WSC, 2021: The Mall Elf, Conclusion*

[*Lady Lucia*]

Author's note: While it was fun winning my own contest last summer, I don't want a repeat of that experience! This entry is simply in the name of adding stories to the board via the contest, which is the ultimate goal of these contests in my eyes. I won't be including this one in the voting this time around!

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PART ONE

Alexandra had always loved Christmas. At least, until she got her first job over the holidays.

It’s easy to be full of joy when you and your friends are shopping together, or decorating cookies, or watching a movie marathon of classic Christmas films. But an afternoon of shopping with friends is different than being stuck at the mall every day, for hours at a time. When her parents insisted that she get a job for a little real world experience and to earn some of her own money for said shopping sprees, Alexandra thought she had chosen wisely.

Santa’s Workshop seemed painless, in theory. Especially compared to anything retail-related, where she had witnessed plenty of asshole men and entitled women taking out their problems on some minimum wage worker who didn’t have the power to do what they wanted. Pair that with how crazy some people can get over the holidays, and Alexandra definitely wanted nothing to do with that scene.

However, there really was no winning when it came to possible jobs for high schoolers in December. Though being a Christmas elf was fairly simplistic on paper, the reality was exhausting to the point where Alexandra really wished she had picked retail instead. For starters, the NOISE. Impatient brats, crying babies, and incessant pop Christmas music surrounded her every second of the day, and it really never turned into white noise thanks to how unpredictable and piercing each layer of noise could be over the course of an afternoon or evening. Of course, there were still asshole men and entitled women. The adult males who blatantly checked her out when they thought she wasn’t looking, or even sidled up and ‘innocently’ put a hand on her shoulder or lower back to ask a question about something while their kids reached the front of the line.

Alexandra was sixteen. Clearly underage, thanks to her annoyingly youthful features, but that didn’t stop the occasional guy from being a total creep anyway.

The entitled women weren’t quite as disgusting as the leering men were, but they were definitely more frequent. Rather than get in line, they’d make a beeline to the nearest elf available and ask if they could skip to the front. Their kids have a super important Christmas pageant rehearsal soon, or their relatives are arriving any minute and they need to get home ASAP, or their kid has some ‘condition’ that doesn’t mesh well with standing in lines. As if they’re the only ones trying to fit a mall trip into an otherwise hectic holiday season. Alexandra was normally a pretty chill girl, but this job was quickly making her jaded towards people.

There were two other awful factors about the Christmas elf gig: Amy, and Claire.

Claire was the ‘Head Elf,’ essentially meaning she was the girl there with the most seniority. Though not technically a manager, the college girl was in charge of schedules, daily duties, and pretty much everything else involving the other hired elves. The busty blonde had a habit of chastising the girls simply because she could. It was never outwardly malicious, as Claire was a master of the warm smile that came with years of faking it for a job like this. Even worse, she’d constantly undermine Alexandra’s authority around the parents and kids. “Don’t listen to the mean little elf. Of course you can go to the front of the line. It’s Christmas!” She’d swoop in and be the hero, but would never allow any of the other elves to make such a judgment call in regards to line skipping.

Then there was Amy. She was a high school sophomore like Alexandra, but basically the upgraded version. They were both brunettes with fair skin, but Amy had everything Alexandra had ever wanted. Sharper facial features instead of youthful features, more luscious hair, an extra few inches of height, and a perfect hourglass figure. Alexandra wasn’t that small, standing at 5’4 with decent B cups, and she knew full well that size didn’t actually mean anything. But when wearing identical elf outfits, it was impossible to ignore how Amy looked in comparison. However, it wasn’t her size that made Amy awful. It was the fact that they were both new hires this year, and Alexandra’s high school peer had apparently made it her mission to screw with Amy and make herself look better in comparison. Like Claire, Amy did things with a nonchalance that made it appear more like concern and less like tattling. “I wish Alexandra would smile more around the kids.” “When’s the last time Alexandra emptied the trash cans?”

A passing comment here and there, just enough to slowly make Alexandra’s job worse. If she didn’t plaster on a smile every second of the day, Claire would get on her case about it. Nine times out of ten, Alexandra was now the one to take the trash out. Her breaks were often cut short as well, no doubt thanks to something Amy said when Alexandra wasn’t around. The most baffling part was that the two girls never really had any beef with each other at school. There was no good reason for Amy to do any of this. Alexandra was convinced that her ‘better half’ was just having fun at her expense as a way to entertain herself while working. And it was way too late for Alexandra to defend herself, as she had already been subtly painted as the lazy new hire with a bad attitude.

