Modelland

by Tyra Banks

  Dylan blinked hard. “Wait. This happened the first night we were here? Why are you just tellin’ us now? You know how Ci~L’s been starin’ and scarin’ us! You’re the one who made up this whole Unicas thing. Helloooo … Unica … UNITY … And you were right there, Tookie, when Ci~L went all demonic in War of Words and brought back my own demons.”

  “I’m sorry, Dylan. I didn’t know if I was hallucinating or if I really saw Ci~L doing that stuff. I should have told you sooner. I just—it sounded crazy. And I didn’t want you guys to think I was crazy. I wanted you to accept me! I wanted you as friends!”

  Dylan sighed and shook her head. An agonizing half-minute ticked by, Tookie’s heart pounding hard. What if Dylan is really pissed with me? What if she never speaks to me again? I can’t lose her—not now.

  Finally, Dylan’s face softened. “I understand, Tookie. I don’t know what I woulda done with that information either.”

  Dylan hugged her knees. “I’m really scared, y’all. I don’t wanna die. I’m still so young. We all are. I’m tryin’ to do somethin’ with my life to help my momma, my sisters, and my brothers. Y’all know I got four of each. And none of ’em have ever been outside the Nation.”

  “I no want to do the dying either!” Shiraz cried. “I am Shiraz Shiraz! I want bring happiness and light to Canne Del Abra!”

  “Well, I certainly don’t want to die,” Piper murmured. “I’ve never felt so alive. It feels so good to not start every day in fear of the LeGizzârds taking my life.”

  Piper grabbed Dylan’s hand. Dylan reached for Shiraz’s, and then Shiraz grasped Tookie’s. Everyone was shaking. Then Tookie steadied herself, took a deep breath, and said, “Unicas, there is only one thing to do.

  “We have to escape.”

  There was a long pause. Piper nodded. “I’m in.”

  “I will do the escaping too,” Shiraz said.

  “I’ll do anythang not to get tortured,” Dylan said. “Even if it means goin’ back to work in customer service.”

  “All good plans, especially ones involving crime, start with assigning roles. Giving people with certain talents particular duties and then designing the operation around what they all do best,” Piper said.

  “Then, Piper, you should be our researcher and technology expert,” Tookie said.

  “I got a big mouth,” Dylan volunteered.

  “Yes you do!” Shiraz teased, opening her mouth wide.

  “I can distract people,” Dylan said, popping Shiraz playfully on the mouth.

  “Good, we’ll need that,” Tookie said.

  “I speedy,” Shiraz declared. “I be messenger. The outlook!”

  “The lookout? Absolutely,” Piper said. Then she looked at Tookie. “What about you?”

  Tookie felt her friends’ eyes on her. All at once, she felt as lost as she’d been at B3. What am I good at? SPLDing? Having no one notice me? “Uh … the linguist?” she volunteered.

  “I know!” Shiraz yelled. “You be our leader!”

  “Huh?” Tookie swallowed. “I’m not really leader material, guys.”

  “Who says?” Dylan stood up and placed both hands on her shapely hips and said, “Who got our scaredy butts out of THBC without us goin’ through the Home doors like all those other girls? Who commanded we hightail our punk booties onto the BellaDonna’s lion tongue in Catwalk Corridor? Who thinks Tookie should be the Head Bella in Charge? A show of hands!”

  Dylan raised a balled fist in the air like she was inciting a revolt. Shiraz and Piper did the same.

  “It’s unanimous, Tookie. You’re the official leader of the Unicas’ escape plan!” Piper said.

  Tookie shut her eyes. Her mind flashed back to the Corridor and to the THBC. Was that leading? Have I been leading them without even knowing it? Pride began to flow through her body like liquid gold. I can do this. I can lead them. I will get all of us out of here.

  Not that she had the slightest clue where to begin.

  31

  DESPAIRING DESPERATION

  One week passed. Then another. And yet Tookie still could not think of a plan that would get her and the other Unicas away from Modelland safely. But Modelland went on. And plenty was happening: the entire school was planning for the 7Seven Tournament, in which the upperclassBellas would compete to see which seven graduated and went on to become Intoxibellas. Girls began to trickle back from their Go-See-Gos, and nearly everyone in the D caught 7Seven fever, debating who they thought would be chosen as Intoxibellas.

