Something More? ✔️

6

It was the next day, and Penny found herself surrounded by photographers, clothing racks, and slender girls. How did she get herself into this mess?

She had awoken to the horrible memory of yesterday, and had planned to cocoon in her room. That was before Chloe dragged her out of bed, and forced her to accompany her to the club fair. There, Chloe had promptly introduced Penny to a blond girl who was one of the officers of their university's fashion magazine.

"This is the girl I was talking about," Chloe had said.

In polite disbelief, the blonde girl had studied Penny for a moment before double-checking, "Her? She's Penny?" After a few minutes of conversation, she whisked Penny away to some other building. Penny was still quite confused as to why she was there. A photoshoot was taking place with some skinny girl and a whole pile of shoes surrounding her. Some guy with a camera was giving her directions and snapping away. All around her, people were pre-occupied with seemingly important jobs (everyone but her). Suddenly she felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to see an older girl. She was wearing a casual pant-suit and her black hair was roped into a low bun.

"I'm Sandra." the girl stuck out her hand crisply. She looked mature but Penny guessed that she was probably a senior student.

"I'm Penny."

Sandra began to look at her with a sort of focused, laser stare which made Penny regret not putting on some makeup or at least dressing more fashionably.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked.

"Um — I don't?"

"Your friend Chloe is one of my sorority sisters, and she recommended you to me. She told me you're good at makeup. Is that true?" Sandra looked at her with an impatient glance.

"Uh — I'm not bad?" Penny said wearily.

"Ok. Would you want to join our club and be our makeup artist? We need one for our photoshoots and our last makeup artist transferred to a different university."

Penny looked around her. For some reason, she actually didn't feel too out of place there. That surprised her. Everyone here had nice clothes on and looked good, but even though she couldn't relate to them on that level, she could understand their passion. Everyone here moved around with such purpose and with such an undercurrent of energy. Penny also thought it might be a good thing to have something to do — something to take her mind off of things. Plus, she would get to have work featured on a magazine! That wasn't a bad deal at all.

"Sure, I would like that." Penny said with a smile before mentally preparing herself to do her best; she couldn't afford to do a bad job, after all Chloe had recommended her. She couldn't let them down.

"Follow me." Sandra said, gesturing at her. They walked to a couple of vanity tables by the side of the photo shoot, and Penny couldn't help but smile when she saw the dozens of palettes, lipsticks, and brushes scattered across the desk. Instantly, she felt more relaxed at the familiar sight. "I'll send you the club meeting details later, but for today, do you think you can start?" she asked. Penny nodded.