RetroXotique

She always seem to be rushing from one committee to the next and attending one function or another, held by or representing one her societies. With all this hurrying about, school first and then a secretarial course at the local college, she did not have time for boys or fashion and tended to dress in what ever her mother bought for her. When occasionally she did pause to consider fashion she looked at the other girls and thought that current fashions would not suit her 5’9" frame, her rather large bust and as she thought her plain face, she then discounted and got on next society or committee job on her list. 

Part of the secretarial course was a year out in work experience, Priscilla applied early and everything was arranged for her to work for a local firm for a year starting from the coming September. Priscilla busied herself through the holidays as usual and as September approached prepared with enthusiasm for her year out by practising her shorthand and typing, her mother went out and bought her a matronly grey suit, some a plain blouses and some low heeled shoes. 

The week before she was to start she received a call from her college tutor saying that the local firm had had to cancel the year of work experience due to unforeseen circumstances and the only placement they could find her at such short notice was with the Ministry of Statistics in Bristol which was 50 miles away, because of the change and the distance, they could offer her a small grant to cover living costs. Priscilla argued that it was impossible to leave as she had so much work to do, the tutor replied that if she did not do work experience year, she would fail the course, which is why they had worked so hard to find her a place. Priscilla realised she had no option. So in the next few days, she quickly resigned from all positions with the committees and societies, handed over all her papers and packed for Bristol. 

When she reached Bristol on the Saturday she quickly found a top floor attic bedsit, moved in and spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday exploring her locality, finding shops, bus stops , checking the way to work etc. On Monday she appeared bright and early for her first day at the Ministry of Statistics, she was then shown round by a Mrs Purvis who was the supervisor and then she was placed in the outer office of one Robert Ledman a statistician, who was a bookish type in his 50’s, Priscilla’s duties were secretarial support for Robert Ledman and 4 other statisticians, the supervisor spent the rest of the day showing her duties and explaining the filing system and wordprocessor. 

At the end of the day Priscilla caught a bus home and as she was walking back to her bedsit, she suddenly realised that she would have nothing to do that night, no societies, no meetings, no minutes to type, it came as quite a shock !, what was she going to do. This would not do she thought so she bought a local paper and scanned it for something of interest, in the local news pages she found an announcement 

"Kingsway Tennis Club 

Summer Season Starting 

New Members Welcome 

Contact Club Chairman Paul French" 

and a phone number, now Priscilla had not played much tennis, she never seemed to find the time, but she needed to do something, so she phoned Paul French and he told her that the club was open every night and to come down and see them, he added she might not want come down tonight as it was the AGM at 7.30pm and it would all be a bit of a rush. Priscilla’s ears perked up at this and quickly replied that she would come down anyway as she had nothing better to do. 

At 7.15pm she turned up at Kingsway Tennis Club, found Paul French, who was in a bit of a rush preparing for the AGM, but handed her a membership form and asked her to sit down. Priscilla sat in a seat near the front and the AGM started. Paul French stood up as chairman and went through the agenda at a good rate, everything was progressing smoothly until they got to ‘Election of Officers’ when an uneasy stirring started in the room, by harassment and other means they filled most of the posts, but could not inveigle anybody they asked to act as Club Secretary, eventually Paul French addressed the room and asked "Is there anybody who would consider being Club Secretary", Priscilla kept quiet but as nobody seemed to be showing an interest she eventually raised her hand, Paul French saw it but seem to ignore her but eventually in desperation acknowledged Priscilla’s hand, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Priscilla she has just joined and we are grateful that she has agreed to be Club Secretary", every clapped, gratefully it seemed and the AGM drew to a close. As his last announcement Paul shouted first committee meeting starting in 5 minutes, lets get on with it. 

They new committee all sat down around a table in the bar and each was introduced to Priscilla who wrote down their names and positions, and was handed an address list by Paul French. Paul quickly got in to the meeting with Priscilla taking minutes, he progressed quickly through Minutes of last meeting, Treasurers Report, Chairman’s Report, Fixture Secretaries Report and on to Social Secretaries Report. The Social secretaries name was Gerry and he announced that the first function would be a ‘Tramps and Tarts’ night in 2 weeks time and the 's had gone up to night. He emphasised that expected a good turnout from the committee and asked them to put a lot of effort into their costumes, especially the female committee members who he all expected to set a good example and come as ‘Tarts’ and not ‘Tramps’ !. Priscilla made notes of all this and the meeting progressed through any other business to a close. As they were all leaving Paul came over to thank her for taking the post and then asked her about her tennis, she explained that she was very rusty and would like some coaching, Paul said no problem, the first coaching night is on Wednesday at 6pm and he would look forward to seeing her .