“Hey, Amy? Alexandra? Break time,” Claire said, “I’ve got everyone’s coffee orders right here.”

She handed the folded sheet of paper to Amy, of course, and then turned to delegate something to one of the girls who just returned from their break.

“You’ve got it!” Amy smiled. She pocketed the paper and offered her hand to Alexandra. “Ready to go??”

Alexandra resisted the urge to scowl and roll her eyes. They were still in public, which meant that being on break didn’t necessarily mean she could break character. “In a minute,” she said. Ignoring the extended hand, she turned and walked away, not looking back once as she made her way to the locker room hidden in the back. Her expression finally dropped to one of annoyance once she was facing away from everyone else.

The unfortunate part was, she and Amy were the only two new hires this year compared to the rest of the girls. Not only that, but they both had A names and similar looks. For girls like Claire that didn’t really know Alexandra or her peer personally, it was easy to view them as a matched set. Alexandra would have much preferred to take her fifteen minute break with literally any of the other elves, but she was almost always sent off with Amy instead. Of course, today was worse than usual, since it wasn’t a real break. It was a coffee run that would basically eat up the full fifteen minutes. No chance to sit down or relax.

That small window of freedom was made even smaller thanks to Alexandra’s need to hit the bathroom after working nonstop all morning. She would have tried to get Amy to do the coffee run without her in the meantime, but that would probably just lead to the girl whining about how she couldn’t carry all those drinks by herself.

Just after Alexandra pulled the candy cane stockings down to her ankles and settled herself on the cool seat, the locker room door opened and the echo of boots pierced through the otherwise silent locker room. The approach was easy to hear thanks to the elf footwear, and the closed stall door no doubt gave away Alexandra’s location. She silently prayed that it would just be someone coming in to grab something or to wash their hands.

No such luck.

A moment later, Alexandra could see two elf boots that matched her own on the other side of the stall door, directly facing her. Two sharp knocks on the door made her wince in annoyance at the invasion of what should very much be a personal zone of the locker room. And then she instantly recognized Amy’s voice.

“Hey, Alexandra?”

[*Lady Lucia*]

PART TWO

Good lord.

Couldn’t she just have one second of privacy? Apparently Amy seemed determined to stay attached at the hip for their entire shift break, including a conversation through a bathroom stall. Alexandra awkwardly sat on the toilet, suddenly feeling very exposed despite having the visual protection of the door between them. There’s no way she was going to use the bathroom when her classmate could hear every little sound. That would be the definition of awkward. Lips pursed in annoyance, Alexandra replied, “What . . .?”

“You cool paying for drinks? I think I left my wallet at home.”

Of all the-
“Sure.” Rather than engage, Alexandra merely responded as curtly as possible. The elf girls would traditionally pay back the coffee runner(s) with cash or through Venmo anyway, and Amy could easily do the same. Also, this conversation could happen on the way to get those drinks, rather than in the bathroom. Hell, Alexandra would straight up pay for Amy’s coffee in exchange for a little privacy right now. She doubted that was the angle Amy was playing at, but it wouldn’t be too shocking if it was.

“Cool. Well, are you ready to go?”

“No. I still have to piss.” Rather than ‘pee,’ Alexandra opted for the harsher word in hopes that Amy would get the message. Go. The fuck. Away.

The boots on the other side of the door remained facing towards her, however, and Amy replied after a few seconds, “Well, what are you waiting for? The sooner you’re done, the sooner we can leave.”

“Amy, just wait outside! I’ll be there in a minute.”

“No way, Alexandra. You always take forever in here. Now hurry up, or we won’t make it back by the end of our break!”

Alexandra’s jaw actually dropped a bit at the nerve of this girl. That little word ‘forever’ was one of the words Claire used in regards to Alexandra’s breaks recently. It was the reason she was always dismissed with a second elf, since she wasn’t trusted to take breaks alone any more. As usual, it was extra insulting since she had always made it back on time before. Amy’s point about the locker room was true, however, but that was only because Alexandra preferred silence to the noise that would otherwise accompany her if she went anywhere else in the mall for her break.

“Guess we won’t make it back, then,” Alexandra said. She hoped the shrug came across in her voice, because it honestly wasn’t worth giving Amy the satisfaction of coercing her into doing something so awkward.

“Okay! Do you want to tell Claire why we’re late, or should I?”

