Variations Three Read Online Free

Variations Three
Book: Variations Three Read Online Free
Author: Sharon Lee
Tags: liad, sharon lee, korval, pinbeam books
Pages:
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swimsuit while the BeforeVid jounced
lasciviously over her head. She stopped at the edge of the ramp and
lifted her face to the audience.
    Dropping her hands to her side, she
simply--stood there.
    Silence, for the count of 12.
    Then, the crowd went wild.
    "WICK-ed," said Miss Maine, and pulled
nervously at her bathing suit top.
    The blonde quit the platform, stage
right.
    The crowd quieted, Miss Maine did her
mincing little dance--and it was Brandi’s turn.
    She went down the ramp like the music given
form, letting the "biological metronome," as her documentation
termed it, control motor function. For a short space of time, it
was if she breathed the music, rather than the conditioned air,
then she was at the end of the ramp, standing, relaxed and
pleasant, for inspection.
    The judges were five rows back. Brandi
sharpened her eyesight to "telescopic" and read the scorecards. It
was as she had feared: The blonde was leading by a mile.
    She smiled pleasantly at the audience and
moved off stage, breaking into a run as she hit the curtain. Time
to change into her gown and review her speech one more time.
    She might win yet.
    * * *
    "HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL," she said to
herself, much later, standing between Miss Maine and Miss
Massachusetts, her eyes on the back of the blonde’s shining head.
The judges had rated her speech unanimously excellent--10s, all the
way down the line, which left her neck-and-neck with the blonde.
There only remained "Overall Presentation," a category that was
judged in private.
    Oh, well, in sixty seconds they would know.
They would all know.
    "Harvard Business School," she said again
and the emcee called across the stage, "The envelope, please!"
    It arrived, large, creamy and tantalizing.
The emcee made as if to open it, dropped his hand and gazed
soulfully into the lenses of the hovering cameras.
    "I want to personally thank each and every
one of the special ladies here tonight. I want to thank them for
their perseverance, their charm--and their beauty! And I want to
remind them that, even though there can be only one big winner here
tonight, this is only a silly contest! In life, each and every one
of you is a winner!" He raised the envelope with a flourish.
    "And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting
for--ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Miss New-You
America 2025... Miss Louisiana!"
    The music swelled, the Old Queen glided
across the stage in her glittering gown and with her own fair hands
slipped the tiara from her hair and crowned the blonde. There was
the ritual hug, the formal, arm-in-arm waltz across the stage to
the throne and the mantle and the little girls with roses and
garlands of daisies.
    Brandi stood in place, between Miss Maine
and Miss Massachusetts and smiled at the vid cameras,
pleasantly.
    * * *
    IT WAS THE Fourth of July Fair in Avery,
Idaho.
    Brandi smiled pleasantly at the horse-faced
young woman before her. "That’s just 40 payments of $218,000
dollars each. Why, you’d spend that much going to college! And this
is something that will turn your life around--something that will
change your outlook and make you a happier person. Why, this model
here not only runs just fine on four hours’ sleep, but you can
choose to see things very far away and hear things sharper--just
think how handy that’ll be when you have children! And," she leaned
forward confidentially, though, really, very few of the marks cared
about this part, which was Jeffrey’s masterpiece; "it’s 100-percent
genetically guaranteed. If you have a little girl, she’ll look just
like--you!"
    Brandi tapped herself on the chest as she
leaned back, calling the girl’s attention to the round breasts,
pleasantly straining against the yellow T-shirt.
    The girl licked her lips; glanced at the
contract. "Well, I..." she looked over her shoulder, leaned across
the table. "This is a silly question, but, well--does it hurt?"
    Brandi looked straight into her eyes,
sincerely, pleasantly. "Not a
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