Jill stood transfixed, trying to see something, but the glare blinded her too much. The room was completely dark, only the catwalk in front of her was bathed in a whitish light from the headlights.
"Run!" hissed a voice behind her, and she took a few unsteady steps forward. "Will something happen today?" a woman's voice shrilled from somewhere in front of her from the blackness of the room, drowning out the low hum of the cameras. "Are you going to put down roots there?" Helpless, Jill began to move again, stumbling forward with little grace on the stilettos with the unusually high heels. She tried hard not to slip, which was not an easy task given the mirror-smooth floor. She staggered menacingly a few times, but eventually she managed to reach the bottom of the podium. Relieved, she stopped, blinked hard into the darkness. "A bit old, isn't it?" she heard a man's voice. The woman screamed again. "Now don't just stand there like a log, move, turn around!" Completely unnerved, Jill followed this request, almost losing her balance as she turned, only just able to catch herself. "That's impossible," it squeaked again, and Jill now knew it was probably Harriet Grumb. "I don't know, I think she's got something," came another man's amused voice. "Yes, she's not ugly and her figure is great too," said the first again. Jill felt like a piece of meat on the counter at the butcher's around the corner. She felt like taking off her shoes and throwing them forward into the darkness, hoping to stab at least one of the judges fatally. But with the cameras rolling, she didn't want to embarrass herself any more. So she made a good face at the bad game and conjured up a crooked smile on her face with the last of her strength. 'Fine, she'll get a chance,' said Harriet in an annoyed voice, '132, you're next - exit - next!' 'Uh... what?' she asked, irritated, certain she had misheard. 'Are you hard of hearing?' hissed Harriet venomously. “You are further. Now out with you, you're holding up the whole operation.” “More,” Jill thought in disbelief, “I'm further.” She hadn't expected that, it was clearly too much for her nerves. Panicked, she turned and stumbled back down the catwalk, bumping into the next girl already coming towards her. The slightly chubby brunette fell to the ground like a sack of flour and squealed loudly in shock. Startled, Jill stopped and leaned down to help her stand up. "Can't you be careful, you oaf?" the girl snapped at her angrily, slapping her hand away. "Sorry," Jill apologized contritely, then continued toward the curtain. She could hear the jury whispering behind her. Harriet seemed quite upset, one of the men gave an amused chuckle. Shortly before the end of the catwalk, she was pulled down a small flight of stairs and a little later she was back in the cloakroom. Completely distraught, she went in search of her clothes, finally found them in a corner and hurriedly changed. "Let's get out of here," she thought incredulously as she left the locker room. Outside, she took a deep breath and dropped into a chair. Stunned, she put her head in her hands and tried to understand what had just happened. The fact that she had been mistaken for a model and coerced onto that runway was bad enough in itself. But now it gradually dawned on her that probably hundreds of thousands of viewers in front of the televisions had followed her embarrassing performance live. She felt nauseous and wondered how she was going to break it to Walt. Words like "discreet" and "unobtrusive" flashed through her mind, and she knew she must have screwed things up badly. "Hi," a soft voice suddenly said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Hello," she replied absently. "I'm Mandy," said the blond young woman next to her, holding out her hand. 'It's quite a mess here, isn't it? Are you through?” Jill made a face and nodded. "Yes, I am," she confirmed unhappily. "You don't seem very happy." Mandy smiled. "But I can understand that, it's all so new and exciting, I'm pretty scared too." "Yes," Jill sighed, "scared is exactly the right word." She thought about Walt again and the trouble she was having sure would get, and got up. "I have to go now," she explained to Mandy. 'Oh, okay - goodbye, see you.' 