“Jesus, the fat is showing.”

Ella stood in front of the mirror, grabbing the very, very small amount of skin she could clutch from her stomach in her hands while looking down. She was only wearing underwear while examining her perceived imperfections in this dressing room, while another woman in her mid twenties, Kelly, was unloading a bag of makeup onto a counter. Unlike Ella, Kelly was fully dressed in a Disney polo and khakis.

“You shouldn’t have tempted me with that bagel yesterday. You promised me that it was gluten-free,” said Ella.

“It was gluten-free. It was in the gluten-free section of the buffet,” replied Kelly as she continued to set up all the makeup. 

Ella immediately spun around and death-stared Kelly while hunched over, still clutching the minuscule amount of skin on her abs. “Does this lump look gluten-free to you!?” she grunted.

Kelly rolled her eyes. Just another day getting to hear Ella, thin-as-a-pole-character-actor Rigby, complain about gaining weight. But this was just another element of Kelly’s job: keeping her mouth shut when Ella complained. She’d grown tired of trying to be uplifting since it often ended with a drunk Ella crying about how much of a lying bitch Kelly is. But that was Handler Kelly from six months ago. Handler Kelly today knew better.

“Makeup is ready,” said Kelly. She stood up and walked over to the rack of clothing in the corner of the room. Ella de-clutched her stomach and put her hands on her hips. Disappointed by Kelly’s lack of sympathy, Ella pitifully stomped to the chair in front of the makeup counter and sat down. She looked over all of the items in front of her; at least two dozen different plastic containers of makeup materials. Ella picked up her blush and scooted her chair in towards the counter and the new mirror.

“You know,” said Ella as she opened up the blush and grabbed a brush, “you also need to worry about your figure if you truly want to be a character someday. I mean, unless you’re trying out for Ursula or Luisa, I guess.” Kelly stopped for a moment while flipping through the hangers of dresses. She took a deep breath and then got back to finding the right costume. 

Kelly Brooke wanted to be a character herself one day ever since her childhood. Animated movie VHS tapes in her house were all put to longevity tests with how often she’d rewatch Aladdin, Robin Hood, Ferngully, Land Before Time, and hundreds more; one viewing was never enough. She wanted to truly understand those characters as if they were real people, not just drawings on a screen. Of course, she loved Halloween more than all other holidays because it gave her the excuse to dress up and personify the different lively characters she watched without being judged harshly. One of the best from her memory was when she dressed up like Quasimodo, and houses seemed to give her more candy out of pity. Conversely, one of the worst was when she dressed up as Genie, and people started calling her Kelly Blue Brooke. That nickname lasted far too long.

That led Kelly to start going to nerd conventions while she was in film school. College didn’t seem to get her much help in the film industry, but people seemed to be impressed with her at conventions. More so when she was Jasmine or Ariel than when she was Sulley or Pumba, but she managed to put up with the weirdos well enough when she had to. Last year, she was at Comic-Con and happened to be seen by a Disney Cruise recruiter who told her she showed promise in that Maleficent costume she’d made. And now she was here on a boat helping Ella transform into Elsa for boarding. She’d really thought it would all move faster.

“God, you’re so sensitive!” said Ella, pulling Kelly out of memory lane. “You’re not fat ok, I’m just saying that they can get really strict here sometimes. Obviously, it was more than the gluten-free bagel.”

“Possibly… the tequila?” replied Kelly. 

Ella grinned while applying more makeup. “Possibly. But when it’s free, it’s hard not to think that it’s also calorie-free.” 

“You didn’t,” said Kelly with a tone of disappointment. Ella stopped brushing for a moment and looked at Kelly through the mirror with a straight face. A moment passed before the smile returned to her face while she went back to applying blush.

“Noooo. Of course not. I’m not a total slut like Julie. I just let him talk to me for a while at the bar while buying me my fave. Is that really so bad?”

“Well, I guess that doesn’t technically break the coworker relationship rules, but…”

“Oh, please, those rules are broken every day.”

“I don’t break them.” Kelly finally picked up a dress from the rack and started walking back to Ella. It was the most popular Elsa costume from Frozen. “I don’t think you need to either.”

“I never said I needed to,” said Ella as she switched to eyeliner. “I usually enjoy it just as much as they do. Especially when they’re really into a particular charact-”

“Ok,” interrupted Kelly, “I think it’s time to go over today’s run of show. In fifteen minutes, we will be in the grand hall for passenger boarding. Looks like Moana and Captain Mickey will be on the left, while we’ll have Gaston with us on the right. The announcer will read the passengers’ names when they step onto the ship. You just need to do the basic smile and wave since they won’t be able to ask for photos yet.”

