Princess at Silver Spires

by Ann Bryant

  “I can’t wait to see it. I bet you look fab! Were there lots of people there? Did you see any of the other designs? What did you see? Come on!” Katy’s eyes were dancing. She really did want every detail.

  “Lara’s model, Petra, was there. She’s so beautiful, and I looked at the outfit she was wearing and wished like mad that we could swap. It was a brilliant flared skirt with loads of patches, and a plain white top. You’ll love it too, when you see it. It’s just the kind of thing you’d design.”

  We’d reached Pets’ Place by then, and Katy took Buddy out of his run on the grass and cuddled him while we carried on talking about my fitting.

  “Elise made it really obvious she wasn’t particularly impressed with Lara’s outfit, Kates.”

  “Seems like she’s the jealous type, doesn’t it – one of these people who just has to be the best all the time.”

  I nodded. Katy was right. After that we carried on talking as we went over to supper, but it was mostly about fashion club. Then Mia joined us and filled me in on debating club. I couldn’t concentrate though, because those words that Katy had said wouldn’t leave me alone. She was right. Elise does seem to have to be the best. It’s obvious from the way she tries to hide her outfits so no one can pinch her designs, and also from that hard look in her eyes when she was criticizing Lara’s “grungy” designs. The truth is that Elise isn’t a very nice person, certainly not the kind of person to want to try and protect me from feeling anxious about the competition. So just why had she tried to keep me in the dark? Could it be that she thought she stood a better chance of winning if she’d got a princess for a model, and she guessed how much I’d hate the thought of that, so she decided to pretend there wasn’t a competition?

  I was still confused though. Surely she didn’t think she could keep it from me for ever?

  No, probably just until I was so deep into fittings that it was too late to pull out.

  Chapter Four

  Elise had asked me to come for my next fitting at three o’clock on Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to it one little bit, because I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d deceived me. Katy kept saying that Elise couldn’t possibly have thought that she’d do better in the competition just because of having a princess for one of her models, but I think that was Katy’s way of trying to stop me feeling anxious.

  “Don’t think about it any more, Naomi. You’re getting yourself into a state for no reason. Remember, it’s all for a good cause!”

  I made myself take her advice, and tried to relax.

  Katy and I were bang on time arriving at the textiles room, so it was a surprise to find no one there except Lara. She was working at one of the special sewing machines in the corner of the room, and didn’t stop when we went in. She couldn’t have heard us.

  “Hi,” I said quietly.

  She looked up with a start. “Oh, you made me jump! I wonder what planet I was on just then.” She laughed, then looked round. “I don’t know where Elise is. I’ve been the only one here for ages.”

  “I like this fabric,” said Katy, eyeing what Lara had got on her machine.

  “Me too. It’s lovely, isn’t it?” said Lara enthusiastically. “This is for the ‘Prom’ category. My other model, Sophie, is going to wear it, but I’m worried that it won’t be ready in time because there are so many sequins to sew on and it’s full-length.” She finished off what she was doing and snipped the thread, then gently took it out from the machine and held it up.

  “It’s beautiful!” I breathed. “You’re so clever, Lara!”

  Katy’s eyes were bright. “I love the asymmetric line of the skirt. It’s so much more original than a fishtail.” I thought she was talking about the kind of dress that went in at the back of the legs, then fanned out again, but I wasn’t sure.

  “What colour sequins are you going to use?” Katy asked.

  “I was thinking blue but I’m not sure. Maybe a mixture of colours.”

  “Blue would look great.” Katy had a dreamy look in her eyes, and I knew she’d be trying to imagine the finished outfit. “How much of it are you going to cover with sequins?”

  “Well, at first I thought the whole lot from the waist down, but now I’m not so sure.”

  “I can imagine a big swathe of them right across here,” said Katy, spreading her fingers wide and slowly sweeping her hand from top to bottom in a diagonal line just above the material.

  “Hmm,” said Lara, frowning. She handed the dress to me. “Can you hold it up for me, Naomi?”