At that, Alexandra actually hesitated. There was no doubt in her mind who Claire would believe. And if Alexandra tried to explain her side of the story, she could pretty easily project what Amy might say in response. ‘What? I was just grabbing some things from my locker. Alexandra was the one being all weird about everything!’ Something like that. Since a girls’ locker room is literally designed for a number of girls to be in there at once, it’s not like Alexandra had an excuse for not using the bathroom while Amy was nearby. Only the two of them would know the specifics of why it was so awkward, since Claire definitely wouldn’t be in the mood to listen. Yeah, Alexandra could risk it, but she’d then have to explain to her parents if she ended up getting fired. If not today, then fairly soon if Claire kept seeing problems with her.

“Fine? You want to be a weirdo and listen? Be my guest.”

Despite her outward confidence, Alexandra couldn’t help but lightly blush as she began peeing, knowing that her classmate would hear everything in the quiet space. But that was the least of her problems compared to what came next.

Suddenly, two hands were reaching under the stall and grabbing at the candy cane leggings bunched around her ankles. “AMY!!” Alexandra screamed. From how aggressively the tugging was, the girl seemed determined to remove the lowered garments. “Amy, stop!”

“Relax, Alexandra! I’m trying to help your boring look.”

“What the fuck, Amy?! Stop!”

It was SO awkward. Alexandra was mid-stream, and every bit of squirming just made the experience worse. The little kicks did next to nothing against Amy’s efforts. In a matter of seconds, Amy wrestled off not just Alexandra’s leggings, but her boots as well. The cheap straps popped off in the struggle, and she was left with nothing. Bare legs and bare feet.

“Amy!!” Alexandra angrily shouted. It was a public bathroom floor, so she hovered her feet above the likely dirty tile as she called out to her classmate. “What are you doing?!”

“Sorry, not sorry! This will be a better look for you, don’t worry. I’ll meet you outside!”

“Amy, wait!”

Alexandra called after her, cheeks burning as she finished doing her business after being unexpectedly and roughly stripped out of half her clothes, but it was too late. The locker room door slammed closed, leaving her alone in the locker room. “Shit. SHIT.” She swore to herself in frustration, gazing down at her totally bare lower legs below the hem of the red dress. Alexandra waited another minute or two, before realizing that she couldn’t just sit in the stall forever. This was officially no longer worth it.

Cringing in disgust, Alexandra placed her feet on the cold and probably dirty bathroom floor and opened the stall door. Her boots and leggings were nowhere in sight, and one sideways glance in the mirror made her blush darker than before. The elf dress was SHORT on her legs. Alexandra always knew the outfit tended to sexualize the girls a bit, but the leggings were what made things more appropriate. And, since she didn’t wear underwear with leggings, any wrong move might expose her. Not to mention the fact that she low key looked more like a Christmas stripper than a mall elf.

‘I’m going to kill her,’ Alexandra thought to herself.

But first, it was time to bail. Resolved to change into her street clothes and slip away without without telling Claire or anyone else, Alexandra headed right for her locker. For a moment, relief washed over her, despite her situation. She wasn’t getting fired; she was quitting. Good riddance.

But then that moment of relief ended.

As Alexandra approached her locker, she stopped short when she noticed, and her jaw dropped for the second time since her break began.

Her lock was gone. And it had been replaced with a different one.

[*Lady Lucia*]

PART THREE

Had Amy done this? And how??

For a few seconds, Alexandra yanked at the lock. She knew it was fruitless, but had to try anyway. With an annoyed groan, she whacked the locker before stepping back to plop down on the locker room bench. Alexandra brushed her hair back with both hands. What could she do? Hide in the bathroom until another girl came? She was planning on quitting anyway, so it’s not like she would care if she got in trouble for however long it took to wait. But that didn’t change the fact that her phone, wallet, and car keys were locked away. The elf outfit didn’t have any pockets, so most girls just kept their things in here.

Against her better judgment, Alexandra stood up and made her way to the locker room exit. She could at least poke her head out and see if Amy was waiting for her right outside. The difficult girl did say as much, though that could still mean literally anywhere outside the locker room. Either way, it’s not like the door opened out to Santa’s Workshop. That privacy was enough to give her the courage to peek out.

Alexandra cracked the door, using her hand and hip to keep it positioned just right, then stuck her head out to check out the back area. “Amy!” she hissed.

It didn’t take long to find the girl. Amy was perched up on a stack of unopened boxes a few feet away, one leg crossed over the other and nonchalantly checking out her nails. At the sound of Alexandra’s voice, she glanced up towards the locker room door. “Oh hey!” she exclaimed. Amy had the same energy as when she was selling the Christmas spirit to kids, practically beaming at Alexandra’s arrival. “Took you long enough! Ready to go?”

“No. I’m not.” Alexandra said. “Give my things back. And what did you do to my locker?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t have your things, Alexandra. And I have my own locker. Why would I do anything with yours?”

