I don't know why all the trees change in the fall, but I know you're not scared of anything at all

It took some doing, but eventually everyone got together and bought some clothes for Emmy.

Considering Morgana had chipped in 800 BP, it seemed poor form for anyone to put in any less than that. Except for Vivian; the heiress had been happy to do so, but when Dani pointed out how she was already running pretty low on BP as it was, maybe she could just contribute by coordinating the outfits Emmy chose.

“Aw, Dani!” Vivian placed her hand over her chest, swooning a little. “I didn’t know you cared so much! I guess we’re finally really bonding as roommates!”

She said it with a cheeky smile on her face, but Dani swore she heard genuine joy in the other girl’s words.

“I think you’re reading too much into it,” Kim called from the counter. She was resting her chin on her hands and wearing a wry smirk. “Dani doesn’t want you to spend your money here because she’d rather you make some more investments into other girls’ breasts.”

Dani’s jaw dropped and her face turned red. “What!?”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense!” Sylvia giggled. “And that way she can have fun with ‘em when she entices the girls into Daddy’s bed! It’s all coming together now!”

“WHAT?!” Dani nearly fell over in shock.

Carly frowned. “Can we not talk about that kind of stuff around my daughter, please?” She insisted. “I’d rather she not be exposed to that sort of- …Oh, who am I kidding?” Carly sighed in exasperation and shook her head. She rubbed her temples and smiled a resigned smile. “This is that kind of show, after all.”

“Plus, you know… you’re you,” Marley pointed out. “You really think you can shield Emmy for all this stuff while you’re… you know?”

Marley wasn’t trying to call out her sister or talk down to her, but at the same time, she knew how Carly could get, and as the shine wore off and she got more comfortable in her role as Emmy’s mother Marley fully expected her to “let down her guard” and mention some things offhand that would make anybody blush with embarrassment to hear their mother say.

Carly seemed to realize that herself, judging by the sheepish look she gave her sister, followed by the inability to look the other woman in the eye.

Kim drummed her fingers on the counter. “So… we gonna get to purchasing now, or…?”

She had a date to get to, after all. “I’ve only got another hour or so on the clock, and the way you guys are dragging this out…”

“Yes, we’re buying,” Carly said hastily. She drew her finger in a circle around herself, Sylvia, and Dani. “At least, we are, anyway. For Emmy, I mean. Vivian…”

“Hmm?” Vivian rejoined the group with a bundle of clothes in her arms. “Oh, this is for the fashion show later!” She chirped.

Kim gave her a testy look and rolled her eyes. So much for all her talk before about respecting Kim’s job and wanting her to be fairly compensated or whatever it was she’d said before the beach party.

“Just selling the act,” Vivian mouthed past the other girls to her.

Kim rolled her eyes again.

“Okay, well, let’s get you all settled up, then,” Kim said, running the numbers. “I’ll pitch in my half, too, so the total comes out to… oh, well, you guys really did it. Wow. Got it right in the perfect amount and everything!” She was actually surprised they’d gotten it divided so evenly.

“All thanks to my shrewd sense of shopping,” Vivian said with a toothy smile. “…Dani helped some, too.”

“A little bit,” Dani hastily clarified. Her face got hot.

“Right, sure,” Kim nodded. “Okay, well, if you’re all going to pool your money together, and you already got some from Morgana, then…”

Carly: 11300 BP – 1600 BP = 9700 BP

Dani: 5600 BP – 800 BP = 4800 BP

Sylvia: 8500 BP – 800 BP = 7700 BP

As for Kim, her numbers didn’t change at all because she was covering half; she lost as much as she put back in. In the back of her mind she wondered if Dakota was going to get her for that; it seemed kind of like she was bending the rules a bit here. But without Sylvia saying anything as a former host, and given that Dakota wasn’t stepping in to say she couldn’t do it, she didn’t hesitate.

But she fully expected Dakota to fling it in her face the next time they spoke. After all… she had some choice words for the wicked woman before her date with Nick, and she expected that Dakota would want to speak with her, as well.