  I did as I was told and Lara and Katy stood back to get a different perspective. “Do you know, I think you’re right.” Lara smiled and nodded slowly. “Yes, that would look great!”

  Katy’s face lit up and it was such a lovely magicky moment, but then it got broken a second later as the door crashed open and Elise came rushing in. “Sorry, guys. Lost track of the time.” She stopped in her tracks when she saw me holding the dress and her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing with my model, Lara?”

  Her voice was light but there was something in her tone that made me shiver. Lara didn’t reply. She just quietly said, “Thanks, Naomi,” as she took the dress from me and sat back down at the machine. Then, as Katy and I dutifully followed Elise over to the other side of the room, Lara called, “And thanks for the idea, Katy!”

  As I was getting changed behind the screen I heard Elise ask Katy in a low voice, “What idea was that?”

  “Oh nothing much,” Katy replied. “Just something to do with sequins.”

  “Sequins aren’t going to make up for the lack of a fishtail,” said Elise. “They’re the thing these days. Wait till you see Tansy’s dress.” Then she turned to me. “Right, I’ve only got ten minutes before Tansy’s fitting. Here. This is the jacket for the casual outfit. You can put it on over that top you’re wearing.”

  It was very crisp, in a dark red with black braid round the edges. The sleeves were short and the collar was also short and stuck straight up.

  “There’ll be one big button and you’ll undo that when you get to the end of the catwalk, just before you turn.”

  I was starting to hate the word “catwalk”. It felt like a punch in the stomach.

  “Right, that looks fine. I want to see about the accessories for the prom dress, so take the jacket off.” She handed me a pair of long fishnet gloves. “Remember I told you you’d be wearing these?”

  I looked at Katy when I’d managed to roll and wriggle the gloves up my arms, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Personally I felt really silly, but that was probably just me.

  “Good,” said Elise, nodding. “Now this choker…” She was fixing a gold ruffly thing round my neck. “And you’ll have gold earrings… You see, the whole look is about mixing gold and silver and I want it topped and tailed with silver, hence the silver shoes. Here, stick these on again for now.” She pulled the high heels out of her bag.

  “So is there going to be something silver on Naomi’s head?” Katy asked, a bit hesitantly.

  Elise’s eyes seemed to flick around a bit, but then settled into a look of pity, as though Katy’s question was really pathetic. But actually it was exactly what I’d been wondering.

  The answer was rapped out briskly. “Yes. A pair of silver slides.” She patted my arm. “You’ll look great! Hey, Tansy!”

  We all looked over to see Tansy approaching. “Hey! How’s it all going?” she asked brightly.

  “I was just telling Naomi about the silver slides she’s going to be wearing,” said Elise.

  Tansy grinned. “Sounds lovely!” Then she pouted, pretending to be upset. “Do I get to wear anything on my head, Elise?”

  “No, but you might be wearing a gag over your mouth!” Elise laughed, bashing her friend gently on the arm.

  Tansy roared with laughter, then started to peel her clothes off. “Right, let’s get on with it!”

  I quickly disappeared behind the screen and took off the gloves a
nd choker, and put my sweatshirt back on. When I came out, Katy had gone back over to Lara, while Elise was pretending to tell Tansy off. “Stand still! You’re such a fidget. You should take a leaf out of Naomi’s book, Tanz!”

  “Yes, but I’ve never been trained!” said Tansy in a bit of a whine. “I’m not used to standing about regally while people look at me.”

  I felt my hackles rising as I handed the accessories to Elise and walked off.

  “Bye, Naomi!” she called after me. “See you here again tomorrow, about eleven, yeah?”

  “Actually, I’m going on the ice-dance outing tomorrow, so I won’t be able to make it.” I knew I sounded a bit more stressy than I’d meant to, but it felt good to be turning her down. I just hated the things Tansy was saying. It was as though the two of them were in a little private club and they actually wanted me to feel awkward because of what I am. It’s all right for Dad to say that I just have to accept it and let people take me as they find me, but I can’t do that. I just can’t.