“I’m serious, Amy. This isn’t funny.”

“You’re right. Making me wait out here forever isn’t funny.” Amy hopped down from her small perch. The only thing on her person was a small purse, and she went so far as to give a quick spin to showcase that she didn’t have anything else. “How about this? Help me with the coffee run, and I’ll help you with your locker situation. Sound fair?”

No. It wasn’t fair. There’s no reason Alexandra should have to do anything, since Amy was the one who screwed everything up to begin with. “No, Amy,” Alexandra said, standing her ground. There was no way she was going to walk around a crowded mall while barefoot and going commando in just a skimpy skirt. “Come unlock my locker. Now.”

“Suit yourself.”

Amy just shrugged with a coy smile and began sauntering away.

The worst part was, Alexandra knew exactly what Amy was doing. She had seen the tactic in plenty of shows. The manipulative girl, walking away to ensure that the other person called after them. When watching such a scene, it was easy to claim how stupid it was from an outside perspective. When living it, however, Alexandra couldn’t take the pressure. What if Claire found her and demanded her to keep working despite the wardrobe issue? Alexandra might not have the backbone to say ‘no’ to the harsh girl. And what if Amy decided to perpetually keep the new lock there? Alexandra would have to find someone to cut or pick the lock, and she’d be without a lot of her valuables until then. Plus she’d have to prove that the locker was hers for such a person to break into it, which would require some degree of permission from Claire or Claire’s boss.

All those issues and more flashed through Alexandra’s mind. She didn’t have the time to take a breath and think about how there were some better options out there that didn’t involve playing along with Amy’s game. The time pressure made Alexandra way too hung up on the locker itself, and she found herself huffing and begrudgingly saying the words. “Amy, wait.”

“Come along, Alexandra!” Rather than stop or glance over her shoulder, Amy just kept walking.

Taking a breath to steel herself, Alexandra did just that. She stepped out of the safety of the locker room and quickly strode after the frustrating girl. Amy’s casual saunter made it easy enough to catch up, but only a few yards away from the end of the hallway that opened up to the second floor of the mall. “When we get back, you will open my locker?” Alexandra asked. She needed the clarification, as the word ‘help’ wasn’t particularly specific.

“You really should be more trusting,” Amy said, “It’s not healthy to be paranoid.”

With that, she took Alexandra’s hand like it was the most casual gesture in the world, quickly interlacing her fingers to make any escape attempt more difficult. For a moment, Alexandra thought it was in an effort to be patronizing, or perhaps to make her uncomfortable, but it was only after a few steps of begrudgingly letting Amy hold her hand that Alexandra figured out the real motive. Now she only had one hand to adjust the hem of her dress while they walked.

Part of her wanted to yank her hand free, but she also knew that Amy was pretty much holding all the cards at this point. Leggings, boots, locker. So Alexandra decided to play along for now, but doubled down on her question. “Will you, Amy?”

Amy just sighed. “Yes. I’ll open your locker. Now let’s go!”

She tugged on Alexandra’s hand and, just like that, they emerged together from the side hallway. Only Alexandra’s torso was covered, with her bare shoulders and bare thighs blatantly on display in the bright mall lighting. She felt like scurrying back into the dim hall behind her, already faintly blushing at the thought of how much skin she was displaying, but Alexandra instead found herself being pulled forward.

Toward the coffee shop, and towards countless eyes that were going to see her like this.

[*Lady Lucia*]

PART FOUR

By the time Alexandra came to her senses, she was in too deep.

Amy had already led them past a good five or ten stores. They had only walked hand in hand through the mall for a minute or so, but that had been enough to convince Alexandra that this wasn’t going to be a world ending experience. Nearly everyone around them was busy doing their own last minute Christmas shopping, and even two girls dressed as elves didn’t draw the most attention when the place was so crowded. Alexandra still couldn’t help but fidget with her skirt with the one free hand she had, but she ended up being a little more concerned about a security guard noticing her bare feet than the issue of some stranger appreciating a short skirt.

Of course, Amy had other tricks up her sleeve. No matter how briskly Alexandra walked, her needlessly vindictive coworker kept walking more quickly and insisting that they needed to hurry in order to get back on time. Alexandra struggled to match the taller brunette’s long strides, and almost stumbled once or twice when she was pulled off balance by one of Amy’s hard tugs. Any attempts at complaining were met with dismissive responses, and any attempts to liberate her hand were met with a hard squeeze and another forward tug. “I don’t want you getting lost, Alexandra!” That was the most recent response, making the shorter brunette blush as some group of girls they were passing giggled to themselves at what they no doubt assumed was a younger sister being chastised and treated like a kid despite her obviously adolescent age. She definitely caught Amy’s little smirk at the girls’ reaction.

