Chapter 36 _ Te Lo Has Ganado
The day of the competition had finally arrived. Juliana was nervous; as were most of the contestants. There were three hundred entires in total but only 50 made it into the actual show. The competition was broken up into two segments. The first was a secret session where the judges would get to view all the pieces as they looked on the mannequin. The second would be the runway show.
The night before the runway show the contestants were to deliver their pieces and set them up on mannequins to prevent them from getting wrinkled. What they didn’t know was that they each had a judge helping them set up their piece.
The students were divided in groups of ten. The first group arrived and Penelope was among them. She was helped by the magazine editor who would be featuring the winning pieces. Josie arrived in the third group and was aided by Lucia who had been asked to be judge by Renata. Juliana arrived in the fifth and last group and had her favorite professor help her, Mr. Contreras.
Once the students had all come and gone, Valentina was summoned by Renata to photograph every piece. Valentina was to print ten copies of each piece for the judges for the following morning. Valentina didn’t get much of a chance to spend time with Juliana on the eve of the competition or the morning of. She did a quick edit of all the images the night before and printed and filed every one with Hope’s help. She and Hope were enamored by each piece.
The competition was to begin at noon. For this occasion Valentina had recommended her friend Jerome to Renata to photograph the event as she would be Juliana’s model.
At 10:00am, Hope Valentina met up with Juliana and the rest of the girls at the loft as planned. Lizzie was to be Josie’s model and Penelope had chosen one of her mothers to be her model. The girls had decided to all get ready together. Penelope’s mothers were there as well since Penelope would be doing her mom’s hair and makeup. Kim, Penelope’s model had fallen in love with the loft and the view from the living room.
“Love of my soul, what do think Zach would say of the view?” Kim asked her wife in a joking yet curious manner.
Trini smiled at her wife adoringly and proceeded to say, “He would say that I’m the luckiest woman alive.”
While all the girls awed, Penelope laughed as Kim blushed and told Trini she meant the view from the window.
Everything was laughter and joy until Valentina received a call from Renata. A call that would change the mood in the entire room. Renata called to inform the girls that there had been an incident with their pieces and they had to make their way to the auditorium as soon as possible to salvage what they could. They still had an hour before the show began.
Juliana’s piece was the first in sight. It had been cut up and there was no way it could be salvaged. The second piece was Josie’s, the white organza fabric had paint splatters in hues of blue. Penelope’s piece was next and it had been cut in half vertically.
The girls dried their tears and got to work. They would save their pieces no matter what it took. The other three contestants affected were not as optimistic and decided to drop from the competition all together.
Valentina drove Juliana home in silence, simply holding her hand. Juliana had been working on three pieces for the show and that narrowed it down to the one that was now ruined. Once inside her apartment Juliana walked to her studio with Valentina in tow. She had been silent since the incident and Valentina knew she could burst any minute now.
“I know who did it.” Was all Juliana said as she packed up the new piece leaving Valentina dumbfounded.
“What do you mean? Who did it? Why didn’t you say anything to Renata?” Valentina asked in an urgent tone.
Juliana finally able to look up at Valentina, tears filling her eyes as an expression of anger took over her beautiful features, said, “Juan Carlos. He was in my delivery group. He walked around eyeing everyone’s pieces and I didn’t like the way he was looking at mine. He had an expression of anger that he quickly masked when he noticed me watching him, but obviously I have no proof it was him.”
“You might not but the cameras had to pick up something, anything. I’ll give Renata a call. Valentina pulled out her phone and dialed Renata’s number telling her what Juliana had said.
Renata informed her that they were already going through the camera feed. While on the phone they too came upon the culprit and confirmed Juliana’s theory.
The couple made their way back to the auditorium and upon arrival they saw people already in line ready to take their seats.
Once inside they made their way to Juliana’s cubical to get Valentina ready. The taller girl now wore a beautiful tan ball gown. The dress had fuchsia rose vines running up the right side and making a loop around the waist of the dress and going up the left side to wrap around the neck.
Two cubicles down Penelope was finishing up her piece. She had made a black business suit with a blood red edging along the bottom of the suit jacket and sleeves as well as the bottom of the suit pants. The suit would be accompanied with a white high-neck ruffled blouse. To fix her suit jacket Penelope decided to add buttons along the back where it was cut, in order to add a blood red corset lace. Her mothers were incredibly proud of her quick thinking and ability to work with what she had. The pants were reattached seamlessly and still fit Kim perfectly. Once Kim was all dressed up and ready Trini could not take her eyes off her wife leading their daughter to make a gagging noise to show her fake disgust.
Josie and Lizzie on the other hand had it much easier than Penelope and Juliana. Josie’s dress already had blue in the original design. Similarly to Juliana’s design it had flowers and branches but flowing down from the high-neck. The paint splatters were fixed by Josie, Lizzie, and Hope. They got to work as soon as Juliana and Valentina left to pick up her piece. The girls painted blue roses where the paint had landed. They ended up making 30 roses of different sizes all around the dress. Hope helped Josie get Lizzie in the white and blue dress which made Lizzie’s red lipstick pop. She had her hair in an updo with a tiara. She looked like royalty and Hope knew then and there that Lizzie would look beautiful on their wedding day, one day.