“You guys sure about this?” Carly asked, in the dark about Kim’s current dilemma. She was focused on the money Dani and Sylvia were putting up. “Dani, 800 BP is a lot for you…”

“Oh please, what, am I gonna have a Dream Alley date with Nick?” Dani waved her hand dismissively and rolled her eyes, snorting. “Come on, Vivian was talking out of her ass before. I’m not giving you the money so you’ll like me, that was all in her head. That’s like saying I was donating to your LonelyFans channel because I thought you would actually go out with me! Pfft. Ridiculous.”

“Well, that’s good, at least,” Vivian laughed.

In total, the clothes for Emmy had added up 6400 BP, counting what Kim had put in. It was quite a sizeable amount; Kim was pretty sure it was the most BP spent at the boutique on one person since she started working here.

But Emmy needed a lot of clothes. And surprise surprise, Carly thought every last thing they tried on was a good fit for her daughter.

“Now that I’m looking at it…” Emmy felt a little shaky when she saw the pile of clothing stacked in boxes on the cart. Luckily they had Dani and her boosted strength, because it would be a nightmare hauling all this back to their room. “Maybe we went a little overboard?”

She still didn’t have a very firm grasp of the show and its rules. Was the amount of BP that the others had spent on her a lot? Because it sure felt like a lot…

“Emmy, it’s fine!” Carly said, grinning from ear to ear. “I just want you to have nice things, that’s all! Come on now. Is that so wrong?”

Emmy shook her head. She supposed it wasn’t. Still… “…Thanks, mom.” The fact that Carly seemed so happy was enough for her. If her mother could buy her all these clothes (with some help from her friends) because Emmy looked happy when trying them on, then she could be happy she got them. It was only fair in her eyes.

“This is gonna be so great!” Sylvia pressed the tips of her fingers together. “Of course, it’s gonna be a pain to find room in our closet for all of these, my girl.”

Emmy laughed. That certainly was true, wasn’t it.

“Well, let’s get all this back,” Dani said, pushing the cart towards the door. “Don’t see why I have to do this when we’ve got a kryptonian here, but…”

“Oh come on, Dani, we both know that between the two of us, you’re the real Supergirl,” Carly said. She flashed a playful smile that made Dani blush.

The tomboy couldn’t really argue when her girlfriend put it like that, could she?

“You coming with?” Dani turned to Vivian, who dumped her stack of clothes on the counter to purchase them. “We can wait up for you, if you want.”

“Oh come on now, no need to be polite,” Vivian laughed, waving her hand. “Do you know how long it’s going to take to model these? I’ll be here longer than Kim! You gals don’t need to wait up for me, we can hook up later!”

She waved her fingers at the group in a “shoo, shoo” motion and turned back to the counter.

Dani didn’t need to be told twice; this cart wasn’t getting any lighter. She headed out with the others, leaving Vivian alone with her purchases and Kim.

“So you’re really gonna model this much stuff, huh?” Kim said, trying not to sound as tired as she felt. They’d be here for a while. “So much for respecting my hard work.”

“Nah, like I told you, it was just to sell the ruse,” Vivian said, smacking the mountain of clothes sitting in front of her. “These are nice, but I’m not interested in buying anything today.”

“Oh, uh…” Kim glanced at the mountain of clothes. She sighed. “…You realize that I have to put all this stuff back now, right? If you’re not going to actually buy it?”

Vivian shrugged. “But what were you doing with the rest of your shift today, anyway?” She asked pointedly.

Kim opened her mouth to reply, but realized that Vivian kind of had a point.

“Uh… fair enough,” she begrudgingly admitted, scratching her head. “Fair enough…”

Vivian walked over to one of the wide benches for trying on shoes, and plopped down on it, kicking out her legs with a playful grin on her face. “Don’t let me get in your way! Working gal.”

Kim stared incredulously at the heiress. “…Seriously? You’re not even going to help me?”

“You’re the one getting paid for this, I’m not,” Vivian pointed out. It wasn’t like hanging up clothing was her job.

“No! I’m not!” Kim pointed out.

Vivian blinked. “…Good point,” she admitted, hopping to her feet. “Sure, I’ll help out then! Two pairs of hands are faster than one, after all!”

Kim hated to admit it, but things did go faster with Vivian helping out. The heiress knew her way around the boutique, even though she’d only been there a few times. It was like she had memorized the entire layout of the store, knowing exactly where everything she’d picked out went.