When they reached Starbucks, however, Alexandra wished they were back out in the crowded mall. Moving. That was her best defense as they navigated through the holiday rush. Standing still while they waited in line made her feel a lot more exposed. Plenty of people were around enjoying their drinks and taking a well deserved break from shopping, and Alexandra could only imagine the judgmental comments anyone might make about her appearance. Especially with Amy standing right next to her, a shining example of how a proper mall elf should be dressed. By the time she and Amy reached the front of the line, Alexandra was beyond anxious about her surroundings. The only thing keeping her from being a nervous statue was Amy’s little hand tugs guiding her to the counter to order.

A few whispers off to Alexandra’s left made her blush yet again from the assumption that a few teens at a nearby table were talking about her. Amy’s entire coffee order was a blur, as Alexandra was too focused on their surroundings. Alexandra didn’t even notice that it was HER credit card that Amy was using, per their conversation in the locker room earlier. Kind of. ‘I'll pay for drinks’ didn’t exactly mean ‘steal my credit card,’ but the mildly exposed girl was too distracted to even notice the blatant proof that Amy was, in fact, the one who swapped her lock with a different one. And pilfered through her locker too.

Alexandra was snapped out of her nervous haze by Amy’s voice. “Hold these!” Before Alexandra could figure out what was happening, Amy gave her two full disposable coffee trays to hold. It was natural to take something that was being handed to you, and not always so easy to hand such things back. Holding eight cups of Starbucks coffee, for example, took all of Alexandra’s effort just to maintain balance.

“Amy, wait!” she exclaimed.

It was the same problem as before. Alexandra had already decided to quit, and she could theoretically just dump all this coffee into the trash. But she had to ‘survive’ until she and Amy returned to Santa’s Workshop, because leaving the mall in her current state was impossible.

Amy knew that. “Come on, Alexandra!” Similar to before, she didn’t wait. The taller brunette just smiled, patted Alexandra’s head, and walked away.

“Bitch,” Alexandra muttered to herself. She didn’t care if anyone heard.

Carefully following, Alexandra used her chest as an extra balance point for the drinks as she kept the the cardboard trays stable on her hands. The good news was, Amy wasn’t holding her hand any more. The bad news was, Alexandra couldn’t adjust her skirt. And, on top of that, she couldn’t match Amy’s stride in the slightest. Every step was a struggle, and she was already bracing herself for somebody in a rush to push past her and potentially knock half the drinks out of her hand.

It didn’t take long for Amy to notice. The obnoxious classmate and coworker eventually glanced over her shoulder, and paused when she saw just how far the two of them had separated. Turning around, she walked back to meet Alexandra with a smug smile. “Such a slow poke. THIS is why I was rushing earlier.”

“Hmm, I wonder what would speed things up?” Alexandra scoffed. She gave an obvious look to one of the trays in her hands, before meeting Amy’s gaze. Alexandra was so done with all of this.

But she had no idea that Amy could make it worse. A lot worse.

The elf outfit consisted of a red strapless dress layered with a green satin cardigan-like coat. Each was trimmed with white, and a loose black belt held the coat in place. It only worked as an ensemble, leggings included, because the combination was the perfect way to show just enough thigh and chest while still covering every other inch of bare skin to be appropriate and kid-friendly. Take away one layer, and everything looked a lot more slutty. Alexandra had already figured that out in her bedroom when dressing for the job.

“Speed things up? Oh, I know!” Amy exclaimed. She circled around Alexandra, and Alexandra mostly just turned her head to follow the girl with her eyes, as pivoting too much with the drinks would be more difficult.

Without any warning, Amy began acting way too quickly for Alexandra to process or react in time. Her hands snaked under the back of Alexandra’s cardigan, unzipped the strapless dress all the way, and then firmly gripped the sides of the red outfit piece.

“Your clothes are slowing you down, Alexandra,” Amy said. She had the most casual tone, like it was the most simple and logical thing to say. “But don’t worry, that’s an easy fix.”

Then, in one harsh yet fluid motion, Amy yanked the dress all the way down to Alexandra’s ankles.

[Revengedpirate]

Just a quick thing, but what happened to Alexandra’s green skirt, as it appears to have transformed into a red dress? Since this is a Christmas story I’m guessing Santa rushed in and changed Alexandra’s attire without her or Amy’s knowledge lol

[*Lady Lucia*]

Oops! I went back and edited the color in the earlier part to match.

