Excerpts from A Sunday Night at the Stage: an inside look at a bikini contest. Photos and writing by Rebecca.
...Michelle is sitting on the corner of one of the beds in the hotel room and is still twisting her hair up then back down again before settling on half-way. Her mother, Annette, pokes her head through the doorway.
"Michelle, do you mind if I go?" her mom asks. In response, Michelle juts her chin out and pouts. Seeing this, Annette responds, "Oh, you do mind. I looked for Kevin...I would like to sit with somebody I know, at least."
"What am I supposed to do?" Michelle snaps. "Why don't you walk around and find something?"
Annette looks distressed and tells her daughter she is going to leave before the contest starts in the bar downstairs.
"She likes these things but I don't," Annette tells me out in the hallway while pulling on her jacket. "No, I'm not going to stay. It's too smoky for me and I need my voice for work tomorrow."
* * * * *
..."I'm bikinied out," announces Crystal back in the hotel room. Chalee joins in. "I'm hanging up my bikini, too. I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I'm too old. I know I'm only 20 but I'm at a point in my life where I want to do something else. Maybe modeling or something more...different."
