A treat for all your lovely reviews!
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I fiddled with the broken brush, trying to pull out the loose strands. Eyeing the contraption, I pulled slowly, but resulted in pulling out half of the damn thing. Sighing in annoyance, I put the make-up brush down on the table and heard the distinguish laugh of Kara behind me.
"It's not funny," I replied in a slight amused tone, even though I was annoyed, "That brush, along with every other brush, costs almost fifty dollars."
I looked up in the mirror in front of me to see her reflection behind me. She was sitting at one of the make-up counters and applying fake eye lashes onto her already long lashes.
"I don't understand why you always try to save product," she replied while returning her mouth to an 'o' while attaching another lash, "Napoleon provides for us, so I don't see the problem. Just throw it out."
I swung my seat around so I was now facing her back, "Unlike some, I try to recycle -" I frowned for a moment and gave a flick of my hand, a gesture of already losing interest, "or, something along those lines. I'm not sure."
She smiled at me.
Kara was a graduate in the same class I was in for three courses. We had both shacked up in a nice apartment in the City, sharing rent, along with anything else that needed to be paid. Which meant, I had to pay more because Kara had a knack for large phone bills and spending more than half her pay on shopping.
"The Plastic's are coming in today for us to glam them up for the runway before eight", Kara reminded me as she stood up and moved over to the side stands and began to gather various things. In our private store, we had a studio with ten separate make-up stands, eight aisles of make-up and a back closet the size of a bedroom full of clothes. Napoleon was very generous.
Kara had always referred to Napoleon's Top Model's as the Plastic's. I could understand why, considering that each girl was rake thin with remarkably large breasts, large doe-like eyes, flawless skin and a good foot taller than me with legs that went for miles.
"Who are we doing for the show?" I asked. Once a month there was a massive runway show in the centre of the City called the 'Cat's Meow'. I have never fully understood why they called it that, but I guess calling it 'Pussy Meow' wasn't very polite. So, every runway project, there was a theme. This month it was Poseidon. Last month it had been Haywire, which consisted of many farm-girl themed works crossed with the punk-like exterior of chains and barb-wire.
"Campbell was 'spose to be here about an hour ago, but her Manager called saying that she had severely injured her ankle and had to back out, so a small time replaced her," Kara called back from the other side of the studio, "Kendra should be arriving sometime soon, along with Moss and Lima."
When I had first started in this business, I was awed that I got to make some of the most famous Model's pretty, but after a while the novelty wears thin and they just become regulars who come in every week or so to prepare for a photo shoot.
"Oh, so Campbell axed herself?" I asked with fake interest. Kara loved to gossip about them. I watched her return back to a counter and dump three baskets of face paint.
She nodded while sorting them out evenly between two counters, "Yeah. Something along those lines," she looked at me and smirked, "I reckon she got herself into a fight and had to back our because of bad publicity."
I shrugged, "Maybe." Just as I looked back into the mirror, the front door opened and the first of our projects walked in.
Kara dropped all activities she was doing and happily rushed over to the pixie model at the door, "Kate! How are you? Come in out of the cold!"
I smiled politely, did some formalities then pretended to preoccupy myself with applying eye liner to my eye lids whilst Kara chatted happily while preparing Kate for the show which was eight hours away.
-
Within five hours, two dozens of coffee, several servings of Kentucky Fried Chicken (most of which was for me because I was the only one willing to openly stuff my face when I was hungry) and several CD's in the stereo later, four of the six girls were ready and were now playing the Playstation 2 in the back corner.
Yes, I know it's hard to believe but that's what happens in the studio I work in. Lots of junk food, loud music and PS2.
"Do you think this turquoise blue will blend in nicely?" Kendra asked as I was adding final touches to the light blue hue to her skin. I had aimed to give her the appeal of a sea-creature with beautiful forest green eyes lined with tinges of gold.
"Yeah, of course it will," I replied while changing brushes, "it makes your cheekbones more defined, giving you a very alluring mermaid look."
She smiled, "You always manage to do wonders to me when it comes to the runway."
I smiled back, "Well you're one of the few who don't complain and just let me do my job," I grabbed a ear-bud and perfected the colouring in one of her eyebrows, "you tend to just ask than demand."
Kendra nodded, "I suppose so, but it's best to treat others the way you want to be treated."
I lifted a can of hairspray and she closed her eyes as I sprayed profusely large amounts onto her face and hair. This was done to keep the make-up in place.
"Done!"
She opened her eyes and gave me a nice smile, "Thanks for that. I'm gonna go ring my kids up."
"No problem", I replied while beginning to clean up. I reached over to the box of food and put my hand in, but found that it was empty. I furrowed my brow in confusion, "I could have sworn I had two more pieces of chicken in there", I turned to look at Kara and the others, but not one of them had come near the box of greased up fat.
-
Jack sighed. Jack sighed again. Then he took sighing to a whole new level and crossed it over with an annoyed growl. He had been sitting in this god-forsaken studio for the majority of the day, when he could have been sleeping on the couch back in the apartment. But, after hearing a phone call last night between Lina and some 'male friend', Jack didn't quite like the idea of her wandering off to work all by her onesies.
He was lazily playing with a brush, swirling it across the counter, then dipping it in a jar of face paint and drawing what was the beginnings of a ship. The room was full of gorgeous women, some of which Jack couldn't understand why none of the women of his time could look like them, but after watching them for hours, days, years, he found that they were boring. Well, only boring because he couldn't touch them.
He looked up to see Lina cleaning up the counter she had been working on. She was a extraordinary woman, he thought to himself. She was still that short, petite sized girl who just reached his chin, but gone was the young females body and now was the toned curves of a woman. Her face was now more angled, yet with lovely soft curves in the right places. Her hair had become slightly lighter from the sun, and now was chocolate brown with hints of gold.
'I'll never understand why she puts it up in tha' horrid clip when it could fall in nice waves down her back,' he thought to himself. He always loved the way her hair was straight and fell down her shoulders, stopping just before the small of her back.
She reached into the Fast-Food box and frowned. Jack couldn't help but smile.
"Maybe I shoulda' left it for her", he said to himself, knowing that no one would hear him.
Kara let out an excited squeal, which caused Jack to drop the brush onto the counter while looking at what the fuss was. It made a tiny snapping noise, plastic against plastic.
Lina looked up, turning to an empty counter where a brush rolled down to one end. Furrowing her brow in confusion, Jack looked back at her, noticing the expression on her face.
"My dear Lina", he murmured as she shook her head, most likely telling herself that it was her imagination and she had knocked the brush herself, even though she was a good couple of feet away.
Captain Jack Sparrow had been watching said lovely Carolina for almost fourteen years. He had mused that he had been there for her first kiss, her first boyfriend, who Jack despised greatly and after he broke Carolina's heart, said boyfriend somehow managed to break his foot, without really knowing how a solid brick had come flying through the men's toilet, when the building was closed. Jack had been there through all her courses to become a make-up artist and he had seen the stress she had been through. He talked none stop to her, and sometimes he even thought she had heard him.
But, Jack had also seen the pain he put her through.
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