Alice walked happily through the mall with her mother. Until a few hours ago “happily” would rarely have been in the same sentence as “mall,” let alone “mother.” That was back when Alice still went by Allie, back before her mother had reshaped her mind into one more suitable for a 12-year-old girl. Alice was now a perfect girly-girl so she was appropriately excited about this impromptu shopping trip. Alice, at her mother's suggestion, had realized how much she hated almost all of the clothes in her closet, and was thrilled when her mother had offered to buy her a new wardrobe. After her mother had taught her to apply a bit of makeup, Alice had dressed in the least offensive clothes from her closet - a petite shirt, shorts, and boots - and went to the mall.
“I'm sure you'll love it. I've been wanting to go since it opened last fall, but I know you wouldn't have wanted to,” Nicole Tucker explained. She had left her necklace tucked into the back of her sock drawer. She was thrilled with Alice's behavior but guilty enough to have sworn not to use it again. It was too much of a temptation to keep reforming Alice, and Nicole would prefer to let Alice grow up naturally now that she had a push in the right direction.
“Yeah,” Alice said with a giggle that would have made Allie cringe. “I was just silly. I can't wait to go now though! And you said you'd buy whatever I want. You promised.”
“I know,” Nicole reassured the tween. It was the least a mother could do after brainwashing her daughter into believing that all the clothes she owned were garbage. Alice grinned with satisfaction, glancing up at her mother's face. The girl's eyes were still a vibrant shade of blue and Nicole wondered whether they would return to normal or remain stained by the power of the necklace.
The pair reached their destination quickly. Like nearly every store in the mall, it had a simple, large square entrance with a metal grate that could be pulled down at closing. Above the entrance was a large sign declaring the store to be “Forever 12” in large letters that were backlit in neon pink to stand out against the otherwise drab mall wall. Orchestral music trickled out into the area around the store, calling out to passing shoppers.
“You have to wonder how they haven't been sued,” Nicole said as she shepherded her daughter under the sign and into the store. Alice paid her no mind and quickly became enraptured with the array of styles. The store was not particularly large, especially for a clothing store, so the racks and shelves were packed tightly and stacked high. The result was a small maze of outfits and accessories. Alice ventured forth bravely, tugging her mother behind her, and twice nearly bumped into another shopper turning from a different path. After that, the tween moved more slowly, which also gave her time to inspect the various articles.
Forever 12 understandably specialized in tween apparel and even boasted some of its own labels. The styles were creative and often daring, to the point that Alice was not sure that most clothes would comply with her school's dress code. That did not stop her from picking out several borderline outfits, since after all she enjoyed looking as feminine as possible. The fast-paced instrumental music lent itself to Alice's excitement, enticing her to make even more selections than she originally planned. With her mother struggling under an armful of clothes, Alice paused to hold a skirt - really, a miniskirt if she was being honest - up to herself to decide if she was brave enough to buy it.
“You should totally get that,” a cheerful voice said. Alice looked to her left and saw a preteen about her age emerge from around a rack of sundresses. The girl had mocha skin and jet black hair tied into two braids that made her look even younger. Her outfit was bizarre: a small, white leather skirt and a matching crop top that practically glowed against her dark skin.
“I'm not really sure I could pull it off,” Alice said, flushing on behalf of the half-naked girl.
“Don't be silly,” the girl said with a winning smile. She reached out and took Alice's wrist gently but insistently. “My name's Julia, I volunteer here. It's been a long time since I've seen a girl as cute as you looking at the minis. You've got to at least try it on.”
“You... volunteer?” Alice repeated, confused. Julia did not answer but stopped since they had reached the back of the store. Alice's mother almost bumped into the pair of preteens as she tried to see around the stack of clothes she was carrying.
“Here, four's open,” Julia said, pulling Alice to a door marked with a large 4. The entire back wall of Forever 12 consisted of eight doors with an overhead sign announcing them as dressing rooms. The doors were spaced far enough apart that each room must be at least as big as a traditional handicapped changing room. Julia opened the door for Alice to step inside and then took the pile of clothes from Alice's mother to pass them to the girl.
“Are you okay?” Nicole asked, letting her hands fall to her sides while Alice struggled to avoid overbalancing the stack.
“She'll be fine,” the preteen salesgirl said brightly, reaching for Nicole's newly-freed hand. “Come on, we can go pick out more stuff while she tries them all on.”
The door swung closed with a solid thump that made Alice realize how thick it was. In fact, she could not hear anything going on in the store anymore. The orchestral music was still playing, and louder than ever since there was a speaker overhead in the dressing room. All of a sudden, Alice realized she was not alone. The tween shrieked, dropping all of her clothes onto the carpeted floor.
There was a girl, a few years younger than Alice, standing in the space that had been hidden when the door was open. The other girl was blonde like Alice, although several shades darker, and also had blue eyes - a naturally clear blue, unlike Alice's stained irises. At first glance, the other girl looked naked, but she was actually wearing a purple sling bikini that somehow fit her despite the fact that no one would ever make that swimsuit in a child's size. Alice did not recognize the sling bikini as such but it was obviously completely inappropriate.
