The alarm sounded, 3am Sunday morning, a soft mumbling groan emanated from beneath the pink bed sheets and a slender arm reached out gently, the hand flapping around in the air trying to find the repetitive noise that had rudely awoken her.
The hand grabbed at the round ball shaped alarm and in one swift move flung it across the room hitting the far wall silencing its cries. Ten minutes later the alarm cried out again and two arms reached out from the covers pulling them down to her waist. The strawberry blonde teenager stretched out, pushing her arms out wide, a thin smile appearing on her lips.
“First day.” she muttered quietly to herself and slid out of bed, her feet slipping straight into a pair of neatly positioned slippers.
Standing up she reached round and pulled her pink boy shorts out from her small round bottom and shuffled around the big double bed with her eyes still closed. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she walked down the corridor of the old Tudor house complete with warped floor boards towards the bathroom and shut the door.
Precisely twenty minutes later Amie emerged from the bathroom refreshed and clean. Wrapped tightly in a little bath towel, she looked at the clock on the wall. 15 minutes to get ready and out the door. Amie dropped the towel and stopped briefly to watch herself in the full length mirror. She stood hands on hips staring at her own reflection, her eyes scanned down from her neck and shoulders to her perfectly round 34b chest. She loved her breasts, her hands slipped underneath and softly pushed them up then let them fall again smiling to herself. With her hands on her waist she slowly turned round and looked over her shoulder at her round bottom. She frowned and sighed. She had always wanted a small bottom like all the other girls not this full round thing that followed her around sticking out, but it fitted her body perfectly.
She looked at the digital clock, 3:30am, sighed and walked over to the chest of draws where she kept her underwear neatly placed in rows, separated into sections by colour and style. Amie opened the chest of draws and peered inside the top draw………… NOTHING!! There was no underwear at all, no thongs no bras no panties. Nothing. Just an empty draw. She opened up the other draws checking frantically for anything. “Where are they?” A hint of desperation in her voice now.
Suddenly it dawned on her and clutching the towel tightly to her chest she raced downstairs. Rascal the white and black collie cross looked up nonchalantly as Amie stepped over him ignoring his whimpers and wagging tail and headed straight for the cellar, her towel flapping open behind.
A slight tug at her chest stopped her abruptly in her tracks. She looked down and saw her towel had separated, exposing her whole lower body. Looking round behind her and seeing Rascal with the end of the towel in his mouth, his tail wagging quickly, she whispered, “Rascal let go. NOW!!”. He paid no attention to her and lowered his front legs arching his back downwards his front paws in a wide stance ready to pull. “I can’t play now, really please let go, there’s a good dog.” she whispered as loudly as she dared.
With lightning quick reflexes Rascal whipped the towel off completely and before she could react scrapped it into a ball, raised his lips as if smiling back at her and promptly plonked himself down right on top of it! She immediately covered herself, one hand between the thighs the other across her breasts. She gave up the towel. There was no point wasting time on it as Rascal was not going to give it up without a struggle and that would wake the rest of the house.
Amie opened the door to the cellar. When her bare feet connected with the cold stone steps, she shivered. Amie had always hated the cellar and its cold stone floors, the nooks and crannies. She always felt like she was being watched by something or someone. She tried to laugh off her fears as being silly. She was 18 now, not a little girl anymore. She breathed deeply and strode down the steps, turned the corner and flicked on the little light switch. The light blinked a few times then came on and she stepped lightly across the floors to the washing machine.
A note rested on top “Amie, I had a slight problem with the washing machine. It keeps cutting out during cycles. Dad will look at it in the morning. Love Mum P.s If you’re short of underwear then maybe next time you won’t leave it so long to wash your things!!” Amie stared at the note in disbelief, shook her head and screwed it up launching it across the cellar in disgust, more at herself than anyone else. How could she have been so stupid?
Making her way back upstairs she opened up the draws again hoping to find something she had missed. Nestled at the back of the draw was her pink string bikini. Grabbing it she slid the bottoms up her toned thighs shaking her head. Could she get away with this? This would surely show up under her white outfit, wouldn’t it? There was no time to think about it now. “It will have to do.” she said to herself.
She slipped on her jeans, t-shirt and a hooded top and took off down the stairs and left the house into the cold night air and its eerily quiet darkness.
The Mini Cooper sped along the narrow roads twisting and turning before hitting the ring road that surrounds the town. A few minutes later Amie turned into the multi storey carpark that joined onto the big shopping centre.
Dan Harding leaned up against the wall opposite the entrance waiting. From there he had a good view of anyone arriving. He looked at his watch. 3:53am. She should be here soon. He hoped she would see the funny side of what the others had planned. Not many had the stomach or bottle to “run the shop” these days.
He watched as a young girl approached the entrance, then stopped, then looked around puzzled. “This must be her.” he thought and stepped from his hiding place.
“Hi, are you the new girl?” he said extending his hand out towards her.
“Yes. Hi… I’m Amie, Amie Knoode.” She almost cringed every time she had to say that and it always brought a smile to people’s faces.
“Hi Amie. I’m Dan. I’ll be showing you the ropes today. Lets go inside and sort you out some whites.” Amie followed Dan through the large double door, “This door leads on to the back of the bakery.” Dan smiled, “Just further along here you have our store room and changing rooms.” Dan took Amie down towards the changing rooms and through the small door at the end where he flicked on a light.
The room was just a series of different lockers on either side of the room; at the back was a door marked toilet.
“The right hand side lockers are where our new whites are put each week. Every baker gets a locker with their whites in.” Dan showed Amie a small key, then opened a locker at the bottom. Pulling out one pair of trousers and top he handed them over.
Amie held out the trousers in front of her and carefully looked them over inspecting every square foot of fabric.
“Problems?” asked Dan, quickly noticing the troubled look on Amie’s face.
“N…n..no.” Amie stuck her arm down the trouser leg.
“Don’t worry.” Dan laughed, “Only bright underwear shows up.” Dan walked out the door shouting back at Amie, “I’ll wait for you out here.” Then shut the door behind him.
Amie sarcastically whispered the phrase “Only bright underwear shows up.” before shaking her head and sighing just a single word “Great!”.
She slipped off her trainers and unbuttoned her jeans, then slid them off carefully folding them up and placing them in the empty locker in front of her. She tried the trousers on. They were a little long in the leg but with a few turn-ups she could work with them. But they were also big in the waist, about two sizes too big, and slipped down to her hip bones without her holding them up.
Amie put the rest of her things in the locker and slipped the top over head. It was a simple t-shirt with a collar and a button at the top. It was massive and came down to mid-thigh on her. She laughed. ‘At least if my trousers fall down no one will see anything.’ she thought.
“DANNNNNNNN!?” Amie called out sticking her head round the door.
“What is it?” he asked taking a look at her. “Okay, so it’s a little big then.” he smiled. “Not to worry.” he winked before rummaging in a box near the wall and pulling out a length of string.
Dan fed the string through two belt loops and pulled them tight and tied a knot.
“Better?”