And She Became Queen

Chapter 11: At The Pageant

The Sky froze with the ice of the raising moon. The pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw in the night sky. It was already dusk when the taxi, paid him vividly with a smile and emerged the building. A hall in Crystal Eden Hotel; one of the biggest hotel in San Diego was rented for the program. Well, from the look of things, the pageant looked bigger than I'd expect. Stepping into the red carpet that rolled out to the entrance of the building like a tongue on candy.

By the entrance was a cabin for registering the participants. I went to buy a form and to fill. The plumpy old woman took out the form as she gazed at me weirdly. She had black lipstick on and was chewing a gum. Seeing her reminded me of Amber.

"How old are you, sweetheart?" She asked placing the firm on her table instead of handling it to me.

"I0... I just clocked 10 four days ago." I gave her a cute smile.

"What about your guardian?" She replied with a fake smile.

"Guardian?"

"Yes.. where's your mum, dad or who ever you live with?" She pressed.

"Umm... My parents are late, I'm an orphan. I live with my uncle but he's so busy.

"Awwwwn.." the woman rolled her eyes at me. Unfortunately, it's a requirement. I'm sorry but you can't participate without having a guardian to sign up for you." As rolled her eyes at me as if she didn't care.

"What if I tell you that it's my dream to participate. Would you be my fairy godmother?"

She gazed at me from head to toe as a small smile formed on her black lips. "Okay, whatever! $50,000 only!"

I took out the money and placed it on her table. I quickly filled out the form with my best hand writing and signed below for participant and guardian.

She gave me a ticket as I walked on into the tall building in from of me as the cry of press cried into my ears. There were camera operators and members of the press struggling to take good angled shots of some well recognized guests and the participants.

As I approached, I gazed at other participants with colourful clothings and glittering jewelry.

Just then, I saw a girl in sparkling gold dress. She was taking selfie at a corner, blowing kisses to the screen of her phone.
'She looks so happy, how fortunate she is?'

I broke into my thoughts and looked at her in admiration. Watching the adults going into the Hall and taking their seats, I wondered where exactly the participants would be.  "Excuse me, where's the dressing room?" I asked the girl in golden dress.

"It's the first room at the right." She pointed as he eyes raked through me. "Follow me, I'm also a participant."
Seeing how nice she was, I followed her backstage with a smile.
"It's my first beauty pageant." I told her.

"Me too." She smiled as I noticed the glow in her eyes. "My parents brought me here. My dad is one of the organizers."

"Wow, That's awesome!"

"What about you?" She's asked, interestedly.

"I came alone."

She interrupted the girls by opening a pink door with the tag, dressing room hanged to the wall at the top of the door. There were ten other participants apart from the new girl and I. Other girls looked older and more matured than the both of us. The wall was painted purple and it had stickers of world beauty queens from around the world glued to the wall. It looked excellent but everyone were busy.

"Umm... What's your name?" I turned to her.

"I'm Ember Christopher. What about you?"

"Call me Sylvia."