The Selection (Is A Modelling Competition)✔️

Chapter 19: Elimination & Rebels

I paced the room in the elegant black dress that had been delivered to my door this morning along with a note commanding me to wear it, along with all twenty other girls that were still in the competition. All our clothes were the same today, jet black, as if for a funeral. It didn't make me any less nervous, since I'd heard there was going to be an elimination sometime soon. Even though I'd fought tooth and nail against coming to this competition, I now found I didn't want to leave.

Finally, Sylvia opened the door - it was grand as anything else in the place, but I was in no shape to admire it - and announced ominously, "Maxon and his father will see you now."

I scanned the room for Marlee as the parade of matching girls strode out of the ballroom, and couldn't see her. I'd assumed she'd just slept late after the party and was hungover - like Natalie was, groaning and clutching her blond head as she limped out of the room - but it had been half an hour since we'd been summoned here. Shouldn't someone have woken her up?

Worry gnawed at my nerves as I exited the ballroom along with everyone else, following Sylvia, to find Amberly, Maxon, and Clarkson all dressed in sombre black. Macon met my eyes as I passed him to stand behind the Schreaves, and the look he gave me was one of sorrow and regret. I grew even more anxious, my pulse speeding up, sweat pooling in my palms.

We were in an amphitheatre-type room, and we all sat in velvet seats facing a sunken pit. There was some sort of commotion going on below, a scuffle, another girl pushing me from behind to move forwards, but I had spotted Marlee.

She was down there, on the stage, only instead of putting on a performance she was being punished. Cameras were circling her and us, and I felt bile rise in my throat before I forced it back down. Clarkson Schreave stood, his face livid.

"Marlee Tames has broken the rules of the competition! Instead of working solely with my son Maxon, she has dabbled with this photographer, Carter Woodwork, and allowed him to sell photos of her to our rival company, Rebel Magazine!" Around me girls were gasping, cries of outrage sounding, but all I did was try to meet Marlee's gaze.

Her head was down; she still wore her beautiful angel costume that had coordinated so well with May's last night, though the wings were missing and it was dirty, torn. I tried to call out to her. I felt hands force me back as I leapt out of my seat and wrenched myself down the steps to reach her. Someone was yelling at me to stop, someone was screaming, but all I could see was that Marlee was weeping, tears making glistening tracks in her makeup. She was holding Carter's hand, and I only noticed that he was there in that moment.

Clarkson was still talking. "Miss Tames, you are eliminated, effective immediately. You must pack your bags and arrange your own transportation home." He turned to the man next to her, the gentle, funny photographer Carter Woodwork. "And Mr. Woodwork, you are fired."

The words echoed through the room, and my heart was trying to force its way out of my chest, and I wanted Maxon to do something, anything to keep me from losing my best friend, but he just stood next to his father, not looking at me, not seeing me, and as they took Marlee away I felt more alone than ever.