"Argh, I really can't believe it!" Cleo grumbled repeatedly.
She met up with Lagoona and Ghoulia at the pool to talk about the recent events. Holt Hyde was also hanging out at the beach, but she ignored him so he wouldn't get the idea to try and hog the spotlight.
"Well, Cleo," Lagoona sighed, "Of course it isn't great, but it also isn't the end of the world!"
"Not great? Not great?! This is a monster-crass catastrophe!" Cleo held her head high and bristled with anger. "Once again the big heads got the main roles in Dolltopia! The big heads!"
Ghoulia moaned softly, and Cleo, who like all of Ghoulias' friends was able to understand Ghoulish, answered upset: "I know they're called Pullips, but I don't care!"
Lagoona relaxed in the cool water and tried not to be influenced by Cleo's enragement. "We will get our chance too, I'm sure. Look at it this way... they have to work and labour in the hot studio, and we can enjoy the summer at the beach and be truly lazy for once!"
She sighed, this time because she felt cosy, and kept letting the sun shine on her face.
Ghoulia moaned in agreement.
"But...," Cleo started, but Holt dared to interrupt her from his place on a lounger: "Geez, Clea, maybe the studio just wants to take it easy on us. Remember, minors, labour laws... stuff like that."
Surprised by the unusually meaningful interjection of her fellow student Lagoona looked up. "That's right! We're called into photo sessions constantly! That's quite exhausting in addition to school!"
Holt grunted in agreement. "Right! I was stuck half of the week in a photo shoot for the gallery, not interested in spending the rest shooting Dolltopia. Otherwise, when would I find the time to party?"
Cleo started to get really angry. "Don't you have any honour? No sense for a big opportunity? Does none of you want to become famous? Granted, none of you can become as famous as I am, of course, and none of you has my natural born grace, but still you could muster a little bit of ambition!"
When the others just rolled their eyes annoyed she began to list what factors predestined the Monster Highs to become the main roles instead.
"There's much more of us. We wear the better fashion. There's a ton of props and locations made just for us. We..."
Occupied like that nobody noticed how Tamara strolled to the pool. She wore a simple summer dress, walked bare-foot on the warm sand and felt a hint of regret to have brought no hat against the sun. To her dismay the changing booths were closed due to repairs again. That didn't stop her from spreading her towel on the beach and now going for a swim before her sunbath. It was just too nicely warm to not relax in the pool. With a happy hum she began to losen the bowtie in her neck.
"... furthermore, we're smaller - of course, since we don't have such silly overgrown heads! - and thus we could fit much better into the old dollhouse!" Cleo ended her enraged lecture. Ghoulia gently rocked her head from side to side and answered with a restrained moan. Lagoona nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, yeah, you have some good points, Cleo. But as Ghoulia said, the others already have some fame. They are true stars, and we are not."
"And therefore we don't deserve a chance to get famous with Dolltopia?!"
"Oh my..."
Unfazed by the heated discussion next to her Tamara kept humming and peeled herself out of her dress. Usually teenagers flew underneath her radar, so the only notice she took of the talking was the silent wish that those teenagers wouldn't keep that ruckus up for long.
'At one point they'll have to go home and do their homework...' she thought to herself.
In the meantime, her presence had finally been noticed, even if just by Holt. When he saw movement from the corner of his eye he turned his head - and almost cricked his neck. 'Big head... THAT is a Pullip?!' the realization shot through his head.
'Geez!'
For once the heat he felt beneath his skull didn't result from his burning hair.
The young woman peeled herself out of her dress with no care in the world, as if she was all alone. Had she never heard of changing booths?!
"Err... Cleo?" Holt tried to gain the girls' attention, but they were still busy discussing things. "Hello? Uhm, I think I know now why the Pullips are the main cast..."
He pushed his sunglasses up in disbelief to have a clearer sight on the young woman who now took off her dress for good. Granted, her bikini didn't came from the top Monster Mall and thus wasn't as fashionable as the Monster High swimwear, but on the other hand she definitely had the curves to fill it out.
Cleo just said: "I think we should start a petition! Maybe that will gain us some influence with the management. At least one episode should be about us."
"Of course, we could do that...," Lagoona agreed to put this annoying discussion to rest. "At least we could collect tons of signatures."
"Does anyone know how many of the Big Heads live around here?" the mummy asked.
Ghoulia moaned an answer.
"What, so many? There's almost as many as us! Hmmmm..."
"Cleo...," Hold tried again, a bit louder this time. "You can totally forget about this!"
"What was that?! How dare you question this plan?!"
"There's no way they'll let us do a script made for THIS age group!" the teenager hissed through his teeth, trying to draw attention to the fact that their heads wasn't the only big thing about Pullips. "And I wouldn't want to have a role in that, either."
Of course neither Holt nor the girls had any idea that Tamara as the only Type 1 Pullip was currently the only one around with such curves.
Tamara, who didn't let show if she noticed the discussion or Holts stares, turned to everyone with a happy smile. "Hello, everyone! Is there space for one more in the pool?"
Cleo was scared stiff. "Y... You... You're an actress in Dolltopia?"
"Hey, a fan, how nice!" the Pullip purred nicely and bent forward to climb over the rim of the pool. "Tamara Squall, supporting actress with an option for more," she said with a telling wink.
Cleo stared at her. "Supporting actress? That probably means you didn't have to train much for the role, did you?"
"Oh," Tamara said and pondered for a moment, "Let me think about that. What courses did I do for my role... First off, of course I passed the ninja academy for assassins of all kinds with flying colours..."
"You know, I think I don't have any interest to be cast for Dolltopia, after all," Lagoona said with a stiff smile and climbed out of the pool, closely followed by Ghoulia.
"Have to go!" Holt exclaimed quickly and made for a speedy getaway.
Cleo thought of something snippy to say, but in the end she turned around silently and walked away with her head held high and trying to look majestic.
Tamara grinned and sprawled in the pool that was all hers now. Master Arashi would be very pleased if he had seen her deception skills ins action. On the other hand, he would not be very pleased to see her lazing around in a pool instead of working on her fighting skills. Still...
"Amateurs!" she laughed out loud.
One week before shooting begins... in the guy's corner <-- # --> The day Dolltopia was supposed to start...