"Characters? Like the kind in your comic books?"

"They are not comics, they're graphic novels"she corrected. "But yes, sort of. Someday, I do hope to publish my own series, beside a ridiculous amount of scientific papers..."

"Oh, sorry. So do you see anything you like?"

"I specially like this one, its really flattering to the waist and accents the chest, just by the cut of the fabric..." she said, pointing to a particular shirt, one of the more revealing ones. "And it'd match so well with that skirt, its too cute... but of course it wouldn't suit me at all..."

"Odette has to run by somewhere before she comes over. You should try it on," Josiah suggested.

"No, no, it wouldn't look good o me at all... and i wouldnt want to get the clothes dirty... I'm not suited for this job... but...I'l prove it to you..."

Katherine took the clothes from the mannequins and went to a nearby bathroom to change. She came back looking like this.



----------

"see? It doesn't suit me at all..."

Josiah's eyes went wide. He circled around her once, looking her other and whistling softly. "Damn. You must be blind to mirrors. Odette has never been able to pull off that outfit just as well as you do."

"Dont tease me like that, I know I'm no good at this... and I couldn't wear this at all to the lab..."

"What does a lab have anything to do with it? You look awesome." Just then the front door slammed down below and a new voice called up the stairs. "Josiah! You there?" Odette shouted. He turned toward the door to answer. "Come up here quick Odette, you have to see this!" he called back.

A pair of heels clacked up the stairs and soon Odette appeared in the doorway.

"What's up..." Odette began before stopping dead in the doorway. "Who's this?" she asked, her voice a little skeptical. Josiah smiled and patted Katherine's shoulder. "Met her earlier in the mall bookstore. What do you think?" he asked. Odette set her bag down and walked over to stand in front of Katherine, looking her over.

"He keeps trying to push me into a modeling job" said Katherine. "I'm a designer, not a model. I look disastrous in this, tell him!"

Odette laughed and put an arm around Katherine shoulder, steering her away from Josiah and toward a tall, narrow mirror. "Take a look at yourself, tell me what you see wrong," she advised.

"My hair is horrible and badly textured, my skin is too oily, I have one boob bigger than the other, my knees and elbows are dry, my teeth arent white enough, I have horrible posture...What do you see that's right?"

(going to bed!)

"I see a nit-picker noticing a lot of things that can be fixed easily. And since when has any woman's chest been naturally symetrical? I know mine ain't. It's all in how you dress them up," Odette said with a grin. She turned back to Josiah. "Hey, why don't you get out that new red gown, the one that ended up too short for me," the blonde suggested. He nodded and went to a box to the left to rummage through it. Their was a lot of crinkling as he set aside one plastic wrapped dress after another.

"Oh, no, I'm not wearing anything that was too short for you!' said Katherine, going after Josiah, trying to stop him from looking. She was completely and incredibly embarrassed already, was this Odette girl trying to make it worse?

Josiah held out a hand to keep Katherine back. "Hey, settle down Katherine. We're just curious is all," Josiah explained. He stood with the dress in hand and slid it out of the plastic. It had halter top style string straps and a ruffled skirt. "I made this when I first started the class. The assignment was to take Marilyn Monroe's signature dress and put our own twist on it. Simple project, but it turned out alright." Josiah held the dress out to Katherine. "Go ahead and try it on. I'll even go downstairs and leave you with Odette if that makes you feel more comfortable," he offered.

"Yes, please!" She said, taking the dress from him. Now that she looked at it, it was quite the pretty dress. "Wow this was one of your starter projects? I wish my strater projects looked like this... Now out, out! I'll try this for your curiosity but no more!"

She was still unsure about Odette, but at least now it'll be only girls...

Josiah laughed at Katherine's insistence as he handed the dress to her. "Alright, tell me when you have it on though. I want to see it too." He then left to go down to the living room and wait. Odette sat down on the platform to watch her. "It might be a little tough to get into, so let me know if you need help. Josiah didn't know much about fabrics when he made it, so it turned out a little stiffer than he imagined."

Katherine removed her cloths, blushing, and tried to put on the dress. Odette was right, the fabric was quite stiff.

"Um... a little help here..? I think I'm a bit too fat for this..."

Odette got up and grabbed the hem of the skirt, pulling it down with a sharp tug over Katherine. "There you go, now straighten it out a bit more and go have a look."

Katherine tried to fix up the fabric, pulling it down. She looked in the mirror, actually blushing a bit.

"Is... is this really me...?"

Odette giggled. "I believe it is. Hey, Josiah, come have a look," she called down to him. He headed back up the stairs soon and walked over to Katherine, looking her over. "Very nice. Hey, mind if I take a picture?" he asked as he got out a tiny camera from his coat.

Katherine turned bright red when she saw that camera. "Um... does that mean you really want me.. to become your model... I don't have all that much free time you know..."

"Just one picture, I promise," Josiah assured her. "You don't have to come back and model if you don't want too."

"Well, fine! One picture! Then I can pretend this never happened, right...?"

Josiah shrugged. "You're choice," he replied. He then began taking a few shots of her, each one from a different angle. Odette stood out of the way, watching her expressionlessly as Josiah circled around her. Finally he straightened and gave Katherine a warm smile. "Thank you, and I'm glad we met. I'm sorry for any inconvenience. I really was interested in you, and I still would like your help in the project, even if you don't want to model."