"What about this one daddy?" Lucía asked excitedly, spinning around in her pretty black dress. It was cute. Feminine, frilly, ball gown style. She looked so happy, so excited. Santiago had been a little iffy. You never really saw any of the girls in pageants wearing black. He quickly checked the dress code slip he had on him, making sure it was allowed. And once seeing it wasn't on the 'immediate disqualification' side, he nodded, looking at Lucía's big hopeful brown eyes. "You look beautiful mija," he said softly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Is that the one you want?" Because, even if it was untraditional, if that's what his baby girl wanted, that's what she was getting.

Santiago and his wife sat in the pageant seating area. Santiago rubbing his wife's thigh as they watched the little girls take their turns showing their dresses off, answering questions. The current question was 'who do you look up to the most'. The girls in the 'little miss' division, aging 5-6 taking their turns answering. When it was finally Lucía's turn, the woman asking the questions repeated it. "And who do you look up to the most?"

"My mommy," Lucía said without hesitation. Santiago let out a little adoring 'awe'. "She's the best mom in the whole world," Lucía said confidently as she nodded her head. Santiago nodded along in agreement. "Uhm..." Lucía trailed off, thinking. "She's always taking care of me. And she makes me my favorite food when I'm sad," Lucía stated, pausing to think of more. "And... and she's really pretty," Lucía added into the mic happily, nodding, more to herself than the woman. "I wanna be like her when I grow up." She finished, clasping her hands with a giggle.

Santiago's eyes squinted a bit as he smiled. His baby girl looking up to her mama, made him so happy. "Great answer," the woman remarked softly to Lucía. "Round of applause for contestant number 9!" the woman voiced. The crowd clapped as Lucía walked off the stage, the next contestant coming out a moment later.

"Did you hear that?" Santiago cooed. "She wants to be just like her mami," he whispered into his wife's ear, kissing her cheek. He smiled at her. "Can't say I blame her, can I? Our pretty girl is so smart," he whispered as he patted his wife's thigh, going back to rubbing it gently with his thumb.