CHAPTER 5

 

 

My fingers were a little sticky from the waffles. I barely had time to wash them before the doorbell of Jane’s house kept ringing. One after the other, all our models started arriving for the photo shoot.

“This house is amazing,” Lucy gushed, staring wide eyed at everything. I knew how that felt, that was me when I first saw Jane’s mansion.

“Are you, like, hiring this place for the shoot?” Kinsey asked.

“No, it’s Jane’s house,” I replied to the assembled group. “Her parents don’t care what we do here as long as nothing is damaged.”

“Cool.”

“Super cool.”

Feeling like a kindergarten teacher, I corralled them all into the downstairs guest room. We had set up mirrors and lights in there, transforming the bedroom into a hair and makeup salon.

Neither Jane or myself was that great with beauty stuff. I could do my own hair and makeup, but forget about matching skin tones or highlighting for other people. Luckily, Jane managed to talk her parents into springing for a professional. Or maybe she paid for it out of her allowance. She was a little sketchy on the details.

The girls sat in a row, awaiting their turn. Miss Hair, who I discovered was actually named Ashlee, went first. She sat in the hot seat, watching Miss Mary-Margaret’s every move as she worked on her.

She had her long blonde hair curled to within an inch of its life, the locks flowing down her back like an amazing waterfall. By the time her makeup was done, Ashlee was barely recognizable.

And I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Oh my God, Ash. You look like a supermodel,” Miss Glasses, aka Bree, gushed.

Ashlee’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “You really think so? I mean… I feel so… pretty.”

“You look pretty,” I said sincerely. I never would have guessed she would scrub up so well. It was amazing what a bit of makeup and hairbrush could do.

Hayley pushed past everyone. “It’s my turn next.” She sat in the chair and awaited Miss Mary-Margaret’s mastery.

It took almost two hours to get through everyone. Kristy was last. I was the only one in the room with her by that stage, doing my supervisory task. Jane was getting the others into their outfits and making any size alterations.

“Are you going to make me look stupid?” Kristy asked as she reluctantly took the hot seat.

“I’m going to make you look beautiful,” Miss Mary-Margaret replied politely. I think she might have been a bit scared of Misty Kristy. Most people were, she gave off an aura of danger.

“Maybe try and keep her as natural as possible,” I offered. “Kristy is athletic, we want to keep her look true to her personality.”

They both seemed satisfied with that. Miss Mary-Margaret applied only the barest of makeup to cover the bruise Kristy had on her cheek, and kept her hair straight. Everything she did brought out Kristy’s natural features. By the end of it, she looked beautiful but still like Kristy.

Afterwards, Kristy inspected herself in the mirror. “Okay, I don’t look stupid. I’m ready to go.”

That was a relief.

I accompanied her upstairs to Jane’s bedroom, otherwise known as the dressing room. She was already waiting for Kristy when we arrived. I handed her over and inspected the other girls.

This wasn’t a room full of kids from school, all I saw was a room full of models. In our clothes, they looked amazing. The designs that had come out of my head were standing in front of me as final products.

I wanted to cry with happiness.

We had really done it. From my sketches, Jane had brought the clothes into existence. But it was the girls who brought them to life.

“I’m speechless,” I muttered like a fool as they all stared at me.

“That’s got to be a first,” Kinsey teased.

“I’m ready for my close up,” Bree said, making all the other book club girls laugh. She struck a pose and pouted, putting all the attitude into modeling. I loved it.

“Everyone’s dressed!” Jane called out. She sagged with relief.

“Let’s get this show on the road then,” I said happily. I led the girls back downstairs and found the photographer waiting for us outside.

And by photographer, I meant Sandy, the girl Jane bribed from my Creative Arts class. She apparently hated Biology homework and that was one of Jane’s specialties. She would be doing her homework for a month to pay for our shoot.

We had discussed with Sandy what kind of photos we wanted beforehand so she was ready to work as soon as the girls were all assembled.

She started by doing individual shoots in the garden. Our models needed a lot of guidance so I stood with her, suggesting poses that would highlight the clothes and be flattering for their bodies.

While the other girls waited, I shoved an array of women’s fashion magazines at them, suggesting they study. I knew my friends would be experts already, but there was always room for improvement.

Bree was actually a natural. I insisted she keep her glasses on throughout the entire shoot because she looked cute in them. With so many girls wearing glasses these days, I wanted to make sure we represented them. And there was no-one better to do that than Bree.

