44. Ch 44- Taking To The Runway

(A/N: full disclaimer. I know nothing about fashion, so I could be talking out of my arse a bit here. Still, thanks for reading, and enjoy!)

The door to the backstage area opened once more, the high school Rosato girl being the one to enter this time with her younger sister behind her. She took a deep breath, familiarising herself with the mix of scents that came from the different hair products, perfumes, aftershaves and other assorted beauty products. "Ah… that's the scent I wanna walk into," she commented, making the younger Rosato raise an eyebrow.

"It is? Honestly, this is making me a little nauseous," she argued.

Jen simply smirked at her, teasingly patting her on the head. "That's because you're a newbie. I've been doing this for a while now, and if I'm not met with this scent, then I don't feel confident, because it means they aren't ready."

Jordan simply gave a shake of her head. "If you say so…"

Jen noticed that tone in her voice. "Feeling nervous?" Timidly, her little sister gave a nod, using her free arm to rub the back of the arm that held the bag containing her outfit. "Don't worry, you're gonna do great. I've seen you practicing, you've got this."

"You think?" Jen nodded, making her feel a little better. "I hope so. Still, I guess I'll feel a bit better seeing once I see Lincoln and Leni."

"Well, then, let's go find them. Leni texted me to say they got here a few minutes ago, so they're here somewhere." With a nod, Jordan followed after Jen, making sure to stick close as they made their way through the sea of mostly high schoolers- some were stood chatting amongst themselves, some were having adjustments add to their outfits or getting make up done, but most of them paid no mind to Jen and Jordan, with the former receiving the occasional "hey" or "what's up" that she would return in kind. After about thirty seconds, though, they eventually found the fashionista of the Loud family, who was currently stood next to a seat, which was occupied by a tan skinned girl with long black hair, dressed in a white blouse with grey jeggings and a lavender chiffon scarf tied around her neck. "Leni!"

Looking over her shoulder, Leni smiled at the new arrivals. "Jen! Jordan! You made it!" She excitedly greeted.

"Yeah, we would've been here sooner, but there was traffic," Jen explained.

"Ugh, I know, right? Me and Linky only just got here a few minutes ago, it was so bad." She then turned to the smaller girl, who was visibly less enthused than the two high schoolers. "Thank you so much again for doing this, Jordan. We really appreciate this, and I think you're going to look totes adorable up there."

Leni's infectious attitude gave Jordan no choice but to smile. "Forget about it. I don't mind, really. So, where should I get changed?"

"One sec." Turning around, she cupped a hand around her mouth and called out, "Fiona! Where are you?"

"Just a second, Leni," they heard someone call back, and a moment later, they saw a brunette wearing a pink and magenta striped sweater, light blue jeans rolled up at the ankles, dark gray shoes and a yellow neckerchief make her way through crowd. "What do you need?"

"Jordan, this is Fiona. I work with her at the mall." After the elementary schooler gave a small wave, Leni turned to the brunette and asked her, "Fiona, could you show Jordan where to get changed for me, please?"

"Sure. Let's go, Jordan."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Jen assured the girl. "Come find me when you're ready, okay?" Giving a nod, Jordan followed after Fiona as she led her away, leaving her older sister and her friend behind. "So, you brought the line-up sheet, right?"

"Uh huh," Leni replied, grabbing a sheet of paper off of the table and handing it to her friend. "I made one teensy change last night, but we can change it back if necessary."

Jen checked over the list, eventually finding the change that she was referring to, before shaking her head. "No, it works like that, actually. Nice thinking." Leni beamed at the compliment, making her friend give a light chuckle. "So, I'm gonna get changed ten minutes before the show starts. What about you?"

"I think I'm gonna do the same. Make sure everyone else is ready before I am, check there aren't any-"

"Um, Leni?"

Blinking for a second, Leni turned around and gave a sheepish smile. "Oops. Sorry, Jackie, kind of got distracted."

"It's fine," the tan skinned girl told her. "We're almost done, though, right?"

"Totally. Just a few touches, and you'll be catwalk ready."

