Ray of Hope

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Raidyn pressed her lips together as she smoothed out her chapstick. Pulling the ends of her hair to make her ponytail tighter, she inspected her face. "Ma, in the next life I want to be rich, skinny and beautiful." She complained.

"You are beautiful...not rich...not exactly skinny...but beautiful." She turned to look at her daughter as she turned off the engine and grabbed her purse. "Stop thinking about things like that...Ya!"

Rolling her eyes, Raidyn hopped out of the small sedan. She hated cleaning houses with her mother, not because of the physical work, but because many of them tended to forget they were just there to clean. Not to be their personal servants. On the other hand she enjoyed spending time with her mom, they were laughing constantly and they killed time talking about random things.

"Mother, I hate this. You could have let Mia come with you and me go gardening with dad." she huffed as she slammed the door to the car.

"Well hija if we want to buy a new house, we've got to work for it. You know your father works very hard. The least you can do is..."

Interrupting her mother, she took hold of her arm "Ma, it's not because I'm lazy, I just hate the way people boss you around and inspect every inch of the house as we clean. It annoys me."

Celia looked her daughter in the eyes, then chuckled "Look Raidyn, this is a decent job and the Dorough's are the sweetest people. Anyways your father says that Mia is better at gardening...she isn't good at cleaning. If we get to work fast we can be finished in two hours tops and we can pass by and get some burgers. Deal?"

Raidyn sighed heavily just thinking of an In n Out burger, then she remembered that she'd promised her cousin they would start a diet plan. She smiled at her mother, "Ok, but no burgers, just a soda..."

They shook hands as they giggled through the trail of flowers and to the door. Celia rang the doorbell and before she could try it again a tall slender woman opened up. Raidyn looked at her in awe, she wished she could be that beautiful and thin. The woman was probably a size 4 the most, her hair was light brown silky and straight. She wore a nice gray suit and her make up was impeccable.

"Leigh, this is my daughter Raidyn. She's here to help me today. I hope you don't mind?" Celia smiled, hoping that it wouldn't be a problem.

Leigh smiled back at Celia and placed a hand on her back "Oh no, no problem. Where is Miguel?" she asked with a graceful smile.

Raidyn was surprised at how friendly the woman was, as if she had known her mother forever. So many other people she had met were short with their answers and never offered them even a cup of water. She busied herself looking around the house.

It was beautiful, even a little intimidating since it was nothing but windows everywhere she never understood how rich people liked all the exposure. Everything was white, the furniture, the appliances in the kitchen. It was even scary to touch anything.

"Well Celia you know where everything is. I did the laundry last night. I just need the suits in the laundry room ironed if you don't mind. Raidyn please feel free to help yourself to anything to eat or drink."

Yeah offer the fat girl food..."Thank you" Raidyn answered with a smile, no way she would take up the offer. She was on a strict no food diet.

"It's no problem, your mother is my friend. Oh almost forgot we have a visitor...he's quite the character so, just keep your distance. Nice to meet you Raidyn." she smiled once again and began for the door.

Quickly the twosome grabbed all the cleaning supplies they needed and headed out in different directions. Celia usually did the houses alone, while her husband did the lawn and cleaned out the pool. She would get a break today by splitting the house with her daughter.