Although I tend to use 'skirt' even when talking about a dress, since it's an easier visual than 'hem' a lot of the time. :P

[Revengedpirate]

The story is well written and absolutely loving it. I do get that a skirt can be on a dress too. So she’s standing in a busy mall with nothing on but a coat belt and tray of coffees. I’m assuming the coat covers her lower half barely. I am loving this story though especially the way Amy strips her. I like the fact the girl is carrying coffee and obviously if she drops the coffee it’ll burn her. Can’t wait for the next chapter

[*Lady Lucia*]

PART FIVE

“AMY!!!” Somewhere amidst the struggle, Alexandra screamed the girl’s name in horror. The red elf dress was tight enough that even unzipping the back didn’t make it as simple as whisking it down her body. There was a long moment where the dress got caught on Alexandra’s hips, but Amy persisted with the nonstop downward tug until she managed to get the red fabric all the way to the ground.

Alexandra was totally helpless to stop it. Each of her hands held a cardboard coffee tray with four Starbucks coffee cups of varying sizes on each. A rational girl would drop things in order to defend her clothes from being removed, but Alexandra’s natural impulse to preserve the eight drinks warred with her other instincts. What was she supposed to do, throw the trays off to the side and let them explode on the ground? This was happening to her in the middle of the mall’s upper floor walkway, and there were no tables nearby. Not that she’d ever choose getting stripped over making a total mess, but everything happened too quickly for her to think ‘screw the drinks, save the dress.’

Alexandra’s eyes widened at the other realization. It was more than just her dress. Since she didn’t wear underwear with the elf stockings, and since Amy had so rudely yanked the candy canes off her legs earlier, Alexandra was now wearing NOTHING beneath her waist. Her cheeks instantly turned crimson as a nearby “Oh my God!!” confirmed the reality for her.

That modesty instinct finally kicked in, and Alexandra hastily bent over to grab her dress and at least pull it up to her waist to cover up her fully exposed parts. The tight cardigan and plain bra showed way more of her stomach and chest than she’d prefer, but right now Alexandra had tunnel vision in regards to covering her most private area from the public eye.

She roughly dropped both trays onto the ground in front of her, and one of the taller cups tipped over and spilled out; away from her, thankfully. With free hands, Alexandra gave a desperate upward tug to the recently stripped dress, only to be met with resistance. In her haste, she hadn’t immediately noticed. Amy was stepping on the dress! Not just the edge of her elf boots or something. The continuously mean blonde had firmly planted her foot down right on top of the dress between Alexandra’s legs. 

“Amy, stop!!” Alexandra gasped. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening to her!! She could hear more voices around her, a mortifying concoction of judgmental girls, awestruck guys, and offended parents with their kids. It had only been a few seconds since Amy brashly pulled her dress down, so each of those ‘groups’ was really only one or two people. But to Alexandra, it felt like a full crowd as she was bent over and struggling to retrieve her trapped dress.

She was truly trapped. Standing back up would risk more exposure, and struggling to get away from Amy with the dress still at her feet might result in wiping out. Staying bent over while bottomless was just as bad, save for the fact that Amy’s position, while no doubt suggestive, was at least blocking some of her nudity. With Amy’s foot so firmly planted to keep the dress down, the girl had to be right behind her.

So Alexandra did the one thing her mortified and panicked mind was able to think of. With her hands already down by her feet, she used them to hold the dress in place and slip her left foot out. Then the right. It was too late to back out now. Escape took priority over preserving the main part of her outfit. In a flash, Alexandra stood back up, elbowed Amy in the stomach, and began sprinting away with one hand clasped over her bare crotch and the other wrapped around her chest to keep the cardigan and bra in place. Bare ass on display for all the world to see.

She managed to avoid the puddle of coffee, and took fleeting satisfaction in Amy’s gasp and subsequent swearing. But those little moments did nothing to help the stark reality that she was running through the mall while bottomless. The embarrassment washed over Alexandra as faces and voices blurred past her. This wasn’t a horrible dream. This was really happening. The thought she had about mall cops earlier resurfaced. Maybe they hadn’t noticed her bare feet, but they would certainly notice her bare everything below her chest. The cardigan was pretty short.

Regardless, the goal was the same: avoid people.

After running past a few more stores while mooning the entire mall with her little pale ass, Alexandra darted into one of the side hallways with bathrooms and water fountains. The adrenaline helped come up with the ‘plan,’ though it wasn’t exactly a long term solution. Relief quickly turned into another wave of embarrassment as she saw a few teen guys talking by the water fountains.