Meanwhile Renata and the judges were taking matters into their own hands in regard to Juan Carlos. Renata and Ricardo pulled him aside to talk, security not far away. They told him he was disqualified and expelled from RIC for playing dirty and to leave without making a scene. They warned him the contestants he interfered with could and should press charges for destruction of intellectual property. Juan Carlos tried to argue that they couldn’t expel him, that he had too much to lose and it was just a prank. He began shouting that it was unfair of them to expel him for a harmless prank. Juliana as well as the other contestants could hear the commotion and she couldn’t help herself. She grabbed her destroyed entry and walked towards him.
“This is harmless? This?” Juliana spout angrily, “This is destruction of property. This was done to keep me from competing. This was done to make sure I had no chance of winning. This was one of six you tampered with. This was my semester’s work. This is not a joke or a prank. This is evil. And I don’t care what you have to lose, you should’ve thought about that before you tried to play God with this competition. It was jus that, a school competition. What kind of petty bastard do you have to be to do what you did? I hope you learn from this and change your ways because life does not have mercy with people like you.”
Juan Carlos was left speechless as Juliana walked away having said what she needed to say and the rest of the people backstage clapped. Thankfully the DJ made sure the music was blasting loud enough that the crowd was not aware of what was occurring. Not long after, Juan Carlos was escorted off the premises by security.
The judges made their way to their seats while Renata went to check on Juliana. She found her in her cubical with Valentina talking to her calmly as she held her. At the sight of Renata and her open arms Juliana got up and hugged her. She thought Renata would scold her but instead she told Juliana that she couldn’t have said it better herself.
Soon after, the models were called to the line and Juliana was amazed with Penelope’s and Josie’s creativity. The designers made their way to their seats once they made sure their models were ready for the runway.
“Ladies and gentlemen, due to unforeseen circumstances 4 of our contestants are unable to participate in today’s runway but the judges did have the opportunity to see their pieces last night and will be including 3 of them in their judgement.” Renata told the audience with a bright smile. “And now, let the show begin!”
Guillermo was in charge of saying the names of the designers and the models as they walked the runway.
Juliana, Penelope, and Josie were seated together and were each holding hands, hoping their last minute changes were well accepted. Their nerves were calming down as the show went on and they began enjoying themselves. They loved being able to see the pieces their peers designed.
As the judges tallied up their points the models were told to return to the stage in order of how they walked out. The judges then asked 5 of the models to step forward 3 of which included Valentina, Kim, and Lizzie.
“Every piece was a work of art. Each and every one of you put all your effort into your design and for that you should all be proud, you did a fantastic job. These five designs stood out the most but every single one of you, who participated should be proud.” Lucia said on behalf of the judges. “I know this competition is supposed to have 3 winners but we wanted to honor the other 2 pieces. On behalf of the judges and with permission of the owner and director of this school, I’m honored to offer you a scholarship for the remainder of your studies at RIC.”
Everyone in the audience gasped and were excited at the news.
“Now without further ado, I have the name of the winners in my hands. First place goes to Ms. Josie Saltzman for such a creative rescue to her piece. With very little time left she able to turn a beautiful gown into a work of art. The roses were a late addition after the unfortunate incident of earlier.” The audience clapped for Josie as Lucia paused for a second. “Second place goes to the brilliant Penelope Park. She too was under tremendous pressure after having her design tampered with but overcame that obstacle with tremendous grace and added the beautiful lace going down the middle.” At that Kim spun slowly so the audience could get a better look at her daughter’s work.
“And lastly it is with great joy that I announce 3rd place, Juliana Valdes, who went above and beyond with her submission. Unfortunately she too was an undeserving victim of the sabotage. She lost her original piece completely as it was ripped to shreds but being the over achiever we all know her to be, she had not one but two back up pieces.” Lucia said with pride in her voice.
Once the group made their way back to the loft with their family to celebrate, Juliana was taken aside by Lucia and handed a glass of champagne. Lucia praised her work and told her that even though the first was ruined the judges had unanimously decided that had it not been for the incident with Juan Carlos and Josie and Penelope’s creativity in such a devastating situation, she would’ve received first place and as such she too was being offered a scholarship for the remainder of her time at RIC.
“I’m honored but why? Who’s funding it?” Juliana asked skeptical crossing her arms as if hugging herself. She didn’t want her life handed to her on silver platter.
Lucia knowing very well that Juliana wouldn’t accept el Grupo Carvajal to sponsor her studies and that she wanted to know it was by her own merit not who she was associated with told her the truth. “The magazine editor, Iliana Castro, said her boss was very impressed with your work. She was in he audience. She asked Renata to show her your portfolio after the show and took it upon herself to sponsor your entire scholarship. At that Renata and I offered to help with half but she wouldn’t have any of it. She wants to meet with you later this week to discuss it.” Lucia said putting her hand around Juliana’s arms. “It’s the least you deserve. You have the talent, the vision. I know you’ll get as far as you want with this. Take every opportunity you think will help advance your future, Juliana. I know you work very hard to pay for your schooling and I admire that but take this as a win. You’ve earned it.”
Juliana was rendered speechless. She had no words to express how she felt. She could only hug Lucia. Looking over Lucia’s shoulder she saw Valentina and Renata watching them from afar. Being filled in on the scholarship, Val had an arm over her very pregnant sister in law’s shoulder smiling widely at her girlfriend.
The party ran well into the night and Juliana spent the evening glowing with pride. Proud of herself and her best friends. Things could’ve been much worse and yet they had prevailed against all the odds.