No. We don’t have a cat!“, Lali told me the next morning when I asked her about my nightly visitor. “Dad is allergic to cat hair. Maybe it was from another farm? There are some around here. A black cat shows up sometimes.”

“No… That one was…” It was kind of glowing. Was it a dream?  “Bright white?”

“White? I never saw a white cat around here. Maybe one of our neighbors has a new one? The other farms are all bigger. Ours is the smallest. But we don’t have cows or grow wheat, oilseed rape, corn… But Aunt Livia grows some vegetables. She doesn’t sell those though.  Are you taking pictures today too? Noelle?” She stood outside of my kitchen and looked inside through the open window. I made pancakes. Mom had brought everything I need to make them yesterday. She loved to go grocery shopping. But she was too well known in the city, to go herself. The staff, that worked at my parent’s home, did that. They did everything. Cleaning, cooking…

Lali watched me cooking with interest. “I would love to see it! Are you?”

“Well, yes. But not here”, I answered. “Mom wants to take pictures at a lake. It should be just an hour away from here. I will drive there after breakfast.”

“Your pancakes all burned!” Lali pointed at my pan. “You’re about to kill the next one, Nono!”

“Nono?” I looked at the pan, where the poor pancake started to look ugly. “Shit!” The next pancake turned out inedible.

“I get the feeling, that you have no idea how to cook.”

“This is hardly cooking!”, I grunted.

“True. And you overslept. We ate an hour ago.” Lali giggled.

“Love? I can’t eat at your place every day. I should cook for myself.”

“Not if you end up setting the apartment on fire!”

“Fire?” Phileas showed up next to Lali. She stuck out her tongue at him. He did the same. “Hi shorty!”

“Shorty?” Lali looked at me. “He said shorty.”

“Better than twerp.” I shrugged and drowned my black pancakes in sugar and syrup.

“I guess. Can I come along? To the lake?”, Lali asked me hopefully.

“You have homework to do, young lady”, Phileas reminded her snickering. “When do you plan to do those? Monday Morning? You haven’t even started them, right? Didn’t you say it was a lot?”

“Yes! It is!”, Luli grunted. “An essay, a full page of math… The horror!” She rolled her eyes and went away. “Have fun at the lake, Noelle! Bring me a souvenir!”

“Do I look like a millionaire?”, I called after her.

“Yes.” Phileas chuckled. “And you are one, right? Mom said your family is rich. You’re quite famous. And that with only nineteen.”

“And?” The pancakes tasted horrible. But the sugar was lovely. “Do you want to ask me to borrow you some money?” Usually, people wanted that when they started the ‘you’re rich’ – talk.

“What?” Phileas seemed shocked. “Of course not. Why? Do people ask you to lend them money?”

“All the time.” I had some bad friendships in high school. They just wanted the money and made fun of me behind my back. I learned my lesson.

“I can drive you to that lake”, he suddenly said, surprising me with it.

I raised my brows. “I have a car I can use. Remember?” It’s ugly and embarrassing, but it works.

“An old one that you dislike. Don’t think we all didn’t notice. We did! I have time. It’s the Sunlake, right? You’re driving there.”

I nodded. “Well, yes. But I can drive there. No problem.”

“If you’re sure.” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind. I need to buy some new jars for my Honey. I went out of them. The store is in that direction.”

“No market today?”, I asked. He did go to one the other day to sell his stuff.

“No. Not today.” He smiled at me. Heaven, he was handsome. “I can drive you.”

Not having to show up with the old tin can might be nice. I could already smell Helena making fun of me, should she see me. She wasn’t working today, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t show up. Such a pest! “Okay. Thank you.” Why are you handsome? And why are you nice right now? Can’t you be ugly? I know you dislike me!

“You’re welcome.” He looked at my last pancake. “I can show you how to make pancakes. You could even ask Lali. She is a great cook. Way better than me. And you definitely suck at it! Wow. I never saw that badly burned pancakes.”

“I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Of course. Well… The alpacas are hungry. See you in a bit!” And he finally left.

But not for long. Why did I agree to let him drive me? Arg! But I didn’t want to give Helena any reason to make fun of me. And she would! This girl was way more spoiled than me. And I was a spoilt brat, I knew that. And her family had more money. Mine was already ridiculously rich. I didn’t need to work. I did it out of fun. Like I said, I loved being a celebrity.

Like this, I ended up sitting in his car. Phileas was a great driver. And his car was nice. Unlike him. “This Helena?”, he asked after some quiet minutes. “My aunt talked about her. She said that girl is nasty.”

“She’s not the nicest, yes.” And she didn’t like me. When I first met her, she decided, that I was her greatest threat. Her rival. Maybe I was, but she got rid of most of her jobs without me being around. She didn’t need me for it. Truly.

“Why did your Mom bring her? Can’t she fire her?”

