At 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, the varsity volleyball team entered the library and continuously clicked the word “vote.” After an hour of vigorous tapping, the votes had climbed from 40,000 to 100,000.

By 5:30, Rebecca Contreras, wife of volleyball coach Brian Contreras, was far ahead of the other contestants in the Torrid modeling contest.

Torrid is a plus-size store, carrying sizes 12-26. It is owned by Hot Topic, and targets older teenage girls to women in their late twenties. As a size 12, Contreras just makes the cut-off size requirement for the plus-size models.

“Modeling is one of the dreams I’ve always had,” she said.

Contreras learned about the contest through Latina, a fashion, beauty, and entertainment magazine for Hispanic women.

When the Contrerases moved into their new apartment, the previous owners had not yet forwarded their mail.

“We had all sorts of magazines, and there was someone on the cover of Latina that Becky wanted to read about,” said Brian Contreras. The magazine featured a whole page on the Torrid modeling contest.

It was he who talked his wife into entering the contest.

“She is an athlete so she is a little bit bigger and I thought that this would boost her self-esteem,” Brian Contreras said.

The two drove to the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco and waited in a very long line of 527 hopefuls, where Contreras had her picture taken.

“She stood out from the other models,” Brian Contreras said. She wore a bright and colorful top with white shorts to the photo shoot.

This is Contreras’s first time modeling, although it has always been something of interest to her. “I just love fashion. I want everyone to feel comfortable about who they are in their own skin, whether they are plus size or regular,” she said.

Contreras was chosen as one of 10 finalists. There will be two winners, one chosen by Torrid executives and the photographer, and another chosen by online voters at Torrid.com.

“I was so excited. I am still excited. I was shocked,” Contreras said about being a finalist.

The day after Contreras received the call telling her she was a finalist, Brian Contreras took the team into the library to vote. Many students went home that night and voted even more.

“Every morning before I go to school, I put a stapler on my enter key on the keyboard,” sophomore Molly Tash said. This enabled the computer to keep voting for Contreras the whole day without having to click the mouse, Tash said. The voting closed last week.

If Contreras wins the contest, she will receive a one-year $25,000 modeling contract with Torrid. But she will have to wait until Monday, Nov. 26, to find out if her dream has become a reality.