Beauty is Pain.
Chapter 1 - Team Design Arrive!
A/N - Hey guys! I know I''m already trying to keep up with a lot of stories but I think thats more fun :). So just to let you know that I'll be updating more of my stories tonight for any of you who read them! Read and review! I hope you like this one!
DISCLAIMER! - I do not own Code Lyoko...to my dismay.
"Yumi!"
"Ahh, good morning, Ulrich." The pretty Japanese girl, Yumi Ishiyama, turned to see her friend running towards her across the school grounds.
"Hey! I thought I'd catch you before chemistry class, Aelita said she was looking for you, um, some modelling thing...?" Ulrich frowned in confusion.
"Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that!" she smiled, "Aelita and I are going to try and win a modelling contract with Design."
Ulrich tried to look like he knew who Design were, "Um, good for you."
"Ulrich, don't tell me you don't know who Design are?!" Yumi's eyes widened in amazement.
"Am I supposed to?"
"Design is the single, greatest fashion company in France! This could be my big chance to be someone...although I doubt I'm pretty enough..." she looked sombrely at the ground.
"If it's any consolation Yumi, I think you look beau..." he paused, realising he had almost let his secret slip.
"I look...?" she raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"Uh, I'm gonna be late for class, gotta fly!" he ran as quickly as he could, leaving the girl to laugh at him.
Yumi grinned at his idiocy. She'd long had a crush on Ulrich Stern, but to do anything about it would be suicidal – just about everyone in the school wanted to be his girl and the worst was Sissi Delmas, the headmaster's daughter, who would make her life a misery not worth living if anything happened between them. She sighed lightly and began strolling across the grounds. The sound of all the students talking and laughing and yelling came from all directions, the sun blazed on her face like an oversized sun bed and she smiled knowing that in a few seconds she would be with her best friends.
"Hey Aelita." She called to the pink-haired girl as she entered the main hall where the contest was being held.
"Hey." Aelita was typing furiously on Jeremie's laptop, "I told Jeremie to take a break from all the Lyoko work, but he refused, so I made a compromise; I do the work for him. It's good, 'cause I have to collect more knowledge on Lyoko and XANA, so I thought it was a good idea."
Yumi surveyed the competition, "Millie Solaviaff, a few girls Odd has dated...wait Odd has dated them all...and Sissi. Big surprise."
"I think you'll win, definitely." Aelita commented.
"No way, you'll win Aelita. You're so much more original looking, y'know, with the pink hair and all." Yumi laughed.
"Ha-ha. Funny, but I'm not entering Yumi, I'm just here to support you." Aelita closed down the laptop and nodded towards the door, "And it looks like the people from Design are here."
"Holy..." Yumi and the rest of the room gazed in wonderment as the top scouters from the best known fashion company in the country and most of Europe entered the room.
She could name them all by sight: Annieliese Delanie, long blond hair and piercing blue eyes that almost glowed in the pale light of the drab gymnasium; Kia Troy, african-american, taller than anyone she had ever seen, and dressed from head to toe in leopard print; finally, came an unexpected male, he looked about Yumi's age and she didn't even try and hide her blush when he smiled in her direction.
"Girls, may I have your attention please?" there was no need for Anneliese to say this, every eye in the room was fixed on her or one of her companions, "My name is Anneliese Delanie, this is my fellow model, and good friend, Kia Troy. You probably know that already, but you probably have no idea who this stunning young lad is here – yes, he is single."
Half the room giggled, and the other half swooned.
"My name is Brodie Kelly. I won the competition last year and I'm here to help judge with Anneliese and Kia. Feel free to ask questions before we begin." He smiled, showing perfect white teeth, ruffling a hand through his mocha hair. His most startling feature was his eyes; even bluer than Annelieses' and they had much more emotion behind them - Almost as though to trick you into trusting him right away.
Yumi shook herself out of the daydream of the boy and tried to focus on what he was saying.
"Now, firstly, can I ask you all to get in a line facing us?" Brodie waited patiently on the girls to move into a line, which took a matter of seconds in their excitement, "I'm going to move along the line and eliminate seventy percent of you." They gasped, "Yes, a large number of you will not make it through to the second round, but this business is tough, so don't take it too personally – you're just not what we're looking for!"
