I rushed along the busy streets of LA, intent on getting back to my apartment as quickly as possible –it was frikkin cold and I needed to get myself ready for my date tonight. Grinning, I thought of the guy I was going with – Sebastian; he was tall, blonde, blue eyed and tanned – your typical Danish male. We’d only been seeing each other for a few weeks, so it wasn’t really serious yet, but I really liked him – he made me smile, had the same passion for languages that I did, and didn’t care what I looked like most of the time, he cared that I was me, which meant a lot to me – hell, it’d mean a lot to any girl. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I almost didn’t notice the person frantically waving at me. Confused, I stopped walking, making sure they were indeed trying to get my attention – I had absolutely no clue as to who they were. Whoever they were smiled and walked over – she was a typical model, I noted, long legged, pouty mouth etc., except that she seemed a bit older – maybe middling thirties? I dunno.

“Hi,” she said breathlessly in her LA accent, “I was wondering if you could do me a big favour.” I smiled warily,

“Depends on what it is.”

“Oh you’re British right? Fantastic.” Ok now I was confused even more, but she continued talking, “I’ve been searching the streets for hours now, trying to find a suitable replacement, but they’ve all been too large, or dimpled or whatnot. You’re perfect.” She surveyed me up and down. I resisted the urge to take a couple of steps backwards.

“Excuse me, but what is it you’d like me to do?” Hastily she explained.

“I’m from a model company – we’re based just up the street,” she shoved a card into my hands, “Anyway, one of our models for tonight has called in sick, and we need to find a replacement for her now, because she’s a main part of the show – she’ll be the only one walking twice…” my head was whirling,

“You want me to be a model for you?” my tone was highly incredulous.

“Just for tonight – we’ll pay you 45 an hour, and you can keep any of the clothes you wear.” She paused for a second as I tried to digest this information. I was about to accept, when I thought of Seb and the party. I frowned slightly.

“What is it? Don’t say you can’t do it! My job’s on the line here…” I cut her off.

“I think I can do it, if I rearrange a couple of things, but,” I gave her a Significant Look, “Can someone come with me?”

“Boyfriend?” she smiled. I nodded.

“Just let me call him – when does it start?”

“Four hours – so you’d need to get there in half an hour.” Raising my eyebrows, I rang Seb’s mobile. It was a few seconds before he picked up.

“Hello, Sebastian Rayner speaking,” I loved the Danish lilt to his accent, made me smile every time I heard it.

“Hey Seb, it’s Emily, listen, about tonight…”

“Has something come up? Are you in trouble?” he asked concerned for me immediately. Aww, how sweet.

“Uhh, not exactly, I was just wondering if we could postpone it ‘til like tomorrow – we’re both free then right?”

“Yeah, but why can’t we do it tonight?” I laughed lightly,

“Um, you might not believe it, but I just got asked to model for someone – it starts at eight tonight, at” I mouthed ‘where’ to the woman, she told me quick, and for a second I stared at her open mouthed in shock “…uh, at the Maze – you know, that posh new place we always wondered about. Would it be okay to do this?” I asked hopefully. He laughed softly at the other end of the line.

“Since it clearly means that much to you Em, yes, let’s – do I have to wear a suit?”

“Uhh, just come half an hour early and I’ll make sure you get one,” I said firmly, “And, I kind of have to be there in half an hour, so I guess I won’t be seeing you until seven thirty-ish”

“See you at seven thirty then – and you’d better have the suit,” I chuckled at his playful tone.

“Bye, love you Seb!”

“Love you too,” the line went dead. I looked up at the woman.

“Okay. Sorted – but you need to provide my boyfriend with a tux, or I won’t do it.”

“Yes yes, just let’s get going!”

“I thought you said I had to be there in half an hour!” I protested. She gave me a long-suffering look.

“Dear, it will take half an hour to get there.” Hastily, she waved down a taxi, ushered me in and ordered the driver to get us to the Maze ‘quick sharp or you won’t get a tip’ I grimaced – I wouldn’t want to cross her; vaguely I wondered what she’d have done if I refused.

