College Fees - Chapter 5 by Susan Louise Montague

Eventually the girls were ready and the four left for town. The trip in was uneventful, although Linda did think at first that he was getting a few stares from guys; he soon realised that they were attracted to him and not looking because they thought he was a freak.

On arrival at the shops Linda didn’t really know what to do, and felt guilty at first even looking at the windows of the women’s boutiques. Also he brought up the fact that he hadn’t any money to buy clothes. However Cindy totally shocked him when she said that the wardrobe would cost about $8,000 and that he would easily be able to pay them back from his summer commission.

While the girls were there to advise Linda, they were trying also to instruct him on the various aspects of women’s fashion. Things he would be expected to know as a girl and more importantly would have to know if he was to be a successful employee of Et du Fem.

Pamela picked up about 10 different women’s high fashion magazines featuring all the latest looks and styles and told Linda that these would be his study material for the next week.

When it came to picking out clothes Linda had done very little by the way of input and was only giving monosyllabic answers. This eventually infuriated Cindy who said, “Listen there’s no need to act all macho and reluctant about this–just let yourself go. If you like the look of something on you just say so. If something catches your eye and you want to try it on just do. And most importantly if something makes you feel feminine and sexy, just buy it.”

Linda was slightly taken aback by this outburst but agreed to try and be more helpful; especially as they had a long day ahead with a lot of shopping to do.

First up it was Victoria’s Secrets for lingerie and other essentials. The girls were quite impressed with the fact that Linda picked out practically all satin and lace lingerie. The excuse he gave was ‘well I may as well get into it’, but deep down he knew he enjoyed wearing it.

Linda got another shock when Pamela said he had to pick out some negligees for night wear. This was something he hadn’t been bargaining on but the girls insisted that he should try and get into the role as much as possible and Susan added, “Besides there’s nothing as sensual as sleeping in a satin and lace negligee.”

Then they went and got some casuals like jeans and skirts, loads of tops in different colours and styles and different cocktail dresses, none of which went below the knee for evenings out. Linda thought he was going to collapse from running in and out of changing rooms such were the amounts of clothes he had to try on.

Then the girls advised him to pick out a couple of nice skirt suits to have for more conservative occasions. He picked out a black one with a pencil skirt and a long sleeved crop jacket by Gucci and really surprised the girls by also picking a really feminine pink one. He then settled on matching satin camisoles for these suits.

After that came the shoe shopping. Ten different pairs of stiletto pumps had to be bought, all by Christian Louboutin in several different colours and styles; but all with 4” heels. Then a couple of pairs of ballet flats by Prada and a pair of brown Prada boots (as Linda already had the black ones). Finally a couple of pairs of really over the top strappy sandals with 5” heels that were only suitable for a night club.

Finally just as Linda thought he was done the girls pulled him into a very up-market boutique that sold evening dresses. “There are always a couple of formals you will have to attend during the year if you work for Et du Fem,” said Pamela.

The first thing Linda noticed was that there were no prices on the dresses; Cindy told him that they were expensive but that the boutique was so up-market that it considered it vulgar to put prices on anything. “Besides,” she said, “most of the customers who frequent here wouldn’t bother to ask the price only charge it. But as Et du Fem employees we get all the stock at cost here.”

Walking around looking at the different beautiful evening dresses changed something in Linda’s mind. ‘My gosh,’ he thought, ‘these really are beautiful, and I do want to try them on, in fact I can’t wait to try them on.’

Pamela who had been observing Linda carefully then said, “Go on let that excitement your feeling show, any girl gets excited when faced with a choice of gorgeous dresses like these.”

“Ok,” replied Linda, “but I hope ye won’t think I’m gay or transvestite or anything if I do say I’m actually looking forward to trying on some of these!” At this the girls all gave him a hug and said it was only natural under the circumstances that Linda would want to wear dresses like these.

However Cindy quietly smiled to herself thinking, ‘I was right, he–or should I say from now–she is getting so into all this that it will be only a short time before she will be a permanent addition to our group.

Cindy was right; Linda was revelling in the experience of trying on the evening dresses. He or should I say she (as in a short time the male was rapidly getting abandoned in Linda’s thoughts) tried on about 25 dresses before making a decision on two of them.

The first one was a simple yet elegant not quite full length one off D&G original. It was black satin, off one shoulder with a grey trim around the top just over the bust line. It’s simple lines looked fantastic on Linda’s splendid figure.

The second one was quite the opposite. It had a gold bodice with single thin halter strap around the neck to hold it up the corset. The corset itself was satin and cut low on the bust showing plenty of cleavage. The skirt of the dress was made from gold chiffon and embroidered with a wonderful silver lace pattern; it was a full bodied skirt with a slight train at the back and fell in length to the floor.

The girls were almost jealous themselves of the wonderful gold dress, designed by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton. They could see Linda and how happy ‘she’ looked in it and Linda ‘herself’ also realised how happy ‘she’ was in it.

They could see the transformation from whiny bearded boy that morning to beautiful young woman that evening; especially when Linda uttered those totally feminine words, “oh I have to get some new shoes to go with this”.

After getting the new shoes to match the gold dress, they then went through the final and most important part of the female shopping ritual, the purchase of accessories. Several hand bags just had to be purchased; all Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Prada and D&G of course. Then there were pairs of earrings, some bracelets, gold and silver chains, pearls and a few other nice pieces of costume jewellery.

Linda also got a lovely set of diamonique jewellery for formal wear that also included a lovely ladies watch which she wore there and then.

The girls giggled as Linda nearly went into melt down when she saw the final bill. It came to nearly $9,000. “I have never spent so much in my entire life,” she said, “I hope this job pays as much as ye say it does!”

“Don’t worry it will,” said Cindy, with a smile. All you have to worry about now is getting everything right over the next week before the interview.

“Have you much on in college over the next couple of days?” asked Pamela.

“No, only two lectures, not very important, both in my strongest subjects,” replied Linda

“Then maybe it’s best if you take the next few days off, and we have the February break next week so if we arrange an interview for Friday week that gives us 10 days to have you perfect.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Linda, “the lectures aren’t that important and my voice needs a lot of work.”

“Your voice isn’t actually bad at all, it’s only your imagination,” said Cindy

“Yeah when you speak low right now your sounding like a girl even if I close my eyes and ignore your looks,” said Pamela.

“Things like walking, deportment, fashion knowledge, and yes, like it or not, you’re going to have to learn all about periods and stuff like that as well,” laughed Susan.

“Next thing ye will have me wearing tampons,” laughed Linda. “No, but you will learn all about using them so you won’t seem like a dumb ass when they come up in conversation,” smiled Cindy.