Miss Tanya looked Angel over one last time, her comb hovering. She nodded. “Perfect. The angel costume is lovely.”
Miss Tanya never commented on how Angel looked, so her words were encouraging. Narrow wings hovered over her shoulders, and a classic gold ring crowned her head. Its simplicity made it stunning. Anything more complicated would have looked fussy.
Angel walked onto the stage.
A camera operator whistled and called, “Wow!”
Angel’s heart lifted. This would be a viral video! Given her name, the angel costume had always been inevitable. The Director would love this. After all, MamaGrace said that the Director had given her the name of Angel.
Lights flared on, and Angel’s heart flared with hope. For this test video, Angel had to run through a simple obstacle course: a chair, a box, a bowl of water. She was supposed to run as close as possible to each object.
The Director called, “Action.”
Angel looked at the camera a long time for her odd-eyed soul-connect. “Watch me, watch me, watch me,” she told the video camera. “I’m angelic.”
She turned and sprinted. The chair was metal, a collapsible, foldable one. She dashed to its right, but at the last second—it was too tempting—she sent her hind legs first and slid under the chair. Leaping up, she flashed the camera a wicked smile.
The cardboard box reminded Angel of the foam cubes in the acrobatics class. She leaped onto the box and charged off the other side, legs and tail spread wide. I’m a lightning bolt, she thought.
She ran toward the bowl of water, meaning to slide around it. She went in feet-first again, but this time she careened out of control into the water bowl, which flipped over. She was drenched.
Oh, Angel thought. That wasn’t very angelic.
The set was silent.
Finally, from beyond the lights came the Director’s voice. “Cut!”
The Director stepped onto the stage, his front legs stiff, chest puffed out. Glaring, he shook a paw at her. “What was that?”
Angel backed away, putting a water puddle between them. Because he was hairless, the Director hated getting wet and cold. The water would protect her. She hoped.
He glared and repeated, “What was that?”
Angel looked aside. “You said to run the obstacle course, so I did.”
“Your angel costume is ruined. You left the halo at the box.”
Reaching up a paw to her head, Angel spun around. On the ground near the cube, she saw the halo. It must have fallen off when she jumped off as if struck by lightning.
“Oh, my wings…” She tried to look around at them.
“Wet feathers. Ruined.” The Director almost spat the words.
Angel shrank to her belly, pulling her paws over her head to brush away some water.
The studio was utterly silent.
“The obstacle course…”
“No!” roared the Director. “Just say you’re sorry.”
Angel sucked in a deep breath, meaning to explain everything. Instead, she squeaked, “Sorry.”
The Director stomped through the water puddle and stood over her. “Angel Persian, you don’t need to wear costumes. I don’t care how adorable they are. You’re not a costume person. Don’t try another one.”
Angel peered up at him.
The Director shivered, his skin covered with goose bumps.
“But…” Angel tried.
“No.”
“Maybe…” Angel tried again.
“No.”
“Why?” Her voice broke with frustration.
“No. You are Underdog Cat. Jazz wears costumes. You do NOT! Now go get cleaned up. We’ll do an episode in thirty minutes. Without the costume.”
Angel trembled now, emotions swirling. She just needed to get the top video again, and costumes worked for Jazz. Why not for her? How else could she get the top video more than once?
This was so unfair. The costumes were a shortcut, a gimmick, a trick to make her videos more interesting. She needed the viewers to click and click and click.
Angel rose and wobbled to the dressing room. She expected Miss Tanya to be mad, to tell her what a fool she’d been. Instead, her groomer just pulled out the hairdryer. Making herself small, Angel hunched her shoulders against the heat.
The door pushed open, and Rudy peered around. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Angel said. “No costumes for me.”
Rudy shrugged. “You don’t need costumes. Your white fur is your costume.”
Angel shook water from one paw, making Miss Tanya step back.
The groomer frowned at Angel, who rolled her eyes and said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Rudy said, “I wonder…” But he stopped, shaking his head.
“What?”
Rudy stepped backward to allow Miss Tanya to walk around Angel. “I shouldn’t say anything.”
“What?” Angel was curious now.
“Well, what if you did an acrobatics video?”
Angel turned to Rudy, waving off Miss Tanya for a moment. “We aren’t ready for that yet.”
Rudy shrugged.
“I can only do a single flip. Nothing else.”
Rudy shrugged.
“The Director will get mad.”
“Not if the video gets views,” Rudy said. “What do you have to lose?”
“No. I won’t do it without talking to the Director first.”
“Okay.” Rudy shrugged. “Talk to him.”
Angel squared her shoulders and shot her tail toward the sky. “Yes. I’ll do that right now.” She marched out the door.