Whilst Leni has returned her attention to her friend, Jordan had found her way into a changing booth, and took little time getting changed into her runway outfit. Once she had finished putting on her black ballet pumps, she reached into her bag and put on the last part of her ensemble- the dark blue scarf that Lincoln had bought her for her birthday. Jen had initially questioned why Jordan wanted to wear that with the outfit, but Jordan didn't care, and as she looked at herself in the available mirror, she was glad she chose to. The darker blue of her scarf worked well with the ocean blue of her tunic shirt, which hung just below the top of her black leggings. She couldn't help but give a slight twirl as she saw her reflection, loving how the outfit looked on her.

'I might actually have to start wearing this,' she thought. 'Even if that means I don't hear the end of it from Jen, I think this looks good.' She scooped up the rest of her clothes and placed them in the bag, then walked out of the changing room. When she saw that Fiona had gone, however, she felt a bit overwhelmed by the mass of people in the room, making her gulp. 'Okay… no need to panic, just gotta find Jen.' Taking a deep breath, she started to make her through the crowd, though the fact that she was younger and smaller than most of the high schoolers in the room meant that most of them didn't see her, so she would get bumped into a fair bit. She tried her best to apologise and get through, but it was getting to her a bit. Just as she was feeling like screaming just to be seen, she tripped over someone's foot and went stumbling forward, only to feel someone grab her by the arms to hold her up. "Sorry, I-"

"Jordan, it's me." Looking up, she saw that her 'saviour' was none other than Lincoln. "Are you okay?"

Initially caught off guard, she stammered a little, her cheeks heating up slightly. "Uh, y-yeah, thanks. Sorry about that, I was-" Pausing herself, she smirked a little as she noticed something. "Are you wearing eyeliner?"

It was Lincoln's turn to blush a bit. "Uh, y-yeah. Leni's friend Miguel, he said it would work… f-for the photographers."

She gave a small giggle at his response. "Don't worry, I'm just teasing. I know Jen's gonna want me to put makeup on too, though I don't really mind."

"Here, let's get away from the crowd for a moment." He led her towards the edge of the room, where things were a bit less hectic, and they were able to sit down in a couple of spare chairs. "So… are you… looking forward to this?"

"Honestly? Not much, but it's too late to go back now, I guess."

"Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. Still, if it's for Leni, then I don't mind helping her. Plus… I feel a bit better knowing you're here too."

Her lips curled upward upon hearing this, unconsciously raising a hand to her chest. "Aww… thanks, Lincoln. I'm glad that you're here too." His cheeks lit up again, making her giggle, and as she did so, she took notice of what he was wearing, and her cheeks went a bit red again. "I've got to say, you look… pretty good in that outfit."

If Lincoln's cheeks weren't red before, then they were now. "Th-thanks, Jordan." He then took a moment to look at his friend's attire, and grew shy, looking away slightly while scratching his cheek with his index finger. "I think… you look… v-very pretty like that."

Her cheeks grew redder, though not quite as red as his were. "Th-thank you…" Neither said anything for a moment, until Jordan remembered that Jen was waiting for her to see that she was ready. She looked around the room for a moment, trying to spot her sister, before looking back to Lincoln when she wasn't able to find her. "Hey, Lincoln? I don't suppose you know where Jen is, do you? I tried looking for her before, but… I kind of got overwhelmed by the crowd."

He was able to sense a bit of tension in her voice when she said this. "Uh, I haven't seen her, but I think she's with Leni. Do you want me to help you find her?" She nodded. "Okay. Well, um… here."

He held out his hand to her, and she looked at it for a couple of seconds before grasping it with her own, following the white haired boy through the crowd of people. Though there were still a few high schoolers who didn't notice them and bumped into them, Lincoln and Jordan were able to get through more easily, though they still couldn't find their sisters. As they were searching, however, Lincoln found someone he recognised as one of Leni's friends- a girl with auburn hair, blue eyes and freckles, wearing a light blue shirt under an open purple cardigan, blue jeans, white slip on shoes and a pearl necklace.

"Excuse me," he spoke, getting her attention.

She turned to the boy and gave a big, beaming smile. "Hey! You're Leni's brother, right?" She greeted. "I heard you were modelling for Leni today. She's pretty much been gushing about how cute you were going to look, and she was right!"

Lincoln's cheeks, which had lost their blush a little bit, flared up once again, not helped by the gentle laughter of the girl still holding his hand. "Y-yeah, that's me. Um, do you know where my sister is? It's kind of hard to find her in here."

