Clandestine

fourteen

-julia-

 Rosalina bursts into my room at an hour much too early. She drags a sleepy Carlotta in behind her and shoves a cappuccino into my hand, even though I'm still in bed.

I sit up, pushing the covers away, "Why are you here? What's going on?"

Rosalina throws her hands in the air, "We have a fashion show crisis. A real crisis."

"What is it?"

"One of models pulled out. She sent me a really nice email about how she got another opportunity that was better elsewhere and she won't be able to make. One whole day before the show. What am I going to do?"

"There must be someone you can call. What about your manager or your investors?" I suggest.

"They don't know anything about fashion shows. They would probably just grabs someone off the street and shove them into my hands. I can't train just anyone to be in this show. It's the entire show. There's choreography and line up orders and changing schedules and..." Rosalina buries her head in her hands.

Carlotta says, "Maybe Julia or I could be your model. We have to have picked up something after coming to all your shows. If we work on it all day..."

Rosalina shakes her head, "Don't be ridiculous. This is my best shot at starting my own independent company where I am in charge and completely in charge of. I'm sorry, but neither of you know the first thing about modeling."

Carlotta shrugs, "I thought I'd suggest it. I was a little worried that you would say yes. I have swim practice today at four anyway."

Rosalina collapses on my bed with a flair of dramatics. "What am I going to do?"

I say, "There must be someone you can call."

"I'll call all of the surrounding modeling agencies. But it's going to be next to impossible to get them to come, and to get an actually good model."

"Why don't you call then? Right now so you can stop stressing out about it."

"It's a Saturday. The agency won't open until nine."

I glance at the clock. It's five thirty in the morning.

I groan. "Why did you get here so early?"

Carlotta mumbles her agreement from her curled up spot on a chair.

Rosalina shrugs, "It was an emergency. I needed you."

I give her a sleepy hug and then bury myself back under the covers.

I doze in and out, occasionally waking up to Rosalina's cursing and ranting. One time I awoke with a start as Rosalina threw her phone across the room in anger.

"What?" I ask.

She says, "Nothing. The agency actually doesn't open until ten. Sorry."

I mumble something and roll over.

I awake at a more reasonable time to the smell of cooked eggs and bacon. I rub my eyes to find Rosalina serving Carlotta and I a cooked breakfast.

I raise an eyebrow, "What is this?"

"My apology for waking you up so early. I probably could have, and should have, waited a few hours."

I shrug, "What are friends for? Did you actually make this?"

She laughs, "No. You have quite the staff, you know that?"

We dig into our breakfast and chat, while Rosalina pretends not to be stressed out. As much as I feel bad for her, I know there's not much I can do to help.

We are watching a children's movie. It is our all time personal favorite and we've watched countless times.

We are interrupted by a knock on the door.

My mother enters without waiting for me to come in.

She gives me a smile, though I can tell something is off.

She says in a voice much too calm, "Julia, my dear, can I talked to you for a second?"

I swallow hard and nod. "Sure what is it?"

"I'm afraid this is the kind of thing that needs to be discussed in my office. I'm sure your friends won't mind."

I nod and follow after her. Surely she didn't hear about me complaining to my friends about becoming a politician. Who could have told her?

But what else could it be about? The meeting and Alan Tinsley?

We sit down at her desk.

She says, "Julia, you are now in more danger than ever."