Free The Sea Taketh (Alex Singer) by Teresa Rae

him.
                  “I know, I just enjoy your unpleasant company,” he says with a smile as he opens the door for me.
                  Jackson is waiting for me outside the girls’ locker room. He scowls when he sees Christian with me. “If you need a ride, I will pick you up,” he says to me.
                  “The Pedersens live across the street. It just makes sense to ride with them,” I echo the argument Christian gave Gramps.
                  “You’re enjoying this too much!” he growls at the smiling Christian.             
    “Just doing my part to save the earth.” Christian shrugs serenely.
    Jackson stands on his tippy-toes and gets in his face. “If you so much as look at her the wrong way, I’ll make you sorry!”
    “Knock it off!” I glare at them both. “I don’t belong to either one of you!  Unlike other girls, I do NOT need a boyfriend!” I disappear into the locker room.
                  “Girl!” Jen is waiting at our lockers. “I’d be so mad at you for ditching me if you weren’t riding with the hot, Danish trio!”
                  “I’d rather ride with you. Gramps organized the carpool.” I pull off my sweats.
                  “Why do you have all the luck?” she teases.
                  “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
    *     *     *
    The rest of the week is the same; I ride to and from school with the Pedersens, swim, and study. Fortunately, the school makes room for the Pedersens in art class, and I no longer have to deal with Christian in gym class. Unfortunately the Pedersens are still in all my afternoon classes. I’m so busy trying to avoid Jackson and Christian that I almost forget about the photo shoot on Saturday until Jen passes me a bus ticket to Portland on Friday afternoon. I am grateful to have such a great friend, but the whole thing scares the snot out of me. I’m up most of the night worrying about my decision, but in the end there really isn’t one. Gramps needs his truck.
    At dawn, I shower and stare at myself in the mirror. I don’t see what everyone else does. I can’t begin to understand why someone would pay two thousand dollars to take pi ctures of me. Yeah, maybe my face is pretty, but I’ve always considered myself too gangly with my long arms and legs. Now with two enormous breasts, I’m gangly and top-heavy. I sigh and put on my lacy bra from Peggy. Think beautiful thoughts , I tell myself as I forge Gramps’ signature on the permission form.
    The bus ride is long, but I have plenty of reading to do. I hide underneath my hoodie and glasses, keeping to myself. I have to change buses a couple times but eventually find the right beach. I am directed to a large, white tent.
    “Colin, why do you have to be so difficult to work with?” a woman’s voice says. “This shoot was supposed to happen three weeks ago!”
    “I needed the perfect beach and face. The shoot couldn’t happen until I found them both.” I recognize Colin’s voice.
    “You have the most beautiful women in the world at your disposal, and you bring in a seventeen-year-old nobody?” She laughs condescendingly. “I’m not surprised. This is just the latest of a long list of nobodies you’ve involved. You know they always get cut from the final product.”
    “This one’s special,” Colin says.
    “You always say that.”
                  “No, I always say that they’re different. This one’s special. Trust me. I always make you look good.”
                  “If you were anyone else, I’d say you were crazy.” She sighs.
    Hypothesis #7 has been upgraded to Theory #4 – Modeling is mortifying.
    Observations – I’m unwanted at the shoot, except by Colin, and he’s arguably chemically unbalanced.
                  “Can I help you?” a man in a blinding yellow shirt asks