"Mum I can't possibly do this. " Alex she told her quietly, horror evident in his voice. His mother standing next to him in their little combined kitchen and dinning room, snorted in rye amusement.

"Sure you can, honey, its not to like I’m asking you to work in that seedy sex store or anything. Its a very nice shop in a perfectly nice part of town, the stores owned by the mother of a girl who goes to your school, in fact I am fairly certain that she is in your class, Tracy Miller. Tracy and her friends often help out there when they are able, if it was so bad, I can’t imagine that Tracy would be allowed to do that.”

“That's all fine and good mum, but Tracy is a girl and the shop exclusively sells women’s clothes,” Alex self-consciously tucked a stray strand of long blonde behind his ear, it had somehow escaped his pony tail, which was tied back in a only slightly feminine low pony tail using the plainest black hair bobble Alex had been able to find. He had justified the bobble to himself by arguing that it was more practical than string or a boot lace. Alex outright refused to consider eleastic bands after hes had be heard how much they can damaged the hair.

Alex knew exactly the sex shop that his mother was referencing, only a street away from the clothing store it was called dark temptations and prominently displayed a riding crop in the window. Alex had heard the crude remarks of local boys as they went past it, although few dared to stay close by for long. While a component of that fear was based on their peers, most of it was fear of the shop’s young owner Tasha McFarland. Daughter of a wealthy property developer, Tasha had left the same secondary school that Alex was currently attending and had begun buying up an unused property in the town centre, two years later dark temptations had begun trading.

Tasha McFarland was well known to have a fiery temper and a no-nonsense attitude, an attitude that had sparked a legendary encounter four years ago. The story went that when Tasha had heard a group of boys picking on a girl and being overly pushy outside her shop she had not only raced outside to defend the girl but had told the boys that unless they apologised to the girl and immediately changed attitude towards women she would arm the girl and any of the girls friends that might wish for them with whips like the one in her shop window and further would teach the girls how to used them to the greatest effect on the troublesome boys. Doubtless the tale was largely apocryphal but it still resulted in most of the roving groups of boys giving the store a wide birth.

Althoughs most of the inhabitants of the small town fained horror at dark temptations it had remained open for several years indicating that despite the seeming majority disgust it must be have at least some clientel, possible even from the ranks of the disgusted majority.

Alex in a rare moment of belligerency decided to add to his comment telling the his mother that he would rather work at dark temptations than Tracy's mothers shop. While it sounded like a good idea in Alex head it certainly proved not to be when after he said those words his mother, usually a placid woman became irate.

“Over my cold dead body mister. No child of mine will go any where near that... that," Here the woman was fairly spitting with pent up anger and disgust. “That den of iniquity, it’s not a fit place, you here all sorts of stories and sore did goings on. It's owned by that supposed buisness ticoon Tasha something. I would no want you or your sister working there or indeed anywhere near her. " She paused now to catch her breath, the outburst now a spent force. Alex unsure how to react to all of that, wisely stayed silent, waiting.

“Worst of all, you annoying child, you have got me thoroughly worked up for nothing. I am not asking you to get a job any anywhere, Lilly, Tracy’s mother has been asking around, she needs some help in her shop for a few days, apparently she expected one of her daughters friends would help out but has had no takers at this point, she has been asking round local parents as well but hasn’t gotten any positive responses. Lilly asked me if either you or your sister would be interested, I told her that I was sure one of you would. I thought that your sister would probably want to do it but I had forgotten that she would be busy helping out Mrs Martines with the theatre production but your available and really it will only be a few days, it would get you out the house and keep you out of trouble. "

Alex sighed and resisted arguing any further, it was hopeless, arguing with his mother was always futile. He wanted to argue that he too was part of the theatre production, but it would have been a hollow point. His own part was a few meagre lines while his sister, Tasha, was the assistant director he really couldn't, however much he might wish to, argue that, that was the same work load. He wanted to argue that he was swamped with school revision, but he knew his mother would know that wasn't true. No, he was stuck, tomorrow he would begin a Christmas of working in a woman's clothing store and Alex knew that before new year all of the school bullies would know it too. As soon as they knew any last shred of Alex's manhood and dignity would be instantaneously burned away after what they already called him and did to him already, Alex's shuddered to think what they might do to him then.