He spent the next few minutes walking along the line and saying, "Yes, " or "No," to various girls.
Millie Solaviaff was a "No.", her friend Tamiya was a "Yes.", then a series of no's followed until finally he arrived at Yumi. She held her breath and sucked her stomach in. He smiled at her and she nearly melted into the ground. Hardly keeping her posture, he nodded and said, "Yes."
She couldn't believe it! She was in! Yumi smiled to herself as most other girls received a "No.". Then Brodie arrived at Sissi Delmas and frowned, "Ridiculously bad posture, and not enough height..." he muttered and sighed, rolling his eyes and looking at Anneliese and Kia. They returned the look and he finally grunted out a "Yes.", leaving Sissi to smirk at the other, less fortunate girls.
Yumi mustered a laugh, knowing that the only reason Sissi had got through was due to her father. She just hoped it wouldn't mean a win. Being in her final year at Kadic, she heard a lot of things and knew a lot of things about how the school worked – and she knew how many strings Sissi Delmas was capable of pulling.
In the end, only twenty girls were left. Half of them in Yumi's year, but she had no idea who they were - the social problems of having best friends in the year below you.
"Tomorrow, we'll be taking full body swimwear shots. The key to modelling is having a killer body, no matter what they tell you. I suggest you all get a good sleep – we begin at seven am tomorrow." Brodie waved them off with a hand.
Yumi and Aelita sauntered out of the hall and as they reached the exit, Brodie called on the girl, "Hey, you! Yumi Ishiyama, isn't it?"
She turned, "Yeah, that's me."
"Can I talk to you for a second?" he glanced at Aelita, "Alone."
She nodded, "I'll catch you and the others outside." She told Aelita, before returning over to him, "What is it?"
"I think you have real potential to win this thing, Miss Ishiyama." He smiled, warming up his blue eyes like the sky on a summer's day.
"Uh...me? Really?" She blinked, "And call me Yumi, please."
"Yumi..." Brodie nodded, as if taking in the information, "Well, yes. I think you have excellent potential for winning this competition – better than that Sissi girl..."
"Let me guess, her father only let you hold this competition if you let her through to the final rounds?"
He smirked, "Yeah, but there was nothing about winning. All the judges are peeved about it though; there are so many girls who deserve it more than her."
"I know. But they're all used to Sissi pulling the strings – it was expected." She shrugged.
He laughed a little, "Well, anyway, where do you guys eat here? I'm starving!"
She looked at him blankly and he laughed again.
"I forgot to tell you, I'm enrolled as a student in Kadic until the competition is over. It would be too much hassle to travel to and from my old school anyway."
"What year are you in?" she asked, hopefully.
"Sixth and final, thank goodness!" He smiled, "Then I can be a full-time model instead of just a few photo shoots here and there."
"Me too." She smiled back, "I'm in sixth too. Come on, I'll take you to the cafeteria...You may change your mind about being hungry when you see what's for lunch."
He laughed, "It can't be that bad."
They began to walk out of the gymnasium into the sunny grounds of Kadic.
"Hmm...Let me think..." She frowned, "Today's Friday, so it's...meat loaf day...yuck. It can be that bad."
"Meat loaf?" Brodie raised a dark eyebrow, "I think meat loaf's good."
"It is...unless our cook makes it and then it becomes meat loaf surprise. As in, 'guess what kind of animal, mineral or material is in the meat loaf this week', kind of surprise."
"Ahh. Well, I can try it at least." He pushed open the cafeteria door for her, "Ladies first."
Yumi smiled as her heart gave another small flutter, "Thanks, Brodie."
They walked into the queue amid the frantic whispers of girls straining to get a look at the male model.
"Are you sure you're okay in here?" Yumi asked, glancing at the nearest clique.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. It happens all the time." He smiled, "Comes with the job...you just gotta learn how to deal."
The queue moved swiftly and sooner than they realised they had gotten their meat loaf and were shunted back into the chaos of tables and chairs that was the Kadic Cafeteria.
