Chapter 18

A waving hand beckoning me attracted my attention to a side door off the main hall. Shirley Porter and the person I'd 'sussed' as being the undercover reporter had taken the Yorkshire girl aside, the green circle on her tag having marked her modelling class as being suspect. The reporter it turned out knew a lot more about the boyfriend and the teacher than did the girl, Sarah. The reporter's investigation had started out researching individual cases of drug pushing and abuse both physical and sexual but had uncovered what seemed to be a ring of men who by a mixture of grooming and blackmail were steering sometimes very young girls into prostitution.

The boyfriend and the teacher were heavily involved in the ring but had chosen the wrong girl this time! Once the reporter explained that she personally knew that the boyfriend had at least two other 'girlfriends'… well I got the impression his chances of ever fathering children had suddenly become significantly reduced. Not only that but Sarah announced that having only recently turned 16 years old the sex had occurred when she had been legally underage!

Sarah was smart though. She had come here at her own expense for a casting and, she informed us, was going to have it! Not only that but she was aware, telling us in no uncertain terms, that there was very little chance of the men being prosecuted let alone found guilty on her word alone and she might even be accused of racism as she happened to be white and they weren't.

"Besides," she concluded. "I am not a victim now and I refuse to be seen as a victim even if the law insists that I was then!"

Sarah, with my help, did a repair job on her face and the two of us went back to the queue at the interview table where we had started our chat. The camera was following and filming the two of us when Sarah turned directly to camera stating that what she was about to say they had her permission to broadcast and then she explained why there had been a break in filming; what she had been told; and, in the starkest of terms, what the boyfriend, the teacher and the teacher's 'cousin' had done when she was 15. Her final words? Slowly, calmly, but with icy venom dripping from every syllable…

"If they don't like me saying this on television let the bastards sue me." With her sounding like a sentencing high court judge it was difficult to accept that she was still only 16 for she was magnificent!

Sarah joined Jenny and I at the café for a much needed escape from the hothouse atmosphere and I found out that Jenny had been to 4 castings with the only overlap being the one my tattoo got me ejected from.

"You've got the same tattoo Jenny! We got them together!!"

Sarah thought it was a hoot as Jenny patiently instructed me in the art of covering tattoos and by the time we walked back into the hall we were 'The Three Musketeers' ready to face the selectors.

I'd assumed without thinking that 6 tables meant 6 jobs but I'd got it all wrong - this was an elimination process and 20 of us would go through to the next stage of one or more 'fashion shoots'. It seems that there is even more competition to be a fashion photographer than there is to be a model and those models that got through would be fodder for aspiring photographers! This time we would be paid a total of £150 for a session to cover travel, which would be fairly local to our homes, and up to 10 hours work on the day with several photographers.

No pot yet to be found at the end of the rainbow then, but I was human and didn't want to be eliminated as one-by-one 14 individuals were called forward as having an assignment and handed their individual details with the cameras filming their reactions. One of them Jenny pointed out, was Blanche the bitch from our class who I hadn't even noticed as being there.

There was a pause as Michael Wood picked up the microphone and asked "Are you nervous yet?"

Another girl was called forward, told 2 assignments and handed the details; another with 2 and it was Sarah!; yet another with 2 and she was me!!

It hardly registered as the next was given 3 assignments until I realised that Jenny was uncalled. Another with 3 and Jenny was squeezing my hand so tight…

Four assignment for Jenny! Cardiff's very own Kate Moss as we'd called her in college days, had 4 assignments, which was more than anyone else and I was so excited that I flung my arms around her her neck on her return to the fold.

A moment like that demanded a street party but of 6 billion people all but a hundred cared nothing for for our success so The Three Musketeers headed for the tube station and minutes later Jenny and I were waving goodbye to Sarah who we might never meet again.

Looking along the platform on our side I spotted Blanche standing by herself and looking very lonely. What can you do? Yes she's a snob yes, but she's our snob so I approached.

"Congratulations Blanche. I'm really pleased that you got an assignment."

"Like I'm going to believe that Mister 'Ladyboy' Williams!"