"Hi Alex, " Lilly, Tracy's mother, called as he entered the store Alex was still annoyed and more than anything wanted to grunt monosyllabically at her cheery greeting, but Lilly’s smile was infectious and Alex found himself smiling instead polity back at her, regardless of his previous intentions. “It's mostly just moving stock around, organising it and stuff, Tracy's down in the stock room/basement, she will show you what to do it’s just this way."

Alex nodded and followed Lilly's directions down to the basement. The staircase located off to the side of the till area wound down in a spiral until it emerged into a roomy basement, the basement was not dark but was fully enclosed and the only source of light case came from several overhead electric lights evenly spaced to give an equal distribution of light, even if that light was not quite enough to make the space seem bright, the effect was a cavernous and not exceptionally well lit space. An effect, Jack realised as he glanced about, that was not exactly helped by the size of the basement. Lilly's shop was by no means massive but it wasn't small either and the basement was every inch as large a space as the shop above it.

“Hi Alex, mum told me she would send you to down here as soon as you arrived.”

Alex could only manage a nod and a smile so taken a back was he to be talking to Tracy and be her sole focus of attention. She was beautiful or at least that’s what Alex thought and he knew that the he was far from the only one in his school who thought so. Tracy had long strawberry blonde hair, almost as long as Alex's but unlike Alex she tended to either let it loose, like she had today, or gathered up by an array of different coloured scrunchies. An array that Alex couldn't help but feel jealous of considering his dower and bland collection of plain black bobbles. Tracy was about the same size as Alex although she was slightly taller, Alex was quite short for a boy being the shortest boy in his class by no small margin.

“Come on, there's no need to be shy now, we know each other already and there are no adults around here now. Why don't we get a cup of tea before we start." Tracy gestured over to a small table to the best of the stairs that held a small kettle and four cups.

Things got easier between the two and before long they were chatting together cradling warm cups of hot tea in their hands.

“My job, ours now, is to go through all this." Tracy did her best to gesticulate towards the other end of the room while still cradling her tea.

While one half of the large room, the half Tracy and Alex were standing in, was clear and quite empty, the other half of was a cluttered jumble. A combination of clothes racks packed with clothes and large cardboard boxes, either laying on their own or stacked haphazardly.

The horror of the immensity of the task must have shown on Alex's face because Tracy immediately set off giggling, which at once set off Alex as well.

“Yeah, my mum isn't the best at dealing with old stock and stuff. Everything that it isn't sold kinda just gets shoved down here, mum always says she will go through it and put some of the stock back out as discounted sale stuff but she never does, it just sits here, where mum left it after carefully packing it up. Mum wants us to go through all of this, sort it, catalogue it, and label some of it. Mum's also no so great with social media, like not good at all, so she has agreed to let me handle some of that as well, especially if we find any old stock that might sell well now. "Tracy explained excitedly.

“Those boxes over there, I was told not to touch. They’re one of mum’s latest hair brained schemes,” Tracy went on will a smirk. “She gets things in her head every once in a while, ideas as to how to increase profits, how to advertise something better, that sort of thing, usually they don't work out but occasionally they do.”

“What's this one?" Alex asked eagerly he had been following Tracy’s fast paced flowing speech avidly but had been completely unable to find anywhere to interject.

“Oh, this one, this one, ok this one might be good, even I think this might work, although like with most of mum's plans it’s difficult to work out if it’s a game changer or just another failed experiment. So, the stores a women's shop, right, so mum thinks that is we feature a few women’s books in one of the windows and a small bookcase along the right wall, it might help to boast sales. You know, you’re walking around the town shopping checking out the best deals and sales, you see some really nice books in the window, go in to investigate and come out with the book as well as a bag of clothes because while you were in there looking at the book you saw that cute top that you just had to have.” Tracy so excitedly announced, subconsciously setting down her empty tea cup in order to better talk with her hands.

“Book's, isn't this a clothing shop?" Alex asked doubtful.