"Oh, yeah, she's at the makeup table. Follow me." He looked over his shoulder at Jordan, and told her "let's go" before they followed after the high schooler, who managed to clear a path for them to walk through without bumping into anyone. When they reached the makeup table, Lincoln was able to see his sister. "Leni! Your little brother is looking for you!"

Leni turned around and saw them, smiling as always. "Thanks, Jessie!" She told her friend before she walked off, allowing the two elementary schoolers to approach the sixteen-year-old Loud girl. "Hey, you found Jordan! One sec, okay?" She turned around and yelled out, "Jen! She's here!"

"Coming!" They heard Jen yell back, before seeing the older Rosato girl emerge a few seconds later. "Jordan, I thought you were going to come straight to me once you got dressed?"

"Sorry, Jen," she apologised, looking down. "I kind of got lost in the crowd."

Jen felt slightly guilty at this, so she placed a hand on her sister's shoulder and told her, "hey, it's my fault. I should've been keeping an eye on you. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's good." Giving her sister a look up and down, she smiled. "You know what? You were right, that scarf really does go with the outfit." This made her little sister perk up a bit, which made Jen smile more. "There we go. Okay, so the show's gonna start in about fifteen minutes. I'm gonna get changed, and when I get back, I'll sort your makeup for you. Just stay here with Lincoln, okay?"

"Okay." After her sister gave her a quick hug before walking away, Jordan turned to Lincoln again and told him, "guess this is it."

"Don't worry, you're going to be fine. You've got this."

"I hope so…" A smirk graced her lips as a chuckle escaped them. "Still, if anything goes wrong, I can just blame it on your coaching." The boy let out a chuckle, and for whatever reason, hearing this made her feel better about what was going to happen. 'Maybe this won't be so bad.'

Eventually, the main lights in the convention centre went down, and the spotlights lit up the catwalk, where a woman with long brown hair and glasses in a maroon shirt, grey skirt with black leggings and black shoes was stood with a microphone in her hand. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this year's Royal Woods High autumn charity fashion show! On behalf of the students here, I wish to thank you for coming. Our students have been working hard over the last few weeks to design and manufacture all of the outfits you will see today, and not to raise expectations, but I couldn't be happier with how they turned out, so let's give all of them a big round of applause to start things off." The audience complied, clapping their hands together for a good five seconds before the teacher spoke again. "Now, we have ten pairs of students who have been in charge of what you're going to see today, so let's start with the first pair. Please welcome to the catwalk, Leni Loud and Jeniffer Rosato!"

The crowd applauded once more as the two girls appeared through the curtain and walked onto the catwalk. Leni gave a twirl, showing off her sky blue v-neck handkerchief dress and peach sandals, while Jen simply gave a wave as she stood next to her friend, wearing a beige sweater, black palazzo pants with white stripes, and white wedge sneakers with white socks. Jen accepted the microphone from her teacher, then turned to face the crowd once more. "Hello, everyone!" She greeted to the crowd. "I'm Jen, and this is Leni."

"Hey, everyone!" Leni greeted as well, making Jen shake her head in amusement.

"So, we have a lot of designs to show you, and we want to start by thanking all of our models who were willing to show off what we came up with today."

"Of course, we couldn't let them have all the fun. What kind of designers would we be if we didn't wear some of our own creations? Take Jen, for instance." Jen then proceeded to strike a pose for the audience. "Jen is currently wearing a beige cashmere sweater, with black palazzo pants with white stripes, plus white wedge sneakers for that extra sway on the feet of the pants. A great outfit for November, whether you're walking through the streets filled with autumn leaves, or sat in a café with a pumpkin spice latte."

"Meanwhile, Leni here is wearing a lovely sky blue chiffon handkerchief dress with a round neck. Combined with her peach sandals, this is great for a party." Leni gave a small curtsy, showing off the flow of her dress. "But this is just the beginning, so without further ado, let's bring out our models!"

The crowd cheered a bit as Leni and Jen moved to the side of the curtain at the start of the runway. As a club hit with a medium-fast tempo beat began to play, Lincoln and Jordan watched on from backstage, where the teacher from before directed the models that Leni and Jen had hired, sending the first one onto the runway before using the list the two girls had provided her with to get the next person ready. While listening to his sister and her friend describe the models' attires as they appeared on the runway one-by-one, he looked and saw that Jordan was a bit nervous. "You okay?"

