Game On

Chapter 7

Ricky's POV
We left our dressing room, feeling kind of weird. It was strange to be defined by a label right to your face and having to live up to it. 

   Sena was weirdly quiet, her expression changed from a light smile to a thoughtful, almost sad expression, I suppose that girl had really upset her, I'm sure being called boring was hurtful and being the one left over to play the weak link would be infuriating, even though it didn't stick, thankfully, because knowing her, she'd flip eventually and it would be broadcasted all across the galaxy.

   Amalia on the other hand wasn't alternating emotions, she was just pissed. She was mad about having to be the eye candy for men everywhere, and over the stylists saying that we were underdogs.
   "What does that even mean?"
   "It's just because we have the least amount of people" I reminded her
   "Everyone loves an underdog. I think we should use it to our advantage" Cal suggested.
Honto snorted That's a good idea. We need something to set us apart. Besides my good looks, of course.  Sena barked a loud laugh. The others gasped and turned to look at her. I was already laughing. It was such a shame the others didn't get to see Honto the way we did. It was never as funny when we repeated it back to them. They laughed anyway and Honto seemed so proud, I was glad, I worried sometimes that he felt isolated because of his inability to communicate with the other two because he was such a good guy.
   "Hey! Ricky! How'd it go?" Calrdol strolled up to us.

   "Good. I'm a tough softie. What did they give you?" I grinned. I was so glad to make a new friend. It had been so long since I'd had the chance. I'd almost forgotten the adrenaline rush you can get from just being social.
   "Oh, I'm the brooding bad boy. We'll see how that goes." He chuckled and scratched his head, covered with slicked back, dark hair. 
   "Good luck with that! I'll see you tomorrow."
   "See you then. Oh, Sena, Thanks for the snow cone. It was delicious." he nodded in her direction, she gave him a thumbs up and a wide smile. "I'll see you all tomorrow for the photoshoots."
   "Yeah, we'll see you there." Amalia said before any of us voiced our confusion. When he was out of earshot she hissed "Guys, we need to read those timetables" she snorted at her own lack of organisation.

   The next day, we arrived at the studio at around noon. We were the last team to be called in. We were all pushed into seats as stylists poked and prodded at us. They had to mix lots of colours to make the perfect shade of brown for my skin which took more time than all of Cal's make up. Finally they finished piling things on my face and let me see my reflection. I don't scare easy but God, was that terrifying. I looked so smooth and false. 
   "Don't worry, honey. It wont look like that on camera." the stylist laughed at my poorly concealed disgust.
   "Oh Thanks" I sighed in relief. I went over to sit with Cal and Honto who was going makeup free because the makeup they had wasn't compatible with the texture of his skin.
   "Hey Ricky!" Clardol approached me.
   "Hey, why are you still here?" I looked around for his teammates. 
   "I wasn't leaving here until they took all that gunk off my face"
   "That's a good idea. How did it go?" I gestured over to the screen with all the equipment.
   "It was kind of awkward at first. We didn't really know what to do, the billboards will be pretty basic, and the holographic ones will show how uncomfortable I felt very vividly." he laughed with a shrug, "Anyway, I better get going. I'll see you later around the hotel? Okay bye." he waved and walked out, not as straight as usual, kind of slumped. Maybe he felt lost without his team nearby.
   "Well, that was rude" Cal huffed. "What am I, huh? a mouldy glurgan? Ignoring us like that." he gestured to himself and Honto.
   "What is a glurgan?" I smirked
   "I don't know, some kind of fruit? There was a carton of glurgan juice in the common room. I wouldn't recommend it."
   "To wardrobe!" A stylist clapped to get our attention as the girls rose from their chairs and looked from their reflections to each other with raised eyebrows. Amalia walked towards me and hissed.
   "I don't want to hear a word." Her makeup was the worst of us all. She had dark brown and purple smudged all over her eyelids, which made her eyes look like they had a green tint, and dark red lipstick that didn't stay inside the natural line of her lips and a fake beauty mark on her cheek.
   "Your hair is nice" I grinned and it wasn't a lie. Her hair was wavier than usual and puffed out from her face a bit more, creating a windswept effect. She grunted and we followed the stylist to a clothing rack. It wasn't until we all stood as a group that I saw Sena. Her skin looked really peach, rather than her usual white, she looked a lot more human apart from the cheekbones they had emphasized severely. Her eyes were watering, probably from the amount of white eyeliner they had put on her to make her eyes look huge, possibly to make her look more innocent and her lips were coated in a glossy pink and her hair, that had been straightened, kept sticking to them.