It was… frustratingly impressive.

“I hate to say it, but you’re good at this,” Kim said. “You ever thought of putting aside those designs of yours and actually getting your hands working on the sales floor for once?” She meant that sarcastically, mostly.

“Never really had the knack for it,” Vivian said, shaking her head. “Sales, I mean.”

Kim nearly dropped the bra she was hanging up. “…Seriously? Don’t you run a multi-billion dollar industry group? The whole fucking point of those is sales.”

“My numbers speak for themselves,” Vivian fired back. “Completely different game than working the floor and trying to move product. I know what I can do, and what I can’t. And believe it or not, people consider me pushy. A pushy salesgirl isn’t going to get many customers.”

She wasn’t wrong there, Kim had to admit.

“Really, pushy? I’m shocked,” she said sarcastically.

Vivian responded with a laugh.

The girls finished up, and Kim checked the clock. That was faster than she’d expected. Still plenty of time left before her date.

More than enough time to confront Dakota with her plans.

…One problem, though. Vivian was still hanging around.

“…You can go now,” Kim said, looking at the heiress and raising her eyebrow. “We’re finished.”

“I know!” Vivian returned to her seat, and looked up into Kim’s eyes. “That’s not why I’m sticking around.” She shook her head.

Now Kim was confused. “What? Then why?”

Vivian’s face turned into a tight smile. There was a shadow across her gaze, as if she was taking this seriously. “…I want to see the confrontation,” she said solemnly. “I have a feeling it’s going to be important.”

Kim bristled. “…I don’t know what you mean.”

Vivian narrowed her eyes. She didn’t want to push things, but at the same time, her relationship with Kim couldn’t exactly get worse. “I’m a perceptive girl,” she said calmly. “I saw you and Sylvia talking. And I saw that look in your eye when you were.”

Kim crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “What look? There was no look.”

Vivian clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I know the look. You care about her, Sylvia. And that anger? It was just for a second. But you’re going to call out Dakota, isn’t that right? See, Marley did the same thing earlier this morning, and that was… yeah. Big blowup.”

So Kim wasn’t the only one who had considered confronting Dakota about her awful treatment of Sylvia. On the one hand, Kim was grateful that Sylvia had someone else trying to stick up for her. On the other hand, it meant Dakota had already been confronted about this once today, and that meant she would be even more agitated.

This could go poorly. But Kim couldn’t care about that. Because she cared about Sylvia, and she knew Sylvia needed someone in her corner right now.

“If you wanted to talk, then we can talk.”

Kim jumped and Vivian recoiled, nearly falling off the bench. Her eyes widened and Kim turned around to see Dakota standing behind her, wearing a disinterested expression on her face.

“…Dakota.”

“I’m guessing this isn’t about you playing fast and loose with your job in the boutique, is it?” Dakota said sarcastically, tapping her cane on the floor. “When Sylvia gave you that transformation that gives you half the proceeds, it wasn’t meant to be exploited in that way.”

“One-time thing,” Kim said with an edge to her voice. “Won’t do it again, promise.”

Her words dripped in contempt. But they made Dakota smile; almost like she actually respected the contempt from the other woman.

But whatever meager respect she had, that wouldn’t last long.

“On the topic of Sylvia, though-”

“Stop talking.”

All trace of affability left Dakota’s voice. She wasn’t glaring; she didn’t appear to be angry. At least, not on the surface, anyway. She sounded completely disinterested.

But Kim wasn’t about to mistake that.

She narrowed her eyes.

“I’m not going to just brush this under the rug,” she snarled, shaking her head. “Dakota… you just don’t get it. You know? I was going to give you a pass. Before. About the whole ‘You’re not capable of doing your job because you care too much about what Nick thinks’ thing. Remember our conversation this morning? How you insinuated that if I told Nick about how you took things easy on us for his sake, and encouraged him to take advantage of that, that you’d be replaced with another host who wouldn’t be so ‘generous’ to us?”

“Wait, seriously?” Vivian’s eyes widened in surprise. She remembered the conversation that she’d had this morning with Sylvia and the others about the different kinds of hosts they’d been stuck with. She had no idea that Kim had been talking about a very similar topic herself that same morning.

