Model Behaviour (Take A Break Twist in the Tale)

One market that always appeared to be looking for submissions was the Bauer stable of women's weeklies. They offered around £250 for Twist in the Tale stories, so obviously I was keen. I put together about half a dozen, two of which I've placed in my archive.

This story, ‘Model Behaviour’, has probably the latest twist, and it isn't fantastic. I laughed when I re-read it though, because I didn't see it coming. This didn't get published because Bauer claimed they had too much of a backlog, so other than family, it's the first time it's been seen.

Model Behaviour

by Chris Stanley

Kate clutched the beach-ball and even though it was freezing in the studio, she tried to smile and pretend she was in a tropical paradise. Modelling always looked so glamorous in the pictures, but it wasn’t until she’d started getting work that she found out how much hard work it really was.

   Even though she wasn’t advertising perfumes or striding down a Parisian catwalk, it was a dream come true for Kate. Ever since she teenager, people had been telling her how pretty she was.

   It had taken her a long time to agree. She’d always liked her face, with her straight white teeth and shapely nose and lips, but Kate had struggled with her weight while she was at school; been burdened with puppy fat. The only people who told her she could model were sarcastic lads.

   They shut up when she reached college and blossomed. She gained a few inches in height, lost lots off her waist but kept her chest and hips. Instead of keeping her eyes to the floor when she walked, now she held her head high. Some of the time, women’s heads turned as well as men’s.

   But Kate had spent long enough as a wallflower to keep her feet on the ground. She could laugh at herself and kept a sense of perspective on her chosen career, knowing that it was fairly ridiculous for people to pay her to look pretty in photographs. It had been her friend’s insistence that she apply to modelling agencies in the first place.

   The first three agencies she tried all turned her down, saying she was too big. That knocked her confidence although she tried not to show it. But eventually, a small local agency sent her a letter saying they were very impressed and that they could easily find her work. Kate was overjoyed.

   In three months at the Wild Model Group, Kate had constantly been on assignments. They were mostly local things, like calendars for small businesses and promotional posters. They sometimes found their way onto the sides of buses or in shop windows, and Kate blushed with a mixture of pride and embarrassment when she saw them. But Wild had done well for her; they never nagged about her weight, or forced her to do shoots she didn’t like the sound of, and it paid well.

   But there was a fly in the ointment; rather a small fly at that. Wild’s top girl, the flagship model for the agency, was Nina. She was a tiny posh girl with a blonde bob, with hardly any curves and a permanent sneer when she wasn’t being snapped. She made Kate feel like an overweight giant by comparison.

   Kate could have lived with being second fiddle if Nina had been pleasant to work with. But she was horrible. She was rude to models and assistants, constantly smoked so everything stank of stale cigarettes, and she had huge ambition. She wouldn’t give anyone the time of day unless it helped her climb another step up the ladder.  

   Unfortunately, a lot of the models that Kate had met seemed to be the same, even if they hadn’t started out that way. She had made a deal with herself to avoid becoming like that. But it seemed part of Nina’s make-up to be nasty, almost as if growing up wanting for nothing had made her angry about, well, nothing.

  Nina was on the beachwear shoot, but luckily Kate hadn’t had to work with her. She could see the blonde out of the corner of her eye, wrapped in a huge fake-fur coat sipping from a bottle of water, still wearing the sunglasses from her last session. In January! It made Kate grin even more, and the photographer used it. Her first set was soon finished and she wandered over to get a cup of tea and a sandwich.

   ‘Hello, Nina,’ tried Kate. Even though her rival never seemed to bat an eyelid, Kate never gave up trying. ‘Phew, it’s freezing, isn’t it? I’d rather be on a proper beach.’ She giggled, but Nina tutted at her from behind her shades.

   Turning away in defeat, Kate tried her luck at the catering table and instead chatted to Janine, a gorgeous redhead who was new to modelling. She was naïve but friendly, and Kate always tried to make her feel welcome.

   ‘Morning, Jan. Nice day for it, isn’t it?’

   Janine snorted then blushed self-consciously. ‘Couldn’t imagine Kate Moss doing this, could you? A beachwear shoot for Your Choice catalogue?’

   ‘Nah. Any chicken salad ones? I’m starvin’.’ Kate felt she could be herself more with Janine, and dropped the clipped accent she used with strangers, and Nina. She reached for the snack and turned to look at the model being snapped.

   ‘Have you been told about the swimsuit competition?’ enquired Jan, nervously.

   ‘No, what is it?’

   ‘Racer Swimwear wants regional models for their new Olympique range. It’s a two year contract with some nationwide work.’

   ‘God, that’s exciting! How do we apply?’

   ‘That’s the thing,’ said Jan, sadly. ‘Wild’s are only putting two models forward. It’s their choice. I reckon you’ll be one of them...’ She paused. ‘…and Nina will be the other one.’

   ‘You never know,’ said Kate, trying to perk the youngster up. But then a cold, familiar voice broke in.

   ‘They may as well just send me along, since I’ll inevitably win. I look great, and I always say and do the right things.’ Nina dragged on her cigarette. ‘It’s a foregone conclusion.’

   Jan let the tears fall from her eyes. She wasn’t used to this kind of attitude. Kate hugged her and scolded Nina. ‘It’s not up to you, Nina. You might not even be asked, yet.’

   Nina snorted the last of her cigarette smoke down her nose and ground the butt out on the studio floor.

   It turned out Janine was right, though, and it was Kate and Nina who went forward from Wild’s. Although she wouldn’t admit it, Kate thought Nina was very attractive, and thought she would win. Most of the girls at the competition, around forty of them, looked at her enviously, strutting her stuff on stage in swimwear and heels.

   After the modelling was an interview, which Kate thought went okay. Nina was the last to go, and sat with a smirk on her face for the whole of it. Then she walked over to Kate, lit another cigarette and chuckled in triumph.

   ‘They knew all along who’d win. Sorry, Katie.’ The sarcasm dripped from her lips.

   A few minutes later the judges gathered them all in a circle and prepared to announce the winner. ‘The girl we want for Olympique is…Kate Dawson!’ There was a flurry of clapping, and Kate couldn’t believe it. Even those who had lost seemed happy that Nina hadn’t won.

   Nina stood there, face twisted in fury, venting at the judges. ‘But I’m prettier! I’m thinner! How can you pick her?!’

   The head judge turned to Nina and replied ‘Kate looked great in our swimwear, and she’s intelligent and down to earth. Besides, it wouldn’t be right if our healthy swimmer smoked like a chimney, would it?’