Tiffany Stein knew she was born for the pageant stage, but never had her chance when she was younger. Both her parents were academics and thought pageants were silly, forcing Tiffany to focus on her studies; as an only child they were able to devote a lot of attention to her. They had passed while she was in her early twenties, and she thought it would be best to honor them by fulfilling their wishes. She studied hard, and breezed through undergraduate and graduate school, though at a severe cost to her social life, she had no real friends to speak of.
A few months back Tiffany had just finished with her thesis defense, and with an offer to a PhD program at a prestigious school, she was feeling invincible. She knew just one thing was missing from her perfect world and that was to win a pageant.
She began searching online for local pageants, but was finding little luck. Oh, there were plenty of pageants, just none she qualified for. She was either too old, too young, or too educated; because many pageants bolster themselves as 'scholarship programs' already having a degree disqualifies you.
Finally she found one with very few restrictions, it seemed that the only requirements were to be over 18 and a natural blonde, and proof would be required, whatever that meant. Tiffany wasn't worried about it, after all it said she was 'BLND' on her driver's license, and it sure didn't mean blind. 'Miss Blonde' was definitely the pageant for her. She found the application page, although it was hard for her to find because it said 'Miss Blonde Submission' at the top of all the pages on the site. Tiffany considered it a programming error and submitted her application.
On the day of the contest she showed up full of nervous energy, but was calmed down when she saw her competition. There were only 8 other girls, most of which looked like they'd be more at home in a buffet line instead of on a pageant stage. She signed all the consent forms without really reading a word, she didn't care about endorsement deals or whatever they were in regard to she just wanted to be in the pageant. Strangely the form had her sign her real name and then asked for a stage name too. Tiffany didn't have a stage name to speak of, so she just put her real name in both spots.
One girl stood out though, she was bigger, but her body was proportional. Tiffany found her own name card at one of the prep spots and sat in the chair. She dutifully did her make up, and listened to the chatter of the other girls. It may have been her first time at this blonde only pageant, but the others seemed to be veterans. She found out the other girl, the one she considered her only competition was actually last year's first runner-up; and she was feeling especially cocky because the girl who won last year didn't even show this time around.
Tiffany shut out all the noise, and concentrated. Her make-up was perfect, and she filled out her dress nicely. Being as tall as she was, it was hard for her to find clothes that fit properly, but for this she had a custom dress made, and ordered a special bikini off of the internet. There was no prize money for this competition, but her pride was on the line and that was worth every penny she spent.
There were only three rounds to this competition, with eliminations each round; first there was question and answer, then a talent showcase, and finally swimsuit inspection. There were three judges at a table to the side, a commentator, and a host; as well as, a full stadium audience and several cameras. This wasn't televised, but Tiffany overheard it was being live-streamed on a website and was free to download as a movie file afterward, brave new world.
When it was her turn for the first round, Tiffany took to the stage and was met with a roar of clapping and cheering. This filled her with confidence, she knew it was solely-based on her appearance in comparison to the rest of the women who were her opponents. She should've hated it, but she didn't, and she was welcoming any advantage she could get.
The host was a man in his forties, handsome with black hair that has flecks of grey that made him look distinguished rather than old, he was dressed in a fine suit, and held a microphone, despite having one on his collar as well. Even as he spoke he maintained his ear-to-ear smile, as only a pageant host could. "Alright, and here we have a next contestant, why don't you introduce yourself sweet-heart?" He place the microphone just in front of her lips, and place his other hand firmly on the small of her back, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
The contestants before her had all introduced themselves with crazy names she thought had to be made up, but she didn't think about it too much and introduced herself with a big smile, "My name is Tiffany Stein, I just graduated with an MS and am starting my PhD in the fall."
"Alright Miss Stein," he said with a bit of a laugh, "and is that your real name?"
She smiled through her confusion, and said "Of course" with a bit of a laugh of her own to match his.
"Wow," the host said, gesturing to the audience, "isn't she brave folks?" The audience cheered and clapped for her. Tiffany couldn't understand why her using her real name was brave, but just smiled and enjoyed the applause.
The audience calmed down, and the host began again, "Alright Tiffany, your question for the first round is; do you feel chastity belts are an effective tool, or a crutch for an inexperienced dominant to maintain control in their absence?" When he finished her handed the microphone to a dumb-founded Tiffany.
"Uhhh..." Not a strong start, but she literally had no idea what he just asked, and even less of an idea of how to answer it. Luckily, fresh off the heels of her thesis defense she was prepared to bullshit her way through any question. "It depends," she began, the rest of her answer was barely coherent rambling of her repeating specific words from the question with pre-programed responses of management speak.
When she finished speaking she was met with a smattering of applause, and handed the microphone back to the host, who had a quizzical look on his face. He addressed the audience, "Tiffany folks, she's well...," he paused, "well, she's very pretty." The audience laughed with him and at her, as she maintained her forced smile and walked off the stage.
Off stage she took out her phone and did an internet search for a chastity belt, "...the fuck?" she whispered to herself as she scrolled through the results. It must have been some kind of bizarre history question she wasn't prepared for. Now if they had asked her about aerobic respiration of cells she could have talked about cytochromes all day.
It didn't matter, because after the first round was over five of the nine girls were eliminated and somehow Tiffany had survived the cut, but she knew she was in dead last. She was especially worried, because she felt her talent, though difficult to perform, wasn't all the impressive on the stage. When she was younger she was part of an outdoor based youth organization for young girls that taught basic survival skills, this compounded with the fact that her father was a sailor in his youth meant she was quite adept at tying knots.
Two other contestants went before her, including the pretty one who was last year's runner up. Tiffany didn't watch what her talent was, because she didn't want to get psyched out, but whatever she did, it got a lot of applause. When it was her turn, Tiffany had several lengths of rope on a small cart she pushed out on the stage, her welcome was far less warm than last time, but she smiled through it.
She began holding a length of rope, presenting it to the audience, she tied a small and simple knot which received a small and simple applause. She couldn't get eliminated, she couldn't watch her first pageant end like this. She decided to toss out the pageantry, skipping the build-up and just started tying to most difficult knots she knew.
When she finished the first one something strange happened, the audience applauded loudly, the commentator riled them up further, "Look at that folks, no getting out of that one!" they cheered louder. Even the judges who seemed disinterested when she first walked out were sitting up attentively in their chairs watching her with great intrigue.
She couldn't believe the crowd's reaction, she felt invigorated as she tied another complex knot and held it up for display, and the audience again was applauding her. Finally she brought out several lengths of rope and tied the most intricate knot she knew how, and apparently it was one they'd never seen before because the audience went ballistic. Everyone was on their feet cheering, the commentator noted from the side-lines, "I feel bad for the first place winner if she takes second." This was met with a chuckle from the audience, and confusion from Tiffany, but she was just happy they liked her talent so much.