1. Chapter One
Chapter One
Sage
" I feel like you guys are just using me." I look around the room. "Am I being used right now?" I cross my arms playfully, and the girls let out a soft laugh.
"Please do mine," Royal starts, and I try not to laugh at how desperate she sounds about having me in her photo shoot.
Our annual contest officially started a few days ago when we all decided on our location and themes, but Vincent freaking Moore posted that he was excited to see what we came up with, and now the stakes have been raised. This just went from a friendly competition to a fight for our lives. That's not an exaggeration.
Vincent is the best designer and owns the biggest modeling agency in the world. He's located in Italy—hot accent, by the way—but he's having a show in LA for his new designs and has asked to have every Magic Model. A few of us passed out when we got the news, but he's also having a show in New York in a few months, and we all want in on it. Everything leading up to it is simply to impress him.
All of us work with Magic Model, and we're The Core Eight— we're who you think of when you think of Magic Model—and every year, we compete in this friendly photo shoot contest.
It started off when we had a horrible photo shoot, and after complaining to Florence, the CEO and founder of Magic, she told us not to be brats. One of us mentioned how we could've done better than the mess she had us in, and to be very fair, that was rude to say because Florence has never made us look bad. She just got scammed and booked with a bad photographer once . She was too prideful to admit it and told us we couldn't do better, so the competition started, and it's been how we start off the new year ever since.
We're not allowed to use anyone with a professional background in photography. All of our models have to either be baby models who are new to modeling or not models at all. But we get cool equipment to make up for it. Everything else has to be on us.
"You won last year. You don't need her!" Quinn brushes Royal off before handing me a chocolate cupcake. "Be in my photo shoot."
I tilt my head back with a laugh, and she nudges the sweet bribe closer to me. We're allowed to be in each other's photo shoots, and ever since Vincent made his post, they've been harassing me.
"I don't think either of you need me. You all are great–"
"Oh, shut up, Sage!" Coral throws herself onto the couch, lying lazily over Stel and Macey. "You can post a picture of your pinky and get a billion likes. You know the entire damn world loves you."
Royal agrees before snatching my cupcake away from Quinn. "Stop making us kiss your ass and just show your pretty face in our projects so we can get the views." She clearly is losing her patience, and I bite back a laugh.
I turn to the couch where my best friend sits on her phone.
"What do you think?" I ask Helena, and as if she can feel my eyes on her, she looks up at me.
"I think you're going to be in my photo shoot, of course, since you're my best friend."
They all start yelling about how that's not fair, and I can't stop laughing.
Nin quietly walks over to me, and I smile at how cute she is. "Can I talk to you?"
I fully turn to her, and she crouches down next to my seat to show me her phone. She shows me a few of her ideas for her photo shoot, and I love that she cares about my opinion. Every year, she consults me in great detail about what she should do, and it makes me feel like she's my little sister for some reason.
"I think the lake setting is better since there won't be as many waves as the beach, and you can get this vibe." I swipe through her reference pictures. "You can also make waves if you want this other vibe and control how they look."
She nods to herself before opening her notes app and writing something.
"Hey!"
I glance over at Stel, and she sits up in her seat.
"Are you helping her?" Stel quickly stands, and I bite my cheek before putting my hands up in mock surrender.
"Fucking traitor." Macey shakes her head at me, and I can't hold back my laugh anymore.
"We're allowed to help each other!"
They go on about how I always help Nin specifically, and when I turn to her, her cheeks are slightly flushed. I silently nod for her to not worry about it and she sits next to me quietly.
"Okay," I turn back to the girls, and it's clear I have their undivided attention. "I'll work with whoever is most convenient. I love you all, and you know I'll bend backward for you, but I need to give my photo shoot most of my attention."
I agree to help Helena since her's is in our hometown in LA. Royal voices how her's is in Chicago, and since it's technically close to New York, where my photo shoot is, I agree.
I originally wanted to do mine in LA since my theme is sports. I had the idea of working with my brothers since they play for the LA Dodgers, but Helena snagged LA, and we can't work in the same cities, so I'm settling for the Yankees instead.
"Mine is in Vegas, but if you just fly from LA after Lena's, you can do mine."
I think of Quinn's words, and it's not ideal, but since she did ask first and offered me a cupcake, I agree.
My alarm goes off before any of them can continue to convince me to join them. "Okay, I need to–"
"Wait! Hear my idea first!" Stel rises from her seat with Macey close behind her.
