Chapter 8 Checkmate

I just stared at her and at the wig in disgust. "Ew. Why pink?"

Then I heard a loud slap as she facepalmed. "I just gave YOU an IDEA and the first time that came to your mind is about the wig’s COLOR!? Are you being serious right now?!”

I flinched at the tone of her voice. "I know. I heard you so...yay!!! FELISHA HUGHES!! THE DAUGHTER OF SHREK AND FIONA WAS BORN!! But pink? Really?!" I shivered. When I looked up, I almost screamed in fright when I saw the look of fury on Kaila's face. You could totally imagine a fire in the background by how she looks. I gulp.

She stormed to me and grabbed my arms. She hauled me up. "W-wait! What are you gonna do to me?" 

"Relax. I promise you this won't hurt you."

"You’re scaring me!" I screamed in panic. 

She slapped me in the face. "Idiot! Hold still while I put the wig on you!"

I screamed even more as the pink wig came closer to my head.

3 minutes later, and after a lot of struggling and hair fighting, she managed to put the evil barnacle on my head. I was now standing in front of a mirror as I studied my image. 

The pink wig actually looked good on me. It was long and curled at the tips by Kaila as fast as she could. Aside from the color of the wig, I hated that it has bangs because it keeps getting in my eyes, but it actually added to the more 'cute and simple’ look to the outfit that I was wearing. 

Plus, she made me wear blue contacts to hide my green eyes.

"Okay. You’re now done." She gave me one last satisfying pat on the back before she ushered me outside. "And make sure to make some friends dear!!" She yelled at me and threw my backpack at me before shutting the door in my face.

Well, that was rude.

Taking one last breath, I headed towards where the others are now gathered and getting ready for the photoshoot. Once I arrived, almost all of the staff and camera crew were staring at me. 

Scratch that, everybody was staring at me.

Damn it! I knew the pink wig was bad!

I saw my mother approaching me. "Honey, what on earth are you wearing?" She told me in a hushed tone.

"I'll explain later." I told her and gave her a pleading look. "Trust me on this one, mom. Right now, I am not Hailey, okay? I'm Felisha Hughes. Your model. The one who has been modeling your line all these years."

I can see the question in her eyes but it was gone quickly when I saw the group, whom I was dreading the most, came to approaches us. Sophie has a wide smile spreading onto her face and her red fiery hair straight and swaying behind her back. She was wearing a pretty pastel white-nude dress, a crochet cardigan, and brown booties. 

Nico/Sheen was wearing a simple black shirt with a side pocket that has an Aztec design on it and black pants. 

Kevin/Leo was wearing a white 3/4 sleeve shirt with a black handkerchief tied to his neck and matching it up with maroon-colored pants. 

Finally, we have Gabrielle/Xander. He wearing multiple pastel-colored Aztec-designed shirt with a jean jacket that has a hoodie over it and some casual jeans.

I have to say that they looked really good. And I have to give credit to my mom for having designed these wonderful clothes. She's so awesome…

...AND SHE'S MY MOM!

"Hey there. You must be the girl from before? I kind of recognize you from your clothes. Your Felisha, right?" Asked Sophie. A friendly smile plastered on her face that I matched with my own as I shook hands with her.

"Um....yeah. And I guess you are Sophie Serena. Sorry about my little...." I gave a fake laugh. "...you know, Emergency bathroom."

Sophie laughed. "Oh, that's alright. It happens to everyone." Behind her, I heard something letting out a whistle.

"Wow. You’re hot. And you said that you look horrible but I say you’re hot." Nico grinned at me and winked. I have to fight the urge not to laugh when my mother’s face turned into a scowl. 

"Oh um...I forgot to introduce you to my friends. They are-"

"Nico Pierce, Gabrielle Xyler, and Kevin Roark. I'm a fan of The Pandorgriff." I admitted and smiled at them. Genuinely.

There was a look of surprise on their faces before they all smiled.

I have to stop myself from fangirling at the sight. "Thank you." Said Gabrielle, the smile still lingering on his face, which caught me completely off guard. He’s Xander after all. The only smile I ever get is an evil smile or a serial killer smile. But he does have a killer smile though.

"All models in front! We shall start with our photoshoot!!"

Sophie squealed in excitement and dragged Nico, who almost tripped in the process to where the photographer was. Gabrielle let out a yawn as he followed them. 

I was now left with Kevin, who only smiled at me and tilted his head to the side. "Shall we go?"

I nodded shyly as I followed him to the others.

The photoshoot lasted for like 2 hours since we had a lot of retakes. The photographer just couldn’t seem to get enough of them.

And neither was I. 

I am still a fan and that will never change.

