thought to myself. I wonder who else is their housemother, because they aren’t doing a very good job of it. I was at their door. I knocked and the G fell off of the entryway and hit me in the head. I fell over their little wall and landed on my butt. “Ouch!”
A red haired girl came to the door and looked out. Slowly she came outside to look around for the noise that was me. I jumped up on my feet and said, “Hi! My name’s Nikki! What’s your name?” The girl jumped, she looked like I had freaked her out. “Wow,” she said, “you scared me! Don’t do that!”
“I am so sorry! Do you live here? Can I be your housemother?” I asked her as fast as I could. “I’m so sorry! We just aren’t good with people so we are being kicked out. Well, we will be kicked out if we can’t raise enough money. So, I am so sorry, but we can’t help you!” “Oh, okay. Well, thanks anyway.” I said. I sauntered down the walkway and took off my high heels and started doing some yoga to push my bad emotions away.
I was in the middle of one of the most complex positions that I could do when some boys came over to me. They started saying some cheesy lines from old movies when one of them asked me if I was a Gamma. At that very moment the girl that I had spoken to earlier came over to me. “Oh, I wish!” I told the guys. They looked surprised. As soon as she got to me she said, “You wanna be a Gamma housemother? Well you got it.”
“Oh thank you!” I gave her the customary hug that a girl gives another girl when they do something really nice for you. “See ya later boys!” I put on my shoes and followed the girl into the house. I peered around the corner and asked her what other girls lived here. She took me into the living room and introduced me to all of the girls. One by one I said their names in my special voice so that I could remember who they were.

* * * * *


The first thing that I did as their housemother was make them look like me. I taught them everything that I knew, every trick in the book, from how to apply mascara to how to flirt with boys. They soon learned everything that I knew and were hosting their own parties. I was so surprised when they asked me what they should do to raise money for their house. I told them that they should do a car wash or a calender with all of their pictures in it. They looked at me like I was crazy but said okay.

That’s how our relationship formed. I made them popular and they gave me a place to stay. I had real friends the really cared about me. One day I was out with the girls washing cars in our bathing suits. I was on my break and saw a really cute guy. I walked over to him and started a conversation. It turns out that his name is Joey and he works with people that had a hard time with walking because their bones were so fragile. He helped them live and cope with their disability. He was posting flyers all the way down the block. I decided to take one and show it to the girls. As I walked back to the girls I thought, maybe this could go somewhere.

* * * * *


At this point in time the girls and I raised a lot of money for the house. Now all we had to do was get a few service hours in and pick a few more girls to be the new Gammas and we would be all set. We decided to spend our service hours at the Disability center, so I called Joey and asked him if the girls and I could come hang out with the people that lived there.

As soon as we walked inside we each found a group of people and went and talked with them. We learned so much about each person. I feel like some good did actually come from the trip. Well, Joey and I talked for a while and decided that we should go and get dinner together some time. After that the girls and I decided that we should go for ice cream to talk about what we had just done, but I had something else in mind.

TO BE CONTINUED