“Welcome to the thirty-first annual Miss Sweet Georgia Peach pageant. My name is Larry Schoonover, and I’ll be your host for this evening. Our panel of distinguished judges has chosen twelve of the most talented, beautiful, intelligent girls in our area to compete, and tonight, you’ll see the final stages of that competition as they choose our next Miss Sweet Georgia Peach!”
The audience in the largest ballroom in the hotel clapped, and London rubbed her hands together where she stood backstage. A monitor set up nearby showed Larry’s shiny white teeth as he introduced the judges.
“And here as our special consultant for the evening is NFL quarterback Kade Smith, who will be offering his thoughts as the competition progresses,” Larry said smoothly. “We’re glad you could join us, Kade.”
London watched as the screen flipped to Kade, who now wore a different jacket and a tie. She wondered if he’d been able to go home or if he’d had to run out to shop again. He had only spoken to her for a few minutes after dinner the night before, just long enough to say goodnight, but even that memory brought a smile to her lips.
“I’m glad to be here,” Kade replied. “Everyone watching is in for a treat.”
“Indeed they are, Kade. Indeed they are. Now, let’s get things started, shall we, and meet these young ladies.”
The music started up, and one at a time, each girl walked out on stage and spoke into the microphone. London smoothed down the front of her green cocktail dress and tried not to be nervous. This pageant meant more to her than any other she’d done—that must be why her hands were shaking a little bit. The fact that it was being televised probably didn’t help either.
Okay, it was her turn. She stepped out confidently, walked up to the microphone, and said, “I’m London Russell, age twenty-two. I’m currently the reigning Miss Mint Julep, and I’m from Atlanta.”
As she stepped away from the mike and walked off the stage in the other direction, she noticed that the response from the audience was lukewarm at best. That wasn’t a good sign.
Her mother met her in the dressing room, holding her swimsuit. “Hurry,” she said.
“I know, Mom.” London was already unfastening her emerald necklace, and now she shimmied out of her dress and into her swimsuit. It was the only thing she was wearing this weekend that she hadn’t made—she hadn’t figured out how to make a decent swimsuit yet.
Once she was ready, she stood in the wings again and watched the monitor.
“Now, let’s see what our viewers have tweeted in to the show so far this evening,” Larry was saying. He consulted a piece of paper in his hand. “Well, by quite a large margin, our number-one question has to do with Kade Smith and the picture that’s being circulated all over the internet. Tell us, Kade, about that moment.”
“It was a pretty great moment,” Kade replied, and the audience laughed.
Oh, so they were eating out of his hand, but they wouldn’t clap for her? That was just wrong.
“Is there any truth to the rumors that your relationship with London Russell could impact the results of this pageant?”
“I’m not judging this competition, Larry. I’m just here to offer my thoughts. All the decisions will be made by these good people.” Kade indicated the three other judges at the table.
“Well, I certainly don’t envy them their jobs, especially as we head into the swimsuit competition,” Larry said in one of the smoothest segues London had ever seen.
The next hour seemed like a whirlwind. After swimsuit was the talent competition, and London felt she did rather well with her rendition of “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka by Dvořák. She’d worn a silvery-blue dress, trying to look a little moonlike, and when she came off stage, her mother gave her a big hug.
Now it was time for her interview with the host. She’d never cared much for Larry. He was the anchor of a local news station, and he seemed to have a lot of teeth. Like, even more than people were supposed to have. But she could pretend to like him for just a few short minutes.
Evelyn zipped up her black evening gown, and she made her way back to the wings to watch.
Chelsea did a great job with her interview, and a few of the other girls did as well. London tried not to smirk when Lacey flubbed up her answer, saying that she’d enjoy going to work among the leopards like Mother Theresa.
With a deep breath and a quick prayer, London took her place on the little white X on the floor next to Larry.
“Next is London Russell,” Larry said to the camera. “How are you doing tonight, London?”
“I’m great, Larry. How are you?”
“I’m doing well. Thank you for asking.” He flashed a smile at the camera again. “You’ve had quite a week here at the Miss Sweet Georgia Peach pageant, competing against all these other beautiful girls. How do you keep going under that kind of pressure?”
“It’s not easy because each of these girls deserves to win, but I try to stay focused on what I need to do, and to do my best.” She didn’t really believe they all deserved to win, but hey, that’s what the audience wanted to hear.
“Excellent, London. Really excellent. And what can you tell us about your platform?”
London glanced down at the judges, at Kade, who was sitting off to the side, and then back up at Larry. “I’ve chosen forgiveness as my platform, should I be crowned the next Miss Sweet Georgia Peach.”
Another glance showed the judges flipping through their papers, obviously trying to find where that was written down. They wouldn’t be able to find it—she’d only just now changed her mind.
“Forgiveness? That’s a unique topic. What can you tell us about that?” Larry asked, just as flustered as the judges. His cue cards were written up for him in advance, and he apparently wasn’t so great at adlibbing.
“We have a tendency to judge people harshly when they do something that offends us, and we might harbor those hurt feelings for years. What I’ve learned just recently is that there’s power in being able to say, the past is the past. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that I’m okay with what happened, but it means that I’m willing to stop dredging it up and letting it hurt me. And the most wonderful part is being able to look at someone with new eyes because of the fresh start forgiveness brings us.” London smiled for the camera, hoping Kade understood what she was trying to tell him.
“Well now, I think that gives us all something to think about. Thank you, London.” Larry motioned for her to step off the stage, and this time, the audience clapped a little louder.
“One more change to go,” Evelyn said, London’s Scarlett O’Hara dress draped over her arm. This wasn’t one of her full-skirted plantation dresses—oh, no. This was a rendition of the red dress Scarlett wore when she walked in to the party and stared everyone down like the diva she was.
“I was planning to wear the plum dress,” London said, but Evelyn shook her head.
“You just threw down the gauntlet out there, my dear, and you need to go out there and own it.”
London nodded, loving her mother fiercely in that moment. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
“My goodness, don’t you look wonderful,” Taffy Johnson said a moment later as Evelyn was tucking London’s hair up into a bun in the back. “Just the spitting image of Vivien Leigh. I always thought she was one of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses.”
“Thank you,” Evelyn replied. “Lacey’s doing very well tonight.”
“She is, isn’t she? And now that the judging has been straightened out, I’m sure that she’ll continue to do well. Oops, I must run. She needs help with a zipper.” Taffy bustled off, and Evelyn put her hands on London’s shoulders.
“Don’t let her get to you,” she said in a low voice.
“I’m okay, Mom. I’m brushing off everything she says.”
Evelyn laughed. “I was talking to myself, but all right.”
London turned around and gave her a hug. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too. Now get out there and win this thing.”
London paused in the wings until it was her turn, then walked out onto the stage, stopping at each of her marks and smiling. When the camera pulled in for her close-up, she felt a little uncomfortable, but she held her smile until it was time to move on.
As she came off the stage, a strange feeling came over her, one of completion. She’d just finished the last beauty pageant she would ever do. It was like getting on a plane and waving goodbye, looking forward to the journey ahead. Bittersweet, but a tremendous relief.
“While the judges tally their scores, we’ll be entertained by a couple of musical numbers by the Singing Silvers,” Larry announced, and twenty-five ladies in their seventies and eighties filed out onto the stage. London squinted, trying to see Kade through all the stage lights, but she couldn’t pick him out. She just hoped this would all be over soon. In the meantime, those little old ladies were awfully cute.