"This way," Yumi called to him, "I'll show you where we usually sit."
He tried his best to follow her through the large crowds swarming the area, pushing past numerous girls, handbags, empty seats and fallen trays, "Is it always this chaotic?"
"Yup. Good news though, we're here!" Yumi plonked herself down at the table to her right, gesturing to a vacant seat for Brodie.
"Hey Yumi, who's the new guy?" Jeremy stopped looking at his Physics notes for a few seconds.
"This is Brodie...he's here to judge the competition. He's not staying long." Yumi smiled, "Brodie, this is Jeremy. The one poured over the laptop is Aelita."
"You were in the hall earlier, right?" he asked, again with the melting smile.
"Yeah." Aelita blushed.
"How come you never entered the modelling competition? You have fabulous bone structure and your hair is so unusual!"
"Girl things aren't my...forte. I'm more of a computer geek." She laughed, nodding to the laptop.
"Shame...you'd have done awfully well." Brodie told her.
"And this is Odd." Yumi indicated the blonde and purple-haired boy across the table with Aelita and Jeremy.
"Odd Della Robia, to be exact! Pleased to meet you, Brodie." Odd held out a hand in greeting.
Brodie took it and smiled at the eclectic boy, "Pleased to meet you too."
"Hey, where's Ulrich?" Yumi frowned, finally noticing that the chair to her right was empty.
"He'll be here soon. Mr Federico asked him to stay behind in Spanish class for a moment." Odd sighed as he picked gently at the meat loaf, "Now I know I'm usually all for the cook's food but uh...This is inedible even by my standards."
"Wow, Odd. If you can't eat it then there really must be something wrong with it."A familiar voice appeared in Yumi's ear and filled the empty seat.
"Funny, Ulrich." Odd threw him a look and began to scoff down his jello.
"Ulrich, this is Brodie." Yumi indicated to her left, "Brodie, Ulrich." She paused to laugh at Odd, who had just spilt his soda down his purple jumper.
"You look so wonderful when you laugh, Yumi." Brodie's eyes pierced into her heart, making it quiver, "You should use that in a photo shoot."
"Thanks," she blushed, "I'll keep it in mind."
Ulrich cut in, making her jump, "So what do you do, Brodie?" he asked, and Yumi hoped she was the only one who heard the jealousy in his voice.
Apparently not.
"I'm a model. I won the contest Yumi's in for. I'm the top model for Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap, and the other day I nailed a contract for Dolce and Gabbana." He smirked back at the boy.
They continued like this all through lunch, Yumi caught in the middle of it all.
At the end of the day, she caught up with Ulrich on the way back to his dormitory, "Hey Ulrich, are you coming to the party at Emily's tonight?"
"What's your interest in me? Don't you want to go with Brodie?" he almost spat the name out.
"Ulrich, I..."
"No, Yumi, you've led me on for long enough and suddenly this model boy decides to show up and tell you that you look good enough to be famous and you forget all about us!" Ulrich yelled, his face going red.
"Ulrich, there isn't an 'us'! You're always to chicken to tell me how you feel...and if this is it out into the open, then it wasn't very romantic!" Yumi yelled back at him in a rage, and began to walk back down the corridor.
"Yumi, I love you."
She stopped, catching her breath, "You what?"
"I love you. I'm not gonna pretend anymore. I can't take it. First things with William and now this Brodie guy – I can't last much longer on this." Ulrich walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I..." She turned and before she knew it she was kissing him.
She was so lost in his embrace. She'd thought of how this scene would happen so many times and it had never worked out the way she had wanted in the end.
They pulled apart, gasping.
"Will I see you at Emily's then, Ulrich?" she smiled as he turned the handle for his dorm room.
"Bet on it." He smiled back, rubbing the lip gloss from his face.
She turned and began to walk out of Kadic. Life was just short of perfect.
A/N – hmm. I smell troubleee! Well guys, review and tell me what you think. I'm incorporating several elements into this story. It's not all gonna be as happy as that chapter. In fact, the way I've planned it, it all goes downhill from here. Haha. Thanks for reading .