Shelley was angry even more then Amber was. She watched as Link kissed Tracy at the end of the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant and didn't know what to think of it. He was going to finally tell Amber it was over and then they could go public with their relationship! Now, it seemed like he had dumped Amber but not for her but Tracy! She hated him for doing this to her! She stomped off the stage and slammed the door to the girls' dressing room with out even thinking about who saw her. She would be so happy when she was out of Baltimore for good! She couldn't wait until she was in L.A. and making it as a real actress instead of dancing on some lame local television show. She should have known better then to fall for Link Larkin. She should have known that he would never leave Amber for her. He was using her for an easy lay because Amber wasn't giving it up. She was shocked about that. She was so sure that Amber spread her legs for the world but she was so wrong. Amber was inexperienced and Link was too in fact. She took pleasure in knowing that she was the one who made Amber's boyfriend a man and not her, and Amber was so dumb that she didn't have a clue. When Link first approached her she had brushed him off like she always did the council guys but when he asked her again she figured it was pretty exciting to get with Amber's boyfriend. It started off as him simply putting his two fingers in between her legs and her giving him a hand job and then she started going down on him in the janitor's closet when they skipped third period. After awhile they started going to his place after the show and she was able to really show him what she could do. "I'll leave Amber right after the Miss Teenage Hairspray Pageant. It's you I want Shelley," he had said a couple of days earlier but he had obviously lied to her.
He was with Tracy now and he was looking at her in a way that he never looked at her or even Amber. Link didn't even look at her the whole time he was dancing with Tracy in fact he didn't look at Amber either. He had used her and was going to throw her away but she wasn't having it! No guy made a fool of Shelley Atkins especially not an immature high school boy like Link Larkin.
She went back out of the dressing room and saw that they were now off the air and Link was still with Tracy. Amber stood to the side fuming. She didn't know what happened to Velma who was standing beside her but now Amber stood there alone. She approached Amber and decided to rub it in. She'll get back at Link later but for now she had to make Amber feel worse. "I guess tonight wasn't your night after all Amber," she said smiling at her nemesis.
"Go to hell, Shelley." Amber fumed.
"Don't get mad at me because you not only lost Miss Teenage Hairspray but lost Link as well and not even to a pretty girl," She said looking at Link and Tracy. It burned her up too but she was sure it didn't hurt her as much as it hurt Amber.
"Don't you have something better to do Shelley? Is your life really so sad that the only thing you have to do is insult me in your spare time?" Amber fired back at her.
"Yeah I do. Too bad you don't, huh?" She said then walked away. Amber stood there speechless. She was sure that Amber wouldn't ever be able to live this down, and after tomorrow Link Larkin will see what it would be like to be made a fool out of.
"Are you telling the truth?" the producer of the WSBT television station, WYXT's main competitor asked her. Shelley nodded slowly trying to look sad. It was the truth well only a small part of it but it was good enough. She was going to be live on the Dan Armstrong show, a news show that aired on Sundays and usually talked about politics and serious crap like that. She was going to be his guest on the show today and tell all of Baltimore how Link Larkin had did her wrong and bend the truth of course. She couldn't go to WYZT because she knew they would check with Link first and try to keep everything quiet but that would defeat the purpose. She knew she was jeopardizing her spot on the council but who cared? Sabotaging Link's reputation was far more important then dancing on TV plus after this she will be a heroine. No way would she be fired then.
"How do I know you aren't lying to me just to up your own fame? I know before Tracy came along you were Amber's biggest competition and that you hate her. How do I know you aren't doing this to make Amber Von Tussle look bad? If you are that's just wrong. I mean that poor girl has been through enough with her mom getting arrested live on television and possibly having to go to foster care." The producer said but Shelley could give two shits about Amber and she wasn't trying to hurt her anyway. It was Link she was after and she didn't see how this affected Amber anyway. She wasn't his girlfriend anymore.
"Are you lying to me Ms. Atkins? Because this is a serious accusation and even though I'm glad you came here instead of WYZT, this is a very big story and I'm glad to get it first but if you are lying you will make us look very bad." He told her. She was prepared for accusations like this and pulled out her "evidence."
"Look here's proof. He gave me these photos of himself. He kept stuffing them in my locker at school and then he wrote me this note. That was before he started…" She said starting to cry a little for emphasis. She had personally took the nude pictures of Link with the new camera her dad had gotten her for her birthday and Link did really write the note which was so dirty her mom would have killed her if she had of found it but now they were evidence of her story.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Once it gets out there, you can't turn back." He told her.
"I'm sure I need to go public with this. I want everyone to see how horrible he really is." She said and smiled.
"Okay the show starts soon so if you want you can fix your hair or whatever." He told her. Instead of going to the ladies room she called Link and told him to make sure he watched the show and just hung up before he could ask her why.
Shelley waited back stage until she was called on the stage to sit in front of Dan Armstrong, a fifty year old, former news anchor, who wasn't that cute at all. Shelley couldn't understand how a guy like him even got on television in the first place.
She sat down patiently during the commercial break and then they were on the air. "Welcome back to the show," Dan said smiling at the camera and then his face grew serious. "Just after former beauty pageant winner's Velma Von Tussle's shocking arrest during the Corny Collins show annual Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant a new scandal has come to light. A council member has admitted to being sexual assaulted on numerous occasions by Link Larkin, the male lead dancer of the show. She has agreed to come on the show live to tell her story. Everyone please welcome my guest and council member of The Corny Collins show, Ms. Shelley Atkins." The camera flashed on Shelley and she smiled. It's show time!