After College

Miss Winner

"Turn your head slightly to the left," the photographer instructs me, "and relax your shoulders a bit. Place your hand under your chin and bend your fingers a tiny bit. Oh no! That's too much. A little more now. Stop! Perfect. Now hold this pose."

Flash. Flash. Flash.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Olivia Manning running in her nude stilettos with her auburn hair bouncing up and down. "Harper," Olivia rushes to my side and tells me. "There is only fifteen minutes left till your next meeting. We'll have to get going in five. It's on the other side of the city, and you know how bad traffic can be during rush hour."

"Raphael, I'm afraid we have to cut this photo shoot short," I change into another pose for him while stating.

"But darling, it's the top 10 under 40!" Raphael presses the shutter to his expensive camera. "And you're on the cover! Don't you want to look fab?"

I snicker and fling my hair over my shoulders, "But I am fabulous already aren't I?" Knowing that I can't be too arrogant now or else people will talk, I add, "I trust your skills! I'm sure you can pick the best photo."

"Certainly honey!" Raphael gives me a thumbs up, which signals to me that I can leave. It's about time anyway. I've gotten so stiff from all that posing and this super long ball gown I'm wearing has been too heavy for me.

As I stretch my arms, I glance at Olivia once and immediately she has my vegetable smoothie. I've been going on a juice cleanse to be perfect for this photo shoot. I'm not going to let anyone bring me down, not anymore. I'm tired of being the one chasing after someone, always landing the number two spot.

I've never been lucky, unfortunately. I was born into a family living below the poverty line because the mother was stupid and decided to have a child at the age of 14. What was even sillier was that the mother quit school, became addicted to drugs and alcohol, and couldn't even hold a job like prostituting. The father? The mother didn't even know the father. He was probably one of hundreds of men she had slept with. What was even worse? The mother kept getting pregnant, and I was one of the older kids. Although the mother left me with my grandmother, I still had to look after my four younger siblings. My grandmother was too weak to take care of the kids. She only cared about playing cards and gambling with her neighbours. Fortunately, my older brother was shot during a gang fight and my other older sister never bothered to keep in contact with me.

At a young age, I learned how to earn money. I wasn't like those rich, spoiled brats who just had to do well in school. I had to do odd jobs here and there just to feed myself and to pay for my own education. I entered college three years later because I had to save up for rent and textbook fees. Luckily, no one suspected my age due to my baby face. I always pretended that I was the age that I was supposed to be in college—eighteen upon entering first year. I was smart enough to have a fully paid scholarship, so I didn't need to worry for my tuition. Still, I kept working part-time as a tutor during undergrad and then started a tutoring company that became one of the nation's biggest enterprises.

Finally, I was on top of the world, looking down at those that kept making fun of my soiled clothes. And finally . . . I beat Aurora. If there's one person that I hate in this world, it'd have to be Aurora. She embodied everything that I despised. She was the girl who was blessed with beautiful looks, yet kept refuting that she was pretty. She was that insecure, little bitch that constantly fed on more compliments, and all the men gave them to her. They adored her. No, almost everyone loved her. She was smart, but not extremely smart. She didn't need to work very hard, and she would still get her As.

Meanwhile, I had to review and preview every night. I lived on caffeine and before exams, I would always take Adderall. I hardly had time to go out or have a social life. I was only in two places: the classroom or my room. I didn't care if I lacked friends because I knew I had to work hard to succeed. All this hard work would pay off. Someday, someone will see the fruit of my labour. The whole world will be admiring me, craving to be me and not that bitch, Aurora.