Selma: "Guess what, Selma got cut."
Fanny: "Ray-Ray, find the plastic nose..."
Boo: "No, Fanny. It's fine. They thought I was dynamic and had great form. Well, they thought Trina had great form, and Selma was dynamic. They only one they didn't like was me."

No, that was the only one they didn't see. Fanny's right. About most things, but most of all about Boo. Beautiful as she is.

Boo: "They also said that I should definitely try again next year, because the underdog slot was already used up..."

Beautiful, as she is.

Boo: "I fouetted in a wig!"

Boo runs off, to see Sasha; to congratulate her, and invite her over for failure cake. And she'll be right there, Sasha will, as soon as she's filled out all her forms for the Joffrey Program.

Fanny: "Now she has been seen."

THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Is the perfect time to get things done, when all the noises of the day have dissipated. Tonight, when Michelle dreams about her last audition, she won't be Boo and she won't be Fanny, at age four or nine or ten or sixteen. She'll just be Michelle. Who has dreams, just like all those Young Ladies, and all the other women in the world. She'll look around her unexpected life, her little guesthouse, still feeling like a guest, and she'll wonder what a home feels like. What it would take to feel safe, and still be free.

A Thing all Young Ladies eventually have to learn.

JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps Bunheads, Pretty Little Liars and True Blood for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. IRL work appears in BenBella's SmartPop series of anthologies, and novelette "The Commonplace Book" will appear on Tor.com in October 2012.