Chapter One

Selena, a young girl who always smiles, is very inspired by her mother Celia who was a singer when she was younger. Selena and her mother are in the barn cleaning as they sing to their favorite song Como La Flor. Selena wonders if she can ever be like her mom, so beautiful, strong, and what a lovely voice did she have. As they start to sing, Selena quickly takes the lead and oh does she feel so good at the end of it all.

“Selena, you have such a beautiful voice. Your voice is as soft as silk .”

As Celia said this, Selena's face brightened with joy as she always tried her best to impress her mom.

That night, as Celia sung Selena to sleep, Selena said “Mama. Do you think I can be a famous singer? Like how you sang to your family and city?”

Selena’s mom quickly turned around and smiled.

“Sueno grande mi amor.”

As she left the room, she quickly placed her hands on her side and felt a sharp and painful stager as their seemed to be a fairly large lump in her side. Since her family cannot afford medical care, she quickly goes to her friend who had the same problem. She later is diagnosed with Kidney Cancer.

Years pass and Celia didn’t make it through. Selena is heartbroken as the person she loves the most, was unable to get medical help because they couldn't afford it. Her father had never been a huge part in her life since he was always drunk which wasn’t someone that Celia wanted around a little girl. Now, since her mother had passed away, he was a close relative that was the only option. However, he didn’t stop his abuse with alcohol. She told herself that she will live up to her mother's expectations and that nothing can get in the way of that.

However one night after she got home from school late, Selena’s father asks “Where have you been?”

“I was practicing singing with my friends.”

As she said this she knew he wasn't happy since her mom once said that her dad never liked music.

So she swiftly walked to her room but stopped in the hallway because he then said, “Your not gonna make it you know. To the the best singers. Your mother tried but it looks like it didn’t work. But how would it work, your both girls and girls around here can’t make it.”

Selena, who’s very sensitive with the topic about her mother, ran out of the house to a bench in front of her friend Marisol’s house.

At the time Marisol was outside, playing hop scotch but stopped when she saw Selena hunched over, bawling her eyes out.

“What's wrong” Marisol asked as she put her arm around Selena to comforted her.

“I can’t do it! I can’t make it! I can’t be a singer!”

Marisol was stunned as Selena said these words.

“Selena. You can do anything that you put your mind to as long as you stay true to yourself. Don’t let anyone, nobody, tell you different. I’ll be here for you every step of the way.”

As Selena looked up, she felt as though her calling was to go on through with her life and bring goodness and hope to people like her father.

Chapter Two

Years have passed and Selena is a young and beautiful mexican singer. Her music speaks the truth about the world's problems but her performances aren't very popular as expected because the lead singer, Selena, is “a girl” which is what they all said. Each day Selena loses hope because she fears that they could have been right, but she doesn't ever shed that feeling inside of her because she is a role model who needs to say strong.

One night after a hard and surprisingly very large performance in San Antonio, Selena insisted that she takes out the band to eat because they are such hard workers.

Selena and the band approached the front of a restaurant as a man tells Selena, “I’m sorry were closed.”

Selena felt very hurt because she most certainly could see quite a few people inside dancing and eating.

“How come there are people inside as your telling me that you're closed?” The man turned around very slowly and looked scared but also angry.

“Selena we should just go” Marisol said as she knew the exact reason for why the man had said this.

“We don’t serve people like you here, so it would be best if you listened to your friend.”

Selena was stunned and felt very insulted because he had attacked her race, which just like her mother, she felt very sensitive about. Selena turned around and you could tears in her eyes, as she thought in her head over and over again, “will they ever except us?”

The next day the band set out to her home town of San Juan where she planned on confronting her dad about how he was wrong. Although Selena felt anger rushing up and down her body, she still had some hope that maybe her father would have stopped his alcohol abuse.

Once they get to her old home, she was very happy as her old large house was clean on the outside, with a large selection of flowers and trees. She looks for the plant on the porch that had the key to the house but it’s nowhere in sight.

“Well I guess our old cactus died because it’s not here. Wow he’s done a lot of work to this place. Oh look, the mats new too.”

Her friends Marisol and Enrico came a long the trip with her and were very suspicious about the house as it was much different than expected. However Selena decides to ring the doorbell because she is more than happy to see her father. She sees a man coming to the door and starts feeling butterflies but they all go away when a man, a stranger, opens up the door saying “Well hello.”

“Hi um I’m looking for my father Juanpablo. He lives here and I’m his daughter.” Selena said this with quite confusion and discomfort as a stranger had opened the front door. The man had said “Oh I’m sorry but her no longer lives here. Yeah actually he couldn’t pay the bills so the city took the house. I’m so sorry.”

Selena said the words “Thank you” very slowly and with great fear and worry. The words “your father has been holding you back” run through her mind a billion times as she might have hoped that her father would one day change. Her father said she couldn't do it and even though she said she could, she still had an uncertain that always flowed through her. It was her father she was doing this for, to show him wrong and to change his ways. So she kept looking over town, asking neighbors “Do you know where Juan Pablo Vega went?” Days had passed and her mind had become hopeless.

“I’m going to pick up some tacos, anyone want some?”

Selena hid behind her hopelessness by doing things for others and by changing the topic, which in this case was to eat. When she went into Walmart to get stuff for tacos, she saw a man. The man reminded her of her father with the same face but this man was wearing ragged clothes, blonde hair, and was in the beer section.

She walked over and said “Juan Pablo?” The man who looked so old, looked up and she could tell that it was her father.

“DAD!? I was looking for you everywhere!”

Her father showed no emotion of sadness, anger, or happiness. Just nothing. “Well stop looking” he said so calmly, walking away from her.

She ran after him and said, “What's wrong with you? I’m your daughter. I’m here. I did it. I’m a singer now and I’m wanting to be here for you now.”

Selena was no longer happy but angry as she thought how repulsive her father was. “Great job. You did it. Now can you stop? You're an embarrassment to our name. And you wanna know how come you have made it this far? It’s because your pretty. But you can’t make it any farther because your a girl! Your Selena, the girl that I had only heard of once which was by a man who said she was looking for me.”

Selena was confused with so many emotions going around in her head. She couldn’t decide if she was going to cry or burst out in anger.

Selena ran to the car and drove straight to the hotel that her and her friends were staying at. Tears rushed down her face as her father had pushed her down again and told her she couldn’t do it.

“Was he right? Am I just a normal girl who can’t go any further than what I have right now?”

Selena was heartbroken as she came into the hotel room. As Marisol was hugging and rubbing on Selena’s back, she asked “Selena! What happened? Please tell me.”