Next up was Hayley. She insisted she didn’t need any of my guidance and waved me away. After watching her for a few minutes, I was having doubts about that. I suggested a few things and she just huffed me away. Hopefully Sandy would do better than I did.

Miss Curvy Number One, aka Jessica, was really shy to get started. She chose poses that covered her body more than flaunted it.

“Jess, you need to put your hands on your hips,” I insisted. “Otherwise nobody is going to see your waist.”

“But then my boobs stick out,” she groaned.

“And they’re beautiful. Look how the dress loves all your curves. You look like a goddess in that dress.”

She looked down at her body, clearly not seeing what I was. “I don’t know if I can do this after all. I’m sorry, Truly.”

Hell no.

“No, Jess, you’re not going anywhere. Sandy, can we please have a moment? Maybe take a five minute break?” I waited until the photographer left before turning back to Jess. “I know you normally wear baggy clothes at school, so you’re a bit uncomfortable in this, but this dress makes you look so amazing.”

“You really think so?” she asked, still dubious.

“I know so. We have a lot riding on this shoot and I wouldn’t let you continue if you didn’t look fabulous. My reputation is on the line here.” I smiled, hoping that would somehow convince her. “Don’t you want to represent all the curvy girls? Show them that they can look awesome too?”

“I’m going to look fat compared to all the other girls.”

“Who wants to be like all the other girls?” That stumped her. She shrugged and I knew I was winning her over. “Please, Jess? I’ll show you the photos before we use them. If you don’t like them, I promise we won’t run them.”

That did it. She instantly brightened up. “If you promise.”

“You have my word.”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

I held up my hand for a high five and she didn’t leave me hanging. We called Sandy back and the shoot started again.

Jess was a lot more relaxed after our little chat. She even tried a few poses that I would not have expected from her. It must have been the clothes, bringing out the best in her.

Sandy got through all the girls in a few hours. We even had time for some group shots. Trying to get that many girls to all smile and not blink at the same time was a bit of a miracle. But Sandy insisted she got some good shots.

After we were done, the girls were taken back to Jane’s room so they could change into their regular clothes. I helped supervise, making sure no harm came to the precious clothes.

“Can I keep this?” Kinsey asked, holding up the dress she just took off.

Jane almost had a heart attack, her mouth hanging open, speechless. “Sorry, we need it,” I said.

“But models always get to keep their clothes,” she huffed.

Some of the other girls had stopped, intent on hearing the outcome of this awkward conversation. I mean, it was great they loved the clothes so much, but these were our only ones.

“We really do need them,” I insisted. “We have a runway show coming up and the launch. Jane doesn’t have time to make more copies.” I could have added that Kinsey was welcome to purchase the dress when we launched, but I didn’t. Sometimes it was best I kept my mouth shut.

Kinsey threw the dress on the sofa. “Didn’t like it anyway.”

Breathe, Truly, let it go.

By the time the girls left, I was exhausted. My siblings didn’t take that much effort to look after. Models, who needs them.

We were left with an epic mess. I grabbed the nearest clothes and started to hang them. “Sorry about the mess,” I said.

Jane was doing the same, fussing over the clothes like they were her children. “It’s okay. We needed photos and I think we’ve got some great ones. Everything else can be cleaned up.”

“Won’t you get in trouble with your parents?”

She shook her head. “They probably won’t be home until late. They won’t even notice.”

“They don’t spend much time here, do they?” I asked. I had never met Jane’s parents, they were like ghosts. If I hadn’t seen the formal family portrait on the wall in the living room, I wouldn’t even know what they looked like.

FYI – they looked a lot like Jane.

“Not really,” Jane replied quietly. “They work hard so we can have this big house and stuff. They’re doing it for me too.” I bet that was a lie Jane told herself many times.

My mom worked hard too but she always made sure to tuck us in at night. She was there for the big things, even if it meant we couldn’t pay the power bill for a month and our electricity got shut off. I couldn’t imagine what work they did that was so important they missed their awesome daughter growing up.

I couldn’t say any of this to Jane, however. She was always sad enough anytime she spoke about her parents. So, instead, I reiterated her lie. “I’m sure they would prefer to be here than at work. It’s probably hard on them too.”

She nodded and we continued to hang all our beautiful clothes.