“I-I'm sorry; I thought this was empty,” Alice said in a strained voice, reaching blindly for the door handle.
“It is,” the other girl said with a pleasant smile, taking Alice's hand in her own. The music playing overhead seemed to wax louder. “I'm your model.”
“But are- what's that on your face?” Alice interrupted herself, noticing the slimy liquid oozing down across the left half of the girl's face. The symphony felt like it was growing louder but Alice dimly realized that it was not changing in volume as much as it was growing more invasive in her mind.
“Oh, the last customer came on my face,” the girl said matter-of-factly.
“Is- really?” Alice rubbed her head and wished the music would stop for a moment.
“Uh huh,” the model shrugged, shifting a strap of her swimsuit slightly, which revealed a bubblegum-pink nipple. She added with a smile, “I can go clean up if you want to wait.”
“No that's okay,” Alice said. “You can just stay there.”
Alice felt a rush of relief as the strains of music receded to a tolerable degree. Everything seemed normal in their wake and Alice was hard pressed to say why she had felt that something was wrong. Alice stripped out of her clothes as if she was alone in the dressing room and began trying on the various items she had dropped on the floor. The other girl watched with a polite smile on her face as cum oozed along the curve of her cheek towards her chin.
It took Alice half an hour to try on all of the clothes she had picked out with her mother. Julia and her mother had not returned with more clothes, so Alice began dressing in the clothes she had worn to the store. She had her shorts and boots back on and was working to turn her shirt inside-out when the dressing room door swung inward. Alice froze like a startled deer, topless and holding her shirt in both hands.
“Step back,” the man - the intruder - said in a gruff voice. Alice backed up to the wall of the room and the man stepped forward. The door swung closed behind him, revealing the other girl again, who looked utterly unperturbed to see a man in the dressing room while she was wearing a tiny purple swimsuit. Panic welled up in Alice but it was matched and then outmatched by the instrumental music which once again seemed to be blaring in the small room.
“What're you-” Alice began, and then stopped when the music disjointed her thoughts. She shook her head.
“My name's Kent,” the man said, not unkindly. “I'm the manager here. It's time to go meet up with your mom. Lick Gwen clean first.”
The order came out so casually that Alice was already turning to the other girl before she quite knew what she was doing. Alice paused as she considered the smaller girl, and in that moment, the music seemed to rise up again. Violins stabbed at her, drums beat at her, and a tuba pounded her. Alice wilted. She brought her face to Gwen's and began licking at the drying cum still trying to slide down to the girl's chin. The musical assault evaporated as Alice lapped at the other girl's cheek. In a series of licks and swallows, Gwen soon grew passably clean.
“Now dry her off with your shirt and then put it on,” Kent said. With delicate dabs, Alice obeyed. The few smears of cum she had missed, along with some of her own saliva, stained her shirt as she stretched it over her head. When Alice was dressed, the man turned on his heel and exited the dressing room, telling Alice to follow him. Alice left Gwen behind, just as exposed but considerably cleaner than she had been before Alice had come into the room.
Kent took Alice to a door behind the cashier's table and opened it for her. Alice peaked around Kent's frame as the manager closed the door to his office behind them. Sure enough, her mother was sitting in one of the chairs.
“Allie?” Nicole looked at her daughter as if uncertain.
“Alice,” the girl corrected. She did not like that nickname.
“Right, Alice,” Nicole mumbled while still retaining much of her confusion.
“Remember what we talked about, Mrs. Tucker?” Kent asked as he took his seat behind the manager's desk. “Do you remember why Alice is here?”
Nicole looked at the man with widening eyes. She sat up straighter and her slack-jawed expression receded. In a normal, even eager, tone she said, “Alice is here to volunteer for Forever 12.”
“That's right,” the manager said approvingly, and Nicole smiled with relief.
“Wait,” Alice took a seat next to her mother and twisted to face her, ignoring the man. “Mom, I don't want to work here.”
“You won't be working here,” Kent said before her mother could answer. “That could get messy with child-labor laws. You're going to be volunteering. It's like community service.”
Working without pay took away any incentive at all for Alice to take the offer. She turned back to her mother for an explanation, but Nicole was already picking up a pair of wireless pink headphones from the ground next to her chair. The woman held them out to Alice and said, “Sweetie, I need to talk to Kent privately for a minute. Can you put these on? We can decide what to do after.”
Alice took the headphones reluctantly and did not put them on until her mother repeated herself. The music was similar to the instrumental piece that was playing through the entire store and the dressing room, although parts of it sounded different, even to Alice's inexperienced ear. Alice hoped that whatever conversation her mother wanted to have would not last long because the sound was going to get irritating. Kent fiddled with something under his desk and the music bombarding Alice's ears suddenly tripled in volume. Alice winced and tried to take the headphones off but her hands remained at her sides. She lifted them a few inches over her lap but they seemed to grow exponentially heavier as she attempted to reach for the device. Finally, Alice gave up and let her hands drop back limp to her sides.
