The Snake Princess

"Beautiful, just beautiful," Mary went around her pupil to admire her from all possible angles. "Seriously, I can't believe you're already that good and it feels like we only started yesterday!"

"Mary, that's because you're such a wonderful teacher," Erika gave her yoga instructor the brightest smile once their eyes met again.

"I know it sounds strange coming from a yoga teacher but you could actually find a job in the circus and get paid for what you can do."

"Oh nooo, a whole bunch of people would be staring at me then!" Erika's brows went up. "I'm very happy just taking private lessons from you and if you're my only fan, I'm very happy with that in fact."

"But what are you afraid of? It's not that you have to perform naked or anything. And honestly, circus is a nice place, I worked there all my childhood and never felt bad about it."

"Mary, you worked at a circus?!" Erika raised her brows even higher. "You never told me!"

"What?" Mary thought for a moment. "Yeah, I wonder why I never mentioned that."

"You said, 'long story short, my ex-husband made me do flexible poses for his website'... So you made the story so short that you missed such an amazing detail??"

"Oh, true that! I'm so sorry!" Mary nodded. "So my ex actually first saw me performing in the circus when I was your age, then we dated and married... Oh dear, wait a minute, so I never actually showed you my circus outfit??"

"Nope," Erika widened her eyes and shook her head.

"Wait," Mary went upstairs and returned in about five minutes. "Look, I found it!" She held a glistening bodysuit with snakish patterns on it.

Erika raised her head. "Oh my! That's pretty!"

"Wanna try it on?"

"Can I actually?" Erika gracefully took off her black high-cut leotard. Mary helped her to get into the suit and in less than a minute Erika turned into a real snake girl with a smooth and most elegant body.

"It suits you so well!" Mary made her turn around. "Oh wait, it's not complete without the makeup. Here I brought it too. You just stand there... and here you go." The makeup was quite simple and took less than five minutes to apply. A few finishing touches of glistening paint and Erika turned from a sexy gymnast into a circus girl who looked like she had spent her whole life in tents among jugglers and clowns.

"How do I look?" Erika grinned.

"Charming! Wait, I have to take a picture," Mary went to take her camera. "Can you strike a pose for me?"

"What kind of?"

"How about a backbend, then do a handstand and sit on your shoulders. Perfect, now the feet go down like that... lock them here behind your arms. Now tighten it up, get as tight and compact as you possibly can... try to get your knees even lower... raise your head, higher, higher, like you're really proud of yourself! Keep your knees low, can you do even lower? Oh yes, that's perfect now! So tight and totally snakeish! Now, say cheese!" Mary took a picture. "Wait, I'll do another angle where we can how your back's folded..." She took another one.

Eventually Mary was satisfied and let Erika look at the picture.

"Oh my goodness! Is that me!? That's kind of adorable!" Erika laughed. "I feel like my place is in the circus now!"

"Told ya," Mary nudged her. "So, how about the Snake Princess?"

"????"

"As a stage name. You know, the circus needs a lot of mystery, you don't get introduced as silly as 'Hello, I'm your neighbor Erika, I went to a yoga gym and look at how bendy I am now!'"

"Haha, I suppose not, doesn't sound very circus-ey," Erika giggled. "Circuses are complicated, huh?..."

"Yeah, on the other hand... Behold the one and only... The Snake Princess!!" Mary raised her arms in the air.

"Well, it sounds like it would work! And the costume is pretty nice and I bet even my classmates wouldn't recognize me with this makeup. Now I actually want to consider that..."