Chapter 108: Nothing on but a Top-Hat

It was pitch black and Jessie Harper was feeling very nervous as she stood there on stage with her choir in the Redsands Festival Hall. Someone behind here was obviously feeling the same way as the muted comments indicated.

“Are you guys nervous?” whispered a squeaky little female voice.

“Shhhhh!” was the instant reply from another quiet little voice just next to the girl.

That was followed by another little voice saying “Yer, I’m real nervous. I’m just about shitting myself.”

Several ‘shhhh’s and ‘don’t use that language’ suddenly descended on that poor soul from all directions making it hard for Jessie Harper to suppress a nervous giggle at this funny little bit of banter...

... but then it all went deadly silent, even quieter than it already was, for about ten seconds followed by an introductory drum roll then a loud voice booming out over the PA system saying...

“LADIES AND GENTLEMAN WILL YOU PLEASE WELCOME TO THE STAGE THE REDSANDS FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH YOUTH CHOIR!”

There was another drum roll, then the stage lights came on, then it was time for the Redsands First Congregational Church Youth Choir to perform and perform they did. The first two numbers sounded very traditional in a church choir sense but the third one exploded into a real electric rock number. Sonika Jharm had employed the services of some of the church’s very talented musicians ... guitarists and drummers and a keyboardist ... and the result was fantastic. Everyone in the audience could be seen clapping and bouncing around in their chairs like it was the opening number for a rock concert. All the choir members could see this going on and it filled them all with a new sense of courage and purpose for what they were doing. That third number then ended with Jessie repeating the first chorus of the song as a solo followed by one mighty crash of drums and cymbals to end it. The audience erupted into one massive wave of applause and whistling and shouting just before the lights went out plunging the building into darkness again and complete silence as the real show finally got under way - which was...

... The Redsands Teen Beauty Pageant 2022.

By the time the lights came back on Jessie and the choir were all gone from the stage leaving it bare apart from one lone figure - the MC for the night and that MC was none other than Jessie’s friend - Tammy Maple!

When Jessie saw Tammy up there under the spotlight she gave a little gasp of complete surprise and mumbled to herself, “Well, I’ll be darned! How on earth did she keep that a secret. Tammy, you old snake in the grass.”

Jessie turned to some of her friends standing there in the wings - some of whom also knew Tammy Maple and her family. They all gave a shrug of surprise themselves. Evidently this was all news to them as well.

Even though Jessie was surprised at this new turn of events she was also rather impressed. Tammy had obviously done some training in public speaking and sounded just so professional standing up there under the glare of the spotlight with nearly two thousand people looking back at her. Jessie was also impressed with what Tammy was wearing ... a skin tight, polished leather suit that made her look a bit like Cat Woman from a Batman movie. The outfit followed the curves of the young girl’s youthful body just beautifully - especially around her tight little breasts and her exquisite looking butt cheeks. The whole outfit was also beautifully enhanced by a pair of shiny black high heeled boots that laced right up the bottom half of her shapely legs. The girl really did look spectacular and had all the grace, the charm, and the command to go with the outfit as she strutted around the stage while she outlined the night’s programme. At one point Tammy looked over and caught Jessie’s eye as Jessie stood in the wings with the others. Jessie gave her a whopping big thumbs up which seemed to spur Tammy on with an extra boast of confidence.

The programme Tammy outlined would start off with a pre-teen fashion show just as a warm up to the main fashion show and competition. The pre-teen girls and boys would all be between nine and thirteen years old and were given the option to dress up in whatever they fancied with instant spot prizes for the best dressed, the most creatively dressed and the most confidently presented participant. After that there would be a general parade of all the Teen Beauty Pageant participants displaying their name and registration number for all the judges to get a preliminary assessment of what they were dealing with. The teenage boys and girls would all be wearing a special Teen Beauty Pageant gown with just there normal attire underneath. This would also give the audience a chance to see all the kids on an equal footing and begin making their own assessments as to who they thought should be prize winning material. The audience’s assessment would also play a part in the overall points assessment each participant would get along side what the judges would give - the aggregate of which would decide the overall prize winners.