"Should we take her to a hospital?," the skeptical brunette said. On closer inspection, I realized that she was slim and pretty. Maybe she was a Miss. Summer Fields of the past.

I sat up and slowly stared at everyone with horror. I had ruined my one chance to outshine Alle. I hated myself.

Alle patted my hand. "It's alright. They decided to let you try again after you woke up from sleep." We always knew each other the best. I looked at her gratefully.

"Your sister was amazing at her audition. If you have half of what she got, you're in for sure," the lady looked admiringly at my sister.

For a second, I panicked. Alle was back to her perfect self. I was too late.

My tell-tale eyes showed my reaction because my sister whispered into my ears. "They're exaggerating. Don't believe them. I'll explain later." I would hold onto anything she said as long as I could just do one single thing better than her. I had spent too long in her shadows. One golden slash proclaiming me Miss. Summer Fields would be enough to sustain me until I got away from my sister and her perfection. I loved my sister more than anything else in the world. I really did. But being second best no matter how I tried compared to her easy nature was almost enough to drive me insane.

It's pathetic really. I know that the title of Miss. Summer Fields wouldn't change anything but it's the small things that actually count.

The brunette finally realized that I still didn't know her name and introduced herself. "Hi, my name's Ms. Carlas." She turned her glance at my sister like they had known each other for years. "Darling, can you step outside while I interview your sister?"

Once again, I panicked. The old Alle HAD returned. The depressed Alle would never have charmed her so quickly. I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't know was in me. I'd been fighting too long. I resigned. I would let Alle take her step up to the family throne as expected. If fate never wanted me to be more superior than Alle, than it would be impossible to change it.

When Alle left me in the room, Ms. Carlas observed me silently. "So, tell me about yourself. Don't make it your life story though. Think of the poor ladies out there waiting," she joked.

No one seemed to know my present dilemma except me and probably Alle. I was always one to try to hide my feelings. "Well, I'm in grade 12. I've wanted to be Miss. Summer Fields ever since I was young. I'm not gonna give you the big thing about 'saving world hunger' or 'peace in the world' because that would be a lie. I want it to happen but it would take more than being crowned the city's beauty queen to do it. No offense," I smiled at her wearily. I wanted to go home and cry. It seemed everything was hopeless. Maybe this depression thing was contagious.

"Not at all. I found that quite refreshing actually." She smiled at her clipboard again as she wrote something down. "You have a very nice voice and you're very pretty. Do you have a talent though?"

I blushed at her compliment. "Well... I can sing."

"Let's hear."

I took out the cd I had in my purse and handed it to her. "Number three please."

I had this all prepared. It may seem like a simple song but it took me an hour to interchange it. I was going to sing the song in different languages. The song was very common and was already translated into Spanish, French, and English. Someone just had to take the time to put it together. Of course, the remaining hours had been practicing and hoping the pitch was right.

When the tunes finally came on, I let the rhythm slide through me and I went with the beat. There's nothing like the feeling of singing and imagining yourself on a large stage with millions of adoring fans at your feet. I let that image send my singing from average to pretty darn good. The lyrics were wonderful and the useless language classes I had in school finally had a use.

When I finished, she smiled and checked something on her clipboard. "I'll call you to keep in touch."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," she stated as she got up to shake my hand.

I let myself out, wondering how it went. I thought it went pretty good but what actually happened was usually the exact opposite of what you thought actually happened. For example, when you thought you aced a test, you failed, and vice versa. Oh well, time would tell.

The high I felt from singing immediately deflated as I saw Alle talking with some guy. More evidence to show that the old Alle was back. Guys were once again, powerless to her flame.

"Hey Ella," she waved me over.

The guy turned around and I almost fainted again. How could I help but remember him? He had that trademark glossy, black hair which contrasted against that striking, vampire-like pale complexion, and boundless green eyes. Not only did he make all the girls think of romance, he was smart AND athletic. Male perfection at its best.

Mr. Male Perfection was known to everyone else as P. Carmen. No one knew what the 'P' stood for but there were a lot of rumors running from Phillip to Pinocchio. He was also in my junior high school. I had the most major crush on him but it never went away. Back then, I had fancied us as soul mates. Devastation had been my middle name when I found out he was being transferred to a private high school. I thought I would never see my soul mate again. Funny how I didn't laugh at myself even now. In a way, I was still in a childish sort of love with him.

"Hey," he smiled that familiar dazzling smile before turning back to Alle. My eyes flickered while I noticed my crush scrawling something on a piece of paper before handing it to Alle. P. Carmen quickly made his getaway, waving his goodbyes to us. I also noticed he didn't hand ME the piece of paper. It probably contained his phone number. When he was out of hearing range, I expressed a sigh of annoyance. My sister strikes again! It wasn't like SHE liked him or anything.

Alle stared at the piece of paper, shocked. I guess a change of clothes had more of an effect than we both thought. I was glad for her. Really. Yep. Really.

She glanced at me before getting up to the garbage can. It took a second to register what she was about to do. Rushing to her, I grabbed at the slip of mushed up tree. "I'll take that if you don't want it."