   The woman handed us our outfits. Mine consisted of a brown leather jacket, a very tight dark red t-shirt and black jeans. Cal was given a simple white shirt that was also very tight and dark grey jeans, Honto didn't usually wear anything so he was good to go. Amalia was given a short red dress and high shoes and Sena was given a white top with blue flowers on it, a sleeveless lace thingie to go over it (Why?? It would not provide warmth.) and a blue skirt.

   We were then all shoved in front of the camera.
   "What do you want us to do?" Amalia asked. The photographer sighed. he had clearly answered this question a lot already.
   "Just be yourselves and have fun with it." he shrugged and ducked behind the camera.
   "Okay guys," Amalia turned to us, after it was made clear that we weren't going to be given any directions "get in formation and think about our determination to win. we're going to walk so it doesn't look like we're posing too hard." she informed the photographer of the last part. After a few minutes of walking back and forth, the photographer grew bored of that.
   "Guys you heard him, just have fun." Simultaneously, we all made faces at the camera.
   "Is there any music we could play?" I suggested, knowing it would lighten the mood. Once the music got going we were really enjoying ourselves. We faced the back and looked over our shoulders mockingly, we danced, strutted and serenaded the camera. Honto made his body more flexible and wiggled and wobbled which had us all cracking up. Cal was spinning Sena around and dipping her dramatically. Amalia and I jived and twisted. We all started linking and spinning around in circles, We all gathered in a circle and took turns doing individual moves while the rest of us cheered, and in Cal's case boo'ed.
   "Okay. That's a wrap! I've run out of film!" The photographer jumped up from behind the camera, like a completely different person. He was beaming at us. "Thank you guys. I actually enjoyed shooting you. I got some really good shots and even filmed some of it. I hope you do really well in this competition."
   "Aw, thank you!" Sena smiled up at him. We all shook his hand and made our way back to the hotel.

   We all went back to our room. Amalia's disgust was clear when she saw random bits of food and clothes strewn across the floor. She made my bed before she sat on it and then pat beside her, giving me permission to sit on my own bed, I smiled and rolled my eyes and sunk down beside her. Sena on the other hand was standing on Cal's bed chewing on a snack she had found on his bedside table, clicking to the beat of the song we had just danced to with Cal, who hummed and played air guitar.
   It's so nice when the children get along. Honto joked with me telepathically. nodding towards the pair dancing on the bed. Sena had started bouncing, Cal tried and hit his head off the ceiling.
   Did you see them at the photoshoot? He didn't stray more than three feet away from her  the whole time. I responded
   I don't even think he realised He laughed.
   "When are we getting food?" Sena asked, still chomping on Cal's snack.
   "You're eating right now" Amalia smirked.
   "I'm still hungry."
   "You're not even finished- hey! Is that mine?!" Cal snatched the crumbly bar out of her hand. she smiled wide and nodded.
   "Hmm-mm!" She chewed loudly "I left you some..."
   "No! I wrestled it from you."
   "That was not wrestling. This is-" she grabbed his arm, twisted it until he was kneeling on the bed and took the bar back and shoved the rest of it in her mouth. "I'll geff you one lafer" She mumbled through the mouthful as crumbs fell into his face. "Fank you!" She said when he didn't respond and hugged him tight, trapping his arms to his body and shaking him as he tried to break free to get her back.
   Well it was good while it lasted Honto chuckled.