prevaricate

verb

1. speak or act in an evasive way.

After a long sleepless night and much stressing about my own dress for the show, Grandma Overmeyer came through for us the next morning, when her personal assistant arrived with three dress boxes for Eyva, Mum and I. The note that came with them read: "I took it upon myself to manage your dresses for the show. Please ask Tania, my assistant, if you require anything further. Jewellery and shoes match their respective dresses, please do not mix them up. My gift to you, my lovely girls. Grandma."

Beautiful dresses from designers like Jenny P, Valenti Couture and Monique Hill, all priced between five to ten thousand each, they were stunning.

"Go Grandma!" Eyva cooed as the dresses were unboxed carefully. "White for Mum, black for me, that leaves red for... You! My older sissy. Wow, I wonder what subtext there is in that little hot number for my hot Little Sissy?" Eyva threw my dress box at me, grabbed her own while I was trying not to drop the thousand dollar gift, then she ran away, laughing like crazy.

How could she tell the red dress was for me? Grandma had kindly glued sticky notes on the top of each box with our names on them. My dress was definitely the red one. I was a little worried about what her underlying message was to me as well. I sighed, too much to think about at the moment anyway.

"Mrs H, please can you place the white dress box on Mum's bed, please?" I called out as I took my own box to my room with the help of a maid.

Aider, one of the upstairs maids, helped me unbox my red dress and kindly hung it up for me. The dress was amazing, not overly expensive looking at all, but made from quality lace and tulle, with tiny glittering European crystal beads sewn into the lace. It was a typical sleeveless A line dress with a high laced neckline and had this cute little belt around the waist. Rubies embellished the belt latch. The boxed shoes and jewellery matched the square shaped ruby embellishment perfectly.

"It looks custom made." I breathed in wonder.

"It was, Ms Lily. Mrs Overmeyer Senior knows the designer personally. Please enjoy your day."

"OK, thank you, Aider." I murmured as the maid quietly left. I was still stunned by the beautiful dress.

A phone call knocked me out of my daydreaming and back to reality with only one day left until the show. So much to do and I got busy doing it.

Grant and Patricia arrived before lunch and we spent most of the day running around the venue and house sorting out many little things. The staff seemed to triple for the day of rehearsal, and the catering kitchen was chaotic as could be.

When the models arrived after lunch, I decided it was time for me to go out and join Ms Claire and her team sorting out the models and their attire for the night. I left the house and met up with the team of models arriving at the venue entrance under the umbrellas as a staff member showed them in. We all stood out of the sun, inside the newly built marquee, introduced ourselves and waited until the wonderful event manager arrived with her team. Ms Claire arrived via the house entrance, her two ladies following closely behind her and she winked at me before she began.

"All right ladies, we have a little under half a day until a full dress rehearsal at eight this evening. By that time you will be familiar with your make up and hair, dress changes, your cues and the cat walk. Safety first – I don't want anyone twisting an ankle, or heaven forbid, falling into the lake and drowning. So you will follow procedures, site safety protocols and keep to a professional standard in your role as a model for our clients. Any questions?" Ms Claire Godfrey was a professional at event management. Just by looking at her I could tell she'd managed a few fashion shows before, or at least worked under other's who had.

All ten models, tall, slim, gorgeous or pretty, nodded their heads with smiles on their faces. They looked pleased to be there and were enjoying the vibes of the estate and the venue set up. This would be a big gig for them, and if they place their roles well enough, it could boost their career into greater heights.

But it also meant that the competition was pretty wild as well. I couldn't feel any major underlying cattiness or hidden agendas from any of the models, but there was one girl, the tallest of the bunch, who looked down on me a little, both literally and figuratively. With my five foot five inches of height, it wasn't hard to look down on me like she did. When Ms Claire finished her introduction, she stepped aside to speak with her assistants.

"What is the short stuff doing here. Dose anyone know who she is? Which agency is she from?" The tall woman's snide remarks were light hearted, but I realised that her words were enough to have all ten girls looking over at me like I was some weird side freak show.

"I don't know? Maybe she was a last minute shoe-in?"

"Wanna bet she's modelling the children's line?" Someone else snarked and they all giggled under the breaths.

At this point in time, Ms Claire was actually pretending to sort some things out while all this cattiness was going on. It was actually something she suggested for the preliminary introductions so she could 'weed out the trash'. We had too many models as it was and she knows that there were always one or two girls who caused trouble at these kinds of events. She suggested I come in with the models and choose eight from among them to work with. I was happy to do that.

When the lady who first spoke up stepped over to me, she held out her hand and introduced herself. Or at least tried to.

"Hi, my name is Casey, I'm from Agency..."

"I don't care who you are." I said, rather rudely and crossed my arms. "You can go now. We wont be needing you this weekend."

"What?" She looked confused for a moment, then my words kicked in and she looked nasty.

"Casey, don't." Another girl held her back and stepped in front of her. "I'm sorry, if Casey or any of us have offended you, please forgive us, as we weren't introduced to you, nor were we made aware from which children's model agency you are from." Casey snigger from behind her and at this point I'd had enough.

I looked at the other models who were clearly broken up into two contrasting groups. One side, with two others girls behind this lady and Casey were obviously watching a busy Ms Claire while smirking or outright giggling rudely at me, with the other side with six girls who were frowning at Casey and her posse, keeping their mouths shut.

Eyva arrived at that point and most of the girls in the group knew her. Eyva, dressed in a pretty Chanel jersey skirt and crop top from their Coco Neige collection. Hot pink verses black, she looked really cute. She came prouncing out of the house and over to meet the models.

"Ms Eyva, how are you today?" "Hi Ms Eyva, you're looking well today."

"Ms Overmeyer, long time no see." "Lovely dress, Ms Overmeyer."

"Hey, how's it going..." She just about shot down my whole 'find the mean girls' gig when I shook my head and she changed direction and took the arms of one of the girls she knew – kinda – and asked how everyone was doing.

"We're all good, Ms Eyva. Just wondering who ordered the children's model?" The girl beside the taller Casey girl snarked and giggled. By this time it was obvious that I wasn't going to work with four of the girls.

I caught Ms Claire's eyes and pointed to the four girls and crossed my fingers, indicating that I didn't want to work with those four. I then pointed to Eyva and gave a thumbs up. I decided then and there that she was going to me my seventh female model, Sunny my eighth, if I could rope her in. Ms Claire nodded and called everyone's attention. I ignored everything else, pulled Eyva off some girl's arm and pulled her away to the edge the marquee for a chat while I sent Sunny Ishida a text message, asking her to come with Jackson to the venue after school. She replied shortly after with an "OK."

"What's up, Sis? What was that all about?" Eyva asked while we were far enough away from Ms Claire dismissing the unwanted models.

"Just cleaning out the trash. I've heard these events go better if the bitches are locked up away in their kennels." I murmured as the outspoken Casey started complaining about being fired already. We turned around to find the four girls who were horrible to me being moved away from the venue by the security guards. Once they had been dismissed, Ms Claire turned to the rest of the girls and pointed my direction.

"May I please introduce you all to the artist and designer of the Crystal Pear sleep and lounge wear and accessories, Ms Lily Twice. And you might also be familiar with Ms Eyva Overmeyer, her sister. Ms Lily, please meet our models for the show." She named each of the seven models, many of whom were embarrassed, red faced or intrigued. It sure was an interesting way to meet the high-end client and boss.

"Hi everyone, as Ms Godfrey has said, I'm the artist and designer for Crystal Pear. Thank you for your services this weekend, let's work well together." I gave them all my brightest smile and tried really hard not to smirk.