A workplace tradition

Rose just had gotten a job at a nice clothing store located at her local mall. It was a local store called E.N.F. (named after the owner's initials), but was similar to midrange stores such as Gap, Old Navy, etc in terms of quality and price. All in all, it was a good place for a senior in high school to work. The pay was decent, her hours flexible, and best of all, came with an employee discount. The work itself was pretty easy, and oftentimes Rose and the other employees had nothing to do when it wasn't peak hours. This meant Rose had gotten to know a few of her fellow employees, and started to befriend a few of them.

One day, Rose and her coworker friends, Chloe and Kim, were chatting during a slow period at work. The conversation turned to birthdays, when Rose casually mentioned that her birthday was next Saturday, exactly one week later.

"Oh my gosh, your birthday is next week?!" Chloe exclaimed, exchanging some giggling with Kim. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah... I guess?" Rose responded with a laugh. She wasn't sure what was so funny about her birthday.

"So... you nervous?" Kim inquired.

"Why would I be nervous? It's my birthday!" Rose asked, unsure of what there was to be nervous about.

"Oh wow! So you don't know?" Chloe laughed.

"Know what?!"

Chloe and Kim started giggling even harder.

"Oh my gosh, she doesn't know!"

"What's going on here? What should I know?" Rose demanded. She didn't like feeling left out of whatever inside joke or whatever those two had going on.

"I can't believe you haven't heard yet! But I guess it's because you're new and nobody has had a birthday since you started. Well, basically, here at E.N.F. there's a certain... tradition for employees on their birthday." Chloe started to explain.

"What is it?" Rose asked, becoming very interested in what this tradition is.

Chloe and Kim giggled again, but Chloe kept explaining.

"You have to come to work in your birthday suit, and work an entire shift totally naked!" Chloe finished, resulting in much laughter from her and Kim.

Rose was stunned.

"Holy shit! Are you serious?"

"Of course. What do you think?"

"I- I don't know. That sounds ridiculous. You can't work naked!" Rose argued.

"Duh, not normally, but on your birthday you do! It's a 'birthday suit', isn't it?" Kim retorted.

Rose didn't know what to say. Working naked on her birthday? There's no way!

"As enticing as that sounds... I think I'll pass. I don't need all of you to see what I'm rockin' with under my clothes."

"Aw Rose, don't be like that! Everyone does it, it's a big tradition! You'll definitely feel closer to everyone afterwards. Please don't let us down! We thought you were cool, but if you can't even take part in this one tradition, I guess we were wrong..." Chloe pouted.

Rose started to feel bad. "Hey, I'm cool with pretty much anything! But working naked is a bit too much, isn't it?"

"It may seem like it is, but trust me, after an hour you'll be fine." said Kim.

"You mean you've done this before??" Rose asked.

"Obviously, we've both been here over a year, so we've both taken part in the tradition. Trust us, it's fun!"

"I don't know... it still seems wrong to me."

"Well, if that doesn't convince you, then maybe this will: the few employees who didn't take part were given the worst jobs until they quit. If you don't do it, expect to be put on bathroom duty everyday for the next year!"

Rose grimaced. She hated bathroom duty. It was definitely one of the worst responsibilities of her job.

"Think about it. It's your choice, but trust us, you want to do it." Chloe said simply.

Suddenly, a customer appeared, so chat time was over. Rose went about the rest of her shift doing her various tasks, but all her mind could think about was the prospect of working completely naked on her birthday.