Fabriella Starr

Chapter Six

"I can't believe this." Ariella held her phone like it had burst into flames. This was her first fashion show and everything was crumbling apart like bad sequins. "All three of my models just so happened to have food poisoning?" She turned to Caleb. "It wasn't bad enough that we had to unhinge my front door to get here, but now your sister has gotten rid of my models, too?" Ariella had no idea how Torin managed to glue their door shut, but she knew it was her the moment she turned the knob and it wouldn't budge. Of course, Torin would get away with it since pointing her out as the culprit would only force Ariella to tell her parents why she was there in the first place. Not only was she evil, she was an evil genius.

Caleb snorted and folded his arms. "You don't really think my sister is capable of doing something like that, do you?" Ariella gave him a look that said she did. Caleb nibbled his lip. "Yeah, I wasn't buying it either. But I have an easy solution. You only have two more outfits. You can model one, and Mae can model the other."

"My dress is too long for either of us to display properly. It looked perfect on the model I assigned it to. Where am I going to find someone else who's tall and lean enough to fit into it?" Her voice trailed off as she stared pensively at Caleb.

Caleb shook his head and stepped back. "No. No way!"

Ariella nodded, smiling mischievously.

The stage manager handed Danny a new index card. Danny propped it up in front of him. "Next up we have...Calebra?"

Frowns dominated the room as Caleb wobbled down the runway hiding his face behind a long, dark wig. The red halter-top and tribal skirt of her maxi dress looked great on his frame. Too bad he kept tripping over it.

Danny referred back to the card, though he was now severely distracted. "Calebra is wearing a tribal maxi dress that is appropriate for any season. Spice it up with accessories in the summer or add a jacket in the Fall."

At the end of the runway, Caleb locked eyes with a furious Torin who sat in the front row. He sharply turned away, getting his heels tangled in the dress and toppled to the floor.

Backstage, Ariella cringed. This day could not get any worse.

The great actor he was, Danny kept a smile on his face as if this wasn't the most ridiculous situation he'd ever been in. "Just try not to fall."

***

Mae walked into the science room wearing a smile, trying desperately to keep her cool. She didn't want to let Ariella down, but this was a sticky situation. As long as her parents didn't ask any questions that required her to tell the truth, she wouldn't single-handedly tear down their entire plan. Piece of cake.

Seeing the confused look on each of their faces, Caleb's demonstration went just as she expected it to. Very badly. "Hey, Clarke family. Are you enjoying yourselves tonight?"

Mr. Clarke scratched his head. "Well—"

"Okay! Make yourselves comfortable and we'll get started." While the Clarkes pulled up chairs and made themselves comfortable—completely oblivious of they were getting themselves into—Mae connected her tablet to the flat screen on the wall. She turned on the TV and her slideshow presentation blinked onto the screen. The title read, "The Process of Growing Grass." It took her all night to finish. Mostly because she kept getting bored and taking a TV break every five minutes. If she were judging this fair, she'd barely get a ribbon for participating. This was not her proudest moment.

She tapped her tablet to begin and the slide changed to a picture of a healthy looking blade of grass. "What is grass?"

She hoped the Clarkes would forgive her for the torture that proceeded. It would only get worse from here.

***

Ariella grimaced backstage while watching Caleb twist and bend into silly poses that didn't flatter the dress at all. He really needed to work on his angles. At the sound of heels hammering into the floorboards, she turned around.

Torin scowled back at her, fuming. "I thought I took care of all your models. You're cheating!"

There were no mirrors in that particular area, so Ariella was reasonably confused by the accusation. "I'm the cheater? You're the one who went behind my back to destroy my show. You owe me a new door by the way."

"I didn't need to destroy your show," Torin said. "Your designs are doing a pretty good job of that themselves."

Ariella's self-esteem deteriorated. Were they really that bad? She couldn't tell whether the audience was smiling with admiration or laughing at Calebra. Maybe even laughing at her. Everyone probably thought she was a joke.

Torin lowered her voice to a simmer. "By the time your show is through, your fashion dreams will be over." She stomped away.

Ariella turned back to the show trying to ignore Torin's discouragement, but a part of her believed them. Ever since she was a little kid, she knew this was what she wanted to do. But now she wondered if she was just reaching for a dream that would never come true. It was like Torin had yanked a loose string of her hope until she was left standing in a pile of thread, unveiled as the fake she always feared she was.

***

Torin is trying to suck Ariella into a black hole. Stay tuned to find out of Ariella's dreams make it out alive!   

-Love, Charly