Alaska was a good girl. Or so her parents had thought. They would be furious if they knew when she moved away from her home town to travel the country that she had ended up working at a bar. It would wipe the pretty little smiles off their faces, especially if they saw what kind of bar it was.

O’Donnell’s was a bar that you would see in the movies. The kind where drinking heavy was expected and the pretty little barmaids danced seductively on the counter. Alaska was the best, she had been doing it since the age of eighteen, lying to the manager about her age when she realised that Baltimore was the place she wanted to be. Well, it was that and the fact that she needed money since she spent the last of her money on a place to stay.

Serendipity took pity on her, taking one look at the heart shaped face and the raven coloured hair she knew the punters would be falling over themselves to get in and see her. Serendipity didn’t care how old Alaska was; as long as a drop of alcohol didn’t pass her lips on her premises she was happy with her.

That was five years ago and Alaska was going strong, instantly becoming a favourite amongst the regulars, the girls instantly befriending her once they realised that the stuff she did during work time was an act. Once she got used to it, Alaska realised that working at O’Donnell’s could be fun.

“Looks like we got a new girl” Texas whispered into Alaska’s ear as she walked past, grabbing a bottle of whisky and pouring it into the glass, handing it to the man’s hand before taking the money out of his hand. Texas wasn’t her real name, it was Aubrey, but O’Donnell’s liked to have a sense of mystery behind their ‘girls’ each choosing a fake name.

Alaska eye’s scanned around the bar, trying to find the person in question amongst the many thirsty men that pushed and shoved to get to the front.

“Alaska, get your ass over here” Serendipity called, Alaska rolled her eyes, as soon as she walked through the front door’s she was no longer herself instead having to take over the persona of Alaska, a flirtatious tease who had nothing better to do that flirt obnoxiously with the customers.

“Yeah, Dip?” Alaska called, wiping her hands on her jean shorts, rolling her eyes slightly, boos from the men realising they were going to have to wait longer for their beer.

“New girl, I need you to train her” Serendipity replied, her face contorting in disgust at the name Alaska had dubbed for her in the years they had been working together.

The young girl Serendipity was on about stood awkwardly on her feet, glad in cut off jean shorts and a checked shirt, white vest top visible underneath. Her sandy blonde hair pulled back into a low braid. She did not look ready for this before.

“Alright, follow me” Alaska replied with a small sigh, causing the blonde’s face to form into a small frown but still she followed Alaska to the back room.

“First off have you ever worked in a bar before?” Alaska asked, looking over her should to take in the small shake of the girls head. “Okay, next question, have you ever been in O’s before?” she continued yet again being greeted with the small shake of her head.

“Well then I am sure you’re in for a treat, now don’t take this the wrong way, girl, but you are seriously not dressed for the part. I know if I send you out there now they are going to eat you alive...” Alaska mumbled biting her lip slightly as she surveyed the girl once more.

“Take off the shirt” Alaska decided, holding her hand, the girl bit her lip, obviously thinking over this request before slowly reaching her hand up to undo the buttons slowly before pressing the soft material into Alaska’s hand.

“Hmm, that will have to do” She mused, turning to place the shirt on top of one of the multiple empty crates. “Now do as we do, you’re lucky tonight it’s Texas and me tonight, I’m sure if Tallahassee was here she would eat you alive” Alaska chuckled slightly.

“Are those your real names?” The girl asked eye brows furrowed slightly as she followed Alaska out the room like a lost puppy, the question she was used to but she couldn’t help the small burst of laughter that tumbled out of the throat whenever she heard it.

“God, no!” Alaska wheezed, turning to grin brightly at the girl, noticing that she was starting to loosen up when she realized that Alaska was being nice to her. “We use fake name’s around here, makes it easier to act like the person we have to be to give the customers a good time” She replied with a small chuckled “Damn, that sounded sleazy, what’s your name anyway?”

“Lucy” the girl replied meekly, Alaska bit her lip, looking the girl up and down.

“Well the name Alaska was thrust upon me when I started here, Texas ended up as that since she has a thing for cowboys, then there’s Tallahassee, hmm, what should you be Lucy?” Alaska pondered, a finger tapping at her lips as she began thinking trying to think of a state name or capital that would suit the meek girl.

“What about Dakota?” Alaska asked, raising her shoulder slightly as she gazed at Lucy who just simply nodded a small smile creeping onto her face.

“Dakota sounds good, now when do I get started?” Lucy grinned, immediately warming up to the intimidating girl in front of her.

Alaska was good at her job because it was something she had been doing practically every night for the past five years, though it was not something she always wanted to do, and sometimes it was shit but Alaska loved it. It came easy to her and was easy money. Money that she was going to help her to start a whole new where she could finally be herself, something that was not encouraged at O’s.

“Not bad, Kota, not bad” Alaska mumbled, thumbing through the bills, counting them out before splitting them into three even piles. Texas rolled her eyes from where she sat at the table, her fingers drawing through the sugar she had poured onto the table.

“Yeah, not bad for a first timer” She mused, a small smile playing on Alaska’s lips when the words fell out of the older girl’s mouth, to get a compliment out of Texas was a big thing, she was definitely hard to please. Alaska knew the high standards she had, because Alaska had trained her two years ago and they had been working together since, forming a tight friendship between them since they both didn’t seem to get on well with Tallahassee.

“Tonight’s tips” Alaska announced, grinning at the pair as she pushed them across the table, she could see the other people at the diner roll their eyes or stare at them curiously, she knew they didn’t approve of the types of clothes they were wearing.

“But I didn’t make that much...” Dakota began to start before Texas cut her off, slowly licking the sugar off her finger.

“When it’s Lask and me we share all the tips we make evenly, when Tallahassee is working you can think again, she is as tight as a cat’s ass with her money” Texas explained taking a long sip of her milkshake after counting the money out and shoving it into her back pocket, slowly twisting a strand of red hair around her figure as she surveyed the diner.

“You’ll be on the same shifts as me until you get the hang of it, but Dakota there are some rules you need to follow when you are working at O’s. First, no family or boyfriends at the bar, they’ll get pissed and then cause a scene which will mean that Dip will lose money and we get a massive amount out of it taken out of our pay checks. Next, flirt with the customers as much as you like if you think it will mean you get a bigger tip but you do not do anything further, no kissing, no sleeping with customers because then they will get jealous and cause a fight and it will be the same scenario as rule one” Alaska explained, Texas rolling her eyes when she saw the pointed look’s the younger girl was giving her, flicking her hair over her shoulders.

“Yeah, yeah, Lask we get it, now the real question is will Dakota be turning up for tomorrow’s shift or not?” Texas asked, a small smirk pulling on her face as she saw the girl bite her lip, her gaze turning to the crumpled bills set out on the table in front of her.

“You can count on it” the girl grinned, pushing her hair back off her face as she took a bite out of her french fries.