Stacy
The Annual Miss Orion Beauty Pageant.
Every year, every female student in Orion University held the right to participate in the prestigious contest, provided that their GPA was between 2.0 and 2.25.
Luckily for me, I maintained a flat grade average of 2, thanks to my studious sister nagging and badgering me about my academics all the time. She was annoying sometimes, but I love her.
After all, we were both attending Orion under scholarships, which meant that we were required to preserve marks no lower than 2.25 in all our subjects, otherwise, we had to pay the full, expensive tuition. I shuddered at the thought of our adoptive parents, Mama May and Papa Ben, having to work harder so they could fulfill the payments. God forbid either of us loses our scholarships.
I must be on lucky streak because this year's contest was held on a late Friday afternoon. I had plenty of time to prepare for the event, and I didn't even need to enlist the aid of my friends.
The day before, when I signed up for the pageant, they had been with me and volunteered to cheer me on, make banners,tarpaulins, and to spread the word for their classmates to support me, should they not be part of the student population who hated me for the common reasons.
Why did I join the contest?
The prize money for 1st place was 15k pesos, and it would be a waste to pass that up.
I had a lot of uses for extra money like that. If I win, and I had high hopes to, then I would set aside a large portion of the cash prize into my bank account. The rest, I would use to treat my friends and my family, and most of all, Sophia, the one person I could count on the most for moral support, among every other forms of support I wanted or needed to survive life.
She was my anchor, and I was hers, too. We were inseparable.
The Beauty Pageant is currently being held in the school auditorium, where I met with my fellow members of the Dramatic Guild yesterday. Most of the boys tried to hit on me, but I rebuffed their advances and Thanked God that I was in the same club as Miles and Selena.
Now,if only a certain pest could get kicked out of the very same club,my stress would reduce.
"Oi. Why are you scowling?" Sophia asked me while she held my left hand in a gentle manner.
I averted my eyes from the vanity mirror and frowned up at her. "Nothing. I was just remembering something unpleasant."
We were backstage, hidden from the audience, a heavy red waterfall of curtains dividing the contestants from the panel of judges and the massive number of people who came to watch.
Another splash of good fortune has sprayed over me because the dressing room resembled a fitting room in a department store: Two rows of white cubicles opposite each other lined up against the royal blue walls. Each row consisted of fifteen tall,medium stalls, and it was enough for two people to fit inside without much hassle. It was very convenient, providing me with the privacy I wanted, especially from the twenty-nine girls I was competing against today.
"Something unpleasant," my brown-haired sister echoed, a cheeky smile on her face.
"Don't start," I warned while applying the last touches of makeup on my skin.
"What?" she asked innocently. "Chin up. Erect back. Smile, Ace."
I obeyed her instructions, sitting up rim-rod straight,lifting my chin,and plastering a bright smile on my face. I leaned closer to the big round mirror to inspect my lipstick and eye-shadow.
"God, I look fantastic," I murmured to myself.
"You do," my bespectacled sibling told me, and I felt a rush of confident adrenaline after she gave my left hand a reassuring squeeze. I returned the gesture, squeezing her hand gratefully.
A female teacher's voice called out from outside the dressing room:
"Five minutes before the program begins,ladies. I repeat, five minutes before the program starts. Please finish up your preps and proceed to your blocking as soon as possible. Thank you." Then footsteps tramped away into the distance.
"That's my cue," I mumbled to myself as I pushed myself off my wooden chair, then untied the ribbon clasp from around my small waist.
With my back turned against the mirror, I shrugged off my bubblegum pink silk robe, which Sophia quietly took from me, folded in a neat square,and set down on the chair I rose from.
"Quickly," I whispered in urgency, and,flashing me a soft smile, my pony-tailed sister hurriedly grabbed the hanger holding my dress and helped me slip into it.
She carefully pulled the zipper up behind me while I fluffed my yellow hair worn in an up-do.
I smoothed down my palms along the light pink fabric of my gown. In under a minute, my blue eyes looked down at my choice of attire. I surveyed my bare arms and the half-heart pendant resting on my collarbone. I wore a strapless pink gown with a corset bodice and a matching pink chiffon skirt that flowed to my stiletto-clad feet. From the waist down, fell a sheer layer of tulle that made me look like I was floating on a pink cloud.
"How do I look?" I anxiously asked my sister, spreading my arms apart to display myself.
She locked her fingers together, joining her hands below her chin as she gave me a smile.