  “I heard what Tansy said, by the way,” said Katy, as we walked back to Hazeldean. “Don’t take any notice, Naomi.”

  I stopped walking and blurted out what I felt. “But I hate it. It’s as though I’m one big joke to them.”

  “Poor Naomi… But it can only get better from now on. I’ve watched tons of behind-the-scenes programmes about the fashion industry, and everyone’s always frantically panicking that they won’t get their designs finished in time for the big show. It’ll be like a hive of industry in that textile room, and no one will have time for talking about anything except their designs, I swear.”

  As usual, Katy had made me feel a bit better, and when she suggested we went down to the athletics field for a run, it seemed like a perfect idea. “No need to get changed is there?”

  I agreed, because we were both in trainers and tracky bums. There weren’t many people there, but we spotted Grace running round the track long before she spotted us, and Jess was at the other end of the field with her precious camera. She was staring up at the tall poplar trees with their shimmering silver leaves.

  “Let’s run over and see what photos she’s taken,” I suggested.

  So that’s what we did, and Grace came sprinting in the same direction as soon as she spotted us. We all got to Jess at the same time, even though Grace had much further to come.

  “Is it my imagination or are you getting faster, Grace?” asked Katy, laughing and panting.

  “I’m trying to speed up my warm-up,” she replied, frowning at her stopwatch.

  “You mean that was only the warm-up?” I spluttered.

  A group of Year Sevens nearby laughed and came over to join us. “It’s quite depressing on the athletics field when Grace is about,” joked a girl called Sabrina. Then she turned to me. “Hey, how’s the modelling going? What do you have to wear, Naomi?”

  I didn’t really feel like talking about it, but these were nice girls and, after all, they were only showing an interest.

  “Well the evening dress I tried on is so scary, I’m not sure I’ll actually make it down the catwalk without falling over!” I said, which made everyone burst out laughing.

  “You’re so lucky, you know!” said a girl called Robyn, looking envious. “I’d love to have been chosen, but obviously they don’t normally choose Year Sevens, do they? It’s just with you being a princess and everything.”

  “No, it’s not because of that,” I quickly pointed out, feeling myself getting worked up again. “It’s because…” But I trailed off. I didn’t want to start thinking these kinds of thoughts again just when I was trying to relax about the whole thing.

  “…because she’s got the right shape and stance,” said Katy firmly. Then she turned to Grace. “What were you saying about your warm-up? Do you want me to time you?”

  I knew Katy was deliberately getting everyone off the subject of the fashion show for my sake and I felt grateful. But even though we’d stopped talking about it, I couldn’t stop it filling up my mind till I thought my head would burst.

  Chapter Five

  As the show drew nearer, I grew more nervous than ever, but the good thing was that Katy turned out to be right. Nothing more was said that made me feel awkward about being a princess, because the designers only talked about their clothes. From what Katy had described, I’d imagined them working their fingers to the bone, but the only one who seemed to be doing any hard work was Lara. The others just did a lot of walking round and looking at everyone else’s designs.

  I heard quite a few of the models complaining that it wasn’t fair they were only allowed to model for one designer. Tansy said it was stupid that she had to go to all the rehearsals for the sake of three little turns on the catwalk. But Lara explained to Katy and me that the teachers were anxious that people would be spending too much time at fittings if they were modelling more than three outfits.

  Katy usually came with me to fittings and she really enjoyed going round and chatting to all the designers and asking them what they were doing. I loved having her there, too.

  “Lara is easily the nicest,” she said to me one time. “She talks to me as though I’m her equal, whereas the others treat me like I don’t understand anything about fashion design, and that really makes me mad.”

  “It would get to me as well,” I admitted, feeling sorry for her.

  “Elise is the worst of the lot,” she added. “If you weren’t modelling for her, I wouldn’t go anywhere near her. I hate the way she’s secretive about her collection, yet goes round being really critical of other people’s stuff.”

