fashion show

Fifteen minutes late,

Sleepy eyes squint from the light.

Art starts my morning,

Brushes and mirrors.

Quick toast,

In the car, and then the bus.

Sleep, jokes, and friends,

Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Pull up, get off,

Friendly faces greet me.

Besties smiling, talking,

Walking to our first class.

Glue, scissors, cardboard,

Glue, tape, stress.

Changing, switching, nerves,

I am modeling in a cardboard fashion show.

Tasteless food, pointless conversation, high nerves,

Why did I agree to this?

Class discussions go through one ear,

Out the other.

Two o' clock,

Omigosh.

Straight, stiff, cardboard,

Surrounds me.

Tape that, glue this,

Cut that off.

Other contestants, stressed designers,

A long, intimidating runway.

Directions, questions, judges,

Students, teachers, a crowd.

Omigosh. Omigosh.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, and then,

The music starts.

Omigosh. Omigosh.

Strut down the runway, pose, turn,

Smile at the highschooler's cheers and screams.

Then watch, and laugh, and wait some more.

Again? Really?

Strut, pose, turn, smile.

Stand and wait.

Judging begins.

Third place is called.

Second place.

First.

I stand, relieved.

My name was not called,

I do not have to walk again,

Down that intimidating runway lined with students.

I didn't win.

But it was actually fun.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

So here's the real story:

For the past few weeks, several groups of students in my school have been preparing for a cardboard fashion show. You could make anything, as long as the main element was cardboard. I was part of a group that had a dress completely made out of cardboard. Completely. It was awesome, but looked ridiculous on.

I was originally one of the designers. I had no interest in modeling the thing and luckily I didn't have to, since my friend said that she would.

My class had already started really late in this project, and the day before the fashion show we thought it was a lost cause. But today we really went to work, cutting and gluing and arranging.

My friend tried it on for about the millionth time, and we ran into our enemy:

Mr. It-Fit-Fine-Before

After one minor, but irreversible change, the dress was too small.

Enter panic mode:

"OMIGOSH ARE YOU SERIOUS??"

"What are we gonna do?"

"I can't believe this. I can't believe this."

"Just suck in!"

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"GUYS! I'll wear it."

"Okay. Problem solved."

What did I get myself into?

The dress was switched over from my friend to me, and I instantly regretted being a big mouth. This piece of trash was shapeless. One of my best friends who was helping with the dress, just stood back and said: "That dress looks like a robot's going to prom."

It really did.

It wasn't the color or anything, it was the shape. The colors were actually gorgeous.

Anyway, fast forward about three hours.

I'm in the bathroom changing into the "dress". I'm walking down the hall. A quick rehearsal and then:

"Welcome everyone! Welcome to the first annual cardboard fashion show!" *insane amounts of cheering, screaming, and applause*

And the music starts. And unfortunately I was chosen to kick off the show. I didn't trip, the dress didn't fall apart, and kind of rocked the walk. I really couldn't help but grin when the 50 or so highschoolers started screaming and cheering for the first contestant.

It was over in a second, and I wasn't too phased when I was told I had to go out one more time. After my first pose, I gave the judges a rocker-peace sign thing, which got a good reaction from the crowd.

After the judging, it was revealed that our dress didn't even place.

So I didn't win, but it was actually fun ;)

-hannah