A smile that was full of support and honesty as she told me: "You look perfect, Ace."
Shaking my hands in front of me to shave off my trepidation, I pushed open the stall door.
"It's showtime," I said under my breath.
I always, always needed that pep talk before starting a pageant. I've been joining contests like this one ever since I was thirteen, and most of the time,I won, other times, I lost.
But I would always be okay afterward, even if I didn't get a prize,because at the end of the day, I would run into my sister's embrace, and she never failed to console me in every little way.
"Look who we have here, girls," a hated voice drawled out. "It's the loser."
Instantly, my foreboding mood vanished. It quickly dispersed like smoke, and was replaced by my perennial confidence and sharp wit, my armor against people like the one in front of me.
I touched a hand to my rosy lips, looking around me as I said: "Oh, that's odd. I don't see any mirrors nearby. Do you see your reflection in my natural blue eyes?"
Alison Rivera sneered at me. "You think you're funny, don't you? Well, listen here, bitch. You didn't make it in the pep squad yesterday and you sure as hell won't win the contest tonight. You'll barely make it to the top 6."
I glared at the tall girl whose butter-blonde hair was artificially straightened, and her thin,curvy figure was wrapped in a blood-red halter dress with a transformer skirt, flaunting her long legs.
A few hours prior this contest, I had gone to the campus gymnasium to audition for the cheer squad, but as fate would have it, Alison had been voted, by default, as the captain,which shouldn't have been surprising.
Her cronies, Heather and Barbie, along with latecomer freshmen who enrolled at the last minute, Aria Flores and Scarlet Salvador, had no say whatsoever. They were all part of the pep squad, and with Alison being the governor's daughter and sole heir to million-dollar companies, she had the most assets to overpower anybody she deemed inferior to her.
They had mocked me. Laughed at me. And after a few minutes' tolerance of their barbs and insults, I stormed out of the gymnasium in a seething cloud of steam.
Well, whatever. I loved being in theater club better anyway.
I folded my arms across my ample chest and cocked my head to the side. My aquamarine eyes looked at Alison pitifully.
"Nothing is more effective than driving out the strongest threat, hmm?" I smugly told her.
Her hazel eyes narrowed into slits, and she clenched her jaw, her hands balled into fists.
"Get over yourself, Sta. Ana," Alison hissed,her words laced with venom.
"That would be hard, though," I lazily said, tapping my chin. "I am quite tall."
Her posse appeared,and the entourage had grown from two to four girls.
Aria and Scarlet were new additions. The former had been the very same petite girl that was draping her arms around Lucas as though she were a barnacle two days ago.
"You're going to lose, bitch,"Heather snarled. She was a brunette in a black mermaid dress.
Barbie shot me a baleful glare. "Try not to spill your tears on my designer heels when you lose later," she said icily. Her raven locks were in a small bun and she was in a purple v-neck gown.
Aria Flores wore her rich dark hair down, and her petite frame was sporting an indigo, portrait back dress with a full skirt.
"Girls!" our female host, an elderly professor, called out in a rather frantic tone.
About twenty or so girls filed out of their dressing rooms and piled beyond the red drapes.
Aria raised a brow at me before following the many girls coated in formal gowns and dresses.
I was the last to follow suit, but Scarlet blocked my path, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
She leveled me with a stern look, but I was immune to impolite treatment like this. And it was quite satisfying to know, that she was the same girl who had flirted with Bryce De Los Reyes back at Starbucks, where Sophia met up with him on her one-time blind date.
Pissing her off was going to be easy and fun.
"What?" I asked the girl with long black hair and lilac tube gown with a high-slit.
She jabbed a menacing manicured finger against my collarbone and in a snake-like hiss, she told me:
"I know who you are. I've heard the rumors. And I'm telling you now, Sta. Ana. Stay away from my Bryce. He is mine. He is off-limits to you."
I touched my cheek and feigned shock at her warning. "Oh, gosh. Bryce is your boyfriend? If that's the case, then alright. I'll keep my distance from him." My voice oozed with sarcasm.
Scarlet didn't miss the taunting note in my tone. Her eyes turned dark as she glowered at me.
"So they were right. You ARE a sardonic, rebellious, two-timing bi--"
"Girls!" our host gasped in panic. Good Lord. Why did they assign someone so jittery to handle this program anyway?
I brushed past Scarlet with sheer grace and poise, then threw a smile over my shoulder.
"Aren't you coming? It's time for this sardonic, rebellious, two-timing bitch to lose, isn't it?"