“Sadly, she can’t…” I watched the fields out of the car’s window. “Mom would if she could. But Helena’s father is an important sponsor and business partner. He invested a lot of money in my Mom’s work when she started. He saw her talent.”

“And losing him might ruin her?”

I sight. “No. Not unless he wants to. He has quite some influence. He could ruin her with that alone. He did something like that in the past when another business partner turned against him. But he’s also a friend and helped Mom when she got in trouble with other companies. Things like that happen all the time. Not because she harmed those. No. It’s complicated. But he knows really good lawyers. And he owns some percent of Mom’s business. Enough to force his daughter on her.”

“Hm… Sounds like a bad man to work with. Or to rely on. But if he is a friend…”

“Yes, as long as you’re his friend, everything is good and well.” I nodded. “She didn’t realize that when he offered her his help. Mom was young back then. We have to deal with Helena now. But Helena gets fewer and fewer jobs at other agencies. People like her pictures, but not her character or manners.” And I was pretty sure, that she had a drug problem. I saw her with some tiny, little bag full of white stuff at work some weeks ago. She seemed a bit out of it later that day.

“Oh. So she needs that job?”

“No. She is rich. She doesn’t need to work. She just wants to be a model. The most successful there ever had been. And she behaves as if she has already reached her goal. She hasn’t. And she knows that. She does it anyway.” I rolled my eyes. “She and Mony, he is another modal and a friend, won’t be part of today’s photo shooting so. It’s just me.”  Helena did plan to enjoy the lake though…

Why did I tell him all that? Why was he interested in this stuff? People usually didn’t ask me about my colleagues.

“Mom also told me that you wore some interesting clothes yesterday.” Phileas snickered. “She said she knows how your butt looks now.”

I sight. Ah. That’s why. Gossip! Or something like that. “Yes. Why? Do you want to know how pretty my butt is too?”

Alpaca-Boy laughed loudly now. “Well… Would you show me?”

“No.”

“I guess my answer is no then.”

“Huh?” I blinked and looked at him confused.

“What?” I looked briefly at me. Blushing. “Something wrong with that?”

Something wrong with you? I didn’t understand him. Did he try to flirt with me? No never. Was this molest? No… Did he simply tease me? Probably. Assh*le! “My butt doesn’t concern you!”

He nodded with a chuckle. “I agree to that. Do you like your work? Mom said, she was shocked when you and your colleagues ran around in some spicy underwear.”

“I love it”, I grunted. “I like being famous. And… Well. We do have some robes to wear, but… We didn’t.”

“Why?” He grinned and looked shortly at me. He looked mostly at the street. As he should.

I shrugged. “It was too hot. The robe kind of glued itself on my skin and I was sweating in it. That’s why I stopped wearing it after some minutes yesterday.” Mony didn’t care. He would run around naked if he could. Helena hated the fabric the robes were made of. That’s why she refused to wear it over underwear. “It’s not like a bunch of fans or paparazzi were watching. We all felt kind of safe outside. Usually, that happens, when we’re taking pictures at some well-known location. It’s nice to have fans watch. Not always, but most of the time.”

“And yet you came to a place where barely anyone knows you.”

“Why do you care?” We entered a small village. Phileas followed some signs that promised a beautiful lake.

“I simply find it interesting. I did notice that you’re not an animal fan. You wear expensive clothes, high heels. We have many storms here. It’s hot. The sun can easily burn one's skin. And you life of your pale skin! Right? We have a lot of rain. Especially in late summer and autumn. It’s usually a bit muddy at the farm because of that. But you showed up with high heels.”

“Can you people stop nagging at my clothes or shoes?”, I hissed, suddenly feeling more than just annoyed. “It’s always the same with you and your family. I like high heels! I don’t plan to stay here forever. I’m not a future farm boy! Let me be! Stop it! Stop judging me! I just want to live my life. You live yours! Do I tell you how you should dress yourself? No!” I had enough of that in my life. I didn’t need more.

“Okay… Sorry…” Now he was the one who looked confused. “I wasn’t judging you. I simply noticed.”

I crossed my arms sulking. Liar! High school had been full of people who made fun of me, judged me, or tried to change me. I had one good and true friend, yes. It wasn’t all horrible. And I was lucky when Silvan decided to study at the same university.

I met my best friend in the last year of high school. He was the new student. He played in a teenage band until his parents found work in another city and moved. He was an athlete. The girls ran after him. He was one of the popular students. I was the too-girly art kid that always ran around in black hoodies and colorful shoes. I tried to hide, but the idiots still found me. But when Silvan decided that he wanted to be my best friend two months after the school year started, things got better. Some students freaked out at first. No one understood that. But, in the end, he stayed the popular sport kid. He started a new school band. I was seen as his strange decoration, but he defended me all the time.

“You okay? You’re suddenly quiet!”, Phileas said. He seemed worried. I just nodded. We stopped talking until we arrived at the lake. He gave me his phone number when I was about to get out of his nice car. “Call me when your work is finished!”, he mumbled.

I just nodded.