Zara stood patiently still as HAM fussed around her. There was one man who was pulling at her hair and spraying something in it which gave it a beautiful, energetic shine and added a little more bounce to her natural curls. A woman was dusting her cheekbones with a pink blusher and another woman was rubbing what Zara assumed to be some kind of foundation or concealer into the virtually invisible, silvery stretch marks that danced up her lower abdomen.
As they worked, Zara gazed across the room at the other contestants. Two brunette girls stood talking. Neither looked especially confident in themselves. The girl with the paler brown hair was trying to stand tall and brave but she still looked a little uncomfortable with the whole situation. But the one with the darker brown hair looked positively humiliated. There were two other girls, one was just another brunette who looked beyond terrified as she glanced round at the other girls. But the girl who really interested Zara was the blonde. Of course, she was pretty, they all were. But it was her attitude that really caught Zara's attention. She was strutting around, talking confidently to a boy. It was as if she'd hardly even noticed she was naked, her body bared before everyone, free for their judgement. It was clear she was playing a certain angle, but Zara couldn't quite figure out exactly what it was. But that didn't matter to her. Zara had an angle of her own and she was going to play it like her life depended on it - ironically though, it did. Today more than ever, people had to see exactly what she wanted them to. She needed them to see her as the party girl gone good to look after the baby she'd had far too young but wouldn't change for the world. Zara needed this. Her little girl, Evie, was her whole world now and she deserved a lot more than their current life could ever give her. Zara would win this if it killed her.