Pretty Girls Don't Eat by Winnie Salamon

Author:Winnie Salamon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781925804027
Publisher: Ford Street Publishing

Chapter 19: Beauty Fades.

Dumb Is Forever

Melody loves Barkly Square, a suburban-style shopping centre with a giant Kmart and two supermarkets and cheapo shops selling homewares and clothes. She says it makes her feel at home because when she was small her mum would take her to Kmart and shoplift packets of stickers and hair accessories for Melody, along with make-up for herself. It was the most fun they ever had together.

We’d both had a long and boring day at school so we decided to head to Barkly Square for an after-school Japanese snack. I ordered sashimi, justifying the snack by promising myself to only eat a salad for dinner, and Melody had crispy chicken rolls.

‘Retail is exhausting,’ Melody said, talking about the job at Kmart she’d just started. ‘And the customers. Don’t get me started.’

‘Just wait till you’re a doctor and you have to look at old people’s ingrown toenails.’

‘Stop it!’ Melody said. ‘I’m eating. Besides, paediatricians work with children!’

Which is when a tall blonde woman wearing expensive Rag and Bone booties and a classic blazer approached us.

‘Hello,’ she said, looking at Melody. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but my name’s Jane and I work for Hotalious. It’s a modelling agency. I just haven’t been able to take my eyes off you. I think you’ve really got something.’

‘What type of modelling are you talking about?’ I asked, suspicious.

‘Here’s my card,’ Jane said to Melody, ignoring me completely. ‘Oh my God. Those cheekbones.’

Melody took the card, speechless.

‘Google me,’ Jane said. ‘You’ll see. Don’t wait too long.’

Jane sauntered off in the way only a supremely confident and busy person can pull off.

‘What the hell was that about?’ I said. ‘Modelling? You’re going to be a doctor!’

For many years I’d held onto the belief that a person was either smart or beautiful. It wasn’t fair to be both. I’d also held onto the belief that Judge Judy was right. Eventually, being smart would be the better option, her famous saying ‘Beauty fades. Dumb is forever’ reassuring me that I’d win out in the end. And yet, there I was. Sitting with my super smart and physically stunning BFF who had basically been told by a complete stranger that she was destined for an international modelling career. And not only did she eat crispy chicken rolls without gaining a single kilo, she was the smartest kid in school.

‘Where’s your phone?’ Melody said. ‘Mine’s flat. Google Jane Simpson, Hotalious.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘Come on,’ Melody said. ‘Just take a look.’

I’m not proud of this, but I was secretly hoping Hotalious was going to turn out to be one of those businesses that require young women to get their kit off for $50. Not the kind of place that represents famous runway and editorial models that it turned out to be.

‘Whoa,’ I said, so jealous I was having a hard time covering it up. ‘They’re huge. Melody, this is serious.’

Melody grabbed my phone.

‘Shit,’ she said. ‘What if I could put myself through medicine? It would have to be better than working at Kmart.

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