The Bad Girls' Club by Kathryn O'Halloran

of weight and smartened yourself up, then you’d be able to get a real job. I give up. There is no point me trying to help. You never listen to my advice.’
    I stared at her as the waiter sat my gnocchi in front of me. Suddenly I wasn ’t hungry any more.
    ‘ I think I’ll go back to work,’ I said, standing up.
    ‘ Don’t be ridiculous. Eat your pasta. You made such a fuss about it.’
    As I marched out the door, I felt a tug on my arm. It was Beth.
    ‘Wait up, Imogen.’ She smiled at me. ‘I’ll walk you back to your office and you can tell me all about the new job.’

Chapter 10:                     Juliette
    After shopping for over an hour, I still had a full credit card and no shopping bags. I was a failure at this shopping business. I ’d done the whole street and finally crossed Commercial Road. Beth had told me that nothing was worth looking at once I’d crossed that. She’d also told me that I shouldn’t do this alone. Shopping’s an art form, Beth had said. Not to be taken lightly by amateurs. Still, I’d wanted to go on my own – I needed to find the real me. Not the old me and not the Beth makeover me. The problem was, I had no idea who the real me was.
    There had been a nice pink skirt in the first shop I ’d gone to. I could go back and get that but I hadn’t loved it and $150 was a lot of money for something you didn’t love. I thought about grabbing a coffee and heading home in defeat when I spotted the red plaid skirt.
    I spun around to take a second look. There it was, nestled among the spider lace tops and black leather corsets. I sighed. That was as far away from the real me as you could get. Only girls with piercings and tattoos wore skirts like that. I kept walking.
    Still, I could go into the shop. I could try it on. It’s not like there was some law against it – the Juliette Can’t Try On Cool Clothes Act of 1985 – that just didn’t exist as far as I knew.
    I walked in. The music playing in the shop sounded like jackhammers – nice, rhythmic jackhammers – but jackhammers nonetheless. The concrete floor had an intricate pattern of dragons painted on it. A display case near the door held giant silver rings and vampire dolls. And I ’d walked in here wearing my daggy work skirt.
    A girl with fire engine red hair nodded at me from the counter, all friendly-like. She wasn ’t scary at all. She had one of those blunt fringes. I wondered how I’d look with a fringe like that. I’d not had a fringe since Mum had cut my hair in primary school. That definitely hadn’t suited me.
    I looked through the racks, wondering if I should just skedaddle, when I found the skirt. I started to pull it out then put it back. Then I remembered I was a Bad Girl. What kind of bad girl wimps out of trying on a skirt? A lousy one, I ’d say. I grabbed it and held it up against me, looking around for a mirror.
    ‘ Wow, that’s great,’ the girl said. ‘Try it on.’
    I headed to the change rooms at the back of the shop and slipped it on. A thrill ran through me as I looked in the mirror. This was definitely a Bad Girl skirt. A skirt for getting into trouble. And, since I ’m a bad girl, I had to have it. In fact, I’d fallen in love.
    I could feel my grin splitting my face as I walked to the counter. Damn it. I ’d get that skirt.
    ‘ These look great with that skirt,’ said the girl, pointing me towards a pile of tee shirts. I picked out one with a heart tattoo design on the front. Yeah, that was bad ass. And a leather studded wristband. A pair of stripy stockings.
    I dumped my booty on the counter then kept looking. This shop rocked.
    ‘Check out the dresses near the door,’ the red-haired girl called. ‘They are so you .’
    I walked over to the rack with another thrill. The shop girl thought the cool dresses were me. She walked over to another rack and pulled something out.
    ‘How about this?’ she asked, holding up a black PVC corset. I laughed and shook my