'I don't think so,' Jill thought laconically, then said aloud, 'Yeah, you too, until then.' Jill left the building, paused outside the door for a moment standing and wondered if she shouldn't go back inside and look around a little more. Due to her involuntary appearance, she had hardly had the opportunity to do so. But she dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come, no more ten horses would bring her into this witch's cauldron. Besides, it didn't matter now anyway, she'd screwed up the operation and Walt would definitely take the case off her hands, so she headed home frustrated. The next morning she entered the headquarters with mixed feelings. The fact that all the colleagues she met in the corridor grinned at her or whistled softly didn't necessarily make the whole thing any better. Blushing, she rushed into the meeting room. "Hey Jill, great show yesterday," Tom Steward greeted her immediately with a big grin. "Yeah, great," she replied, annoyed. “Walt's going to be thrilled, too.” One by one, the other colleagues began to trickle in, and Jill had to endure all sorts of amused comments. "Well, if I had known there was such a treat hidden under those clothes, I would have..." Tom didn't get any further, because at that moment Walt entered the room. "There's our supermodel," he grinned, also amused, and Jill felt like sinking into the ground. "I - I'm sorry, I must have screwed it up," she murmured unhappily, bracing herself for the lecture to come. "Why screwed up, nothing better could have happened," Walt explained to her surprise. »If you survive the next selection, you will move into this so-called 'model villa' together with the other nine models and the crew. You're in the thick of it, day and night, and we couldn't ask for a better camouflage.” Jill stared at him, horrified. "You're not asking me to be part of this circus, are you?" "As I said, we won't find a better chance for our investigation," her boss emphasized again, and his tone made it clear that he expected no contradiction. “But…but…” Jill stuttered, images of half-naked girls lounging lasciviously in front of a camera popping up in her mind. "I'm sure I'm not going to get any further," she said hastily. "With the character?" Tom laughed again, "Of course you will, unless the jury has tomato eyes." Walt gave him a stern look, then turned back to Jill. “I realize it's not a 100% sure thing, but it's worth a try. Make an effort, it'll work out.” They talked for a while longer, Jill tried to resist Walter's suggestion tooth and nail, but in the end she had no choice but to give in. "Cheer up, I'm sure," Walt patted her paternally on the shoulder as we left. "Just do your best."A week later, the second selection broadcast took place, and with a stomach ache, Jill made her way to the town hall. The closer she came, the more hesitant her steps became, she wanted to turn on her heel.This time there were far fewer girls, most of them had already been eliminated at the first casting, but the rush in the changing room was no less than last time. She spotted Mandy in a corner. Compared to the other girls, she had seemed relatively calm and reasonable, and relieved she steered towards them."Hi," Mandy smiled at her, "Nice to see you, at least one familiar face."Jill nodded. "Yes, I feel the same. – Do you have any idea how things are going here today?”“Well, if I got that right, there are three rounds. One in normal clothes, one in evening wear, and one in a bikini.”“Bikini,” Jill repeated, disturbed, and the thought of being stared at by a number of onlookers so scanti
Of course, the colleagues had all watched the program, apparently they had met for a cozy "men's night" and enjoyed Jill's brilliant performance together.And like last time, she was greeted with whistles, jeers and salacious comments when she came to the headquarters a day later.Almost in tears, she fled to Walter's office."I'm not going out there anymore," she said firmly instead of a greeting.Walt grinned. »Come on girl, don't be so wild. You've done well and I'm sure the boys will settle down in the next few days,' he comforted her. "The main thing is that it worked, what are some stupid jokes about?""You don't have to listen to that," Jill said, frustrated.'It's going away. You're going to be in this model mansion for a while now, and by the time you get back the co-workers will have something else to talk about.”“Or not,” Jill murmured, annoyed, realizing the men were get
The next afternoon, with a heavy heart, Jill lugged her suitcase to the town hall. There was the meeting point, they would all be picked up by a bus and brought to the villa.A few of the other nine girls were already there when she arrived, and a camera crew was there to film the departure from Lakeside and arrival at the villa.One by one the rest of the girls trundled in. To her delight, Jill spotted Mandy among the stragglers, and she immediately came up to her and gave her a happily hug."Glad you're here too, I don't feel so alone," she said, and Jill nodded."Yes, I'm happy too."They stood there in silence and waited for the bus to arrive. Jill, meanwhile, let her gaze wander over the other girls, who were dancing around, chattering excitedly."Well, that could be something," Jill sighed to herself, already annoyed. She fervently hoped there wouldn't be shared rooms, she couldn't stand a whole flock of those affected geese.Fi