On the first shoot, Sophie and I would sit on a chair while the boys would stand behind us as we pretend to laugh. In this scene, Sheen decided that it would be funny if he would tilt Sophie's chair a little to scare her, but ended up tilting the whole chair. Sophie fell to the floor and we ended up laughing for real.

The second one was us sitting on a picnic blanket and blowing bubbles. It was a really cute looking scene if one of the bubbles that Kevin blew didn't hit Gabrielle's eyes while. 

He ended up screaming and having a red-eye instead.

The third was us standing and having a serious look on our faces. It would have looked cool if they told me beforehand what kind of look they were going for. Now, I was the only one smiling in the photo. 

The rest of the pictures were taken individually with different poses so we can showcase different outfits. 

When it came to an end, I was dead tired but I did have a lot of fun. Despite feeling nervous and scared, I actually enjoyed their company. 

Call me bipolar. I don't care. But that sort of feeling that I had while doing the photoshoot? It made me feel like a normal high school girl who was hanging out with a bunch of friends, which I never experience before except today. And I know for a fact that by tomorrow all of these feelings will feel like a dream because it will never happen again. 

It made me sad, but this is reality slapping me back on the surface.

I got back in my dressing room and packed my things to leave. "Aw....what's with that silly grin on your face? Had fun?" I looked up to see Kaila leaning onto the wall just beside the door. She was smiling at me with her arms crossed over her chest. 

I realize that I was indeed smiling and quickly wiped it off of my face. "Yeah. Sort of."

Kaila sighed and came to my side and helped me pack. "Look, Hailey. I don't know what you’re going through and what you’re gonna get for keeping that act, but you at least deserve to feel normal and have friends."

I gasped at her. "So you don't consider yourself as my friend?"

She hit me on the head. "Stupid. Of course, I’m your friend, but I think it would be best for you if you also have friends that are your age."

"I-"

Before I could talk, there was a knock on the door and one of the staff came in. "Miss Ha - I mean - Felisha, The Pandorgriff are about to leave and would like to say goodbye to you." I looked at the girl as I nodded. 

"Tell them that I'll be there in a minute," I said. The girl nodded before she left. I turned to Kaila."Let's....continue this some other time." I told her before I grabbed my bag and headed out to leave. 

Once I was outside, I immediately saw the members of The Pandorgriff. It wasn't really that hard to spot them because of their colorful hair.

"Felisha!" Sophie came in and hugged me. "It was so nice meeting you."

I laughed a little. "Yeah. You too."

"You know. We could hang out sometime....just the two of us." Nico winked at me and ended up getting slapped at the back from Sophie. "Ow! Okay okay. I was kidding! All of us can hang out." He pouted at her and looked to the side and muttered something that sounded a lot like 'sadist'.

Kevin and Gabrielle laughed as Sophie started to chase Nico around for calling her a 'sadist'. Which then makes me wonder....are they always like this?

Kevin must have seen the question in my eyes because he started to chuckle. "That's completely natural for those two. You'll be seeing a lot of those when you join us." I suddenly looked at Kevin and raised an eyebrow at him.

What did he say? Join them?

Just then, Gabrielle stood beside me. He places an arm on my shoulder and lowered his head so that it was leveled with mine. There was amusement in his eyes and he grinned at me. "Do you seriously think that we'd be stupid enough to fall for your disguise?"

My heart nearly leaped out of my chest at what he has said. They couldn't have, could they? I'm guessing that it's the wig. "W-what-"

"Don't even bother to hide it." Kevin cut me off. A smile still on his face as he looked at me. "You may have covered your face with the bag but it didn't really hide your real hair color. It was poking out."

Nope. I still think that it's the wig because it's pink.

"And don't forget the look of confusion on your mother's face when you called yourself Felisha." Added Gabrielle as he patted me on the head.

I couldn't believe it. 

They knew who I was from the very beginning. And there I was, worrying all this time that they may find out about me modeling when in fact they already did. They made a fool out of me and pretended that I was just another model named Felisha. I feel like such a total idiot and they just let me.

Suddenly, rage overpowered my embarrassment and I looked up to glare at both of them and slapped Gabrielle's hand away. These bloody student councils/Pandorgriff, are just a bunch of bullies.

"What do you guys want?"

"If you’re worried about us spilling your secrets then you have nothing to worry about. We are not interested and it's not worth our time." It was like being slapped by someone when Kevin(Leo) threw my words back at me when I said the same thing to them when I found out who they were.

That's it!! All my feelings and pictures of him will be burned tonight!!

Beside me, I could hear Gabrielle laugh. "A secret for a secret. Now, things have just gotten a lot more interesting, don't you think?" I scowled and that made his EVIL smile go wider. "I guess there is no escape with that anymore so.... Checkmate."

It is official. This wig is gonna be burned.