Beauty King [boyxboy]

Chapter 3

"5, 6, 7, 8" The music started, Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor", signalling for all to start on the warm-up routine. We were going to learn the choreography for the big opening number of the pageant today, and from what I could see, the choreographer was clearly gay. Beret on head, fuchsia Juicy sweater, shorts that showed even more skin than Stacy was at the front. I was hiding at the back of the group, consisting of 29 other girls. We were in the middle of doing heel raises when Mrs Martinez burst through the room, wagging for the choreographer to come to her.

She whispered something to him, causing him to gasp in delight, then pout as she said something else. He swinged his hips as he went to the speaker, cutting short the music, causing a series of whispers to arise. "Bonjour, mes lovelies! Je m'appelle François, and I am your dance teacher. Mrs Martinez dit qu'il y a un garçon among us today! Please step out!" He clapped raptly twice, and I stepped out awkwardly, certain that Stacy was going to see me.

"Ah! Fantastique! Finally, a guy in the realm of beauty pageants! Proud of you, sonny! Well Mrs Martinez wants me to stick in the back, but then that would be a pity wouldn't it? No one would get to see you. We're putting you right in front, center stage ba-bay!" I froze, struggling and protesting. I wasn't exactly the best dancer.

"François, perhaps you want to reconsider," Mrs Martinez suggested worriedly, casting me the stink eye. "What about Stacy? She's won 18 pageants, and is very talented at dancing." Stacy stepped forward, beaming at Mrs Martinez, then did a perfect pirouette. "Ah magnifique! Why don't you be behind January then?" Stacy gasped, then stomped back to her original place. "François, please, reconsider your decision!" Mrs Martinez pleaded.

"Bab bab bab! Silence!" François rattled on in perfect French, clearly angered. "Mrs Martinez, you may be the head organizer for the pageant, but I am in charge of the dancing. If you may please excuse me."

It was decided.

***

After the episode, François said he no longer had the mood to teach, and dismissed us for early lunch. Mrs Martinez had been near to explosion, cursing in rapt Spanish about how I had ruined her pageant. Hey, I didn't ask to be in the front. But well, I may as well use it to my full advantage now then.

I grabbed a yoghurt, not really having the appetite to eat. I was about to grab the last blueberry yoghurt when a slender hand snatched it up. "Oops, sorry," an all too familiar voice remarked, dripping with sarcasm. Stacy. I turned around, shrugging. "Ohkay you can have it then." I was about to leave when Stacy said, "Wait I don't want it anymore, you can have it, it's just like you, non low-fat." Then she dumped the open yoghurt carton on my head.

I gasped, not even bothering to make a snide remark back, because I knew I was better than that. "This will teach you to snatch my spot in the front of the dance." Stacy said snappily, then tossed her platinum blonde hair and snapped her fingers, beckoning her sidekicks, Peggy and Lola to leave behind her.

I reached for a napkin afterwards, dabbing up all the yoghurt in my hair that I had purposely spent effort giving it the perfect messy look that morning. Now it was destroyed. Sigh. I reached for another yoghurt, heading to sit at a table that was occupied with a couple of girls I recognized from the pageant. Might as well make some friends right?

"Hey." I had barely opened my mouth, when the table was evacuated. As soon as the girls realized that I was going to sit at their table, they had immediately packed and left. I was confused, and yes, a little hurt. I sighed, frustrated, crushing the yoghurt cup in my hand, causing it to crack and yoghurt to spill, then getting up and leaving it at the table.

Things were real starting to look up. Not.

***

I was on my way back to my room, singing Taylor Swift's "Begin Again" softly, when I accidentally bumped into a girl, causing her to drop her pile of books. "Oh I'm so sorry!" She gathered her books hurriedly. I recognized the girl, she was the only girl who was by herself at the rehearsal today, instead of chattering with a bunch of other females. She spoke with a slight Southern Belle accent, so she was probably from the south of the US.

"No, I'm sorry." I gathered the last of her books, then smiled tentatively at her, "Hey, Karinne right?" She smiled shyly, nodding, causing a strand of her strawberry blonde hair to escape from the messy bun she had fashioned for dance practice. "I'm January. I noticed you spoke with a southern accent, are you by any chance from there?" Karinne piped up softly, "Yeah, I'm from Maryland. I came to New York for the pageant because my mother felt that it would be a learning opportunity for me as it's so different from the ones back home. It really is." Her smile fell.

"Hey hey hey, what's wrong?" I asked, concerned. "Nothing." She brushed her hair away, frustrated. "It's just Stacy. She's a reigning beauty queen in New York, and when she heard that I was one from my own state, she was really mean to me, and now everyone's avoiding me like the plague as well. You probably should have noticed, you were shunned by them as well. She's got really influential parents and she always gets her way, so everyone listens to her and tries to stay on her good side."

Oh, so that was what had been going on. "Yeah, well Stace is real serious when it comes to competition." "You know Stacy?" Karinne widened her eyes, gasping, "Oh mi gosh I feel horrible for you." "Yeah well, I have to go to school with her you know." I made my hand into the gun sign and shot at my own head, making Karinne giggle. "I rejected her recently, and I guess she hasn't completely cooled off yet, so she's after my head too. So you know, don't feel so sad, there's two of us, and we gotta stick together ohkay?" I patted Karinne's shoulder comfortingly.

Karinne nodded and then hugged me. I was glad I had a new friend, because having a friend now was definitely going to be useful.