Alice could not think at all with the symphony blaring in her ears. She remained rooted in her chair, unable to even turn her head. She could see that Kent and her mother were not speaking to each other. They were both simply watching her as she watched them. After almost a minute, Alice even lost track of the adults and she went completely limp in her chair, no longer capable of resisting the constant barrage of sound. The preteen stared vacantly at her lap, since her head had tipped forward once her neck relaxed. Drool dripped from Alice's bottom lip to soak into her shorts, but the girl was barely aware of any of it. The music consumed her, and it held all of her attention.
Sometime later, someone removed the headphones. The world was strangely quiet as Alice looked up. A woman was bending in front of her, holding the pink headset. It took Alice a moment to recognize the lady as her mother. Nicole smiled and brushed a lock of hair away from Alice's face before turning to place the headphones on Kent's desk. Alice watched her mother dumbly as she sat back in her chair. The preteen tried to remember what she had been doing but her memory was curiously foggy.
The Forever 12 manager was looking at Alice expectantly. In a neutral voice he asked, “Have you given any more thought to volunteering here?”
“I really could?” Alice's blue eyes widened as she came alive. She knew that she would love to work - volunteer - at the store. She knew that it would be a lot of fun, no matter what they wanted her to do. She would not have been able to say how she knew that, though.
“Of course,” the man smiled broadly. He glanced at Alice's mother, who was submissively putting on a pair of black headphones. When Nicole was lost to oblivion, Kent turned his computer monitor so that Alice could see it. There was a simple window open with buttons numbering one through six. Kent added, “We need to talk about your duties here.”
Alice bobbed her head eagerly. She already knew that she would be happy to do whatever the manager asked of her. The man clicked on the first button. A black pop-up window opened with “Dressing Room #1” displayed in the title bar. A moment later, a video feed filled the window. An aerial view from a corner of a small room showed a balding man kneeling in front of a small Asian girl. The girl was wearing a tank top and the man was pulling a matching miniskirt up to her waist. Alice recognized the combination from one of the mannequins displayed in the store.
“We'll start you off as a back-girl,” Kent explained as the man on the screen lifted the petite girl up onto the dressing room bench. “See, we get a lot of dads, and some moms, that come in shopping for their little girls. But the problem is they don't always have their kids with them. So they need someone the right size to try on the outfits they're buying.”
On the monitor, the man had pulled the preteen's panties down to her knees and was feeling around under her skirt. With a gesture to the screen, Kent explained, “And it wouldn't be much help if they couldn't test out the clothes.”
“Oh, I get it,” Alice giggled as the man fondled the girl. The girl looked like she was having a great time!
“That's basically all there is to it,” Kent said. The two of them watched the monitor in silence for a while. The Asian girl was shoved against a wall of the changing room with one hand while the man unzipped his pants with the other. A hairy and uncircumsized cock vanished underneath the tiny skirt and a moment later the girl almost banged her face against the wall as the man thrust forward. Kent explained, conversationally, “A lot of dads like to make sure the clothes they buy will absorb leaking cum after they fuck their daughters. But we get all kinds. A couple moms like to check that their little girls' butt plugs won't be obvious under their new skirts. We just don't want our customers to regret anything.”
“That's really nice,” Alice said as the man pulled the girl back roughly and held her slender hips against his. Alice thought it was a shame that more stores did not have the same dedication to customer satisfaction.
“So, anyway,” the manager continued, turning the screen back so that Alice could not longer see it. “That'll be your job for a while.”
“When do I get to work?” Alice asked, leaning forward with a winning smile. She hoped they would not limit her shifts just because she was new.
“You call this number every Sunday and let me know when you have free time for the week,” the man said, sliding a business card across the desk. Alice picked it up and saw that it was blank except for a phone number. Kent continued, “I'll let you know what shifts you'll take. It depends on how many girls are free.”
“Okay,” Alice carefully pocketed the business card.
“And especially let me know if you are free around holidays. We tend to get short-staffed then.”
“I even get to work on holidays?” Alice grinned, thinking there was no way the gig could get any better.
“That's right. And you can start picking up shifts next week, when I get a few uniforms in your size. The uniforms are only how you'll start the day, of course. After that, you'll get dressed up by the customers.” The man's smile turned wolfish as he leaned back in his chair. “Your mom will pick you up and drop you off for each shift. She'll also help you reschedule things as needed, if we need you to cover for any unexpected absences.”
Alice was thrilled that she would get to spend so much time volunteering. It sounded like there would be a large time commitment for her mother, though. Alice glanced worriedly at her mother, wondering if she was going to be all right with so many obligations. The woman was sitting with her head bowed forward and the music in her headphones was turned up loud enough that even Alice could faintly hear it. A thick ribbon of drool chained Nicole's lips to her jeans as she breathed heavily. Alice quirked a smile at the oblivious woman. Somehow, Alice knew that her mother would be more than happy to do anything necessary to make sure Alice had a great volunteering experience.
When Alice was dressed, the man turned on his heel and exited the dressing room, telling Alice to follow him. Alice left Gwen behind, just as exposed but considerably cleaner than she had been before Alice had come into the room.