Beauty King [boyxboy]

Chapter 5

"Dude wake up!" I was awakened by someone's rude shoving. "Ughhhhaaa!" I mumbled some nonsensical words, hoping that whoever it was would get the message to leave me alone. "Hey if you want to play that way, go ahead. But I just wanted to let you know that your second dance practice is going to start in five minutes. I wouldn't know, but I have to get some pictures of you beauty queens today." Stefon chuckled.

"WHAT?" I startled, sitting straight up, hair sticking in all directions. "Oh man oh man oh man!" I grabbed a fresh set of clothes, heading to the bathroom for a thirty second shower and wash-up. Then I darted out of the room, shouting a quick "Thanks" to Stefon, who shook his head, clearly bemused.

***

I made it to the dance room by a second. The room was already full, and all 30 heads, including François' turned to look at me. I flushed a deep red, sticking my hand up awkwardly in a gesture of hi. "Ah Jan darling," François tutted, "Almost late, non? Join everyone quickly." I muttered apologetically, making my way to Amber, brushing past Stacy, who was snickering.

"So, we are doing jazz. Il est une très belle dance, that allows you to add in your personal flavor. Your style." For the next 3 hours, François taught and drilled into us the four and a half minutes choreography. I was shocked to find out that I was a pretty awesome dancer. François often oohed and ahhed at my moves, proud of my progress. "Bravo! Fabulous, Jan dear!"

I was loving the dance, loving the music, loving myself, when someone stuck out a foot and tripped me. "Oopsies, silly me." Stacy's sweet voice, dripping with fake honey reached my ears. "Well I told you to watch out didn't I?" She gave me a menacing glare, then proceeded to dance to the other direction of the room. Karinne, who turned out to be a really great dancer, what with all her training back at home, was placed on the right of me in the front row, and she looked at me knowingly.

***

"She's just jealous of your dance moves." "Huh?" I swiveled my head to Karinne, who was seated beside me eating a chocolate pie. "I said, Stacy's just jealous of how great you are at dancing. That's why she tripped you." I bit my lip worriedly, wishing that it wasn't that case. "Well maybe it was an accident?" I suggested breezily, knowing clearly that it was not.

"You know it wasn't, January. You know how mean Stacy gets in the face of competition. As if she wasn't humiliated enough when she was placed behind you in the dance, it's revealed that you're actually great at dancing! Stacy's definitely threatened, everyone knows her forte lies in dancing."

I shook my head to clear the thought, but Karinne went on. "I heard that Stacy doesn't play fair in pageants. In fact, the only reason she wins so many pageants is because she gets rid of the competitors who she feels are her rivals. In last years' Little Miss America, she actually waxed the dance floor when one of her fellow competitors who was performing a ballet routine like she was, to the same song she was using, one day before the actual pageant. The poor girl sprained her leg, and couldn't take part the next day. Everyone had felt she was going to be a shoo in for the champion, but of course, that's until Stacy sabotaged her chances."

I tried to laugh it off, because the idea that Stacy would physically endanger anybody just to win was really terrifying, and pretty much psychopathic. "Well if it's true, how come no authorities found out and disqualified her." Karinne continued, "Sometimes she uses a scapegoat to take the blame, by framing them, and then sometimes she just knows how to craft and carry out the perfect scheme. The idea is, Stacy knows the pageant world like the back of her hand, and she knows how to play her cards right. No one ever suspects her because she appears like an angel in front of them, so Stacy gets away with whatever she does."

"My point is, you really got to take Stacy's advice when she tells you to watch your back."

***

After lunch, we had four hours to prepare for our talent segment till six. We were each given a private room to ourselves to allow privacy. The room was spacious, with mirrors on all four walls. There was a stereo, a speaker, a mic. There were even a couple of instruments at a corner. I guess they really tried to accomodate to any talent that one might have.

I lay on the floor and blew out a puff of air. I had no idea what talent I was going to do coming into this competition. I knew Stacy was going to dance for sure, she was a level 4 in her ballet class, the highest, been en pointe for 7 years, and she was professionally trained in many other types of dance. Karinne was going to play both the piano and violin, and she was very skillful at composing. I was sure she was going to come up with a masterpiece.

Me? I was still not sure. I don't really have any talents. Sure, I was good at basketball, but it wasn't something I wanted to do in this pageant. I wanted to break away from my norm. Yeah, turns out I'm pretty slick at dancing, but compared to people like Stace, I was nowhere near their standard of practising hard every single day, and pointing and stuff. Besides, I didn't even have original choreography.

I didn't know how to play any instruments at all so that ruled that possibility out. I was about to admit defeat and just pass into a deep slumber when the door creaked open and someone stepped in. Stefon. He had a camera slung around his shoulders, and he was wearing a black button down shirt with a dark purple tee inside, which I thought was really cute. He looked dashing even like that, and the purple brought out the violet streak in his eye.

"Hey." He stepped in and closed the door. I curled into a ball and pouted. "What are you doing here?" I said in a baby voice, making him laugh. "Well I told you I had to take photos today right? We're supposed to catch you guys in action and stuff." "Oh, well I'm not really doing anything." I whined, just feeling really childish.

Stefon took a seat on the floor beside me and kept silent for a second. He seemed to be deep in thought. "Well come on, you big baby, I'll take you somewhere." With that, he took hold of my wrist and dragged me off to puff knows where.