June 2004

Asana Mohamad • Model Behavior

Fuseina and I discovered a cool store in the Sycamore Mall called The Fashion Bug Plus. While there one day, I saw a large poster advertising a Spring Fashion Show and calling for models. My eyes lit up.

"Umm… NO,” Fuseina said before I could say anything.

I grinned at her, and ten minutes later we were signed up. By Saturday, Fuseina had really warmed up to the idea of doing the show. She got up around 9 a.m., took a shower, washed her hair, sang annoyingly, and made cookies. Yes, cookies. She’s been trying for a while to get her cookies to be as great as Zee’s, and while they are starting to taste better, they still aren’t on the same level as Zee’s. I crawled out of bed around 11 a.m., quite grumpy (because it’s hard to sleep when someone is banging around in the kitchenette), and dragged myself to the shower. But by the time we headed out, I was also in a bouncy mood.

When we arrived at the Fashion Bug, we headed off to the back of the store to get dressed and have make-up put on. (Usually, we don’t wear it.) We quickly found the outfits we were going to wear and started to change into our outfits. Fuseina had chosen a blue watch as an accessory, but then she noticed that I hadn’t picked out anything.

"Asana?” she said.

"Hmm?” I was tying my shoelace, not really paying attention."Don’t you have anything to go with that?”

"With what?”

"Your clothes, didn’t you pick anything to accessorize with?”

"No.”

"You didn’t!” Fuseina’s eyes were wide with shock and disbelief, as if I’d just slept through a final or something. She quickly collected herself and said, “Well, that’s OK. I’ll ask and see if we can get something for you now.”

She had a glint in her eyes and I knew what it meant…she was going to fix me.
It turned out we couldn’t take any more items for use in the show. Frankly, I really didn’t care, but Fuseina seemed to. “Do you have a safety pin?” she asked.

I should have said no, but instead I nodded slowly.

"OK, turn around.”

I wondered what she was going to do. She couldn’t be planning to pin the clothes, because we didn’t own them. But she could very well be doing some last-minute body piercing. “Umm,” I asked cautiously, “what are you doing?”

"I’m making your necklace longer so it won’t be covered by your scarf.” Fuseina slipped the necklace clasps onto the safety pin, making it a sort of extra large link. But that still didn’t help.

"One minute,” Fuseina said triumphantly, “I have another safety pin.”

"Ok, hold still,” she said, as if performing major surgery on the back of my neck. “I just have to take this one off and…”

"OW!”

"What?”

"You stuck me!”

"Oops,” (shrug), “Sorry.”

In the end, the added length of the pins didn’t help, so Fuseina just shrugged again and said, “Oh well. You look… fine.”

Soon, the music started. Fuseina and I were near the back of the line so we watched nervously as the other models walked down the store between racks of clothes. Despite all her excitement, Fuseina has made sure that she’s walking after me.

We have to stop near the middle of the “runway” and turn, then turn again and pose at the front of the shop where a small crowd has gathered. So, I walk very nervously down the walkway. The first turn is fine, but I nearly fall over my feet on the next one.

Fuseina is right after me. She grins widely and gives me a high-five as we pass each other.

At the end of the day, we were both really glad we did the Fashion Show. It was fun, and such a far cry from school and work. And what better way is there to start Spring Break?