Modelling

Alexa opens her eyes slowly, dazzled by the bright light emitted by the room's fluorescent lamp. As she did, she realizes that she was lying in the clinic bed. She tries to get up and sit on the side of the bed, hurting her back at the process.

"How's your back?", the school nurse asked when she noticed Alexa getting up.

"It hurts, but I'm fine", Alexa responded.

"You had a bad fall. Luckily, somebody brought you here immediately", the nurse exclaimed.

The thought of that mysterious text she got yesterday suddenly invaded Alexa's mind. Then she remembered what happened before she fainted. She was sure that she saw a guy punching the pervert, but she wasn't able to recognize him.

"Are you alright? What happened to you back there?", the school nurse worried.

"It was just a little accident", Alexa replied. "May I know who brought me here?"

"I have never seen that kid here before. He must be a transfer student", the nurse explained.

"He?", Alexa murmured.

The nurse nodded and proceeded on advising her to take some of the medications she gave her on certain periods of time. But while she was talking, Alexa's mind was on her life saver. She became more curious than ever. Checking her phone, she realized that she still haven't got a reply from that person yet.

"Thank you", Alexa suddenly said and took the medicine with her as she left for the door.

But before she could even go out, Marzia appeared before her. She looked devastated and very worried. Alexa was surprised to see her mother rush like that. She must have been really scared of the news that her daughter was sent to the clinic and was unconscious.

"Mom, I...", Alexa tried to come up with an excuse.

"Beatrice! What the hell happened this time?!", Marzia burst out anxiously.

"Mom, I'm okay", she tried to calm her mother down. "Nothing serious happened"

"Nothing serious?! The school nurse called me in the middle of my photo shoot kilometres away from your school, saying that there has been an accident and that you were at the clinic unconscious! What's not serious about that?!", her mother exclaimed hysterically.

"I'm sorry", that was all Alexa could say.

"Two consecutive days, Alexa. Two days!", Marzia continued to say while they were on their way out.

"I know mom, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have looked for St-", Alexa paused.

"Look for who?", her mother stopped walking.

"Nobody", she replied. "I just tried to look for the assigned quarters for the staff members of the school publication"

"In the middle of a discussion?" Marzia raised an eyebrow. "What is happening with you?"

She held Alexa's face with both her hands. Alexa shook her head slowly because students were looking. Again, her mother was a supermodel and that made everybody look up to her everywhere she went. It makes Alexa uncomfortable when people stare.

"Get your things, we're going home", her mother ordered.

"Mom, I can't skip another day of classes", Alexa whined.

"Whose fault is that?", Marzia asked.

Alexa just sighed and walked towards their classroom. It was lunch time, almost everybody was out to eat at the cafeteria. But when she arrived at their room, there were still several students left chatting in groups. When Alexa entered, they all looked at her.

"Where have you been?", one of them asked.

"You were gone. Again", another exclaimed.

"Are you alright? What's gotten into you?", a guy said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for nothing", Alexa sarcastically responded.

She picked up her bag and turned to leave. But one girl called her and said that Stacy told them everything. Alexa got intrigued and turned to look at who was talking. She faced the girl and asked sternly about what her best friend told them.

"She se-said that she saw you me-making out with Derek down the hall", the girl explained.

"What?", Alexa scoffed.

"That's what she said when she arrived on the second period", the girl answered.

Alexa wanted to scream. She couldn't take it anymore. She felt like Stacy was a whole new person now. She didn't even understand why she still got worried about her earlier. Alexa instantly regret saving her from the pervert who turned out to be named Derek, according to Stacy.

"Is that true though?", another girl asked.

"Stacy doesn't know anything", Alexa replied and turned her back on them.

She went to the school's parking lot and found her mother waiting inside of her car. Alexa was impressed that she already got her car back, but was too upset to even care about that at the moment. She was furious at Stacy.

"What took you so long?", her mother asked as Alexa got into the passenger's seat.

She kept quiet and didn't even look at her mother, so Marzia decided to just start the car. While driving, she takes a quick glimpse on Alexa and notices that her daughter was so serious and silent. This made her over think things so she made up her mind and tried to talk to Alexa.

"Are you mad at me?", Marzia asked while she had her eyes on the road.

"No, mom. I just have a lot going on in my head right now", Alexa replied, looking at the window.

"Like what?", she asked again.

But before her daughter could even answer her question, her phone rang. She had to pull over and look at who was calling her. It turned out to be her manager, who seemed so upset upon her absence at the photo shoot. Marzia ended the call and stormed through the traffic.

"Are you seriously taking me to work, mom?", Alexa exclaimed.

"I'm sorry sweetie but I don't have much time to drop you off at home", she responded while driving fast.

"Well, at least be careful", Alexa said.

When they arrived at the location, Marzia rushed inside the building and prepared to resume her photo shoot while being nagged at by her manager. Alexa thought it was a ridiculous situation to put herself into and swore to herself that she would never do modelling.

As she kept herself busy on her phone at the far corner of the huge studio, one of the staff members snatched her phone from her and dragged her towards the dressing room. Alexa was so confused that she didn't even have the words to protest or even ask about what was going on.

"Get her prepped up and going. We don't have much time", somebody ordered.

Alexa didn't have the chance to turn and look at who it was because everybody around her suddenly became very busy and a woman started putting makeup on her face. As soon as the woman was finished with her makeup, another woman approached her and did her hair.

At the whole duration of that exhausting experience, Alexa found herself enjoying all the things the women put her through. She loved how she looked in the mirror. Finally after dressing up into a cute little pink dress, they shoved her into the spotlight along with another guy.

"Hey, it's you", the guy quietly said while posing for the camera.

"What do you mean?", Alexa replied, hesitating with how she's supposed to strike a pose.

"You were the girl I brought to the school clinic. Are you alright now?", he exclaimed.

Alexa looked at him in awe. People from behind the camera and the lights commended her for such cute expression, but Alexa didn't care. She just found her knight in shining armor!