by Tyra Banks
Percy ducked her head modestly. “Let’s hope so.”
Cremalatta just stared darkly at the boyfriend, then pulled Ladonna aside. “I can’t let you do this,” she hissed to her friend. “It’s one thing if you were going after a Bestostero. But he’s against the rules!”
Ladonna waved her hand. “I am so tired of rules. Every day my mom comes down on me about some old or new rule I’m not following. The pressure is eating me alive. I think those rules are simply to punish us.”
“What rules?” Tookie whispered to Ci~L.
“The cardinal rule at Modelland is that a Bella cannot date a civilian.” Ci~L rubbed her palms together. “This is priceless. Methinks Mizz BellaDonna will think twice before lambasting me again about going off message!”
“One minute to the start of the show!” a fashion assistant in the flashback called from the edge of the curtain. “Percy, you’re first! Best Go-See-Go model leads the show! Ladonna, you’re second!”
Ladonna turned away from Cremalatta and clutched her beau’s hand. She hid their interlocked fingers behind a large clutch purse she had in her other hand. Nervously, she began to hum a lullaby.
“You’ll be wonderful, darlin’,” the man whispered. He nervously glanced around and then started to dance with her in time with her humming. His movements were utterly graceful, his body one long, sinuous muscle. “And have I ever told you that you have the voice of an angel? It’s even more beautiful than that breathtaking face of yours.”
“Yes, you tell me that every time I see you,” Ladonna swooned. “That’s why I love to sing for you.” She raised the clutch higher now, hiding their passionate kiss.
Ladonna and Percy skipped away toward the front of the fashion show lineup. As soon as the music began, Percy gracefully ran onto the runway, employing all her Run-a-Way skills. Only Cremalatta remained behind, still getting dressed by the magical moving hands. As the hands stripped her down to her underwear, she fluttered her eyelashes at Ladonna’s love. “Hey there,” she purred to him. “You know dating Ladonna is wrong, don’t you?”
The man looked away, seeming uncomfortable at staring directly at Cremalatta and her overt seminakedness. “Just a bunch of stupid rules,” he murmured in a deep voice.
“I like breaking rules too.” Cremalatta edged closer to him, trapping him against the wall. The magical hands followed her, pulling at her bra straps. In seconds, she would be topless.
“I suppose,” the boyfriend said. He hopped up on a low beam that surrounded the backstage area to get away from her. His balance was perfect.
Cremalatta reached out and touched his cheek. He flinched at first, but then she innocently pulled away. “You had an eyelash,” she said, holding it on the tip of her finger. Then she blew on it, sending the lash flying. “I made a wish. Want to guess what it was?”
“Ooh, that mother of yours is trouble,” Ci~L muttered.
“Damn right she’s trouble!” present-day BellaDonna screamed from the sidelines.
The scene whooshed again, and once more everyone was transported to the Modelland grounds—the old grounds. They were still caught in the flashback.
Tookie and the others followed young Percy into the D.
A terrible, animal wail rang out. Percy ran toward the sound, and Tookie and the others watching the flashback followed her into the D’s bathroom. Percy locked the main bathroom door, ran to the last stall door, and peered under it. There was a pair of knees on the floor. Someone was throwing up.
“I think it’s that chicken you chowed in the E, Ladonna,” Percy whispered through the door. “You’ll feel better soon. Why don’t you try singing? That always cures your aches and pains.”
The girl on the other side of the stall just groaned again. Then the knees rose from the ground and the girl slumped onto the toilet. Tookie could practically feel her pain—she’d had a similar reaction to her chocolate binge, which was why she couldn’t have even the tiniest taste of the stuff anymore. After a moment, there was a large splash in the porcelain. Suddenly, a small, piercing cry rang out. But it wasn’t the sickened cry of a young woman wrecked from tainted food. It was the cry of a tiny baby emerging into the world.
Ci~L’s eyes widened. “You are kidding me.”
A booming knock sounded on the bathroom door. “Why is this door locked?” an angry voice yelled. “Ladonna? Are you in there? It’s the Queen BellaDonna. Your mother. Open up!”
