Read Online Modelland by Tyra Banks - Free Book Online

paying attention? Why didn’t you tell me I was out of position?”
    “I’m sorry!” Tookie cried, instantly regretting her daydreaming. “I promise it won’t happen again!”
    Her father stared at her for a moment, carefully examining her. A startled, disgusted expression flashed across his face, as if alight had flipped on inside his head. It was a look Tookie had seen before—but one he’d never explained.
    “Just go. For all of us,” he said, waving her away.
    Tookie’s feeling of being needed was replaced by an emptiness that now burned deep inside her. She resisted the urge to plead with her father and instead turned away and went back to bed.

6
S TUNNING , S TATUESQUE ,
S TROBOTRONIC S TARS WITH S TUPEFYING
S TRATOSPHERIC S TRUTS
    Now it’s time to dish about LaDorno, dahlings, the most desirable quadrant in all of Metopia. Sunny skies. Pleasant seventy-eight-degree temperatures at all times—except on the beaches, where it’s a wonderful eighty-five. Warm, sweet-smelling seawater. Low humidity, without a cloud for miles. And when you breathe in, you inhale only fresh, crisp, unpolluted air. You want to live in this place, right?
    You and the rest of the world, dahling
.
    See, bliss comes with a price in LaDorno: only the richest and most successful Metopians get to live there. But how do you qualify to reside in LaDorno? Well, the quadrant’s council puts you through a series of privacy-invading tests to prove your worth. Oh, they’ll scour your bank accounts, examining every purchase. They’ll interview your friends,your family, your employer, even the gentleman at the newspaper stand from whom you buy your
Moneyed Metopian
magazine every week. They’ll visit your house and check the labels on all your belongings. If they discover a knockoff handbag? Stamp—a big red DENIED on your LaDorno residency application. If they notice that your prized Pekingese doesn’t have the perfect pedigree? Stamp
—
DENIED .
    One thing to know, though, is that there is a sect of people that does not have to be subjected to LaDorno’s sadistic entrance challenges in order to be allowed to live within the quadrant’s guarded gates. And who might they be? I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, but let me clue you in: the names of these sacred souls begin with
I
and end with
-ella.
And guess what
.
    We’re just about to sneak a peek at a few of them
.
    7Seven of them, to be exact
.

    The following morning, Tookie slumped in the back of the family car as her mother pulled into a space at the Sapphire Esplanade, LaDorno’s premier mall. As she walked to the entrance with her mother and sister, Tookie was sure everyone was staring at the unusual De La Crème trio—one of them was a stunning blond girl who was so beautiful it was difficult to look at her for too long, another was a woman with a tanned-skinned, nubile body but the face of a pretty monster, and the third was a gangly girl with gargantuan hair and googly, mismatched eyes. Tookie often noticed how people stared at them, perhaps wondering whether they could possibly be related. It was as if, when her parents’ DNA replicated at conception, all the subpar, defective strands had fused together to make Tookie.
    The Esplanade contained every high-, medium-, andlow-fashion store imaginable, as well as a butterfly sanctuary and an entire wing dedicated to beauty products. Today it was brimming with shoppers, many of them dressed in T-DOD–themed gear. T-DOD posters covered every available surface. An enormous screen on an exterior wall showed Days of Discovery from years past, with thousands of girls walking frantically in LaDorno Square.
    “Come on,” Mrs. De La Crème said, dragging Myrracle and Tookie through a set of automatic doors. Tookie inhaled deeply. One of her favorite parts of the Esplanade was the smell: a jumble of
parfums
and
eaux de toilette
, fountain chlorine, and a variety of ethnic cuisines from the one hundred and six restaurants