Alec was regretting each and every decision which had led up to this moment.
It weren't many since Simon had been the one to make all of the bad decisions, so he quickly went back to cursing him into oblivion just as he had done ever since he found out about the bet.
Currently, Alec was standing behind the giant stage that their school had sponsored for the pageant.
He was dreading to go out there and to face the jury, his heart racing even though he wouldn't admit how difficult this was to him.
He didn't like to be judged by people. Alex usually judged others and he liked it that way.
Isabelle grinned as she made her way over to him with a pair of black jeans, which Alec knew would be far too tight for his own liking.
"Come on, put them on. You'll wear the tank top with it, you know the tight one that you use whenever your actual gear for archery is being taken care of."
Nodding, Alec took the jeans, knowing that resistance wouldn't be able to get him out of this right now so he did the smart thing and complied.
While undressing, he heard his sister talking to Clary outside of the dressing room.
"Came to see just how hot my brother can be?" Isabelle asked the feisty red-head who laughed, shaking her head "Definitely not. I mean, we all know that Alec is a looker but Simon looks amazing right now." she shrugged.
Isabelle merely laughed "Oh yeah? Well, let's see about that." she hummed, her voice light and teasing.
Alec sighed as he stepped outside "Okay, I know that you're taking this seriously but can't we just get this over with?" he asked, missing the way Clary watched him in awe.
"Shit, Izzy, you were right. He does look better than Jace like this! How has nobody noticed that before?" she asked confused.
Alec rolled his eyes "I really don't want to hear any of this. Izzy, can we just finish me up so I can go on stage to be done with this?"
Isabelle nodded, smirking at Clary as she led her brother towards the make up table. "Before you say anything, I'm only putting on some powder, don't worry. I know how you feel about putting stuff on your face." she winked at him, causing him to shake his head with a small, fond smile. Of course he knew that his sister was aware of where the line started and that she shouldn't cross it.
Ten minutes passed before Alec's face was ready to be shown to the public, his hair falling perfectly in a "I-just-rolled-out-of-bed" way. He looked amazing, even he himself had to admit that.
"Thanks, Izzy." He told her, while she hugged him carefully, his arms wrapping around her.
"All contestants need to be ready within five more minutes." a smooth voice sounded through the room, interrupting all ongoing conversation.
"My name is Raphael, I'm the host of this ridiculous show. You better be finished when I come back, because I'll get the order in which you'll be send out there on time so be prepared for anything."
While Alec simply nodded, already turning back to Izzy for a last talk about his instructions on the runway, Simon was still busy staring at the host.
Clary rolled her eyes, stifling a giggle "You do know that you're being creepy, right?" She asked her best friend teasingly, who poked her in the side, face heating up with embarrassment.
"That was Raphael Santiago, right? The Mexican exchange student that is long time friends with Magnus?" he asked her, glad when she confirmed that theory. "Yeah, he's in my Algebra and Spanish class. He's really grim looking all the time. I'm glad that he's not in the jury."
Simon nodded absent mindedly, knowing that with this literal god on the other side of the runway, he never would have been able to say one word without making a fool out of himself.
He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Raphael walking towards them and was already close to panicking, though he thankfully realised that he was only coming closer since all the contestants had gathered closer to the middle of the room where they were both standing.
"First one up is Raj." the handsome host said, waiting for the man to show himself. After he did, he continued with the order "Raj is followed up by Meliorn and Simon, Alec comes after them both, Stan goes last during this round."
He examined each of the contestants, knowing that the jury would like quite a few of them.
He led Raj to the curtain that hung in front of the stage, ordering him to stay until his name was called out.
Raphael then proceeded to make his way on top of the stage.
"Ladies, Gentlemen and whoever else decided to be here today. Welcome to our annual beauty paegant. This year, the principal decided to do something different: This will be our first beauty paegant solely for those who identify as men." he explained even though they all already knew what was going on.
"This year, our jury consists of three people who are well known to this school though I'll introduce them anyway.
First we have Caterina Loss, a woman with nerves of steel and the ability to make great decisions even under a lot of pressure. Next up, there's Magnus Bane, a cat holder who's so obsessed with his kitten that the poor things gets a party dedicated to them every half a year." Magnus chuckled quietly at that description of himself, listening to Raphael as he continued, "Anyway, he's also basically a huge ball of glitter and stylish clothes which is why he's sitting right where he is. The last man I'm introducing as jury is Ragnor Fell, a grumpy individual with an eye for clothing which could be presented in museums. He makes it look good though so nobody seems to mind if the girls and boys throwing themselves onto him are anything to go by." he winked at the audience before turning towards the curtain.
