A Star at Mode

Chapter Seven

To be honest, Christina had never taken so long to get dressed in her life. This morning she had promised herself that she would choose the best shoes, best dress, best hair and so on, but none of that had really paid off. "Betty!" Christina squealed wildly.

"I'm sorry, Christina," Betty said good naturedly. "The extra cream cheese was for Daniel's bagel, not your dress."

"Oh, no," Christina pouted. "Oh, no." She scraped a pile of cream cheese off with her finger. The pure white was beginning to blend in with the pink fabric of Christina's favourite dress.

"Christina?" She turned to see Ian McCallen in leather motorcycle jacket and jeans. He was staring at the huge spot on her dress. "Need help with that?" he laughed.

Betty shook her head and left the two lovebirds. She walked all the way to Daniel's office with half the amount of cream cheese she had intended to give him. Betty set it down on the table carefully and watched Daniel finish up what ever he was typing. He finally looked up at her, "Thanks, Betty." He gave the strange looking cream cheese a disgusted look.

"Sorry about the little, pink, fuzzy things," Betty just realised they were there. "Would you like me to go get you a new one?"

He thought for a minute, while staring at his computer screen. "Yeah, Betty. But first, can you tell me what's up with your friend there?" He nodded to Christina who was just visible from outside the office. Ian was apparently trying to scrub the stain off the bottom of her knee-length dress with a napkin.

Betty smiled and nodded, "Uh… that's Christina."

"Yeah, I know who she is," Daniel said. "Funny accent, right?"

Betty nodded her head. "She and Ian McCallen… well I don't really know, actually. I'd say they're just friends, but…" She turned to see Ian now on his knees, licking his finger before rubbing it against the stain. Christina was having a giggle-fit.

"Yeah…" Daniel made a weird face. "Alright, well thanks."

Quickly, Betty scooped up the old cream cheese and hurried out of his office. She was beginning to wonder about Christina and Ian. They looked so cute together, but Betty could always see something underneath Ian's smile. It wasn't anything she could decipher really, she could just tell that it wasn't his real smile. It was just something fake that he probably used in his films all the time. She sighed and tried to forget about it. If Christina was happy, so was she.


Daniel slid the three retouched photos out of a manila folder so that Ian could see the pictures they would use in the next issue of Mode. He asked, "Here they are. Do you like them?"

"Yeah," Ian smiled and nodded. "These are great." He looked at them carefully, making sure he approved of everything and then reached out to shake Daniel's hand. "Thanks, you did a great job," he said, still smiling.

Betty watched as Christina stood behind him silently, watching his every move. She saw how her friend was completely focused on Ian and nothing else—if a train had rammed into the building right at that moment, Christina wouldn't have cared. Betty shook Mr McCallen's hand as well. "You're welcome, Ian," she said, even though she had nothing to do with the retouching of the photos.

Betty and Christina had offered to walk Ian out of the building. Actually, Christina had offered to walk Ian out of the building "in case he got lost", but Ian insisted that Betty come along. Once they reached the door, Ian smiled and turned to both of them. "Thanks, girls," he said. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and swayed on his toes awkwardly. "I just wanted to ask you… are either of you free Saturday night?"

The same, thrilled and excited look washed over the girls' faces. Christina squawked, "Of course! Of course we're free Saturday night!" She turned to Betty with a contagious grin on her face.

Betty let out a loud sigh. She thought for a minute, half teasing Christina, half allowing herself time to think. "Well I guess so. I don't really have much going on…"

"Fantastic!" Ian exclaimed. His smile was almost as wide as Christina's. Before leaving, he quickly pulled her into an embrace and then did the same for Betty. "You two are great," he said. "I'll see you Saturday."


Betty couldn't help but plug her ears the moment she entered. The music was just so loud. And it was a really bad song too. Betty wasn't sure what the title was, but it sure was some terrible hip-hop. She looked up at Christina who was beaming wildly. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Betty asked loudly.

"Positive," Christina grinned. Her bright, blue eyes scanned the club for Ian.

Betty looked round at all the strange people who kept passing her. She had this expression moulded on her face--it looked as if she was smelling year-old leftovers.

