Scales Chapter Two {Casting}

This is my second chapter. Reviews please!!

  "Now when you go in, I want you to be confident." 

"I know, Mom." Maxine said, exasperated, leaning her head on the car door handle. 

She sighed. "I know that you know, Maxine, but it's always good to have a refresher, right?" She looked up from her slumped position and saw the hope in her mother's perfect blue eyes, a trait her daughter shared with her. 

"Do you want me to go in with you, Dear?" Mrs. Tantillo asked, placing a gentle, but forced hand on her daughter's upper back. "Are you nervous?" 

"No." She replied hazily. "Just tired." 

She snapped her hand away from her daughter's back and went from Mother to Manager. "Well wake up! No one likes drowsy eyes in a photo." 

"I know, Mom." 

"You should know." She laughed. "I've told you that almost every day we've gone to a casting." 

Maxine forces a laugh out of her tired body. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before, just thinking about her dad, who she hadn't seen in years now, since her parents split. She never tells anyone that she wishes things about her Dad, but she does. 

"Okay, Maxine. Let's get out now." Her mother has pulled up next to a street lamp on the sidewalk, outside of a white, modern building with a sign on it saying "Leonardo & Leann". 

Maxine dreaded every modeling casting she had to go through, or rather that her mother made her go through. She knew that her looks were, well, stunning. But she didn't like showing them off to the public for money. No, she liked looking nice and keeping her beauty confined to the people that knew her further than just a face. 

She reluctantly opened the car door and stepped out into the rainy day. "Quickly!" Mrs. Tantillo said, practically pushing her daughter inside the modeling casting that awaited inside those clear doors. "Don't get your makeup wet!" 

Maxine rolled her eyes but quickly pulled open the silver handle of the door and stepped inside, followed by her mother. "Okay." She smoothed her hair out and pulled down on her purple trench coat. "I'm relaxed." 

"Yeah, right Mom." She commented sarcastically. "You're never relaxed." 

They both sat without another comment in the two black seats in the waiting area. There was a glossy red coffee table piled with stack after stack of fashion magazine. Maxine picked one up in curiosity, to find that every one had certain models circled with a comment that said that she had started at Leonardo & Leann. 

"Maxine Tantillo?" A woman behind a white counter at the front of the agency called. Maxine stood up and her mother pulled at her hand. 

"Remember, smile and be confident, 'kay?" 

"Got it." Maxine forced a smile across her face, ear to ear. Her cheeks began to burn as she walked up to the counter. The lady behind was styled in about a pound of makeup, blond hair pulled back in a bouncy bun, dangly earrings, a red wavy shirt and blue trousers. 

"I'm Maxine." She told her as confidently as she could manage. 

The woman stood up and extended her hand, the other holding a clipboard to her chest. "I'm Avery. Welcome. You have an appointment for three, correct?" 

She shook her hand, it was firm and had a stern grip. Her glossy pink finger nails were sharp against her skin. "I'm glad to be here and yes, I have the three o clock."

"Right this way." Avery's bright red lips spread into a smile as she turned and led Maxine down a long hallway, filled with oversized magazine covers and pictures of skinny models and catwalks. The whole idea sent a chill down her spine. "Here you are." She pushed open a white door and allowed Maxine to walk through. 

"Hi, Ashley!" A man said gayly. He and a woman sat at a modern silver desk in front of a stage-type platform and clothing rack after clothing rack. "You're the three o clock?"

"No, this is Maxine Tantillo. You have your times mixed, Leo!" 

He laughed. "Don't call me Leo." He said with a smile. "Okay, Maxine let's get started." 

He waved his hand and sent Avery out the door, leaving me stranded in this world of fashion. 

"Well hello, Maxine." He said, pushing his green glasses further up on his nose. "I'm Leonardo!" 

"And I'm Leann." The woman next to him said. She looked skinny as a toothpick. "My aren't you just a doll!"

She laughed. "Thanks." She said. "I love your clothes." In reality, Maxine had never seen one Leonardo & Leann  garment. But it was always an extra two points for compliments. 

"Oh, you're just so cute." Leann said, jotting something down on her clipboard. "Now, Maxi, how old are you?"

"I'm sixteen." She replied promptly, looking down quickly to make sure that she had her legs apart where she stood, creating a confident vibe. 

"Now where do you live?" 

"I live in Atlanta." She told them. 

Leann wrote something else on her clipboard. "So, a local, huh?"

Be confident "Yeah." She said, extending her smile. "Local." 

"Any siblings, Maxine?" Leonardo asked her, kind of doing a happy/chilly shake in his seat before looking up at her, making her realize that he wanted an answer. 

"Two." She said. "One is nineteen. The other is twenty one." 

Leann smiled. "What a cute family." 