Alle shrugged, letting it go. Not like she had a choice. "So how did the audition go?"

"She said she'd keep in touch," I murmured, using most of my concentration reading the note Carmen had written. I was right. It did contain his number. MY P. Carmen wanted MY sister. Irony at its best.

"That's nice." She looked at me with concern. "You can keep the number if you want it that bad. I don't know what you see in him. He's too good to be true."

This was spoken from a girl who only dated guys who was a '10' in appearance. I turned around, hiding the tears threatening to fall. I took a deep breath. I would not become a cry baby in front of her. "No, it's alright. You're right. You're always right. He is too good to be true." I scrunched up the phone number and shot it into the garbage can. It went in.

I managed to hold in the tears although I couldn't help the fact that my eyes had a misty quality. The only question that I wanted to know was how the transformation came into place. It wasn't like she had gone to seen a shrink or whatever. Was it the environment of striking candidates? Or maybe the many compliments that were thrown at her by Ms. Carlas? Why didn't she wait another couple of months? My chance in the spotlight had been ruined. My crush liked my sister. Life was not going my way.

Alle whispered to me as we walked pass the jealous glares of the remaining girls standing impatiently in the reception room. "Look, Ella. I'm still gonna give you a chance to win Miss. Summer Fields."

Having her depressed had made my chance of winning this easier but it wouldn't hinder my joy at getting the queen crown. Yet having my sister purposely lose to let me win... well, that just made me feel like an absolute cheat. It's weird how your morals come in the most unexpected minutes. I could feel the pricker of tears and my mouth scrunched up as I turned away from her.

"No, you deserve to win," I choked out. Self-pity was almost suffocating me. I should be used to this by now. Why was this situation so different? Oh ya, I know why. Because the taste of triumph had been so close. It had been shattered and I didn't even know why. How had she gone from the Alle who had been too devastated to even remember to use conditioner transform to the Alle EVERYONE loved?

Sympathy showed on my sister's face. It was always sympathy that she showed me nowadays. "It's just the clothes. That's why everyone's treating me so differently."

"Then why did Ms. Carlas praise you so much?"

Alle shrugged and looked at the road for dad to pick us up. "She's just so anxious to have twins in this stupid pageant. This isn't a big town and identical twins are rare." She rubbed her arms to gain warmth in the moon- lit night. "We're gonna be like a freak-show on wheels."

I ignored that. "Then why was Carmen so attracted to you?"

"You mean he was P. Carmen? I knew he looked familiar."

Alle had had so many males willing to be her slaves that a hunk like him had gone unnoticed. I had worshipped the ground he walked on and I was known to him as 'Alle's older sister.' It figured.

"Look, guys like him like a hard challenge. He probably remembered me as the only girl who didn't think of him as God's gift to all women." She peered at me. "You can have him if you want. I don't wanna feel like playing the cat and mouse game with guys now anyway."

Why wasn't I grateful for my sister's leftovers? I opened my mouth to state another pitying statement when my previously well-tempered sister exploded.

"Look Ella. I'm not stupid. I've been trying to humour your little phase through life but enough is enough."

My eyes were wide-open. "What do you mean?"

"I know this is more than just a 'I wanna be better than my sister' thing. It goes beyond that. I know what I am right now. I know what mom's death has done to me. I'm not exactly stupid you know. It wasn't just a coincidence that you chose this exact time to question the all-important question of which sister is better. You chose it because you KNEW you'd win with the present state I'm in. You WANT me to be depressed."

She was right. I wanted to bow my head down like a kid who had disobeyed her parents. "I'm sorry."

Alle shook her head. "Look sis, I understand why you're doing this. I would do it too if I was in your position. Manipulation runs in our genetics pool."

"Are you mad?"

She rubbed her temples. "I really don't know what to think. I should be angry since you're obviously trying to use me to make you feel good about yourself. But I'm not because I have to admit that it wasn't easy being you while we were growing up. I hogged a lot of the spotlight."

Wow, I was impressed. She seemed so wise now, not just depressed. "Alle?"

"Ya?"

"Can you teach me some of that wisdom?"

Alle smiled and hugged me. "If anyone can make them feel better about themselves, it's you."

I hugged her back tightly and looked beyond her shoulders. "Does that mean you're not depressed anymore?"

"Kinda, healing of the soul doesn't happen overnight."

"How did it even start?"

Alle released me and huddled her arms again to keep in the warmth. "I think it was when you fainted. I thought you had died or something. It made me realize how much I would miss you. I guess I decided right then and there that sulking around didn't help anyone."

I smiled. "Good. Because I still want to do this Miss. Summer Fields thing. Only now, I'm gonna have some REAL competition from you. And I'm gonna win."

My sister looked straight at me with the exact same face that looked at me in the mirror everyday... the half of me. "You sure are confident."

"Oh ya, definitely."

"You realize that I'm not gonna let you win anymore, right?"

"Yep."

We laughed evilly at each other. This was some clear ground that I was used to. Some nice, simple sibling rivalry.