"I need to get to work, the boys–"
"It'll take two seconds."
I let out a soft laugh as she follows after me. She rambles her idea, and it's honestly really good.
"Damn, why didn't I think of that?"
"So, will you be in it?"
I agree only because I think she has the potential to win, and if my face being in it will give her the views they all think it will, I'll do it.
The rest of the girls trickle out of my room, and I still can't believe they flew all the way to New York to persuade me of this.
"You know," I turn on my heels. "Since I'm in your guy's photo shoot and since you're already here, you may as well help me today." I smile over at them, and they all agree.
We order two cars to get us there and make it to the studio pretty fast. A few tinted cars are parked outside, and considering they're all cars from luxury brands, it's safe to say the baseball boys are here.
My eyes land on a motorcycle as I step out of the car, and I nod to myself at their taste. I don't know much about bikes, but my brother has one, and I'm sure he'd kill to ride this.
Their loud voices fill the studio as I walk up the stairs, and I silently pray that they aren't insanely immature because we need to get some work done.
Their team agent agreed to work with me fairly easily. The few who are in my shoot are all getting paid, of course, but I also agreed to do the team's preseason pictures free of charge.
I still wish I could've done this with the Dodgers since, again, my brothers could've been in it, but also because I love their teammates. I decided to stop sulking about not being able to work with them and put on a smile.
We quickly have the boys' attention as we walk in. A few of them go completely still, and a few others whistle at us. I take note of the ones who whistle and make sure to steer clear of them.
"Hello, I'm–"
"I don't think we need the introduction." A surprisingly tall boy walks over before taking my hand and kissing the back of it. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Sage Loana."
I smile up at him before pulling my hand away slowly. "Thank you," I glance at the group. "I have a list of names, but we should still go around and introduce ourselves—oh! Also, share one thing that starts with the letter of your name; it'll help me remember names."
I walk over to the center and the girls stay in the back, waiting for instructions. My group of baby models voice all of their names, and I laugh softly when they thank me immensely for choosing them to work with me.
I check off their names as they share them, nodding to myself when I see all of them are here. The boys introduce themselves next, and I notice we're missing one of them. I glance around the room and see a guy sitting in the corner on his phone. I almost think he isn't in the group, but I ask anyway.
"Liam?"
He looks up slowly, and with the way he looks at me, you'd think I just asked him to leave… although with how miserable he looks, maybe he'd prefer if I asked him to leave.
"Are you Liam Walker?" I asked since he didn't really answer me.
"Yes."
I glance around the room to see what his problem is, but no one voices anything, and when I look back at him, he's on his phone again.
"Okay, thank you so much for sharing, Liam. That was my favorite one yet!" I smile over at him, and he drags his eyes over to me again and just watches me. I think he's going to tell me to fuck off, but he only looks back at his phone.
"Don't mind him," Amir, the one who kissed my hand, starts. "It's that time of the month," he whispers loud enough for us all to hear.
I let out a soft laugh, along with the rest of the room, and when I look back over at Liam, it was as if he didn't even hear him. I feel a bit bad that everyone is literally laughing at him, so I tell the group to get to know each other as I walk over to him, and the boys waste no time getting friendly with the girls.
"Hey," I sit next to Liam, and he glances up at me for a second before looking back at his phone. "Are you okay?"
I notice a small crease growing in his brows, and he looks up at me again. He studies me for a beat before his glare is back. "Yes."
"Oh…" I lean back a bit, trying to decipher the mood he's in. "You seem upset."
He studies me again before turning his head to the side. "Is this on your agenda?" He gestures to my iPad. "Interrogate everyone?"
I let out a laugh but cover my smile with my iPad when his glare somehow hardens. "I don't think I'm interrogating you." I uncover my smile. "But since you feel so harassed, I'll leave you alone."
"Great." He looks back at his phone, and I shrug him off before I return to the group. Whatever. I'm not going to let his mood ruin mine, nor am I going to hold it against him. If he's having a bad day, I'll let him have a bad day.
I scroll through my notes for today before getting the box out with the outfits, and when everyone tries them on, I feel my excitement building. The girls have custom jackets with the jersey number and name of their corresponding partner. I designed the jackets so they're way cuter than regular varsity jackets, and it's clear the girls love them, or at least the boy they were partnered up with.
"Okay, let's get started!" My excitement starts to grow as I tell everyone today's agenda.