She looked at him and held her hand out flat, shaking it in a 'so-so' manner. "It's kind of scary now that I'm right by the curtain."

He did his best to comfort her, giving her a gentle smile and telling her, "don't worry. I'm right after you, so you've got my support. Just get the beat in your head and look straight ahead, and you'll be fine."

She gave him a bit of a smirk, then asked him, "how do you know just what to say?" He gave a shrug, making her give a quiet yet hearty laugh. "Thanks, Lincoln."

"Jordan!" The teacher announced, gaining their attention. "You're up next, followed by Lincoln."

She turned to Lincoln, saying "wish me luck", before walking up to the curtain. Taking a steady breath, she got the beat of the music in her head, and once the teacher gave the signal, she stepped through the curtain and began to walk the runway. She put everything Lincoln told her to practice- each step was in time with the music, heel to toe; her posture was straight and strong, with her arms hanging by her sides and her eyes looking straight ahead. She passed the previous model halfway along, and when she reached the end of the catwalk, she struck her pose, placing a hand on one hip and looking to the side, then turning on the ball of her foot five seconds later so she could show the other side of her outfit to the audience.

Another five seconds passed, and she began to walk back toward the curtain. As she saw Lincoln walking her way, however, she realised that her aim was slightly off and that she was going to bump into him, so she tried to readjust her path. However, her foot landed on the edge of the runway, which threw off her balance, and before she knew it, she was starting to fall, letting out a scream.

"JORDAN!" She heard people shout, and just as she thought she was gonna head straight into the floor, she felt an arm wrap around her waist while another hand grabbed her arm, preventing her fall. Her heart was pumping and the sudden shock of the fall had disoriented her, but a few seconds later, she looked up and saw the fear stricken face of Lincoln staring back at her, the boy's heart pumping just as fast as hers was. Neither knew what to do for a second or two, feeling frozen from the sudden fall, before Lincoln pulled Jordan upright, neither taking their eyes off of each other. Neither were aware that all eyes were on them, or that the music had stopped. They were still starting to calm down after what had just happened. "Are… are you okay?"

Though still in shock, she gave a small nod and said, "uh… yeah, I… I'm okay."

"Jordan!" They heard Jen call, both turning to see her rushing over to engulf her younger sister in a hug. "Are you okay? What happened? Don't scare me like that!"

"I'm… I'm sorry." She felt a couple of tears in her eyes as she hugged her sister back. "My foot just hit the edge of the runway, and… next thing I know…"

"It's okay. You don't have to be sorry, I'm just glad you're not hurt." She then looked over at the white haired boy. "Lincoln… thank you so much."

"Don't thank me," he insisted. "Honestly, I just acted."

"Your 'act' just saved my sister. Thank you so, so much." She then released her sister from the hug and looked at her once again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… though, I'm a bit shaken."

Jen nodded, fully understanding and not surprised by this in the least. Looking back to Lincoln, she asked him, "would you take her backstage? I've got a bottle of water on the makeup table."

He nodded, then allowed Jordan to wrap an arm around his so he could walk with her back towards the curtain. While they walked, Leni approached them, along with the teacher, who asked, "are you okay, miss?" Jordan nodded. "Alright. You two head to the back, and I'll check on you in a little bit."

"Thank you," Jordan quietly told her, before allowing Lincoln to lead her through the curtain, where more than a few of the other models were showing their concerns.

"Don't crowd her, please," Lincoln asked, giving thanks when they obliged and allowed them to pass through to the makeup table, where Lincoln sat her down. He then reached for the water bottle, which he handed to the girl. "Here you go."

"Thanks." She took a moment to drink from the bottle, feeling her heart rate settle as she sipped it down, then put the cap back on when she was done and put the bottle back on the table.

"Better?"

"Better," she told him with a nod, then looked him in the eye. "Lincoln… I really appreciate you saving me back there."

He rubbed the back of his head, replying with "I wouldn't say that I saved you."

"Well, I would." Before he could counter that again, she stood up and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, Lincoln."

Though surprised by the contact, his relief that she was okay warmed him to it, so he returned the hug in kind. "Any time, Jordan."