Thankfully, yes

"What do we have here?" the man said as Valerie approached. He appeared to be thinking. Valerie didn't dare say anything.

"The outfit screams trying too hard," said the woman. "My dear, did you really not have anything else in your closet to cover up a little bit?"

If only she knew, thought Valerie. She doubted they would believe them if she told the truth - she indeed didn't own any item of clothing whatsoever.

"She has the body to pull it off, though," interjected the man. "She'll be a crowd pleaser for sure."

The woman rolled her eyes, but sighed in agreement. "She'll definitely please a lot of the crowd. Fine, in you go."

Valerie practically collapsed in relief as they let her through to a small backstage area. There were five of them inside, including herself - three girls and two guys. She was the last one to be let through, as the judges soon followed and closed the door behind them.

"Okay, listen up," the woman instructed them. "We're going to go on stage and call you one by one. When you're called, you'll go on the stage through here-" she motioned to a curtain"-then walk on the runway back and forth once. You'll stop next to us, and we'll ask you a couple simple questions. Then you leave the stage, and the next one comes on. Understood?"

The five contestants nodded. It seemed simple enough.

"Once all of you are done, we'll call you all on stage. The audience will decide the winner, who will walk on the runway one more time before we hand them the prize. Now buckle up, we're about to start."

The judges left through the curtain on stage. Valerie heard the man's voice through the microphone as he warmed up the crowd, while the woman explained the contest to the audience. There was a wave of cheers as they called upon the first contestant.

It was one of the men, who was dressed in what appeared to be an authentic samurai outfit, complete with mask. He disappeared through the curtain. The other four peeked nervously through as they saw him walk on the ramp to several appreciative cheers. Once he finished his walk, the hosts asked him a couple of softball questions.

"Did you make this yourself?" the woman asked.

"Most of it, yes," he replied. "My sister helped me with the stitching, and my girlfriend painted the mask, but the rest I did by myself."

"Wonderful! Another cheer for Mr. Samurai!" said the man. That was the cue for him to go off stage while the audience cheered him.

The same process happened for the other four. Iris was the second to last to be called on stage. Valerie was in disbelief at seeing the normally shy girl confidently strut around near-naked on the runway. The audience let out a loud cheer once Iris turned around and her behind came into view, and she completed her walk with remarkable poise and assurance.

Valerie was so nervous she didn't even hear what the judges asked Iris. Time seemed to pass instantly as soon Iris was back next to her, and the judges were calling her on stage.

It was time.

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