GIRL'S FAMILY DROWNING IN PAIN : YOUNGEST REMEMBERED FOR HIGH SPIRITS, BIG PLANS.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

Brenda Hughes had just turned 17, applied to several local universities and started a job at a nearby mall to earn money for her first car.

But last week, the Highland Park teen-ager's promising life was cut short when an outraged grocer, who suspected three of her friends had shoplifted beer from his store, allegedly opened fire on the carload of teens and shot Hughes in the head, according to officials.

Jo Won Kim, 51, owner of Henry's Market in Highland Park, is being held without bail on suspicion of murder in Hughes' death.

On Saturday, the agony of losing the baby of the family could be heard in waves of sobs at the Hughes' small gray and white stucco home, just blocks from Henry's Market.

``My mother can't even speak,'' said the eldest Hughes daughter, Johanna, 19. ``She just cries and cries and says, `Why did they have to take my baby from me?' ''

Inside their living room, relatives set up a shrine to Brenda, placing bouquets of red roses, yellow daisies and white iris around portraits of the smiling senior lit up with religious candles.

Raised in a tight-knit Catholic family, Brenda was the youngest daughter of Maria, 46, and Luis Hughes, 41, both El Salvadoran immigrants. Older siblings, twins Johanna and Vanessa, said that as children, the trio of sisters were inseparable, sharing friends, clothes and makeup.

``She was always attached to us,'' said Johanna Hughes, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. ``Whenever she went somewhere, she wanted us to go . . . even if it was to go to the store.''

Every morning, Johanna Hughes would drive her younger sister to Franklin High School. But on the day Brenda was killed, she caught a ride with friends because she had appointments for job interviews.

``I remember her asking me if she looked funny with what she was wearing and laughing because she had run out of mousse,'' recalled Johanna Hughes. ``It was weird though because Brenda always gave me her blessing at night, but that day she blessed me in the morning.''

Besides being a cheerleader and playing on the school's softball team, the younger sister loved to doll herself up, expertly applying makeup and working with her waist-length brown hair for hours to create a perfect hairstyle, the sister said.

Brenda was so good at makeovers that she landed a job at StarShots two weeks ago, where she helped clients spruce themselves up for glamorous portraits.

She had hoped the job would allow her to buy a car, a necessity for a college-bound student bent on studying pediatrics or education, her sister said.

As popular for her sincere smile as she was for her class clown personality, she attracted both friends and love interests and was known to make a party come to life when she arrived, her sister said.

So it is only fitting that Brenda be buried in her quincenera dress, the white flowing gown detailed with emerald green flowers that she wore for her 15th birthday celebration, her sister said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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Photo: Johanna Hughes, 19, gazes at the 15th-birthday photo of her sister Brenda, 17, an innocent victim of a fatal shooting.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News