  “Oh please, I’m positive Chrisby’s gonna make it. That girl’s ThirtyNever power is gonna be more like TwentyNever,” Bibiana shouted, and Zarpessa countered, “Whatever! Gishella can multiply herself by eight. That’s a record. Ci~L could only do seven!” The Likee sisters replied in their one-word-per-girl speech, “Zhen”—“Zhen”—“will”—“fail.” Tookie and her cronies wanted to defend their friend and other favorites, but they had something more pressing on their minds.

  Staying alive.

  Any day could be the first day of the experiments. The sacrifice. The torture. Every day in GustGape class, as a blast of arctic air or a tempestuous sandstorm flew at them, Tookie felt the BellaDonna statue’s eyes on her. In War of Words, as they debated merino versus mohair, cotton versus cashmere, retouched versus raw photos, and real versus faux fur, Ci~L, shackled in her shrunken Modelland uniform, stared sadly at Piper, Dylan, and Shiraz. Guru MattJoe had to call Modelland security to physically subdue Ci~L three times, always telling her to save the fighting for War of Words.

  There were brighter moments for Tookie with Bravo. Through the CaraCaraCara classroom’s portholes, he had seen her get hideously seasick, and had stood outside waving at her, being her stomach-calming horizon. And he’d left a can of whipped cream with a note that said Zello and Zood Zorning, Zookie on the doorstep of the D every day for two weeks. But even those endearing gestures couldn’t pull Tookie out of her fear. Every time she rounded a corner, every time she heard a creak in the night, every time she felt a hand on her shoulder, she was sure it was Ci~L, coming to haul her off for her sacrificial torture.

  Tookie could not recall ever having lost her appetite before. But every evening at the E, she sat at dinner with the Unicas in silence, staring at full plates of some of her favorite foods since she had been upgraded to Gut Chower. Braised short ribs with apple-cider-vinegar barbeque sauce. Haricots verts sautéed in garlic olive oil. Soup dumplings filled with melted fat. Pecan pie topped with the creamiest of whipped cream. And yet she couldn’t eat a bite. All of it went cold and coagulated, never touching her lips.

  None of the other Unicas could eat either. They would stare blankly at the bustling E around them. All the happy girls in their colorful Modelland uniforms, talking about the day’s classes, upcoming photo shoots, the boys of Bestosterone. Girls who belonged there, girls who were on the predetermined list. Tookie glanced at her friends; by the looks on their faces, they were thinking the exact same thing. This is really all a dream. And soon we’ll be living a nightmare.

  The Bestosteros had almost finished building the 7Seven stadium, and Tookie’s class of green-clad Bellas were given a tour by ZhenZhen. The young girls marveled at the stadium’s size, ogling the gilded seats, gaping at the obstacle course on the enormous center stage. ZhenZhen tried to act confident as she explained how the obstacle course functioned, but her face looked as if she might wet her uniform pants. While she babbled on nervously, Tookie had an epiphany.

  “Maybe we can escape through the emergency ZipZap to Metopia!” Tookie whispered to the Unicas.

  Piper flinched. “The one ZhenZhen told us was dangerous, with a fifty-fifty chance of survival?”

  Dylan narrowed her eyes. “Tookie, have you lost your damn mind? ZhenZhen said that all those Bellas died in that thang during that big stadium fire! It spat them out in Diabolical Divide hell instead of LaDorno!”

  “Shhh, keep your voices down,” Tookie whispered, checking to see if any Bellas were eave
sdropping. “Maybe it would spit us out in the right place,” she urged. “Maybe we should take that chance.”

  “But they hide the ZipZap, no?” Shiraz asked.

  “True,” Tookie said, pulling in her bottom lip. “But we know it’s here in this stadium somewhere. We just have to find it.”

  “Instead of lookin’ for this crazy dangerous ZipZap thingy, why don’t we just jump over the damn wall?” Dylan whispered.

  Shiraz’s eyes lit up. “That good idea! I am good climber. I can scurry over wall with rope, then I throw rope over for you to climb too!”

  “But what about the Divide?” Tookie whispered, growing impatient. “Whether we take the emergency ZipZap or scale the wall, we still have to face the DD.”

  Dylan shrugged. “I don’t know about y’all, but I’d rather know exactly where I’m goin’ instead of some twisted Zappy thang surprisin’ me.”