  I knew what Katy meant. Elise definitely wasn’t my favourite person and, if I was honest, I felt awkward in all the clothes I’d tried on so far. For the “Caj with a Dash” category I had to wear something which was so smart I felt like I was going for an interview. Underneath the red jacket there was a fitted shirt with no collar, and then on the bottom half I had to wear a pair of tight, cut-off trousers and some little ankle boots. Katy said I looked great, and I had to admit it was really clever of Elise to be able to design and make clothes like these, but I couldn’t help it, I just didn’t feel comfortable wearing them.

  “Never mind, perhaps you’ll get to wear something you like more in the ‘Dress to Impress for Less’ category,” Katy said, trying to cheer me up.

  But when I asked Elise about it, she told me to chill a bit. “I haven’t finished that outfit yet. You can’t hurry these things, Naomi. Creativity is a slow process. I don’t know what Lara’s trying to prove, working away like a mad thing.”

  I hated it when Elise said things like that, because I really liked Lara, and I also admired the way she worked so hard. She’d customized some of her clothes by adding buttons and patches and beads to make something stunning out of something ordinary, and Katy and I both loved that way of working.

  Quite a few of Elise’s friends turned up to look at her outfits and they all said how lucky I was to be what they called “the chosen one”.

  “Fancy! Only Year Seven! Makes me feel positively ancient. Clearly we’re all past it, girls, as far as modelling is concerned!” said one girl, pouting theatrically, which made everyone laugh.

  I didn’t laugh though. I just stood there in my ridiculous clothes, gazing longingly at Lara’s collection, and feeling nervous because I had to face a new terror soon. The dreaded full rehearsal.

  The night before the rehearsal, I told Katy and the others my fears. “I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb!” I wailed. “Elise showed me how to walk, kind of mincing along, all wiggly hips and funny high steps. I’ll never be able to do it!”

  “Yes you will!” said Georgie. “Come on, let’s have a little mini Amethyst rehearsal.”

  But I knew I’d be far too embarrassed. “There’s no room in here.”

  “We can go in the corridor just outside. No one ever comes up to this floor apart from Miss Jennings.”

  “Leave the poor girl alone,” said Katy, putting h
er arm round me. But Georgie was already heading purposefully out of the dorm with Mia and the others behind, so Katy and I just found ourselves following like sheep.

  “Do you know what music you’re having?” asked Mia.

  “No, I don’t know anything!” I said, feeling panicky.

  “Well, it’ll be something loud,” said Katy, “and it’ll be the perfect speed for walking so you can keep in time with it as you walk.”

  The more we talked about it, the more scared I felt. “Oh no, I’ll never manage that!”

  “I can give you a little tip if you like,” said Mia quietly. “The music will pretty likely fall into sections of eight beats, so if you get used to counting to yourself in eights, you’ll have much more of a feel for when you’ve got to start and when you’ve got to turn and everything.”

  “Oh thanks, Mia,” I told her warmly. “I need all the advice I can get.”

  “Right then, watch me!” said Georgie. “You’ve got to swing your hips.”

  “Okay, Georgie,” said Katy, “if you’re the demonstrator, try to place each foot in front of the other one, as though you’re stepping on a straight line.”

  Georgie set off down the corridor, while the rest of us all joined in clicking our fingers at the speed that Mia set up. I was quite impressed. Georgie looked totally model-like.

  “Oh I so wish it was you and not me!” I told her when she’d gone up and down a few times, grinning at all of us, and turning round with a really cool swing.

  “It’s true, Georgie is great,” said Katy, looking thoughtful.

  “Hey, cheers!” said Georgie, winking at Katy.

  “No, seriously,” went on Katy, “the reason you look cool is because you’re confident. You’re good at showing off, and that’s what all models do.”

  “So you’re calling me a show-off!” said Georgie, pretending to be offended.

  “Okay, do you want a try, Naomi?” asked Katy.