Emo hour: Penelope sings Tomorrow from Annie the first time she auditions for the school musical. She's always identified with Annie and not just because of the red hair. Eveb though she's not an orphan, she's felt so alone at home since her grandpa died, she might as well be.
She wears a collared burgundy dress with kitten heel Mary Janes and her hair is curled and styled in her signature half-up half-down look– with a velvet bow, to match her dress. She keeps her chin up as she’s singing and tries not to think about her grandfather. Her voice will crack if she does. Even though it’s been two years since he passed, she still thinks of him every day.
She’s loved the movie Annie since she was a kid. She used to wonder how differently her life might have turned out if her parents had given her up for adoption. They never wanted her, she knew that. Maybe if they’d given her up she would have eventually been adopted by someone who loved her like Annie was. Maybe she would have gotten her happy ending.
But it was silly to think about what-might-have-beens and eventually she stopped entertaining them. All they ever did was make her feel worse anyways. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of hope that crept up on her any time she listened to “Tomorrow”. So maybe she would never get to know what it felt like to have parents that loved her. Maybe she would never know what it felt like to come home from school to a warm and happy home. That was fine. At least she had tomorrow.
Just because skies were grey now didn’t mean they always would be. She just had to take it one day at a time. Perhaps, someday in the future, tomorrow would bring with it some sort of promise. Perhaps, someday in the future, she wouldn’t have to sing about hope in order to have it.