  Everyone exchanged long looks. “The wall it is,” Tookie said.

  Later that night, before bedtime, they scouted the surrounding Modelland walls to find an area that wasn’t patrolled by Guru Gunnero and his guards. Finally, Piper identified the perfect hidden spot. “No one will see us here,” she whispered. To remember the exact location, she wedged a strand of her white-blond hair between two cracked bricks.

  Later, Tookie lay in bed in the D, staring at the ceiling in her darkened room. According to the still-somewhat-confusing kaleido-clock on the wall, she’d been lying awake for four and a half hours.

  Countless terrifying images flashed through her head. Jagged and exotic murder weapons being thrust by a woman’s hand. Pieces of body parts flying through the air in slow motion. Ci~L coughing out a malicious laugh as blood squirted from her eyes. Shiraz’s, Dylan’s, and Piper’s rotting dead bodies, their glassy eyes staring up at Tookie …

  SCREEEEEECH!

  Tookie jolted up.

  SCREEEEEECH!

  It was some sort of horrible alarm. Tookie covered her ears and winced.

  Shiraz bolted upright too. “Ugh! So loud!”

  Zarpessa woke next. Doors throughout the D crashed open. Searchlights blazed outside the window. Only Kamalini lay blissfully in her bed, Headbangor on full blast. Tookie ran over to her and shook her awake, nearly jostling her out of bed.

  Girls emerged groggily from their rooms and staggered toward the back exit. The night air felt cool and crisp. Tookie immediately shivered, wishing she’d brought her robe.

  Bestostero security guards ran to and fro. A dark-haired person in a Modelland nightgown streaked past the face-shaped hedges, the cape of the nightgown flowing behind her in the wind. The largest hedge sprouted arms out of its ears and attempted to grab the figure as it ran past, but it was too late. The renegade headed for the wall surrounding the school, its musical instruments, canvases, and various odd parts casting bizarre shadows on the ground. Tookie caught sight of her face.

  It was Desperada.

  Desperada ran toward the wall. When she was a few feet away, she turned back and spoke to the crowd of gawking girls. Her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. “My life is not worth living without him! You all can have this Intoxibella nonsense. I am intoxicated by his love. I need to be with him!”

  She then backed up slowly. When she reached the wall, she turned around and began to scale it nimbly, climbing on the objects jutting out like a narrow staircase.

  Oh my God, Tookie thought. She and the Unicas had just been talking about escaping over the wall at dinner, and Desperada was actually doing it!

  “Excuse me!” a voice called from the back of the group. Suddenly, Ci~L pushed to the front. She was dressed in a Modelland nightgown. The sheerness of the fabric exposed the welts on her back for all the Bellas to see. Tookie shuddered. Shiraz, Dylan, and Piper took terrified steps away from her.

  But Ci~L was only interested in Desperada. “What are you doing?” she screamed to the girl on the wall. “Get down!”

  Gunnero Narzz pushed through the girls and eyed Ci~L. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, a sinister grin widening across his face. “We let you out of the Ugly Room for good behavior and this is what you concentrate your efforts on? You should let the desperate Desperada throw her life away for a lad! It would be some vintage entertainment for our nosy eyewitnesses here. C’mon, Body Girl, you know you want front-row seats to this old-fashioned show.” He motioned to the audience of openmouthed girls.

  “Body Girl!” Shiraz whispered. “Now we know what that mean!”

  “Dead body girl,” Piper said, remembering the terrifying story Tookie had told them. The four Unicas shuddered

  Desperada climbed higher. Ci~L leapt up to try to grab her ankles but missed. The moonlight danced upon Ci~L’s hand, and Tookie saw claws on the tips of Ci~L’s fingers, not nails. When Desperada was almost at the top of the wall, she swiveled around and stared at the crowd of Bellas. “All of you who have left your boyfriends back at home are idiots! Do you know what they’re doing with other girls? Other girls who are jealous and wish they were you?”

  “Desperada, you’re acting like a damn fool!” Ci~L exploded. “If you go, you’ll regret it! What happens to you will be permanent.”

  Desperada softened for a moment, looking torn. Sensing that her words were sinking in, Ci~L climbed a few feet up the wall toward her. But that just prompted Desperada to climb even higher, to the very top of the wall.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Ci~L warned. “Once you cross that wall, you’ll—”

  “—get exactly what young girls want!” Gunnero interrupted triumphantly. “To mature faster than nature intends! How fashionably late you’ll be. Climb, girl! Climb!”