Finally, Christina spotted him. She dragged Betty by the hand and sat down at the bar next to Ian. Betty sat next to Christina, secretly praying that no one sat down on her other side. "Ian!" Christina cried. "How have you been?"

"Just fine," Ian smiled. He lifted Christina's hand and gently kissed her palms. He leaned over to do the same to Betty, but realised she was too far away. "Betty?" he asked. "Why don't you come over here?" he motioned to the chair next to him.

Slightly annoyed, Betty hopped off the bar stool and walked over to the one next to Ian. She smiled at him and as soon as she sat down, he kissed her palms too. "Glad to see you both could come," Ian said to the girls.

Tugging on his shoulder, Christina replied, "We couldn't wait."

"I know!" Ian laughed. "Neither could I!" He took one last sip of his drink and began catching up on life at Mode. Christina told him all about the latest photo shoots and stars she had seen. Ian desperately tried to get Betty involved in the conversation, but she always replied with the simplest answers. Finally, Ian asked, "Would you girls like to dance?"

Betty and Christina nodded. Just as the three of them slipped out of their chairs, the song changed to that nice, romantic, Sunny and Cher song, "I Got You, Babe." Ian made a face and Betty shrugged, "It's alright. You two can dance. I've got a phone call to make real quick if you don't mind."

Betty made her way to one of the booths near the dance floor. She pulled out her cell phone and dialled Daniel's number. "Hello? Oh, hi, Daniel. Not much. I'm just here on Christina's date with Ian. What? No, Ian invited me but… it's really just the two of them hanging out. What are you up to? What do you mean you don't know? Okay, I'll see you I guess. Yeah. Bye." She sighed and looked up at Christina and Ian who were slow dancing to the sweet, seventies tune.

Christina's yellow and orange, floral dress swayed as Ian spun her around. Betty watched for the look in his eyes as he laughed at her stumbling over his feet. Once again, it was fake. Betty could tell that wasn't his real smile. It was like his mouth was smiling, but the look in his eyes was plastic.

It took about three more slow songs for Betty to realise they had completely forgotten about her. She slumped her shoulders and scooted out of the booth where she had been watching them dance. She was about to leave the place when a man opened the door from the outside. He had ginger, spiky hair and light, blue eyes. A smile lit up Betty's face. "Daniel!"

"Hi, Betty," Daniel smiled without a hint of surprise.

"Wh-what are the chances of us meeting here?"

Daniel continued walking into the club as he spoke to his assistant. She followed him as he said, "Well, Betty. I just happened to be running some errands when you called me and I thought I might stop by."

"Are you kidding me?"

Daniel spread his arms out, "I'm here aren't I?"

The two of them soon rushed out onto the dance floor. With smirks on their faces they began dancing beside Ian and Christina. Ian was the first to gawk at them with a confused look. "B-Betty?" he finally said in that adorable accent of his. "Who's this?"

He stopped dancing and Christina turned to the happy couple. "Daniel?" she asked with her eyes wide. "How the hell did you get here?" she grinned.

Daniel continued smirking as Betty let out a loud snort. "I was just stopping by."

Betty watched as Ian made another complex face. For some reason, it looked to her as if he was eyeing Daniel with jealousy, but Betty knew that couldn't be true. Who could Ian McCallen possibly be jealous of anyway? She thought to herself. She replayed the look a few times in her head and came to the conclusion that he was just confused. After all, who would expect Daniel and I to be friends? Out of all people… Betty laughed to herself.

"Glad you did," Ian said as he twirled Christina. She giggled and winked at Betty.

Betty smiled and turned back to Daniel. He rested his hands round her waist. "Yeah," she said. "I'm glad you stopped by too, Daniel."


Yay! You finished reading this uber long chapter! Congrats! claps hands So, yeah. Ugly Betty last night was fantastic! Christina ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuules the world. "Hippy Hidious" that made me laugh. And the next chapter is going to parallel something that happened with Christina in the show recently. Dun dun dun.

Oh, and yes the song in the club "I Got You, Babe" was used in the real show. I thought it was a cute song so I used it here too. And I added in the Daniel/Betty just for you monkaholic! Hehe!

The only thing that bothered me about the show was that next week is a rerun. Psssh. Does anyone know when new shows will be coming back on?

-Got Scots