Blog: OG Stories of My Childhood: The Spotlight Chapter 7.

Because today’s July 4th (happy Independance Day to all my fellow Americans), I will only torture you with one, much shorter chapter of The Spotlight. For those of you who haven’t read the earlier installments of this series, Rebeca is an aspiring fashion designer/model who was employed as an actress but was fired after the spoiled daughter of the director, Brittney, accused of bullying. She then spent some time moping, but landed a job interview and was sent to a fashion school in Paris where she becomes fashion designer, Madame du Boa’s, favorite student and she meets a new girl who seems oddly familiar named Briana. If that sounds like a lot packed into two sentences, it is, but it’s important for today’s chapter.

Chapter 7: “I thought she looked familiar!”

“Now class, today’s lesson is how to do the proper catwalk,” said Madame du Boa, strutting like a peacock before her students, looking each one over.

[Author’s Note: I’m pretty sure that I stole this lesson from an episode of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse called “Catty on the Catwalk.” In fact, I’m pretty sure this entire book is based on that episode. If you haven’t seen or heard of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, here’s that episode. I’ll leave you to decide if 10-year-old me was inspired by it or straight-up stealing from it.

(I have to be honest, though, for what it was, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse was a pretty good show with a lot of parallels to the reality T.V. shows of the 2010’s such as Keeping up With the Kardashians, and the animation was amazing and still holds up, but I’m getting ahead of myself. That’s a topic for another time.)]

“Ma’am,” said a young man who also like men’s fashion. “Why are you teaching this class?”

“Because your strut teacher is dreadfully sick with the flu, so I must take her place because we couldn’t get a substitute.”

[Author’s Note: “…your strut teacher…”? I mean…it works for the story – I guess – but what? Does anyone know if this is a real thing or not? Wouldn’t this just be called a modeling class?]

“Oh.”

“Now, let’s do a headcount. I can’t have any slackers.” Madam du Boa counted everyone lined up in front of her. “Where’s Rebeca?”

Rebeca burst through the door. “Pant, pant! Sorry! I’m fashionably late. Some of my eyeshadow and quick-dry nail polish went missing so I had to find a new outfit then figure out which nail polish would look good with my outfit. After that, I had to find a lipstick and eyeshadow that would tie the outfit together, not to mention finding some shoes,” said Rebeca.

“Rebeca,” said Madame du Boa. “I respect your commitment to fashion, but sometimes, it’s bad to be fashionably late. And this is coming from a once super-star fashion model! Once I was fashionably late to a catwalk and I didn’t get paid for another month!”

[Author’s Note: Honestly, you could throw a bag over your head, slap a Gucci sticker on it, and march around the catwalk with your shoulders slumped over and somehow still sell it for several thousand dollars nowadays. I think being fashionably late would be the least of their worries.]

“Yikes!”

“So, if you’re ever to graduate from this school, just remember to NEVER be fashionably late. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“Good!”

After the conversation about being fashionably late, Rebeca show of her best catwalk. One foot in front of the other, swaying her hips. At the end, she turned at 90 degrees and did the same thing as before, only going the opposite direction. But, as Rebeca got to the final stretch of the red carpet, her toe hit something. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!” Rebeca said, holding her injured foot.

Snap! Oh no! Her heel had snapped in two! Rebeca went tumbling down. She landed on one of the candle stands, knocking it down. All the candle stands fell like dominos. When Rebeca woke up a few seconds later, she asked, “What’s that burning smell?” The floor was on fire! Apparently, the candles had been alight.

[Author’s Note: Why are their candles in a school, especially when they’re lit? That’s got to be some sort of safety violation or something, right?]

Rebeca pieced together the suspects (she liked to piece things together, like a detective). “It was you, wasn’t it?!” yelled Rebeca pointing at Briana. Briana removed what looked to be a wig and revealed her identity.

“Gasp! Brittney?”

“Crossing her arms, the girl let out a small laugh and gave Rebeca a smug smile. Then she escaped through the fire exit. Rebeca took off her shoes and ran through the fire exit too. Fire engines were outside. Madame du Boa walked up to Rebeca; her steely eyes look into Rebeca’s teary ones. “You are expelled,” Madame du Boa said. “Gone. Done with. Never to come back.”

[Author’s Note: Uh…what? What just happened?

Ignoring the lit candles and the fact that it was obviously not Rebeca’s fault, why did Brittney follow her? She had gotten her wish of getting Rebeca fired from the theater company, so why did she feel the need to stalk Rebeca all the way to France to continue to ruin her life? What was she going to gain from that? It makes no sense.

Also, that’s a good wig if it could completely change Brittney’s appearance. Either that or Rebeca’s an idiot.]

Until next time,

M.J.