[YouTube Video]

Swan's Surprise: A Short Film

ClarityIsClear

340k Views / Posted 7 months ago

(The camera flickers on to a lopsided image of a grey-shadowed room, the only light source being a parting between two black-out curtains, just shaky enough to indicate that the camera operator is moving around. There is a faint click and yellow-orange light floods the room, the edge of the screen only just showing an Edison-bulb lamp.

The camera shakes again, spinning away from the lamp and the window, and a face enters the screen, too close and blurry. There is a sound of air being sucked between teeth, a beep of the camera, and then the image zooms out. The face clarifies into the visage of an attractive bronze-skinned girl with high cheekbones, dark almond-shaped eyes glittering in some kind of excitement, and inky black hair piled high on her hair, messy and in danger of falling from the pencil-held bun she has made.

There is a pillow crease on her cheek, denoting that she has probably just woken up. The girl is holding up her phone, the screen gleaming white and pixilated on the camera, its contents incomprehensible.

"Hey, guys! Leah Clearwater here, wishing you all a very mirthful morning," she whispers loudly into the camera, addressing whoever is watching on the other side. She waves the phone around, the camera shaking in her grasp. She leans toward the camera, her tone dropping conspiratorially. "I know I said I was going to wait to post another video until we were all settled back in the dorm, but I just woke up to some great news that I just can't wait to share! Want to know what it is? Well, you'll have to wait - because this is a reaction video. I know how much you guys love watching our favorite documentary subject react to things, and I have to say, I think this reaction will be iconic. Ready? Okay. Let's go wake her up."

The camera pans around again as Leah adjusts her grip. As she does, the camera shows the unmistakable view of a room that is being settled into. There are open boxes and containers, a mess of clothes spilling out of a suitcase abandoned by a partially opened closet door. The grey-patterned rug on the floor is askew, the floor itself cluttered with shoes and what looks like the aftermath of an argument with a bookshelf.

Leah steps forward, moving across the room to the other bed. "Bella," she sing-songs, and the camera shows her hand reaching out to prod at a lump hidden beneath a white comforter patterned with cartoon caricatures of sloths hanging from branches and munching on leaves. "Come on, wake up sleep talker. Time to greet the day!"

Leah nudges Bella's sleeping form and Bella groans, burrowing deeper into the duvet. A nearly unintelligible protest can be heard, something that sounds like a drawn out no.

"I'll sit on you if you don't wake up," Leah threatens playfully.

Bella is not moved.

"I'll steal your meal card and you'll have to starve until next semester," Leah threatens again.

Bella sits up like a shot has just gone off. Bleary eyed and flushed with sleep high in her freckled cheeks, Bella's dark hair falls around her shoulders messily, partially obscuring a thin plum sweatshirt reading This Is Me Studying in vibrant yellow. "Don't touch my meal card," Bella mumbles. "I haven't even used it yet."

"Okay, okay, I won't touch it," Leah agrees easily. Although her face cannot be seen, the humor in her voice is still obvious. She's probably trying to muffle a poorly-hidden smile.

Bella looks around, face twisted in confusion. "Is it morning?"

"Uh huh."

"Why?"

Leah snorts. "God, you're so useless when you wake up," she mutters in amusement. Something about the whole interaction feels familiar - there is a sisterhood between the girls that cannot be faked. These are two people who have known each other their whole lives.

Bella hums in what is possibly agreement. She looks like she is falling back asleep while sitting up, listing to the side with her head bent forward.

She might have succeeded had Leah not suddenly shouted, "Congratulations!"

Bella's eyes snap open, and in her new alertness she seems to finally grasp Leah's mood, because her expression suddenly turns weary. Her sleepy olive green eyes dart between the camera and Leah's face behind the camera. "Oh, God. What is it?"

"You're a winner!" Leah announces brightly. "Time to collect your trophy, and your blue ribbon, and your gold star! You won them all! Good job, champ!"

Bella frowns at the camera. "What are you even talking about?"

"The contest! You won first!"

"Contest? What contest?" Bella's brows knit together, head tilted as she stares up at Leah. Abruptly, her eyes widen and she shifts, scrambling out of her comforter and kneeling on the bed, yellow sleep shorts wrinkled and riding up modestly on her thighs. She shakes her head rapidly in denial. "No!"

"Oh, yes," Leah says with a dark sort of glee. Until now, her entire disposition has been sunny - but as of this moment, it becomes obvious that she is relishing in her friend's apparent horror at her so-called congratulatory news.

"Tell me your kidding," Bella pleads, tone beseeching.

"I am…not kidding. Here look," Leah says, and the camera shows her passing her camera to Bella, who grasps at it and quickly inputs the passcode.

"What the hell?" Bella whines pathetically. She scrolls down the webpage on Leah's phone and Leah shifts the camera so that it shows a flash pictures followed by polls. The top of the page fuzzily reads Cardinal Trees, bracketed on either side by artsy cardinal red trees.

Off-camera there is a distant shuffling sound that becomes louder, followed by a glacial female voice. "What's all this racket about? Its morning, the time for quiet."

The camera pans around and another girl enters the frame. This girl is a statuesque beauty with sharp, upward-tilted blue eyes, a beauty mark on her chin, and a tumble of sun-bleached blonde hair to match the healthy California tan on her skin. She wears a red cotton robe over an over-sized Stanford jersey that hems at her mid-thigh. Although clearly just waking up, she is much more put-together than both Leah and Bella, the kind of girl who can genuinely post #wokeuplikethis and #nofilter without any fuss.