Her head nodded, although she didn't agree at all. Maxine barely talked to Erin, who lived with her boyfriend in France. And Jasper, he just wasn't a good person for her to be hanging out with. A year ago, he had gotten rejected from college, and started smoking and drinking a lot. Of course, their mother didn't know this. It was mostly Maxine and some of his friends who knew what he was up to. 

"Right." 

Leann shifted in her seat. "Okay." She said. "Let's get this started, alright?"

"Alright." She said robotically and realized that this was how famous models had started off, having to actually tell people what their name was. It made her think "Wow, so those people who I am always commenting on as too skinny or too pretty, I'm doing just what they did?" A chill was sent down Maxine's spine. 

The two, who Maxine had labeled in her mind as most likely siblings or cousins, pushed back their chairs and made their way to the racks of clothing.

Leonardo threw his head back after picking out a gorgeous red gown that had a long train at the back and a silver belt that went through the middle. "This dress is to die for, yes?"

"Yes." She laughed a bit too loudly.

"You seem like a... what? Size two would you say, Leo?"

"I think so, Lea." She extended her hands, her fingers looped through the hanger which had the garment dangling on it like a chandelier, so delicate that if anyone touched it, it would crumble to the ground in seconds.

"Try it on." She ordered sternly. Maxine quickly looped her fingers through the hanger and moved behind a curtain, slipping off her purple skirt and white polo shirt and instead pulling a red piece of perfection comfortably over her shoulders, examining herself quickly in the mirror before moving out of the curtain to show them.

Leonardo clapped while Leann wrote on her clipboard. "Amazing!" She said.

"Stunning." 

"Gorgeous."

"Now," Leonardo said, turning to Leann. "Can she do runway?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

He walks down the hallway likes it's any typical day. Like last night he hasn't stayed up late reliving the beauty which was the dancing that was displayed for him at the studio. What was supposed to be a regular pick up day for his eleven year old sister had made him see what Ruby has been doing for the four years she's been dancing, what she hopes to obtain through hours spent perfecting simple movement. 

Secretly he's hoping to run into that girl again. What was her name? He doesn't care. She was just so beautiful in the way she moved, he can't wait to actually look for her in all of his classes. 

"Milo!" Ed calls, walking over to him. He's a short kid, probably shortest in the class, and today he's sporting his new vintage superman T shirt and blue jeans, with his black framed glasses. 

"Oh, hey, Ed." Milo says. "Got your hair cut?" 

"Yeah." Ed ruffles what's left of his dusty red hair, the same color of the freckles sprinkled on his face. "You like?" 

Milo winces. "Very nice." He says unenthusiastically. 

He looks confident, puffing out his Superman T shirt for the entirety of the hallway to see. Milo tries to cover what people can see in hopes of reducing the amount of teasing his best friend would encounter. 

"So you going to the comic book convention this weekend?"

"This weekend?" Milo asks. "It's Monday, Ed." 

He chuckles. "Yeah but you have to reserve tickets, like, months in advance." 

Milo's afro shakes back and forth as he replies, No. "Sorry." He says. 

Ed shrugs and pulls his messenger bag higher up on his shoulder, signaling that their conversation is over. "Kay, see you, Milo." 

Milo nods and turns in the opposite direction towards his History class at W. V Morris. 

And that's when he sees her. With her friend at her locker. It's the girl from Marlow Studio, the dancer. She looks wrapped up in some conversation, pointing at a magazine. But she looks up before he looks away, catches his eye, and to his surprise, smiles gracefully. 

He waves, semi aware of his awkwardness, and walks away feeling like an idiot. "Hey, Davis." Kevin calls. 

"S**t." Milo murmurs, heading in the opposite direction. But he knows that Kevin has seen him. 

"Hey, Davis what are you running away for?" He asks. "I just want to talk to you!" Kevin starts running until he catches up with him. 

"Uh, hi Kevin." 

"Davis." He says. "What are you doing smiling at my girlfriend that way?" 

Like a punch in the stomach. He didn't know that this girl was going out with Kevin, although he should have. It's always gossip, whose going out with who in high school. Especially if you're as popular as Kevin Pierce. 

"I- Um I didn't-" He tries to explain but Kevin pushes him up against a locker before he finishes. 

"Just say away from her." He says. "Or you'll be as dead as Michael Jackson." He lets him down and Milo starts gasping for breath as he walks away with his friends. 

"Nice one, Bro." A bystander compliments, high five-ing him. 

Milo adjusts his shirt and keeps walking to class, as if nothing had just happened. Because things like that happen all the time, no big deal. 

Just another ordinary day at school. 

Author's Note

I would really appreciate reviews

Reviews

[Ben]

Great job! I liked it! =)