Kim took Dakota’s stony silence as a signal to keep going. “Like I said, I was going to give you a pass. I’m not a gal who likes rocking the boat, and yeah, you scared me a little. I was wandering in circles all morning, not knowing whether or not I should say anything.” She scowled. “But then I thought: ‘Screw you!’ I mean, come on, Dakota, really? YOU? Acting all mopey and morose, talking about how you’re just ‘Doing what you have to do’ or whatever?”

“I’m doing my duty as the host,” Dakota said calmly. She had finally answered Kim’s call. “And you’re not wrong- I enjoy what I do quite a lot. But as for going easy on you for Nick’s sake, I don’t remember confirming that. Might that just be your little fantasy? If so, I would discourage you from following that particular train of thought.”

Kim snorted. Still trying her plausible deniability. They were so far past that.

“…Whatever. Like I said- I was considering letting you get away with that. Then I remembered… you’re a terrible person, Dakota!” Kim pointed out, feeling like a complete idiot.

Dakota had no reaction to that. She didn’t even bother trying to deny it.

“…Everything you did to Sylvia… and you want to act like you’re the victim in all this? Like you’re some tragic figure, like your hands are tied? That girl… you created her. She’s your daughter. And how have you treated her? Like she’s garbage stuck to your shoe. You’ve bullied her to the point that she just accepts what you think about her, like she’s a failure! YOU’RE the failure, Dakota! Everything you think about Sylvia, it’s actually true about you, and we both know that! You’ve been bullying her, isolating her, and condemning her, and the whole time she only ever thought about making you happy! Do you have any idea what that’s like!? To try SO HARD, and to be rejected at every turn!?”

Kim’s voice quivered and tears began to well up in her eyes. “It’s hell…” she whimpered, as Vivian looked on in stunned horror. “Living like that… not knowing why they aren’t there… wondering why they don’t care about you, if it’s something you did… but still trying to convince yourself that it’s not your fault… it’s like you tear parts of your soul off every day, and even though everyone is telling you that it’s not your fault, that they’re just a terrible person and you deserve better, you don’t really believe that… some small part of you keeps thinking ‘If only I was a better daughter… maybe, maybe then they’d…’”

She couldn’t keep going. It hurt too much. All those negative feelings she’d been bottling up for so many years just came pouring out, and she unloaded on Dakota with everything she had.

Dakota didn’t speak a single word in her defense. She stood there, stone as a statue, and let Kim hurl hate and **** at her over the treatment of her daughter.

And when it was done, and Kim couldn’t keep talking due to spending all her strength keeping her tears at bay, Dakota’s expression finally changed.

It was a shift so imperceptible that Kim barely understood what she was looking at.

“And what would you have me do about it, then?”

Kim wiped her eyes and looked incredulously at Dakota.

“Ex-excuse me?”

“Clearly, this little tantrum of yours has nothing to do with your perception of my fitness as a host,” Dakota said, sounding completely detached, as if she didn’t care at all about the massive emotional bomb Kim had just flung at her. “So tell me, what would you have me do?”

She narrowed her eyes and walked forward, her cane clacking on the ground with each step. Dakota stopped in front of Kim, and looked her deeply in the eyes.

“I understand that you hate me, and in spite of how you may view my perceptiveness, I understand completely why,” Dakota stated. “But how does raising this concern with Nick improve things, Kim? Answer me that. If it would just make things worse for everyone around you, how would that be the best course of action?”

Yeah, of course Kim understood where she was coming from. She knew how reckless it would be to actually get Nick to do those things.

“…I don’t care,” Kim muttered, shaking her head. “Maybe it would be worse… I don’t know. But it would hurt you, Dakota. And that’s good enough for me. Because if I don’t do anything, that’s like admitting you’re right, and that’s like saying that what you’ve done to Sylvia was for the greater good. And no matter what, I can’t stand the idea of that being the case. So if I have to burn everything down just to sear how much of a monster you are into everyone’s minds, then maybe that’s not such a bad idea after all.”

Vivian admired Kim for taking such a brave stand like this. It wasn’t the move she would have made. But she wasn’t so sure it was the right move, either. Yeah… I really wish I wasn’t here to see all this, Vivian thought, regretting her decision to stay now.