Life Begins at Midnight

Retaliation

In the break, the two girls filled out the applications in the gym. There were many other girls filling in their details, hoping that they'd be among the chosen seven.

The first field on the form was 'Name', which Anna filled out neatly in her beautiful cursive writing, 'Analemma Wrenner'.

"I wish I could write like that!" Marie remarked, admiring the fluid and even lettering, which frankly couldn't be compared to her own legible but plain-looking print. Anna blushed, "It's just writing, really..." but she smiled.

Next came an empty space in which they were to stick a passport size photograph. Anna pulled out one from her wallet, peeled back the adhesive backing and stuck it on. Marie had a pretty selfie on her phone, and she had to get it printed and glued on to the form, which she did in the gym administrative cabin, beside the locker room. Coach Rodgers looked up and nodded appreciatively. She approved of Marie.

Marie hurried back with her form with its freshly stuck-on photo, only to find that Anna had filled out the next three fields, and was waiting for Marie. 'Age', 'Date of Birth' and 'School/College' were easily filled with '17 years 11 months', '10th May, 1997', and 'Polson Academy' respectively.

"Wow, you're almost 18!" Marie exclaimed, hurriedly printing '17 years 5 months' on her form, and quickly catching up with Anna.

The next bit of the form asked for their vital stats in three magic numbers, and then their height. Clearly, Anna wrote down '37-25-37.5' and filled in her height to be '5 feet 4 inches'. Marie was surprised. She wrote down hers as '35-24.5-36' while tweaking half an inch to get closer to the ideal of perfection that was 36-24-36. Marie knew she couldn't manipulate her height, so she left that at '5 feet 8 inches'.

Finally there came a field marked 'Modelling Experience' and Anna just put in 'None' while Marie felt self-conscious as she wrote about the Potato-Crisps she had advertised as a 12-year-old. Then there were seven check-boxes, with names of the seven clients who were prepared to give the 'fresh-faces' a chance at modelling. Marie confidently tick-marked all the check-boxes with a flourish, she just wanted a chance at any of the seven. She knew that she couldn't be picky with this because the competition was intense.

Anna didn't really want to be a model, so she only marked one. Richard West. She was sure that she'd never get that one. There were too many pretty girls, and every single form would definitely have a tick-mark against that one name. The odds would be totally against her being chosen, so she felt she could safely check that one, the impossibility. Marie, who had tick-marked all seven, peeped over her shoulder into Anna's form.

"You really aren't into this, are you?" she asked Anna, knowing the answer.

"I'm just doing this because otherwise you wouldn't." Anna replied honestly.

Just then, a high-pitched voice interrupted them. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Swot-Girl?" Monica Neapolitana shrieked, pointing a manicured talon towards Anna. Anna was used to the nasty comments of the so-called 'in' girl, and she had her own reply as quick as a race-car with brake-failure. "Guess what, Monica! It is. And I'm only applying for Rick West, because the others aren't good enough for me. And hey, I should give you poor dears some chance, right?" Anna called out loudly, and this set off a wave of hushed giggles, as Monica glared at Anna. The empty-headed girl wasn't able to come up with a witty reply quick enough, so she stalked off to where here side-kicks stood with their bony hands on their mouths and identical shocked expressions carefully arranged on their made-up faces.

Anna didn't care. She was happy to be herself. Marie had looked impressed, but Anna knew that Monica would find a way of getting revenge.

They submitted the forms and went back to the class. Marie spoke in a muted whisper - "You know she'll have it for you now, right?"

Anna found that she still didn't care.