Both figures in the bathroom froze. Looking frantic, Percy wrenched the stall door open and stared at the two figures inside—which meant everyone else watching the flashback got a look as well. A tiny pale baby lay in Ladonna’s arms. It had the perfect face of an angel. Its skin, the color of a fluffy spring lamb, was covered with streaks of blood.
“Oh my God, Ladonna, what just … uh, I mean h-how …,” Percy muttered, her face softening. “Wow, look at those bright gray eyes!”
Ladonna stared at the child too, clearly shocked that it had just come out of her. “I don’t know … how,” she whispered. Then she looked imploringly at Percy. “Oh my God … help me. What do I do?”
“Shhh,” Percy said. She grabbed the baby. “We’ll figure something out.” She removed the Sentura from her waist and gingerly wrapped the baby in the yellow fabric. The tiny thing cooed, comforted by the Sentura’s warm embrace.
Boom. The door to the bathroom burst open. The Queen BellaDonna stalked across the tile, making a beeline for the last stall. She stared hard at Percy, then reached out her arms. “Give. Ladonna’s child. To me.”
Percy started to tremble but did not hand the baby over. There was a determined look in her eyes.
Ladonna cowered behind Percy. “But Mother, how did you know I was …? Even I didn’t know! I just thought I was sick! We don’t get periods here, so how did you know? I didn’t even show!”
The Queen BellaDonna craned her neck to glare at her daughter. “A mother always knows,” she said icily. Then she shook her head. “This is from that common civilian, isn’t it? That man in LaDorno?”
Ladonna’s mouth dropped open. “He is not common! I’m in love with him!”
“What?” The Queen BellaDonna sucked her teeth. “You love him? Ladonna, there is no room for love here at Modelland. Not here. Not now. Not ever. DO YOU HEAR ME?” Then the Queen BellaDonna grabbed the baby from Percy’s weak arms, glaring at it as though it were made of bile.
Tears ran silently down Ladonna’s cheeks. “Wh-what are you going to do with my baby?”
“I will give the child to its father.” Ladonna’s mother held the baby at arm’s length. “He will raise it. As for you”—she turned to Percy—“how dare you try to hide this from me? And you wrapped the baby in your sacred Sentura? Persimmon, your time at Modelland is now officially over. I am sending you back to where you came from, right now.”
Percy’s normally sunny expression turned to one of horror. “No!” she shrieked. “Please don’t make me go home! I can’t go back to that cult of Persequeshun!”
The Queen BellaDonna shrugged. “Well, you are aware of what your only other option is. Is it what you wish?”
Percy glanced at Ladonna as though waiting for her to explain what had happened. But Ladonna just continued to sob on the cold tile floor. Wilting, Percy turned back to the Queen Belladonna and quietly murmured, “But I didn’t even know she was preg—”
“Quiet!” the Queen BellaDonna shrieked. “Is. It. What. You. Wish?”
A single tear formed at the corner of Percy’s eye. “It is what I wish,” she whispered.
Old Creamy’s voice sliced through the flashback. “Ladonna, you ruined Percy’s life by making her a part of your problems. Percy was the number one Bella in our class. Better than all of us, a potential Triple7! You could have told your mother that Percy was innocent. You could have begged your mother to spare her! But what did you do? Thought only of yourself!”
“Defacake, do not try to pin this crap on me!” the BellaDonna yelled back. “Perc
y could have left Modelland forever and been free and kept her looks! Her fate was her choice!”
“I had no choice!” a third voice rang out.
Tookie looked up and saw Mannecant Persimmon cowering in the corner. Tears streamed down her face. “I couldn’t have left!” she wailed. And then she stood, marched over, and loomed right in the face of her old Bella mate. “Ladonna, you know where I come from, and you know I couldn’t go back there!” Spit flew out of her mouth as she spoke. The BellaDonna, usually unflappable, trembled.
“Moving on now,” said the Flashback Females in unison.
The scene shifted abruptly, sweeping everyone into a quaint village that looked eerily familiar to Tookie. Cobblestones lined the streets. A windmill gently rotated in the sweltering breeze. Church bells sounded, and a man in a white chef’s jacket unrolled the awning of his bakery. The air was torrid, baking their skin and drying out their mouths. This looked exactly like the bucolic environment on the OoAh’s walls when Tookie and the others had first come in.