After they had calmly unpacked their things and stowed their suitcases under the bed, they went out onto the balcony and sat down in the two sun loungers. They shook their heads as they watched the rest of the girls splash around in the pool, squeaking and screaming like they'd never seen a pool in their lives. Harriet and Mick were lying in two sun loungers a little way from the pool and were talking. It was immediately clear to Jill why the girls were so excited again, of course they tried to put themselves in the right light in front of the two judges."Oh my god, what a monkey business," Jill murmured in consternation, and Mandy smiled. "But we'll have to godownstairs at some point, unless you're starving."I don't do the theater voluntarily. – Speaking of which, what do you think if we go shopping together tomorrow?”Mandy nodded. “Yes, of course, okay.”They enjoyed the sun in silence, lost in thou
Shortly thereafter, Jill jumped into the pool and did her laps. She had already done a few laps when suddenly the water splashed up close to her. She paused in surprise, trying to see through the shimmering surface who had jumped into the pool. A head appeared a few yards away and to her surprise it was Craig Peters, now turning to face her with a smile."I hope I didn't startle you.""Well, a little warning would have been nice," Jill said sullenly. She wanted to complete her training courses in peace and didn't feel like company. But she couldn't very well prevent him from using the pool, so she just sighed softly and continued paddling in the opposite direction.To her relief, he didn't seem to be intending to talk either, so with a few vigorous strokes he caught up with her and swam silently alongside her.They did a few lengths together, then Jill took a short break at the poolside. Craig stopped as well and grinned at her. "Tired already? Shame, I w
As the afternoon wore on, Harriet eventually returned to the dining room with the rest of the girls and surveyed Ewan's work. She made a few comments, but seemed happy overall. When her gaze fell on Jill, she frowned."She still looks the same as before," she said reproachfully to Ewan, who immediately defended himself, whining. 'Sorry Chérie, but she just didn't want to.''You won't stay here long if you keep being so stubborn,' Harriet snapped at Jill."I think her hair is so fine," Craig interjected at that moment, before Jill had a chance to answer. "You're well groomed and the color is nice, why force anything that looks good?"Jill bowed her head, embarrassed, not liking being the center of attention.Harriet gave Craig a critical look, then looked at Jill's hair again and sighed."All right, at least it's long enough to get started with," she conceded. "But don't imagine it's always like this, I don't take extra frills," she sn
By the time she got to the bottom, Craig was already in the pool, and when he saw her, he was paddling toward her, gazing at her from the edge of the pool."Come in, the water's lovely," he smiled, and Jill didn't need to be asked twice. She dove gracefully into the pool and then happily swam a few laps while Craig watched."Now do I get my revenge?" he asked teasingly when she stopped beside him after a while.“Agreed – ten lanes again?”He nodded. "Three - two - one - go!" he counted, and they started moving almost simultaneously. Jill was an excellent swimmer and although Craig was not far behind, she still managed to win by a narrow margin."I can see I don't stand a chance against your pretty legs," he laughed, playfully splashing some water on her face."Hey," Jill muttered, laughing, and immediately repaid him. Shortly thereafter, they were happily romping around in the pool, diving into each other and wrestling with
When Jill came to the pool shortly after, Craig was already there, sitting on a deck chair and waiting for her."Why aren't you in the water yet, aren't you too cold?" Jill teased."No, I've thought of something," he smiled. "We were pretty noisy last night and I think we should go somewhere else before there's any trouble here."She eyed him suspiciously. 'And what did you have in mind?''Let's go to the beach. Apart from the fact that I prefer swimming in the sea anyway, it's quiet there and won't disturb anyone.”Jill hesitated, not sure if hanging out alone with him at night was a good idea. After all, she didn't know him and had no idea what might be hiding behind his harmless manner, so caution was advised.As if reading her mind, he added at the same moment, "Don't be afraid, I certainly won't attack you," sounding utterly amused."I'm not scared," Jill said hastily. "I don't mind driving."She had been looking for