Alexandra couldn’t do anything but commit. She couldn’t go back out to the mall. Three was better than hundreds. So, after a moment’s hesitation, she continued the half naked sprint. She got her first lucky break of the day when she reached the bathroom door. It was unlocked and unoccupied.

Ignoring a pretty loud “What the fuck?!” from one of the nearby guys, she burst into the bathroom, slammed the door behind her, and locked it as quickly as humanly possible.

Alone. Safe.

But not really.

Alexandra caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and the girl looking back at her confirmed her recent humiliation. From her reflection’s stomach down, there was nothing but bare skin. Her plain white bra was poking out of the cardigan, and her small cleavage was visible too. An added insult was her hair, looking a little unkempt from the struggle with the dress and the mall sprint. Even with her hand covering her crotch in the privacy of the bathroom, Alexandra lightly blushed at the sight. She had been in PUBLIC like this. How many people had seen her ass? Her cleavage? Did anyone take pictures? Oh God, what if someone told her parents?? She could explain everything about Amy, but they might not see it that way. After all, she could have just stayed in the locker room. Instead, she begrudgingly went along with Amy’s game all the way up until the taller blonde literally stripped her.

And she still didn’t have her phone!! What was she supposed to do now?

Before the half naked Alexandra could process everything or even slow her breathing, she heard a knock on the bathroom door.

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Trying my best to get the rest of this edited and posted by the end of the day tomorrow. Even though I'm not submitting this for voting, I'd still like to hit the deadline! Fair warning, the end is looking a lot like The Disguise, where Alexandra might end up getting two arcs instead of just the one story.

All the best,
Lady Lucia

[nibuku]

Absolutely loving this one. The pacing is great and I'm a bit partial to the bullying that's going on here from Amy. I can't wait to see what she does next.

Just another excellent chapter from Lady Lucia. I think multiple arcs would be a wonderful idea!

[*Lady Lucia*]

PART SIX

It wasn’t fair.

Alexandra had barely been in the private bathroom for thirty seconds. She needed time to think. She needed time to come to terms with her current state of undress. She needed time to figure out a way out of this mess. What she did not need was someone waiting on the bathroom. Alexandra was half naked. She couldn’t just leave the only place that offered her protection at the moment. But she also couldn’t stay in the bathroom for hours.

Wait, was this Amy? Would her horrible classmate and coworker chase her down? Alexandra wouldn’t put it past her.

“Occupied,” Alexandra said. While ‘Who is it?’ was tempting, that would be a super weird thing to ask if it was literally anyone else but the girl she suspected.

To her surprise, a male voice answered. “Are you naked in there?”

Oh God. That was almost worse than Amy. It was one of the boys she had just ran past while bottomless. After a long, flustered pause from both the question and the voice to whom it belonged, Alexandra found herself answering. “No . . .” Somewhat true. She wasn’t fully naked. Plus she had to say something, as not answering at all might as well be a ‘yes.’ Then again, they had clearly seen her, so it’s not like the question needed to be asked.

Without missing a beat, the boy called her out on it. “Are you half naked, then?” This time, Alexandra fell silent, giving the exact quiet ‘yes’ she had just been trying to avoid. It’s not like lying would convince him anyway. “Awesome.” The word came out more as a chuckle. “So why are you half naked, blondie?”

The other two boys were saying something, but Alexandra couldn’t make out the quiet voices through the door. This was the last thing she needed right now! The boy talking to her sounded so nonchalant, but she felt the exact opposite. Carrying a conversation while bottomless and still flustered from everything she just went through was anything but casual.

“Look, can I just borrow your phone?” Alexandra sighed. Maybe this was a silver lining, awkward as it was. She had her BFF’s number memorized, as well as her parents' numbers, but the former would obviously be her first move.

“My phone? Stranger danger, blondie! I don’t even know you. But maybe you could come out here and introduce yourself?

“NO.”

Alexandra couldn’t help but reply harshly. From the glimpse she got in the hallway, she was pretty sure these boys were younger than her. The impromptu nickname was one thing, but his teasing suggestion was absurd. She could already visualize three separate phone cameras aimed right at the door.

“You’re no fun! Okay, whatever, stay in there while we get to know each other. What’s your name?”

“Umm,” she hesitated. She also cursed herself for the instinctive response. Talking through a bathroom door was awkward enough under normal circumstances, but especially awkward as Alexandra became more and more aware of her totally bare lower half. At the same time, she only had so many options. Maybe this could work out if she played her cards right. “Alex-” Cutting herself off, she repeated the nickname. “Alex.”

