No Good Hoodlum

the unwritten rules of being a teen girl in skidrow

Summary : There's an unwritten set of rules about being a teenage girl in a place as bad as Skidrow

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Rule #1 - You will be harassed for everything you wear. Just ignore it and keep walking.

Penny was walking to work, her skinny frame covered up with an oversized sweater and baggy skirt. She hated wearing form-fitting clothes. She didn't wanna be seen as a whore. 

"Hey baby, whatcha hiding under there?" a clearly drunken young man called after her.

Penny knew better than to do anything, and she let her limp mousy hair fall in her face and kept on walking.

Rule #2 - Every boy is trying to get into your skirt. If he's angry, let him.

"S-sir, I'm sorry," Penny mumbled, as she backed into an alleyway.

The man, drunk and angry, slurred his words as he stumbled into the alley with her.

"Shut up you dirty slut. Get down on the ground and we won't have any problems," he said. He was so close Penny could smell the whiskey in his breath.

Penny squeezed her eyes shut and laid down on the dirty concrete.

Rule #3 - Daydreaming is pointless, but if it helps, do it

Penny sat behind the counter at Mushnik's, reading a magazine. The girls on the cover looked so beautiful. Penny longed to be able to afford dresses like their's. She looked down at her ragged sweater and scuffed up shoes and sighed.

It was a perfect world. Audrey was with Seymour and not her abusive greasy pig boyfrind, Orin Scrivello. They lived in a quaint house in the suburbs. Penny wore pretty silk dresses and dainty kitten heels and her hair was in perfect curls all the time. She was radiant, her skin was clean, her face was beautiful.

Penny sighed. That would be divine.

Rule #4 - Trust no one, no matter how nice they seem

Penny was ecstatic. Mushnik's had a good sale day for once, and she got paid five whole dollars! Penny tucked the money into her small bag and was skipping down to the hole-in-the-wall diner Smendriks, when she heard an elderly woman's voice cry out. 

"Please help, dear girl!" 

Luckily, Penny knew this woman. Audrey had been swindled by her before. She would ask for a dollar, then pickpocket you while you were getting out the money. Pennt ignored the woman and bought herself a small straweberry shake and sat down in a booth.

and the final rule...

Rule #5 - Lots of bad stuff happens, but you'll get used to it

Penny, Mushnik, Seymour, and Audrey, watched carefully out the store window as a fight broke out between a drunk and a druggie. Their fists were being thrown at each other. There was shoving and spitting and all sorts of things

At the end, the druggie pulled out a gun and shot the drunk in the stomach, in broad daylight. The employees sighed and went back to work.