The day Belle was born, she looked no different from any other baby in the nursery. Perhaps a bit underweight and undernourished as the result of a mother who refused to quit drinking, but there was nothing so suggest what she would later become.
Belle’s mother was no kind of mother at all, constantly drinking, a never-ending parade of men coming and going, and the endless threats of eviction and eventually moving since her mother could never hold a stable job. When Belle was a young girl playing by herself in the neglected yard, as she often did, she imagined she was a fairy-tale princess, just waiting to be discovered and taken to her castle to live happily ever after. Whatever happened after that, no matter how bad her life became, she never lost that dream, always believing that someday, it would come true. She didn’t know how, or when, but she was sure that someday, the hell that was her life would become far more.
As she grew up, art became her refuge, a place where she could lose herself and forget the chaos around her. It began with drawing and painting, and though there talent was there, a school class art class project on sculpting sparked a real passion and connection in her. A mix of wood and metal abstract sculpture became her niche and she worked odd jobs for cash, or when those could not be found, petty thievery to fund her art. The rest of her school life was unremarkable. She was certainly beautiful, but she was also careful to dress in a way downplay that as much as possible, not wanting the attention. She was smart, but seldom showed it; kind, but shy and reserved, and rarely made friends.
Belle was offered an art scholarship to Columbia University School of the Arts, and once she graduated high school she took off as quickly as possible, happy to escape the hell that was her life at home. She drummed up the cash for a bus ticket, having no idea what she was getting herself into. Her first step off the bus was one hell of a culture shock, but the energy and excitement of the city, it spoke to her, and she felt like she found the place she belonged. The scholarship took care of tuition, books and dorm fees, but money was still needed for supplies and other living expenses. She took a job as a waitress, and eventually a bartender job, as she came more and more out of her shell. Although she never enjoyed it, her looks and quirky banter with customers served a purpose, it allowed her to continue her art.
She dated some, but each time the potential relationship fizzled shortly after it began. There just always seemed to be a disconnect, even with the guys who, on paper, should be perfect for her. After her traumatic childhood, there was just not that level of trust with anyone she had met, though admittedly she had very high walls in place to prevent just that. If her own mother could not lobe her, who would? That kind of hurt and betrayal, it was a risk she was not willing to take.
At the end of her first year, Belle headed back home to Kentucky. Though she never intended to go back, it saved on desperately needed cash. It took her mother three days to come after her in a drunken rage, but this time it was different. Belle was different. The time spent on her own changed her and instead of fear she was filled with rage. Pure, white, hot rage and for the first time in her life, she began to fight back. In the midst of the chaos, she began to change. Wings appeared and a deep purple glow appeared around her. Belle was too lost in anger to even realize, but her mother certainly noticed and stepped back, in shock and fear, eventually running out of the house, too stunned to say anything. Belle had no idea what happened until she glanced at the hallway mirror, but before she could even begin to process it, an impossibly large blue man, around 10 ft tall, with horns appeared and whisked her away to what looked like a castle. She spent the next year and a day there, learning everything she needed to know to take her place in fae society, as a Countess, from the House of Fiona. She was placed back in New York City, resuming her studies at Columbia, and given a territory to look after. Bartending was no longer necessary and her life finally felt as if it belonged to her, that she was living the life she was born to live.
Belle graduated in the spring of 2010 with a degree in visual arts. Though she was respected as an artist, and gained some minor celebrity from her work, she never became a breakout star, something Belle was quite comfortable with. The kind of recognition major fame would bring is not something most fae strive for. She enjoyed college, and had the resources and the time to continue her studies, so she applied, and was accepted into a graduate program at Columbia. January 2011 she began her studies to earn her MA in Modern Art: Critical & Curatorial Studies. Though it was a small step away from her undergraduate degree, it would provide her with then knowledge she would need to someday own her own art gallery, something that would enrich both sides of her life in many ways.