She didn’t mind the abbreviated version of her name, but ‘Alexandra’ was both her preference and what most people called her. But the boys had smart phones, and there was a slim chance they had a friend of a friend of a friend that would connect them just enough for her name to pop up with a search. Hopefully ‘Alex’ would be enough to prevent that. A totally fake name would have been better, but she had been too caught off guard to think about that until it was too late.

“I’m Sam,” he said, “How old are you, Alex?”

“Sixteen . . .”

“Oh, I’m fifteen. Into younger guys?”

Ugh. Alexandra was only answering the stupid ‘get to know you’ questions to placate the boy, but she practically had to bite her tongue in order to avoid saying what she wanted to say. Instead, she swallowed her pride and said, “Maybe if they’re cute.” Flirting was NOT her best skill, but at least she had a door to hide her cringe and blush.

“Good to know! Where do you go to school?”

“Lakeview High,” she lied, “It’s out of state.” There was no way in hell she’d willingly give them the name of her school. That would make it way too easy to figure out who she was. Instead, Alexandra just blurted out the name of the school her cousin went to. It was close enough to Christmas that she could easily be a girl visiting for the holidays.

A long pause followed that answer. It actually made her nervous that the boys might have decided to leave, and she hated that she had started to pin her hopes on their presence. “One sec, Alex,” he finally said. While the three of them conferred, as she could easily hear the quiet voices through the door, Alexandra just fidgeted impatiently. It really was impossible to ignore the fact that she was bare from her midriff down. Completely at the mercy of this fifteen year old boy for now, unclothed at the mall, she could only pray he wouldn’t keep holding it over her head. But at the same time, she was a half naked girl and he was a teenage boy.

Sam’s voice through the door interrupted her nervous thoughts. “Okay, blondie, I have a proposal for you. If you take a naked selfie on my phone, you can use one of our phones for whatever you need.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in, but continued right as she was about to shut him down. “From the neck down, Alex. No face. That’s fair, isn’t it?”

“Umm.” Alexandra’s mind was racing. Her aunt’s high school advice immediately sprang to mind. Rather than give the classic ‘don’t drink until you’re legal,’ or ‘save yourself until marriage’ lectures, Aunt Lorrie was a lot more realistic when it came to teenagers. She told Alexandra to make sure that her first time drinking was in a controlled environment, and to make sure your first time in bed is on YOUR terms, rather than because a boy (or girl) is pressuring you to. Another piece of advice was about nudes. In the modern day, pictures like that tend to be part of dating. Not all couples do it, of course, but it happens plenty. Her aunt said that if Alexandra wanted to share her body with a significant other like that, to at least make sure her face isn’t in anything she wouldn’t want shown on social media. Break-ups can be messy, and protecting yourself is more important than the fleeting excitement of revealing pictures.

Apparently Sam had scored such pictures before from a girl given the same advice. And now he wanted an older blonde’s body to add to his collection.

Alexandra had never sent photos like that, and she wasn’t exactly keen to make this her ‘first.’ But, at the same time, she didn’t have a lot of options right now. Was it worth a picture if it meant ending this nightmare of a day? Maybe she could just take one of her upper half with just her bra. That was like a bikini, kind of. “How do I know you’ll follow through?” she asked. Stalling for now, plus she was actually curious. Or, for that matter, how did she know they wouldn’t yank the door open the moment she cracked it to get the phone?

“You don’t trust me, Alex?” Sam’s sounded dramatically offended and wounded, but he moved past it pretty quickly. “Don’t worry, I assumed you’d have trust issues. Here’s what the boys and I figured out . . .”

And then he explained. For a freshman, he was pretty quick on his feet to come up with such a thorough plan in a matter of seconds. Sam proposed that he would pass two phones to her. You can take photos on a smart phone without unlocking it, so she could snap the nude selfie on the dark blue phone and then pass it back outside. Once he verified the pic was there, she could have the password for the second phone and use it for whatever she wanted.

A lot more elaborate than Alexandra expected. Apparently when a naked pic was on the line, boys will do anything to make it happen. And it somewhat assured her that they wouldn't try to yank the door open. A willing selfie would be better than pics snapped while she was covering.

“I’ll take one in my bra,” Alexandra conceded. That was a big enough first for her, and would allow her to use the other hand to cover her bottom half. For her, modesty. For him, maybe a tease?

Rather than pushing back, Sam agreed. “Okay.” But it wasn’t that easy. “Bra pic with your face, or totally naked below the neck. Your choice!”

“No, that’s not-”

“That’s the deal, blondie. It’s called compromise. Do you want a phone or not?”

Alexandra took less time to think this time around. She didn’t want one of their phones; she NEEDED one. It was the only way to get out of this mess without leaving the safety of the private bathroom.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” she said.