MusicLovers

Angel

My mom slaps a magazine in front of me. So hard, my cereal bowl shakes. “Do you know what this is?” Her face tells me she’s angry at something.
I take one look at it.
Of course, it’s a modeling competition, with a sassy blonde girl on the cover.
I sigh. “Mom, you know–”
“You’re missing out on great opportunities, Angel! Geez, if I knew you were gonna be like this, I’d have named you something else.”
“Well it’s not my fault you gave me that name.”
She crosses her arms. “You’re entering that competition, whether you like it or not.”
“What?!” I exclaim, jumping up from my seat. “You can’t do that.”
“Angel, I’ve already talked it out with your father and he says it’s a good idea. The prize is $10,000. How can we miss out on that?”
“Mom, you know I hate the idea of wearing a dress and dressing up all fancy just to get put on magazines and have cameras in my face.”
She sighs. “Look, if you do it just once, you can do whatever you want, I won’t bug you.”
I stay silent.
“You want to make a career in music, right? Well, you’ll need the money. We could split; 50/50.”
“And what if I don’t win?”
“You will, I know it. With your beautiful face, you can do anything.”
I shake my head. “Mom, I need to go to school, okay?”
She sighs. “Think about it okay? But you’re still doing it whether you agree or not.”
“Whatever, Mom.”
I try to hide my anger at her until I reach the car. Once I get in, I let out a scream.
“Why would she do this?” I ask myself. “Doesn’t she know how much I hate models, let alone being one?”
I turn on a song. I don’t even care that I'd never heard it before. I need something to escape to.
I see that Mom slipped the magazine into my bag. I take it out, willing to at least see what she’s forcing me into.
I open it up, reading the small paragraph attached to the picture of the blondy.
The Annual Modeling Competition is coming! 40 participants will be picked randomly from the people who enter. You could be one of them! Last year’s prize was $5,000.00, but this year, you have a chance to win up to $10,000.00. All girls ages 15-25 may participate. This year’s theme is ‘High School Prom’.
It goes on about other unimportant things, like information about the judges and stuff.
Maybe this could be my chance to get the money to be a DJ. And this could be an opportunity to better hide my love for music.
I can do this. Just one time. One day I’ll have to endure being a model.