“This part is always the most boring.”

“Well, there is one note. If the announcer says, ‘Welcome to our winter cruise!’ after saying their  names, you have to do the Into the Unknown opening notes.”

Ella put down her eyeliner and turned around to look at Kelly. She stared, confused with her half-lined eyes at the serious face of Kelly. A moment passed before Kelly suddenly belted, “aahh aaahhh aahh aahh!” and then started laughing. Ella was not very amused. “I’m just kidding,” said Kelly. “I agree, this is the most boring part. I think singing some tunes would liven it up.

Ella went back to doing her eyeliner. “I mean,” said Kelly, “If you truly think it is super boring… I could always just step in for you and give you this time off.” Ella stopped putting on makeup and turned around again.

“You think you’re truly ready?”

“…Yes.”

“Ok, stand up and get into your starting pose.”

Kelly was somewhat shocked by the invitation. She awkwardly looked around for somewhere to put the run of show clipboard she was holding. Finally, she just accepted that it could go on the floor. She stood up, looked at Ella, took a deep breath, and then let her body take on the character of Elsa. Left foot out a bit, left arm up like she was holding a platter, chin angled down with a half smile while she pointed her eyes at Ella. It was the default Elsa pose, and Kelly nailed it.

Or, at least Kelly thought that Kelly nailed it. Ella stood up suddenly and started walking around Kelly’s pose. Kelly tried to maintain her composure as best she could, but her face started losing its grin as she could feel Ella’s judgment.

“Your foot is too far out,” said Ella as she pushed it in a couple of inches with her bare foot. “And the angle of your elbow isn’t the correct eighty-five degrees.” She grabbed Kelly’s bicep and forearm to jolt them into the proper position.

“It’s good,” said Ella. Kelly dropped the pose and started to smile. “But not Disney Cruise good.”

Suddenly, that half moment of pride deflated from Kelly instantly.

“First things first, you need to nail the planned poses perfectly every time. You were close, but you weren’t perfect,” said Ella.

“I mean, yes, but Julie and Todd…” replied Kelly.

“Julie and Todd know how to use charisma to break the rules, Kelly. Your pose isn’t the biggest problem anyway.”

“What is?”

“You’re not truly Elsa when you strike the pose. You’re just Kelly pretending to be Elsa.”

“Isn’t that what acting is?”

“NO! If I can tell that you’re acting, then it isn’t good acting.” Suddenly, Ella followed the exact same order of positioning that Kelly did, but when that grin hit her face, Ella immediately became Elsa. The pompous, ditzy blonde disappeared to be replaced with a kind, introverted ice queen. She may have only been in her underwear, anyone could tell that the cold, in fact, would not bother her anyway. 

Kelly sat back down and picked up the run of show clipboard. Elsa faded as Ella sat back down. She was slightly worried she’d been too harsh for a moment there. She picked up the dress and started to put it on.

“You’re almost there, Kelly,” said Ella. “Just not quite yet.” 

Kelly held the pen and clipboard still for a moment. No tears. She didn’t want to show her disappointment. “So yeah, the greeting session will be for four hours with three ten-minute breaks. Then we’ll…” 

“I know, I know, it’s all the basic stuff,” said Ella. “Come over here and help me zip up the dress.”

Kelly put the clipboard back down and helped Ella get the dress up over her shoulders. She pulled the zipper all the way up and started looking for any wrinkles or loose strings on the costume.

“I guess,” Kelly started saying, “I don’t know, it just feels like it comes more naturally to you or something. You only had to change your L to an S. Like it was easier for you than it is for me.”

Ella straightened the front of her dress now while looking herself up and down in the mirror. “Well, sure, I do just have a tremendous amount of built-in talent,” she said. “But it could also be that Elsa just isn’t the right character for you. Who knows, maybe the next Pixar will feature princess Kelsy.”

“Or maybe I just need to stop being so stressed out all the time.”

Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted their talk. Kelly opened it to see a young man in all black wearing a headset. He simply put his hand out with all fingers to indicate that they had five minutes left. Kelly nodded, shut the door, and walked back to a now fully costumed Elsa character with a ditzy, Ella style grin on her face.

“Don’t even,” started Kelly, only to be immediately interrupted by Ella.

“Or maybe we just need to find you a hunk!”