Ladonna’s boyfriend opened the door of a small, quaint shop and stepped out onto the porch. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead. A statue of the Queen BellaDonna stood on the stoop, a stone basket at its feet. The boyfriend stared into the basket at the tiny creature inside, slowly shaking his head. Then, gracefully, he swooped down as though he was about to do a handstand and took the baby in his arms.
Suddenly, Tookie had a terrifying epiphany. The acrobatics. The grace. How he’d spun Ladonna around at the fashion show so effortlessly.
Was it possible … really possible … that this was Chris-Crème-Crobat, her father?
He turned away from the door, pulled out an object from a low shelf on his wall, and gingerly placed the baby inside. Curious, Tookie walked deeper into the room and waited for her vision to adjust. When it did, she saw a huge space full of leather, buttons, soles, laces, and shoes, shoes, shoes on every surface. She crept up close to the baby in the memory. The little bed the man had just laid her in was made of taut leather. An oval-shaped piece draped over the baby’s body like a blanket. “There you go, little one,” the father whispered. “Maybe you can cheer this sad sap up. There’s quite a light that shines inside of you. Quite a light indeed.”
A strange feeling came over Tookie. Wait a minute. The baby was cradled in a shoe. And she knew that shoe.
I know that man!
The BellaDonna’s boyfriend—the father of her child—wasn’t Chris-Crème-Crobat.
He was … Wingtip.
Everyone was whooshed out of the flashback once more, returning to the OoAh. Muffled sounds from the 7Seven stadium boomed through the walls.
Tookie stared at her mother, reeling from what she’d just seen. “You always t-t-told me to stay away from that man, Creamy. To n-not make eye contact. But you knew him all along?”
Ci~L clucked her tongue. “I see how it works. You tell Tookie to make no eye contact with the man, even though that’s exactly the opposite of what you used to do.”
Creamy scoffed and looked away. “That man is disgusting and always has been.”
“That man has a name, and you know it!” the BellaDonna shrieked. “It’s Ray Faye!”
“We’re entering another flashback now,” one of the Females interrupted. Then she glanced at Tookie. “Some of your questions just might be answered.”
And with a swoop, they were all back in Modelland of the past.
The summer sun hung high in the sky. Bellas streamed around the courtyard, and the air had the same frenzied, expectant vibe to it as it did today. “Three more days,” a green-uniformed Bella said to her friend as she passed. “Who do you think the seven are going to be this year?”
Then Tookie noticed Cremalatta and Ladonna standing at the base of the grand wall that surrounded the school. In this flashback, Ladonna looked pale and much thinner. “I can’t sleep,” she was moaning. “I can’t eat. I can’t think. I’m making myself sick.” She looked at Cremalatta with hollow eyes. “I have to see my baby now. I can’t wait.”
“But the Tournament is only three days away, Ladonna,” Cremalatta urged. “Then you’ll become an Intoxibella and you’ll be able to see the baby—and Ray—in secret all the time.”
“Three days is too long,” Ladonna moaned, wringing her hands. “And anyway, I can’t compete in the Tournament feeling weak and sick like this. If I drop out or mess up, you know that’s it for me—it doesn’t matter who my mother is. If I can just see the baby for a quick second, I’ll feel better. And strong. I’m nervous to go see the baby by myself, though. Come with me? Please, Latta? We’ll be back so fast no one will ever know.”
Cremalatta stared apprehensively at the wall. “What about the aging barrier?”
“I’m royalty, remember?” Ladonna insisted. “I can get it reversed. And we’ll return in plenty of time for you to primp and put on that gorgeous brand-new 7Seven Tournament Jurk dress of yours, I promise.”
“Okay,” Cremalatta said. With that, the girls scaled the wall and jumped over into the Diabolical Divide. They took two steps and snap! Their skin dried and wrinkled. Their hair sprouted tufts of gray. Cremalatta’s cheeks shriveled like a raisin. She looked much more like the Creamy Tookie knew. Even though Tookie knew what to expect from having watched Desperada’s escape, the transformation was harrowing and unsettling; after all, this time it was happening to her mother.
Cremalatta felt her puckered face and screamed. “Ladonna! Do your royal thing! Make us young again!”
But Ladonna continued through the brush. “Latta, I got you, don’t worry! Let’s just get through the Divide first. It’s deadly, so we gotta keep moving.”