"That's what I said, at first, but mum explained it to me and now I’m not so sure that it’s a bad idea. So, it’s like this, mum thinks that the primary thing about the shop is that it is aimed at women, women’s clothes, women’s fashions. So, when she is doing the book thing all the books would be aimed at women as well. Five different ones to start out with just as a test, if it doesn’t work, we don’t have to continue the test, and if it does work then mum was saying that she might up that number next time. If it works mum was thinking she could get new books in every two to three months or so. The authors wouldn't have to be women but the books would need to be aimed at women, although I think all of the test five are. A couple of them live quite close by so mum has asked if any of them with come and sign some of the books for them. So far, no responses, but, it would be major for mum if they did, I mean can you imagine.”

They chatted together for a bit longer before getting down to work. As they began opening boxes Tracy warned Alex.

“At some point when the store is not too busy Mum is going to want to show you how to operate the till. It is just precautionary, Mum likes everyone in the store to be able to work behind the counter just in as case they need to. It's happened with to everyone my friends. Whenever I bring anyone here, mum always tries to teach them, half of them are still scared that if they comeback mum will either test them or force them to work.” Tracy laughed, then noticing the agitation on Alex's face and his eyes full of fear at the prospect, Tracy's tone softened to one of gentle reassurance.

“It will be fine. Really there is nothing to worry about, it’s pretty difficult to mess up and I doubt mum will ever actually ask you to serve a customer anyway. At least not on your own, without her present, supervising. It's just so you would know what to do if you ever did have to or want to.”

The two had in fact only just gotten started when Tracy's prediction came true in what was apparently the first none busy moment Lilly had, had since Alex had entered the store Lilly called them back up to the store so as to give to primarily Alex instruction on all things till related. While the instruction was geared towards Alex, Tracy was called to join, her mother never missing the opportunity for a refresher. Despite Lilly's efforts, the instruction had to be brief and delivered in-between customers. The brevity was a double-edged sword for Alex, on the one hand after only a few minutes of instruction his head felt like it might explode with all the extra information, on the other hand Alex felt that he really wanted to continue, there was so much he didn't know that was vital behind that till. Sure, there was the basics but there was so much more to learn; like what styles of clothes to recommend, what the clothing styles were called, which types of skirt went with which kinds of top and why. There was just so much for Alex to learn and that alone seemed to light a passion within him to try to find out about everything he didn’t know.

Tracy immediately picked up on that eagerness of to learn and while she did find it slightly odd for a boy to be so interested in women’s clothing styles, Tracy merely filed that away in her brain for later. So, as they went through the boxes, which really was laborious and tedious work, the two struck up a conversation about fashion and styles of clothes. Tracy teaching Alex as they worked. Tracy within minutes forgot that Alex wasn't also a girl and subconsciously she began talking to Alex the same way she would any of her girlfriends, a fact that Tracy would only realise much later.

Tracy had a system figured out with the boxes that she happily and quickly shared with Alex. This system operated in stages, first Tracy would open a box and take out anything inside the box, the contents that had been removed were then sorted through, next Tracy would take a picture of each individual style of outfit contained in the box, fourthly a description was noted down in the little notebook Tracy kept beside her, as well as the amount of that design in the box, Tracy would then assign each box a number which she marked in large on the side of the box, finally the boxes contents was then carefully replaced into the box before the box was resealed with packing tape as if it had never been opened. If the same design of clothing had already been found in a different box Tracy would note that down including the other boxes number.

While the initial intention was for Alex to independently process boxes alongside Tracy following her method, the pair soon decided that, that would just get to confusing very quickly and would probably just result in them both slowing each other down. Instead, the pair agreed to work collaboratively on one box at a time, with Alex handling the pictures and Tracy the note pad. This was far more companionable, than the other method and much faster than when Tracy was doing this by herself.

They were progressing nicely now several boxes in when the call that Tracy had claimed was incredibly unlikely came. Lilly called down to the two teens requesting that one of them come up to the shop, Alex quickly went up to investigate what Lilly wished to tell them and sound himself in the positively terrifying position that only a couple of hours ago he had dreaded and had been assured was very unlikely to occur. Alex was going to be behind the counter facing customers and serving them without even Lilly to help. Lilly told Alex that she had to rush out for a few minutes but would be back as soon as she could. Lilly tried to reassure the petrified teen that Tracy would be only a shout away if he needed anything but it did little to calm his nerves at the prospect.

