Life Begins at Midnight

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Monica was ecstatic. Zoe was surprised at how many people seemed to have it in for Anna. She found herself admiring Anna's courage at standing up to every challenge thrown at her. She had a bad feeling about the midnight shoot. She could sense something terrible was going to happen. But she couldn't help it.

Monica really was overjoyed at having Anna for a roommate. Because now she could personally make life difficult for Anna. And there would be no witnesses. Even her sister wouldn't be able to intervene with all her sensible talks. Anna was going to rue the day she crossed paths with Monica.

"Everything you'll need will already be prepared and waiting. It's like a hotel. You won't have to do anything. You can just call up the concierge for whatever you want. I'll drop in by eleven to pick you." These were the only words Zoe had permitted herself when they were being driven to the apartment.

"Thank you. It's really kind of you to adjust for me." Anna had replied. Zoe knew that Anna had realised that she was Monica's sister. Yet she had not changed her behaviour towards Zoe. She was still polite and caring. It broke Zoe's heart to imagine the kind of revenge her sister would wreak upon this sweet girl. She found herself wishing that Anna were her sister rather than Monica.

Monica had said "Hi, Swot-Girl!" in a sickly sweet tone. Anna knew that she had to have something planned for her. Anna resigned herself to try and guess what lay in store.

Anna had quickly changed into a shorts and a t-shirt provided to her generously in the wardrobe. She asked Monica quietly whether she had any preferences for which bed she wanted.

"I wouldn't prefer to give you any!" she snapped.

"Do you know that we have a shoot at midnight?" Anna asked, after a while.

Monica smiled. A fake smile that she could conjure up easily. "Oh yes, Swot-Girl! How could I forget? You are now a model for Richard West! Has he got you to call him 'Ricky' yet?"

"I didn't mean it that way, Monica. I know you hate me. I just thought that we could at least be civil to each other till the end of this week. By then I'll probably be out of your life. School's over anyways, and we have a month long break. So if you'll tolerate me for this week, you'd mostly never see me again. At the end of this week you'll have to go for your shoot as well, right? So you'll be free of me."

"That sounds amazing!" Monica snapped again, sarcastically. She did like the idea of having Swot-Girl out of her life forever. But before that, she had to make sure that Swot-Girl paid for all the times she'd made Monica look like a fool. So when Anna went to the bathroom, Monica swiped and slashed with great zest, ruining all of Anna's clothes that were kept in her wardrobe. Looking innocent, she'd quickly hidden the scissors and gone back to filing her nails, like Anna had left her. Anna didn't believe that she'd have done something that mean, and so she didn't suspect Monica.

Till nine, Anna had studied for her exams and had spoken to her parents, telling them that everything was fine and she had a roommate too. She did not mention that her next shoot was at midnight or that her first shoot had been with cheetahs. There was no point in worrying them. She had spoken to Marie, who wasn't jealous, as she'd got another modelling assignment, which would be starting the next week. Marie was happy for Anna, and just said "It is amazing. Richard freakin' West! Everyone at Polson's talking about you. Really, Anna... just wow!" and Anna didn't bother correcting her or telling her that Richard West seemed to have some sort of a vendetta against her.

Anna had had the tea brought in by one of the staff. Monica smiled cruelly. "I thought you'd want to lose some weight if you're modelling for Ricky West. So I took the liberty of ordering you some green tea. And obviously you wouldn't like to have the meal, would you?"

Anna didn't say anything to Monica. She hadn't had any lunch because of the shoot. In fact, she had not eaten anything since her breakfast at five-thirty in the morning, but Anna didn't complain. She went over to the wardrobe to lay out her clothes for the midnight shoot, and found all her clothes slashed to shreds. Anna blushed. She realised that living with Monica was going to be tough. But she had to do it. She had promised herself she'd do her best for this photoshoot. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't let Richard West enjoy her discomfort. So she didn't say a word about the slashed clothes. She realised she'd have to go for the shoot in the t-shirt and shorts she was wearing. That couldn't be helped.