With a whoosh, the scene shifted back to the sweltering village where Ray Faye had his cobbler’s shop. In the wee hours of that same night, Ladonna and Cremalatta were arriving at the front door of a house. As Tookie looked around, she spied a sparkling new state-of-the-art factory across the street. Several shiny delivery trucks were parked in a driveway. Bangles, Baubles, and Beads, the side panels said. Tookie’s mouth fell open. It was B3 … her old school … when it was a jewelry factory. No way! Tookie thought. Who knew the old dump had once looked so glorious?
The sounds of a crying baby drifted under the door to the house. Ladonna rang the bell, then stepped back and peered at her aged face in the glass pane in the door, wincing at the sight.
The door opened and Ray Faye stood before them, a baby cradled in his arms. He looked back and forth from girl to girl, stunned at their aged faces. “Don’t look at me,” Ladonna blurted out, covering her face with her hands. “I know I’m hideous, but I’ll change back as soon as I go back to Modelland.”
Ray Faye lowered his shoulders. “Ladonna, I don’t care what you look like. I’ve always told you that I love your voice more than your face anyway. Now come inside where it’s cooler. Our baby is missin’ Mama.”
Ladonna slipped through the door. Cremalatta moved to go inside too, but Ray Faye gave her a sharp look and slammed the door in her face.
Some time later the sun rose. Ladonna drifted out of the house. “Ray honey, I’m going to run out and get some formula. I’ll be back in a sec.” She groped her way out the door, seemingly having trouble with her eyesight. “Damn age barrier,” she muttered. “I think it gave me temporary cataracts!”
Moments later, just as Ladonna slipped out of sight, the wrinkly-faced Cremalatta tiptoed up the steps and silently turned the doorknob. The door was unlocked.
“Uh-oh,” Ci~L whispered.
Cremalatta crept through Ray’s modest home, stepping over baby toys and books. She stopped when she got to the kitchen, hopped up on the counter, hiked up the bottom of her skirt to show some extra leg, and waited.
“Ladonna?” Ray Faye called from the bedroom. “You back so soon?”
“Yes, I’m in the kitchen!” Cremalatta called in a disguised, high-pitched voice.
Ray’s footsteps rang out in the hall. He entered the room holding the
baby. As soon as he saw Cremalatta on the counter, he stopped short and placed the baby in a small cushioned basket. Cremalatta shot across the room, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him onto the kitchen table. She climbed on top of him, and start to moan. “I saw you looking at my body at that fashion show. You know you want this. A real girl, not some stiff royal one!”
“Get off of me, you nasty-ass, sick girl!” Ray screamed. He struggled to escape from Cremalatta’s grasp, but Cremalatta was surprisingly strong. He wriggled out from underneath her, but she kneed him in his groin. He howled in pain, and the baby started to wail.
Cremalatta planted her lips on Ray’s neck. Her hands worked the buttons of his shirt until he was bare-chested. “Tell me you love me, please, please, please …,” she murmured, the sagging skin on her face looking jaundiced under the harsh kitchen lamp. “Tell me I’m more beautiful than Ladonna.”
The front door slammed. “They didn’t have any more formula, so I bought milk instead,” Ladonna’s happy trill sang out from the front room. “I hope that’s okay!”
“Get off me,” Ray murmured quietly. He tried to push Cremalatta away.
“Ray-Ray, honey?” Ladonna called out, still oblivious. “Where are you?” Her footsteps came closer and closer to the kitchen. Suddenly, she was in the doorway.
“Ray?” she screeched, squinting hard at the figures on the table. The glass milk jug slipped out of her hands and exploded on the floor, which made the baby scream even louder.
Ray struggled beneath Cremalatta, but he still couldn’t budge her. “Ladonna sweetie, it’s not what it looks like! She has me in some sort of death lock!”
“What?” Cremalatta screeched, suddenly letting her limbs go slack and rolling so that she was beneath him. “You get off me!”
Ray scooted from beneath her, raising his hands in surrender. “She’s crazy, Ladonna! I don’t know what she’s talking about!”
“Oh, sure you don’t!” Cremalatta screeched. “Your girlfriend leaves for two minutes and you’re all over someone else! What are you like when she’s at Modelland?”