When I got off, a salesman come up to me, he said, "Now, what can I do for you"

Kim felt a little bit guilty. Yes, she had to get to work, but she probably shouldn’t have ditched Dani with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin the way she did. That was a bit rude and slimy, and she’d definitely try to find some way to make it up to her.

On the other hand, she’d already been pretty exhausted physically and mentally, and if she’d stayed, she would have been roped into exploring sexual self-pleasure with her lesbian roommate and an assassin who didn’t have a very firm grasp on personal boundaries.

Kim could see the writing on the wall there, and didn’t think that would end well for her, so she’d booked it.

She sighed and slumped over the counter. “I’ll do something nice for her,” she decided. “Maybe let her use the room sometime so she can have a nice night in with Carly.”

Before the exhausted clerk could finalize her plans for making things up to her roommate, the bell over the door rang, signaling that she had a customer. That was pretty unusual, but at the same time, not so unusual that Kim hadn’t grown to expect it.

“Yes, welcome, what can I-”

She went pale as a sheet when she saw who stepped through the door.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin strolled into the boutique with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her lips.

Kim swallowed and shook her head. “N-no, uh… um… wh-what are you doing here?” She stammered, trying to put on the best customer service smile she could manage. Usually that wasn’t an issue for her, but facing off with the assassin she’d just ditched a couple hours ago was really shaking her professional demeanor.

It also caused her to temporarily blank on the fact that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin couldn’t feasibly answer her question anyway.

Not that the assassin had any intention of doing that. With a strut in her step she made her way straight to the counter, not taking her eyes off Kim for a second.

“Hey! Come on!” Kim raised her hands, not sure what the other girl wanted with her. While she knew she wasn’t in any danger, she was still flustered. Dealing with personal conflicts like this wasn’t her strong suit. “If this is about ditching you with Dani, well… I-I’m just not good with that kind of stuff, okay? I’m sorry!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin stopped in front of the counter and smirked. She rested her elbows on the glass and leaned forward, cradling her chin in her hands as she gazed up at the stammering cashier.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to do anything, Kim was initially very confused.

Then she realized that maybe she was being punked.

Just as she started to calm down, the bell rang again, and she jumped. She turned to see who it was, and immediately her expression soured.

“You-!” She growled.

Vivian was holding back giggles as she entered the store, and Marley looked a little amused. Rose didn’t even bother trying to restrain herself though, and was practically laughing out loud.

“My apologies,” Vivian said, sobering up. “I couldn’t help myself. After Marley told me about how you ditched Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin with Dani to go to your job, we thought you deserved a little prank. Right?”

She turned to the assassin, who replied with a cheeky smirk and a nod of confirmation.

“Sorry, Kim,” Marley apologized, even though she was still smiling. “I know that wasn’t cool of us, but come on. You kinda had it coming for ditching Dani like that, you know.”

Kim sighed. She was angry at the girls, but she couldn’t deny that she’d been kind of a jerk this morning, leaving Dani with the bag like that. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry for ditching you, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin.”

The leather-clad woman just shrugged. She didn’t seem too bothered by it.

With that out of the way, Kim turned her scornful eyes to Vivian.

“So is that why you came here, then?” She snapped, crossing her arms over her bra-covered chest. “To play a prank on me? If so, you can leave.”

“Hey now! Why the hostility?” Vivian held up her hands. “I come in peace!”

“You came to make me piss my panties,” Kim snapped, glaring at her. “I wouldn’t exactly call that ‘peaceful’ and I don’t think many people would.”

“…Okay, fair enough, but-”

“Tell me what you want or leave.”

“Kim?”

Kim perked up when she heard Mary’s voice from the doorway, and her sour face fell away for a smile. She turned to her friend, her eyes bright.

“Oh! Mary!” She waved to the redhead. Then she winced. “…Please tell me you didn’t have anything to do with that prank…”

Mary shook her head quickly. “No! I told them not to do it! I said it was mean!”

“And I said it was stupid,” Dawn added, entering the shop after her. “They didn’t listen.”

Dawn was followed by Holly, Morgana, and Ella. Kim was actually surprised. This may have been the most people she’d ever seen in the boutique at one time!

…Something fishy was going on here.

“…So what do you guys want?” She asked, squinting at Vivian. Somehow, she figured the heiress was responsible for this whole mess. “I doubt you’re here to do clothes shopping.”

