The girl stepped out of the changing room wearing a tight red tank-top with a nonsensical slogan emblazoned across the front. Beneath that she was wearing flared jeans and glossy platform shoes. Her hair sprayed out from her head in long red curls. "How does this look?" she asked nervously.

"Oh, mate -" Hannah gesticulated, unsure what to say. "Fucking great! I mean, red-hot - no pun intended - but what can I say? Hey, Nancy - hey Nancy-girl!" Hannah shouted at another woman over in the corner of the shop.

"Yeah what?"

Hannah pointed to the girl modelling the clothes. "What do you think?"

Nancy came over. "Yeah, looks good" she said in a disinterested voice. Hannah slapped her on the shoulder with the back of her hand and indicated the girl again, widening her eyes at Nancy in silent communication. "Yeah" said Nancy again, "I mean - fantastic. It really suits you. The shoes, with your hair, and - yeah, that's the way to go."

"Trust me mate" said Hannah. "You'll have 'em queuing 'round the block."

The girl grinned. "Okay" she said. "I'll buy them all then." She went back into the changing room to get back into her usual clothes. A minute later she re-emerged and Hannah led her over to the counter to pay.

Hannah scanned the labels of the clothes. "Okay, that comes to 645 dollars and 85 cents" she said. The girl gave her a credit card. "Yep" muttered Hannah under her breath, confirming a prejudice to herself.

"I'm so excited, you know?" said the girl out of the blue.

"Oh yeah, I know" said Hannah, feigning interest.

The girl continued. "I mean, it's a whole new look and everything, you know?"

"Yeah, absolutely" nodded Hannah. Suddenly she couldn't help smiling in an amused manner at the girl - it was cute to see someone so excitable about new clothes, after all. The girl took the smile as friendly encouragement of her "new look."

Hannah put the t-shirt and jeans in a bag for the girl, and the shoes in a box. "Well thanks for shopping here!" she said. "Don't forget to come back!"

"Oh, I will, definitely" said the girl with a little too much sincerity.

When she left Hannah started refolding the clothes the girl had rummaged through and putting t-shirts she'd looked at back on their correct racks. Nancy came over to give her a hand (the shop was empty of customers for the time being). "So we maxed out the bullshit metre on that one" she said.

"Oh I dunno" said Hannah. "She looked pretty good."

"As good as anyone looks in any of this stuff" replied Nancy.

"Yeah, well -" said Hannah, "you can fret all you like, but I'm too hung over to care. I say if a person's willing to pay close to $300 for a pair of jeans then they deserve pretty much anything that's coming to them."

Nancy sniggered. "Still op-shopping then?"

"Hey" said Hannah, "don't knock it. It's the only way to go!"