From behind the camera, Leah greets the newcomer with fresh mirth. "Good morning, Rose! Glad you could join us - I'm just imparting some good news."

Behind Rose emerges another figure. This one is shorter and slighter, a round face with elfin features and short, dark hair pushed off her forehead with a green silk sleeping mask that strongly resembles Elphaba from Wicked. This girl already looks perky, a happy sort of charming smile spreading across her face as she side-steps Rose to fully enter the bedroom.

"Is this about the Cardinal Tree's beauty contest? Isn't it great? I found out this morning too!" the girl chirps, paying no mind to the camera that follows after her as she bounces onto Bella's bed, pillowing her head on the other girl's shoulder so that they are both looking at the phone screen.

Bella shoots her a look. "Don't talk about it like it's an official thing, because it's not," she admonishes, dropping the phone onto her lap with a huff.

From behind the camera comes Leah's voice again. "Unofficial, official, what does it matter? You still won."

Bella gestures wildly, then folds her arms over her chest. The girl leaning on her shoulder, Alice, is dislodged, but merely slings an arm over Bella's shoulder in comfort. "It's a popularity poll run by a glorified campus blog," Bella says. "In fact its not even a campus blog! It's not affiliated with the school at all!"

Rose slinks into the frame, leaning back on a pine bookshelf that boasts a single succulent and empty shelves waiting to be filled. "She has a point," Rose opines. "Cardinal Trees is basically a collegiate tabloid. Stanford doesn't claim it, even if Stanford students run it and use it. No funding, no legal affiliation."

Bella nods quickly. "See!"

"I do see," Leah agrees placidly. "I see that you won!"

Bella's expression crumbles, a frustrated flush blooming on her cheeks. "It's troublesome! I've only just stopped being bothered from last year's results," she complains. "Now it's all going to start again."

The camera view shifts again, spun around to face Leah again. Her expression is serious, as is her tone, but her eyes dance. "Worth mentioning, of course, is the fact that our lovely Bella won third last year, only a few points shy of runner-up."

Off-camera comes a peppy agreement. "Yeah, that's right! It was actually pretty close!"

The camera faces outward again, taking in the three girls crowed into one corner of a dorm room. Leah fiddles with the zoom, zeroing in on the growing disbelief coloring Bella's expression while the conversation moves around her.

"There was some controversy last year," Rose recalls. Her expression is thoughtful as she continues. "People thought Bella should have won since her photo was candid, while the winner's picture was obviously professionally done. Didn't seem very fair, but the contest had already been decided."

"I remember that!" Alice gasps. "It was kind of a big deal!"

Bella huffs. "I'll tell you what the controversy is with these silly contests - it's the conspiracy of who is nominating me for these ridiculous things in the first place." The last part is a pointed comment obviously directed at Leah.

Behind the camera, Leah says mildly, "That sounds accusatory."

"It is accusatory, Clearwater!"

Rose snorts; Alice giggles behind her hand.

"I told you before that it wasn't me," Leah says innocently. "I know I love to torment you, but even I have to draw a line somewhere."

"She says as she's filming me with poorly concealed glee while I seethe about this contest," Bella deadpans.

Rose looks at Leah with her lips pressed together to mute her smile. "It does seem pretty suspicious."

"Your face seems suspicious," Leah shoots back.

Bella cranes her neck back, looking up at the ceiling in despair. "Oh my God. Why me?"

She is ignored.

Instead, Alice sits up straight with an air of excitement. "Hey! Do you think this means you'll be getting free things this year too?" she asks Bella eagerly.

Off-camera, Leah speaks with a knowledgeable tone. "Ah, sweet Alice, those weren't free things - they were gifts from our Bella's many admirers."

"Those chocolate covered espresso beans were delicious," Rose says with a dreamy expression. "And they lasted an entire semester. So useful for studying."

Leah scoffs. "Why do you think I'm filming this?" she asks. She turns the camera again, this time holding it away from her body so that it captures all four of them in the same frame. She looks sternly into the lens. "Senders of anonymous gifts, take notes. We like caffeine and gift cards. Send things so you can capture Bella's heart."

Over Leah's shoulder, Bella shakes her head slowly at the camera with a haunted, dead sort of stare. "Unbelievable," she whispers, and then falls back against her bed with a groan. "Unbelievable!"

The last image the camera captures is three girls laughing uproariously at their roommate.)

Comments

thelittlecygnet

You're the actual worst

byanyothername

That's no kind of attitude for a beauty queen

thelittlecygnet

BLOCKED

HeartsAPlenty

Wait so your school runs an unofficial beauty contest that is won by popular polling every year? Dont you attend Stanford?

Yaheard

rich kids are wild man idk what to tell you

twiiilit

no but okay that girl is so cute? she looks like a doll! no wonder she won!

ZomZomZombies

Isn't that Swanning from Twitch?

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A/N: Leah Clearwater runs a YouTube channel called ClarityIsClear - it's part documentary, part spoof, part real-world exercise to practice her filming and video editing skills. Leah uses Bella as the subject of most of her videos by virtue of being childhood friends. Leah is basically a YouTuber, which is a fascinating thing. YouTube will pay YouTubers about $4 for every 1000 views of any video; top YouTubers, such as PewDiePie, have billions of views on their videos. Make something good enough and feed your following and it is possible to make bank from YouTube.

Perfect for some broke college students, huh?

As a side note - have some faith, readers. All the details in this story have been thought about in terms of realism, including unofficial beauty contests for important schools. Have I ever honestly written anything that didn't make sense?

As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~Rae