“Actually, that’s exactly why we’re here,” Vivian said with a cheerful smile. “To try on some clothes! That’s what this place is for, right? A boutique? It’s a little low-end compared to what I’m used to, but I’m sure there’s some stuff worth wearing…”

Kim’s eye twitched. But she was dealing with a prospective customer right now, so she had to be polite and courteous.

Even if Vivian was the kind of prospective customer who she wanted to hit with a truck.

“Be polite!” Mary chastised the heiress with a scowl. “Kim is a lot of help, and she does good work!” She turned to Kim and favored her with a generous smile. “Your store looks great, by the way. I’d come more often, but, well…”

She waved her hand over her outfit. It wasn’t like she could really get much mileage out of a boutique, after all.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad to see you here,” Kim said, smiling back at her. “So what kinds of clothes are you guys looking for?”

“Swimsuits, of course!” Vivian chirped. “It’s still summer, ain’t it? And that can only mean one thing, the beach!”

That… definitely wasn’t what Kim was expecting.

“Wait, so… you guys are all here to buy swimsuits, then?” She questioned, looking at the girls curiously. “Just for the beach?”

She did some quick calculations in her head. Depending on how much they were planning to spend…

A catlike smile curled up the clerk’s lips. “…I’d be happy to help you find whatever you need,” she purred.

“Well gee! How nice of you!” Vivian chirped. The tone of her voice almost made Kim reconsider in a second. As much as she wanted to make a sale, as many sales as she could, Vivian just had a way of absolutely pissing her off.

But she had to control herself. If she flew off the handle and drove away the other woman, that certainly wouldn’t be good for business, would it?

Of course not.

“Mary, don’t tell me you’re planning to buy a swimsuit too?” Kim pushed herself to stop giving the heiress any consideration, and turned to the redhead with a curious look. “I mean, you’re kind of locked into those clothes, right?”

Because of the nature of Kim’s schoolgirl transformation, she could technically still wear swimsuits. They were humiliating and juvenile school swimsuits that looked like they belonged in some creepy fetish catalogue, but they still fulfilled the technical requirement of being a swimsuit.

But she was pretty sure the same didn’t apply to Mary.

Mary blushed and shook her head. “Well, uh…”

She glanced over at Vivian, and that answered Kim’s question in a second.

“…Oh, gotcha,” she nodded. “You’re gonna use her New Style transformation, I should have guessed.”

“Of course she is!” Vivian laughed. “It wouldn’t be much of a beach party if she was stuck in those white trash rags all day.”

“Rags?!” Mary’s jaw dropped.

“Wait, beach party?” Kim frowned. “What’s this about a beach party?”

“Oh? Didn’t we tell you? My mistake, I assumed you’d already gotten the hint,” Vivian said with a laugh. “Yeah, tomorrow we’re throwing a beach party! All us girls, plus Nick, of course.”

“Assuming he says yes,” Dawn interjected. “Which still has not been confirmed.”

Vivian rolled her eyes and waved her hand, not seeing Nick’s agreement as that big of an obstacle to overcome.

Kim frowned, still not convinced. “Tomorrow’s his day with Carly, right? Don’t you think he’d prefer to do something with her? I mean, she’s already going to be sharing her night with another girl, you don’t think she’d want a bit of him to herself? Marley?”

She looked at Marley, who she figured would know her sister better than anyone.

Marley just sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah, you’d think so, right?” She muttered, shaking her head. “But I guess my sister is more concerned about having fun on the beach. She and Dani are both in on the party it seems.”

“…Huh…” Kim shrugged. It made sense that Carly would want to party, she seemed like that kind of girl. Still, though… Nick hadn’t actually agreed to go along with it.

“A bunch of hot girls in swimsuits on the beach?!” Holly squealed. “Oh, he’ll just adore it! He’ll have so much fun! I’m so excited!”

Vivian chuckled. “That’s a gal who knows what she’s talking about,” she agreed, crossing her arms and nodding. “So that just leaves you, Kimmy. What do you think?”

“DO NOT call me that,” Kim snapped, glaring with disgust at the arrogant heiress.

As for Vivian’s proposal itself, well…

Kim cleared her throat. “I… I don’t know, I mean…”

“You’re not gonna come?” Mary looked dejected.