 
On Wednesday night she went to the tennis club for her coaching session and proved to herself that she was not very good , but nobody seem to mind much and they were all very friendly and so after the session she booked another for Saturday afternoon. At the end of the session she entered the locker room and on the noticeboard just inside the door, she saw Gerry’s poster advertising the ‘Tramps and Tarts’ night. On the poster was a stylised picture which portrayed a buxom woman wearing improbably high stiletto heels, fishnet stockings, a long very tight black pencil skirt, a wide patent belt which encircled a minute waist and low cut tight lacy blouse which showed off most of the top of her bosom and lots of cleavage, the poster also showed her the woman with unbelievably large eyelashes and bright red lips.

Priscilla studied the picture for a long time and then walked to her locker, already deciding that she could possibly imagine herself wearing anything like that. As she sat down she could hear two women talking in the next aisle, one said "Alex, are you going to the Tramps and Tarts night in 2 weeks", the other replied "Oh Yes, it was great fun the last time", the first one went on "What are you going to wear", the one named Alex continued "Oh the classic ‘Tart’ costume I think, like in Gerry’s poster", "Tell me more" the first asked, the second one said "Well... starting off with high heeled stilettos, I’ve got some in the back of the wardrobe from when they were last in fashion, they have 5-6" heels I think and they are a bit difficult to walk in at first, but with a bit of practice I’ll be OK although my feet will be killing me by the end of the night, and then probably fishnet stockings, I’ll have to buy a new pair as my only pair were ruined at the last night like this, then I‘ve got a really tight black satin pencil skirt which fits me like a second skin and with the heels gives me the most amazing sexy walk, and above that I’ll wear a really wide patent leather belt to show off my waist and on top one of these lacy blouses you used to see on barmaids in the 60’s, really low cut and then underneath it a pushup bra with loads of padding to give the boys an eyeful and to cap it off I’ll pile my hair up high, puts on lots of make up, bright red pouting lips and bigggggg false eyelashes, in fact amazingly very like Gerry’s poster, the only thing I need to complete the outfit, so that I looked exactly like the girl in the poster would be a proper corset to give me a waist like Scarlet O’Hara’s", the women burst in to laughter, the first added as they left the locker room "Sounds great, I’ll wear the same and we can go as twins". 

After the two women had left Priscilla thought that maybe she had been to hasty in discounting the outfit in the poster and that she should rethink what she would wear, especially as Gerry had emphasised that committee members should make a good effort, but she thought surely they could not be going to wear a proper corset and who was Scarlett O’Hara, but then again maybe everybody was going to wear one and it was commonplace at fancy dress parties like this ?, as she had never been to anything like this before , she would have to find out ?. (she did not know this at the time, but the two women were the biggest flirts in the club and if anyone would wear an outrageous costume it would be these two). As she reached the entrance hall she stopped to look at the picture in the poster again and slowly shook her head in disbelief , and behind her the two women from the locker were listening to a third, Priscilla could not hear them clearly but she heard the words "we will have to be really tight" and listening again "pull together" and again "It will be hard work, but we will have to put the effort in" and another line "if we have chance to get our breath back". This confirmed it for Priscilla, everybody was going to put a lot of effort into their costumes for the ‘Tarts and Tramps’ night and by the sound of it everybody was going wearing a tight corset and she had better too. To give her some ideas for her costume she unpinned the poster and slipped into her bag and walked out of the front door. Behind her the three women continued discussing tactics for the upcoming tennis match against their local rivals and the team captain was saying which if Priscilla had been close enough to hear that Kingsway ladies B team would have to be really tight about the court and pull together as a team so as to weather the storm from their rivals best two players although It will be hard work, but we have to put the effort in and later in the match after if we have chance to get our breath back we might be able to sneak a win !!.