"Now enough of this nonsense, let's start the show. Our first category will be casual wear. The contestant that will be the first to enter this stage is Raj. We'll only look at the outfits in this round so the candidates will be giving us a first impression before we'll move on to the first round of questions."
He smiled sneakily "Now, please welcome our first contestant, Raj."
Raj made his way out of the back room in dark blue dress pants and a white button up. He looked quite formal though the was he had opened the first two buttons on his shirt made it look more casual. He gained a mediocre applause, the audience still unsure what to properly expect which probably wasn't to his advantage though the jury was informed of that so they would take it into accounting.
Raj was followed up by Meliorn who gained an uproar within the audience, his long black hair flowing behind him as he walked the runway gracefully. His eyes were lined with dark green khol, perfectly fitting the flower which was placed into his flowing hair. He wore dark, patterned jeans which seemed like a second skin to him, showing off his muscles quite well.
His shirt though was flowing, opened half way and in a way, also seemed more dressed up though Meliorn simply enjoyed this look so it wasn't anything new.
The second that Meliorn left, Simon was already panicking, the knowledge that he would have to go out there and show himself to the world hitting him like a cannon ball.
He was glad that Clary and Izzy both were trying to calm him down though there wasn't enough time to do so.
It only seemed like seconds when the curtains opened and Simon stepped aside to let the other contestant through.
He slowly stepped onto the stage, his body frozen. Simon knew that he looked decent. Even Alec had begrudgingly admitted that he didn't look like a complete mess, with his hair a bit more up than usually and his clothes without references to any kind of media.
He wore a simple dark blue muscle shirt as well as dark jeans, pairing everything off with cool boots.
The amazing outfit didn't stop him from dying internally though, looking around in fear, until dark, piercing eyes bored into his own.
Raphael Santiago was watching him, was motioning for him to walk towards the jury and while Simon had no idea how if worked, his legs started to move once more. His eyes stayed on Raphael's for as long as they possibly could while he made his way towards the three people on the end of the runway.
He gave them a small twirl before going back inside, his lung heaving in his chest, despite not having done any actual exercise.
Clary immediately pulled him into an embrace, to which Simon clung.
Raphael had helped him through his and while he obviously didn't make his anxiety disappear, he had made it more bearable in that exact moment.
Simon decided that he would thank him after the first two rounds were over, closing his eyes as he let himself calm down for a second.
Alec had already stepped out, onto the stage. The action was accompanied by loud whispers and hushed questions.
Nobody had known that Alec Lightwood, the stoic, boring brother of the school's party siblings, was actually built like a sculpture made by the gods.
As Raphael already had imagined, Magnus seemed rather smitten with the oldest Lightwood, his gaze running over Alec repeatedly.
"Who are you?" he mumbled to himself, leaning forward to take in the view which he was presented with.
Alec quickly left the stage to make room for Stan, the last of them to show himself off to half their school.
Stan wasn't exactly well known to most people though he was a friend of Simon who always told them how nice he was.
He was wearing all black, a tight shirt with some lose jeans, a thin necklace dangling from his neck.
After all contestants had walked the runway for the first time, Raphael brought them outside for another time, this time all of them together so that the jury would have a side to side comparison.
"Now, that we've got all our victims out and presented to you, we'll start round two, which will be the first round in which the audience as well as the jury can ask questions to our contestants."
Raphael started to explain, "After that round, sadly one of our contestants will be voted out by the jury." he grinned sheepishly at the participants.
"Now, let's see, who shall we start with?" Raphael then proceeded to ask, before shaking his head. "We'll go in the same order as before." he then quickly decided, already feeling annoyed by how nice and friendly he was supposed to be.
He'll definitely have fun torturing the contestants with the most embarrassing questions though so there was at least a little something to look forward to.
He couldn't wait.
Hey there guys, sorry that this took so long. I hope you enjoyed this short chapter~!The really interesting things will happen in the nexf chapter obviously but you can still submit questions for any of the participants if you want to!Hope to see you soon!