Florence agrees!

Florence closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding it a moment longer than normal, gritting her teeth. Even though her eyes were closed she could feel her mother's tense anticipation, perhaps she even heard the slightest tremble ring through the keyring her mother was holding - either the result of nervous anticipation or a jangling of reward before someone on the brink of making a decision, Florence couldn't tell.

Finally, she let out the breath in a sigh. "Okay," she almost whispered, letting go of the pillow and letting it fall to the floor, exposing her pale lean, naked body, her perky breasts and her messy brown bush, her flat, tight tummy and her smooth hips. She opened her eyes to see her mother beaming a smile full or pride and relief. Florence reached out and took the key fob, the weight of it sending a little shiver of excitement through her. "I want all new makeup, a rug for my room, a complete new wardrobe, a new purse, a new computer, shoes a and a robe for around the house."

"In order," her mother said, dropping her smile and holding up a finger, both a means of punctuating her seriousness and as a warning. "Yes to the makeup, plus a makeover with manny-petty and hair salon; yes to the rug, plus a new bedspread with matching curtains; yes to the wardrobe, but it will all be within the various dress codes of your school, the neighbourhood and local businesses; yes to the purse, that and other accessories are part of the wardrobe; yes to the new computer; no to the shoes - after the school year is done, if you're good and you get good grades we can discuss getting you some shoes for when you aren't on campus; maybe on the robe, if we can find one that meets the dress code of the homeowners association, but I make no promises." Charlotte took a deep breath and let it out slowly, pausing to let her daughter process her proposal. Then, she lowered her hand, holding it out for a handshake to cement the deal.

Florence regarded her mother's hand, shifted her weight from one foot to the other, fiddling with the key fob, thinking. She looked back up to her mother, looking her in the eyes and tried to look as steely and determined as her mother always did. "And I want mommy-daughter spa days to be a biweekly thing."

"If you mean fortnightly, and not twice weekly, then yes, that sounds delightful."

Damn, Florence thought, she caught that. Before Charlotte was Mayor, she was a lawyer, specializing in drafting corporate contracts. Florence nodded and reached out to shake her mother's hand, firmly. "Deal."

"Oh, sweety!" Charlotte pulled Florence in for a delighted hug, unable to keep the joy and relief out of her voice.

Florence, awkward at first, embraced her mother and tried to let the last vestiges of her anger go. She tried to, additionally, get over the strangeness of embracing another woman while both of them were fully naked. The top of Florence's breasts squishing into the bottom of Charlotte's much larger breasts, which themselves squished against Florence's collar and chin, was strange, yet oddly, primally, comforting. She fully embraced her mother, bare arms on bare backs, before she felt her mother grip her shoulder and pull away, giving Florence's bare shoulders an affectionate squeeze as she gave Florence a kiss on her forehead.

"So, do you want to go now?"

"Uh," Florence's happy expression crumbled a little as her hands began to creep back toward covering her breasts and bush.

"Oh, no, none of that now, no backsliding," Charlotte scolded gently, gripping Florence's wrists, pulling them to her daughter's sides. "Now come on, we need to peel off this bandaid right away or else you're just going to dread it more. We should go get lunch and do some initial shopping, we can do something about that hair along the way. Now, go get your purse and put some deodorant on and let's go see your new car. I'll call the spa and let them know we're coming." She turned her daughter around to face the stairs and gave her a little encouraging pat on the behind - meaning to encourage Florence to get going, but only serving to remind Florence how bare and exposed her butt truly was.

Aside from this sending a little shiver through Florence, she did as she was told and hurried up the stairs to her room.

Back in her room, she lifted an arm and sniffed herself, groaning. Did she have time to take a shower? No, she realized, she agreed with her mother's assessment, she needed to get this done as soon as possible, to get it over with if nothing else. She found her gym bag, extracted and applied some deodorant to her hairy underarms.

Then she found her one remaining purse, a small pink Hello-Kitty clutch she had had since Junior High. It was her only clutch and the only purse that fit with the new school uniform, which disallowed backpacks and purses that could be worn, even if just over the shoulder or on student's backs. They argued that since they were transitioning away from physical textbooks to tablets, students wouldn't need to carry so much around anyway.

The clutch purse was beat up, scratched, stained, the cheap plastic coming apart in places and the metal clasp was badly oxidized. That, and it was barely large enough to hold Florence's phone. As soon as she got her new purse she would be transferring the contents of this broken pink abomination and throwing the old thing in the garbage.

She attached her house key to the key fob and put it in the little pink nightmare. Additionally, she put in her phone, her wallet (making sure her driver's license was in there), her school uniform (a neck ribbon in the school colours with a metal clasp at the back), her lip balm, a pen, a small notepad and... Nothing else. As she tried to get a small pack of tissues into the beaten up pink plastic disaster she realized it was too small. Her cell phone charger and makeup were out of the question. Finally, she removed the notepad and the pen and inserted a few loose tissues and her ear pods and called it good.

Turning to leave, purse in hand, she stopped when she saw her reflection in the mirror on the back of her bedroom door. Assessing herself for a moment, she struck a pose, standing on her tip toes as though she were wearing heels, like her mother, and tried to hold herself in such a way as to emulate her mother's confidence: head high, chin slightly up, shoulders level and back, chest out, hips slightly cocked, hands held with elegant, assured poses, the hand she held her purse resting on her hip. It was hard to emulate her mother when her hair was such a mess, her bush and pits were overgrown and she was wearing no makeup, but she tried. She took a few strutting steps toward the mirror and tried to imagine herself walking around campus, totally naked and barefoot, some fancy new designer clutch in one hand, tablet in the other, her uniform worn proudly on her neck.

The thought, superimposed over the reflection of her naked, unashamed body in front of her, gave her a funny feeling in her stomach, and between her legs... Something... She moaned softly... But no time to think about that now!

She threw open her bedroom door hurried down the stairs, arriving at the front door just as her mother was hanging up the phone.

"Alright," Charlotte said, putting her phone back in her clutch. "We're all set. You ready?"

Florence nodded emphatically, wanting to get this over with, trembling with nervous energy as her mother opened the door.

The chill November air cut through Florence instantly, and she shivered, bouncing on her toes like an athlete ready to start a race. Her mother, wearing heels, took several elegant steps outside and towards the driveway, swinging her hips as she always did, her bare butt cheeks swaying and pumping rhythmically with the clacking of her shoes.

Florence dashed after her, awkward on her bare feet, padding first over the scratchy doormat and then onto cement and then onto the cold grass.

Before she reached the driveway, though, she stopped in flabbergasted amazement as what she saw parked in the driveway.