The Sickly Beauty Substitute Called It Quits

Okay, so picture this: a small town, let's call it Dullsville (because, well, it was), and a beauty pageant. Miss Dullsville, to be exact. Now, Miss Dullsville, Brenda Sue, was, shall we say, blessed. Blessed with a killer smile, dazzling hair, and an immunity to carbs. We all hated her. But secretly admired her. Naturally.

Then, disaster struck. Brenda Sue, just days before the Regional Pageant, came down with… the sniffles. Okay, maybe it was more than sniffles. The doctor said it was something exotic, something that involved the words "tropical" and "parasite." Whatever it was, Brenda Sue was OUT. Pageant dreams, dashed! Tiara ambitions, thwarted!

Enter Mildred McMillan. Mildred wasn't exactly… Brenda Sue. Mildred was more… bookish. And pale. And prone to sudden bouts of sneezing. Basically, if Brenda Sue was a sunbeam, Mildred was a flickering fluorescent lightbulb in a dusty attic. But she was the only other contestant. So, Mildred was in. Mildred was Miss Dullsville… *Substitute*.

The Training Montage That Wasn't

You'd expect a Rocky-style training montage, right? Mildred transforming into a pageant queen with the help of questionable beauty advice and a lot of sequins? Nope. Mildred mostly spent her time brewing herbal tea and reading obscure poetry. Her "talent" was reciting the alphabet backwards… while juggling oranges. And occasionally sneezing.

Let's just say the judges were... concerned. One of them, bless his cotton socks, even suggested she try "something less… alphabet-centric." Mildred, bless her even more, took his advice to heart. She decided to showcase her *true* talent: identifying obscure fungi by smell. Yes, you read that right. Fungi. By smell. Apparently, it’s a thing.

Fun fact: did you know that some mushrooms actually glow in the dark? True story! They're called bioluminescent fungi, and they're way cooler than a swimsuit competition, if you ask me.

Anyway, the regional pageant was approaching faster than you can say "false eyelashes." And Mildred? Well, she was still Mildred. Pale, bookish, and now… smelling faintly of portobellos.

The Day of Reckoning (and Sneezing)

Pageant day arrived, a glittering spectacle of spray tans, teased hair, and enough hairspray to single-handedly deplete the ozone layer. Mildred, looking distinctly uncomfortable in a borrowed sequined gown (it itched!), tried to blend in. She failed. Miserably.

The swimsuit competition? Disaster. Mildred, who hadn't seen the sun since, oh, 1987, looked like a porcelain doll that had been left out in the rain. The talent portion? A biohazard zone. The judges actually had to evacuate their table after Mildred unveiled her collection of rare molds. Apparently, Aspergillus fumigatus isn't exactly crowd-pleasing entertainment.

The final question? Oh, the final question. The host, a man whose smile could curdle milk, asked Mildred: "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?"

Mildred, after a prolonged coughing fit and a dramatic pause (probably to find her inhaler), said, in a voice barely above a whisper: "The ability to teleport. So I could escape this… this… horror."

The Unexpected Exit

And then, she did the unthinkable. She ripped off her borrowed sash, threw it at the feet of the bewildered host, and announced, in a surprisingly firm voice: "I quit! I'd rather spend my evening cataloging lichen than endure another minute of this charade!"

The crowd gasped. The judges fainted. The host's smile finally cracked. And Mildred? She walked off that stage, head held high, a tiny, slightly pale, but utterly triumphant figure.

The Regional Pageant crowned a different queen that year, a blonde with a suspiciously perfect tan and an uncanny ability to answer every question with a vapid platitude. Brenda Sue eventually recovered, but her pageant dreams were never quite the same.

But Mildred? Mildred became a legend. The Sickly Beauty Substitute who said "no" to sequins and "yes" to spores. She went on to become a world-renowned mycologist, publishing groundbreaking research on the mating habits of puffballs. And she never, ever, wore a sash again.

Moral of the story? Embrace your weirdness. Even if it smells faintly of mushrooms.