My 20 short sprints in 20 Days is a way to 

stimulate your creative juice .

Write 500 or 5K words using the above prompt image.

Set a Timer for XX minutes... and Sprint!

Have a good time.

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others.  You need to accept yourself."

Time 6:30 - 7:00

Sitting in a wheelchair, Prue felt out of place. Angela was getting married and as a bridesmaid, Prue had vowed to come long before her accident.  Everyone looked so beautiful in rich red traditional dresses. Angela had chosen pink for her dress. The betrothal party had been over breakfast with gifts given. The church wedding had followed an elaborate tea ceremony at the groom's parent's home, followed by a western wedding reception and party with four times the number of people who were at the wedding.  Prue was exhausted but happy for Angela and Han. 

Not seeing Penny, she edged herself away from the table and carefully headed toward the bathroom. Angela seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Sorry, I have to help Prue, I'll be right back." Angela pushed the wheelchair away from her new MIL. 

Once the bathroom door locked, Angela groaned. "I just finished my law degree and that crazy cow wants me to immediately quit my dad's office, and start popping out babies like a Pez dispenser. I am so glad you needed to go to the bathroom." 

"Thanks for helping, I feel so helpless, even though I don't have that stupid Halo thing on anymore." Angela held Prue's good arm as she stood up carefully, then helped into the tiny bathroom. Prue held the wall as Angela hitched up her dress and lowered her down to the cold seat.

"Hey, I am just glad you came. How is the pregnancy going?" Angela asked while Prue emptied her bladder.

"Well, other than the pain from seven fractured vertebrae, it is going pretty good. I am just glad the medicine they give me for the pain killer's side effects keeps me from having morning sickness." Prue confessed. She no longer got embarrassed when someone helped her to use the bathroom, it was better than that hated catheter.  

"Yeah, Penny said you could vomit yourself into breaking your neck the rest of the way." Angela sounded horrified. 

As she helped Prue stand at the sink to wash her hands, Prue scowled at her reflection. The lines where the glass cut her face and where the Halo had been drilled into her skull for a month stood out worse than any acne breakout she had ever had. Her face had gotten fuller because she had gotten fatter, more than just her pregnancy. Being wheelchair bound because she couldn't risk a fall was making her yoga body turn into a Yogi the bear body.

"Stop it." Angela scolded. "You're beautiful. You were beautiful before the accident and you still are. All the way to the core of your soul."

Prue's chin trembled, "Then why did he cheat on me? I wasn't good enough, I couldn't be what he wanted. Nothing I did worked...

TIME: 30 minutes W/C 483

... to make him happy."

Angela shook her head. "Sweetie, if he couldn't accept who you were, then he wasn't the one for you." Angela smiled wanly at Prue, "Do you know what the first thing I noticed you was when Penny introduced us after she washed out of law school?"

Prue shook her head. "Your kindness and ability to always look on the bright side, to always keep a positive mental attitude, no matter what was thrown your way. You'll get through this. You don't need him to approve of who you are or how you look. You turned every head on campus."

Sitting back down carefully in her wheelchair, Prue wished she could bow her hear. "No one would bother to look at me now. I'm a scarred and fat."

"Your scars are already fading and you're not fat, it's normal, you're carrying my niece." Penny snapped at her sister. 

"And my goddaughter," Angela reminded. 

"I hate my new normal." Prue  said it as she ran her hand over her belly, silently apologizing to her child.  

Penny knelt and took both her hands, "No, you hate the things that brought you here. You hate Shane, you hate the accident, but you don't hate our little apple in there."

"I hate myself," Prue revealed with painfully and brutally honesty.  "How can I be a good mother if I am terrified I will sneeze wrong and die."

"You need to accept yourself as you will be. Your limitations are only until after the baby is born, then you will have your surgeries and heal and by the time, the baby is old enough to remember, you'll be fine." Penny sounded as if she believed it with everything in her heart. Angela nodded confidently beside her. But Prue wasn't so sure, she knew there was a very real and very big risk that she could die or worse, be paralyzed completely.