Three hours later

I stared in shock at my reflection: this wasn’t me. As soon as I had arrived, Ms Symons – the woman who hired me – had ushered me backstage, to all the make-up and hair stylists. For the past couple hours I had gotten a new haircut (‘to look more model-like dear, your current cut is rather, uh, common, if you’ll excuse me’), got an all over body wax – which bloody hurt – a fitting – Ms Symons (‘Oh no dear, call me Jade’) had smiled like a Cheshire cat when they found out I was a zero ‘same as the other model - you look like a healthy, natural zero too, that’ll get the media off our backs about all the anorexics in this business’ – and now I was being taught to look smug and walk like a model, something that wasn’t coming so easy to me.

“No no Emily, you have to pout, not purse your lips!” Jade was saying in exasperation. I tried again, for the hundredth time

“Yes!” she screeched. Startled, I stopped the supposed perfect pout. She sighed wearily at me.

“Can you do it again?” I tried to replicate what I’d just done – and, you know what? I managed it. Ms Symons was so pleased she gave me five minutes rest. I took a quick look at the designer clock hanging on the wall. It was seven, and I still had to learn how to walk model-properly in high heels, and put on the first dress, which I had made up my mind to keep. The theme for the show was evening gowns of the new century, and I loved all the designs. My first dress was a maroon kind of colour, which sort of hugged all my curves, then flared slightly after my hips, going all the way down to the ground. It was strapless, and only had half the back, but it looked great on me. The heels were of a similar colour to the dress, only they were sparkly, so to make it work I had to wear matching sparkly earrings – they were probably diamonds. Made me giddy just thinking about how expensive all the clothes were – and I got to keep them!

I learned to walk fairly quickly, much to Ms Symons’ relief – ‘you have a natural swing to your walk anyway, just exaggerate it a bit’ – and soon there was only half an hour to go. Suddenly I remembered that Seb was supposed to be arriving about now. Standing up, I looked around the foyer where I had been sat, waiting for Jade to come and call me to get dressed – I was expecting her any minute. Then I saw him – he was being detained by the two security guards at the door, probably because of his attire – he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Stifling a giggle, I quickly made my made over to them.

“It’s okay guys, he’s with me,” I said to the guards, placing a hand on the nearest one’s shoulder. They both stared at me for a second, non-believing. I sighed.

“Would you like me to get Ms Symons over here to tell you that you should let this man in?” Immediately they let him go. I beamed at them.

“Glad we got that cleared up. Come on Seb” I said briskly, turning to find the person in charge of getting Seb a tux.

“Em, wait!” he said. I turned around to find him staring at me, nonplussed.

“What?”

“You look great – like the haircut, it suits you.” I smiled my thanks at him.

“Come on, we’ve got to find Jade, she’s going to get you your suit, and I have to put on my first dress like now.” I pulled him towards one of the attendants that were hanging around, intent on asking him where Jade was, when I heard her voice screeching across the room.

“Emily! Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for five minutes – you have to get dressed now! Who’s this?” she snapped, coming up to us. I cleared my throat.

“This, Jade,” I said coolly, “Is my boyfriend Sebastian, for whom you promised you would get a tux. Have you got one?” She smiled at Seb, all anger seemingly dissipated.

“Well, aren’t you handsome? Yes, we’ve got a tux for you – just go with Martin here” she gestured to the attendant, “And he’ll take you to get one.” Shrugging, Seb followed the guy, after kissing me on the cheek quickly. Before I even had time to utter a goodbye in response to Seb, Jade whisked my away towards the dressing rooms.

“Honestly, we’ve only got half an hour to get you dressed and put makeup on!” she seethed.

“Um, Jade? I’m already wearing makeup,” I said. She laughed patronisingly.

“Yes, dear, you have, but not all of it – the makeup you’ll wear for the catwalk is slightly different – it needs to be a certain brand, all of it from the same company, who are paying us to have you advertise it by wearing it.” I blinked. Well, that changed things.

There were five minutes to go and I felt like I was going to be sick. Seriously, I have a fear of being in front of people – not that I’d told Jade, but I didn’t know how I was going to walk out there without falling on my face or doing something equally stupid. I think the makeup and stuff was helping, as it made me feel like a different person, more sophisticated, definitely not like the girl who eats what she wants and sleeps in a long pink shirt, so I wasn’t as nervous as I might have been. The other models helped too.

