Vicarious - #ATOZCHALLENGE – V (2026)

 

Being the youngest daughter of the Beck family, Helen always believed she was the center of everyone’s world. Her family’s overindulgence reinforced that belief. It grew stronger with time, and then any moment where she went unacknowledged invited a lot of disillusionment and a strong reaction from her.

One couldn’t call it being arrogant. It was just the way she was predisposed to thinking. It was her natural self. To add to that, she was striking graceful, and would make people stop and strike up a conversation. To the Becks, she was their blue-eyed child. They shielded her every move, and put her on the pedestal for even the smallest of achievements. With so much praise, she naturally began to think she would always get this reaction from the larger world outside their household. It would be as natural as night that follows day, and then the day re-emerges. It just had to be that way. And when it was not, Helen’s tantrums were primed to eke out the praise even by coercion.

But then one fine day, Helen realized her parents had offered their upper room on rent to a technology student called Maria. In contrast to the attention-seeking Helen, Maria was rather quiet and composed. Helen disliked her instantly.

What kind of a girl likes solitude? Doesn’t she like to be showered with attention? Or maybe she is just too lazy to make the effort? Whatever?

Helen began to judge Maria as being a lesser version of her.  Yet there was something about her that made her shift in a not so nice way.

Maria came across as being confident without saying a word. Her body language created the best impression. It came from her hard-earned IT degree from a good university. It attracted a lot of respect from people in and around. She did not need to look good, people were already awestruck by a well-educated and independent girl. If they needed sage advice on IT-related careers or even about life, they would trust her wisdom blindly.

This did not go down well with Helen. Suddenly, the attention she went all out to get was literally handed over to Maria just like that. It felt so unfair.

The resentment that began to fester inside her would manifest in different ways as it grew stronger. It began with Helen not showing any interest in having a conversation with Maria. She would speak only to her parents. Making her feel ignored seemed comforting.

It primed to become something much more obvious. She began contradicting Maria in just about everything, sometimes even with mindless arguments.

In one instance, Maria wanted to figure out how she could best compere a community event.

“I’ll check what GPT can give me. I’m sure I’ll stumble upon some great insights there.”

“Why not rely on brains? Why be so lazy and device dependent.” Came Helen’s barbed reply.

It did hurt the otherwise sincere Maria. It felt like her hard-earned credibility was being questioned. But then she had the drift of what Helen was like.

“She’ll never understand how her words stung. I’ll just let it go.”

Helen’s insecurities became even more pronounced with time. She would resort to passive aggressive mind games such as long spells of silence in the same space, making plans without including Maria, or even subtly poking fun at her dressing or lack of self-care.

Although, this hostility affected Maria, she would simply walk away and get engrossed in her work. She mostly avoided any common spaces with Helen and tried to be as decorous as possible while interacting with the Becks.

What got her goat the most that Maria remained courteous and—most frustratingly—genuine.

One afternoon, Helen realized her laptop was not booting up. She had tried restarting many times. That was the only trick she had up her sleeve. And today it failed her repeatedly. Nobody was around and she needed to churn her assignment by the end of the day. She began to panic given the lack of options. Also, getting a poor grade would make her miss the opportunity for praise. Infact, she would be reprimanded.

She saw the light on in Maria’s room. Reluctantly, she approached her to fix the issue. Her awkwardness had peaked. Her frustration would blow her head off, but she knew convincing Maria wouldn’t be tough. She was too nice to refuse. An eyeroll followed.

Maria sensed that agreeing too easily wasn’t something Helen deserved, yet without any hesitation she studied the problem patiently and then fixed it. She booted the laptop in safe mode and deleted a few files that were freezing the device. All along, while Helen ranted about having no other option, Maria remained focused and composed.

The device was fixed, Helen’s assignment was done, and as she expected, Maria good turn was forgotten in Helen’s quest for praise.

The next day, Helen chatted happily with the peers and professors, showing an eagerness to be liked and appreciated at any cost. On the other hand, Maria remained calm and composed.

Her stay with the Becks would be over in two days. Neither’s life would change. While packing her belongings, she thought, “Some of us will always stay holed up in our comfort zone, even if it means living a vicarious life of fame that may not even be real—but at the end of the day, it’s their choice to make.