CH 7

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to this season's Supermodel House!"

I stood in the crowd looking at the large, beautiful house as Andy ran the show. "The judges are excited to meet each and every one of you, but now they've made their choices."

The boys and girls who had been excited began to whisper as Andy said that the first round of eliminations would soon take place. Andy continued under the commotion, "Keeping with the theme of the masked ball, there is a wall of masks behind me. If you see your own face there, you've made it. If you don't see your face there, unfortunately, you'll have to pack your bags and go home."

Alice, standing next to me, her eyes wandered, clearly not too confident in herself. Jamie seized this opportunity a stood by her side to reassure. Ashton was very excited, having been the only male model to choose a male model of the same sex as his partner in the lingerie show, and he was cheering each other on with his then partner.

Marvin, like Alice, was excellent in every way, but always lacked confidence when it mattered. He was frowning and whispering to his newly formed band of brothers.

Chris, on the other hand, stood next to me and opened his mouth to whisper to me, "I'm worried about my situation, you know, I've never been in the modelling business." Seemingly because of his experience of having no family like him, he liked to stick to my side.

"I haven't quite shown myself..." said Chris, having a bit of an anxiety attack, his hand resting on his mouth as he nibbled on his nails.

I sighed darkly, for the extra babysitting job I would have later. I pulled his hand down to his mouth and reassured him, "Don't worry Chris, you're sure you'll get going too, aren't you?"

As Andy shouted 'Ready, set, run!' The group raced up to the photo wall. I took Chris' shoulder and walked slowly up the steps.

Everyone anxiously searched the wall for their faces, those who found them gave a cheer and pulled off their masks to exit the crowd, those who didn't squeezed back to continue their search.

The first thing Chris didn't see was the mask with his picture on it, while I saw myself hanging on the wall, looking ginger and red in the spotlight. Chris wept and bade me goodbye as I squeezed forward to remove my own mask.

After the sad news was announced Andy was content to take the 10 who had been eliminated and leave, while a few cameras followed the remaining 26 into the supermodel house to film the models reflecting on their stay.

The supermodel house had a large picture of Taylor with various motivational messages written on it, and the bedrooms had similarly various slogans written on each wall. Of course the boys' bedroom is separate from the girls' bedroom and there are only 16 beds.

Because of my unhurried pace, the eight beds in the boys' bedroom were not for me, and Chris, who was following me, was out of luck. Ashton was one of the first men to follow the female models into the supermodel house, so he grabbed a bed. The rest of the beds were taken by Marvin and his company of brothers.

I didn't really care about any of this, after all it was just one night and I was sure I just wouldn't fold at the semi-finals.

After the cameras followed the models through the house, including the various exercise equipment, the small spa, the spacious pool and even the mini catwalk located in the living room, Tyler and Rob appeared in front of the excited crowd.

The two judges would split the male and female models into two groups, with Taylor giving the female models advice on the shoot and Rob giving the male models advice.

What I wanted to do was to overpower the female model in all the group shots, just as I did with Alice in yesterday's runway show. To be able to make men look at that picture and envy and want to be you, and women look at that picture and be smitten and want to be with you.

That was the point Rob made in that conversation. The reason Rob has become a famous supermodel and is making more money than even many top female models can be seen in the advice he gives. At least he captures the psychology of the audience.

Although the night would see a challenge, the supermodel house was treated to a romp after Tyler and Rob left. Chris' childish approach to attracting attention still got him into trouble, as he went around attacking Marvin and his gang of brothers with his boxing gloves, and after a good scolding, returned to my side in disgrace.

And while I just sat in the kitchen with Nina and made a glass of juice and chatted, Chris finally stopped being awkwardly trying to be a million bucks and childishly cried and admitted to us with that cold face that he didn't really fit in.

Ashton, on the other hand, had a crush on one of the transgender models in the pile, not that kind of crush of course, Ashton just still wasn't comfortable with being around guys, especially straight guys, so he took the transgender model called Vicky and a few girls out to the back garden to chat.

Jamie was still Alice's little sidekick following her around, and because of the uproar from the crowd, Alice was beginning to hate Jamie's tailing. Chased away by Alice, Jamie looked around the living room and then there was another Christian sheep in my little circle.

As the sun went down in the west, the models were about to get on the bus and head off to the site of yet another challenge. I was relieved to have finally stopped this mind-numbing mingling session.

I knew I was a loner, perhaps the same as Chris, and even if I had the appearance of being a millionaire, I would never be one in a face-to-face situation. The only difference between me and Chris is that I am more tactful in my communication than he is.