The Selection (Is A Modelling Competition)✔️

Chapter 4: Settling In

"Oh my gosh, America, you looks so... casual!" Marlee exclaimed as she hugged me. "I mean, really pretty, but casual, you know..." She seemed to have realize her social faux pas and was beginning to wonder if she'd offended me, but I assured her she hadn't.

"It's fine. I wanted to look like this. You look great, by the way!" I did my best to channel my inner May, but I was tired. I had skipped past going outside to breathe fresh air and straight to wanting to crawl into my bed and sleep for a thousand years.

"Thanks," she said, uncharacteristically shy. Her dress was floral, blue and red and yellow poppies on a white background, and the hem ended at her knees. To match, she wore a pair of yellow sandals with crisscrossing straps. "But, honestly, I could probably deal with all this dressing up tomorrow, not when we've just been on a twelve-hour flight. I wish I could just go to bed."

"My thoughts exactly!" I said, glad to hear my thoughts voiced out loud. "I mean, the makeover was fine and all, but why do it on the first day?"

"Because," said Miss Sylvia's prim voice. "You are about to be on television, to do a brief talk about how excited you are to be here, with the host of Illea's Top Model, Gavril Fadaye."

Several excited shrieks sounded around the room. Wasn't anyone tired of being on display yet?

Still, I felt a frisson of panic surging up in me. Should I have picked something less casual? What if I embarrassed myself for live TV? I never should've let myself be talked into this.

Fortunately, the interview was short. Gavril Fadaye, a suited man in his early forties with a personality rather suited to tv-show-hosting, asked me inane questions. "So, what has the best part of your trip so far?"

I tried to be honest. "Well, the food on the plane was really nice."

He laughed like I was joking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Celeste whisper something to Bariel, who laughed nastily. "Of course, the food! What do you think of the competition, is there any girl in particular that you think will make it?"

"Well, I think the staff did great with all of us, so I think we all have a fair shot of winning," I answered.

"How kind of you to say so. But really, what do you think?"

"I still can't say. It's too early." How pushy could he be?

"Yes, yes." He smiled winningly at me. "Next!"

:::

I stared at the top of the canopy bed, listening to the sound of air conditioning humming and music softly playing and somewhere, thirty-four other girls breathing.

It was impossible to sleep, with my nerves frayed and mind buzzing. I need air. I needed the outdoors. I need sleep, but I was far from getting it.

I got out of bed, jamming my feet into slippers and slipping into a bathrobe over my nightgown, and padded down the richly carpeted hall to look for a way out. A sense of claustrophobia wrapped around me, suffocating, and the French double doors I saw, with their frosted windows and brass handles looked impossibly far away. I sprinted towards them... and tripped.

"Ow!" For all their plush carpet, this place really needed to get rounded corners on their furniture. I had landed on the edge of an entry table -which fortunately had nothing breakable on it- and its corner jammed into my hip.

Getting up carefully, I continued my trajectory towards the exit. My accident, however, seemed to have disturbed someone, and I carefully hid behind a corner. A blonde guy, about my height, wearing a pair of jeans with a grey button down and rumpled suit jacket, came out of a room. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

I figured there was no use in hiding, and this guy didn't seem like he'd hurt me, so I stepped out. "Yeah... I was just trying to find my way outside, and then I fell. I'm going to go now."

"Oh!" He sucked in air, looking at me like I was the most surprising thing he'd ever seen. It didn't make me feel much better. "You're one of the- one of the girls."

"Yeah- Yes, I am." I shifted from one foot to the other impatiently.

"Mind if I walk you outside?" He asked, politely.

"No." Not if it got me there faster.

We walked outside together, and I saw that beyond the frosted glass of the doors was a whole other world, one of mysterious, exotic plants with waxy leaves, where moonlight tinted petals and leaves and grass magically. Dangling flowers were interspersed with leafy trees that cast pleasantly cool shadows on my skin; willows hung over benches made of iron curlicues; the stars spiraled out around the moon when I looked up, a far cry from the light pollution of Carolina that let me know that we were quite a ways from Angeles's capital city.

It was beautiful.