The New Girl

The New Girl: Chapter 8

That evening at the Harrison plaza hotel, Carmella was trying on a beautiful black and white gown. She looked at herself in the mirror and admired herself for a moment. An empty feeling filled her heart as she ran her fingers through her hair. 

"Sweetheart.." Carmella's mother, Elaine, commented as she approached. 

"Hey, mom. What do you think? Am I good enough to be on your next magazine cover?" Carmella asked with confidence. 

Elaine examined her daughter with harshly judgemental eyes. 

"No.. not at all. This won't do." Elaine said in deep thought. 

"What do you mean?" Carmella tried to keep herself together. 

"Sweetheart, your legs are too short. Your hair needs to be blonder.. and your cheek bones are weak. You're not modeling the cover for us, my board members would be furious." Elaine said before walking away. 

Carmella stood there with an ache in her heart. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered her mother's words. 

Just on the other side of the dressing room, Renee walked in. Elaine was the first to notice her. 

"Renee Paquette!" Elaine shouted in excitement  as she greeted her with a hug. 

"Ms. VanDale!" Renee with a big smile. 

"What are you doing here?" Elaine asked in excitement. 

"Carmella invited me." Renee said as she tried to look for her friend. 

A smile came across Elaine's face as she watched Renee for a moment. 

"You know what.. I have this new design and I think it would look just stunning on you. Why don't you go try it on?" Elaine asked hopefully.

"Oh um, well I should really friend Mella, we-." Renee tried to explain.

"Don't worry about her right now, she's busy trying on a few things of her own." Elaine said as she lead Renee to a dressing room. 

A few streets over at Dave's pizzeria, Kota was putting in a few extra hours of work. He was on his fifth straight hour of delivering pizza without having eaten anything himself. He tried snacking on a twix bar he had found in his backpack while he was waiting for the cook to get his next delivery ready. It was then that he saw Kenny walk in with Roman and Cody. 

"Where the hell is Miz?" Roman asked. 

"Are you really one to be asking where peole are? You go AWOL on us all the time." Cody commented. 

Roman looked away with a bit of shame in his face. 

"Miz and Maryse are hanging out at my place tonight."  Kenny informed his friends. 

Cody looked over and saw Kota struggling in the back.

"So this is why you wanted to co, no me here? Boy-toy is working today?" Cody asked. 

Kenny looked himself and sighed when he realized Kota was there. 

"Fuck. I didn't know he was working today." Kenny said to himself. 

Cody watched Kenny for a moment, thinking about the situation. Kota got his next order and hurried out of the pizzeria. 

At the hotel, Carmella was in search of her mother. She knew she had to hide whatever pain she was feeling and put on a show for her mother. Carmella looked up to her mother, she admired her. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her.