Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 81: The Photo Shoot

"You look uncomfortable, Daphne," Mrs Nevermore told me with worry and genuine concern.

The photo shoot that Tuesday morning had just started.

We weren't in the designers' studio, as I had expected. Mrs Nevermore requested to have the photo shoot on the roof, where she had a private swimming pool and a minibar all to herself. It had a spectacular view of the city and both the Tame Sea and the Neon Sea on that bright, sunny morning. But that Tuesday, it was no longer the place where Mrs Nevermore went to unwind and take a dive; no, that day it was the setting of the brand-new Oyster's ad.

"I need you to relax, okay, honey?" she insisted gently, with a candy-sweet, motherly voice.

How could I relax when I had been granted anything I had asked for?! Namely, to have my face cut out of the picture, and my name, to be kept a mystery. Well, we had agreed to have my face half cut in the end. Mrs Nevermore had loved it. She even wanted to make it a marketing stunt!

I had hoped she would let me go and consider hiring a professional model, but no. She truly wanted me!

Besides that, how could I relax when I had everybody's eyes on me?! Kono's ecstatic ones, Mirela's angry ones, the rest of the designers' distrustful ones, the make-up artist's worried ones, the photographer's and his assistants' analytical ones, Mrs Nevermore's concerned ones, and Eros' loving yet stunned ones.

Yes, he had eluded his responsibilities in the faculty only to come and see me. He was wearing faded blue Bermuda shorts, a nicely fitting T-shirt in a white, turquoise, blue and yellow abstract pattern, and a smile on his lips that made me nervous.

To add insult to injury, I was only wearing a bikini – the one Eros had picked the day before, a red one with golden, metallic accessories.

"Daphne, dear," Mrs Nevermore went on in a calming tone of voice. "Focus on my voice. Breathe in. Breathe out. Do this a couple of times, or until you feel better."

I tried to do as told, and focus on detoxing my body of nervousness, but the current circumstances made it harder than practising meditation with Sigi in the cellar.

"That's it." She seemed satisfied when I felt much at ease. Her smile widened. I would always love that smile. "Good. Now, give me an aura of freedom, of youth, of free time, of summer, of loving the sunshine on your skin!" She was able to convey all she wanted me to feel with an ecstatic and joyful tone of voice as if she was a film director and I, an actress whom she needed to guide.

I still felt unsure, but I tried my best to follow Mrs Nevermore's instructions. I posed wherever and whenever she wanted me to, according to her whims to the best of my ability.

The sun did feel great on my exposed skin, though. The make-up artist was constantly on me, congratulating me for such nice, soft skin. The photographer's assistants were treating me as if I were a collector's antique doll or something. All that attention bestowed upon me was making me feel awkwardly royal.

However, once the photo shoot would be over, such good treatment from so many clones in Oyster would cease to be. I knew that.

"Let's try over there now, by the pool," the photographer suggested while talking to Mrs Nevermore. "The water, the swimming pool tiles, maybe we should get some droplets on her skin. What do you think, Mrs Nevermore?"

"Great idea!"

I approached the entrance of the swimming pool, where three steps went down into the water.

"Should I go in, and stand on the steps? Or sit?" I asked naively.

"Why don't you kneel in the water?" Eros suggested.