Kim winced. “I mean, well… I-I gotta work, you know! I’ve gotta do my job, it’s not like this is negotiable or something!”

“Come on, this place?” Vivian scoffed. “Take it from an expert at playing hooky, nobody’s going to care if you skip one day at a place like this.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can hook with the best of them,” Kim snapped, crossing her arms and cocking her hip to the side. “But some of us have to work to earn our money, we didn’t have Dakota hand us 3100 BP on a silver platter!”

“Hey come on, that’s not on me!” Vivian said, rolling her eyes. “That’s, like, not even the most I could have gotten! I came in third in that poll, you know!”

“And?” Kim wasn’t really that open to arguments from a woman who had never gone to bed hungry before in her life.

It was clear to the other girls that they’d reached a bit of an impasse here.

Of course, Rose was happy to chime in with her own idea.

“You know, you could always use that new transformation of yours,” she pointed out. “What was it again? Sick Day?”

“Oh, that’s right, she does have that one,” Dawn nodded.

• Sick Day: Kim is usually a hard worker, but everybody needs a sick day every now and then. Kim may use this transformation to get out of any obligations to transformations she has for an entire day, but as a result, will obtain a minor punishment transformation that will last for the entirety of her sick leave. [NOTE: Physical transformations are excluded. Consecutive uses will cause the punishment transformations to stack.] (Slacker)

Kim sucked in air through her teeth and scowled, no longer even pretending to wear the veneer of a dignified employee.

“…I don’t want to do that,” she replied. “Who knows what kind of transformation Dakota’s going to punish me with? No, it’s better if I just keep working. That way, at least, I can make some money. So with that in mind, can we please get back to buying you all some swimsuits?”

Mary frowned. “But Kim… it won’t be the same without you there!”

“Yeah!” Morgana nodded in agreement. “Please? This is supposed to be fun for everybody! Are you really just going to avoid it?”

“They raise valid points,” Rose agreed. She looked unusually serious for once. “Kim, we’re all trying to include you here, because we want to spend time with you. You can take one day off, right? To spend time with everybody as a group? Having fun?”

Kim looked at her, shocked. She could probably count the number of meaningful conversations she’d had with Rose on one hand, and even she was trying to convince her to go along with this?

That… wow, that was really strange.

“This really means so much to you guys?” She asked, still hesitant. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t have loved to have a day off work- of course she would have! But risking a punishment transformation, even a temporary one, for something so minor…

“…Eh, forget it, it’s fine,” Vivian said, cutting Kim off before she could finish thinking through the situation.

Kim looked at her with a tense and wary expression.

“…Huh?”

“I said, it’s fine,” Vivian replied, giving Kim a shrug. “You don’t want to come, that’s okay. We’re not gonna **** you or anything. I mean, if you’d rather spend all day working, even though you won’t be making any sales because the rest of us are at the beach, that’s your choice.”

“Huh?!” Mary gasped in distress.

“You sure about that?” Marley was surprised. She expected Vivian to fight a little harder. But maybe Kim was right, and the heiress really just didn’t care one way or the other.

“I suppose we’ll just have to call the whole thing off, then,” Vivian continued with an exaggerated sigh. “If we can’t get everyone together to have some fun, what’s even the point?”

“Huh!? Nobody said you had to cancel it on my account,” Kim said, thoroughly confused.

Vivian ignored her and turned to Mary. “Sorry about this,” she apologized, her voice overflowing with melodrama. “I really wanted a fun beach day, but I guess there’s no point. So we might as well not even buy any swimsuits today, since there won’t be a party.”

Kim glared at her. Oh. So THAT’S how it is, huh?

“Wh-what are… oh.” Mary scowled when she realized what Vivian was insinuating.

“…Of course,” Vivian purred, leaning back over the counter and twirling her brown fringe, “if we didn’t have to cancel, then I’m sure we’d be thrilled to buy some swimsuits from your shop, Kim. I do just love blowing excessive amounts of money on clothes, as I’m sure you know.”

“What a surprise, a billionaire using their wealth to extort something, that’s never happened before,” Kim sneered sarcastically.

Vivian just smirked.

“I think we’re all getting a little too worked-up here,” Rose said, trying desperately to mediate the situation. And when she was the one doing it, that meant things were bad.

