She's No Beauty Queen

Lily was suddenly very grateful that her last class of the day was at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Otherwise she would have to miss class for this according to the contract. That was not something she wanted to do.

"That's it? I don't have to do anything fancy?" she asked nervously.

Eddie shook his head. "No. You lucked out to have this be your first event because it's more casual than most. You'll still need to wear one of Angel's outfits. She's required to wear her sash for every appearance and the crown too if she can.

"Those both went missing when she did so Mark already ordered high quality replicas to be made as a failsafe as soon as he suggested you be her replacement a few days ago. You'll be using those instead and should practice walking around wearing them as naturally as possible. High heels as well.

"Mark will go over the etiquette with you and provide those videos of Angel. Those will be more important for larger public appearances. Tomorrow the only people present will be the man in charge of the charity donating gifts, the children, and the hospital staff so you should be fine as long as you look the part."

Lily was overwhelmed already but determined to do this right for her missing twin's sake. "O…kay? Lead the way Mark."

The assistant let out a small sigh as if he doubted her ability to act like a beauty queen. "Let's move to the sitting room. We have a lot to cover."

He led her there before going off to fetch the sash, crown, and a pair of high heels. He instructed her to put them on and launched into a series of endless critiques about the way she was walking or standing as she tried moving around in them.

"Posture! Don't slouch; you have to hold your neck up at the right angle so the crown stays up…Don't fiddle with the sash; you've supposedly been wearing them your whole life and should be used to how it feels by now…Have you ever worn high heels before?!"

"No," Lily said mutinously after nearly tripping for the third time. "I haven't. Give me a break. Do I have to wear heels tomorrow? I'm going to be at a hospital! Who wears heels in a hospital?!"

"Beauty queens," Mark said dryly.

She sighed. She shouldn't have expected anything less from him. Aside from a few moments of humanity that broke through his businesslike exterior he was the perfect assistant. He was treating his boss's request to make her into Angelina Dawson very seriously.

"How do you even know so much about this stuff? You're a guy!"

"A guy who has done his research. I had to watch all of those videos I'm going to send you and looked up everything there is to know about pageant queen etiquette. Mr. Todd needs me to be a pageant expert so I became one in order to be your temporary manager," Mark said simply. "Try again."

Lily huffed. What a know-it-all. She couldn't remember him from high school but if he had always been this stuffy they probably hadn't gotten along.

But she did as he said because he knew more about all of this stuff than she did. She wasn't so prideful that she couldn't defer to superior wisdom when necessary, even if it was coming from someone she was currently annoyed with.

She cracked down and did everything Mark told her to for the next two hours before she was finally allowed to go home and finish the assignment that had been put on hold for her to come here. She was completely exhausted and even more annoyed with him by the time she went to bed.

When they talked in the car before he hadn't seemed to mind that she wasn't into any of this girly stuff. Yet once his boss told him she needed to be a lady he became a beauty queen drill sergeant.

Did this guy's personality flip a switch when work was involved or what? It bothered her for a reason she couldn't fully explain.

Whatever. She would only have to deal with him for as long as she was pretending to be Angel. Then she would never see him again and life would go back to normal. Well, not completely normal.

Lily hoped to have some sort of relationship with her twin after all this was said and done. At the very least she should be grateful for her help in keeping her title active, right?

Then again, if she screwed this up Angel would hate her before they even met. Messing things up tomorrow was not an option both for the sake of any potential relationship with her sister and so she wouldn't get sued.

The hospital meet and greet wasn't until 3 PM but accounting for potential traffic, arriving early, and needing to get her wardrobe done Mark picked her up from school after she finished eating lunch with Randi.

A stylist was already waiting for her at Eddie's house when they arrived. "Look at this diamond in the rough. I see real potential in you! You have to lose the glasses though. They block off your beautiful eyes."

Lily barely held back her rage being talked to like this. She was trying to look like Angel, who didn't wear glasses in public. Mark had gone out and somehow managed to find her exact prescription for contacts this morning.

She had always hated them because she got dry eyes really easily. The six months she tried wearing them in middle school were awful. Drowning herself in eye drops did absolutely nothing so she decided they weren't worth it.

The only reason she tried them in the first place was because she wanted to be able to play sports more easily. Back then she was on a different school team every season. Her seizures were relatively infrequent at that point but her coaches were aware of what to do if she had one so it was as safe as an activity could be.

After stubbornly sticking with them longer than she should have, Lily acknowledged that contacts were not for her. She hadn't worn any since eighth grade and wasn't looking forward to doing it now. At least it would only be for a few hours at a time.