  Desperada stared at Ci~L, then Gunnero, confused. So was Tookie.

  Ci~L glared at Gunnero. “Shut up! You’re just miserable about the way your life turned out, so now you’re trying to ruin everyone else’s!”

  Gunnero smirked at her. “And you’re happy with the way yours turned out?”

  Ci~L turned to Desperada. “Well? What are you going to do?”

  Desperada was already eyeing the blackness on the other side of the wall. “I have to do this.…”

  “Then do it!” Gunnero urged. The scar on his face stood out in the moonlight. “Run-a-Way Intensive to your man, honey!”

  Desperada’s face went from panicked to calm. She looked at all the girls’ faces and then jumped down to the other side of the wall. Everyone screamed, waiting for some awful explosion or monstrous roar. Ci~L just stared at the wall blankly.

  Then … dead silence.

  Zarpessa wrinkled her nose. “Is that it? What a letdown! I thought whoever crossed would—”

  A thick lightning bolt struck the wall, making everyone jump back. It sent an immense fountain of color into the air, and the barrier became transparent. Suddenly Desperada was visible on the other side, lying still on the ground.

  “Is she dead?” Zarpessa chirped a little too excitedly.

  Desperada’s body jolted, and she struggled to stand. Slowly, she rose to her feet, facing away from the crowd, her hair blowing in the howling wind. She brought her hands to her face.

  Tookie looked around at her friends. “She seeming okay,” Shiraz said.

  Gunnero snorted. “Be patient, little midget, the show has just begun. Desperada, turn to your adoring public!”

  Desperada slowly turned to face the wall of girls. There was a chorus of screams. Tookie looked at the girl on the other side of the wall.

  Desperada’s body was unchanged. But dark brown spots covered her cheeks and forehead. Wrinkled jowls drooped on either side of her jaws, and deep lines ran from both sides of her nose to the sides of her mouth. Her skin was pale and crumpled, like a cotton shirt that had been rolled up into a ball. The outer corners of her eyes had branches upon branches of crow’s-feet leading off to her temples. Her hair had turned gray, thin, and brittle, exposing parts of her scalp.

  “Oh my God,” Tookie whispered. Desperada’s face looked as though i
t belonged to someone of almost seventy, not a girl of fifteen.

  Lightning struck again, and the wall reflected Desperada’s image back to her. She let out a bloodcurdling scream. “I’m sorry!” she said, pawing at the wall. “Let me back in! He won’t want me like this!”

  Gunnero smiled and blew her a kiss.

  “Wow, it is true,” Zarpessa said gleefully, completely without sympathy. “You age fifty years if you cross without permission.” She turned to the Unicas. “Oh, look, everybody! These four have crossed the aging barrier too! No, wait. They’re still young, but just naturally disgustingly ugly!”

  Tookie turned around and glowered at Zarpessa, fuming with rage. She had never met anyone so foul and black-hearted in her life.

  “This would be an opportune time to cash in on our Kamalini Headbangor bet,” Piper whispered. “Unfortunately, none of us won, so …”

  “I’ll do it!” Tookie said furiously.

  Instinctively, Tookie turned and accidentally tripped, shoving Zarpessa hard. Zarpessa stumbled back and fell to the ground, but sprang back up almost as quickly as a blow-up punching bag. When she saw that Tookie was the culprit, her lips spread into a smile.

  “Oh, I see, you big-headed Unfortunate-Looking punk,” Zarpessa said so calmly it rocked Tookie to her core. “So, now you’re ready, huh? Let’s go at it, then!” Zarpessa raised her fists. Tookie tried to summon every ounce of courage that hopefully lived somewhere deep inside her scrawny body.

  “I’m ready for you, Zar-Opressa.” Tookie raised her fists as well. But they shook ever so slightly.

  Dylan moved and stood between them. “Guys, don’t! Not now!”

  “Aw, how cute,” Zarpessa said nastily. “Miss Parade Balloon comes to Miss Watermelon Head’s defense.” Then, shrugging, she stalked off to stand next to Chaste. “Oh, it’s really on now, big-head!” she yelled at Tookie over her shoulder.