“Rose is right, let’s all take a step back and calm down, okay?” Dawn agreed, glancing warily at Kim and Vivian. “Vivian, if Kim doesn’t want to come, that’s her choice. We can’t just **** her to do it.”

“I know that,” Vivian replied. “But… maybe we should? Just a little? It’s clear that Kimmy here is allergic to self-care. I’d think a doctor would know better than anyone the importance of taking a break every now and then, right?”

If Vivian thought that Dawn would be sympathetic to the concern of someone overworking themselves, she would be very wrong. Dawn loved to overwork herself as a matter of course. It was one of the qualities in Kim she found most admirable, in fact.

She didn’t say that, though.

“I agree with Dawn, we shouldn’t **** her,” Mary sighed, shaking her head. As much as she wanted Kim to come play on the beach with them, if Kim wanted to do something else with her time, that was her business, not theirs.

Kim looked at Mary’s dejected faces, and then at the other girls. They all seemed uncomfortable about the situation- except Vivian, of course. Even Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin seemed more put off than the heiress.

“…This really means so much to you guys?” Kim sighed, scratching her head. “Fine. I’ll do it, I’ll come. But not because you tried to extort me, got it?” She glared at Vivian, who backed away from the counter with her hands in the air. “…I’m doing this for Mary and the others.”

“Hey, sorry, I’m just trying to get you to take a break, that’s all,” Vivian said. “Because it looks like you’re running yourself ragged here. Take some time off. Live for yourself! Are you going to be working on your day with Nick, too?”

“Maybe,” Kim stubbornly replied.

Whelp, no accounting for that.

“…Let me make it up to you,” Vivian said, flashing a smile. “I really do want us to be friends, Kim.”

She was so sincere, she even used Kim’s name! Wow! That meant absolutely nothing to Kim whatsoever!

“…Shall we move on to checking out the swimsuits?” Kim pushed aside her feelings for the moment and allowed her smile to return. “We’ve got quite a nice selection, and all very reasonably priced, as well! Clothing designed to appeal to the master can always be found at a good bargain!”

“Ooh, I want to do a fashion show!” Rose declared, and Kim froze in place.

“A fashion show? Ooh, what’s that?” Vivian’s eyes sparkled with intrigue.

“Rose, shut up!” Kim hissed. “Don’t ruin this for me!”

“…Sorry,” Rose said, looking apologetically at Kim. “But I need the BP, Kim. You know I do! I can’t afford a swimsuit!” She raised her hand to her blonde hair, which she already started to fear was getting shorter. Carly’s transformation couldn’t be wearing off already, right? She should still have a few more hours left!

Kim looked like she wanted to scream and cry at the same time. But she hid it all behind the **** smile on her face.

She had a job to do, so she had to explain. She didn’t have a choice.

“The way the fashion show works,” she began, reining in her anger, “is that you girls can model clothing for our catalogue. Anything you model and allow us to use, will be given to you for free as compensation. Understood?”

“Oh, I see!” Vivian brightened and nodded. “So in other words, rather than buying the clothes, we can just show ‘em off to the audience and then we don’t have to pay!”

“…Yes,” Kim confirmed, resisting every impulse in her body to strangle the heiress. “That’s how it works.”

“I see. Well, no, none of that, please.”

“Eh!?” Kim gasped in shock, and nearly fell over. She wasn’t the only one stunned by that.

“Wh-what!? But you don’t have to pay!” Rose pointed out. “You get the clothes for free!”

“Yeah, but so what?” Vivian shrugged. “I don’t care about that. Tell ya what! Since I’m the host of this ol’ sock hop, why don’t you gals pick out what you want, and I’ll pay for it all? That way, you don’t have to worry about spending any of your own BP, like you three, Mary, Marley, Holly, who don’t actually have any. And Rose, you don’t have to worry about your hair, either!”

Nobody there could believe what Vivian was proposing, and least of all Kim.

“I-I don’t get it,” she said, studying Vivian suspiciously, trying to figure out the other woman’s angle. “You know you don’t have to pay, right? If you model the clothes, you can just get them all for free?”

Vivian shrugged. “…So you’re saying you want me to do that?”

Kim turned red. “W-well, no, of course I don’t want that, but-”

“Great, then stop complaining!” Vivian clapped her on the shoulder and flashed a dazzling smile. “We’ve got some clothes to try on!”

She dragged Kim after her to the swimsuit section, while the other girls just followed along in confusion.