“Don’t worry honey, the first time I went out there, I trod on my dress and ripped the skirt off,” came one comforting story. Another detailed how they fell into the model coming out, making them both fall into the spectators. Even though I knew they were lying (they wouldn’t be employed if that had happened to them), funnily enough, their stories didn't bolster me at all, so I stood there wringing my hands (in a metaphoric sense) while the speeches went on, wishing I’d never accepted Jade’s offer. This is why they get paid so much I thought miserably to myself. The orchestra started playing, and I gulped: now I had to walk out there.

“Remember, pout, smirk, but don’t smile or grin,” the guy at the curtain said. Gathering myself together, I straightened, put my pout face on, hoping to god it was the right one, and swayed onto the catwalk.

It was actually a feeling of power, walking up there with lights flashing and everybody looking at you. ‘Course, I knew they were just looking at the dress, but it was nice to be appreciated, for about thirty seconds. When I got to the end of the walk, my mind momentarily blanked, and I forgot what I was suppose to do before I turned around. So I improvised: I tilted my head slightly, and let a small smile flit across my face, before turning and walking back, careful to keep the model-sway thing going. I got back without a hitch, and let my face break into a goofy grin. Jade was back, and she gave me an encouraging look.

“That was good dear, now we need to get you into the next dress,” and I was bustled off to the dressing rooms again, to have the new dress put on and my makeup touched up.

“Please try and remember to not grin at the audience, like you are now,” she said worriedly. I refrained from rolling my eyes – there was someone putting more eyeshadow on, and if I moved my eyeballs I might disturb her work. Instead I waved a hand in response, and stopped grinning – my cheeks were starting to hurt anyway. Then I was ushered back to the catwalk, and walked up there again, the flashes from the cameras even more blinding – maybe it was the dress, which was a bluey-green colour, with straps this time, but instead of flaring, it had a slit up the side, and the bodice part had swirly designs in black thread all over it; suffice to say I liked it a lot – and this time I remembered what I was supposed to do at the end: I twirled, slowly, so that everyone could see all parts of the dress, before sweeping back up the catwalk. Then it was over. Thank god. I collapsed into the nearest chair. Jade came running over, god knows how she managed it in those heels, but hey, this is LA.

“Emily, dear, you look like you’re about to faint – why don’t you step outside for a breather?” she looked almost…caring. It was a scary look on her, I decided. Smiling I said.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll leave now – is Seb coming?”

“Yes – why don’t you go and pick up the other dress, and I’ll tell Sebastian to meet you outside,” she said quickly before rushing off. Humming, I made my way to the dress room, where I’d seen my first dress being carefully hung up after I’d gotten out of it. Briefly I thought about changing back into my normal clothes, but I wanted to wear this dress just a little bit longer, so I just got the maroon dress and headed out the back door, where Jade and I had come in hours ago. There was no one there. I waited for a few minutes, but Seb was taking his sweet time coming. Irritated, I started walking – maybe he was at the front of the building – when a limo with tinted windows came round the corner. It stopped right next to me, and a tall man got out. He looked very security guard, very macho, and not at all like someone I’d like to mess with.

“Can I help you?” I asked cautiously.

“Yes, you can. Could you please get in the car? It’s a matter of your security,” my eyebrows came together slightly.

“My security? What do I need to be protected for?” I laughed slightly. “I’m just a stand-in model.”

“I’m going to say it one more time. Please get in the car.” Okay, now I was a little suspicious.

“Emily! Emily where are you!” I heard Jade’s voice calling. Funny, she sounded kind of panicked. I half turned to answer her call, which turned out to be a mistake. The security-guard type man grabbed my arm and started yanking me towards the limo.

“Hey! Let go!” I struggled against him, but it was a little difficult in the dress. Just as the guy was shutting the door Jade came running out of the door. I saw her mouth moving, recognising that the first couple of words were swearwords. Then something was shoved over my mouth, I inhaled and blacked out.