Chapter 9! Wow, on my last story, this was the last chapter. O.O Don't worry, we've still got a lot more story to go! Sorry if this chapter's a bit on the slow and long side, but I wanted to show more of what Dot and Claudia were doing in the store. And, I'm sorry if having character's call Dot "Angelina" while I refer to her as Dot in narration is confusing. It made sense to me! XD

My OC's are safe from the scary laywer men! FTW!


"I didn't think I'd be hired that quickly," Dot muttered to herself as she and Claudia carried in boxes of donations.

"Ms. Maddie's not very strict when it comes to employees. She's probably checking up your criminal background right now, but you should be fine," Claudia said this with a tone of certainty, but her eyebrows rose in an unspoken question. Dot remembered she'd watched Animaniacs before.

Dot laughed. "Don't worry. I should come up clean." Claudia laughed in response, and opened the boxes.

"Okay, these look like dresses," She said peering into the boxes. "We're going to take them out and lay them on the floor. That way we'll get a good look at them and see what kind they are." Claudia pulled out the dress on top and set it down on the floor, spreading it out.

"See, this one's long, but it's a semiformal style. Normally, we'd also check to see if it's washed, but these we're collected by a church that donates often, and they always wash the donations they get."

"Now, here comes a somewhat hard part. Is it in style? We have to make sure that people will actually where it. I've lost track of how many 80's bridesmaid dresses we've received. And, trust me here Angelina, none of them look good." Dot laughed, trying to imagine the different array of dresses.

"So, what do you think?" Claudia turned toward Dot, her head cocked to the side in question. Dot moved closer to get a better look at the dress. It was rather pretty; it was a light blue sundress, with a butterfly print down the side, and spaghetti strap sleeves.

"I'd wear it." Dot remarked.

Claudia smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"So, what do we do with the dresses we don't think look good?"

"If it's in good shape, Goodwill. If not, the trash."

"Anyway," Claudia continues on. "Now we see the size. Luckily, the tags still intact on this one. If it's not, we have to try it on and take our best guess. It's a 5, so it's a junior's semiformal long gown."

"I'm getting a little confused," Dot admitted.

"Don't worry, you'll catch on quickly" Claudia reassured, and they continued on, opening new boxes as they came in. They made piles of dresses, the first two being keep or not keep. Then, they went through the keep pile, separating by clean and dirty. The clean pile went into piles depending on size and style. The don't keep pile went into Goodwill and trash piles.

After throwing away the trash pile, they headed out with the other two bags while some other employee's took care of the clean ones.

"Goodwill's just around the corner, and the Laundromat's not very far either, it's just in the opposite direction." Claudia explained the wash bag over her quickly dropped the Goodwill bag to a rather bored attendant, and then Dot sat and watched as Claudia did the washing while explaining that, once a week, they should bring their personal laundry along with the dresses and do both at the same time.

"The apartment's pretty sweet, but one big thing it lacks is a washer and dryer hook up." Claudia explained, annoyance creeping into her voice.

Dot would spend the next two weeks falling into this routine of sorting and hanging dresses, taking the dirty one's to either the Laundromat or the dry cleaners, and the rejects to Goodwill. She learned that Ms. Maddie usually did the executive decisions and spend most of her day either setting up appointments, doing paperwork and taxes, and spent her free time helping around the store. Molly was the receptionist, Danny was the accountant, and Mr. Rob, Ms. Maddie's husband, was the repair man, whenever he wasn't working at an apartment he was the landlord of. She got used to small group of paid employees, most of who were in their 20's to early 30's, who worked almost every day. Some could only come in on certain days or hours, due to school. The group of volunteers who came in Friday evenings and weekends changed constantly. Some were in high school, working for community service requirements. Others were old, retired people either giving back to the community or trying to avoid boredom.

Every night, Dot went to bed exhausted, but happy. She was really enjoying working and Claudia was becoming a great friend. Her days were busy, and the work, and workers, were fun.

The homesickness and the nagging voice telling her to "Think of your brothers!" only came at night, as Dot was falling asleep. Nightmares were an almost nightly occurrence, but choose to ignore them. She was happy while she was awake, and they didn't bug her that much. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

"Gather round! Gather round !" Ms. Maddie started calling one day. Dot looked over from the racks to see Ms. Maddie, dressed eccentrically as always, holding a clip board with her trademark big smile. Dot hung the last dress and walked over with the other employees.

"Now, this is Thursday, and I always give ya'll a two-day notice before clients come!" This sentence starts excited chatter among the employees, except for Dot.

My first client day! Oh, crap! I don't know what to do! What if I mess up! I've been doing so well so far, could I really mess up now?

"Now, just a quick reminder that you're to wear your Magic Closet t-shirts, and a pair of nice jeans. No holes that go to the floor from your knees! No pants that sag too low! You need to look professional! Hair needs to be nicely groomed, and girls, and some of you guys, with long hair need to pull it back somehow. And, no crazy make-up or body piercing, or whatever the kids think is cool these days!"

"What exactly is this for?" A girl, who Dot thinks might be named Tara, asks.

"A wedding." Ms. Maddie says, causing some gasps from the group. "Now, don't worry; the bride, groom, and the wedding party are taken care of. But, these are close family and friends of the bride and groom who aren't in the wedding and need our services. Both men and women will be here, so will need host's and hostess's. Now, back to work!" She says the last sentence snapping her fingers and everyone quickly goes back to whatever they were doing before

"Ms. Maddie?" Dot approaches quietly.

