Daniel Shines without Ugly Betty

Snippet 12

Betty was outside the club where Daniel was celebrating his first issue of Mode since he became Editor-in-Chief. The Body Guard outside did not allow her in because he did not believe she was Daniel Meade’s assistant. More over, it seems she got her I.V mixed-up somewhere inside her bag. Amanda arrived, saw Betty but pretended not to know her and just went in. Betty eventually found the card but she was still denied entrance and had to return home dejected.

A male fashion reporter outside the Manhattan club, informed us that this was Daniel’s cover party to celebrate his first issue of Mode and more many eyebrows were raised when he was chosen as the Editor-in-Chief instead of the experienced Creative Director, Wilhelmina Slater.

Inside the club, it was all glitz and glamour. Wilhelmina breezed-in majestically and Marc who was on the look-out, handed her a glass of champagne while filling her in on happenings at the party.

Daniel was the enclosure of all eyes. He was in the midst of reporters who were interviewing him. To say the least, Wilhelmina was bitter about this and made sarcastic remarks about reporters wanting to get a quote from Daniel. She and Marc raised their glasses to Daniel with their signature 'fake smile' on and Daniel also raised his glass to them with a knowing look in his eyes.

The party then began in earnest.

(Albeit he forgot about Betty while he basked in all that glory!)

At the Suarez house, Walter was in front of the TV set dancing (like a puppet) along to a demo playing on it (Ha ha ha! he is such a dork!).

Betty came in and on seeing Walter, asked him what he was doing in her house (Justin continued with the Dance). The first thing Walter asked her was why she was at a club with her boss at 9.45pm. She told him she was at her boss’ Cover party and then realized that she owed him no explanation. Walter tried justifying his reason for being to the fact that he got her the Dance-Revolution package at 20% discount, but, Betty was not buying any of it and instead held the door open for him to leave.

The party was in full swing and the celebrant, Daniel, was talking a young lady. His father walked up to him, silently, and whispered loud enough for the lady to hear “she is just twelve.” The lady promptly took her leave. Daniel and his father then engaged themselves in a chit-chat about Mode. The Paparazzi soon zoomed in on them and Bradford put his right arm around Daniel’s shoulder in a son-father pose. Daniel was a bit uncomfortable and emotional at this display by his father and after the shots were taken Bradford removed his arm (too quickly).

Wilhelmina (The Slayer), who had obviously been watching the scenario flew to their side commenting (maliciously, Daniel knows) about their pose; that they were the shinning stars. She complimented Daniel that the issue was a big hit and that Alex would be proud of him (hey! this is a sensitive subject) but Daniel said he didn’t do anything, that Mode sells Mode: “right Dad?” asking Bradford for confirmation.

Wilhelmina reminded Bradford about the Alex's cover party, being the Editor-in-Chief of a sister publication, Hudson. She told Daniel how he walked into the party with a Tuxedo shirt, Wilhelmina’s coat and a poker dot boxers. Bradford and Wilhelmina smiled as they remembered. Bradford said it was the top story on all the newspapers and that sales of Hudson went up by 38%. Daniel didn’t find it funny at all. He told his father that would have appreciated if his father had told him, that he would have gladly dropped his trousers for him; he then walked away from both of them.

Let me give you a little background story to help you understand why Daniel reacted this way. He had a brother, Alex, who was late (supposedly), who he had struggled all his life to measure up to. To his father, Alex was the good one while Daniel was the irresponsible one – Daniel knows this. Since he became Editor of Mode, he had one thing in mind; that was to change his father’s opinion about him. He knew being chosen as Mode’s new Editor-in-Chief was an acid test which he must pass. When his father put his arm around him, he got emotional because he felt that finally, my father is beginning to accept and trust me that I can get things done just like Alex. So, when Wilhelmina mentioned the Alex's cover party, he felt he was back to where he started - a failure and Alex won again. Wilhelmina did this on purpose to hurt Daniel because he got the publicity and status quo she believed should have been hers.

Back at Betty’s house, sat at the dinning table seeking for solace in food while Justin bombarded her with questions about the party and she got somewhat upset and asked him to stop. Hilda handed Justin his books with the instruction to do his homework and he didn’t leave without a comment about reading the editor’s page of the Mode’s current issue. Hilda joined Betty at the table but she stood up and said she had to go but Hilda wasn’t taking any of it and asked Betty to sit down. She told Betty to stop hurting herself and started with one of her usual lecture on ‘Betty not being cut out for the fashion industry’ but Betty told her to stop. Hilda (Oh, I just love Hilda) wasn’t backing down, she volunteered that if it was really important to Betty, she was willing to help her out. She told Betty that she was the 'Top' sales person for Herberlux in her district because she knows how to market herself - the hair, the clothes, e.t.c., but Betty wasn’t in on it.

Hilda then gave her the raw truth that, “those people” were not going to change and that Betty had to change to fit in.