Alex was insanely nervous as the first woman nervous approached the counter but after the first couple of customers he realised that his previous concerns were incredibly foolish. His new-found realisation made Alex more confident that he could do this and by the four customer he was chatting amicably with the woman as he rang up her purchases.

Tracy hurried to finish the box they had been working on as soon as Alex had been called away. She had a feeling that whatever he had been called away for would be well outside of Alex's comfort zone and that she would be needed very soon. Still Tracy was not comfortable leaving a box only half done in case she lost track of what she had and had not done. Tracy's certainty that she was needed in the shop grew with every moment that Alex did not return. So as soon is Tracy had finished that box, she wasted little time in following Alex up out of the basement and up to the shop above, only stopping briefly to smooth out her crumpled clothes and make sure she looked presentable.

When Tracy emerged blinking into the light of the store it took her a moment to work out what had happened, when she did she was to ready to intervene and replace Alex at the till remembering just how worried he had been earlier, but Alex's demeanour stopped her short.

Tracy watched from the corner where the basement stair case was located, out of sight of the customer and Alex both, as he proceeded to chat amicably with the woman and confidently ring up the sale. While nothing was wrong with the conversation it did spark further questions that Tracy really wanted to ask Alex. When the customer left, temporarily leaving the shop empty for the moment save Alex and Tracy, Tracy raced forwards to converse with Alex. Tracy had not even had time to say a word when her mother came bursting back into her shop, clearly worked that the two teens had been unable to cope in her absence.

Alexis no nonsense demeanour and calm reassurances soon placated Lilly leaving Tracy to wonder at his calm, soothing, even motherly tone and actions. Boys didn't have those traits at least Tracy didn't think so, it seemed incongruent with Tracy's knowledge that Alex, hard as it was to believe at times, was in fact male. Alex to the best of his ability gave Lilly a rundown of what he had done, how much money he had taken and what he had sold. The last proving the most difficult. Although he was only able to do so after he had spent a few minutes calmed her down sufficiently.

After this unexpectedly emotional debriefing, with Lilly back in control of the, till and the shop front, Alex and Trace were able to go out into the town to get something for lunch. The pair quickly decided on a sandwich shop not far from the store. With their sandwiches in hand agreement was swift to take them down to the basement so as to be able to enjoy the sandwiches in the peace and comfort that the basement afforded and out of the seasonably cold bitter December weather.

Back at the basement Alex brewed more tea for them while Tracy pulled two bean bag seats out of a corner, bean bags that Alex had not been observant enough to realise where even there. When Alex commented about not having seen them, Tracy nodded eagerly.
“These bean bags are as close as I have been able to get to convincing mum to allow actual seats in here. You would not believe the amount of persuading I have tried to do, but she won't budge.”

As the pair tucked into their companionable lunch of sandwich washed down with mouthfuls of hot tea. Tracy finally found the courage to ask about something that had troubled her since she had watched Alex serving customers at the cash register.

"At least one of the customers thought you were a girl, they called you Miss. Do you mind if I ask about that?”

Alex nodded. "Yeah, I thought you might have noticed that, I didn't realise that it had happened until after the customers had left to be honest. It happens quite often, so often that I guess I have gotten used to people mistaking me for a girl. Since mum has stories of people being mistaken when seeing me as such from before I can remember, it's definitely not a new thing. I guess I haven’t made it any easier for anyone since I started growing my hair out. People see the long hair, short height and hear the name Alex and they immediately think that Alex must be short for Alexis, Alexa, Alexandra or something.”

Tracy nodded thoughtfully, it was true. She realised her view of at Alex had always been based on the fact that someone had told her Alex was a boy, if she didn't know then Tracy realised that she too would have struggled to identify Alex as being a boy. The more Tracy looked at Alex the more she realized that androgynous was the most masculine Alex ever looked and more often than not more female than androgynous. Tray realised suddenly that for Alex even looking androgynous was likely to fool people into miss gendering, an androgynous looking person with long hair was more often than not going to be categorised by passers-by as female than male, maybe a tomboy but defiantly as more likely to be female.

“Do you mind it?" Tracy asked after a while.

“Not really I'm so used to it that I don't even really think about it anymore. Mostly people don't mean anything by it anyway. " Came Alex’s response.