"Yes, Angelina?" She asks, the perkiness leaking from her voice. Dot had slowly but surely gotten used to it, but it's still a tad annoying at times.

"I don't have a Magic Closet t-shirt."

"Oh, duh!" She exclaims while giving herself a face palm, causing Dot to giggle a little. "I completely forgot you were new! You've gotten so good at this so quickly, I forgot you've only been here two weeks!" The comment catches Dot off-guard, and she quietly mutters a thank you.

Am I really that good? I guess the full answer to that question will come on Saturday.

Ms. Maddie comes back, slightly nervous-looking. "I got the smallest size we have," She says, holding us the way too big for Dot t-shirt. Dot quickly grabs it, pulls a sewing machine out of her pockets and quickly gets to work on it.

"Ta dah!" Dot said proudly, now holding a perfectly sized t-shirt. Ms. Maddie stood there, speechless for once. Then, she started laughing.

"I keep forgetting you're a toon! Now, don't take that the wrong way," She says with a wink. "You just don't do toonish things often!"

"I completely understand," Dot said, forgiving. And she was right. She hadn't done too many toonish things, because she didn't need to. She could do everything on with her own abilities. Is it because I'm simply good at this? Or, am I subconsciously trying to distance myself from my old life?

"Hey, Angelia!" Dot was snapped out of her thoughts by Claudia. "Welcome back from La La Land. Now, you still a have a few more dresses to hang up, then its laundry day for us."

Dot smiled sheepishly, then went back to work. She was soon becoming more nervous about the upcoming clients. As she and Claudia walked to the Laundromat, Dot expressed her fears.

"Don't worry. I'll help you. Once you get into the grove of things, it's easy."

"Like just about everything else associated with this job?"

"Yeah, pretty much!" Claudia says with a laugh.

Despite Claudia's encouraging words, Dot went to bed Friday night scared out of her wits. Luckily, the nerves over her first clients seemed to ward off the nightmares.

"Angelina! Wake up!"

Dot groggily opened her eyes and saw Claudia, her wet hair put up in a towel, standing over her. She looked to the alarm clock, then frowned.

"Claudia, its 6:20 in the morning! Why are you waking me up! The apartment better be on fire or something..."

"Did I forget to tell you?" Claudia said, face palming herself. "We have to been in a 7 AM on client days."

"Yeah, that would have been nice to know," Dot grumbled, mad that her cutie sleep had been abruptly ended. She got up with a sigh, and Claudia left to go finish getting herself ready.

Dot put on her t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She got ready and ate breakfast quietly. Claudia looked nervous, and slightly upset.

"I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you about getting up early, Angelina," Dot looked up from her breakfast. "It just completely slipped my mind."

"It's cool. I'm just not the much of a morning person, especially when someone else wakes me up," Dot laughs. "I remember one morning Yakko tried to wake me up and I smashed him with a mallet so hard that I woke up Wakko. That was an eventful morning; none of us Warner's are morning people. And, don't get me started on how early we had to get up to go film." Claudia was laughing and Dot actually didn't feel homesick.

Am I actually getting used to being away from home?

They walked into the store to see Ms. Maddie and some of the other employees already working. Claudia and Dot quickly jumped into help out. The group wasn't coming until one, so Dot was confused as to why they were here early in the morning, but there were lots to do. Claudia gave Dot some tips while they worked. They worked all the way until 12:15, when a sandwich shop down the block brought them lunch.

The clients came in exactly at one, and they got to work quickly. Dot's first client was a cousin of the bride who was 16. Remembering what Claudia had told her that morning, she listened to what the girl wanted, then went through the racks. After a couple of misses, a long, sea green gown turned out to be perfect. Ms. Maddie sent her an encouraging wink as the girl squealed at her reflection.

I'm doing it! I'm actually doing it! This is really fun!

Client after client went by in a whirlwind of hours that passed like minutes. It seemed like too soon the group was leaving, everyone happy with what they had got. The entire crew sat down, exhausted but proud of their work. Dot got some hive fives for successfully completing her first client day.

"So, how'cha do?" Claudia asked. Dot grinned back, too tired to talk.

They also had clients the next two Saturday's, bringing up Dot's time in Atlanta up to a month. After the third client Saturday in a row had ended, Ms. Maddie gathered everyone up.

"Great job everyone!" She exclaimed, and applause followed. "You guys have been the busiest bees! So, I'm gonna give you guys a little treat!

"First, we're going down the street to dinner, and it's on me!" Whoops of joy and "thank you's" followed. "And, I'm giving you tomorrow off!" Even more excitement followed that statement, and, energized by the positive feedback from Ms. Maddie and the promise of free food, clean up took no time at all.

Later on, Dot and Claudia walked back to the apartment, bellies full and cheeks hurting from laughing. As soon as they entered the hall, however, it was like someone let the air out of a balloon. Giving weak, tired goodnights, Dot showered quickly and went to bed, feeling very happy with how her life was going.


Again, really sorry if it seemed slow and long, but this is actually a breather chapter. ;) Yep, things start getting crazy next chapter! Also, this chapter is where I had that over a month long writer's block, so that might explain some of the slowness and not as good writing. Hope I still have my readers and that the next chapter's better! See ya next week! :)