Today was for the beauty contest. The contest for physical beauty. I was currently in one of the back rooms of the hall that had been chosen for the event, for the runway.
Today was Wednesday. And for the past two days, Levina had really gone all out to make me win. I wouldn’t know if her efforts had paid off until the results were out. Currently I was being fussed over by both Laura and Levina, while Diana and Peter sat on an L chair watching us, or rather watching them fix my make up. I would soon be called out to walk the runway.
“Laura, be calm. You will be done with making me up on time.” I tried to quiet the noise in Laura’s head. She had never stopped blaming herself because she had arrived late, courtesy of being involved in the Queen’s experiment; something I wasn’t privy to yet.
“But you will be called soon…” She pointed out, however, she was calmer now, she breathed easier now. However, she was right. I would be called soon.
Even though I was the last person on the list to be called upon, probably because I was new, I was next because the others have already been called. Well, apart from Rachel.
Rachel.
Her kindness had been shortlived. Once she had discovered that I was really intent on winning this competition, to the best of my ability, her attitude had changed into hostility again. Not that I cared. She was to be called before I was. As a matter of fact, she should be walking the runway already.
“Still, don’t worry. Aren’t you already done…?” I asked, as she retightened my mask for the fifth time.
“Yeah, you are right. Just your dress, and you are good to go.” She stepped away from me and Levina who was standing right beside me, and walked up to the box which she had sent earlier to my room. However, when she opened it, a frown masked her face.
“Honey, what’s the matter?”
Laura gave no reply to Peter’s question, instead she brought out the white gown which had been splattered with red ink.
I gasped before I could help myself. But that wasn’t the worse of it.
“This is not the gown I ordered. This was not the gown I painstakingly made, and worse they had donned it with ink? Who would do such a thing? Who would be so desperately wicked?!” Laura shouted, angrily throwing the stained ugly gown on the floor. Her fists clenched and unclenched themselves; frustration and anger battling with each other.
Peter was too shocked to speak. He didn’t understand the level of competition in the contest, until now.
“This brutality hasn’t happened before. There had been respect among the contestants in the previous years, during my time too. What could this mean? Dora, do you have any idea on who might have been behind this?” Laura turned her attention to me then.
There was plenty I could name; the girl that had accosted me on the hallways, Chyra and her friends, or even Rachel, or another contestant. It could be anybody.
“Mom, is that it?” Diana asked, getting our attention. She was peeping through the curtain that led to the stage. When had she left Peter, and walked right there?
But we all hurried, including me, and peeped through the same point; and watched as Rachel walked down the broadway.
“That girl! I will kill her!” Laura shouted, opening the curtain, and walking down the broadway, or rather runing, before Peter’s hands could grab her back.
Oh well. I thought, watching them, as they all left me and Diana in the room. I was only donning a low cut bralette, and shorts. I didn’t want to show that to the entire school. I could listen from here.
“Laura, what do you think you are doing?” The Queen asked Laura, who had stopped a smiling Rachel from continuing her parade. The girl had the audacity to look confused.
“She is wearing the gown I made for Dora.” Laura shouted, pointing at the gown I have to admit was beautiful. I could see why Rachel had stolen it.
The Queen furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her daughter, unbelief coating her face. I wasn’t sure if it was real or fake. You can never tell with these royals who can do anything for their children. “Is that true, Rachel?”
Rachel shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what she is talking about, mom. This cloth arrived at my stage room, whilst I prepared. So, I took it, thinking that you had sent it to me. How am I to blame for bad delivery?”
Laura cackled in a way I have never seen. She brought up the white gown that had been exchanged with mine. “My Queen, this is the gown you sent to Rachel right?”
The Queen looked distracted. “Laura, I’m sure there’s an explanation for this…”
Laura shook her head, laughing evily, not bothering, or not realizing that she had just interrupted the Queen. Anger couid do that to a person. “There’s no much explanations. Your daughter had intercepted my delivery, and had exchanged the clothes, and worse, she had poured red paint on them. What wickedness is that? Did you think we wouldn’t speak because you are a royal?”
Murmurs had broke out in the crowd now. The Queen was becoming more uncomfortable. It was nice to see. But I didn’t want Laura to be punished. Or Levina. Or Peter. They had to stop.
Immediately, I touched Diana on the shoulder. “Tell them to return, tell the organizer that I will walk the runway.”
Diana looked at me like I had gone crazy. “What are you planning to do? Which cloth will you wear? You will wear this?”
I laughed, and pushed her to the curtain. “Just go. I will sort out myself. I don’t want the Queen punishing them for the crimes that her own daughter commmited. You know how she can be.”
Diana gave a nod then, and then disappeared through the curtain.
“Can it be done?” I asked out aloud, a message to my significant other concerning the idea that had just metamorphosed in my mind. A dress borne out of magic.
‘Yes, it can be. But you will have to be very much centered to command that much power.’
‘You will help me?’
‘Of course, I hate injustice.’
I smiled. ‘Me too.’
I walked to the full length mirror, so that I could see the transformation happen. Levina and Laura had really outdone themselves in making me up, including my hair. I loved it.
What dress would be perfect for this occasion? What dress would nail me the prize? My head was blank. I knew that I needed to imagine it, before it came around. But my mind was blank.
‘What do I do? My mind is blank! I really have no taste for fashion…’ I’ve always been a sucker at that, until Naomi.
‘You need a catalog. Look at yourself in the mirror, and envision how you want to look like, sophisticated or bold, hot or graceful…the magic would take care of the rest, I will help to tune it properly in the right way too.’
I nodded, my ears picking up the sounds of marching feet. My family was coming back.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, and centered myself at a record time. The act after all had been taken much of my practice time these days, even before I went to bed.
After successfully centering myself, I let my magic go, whilst giving my significant other a full reign over me.
‘I didn’t ask to be given full reign.’
‘Well, you deserved it. Use it well.’ I spoke, watching myself recline into a corner, watching my significant other watch me in the mirror. She would be the best to walk the runway and give Rachel the defeat of her life. It would make the making of the gown more perfect too.
I knew it. And when I saw the result, when I saw the gold studded white gown, with a slit that rose up to my thigh, with gold made strings which acted as faux handles for my shoulders, I knew I had made the right choice. I looked like a Queen.
The magic had come with a pair of golden strap heels adorning my feet and a handbag. It had also placed a golden shining crown on my head.
When I heard gasps behind me, I knew that my family had watched the transformation happen.
“How do I look?” I asked, turning around, noting their mouths which had dropped open in shock.
“You….” Peter stuttered, pointing at my cloth, the first to attempt a speech, no matter that it wasn’t complete.
I turned to the mirror again. I was glowing, my skin was glowing, my mask was glowing too. I looked ethereal, not of this world. I looked familiar to myself. I looked like someone that wasn’t me. I tried to remember, but nothing came up.
I watched myself in the mirror for two seconds more, sighing deeply thereafter why my name was called by the announcer. And just as I was about to leave the embrace of my reflection, it dropped like a bomb in my head-the person I looked like.
It was the first Queen; the one I had seen in my vision. What the hell!