After they settled in a bit more and rested at their hotel the two girls started fulfilling the first duty on their list: shopping. They spent the last few hours of the sunny London afternoon scouting shop by shop and soon enough their arms were filled with bags.

They'd walked out of Kensington Market, giggling amongst themselves as they talked about old memories from when they'd go out. Well, times when Monica used to go out more often. Such as the time they got drunk and locked themselves in the toilet and laughed at the way they were laughing, and the time when Monica got a hickey and Mrs Brannigan thought it was a plant rash (and luckily she got away with it- her mother actually gave her antihistamine). They stopped walking when a particular building caught Paula's eye.

"Mo! Why don't we try this one?" Paula pointed across the street to a shop with the four big letters B I B A over the entrance. "All the big stars like Mick Jagger stop there!"

"Ohh yes!" Monica took another lick of her ice cream. "I hear that they do clothes really cheap too you know...", and the two girls giddily laughed as they ran across the busy street amongst the London traffic.

So they entered Biba, and spent a good half hour in there browsing for frocks and accessories. Paula picked out a black bandeau top, a gold statement necklace and an A Line mini skirt which was perfect for her curvy figure for tomorrow night, but none of the frocks and shirts suited her because of her big bust. That secretly annoyed her greatly.

Monica, on the other hand, was finding clothes shopping difficult but she had found a brown eyeshadow colour palette to compliment her bright blue eyes, a pair of black and indigo sandals, and in the jewellery section she picked out a nice pair of silver chandelier drop earrings.

"There's a buttercup yellow dress that I think will look great on you," Paula grabbed her wrist and lead her to a clothing rail. 

"I love yellow!" Monica giggled, and when they got there Paula picked one on a hanger out and held it up, and indeed it was a lovely pastel long sleeved dress with a tightly pleated skirt and bow loosely tied at the neck.

"Let's get one in your size." Paula started shifting through them.

But much to their disappointment, there was no buttercup yellow dress in Monica's size; they were all too small for her.

"Can I help you?" Monica heard a voice behind her, and she turned around to find one of the shop workers standing behind her.

"Uhh yes," she held the dress up to the tousled blonde woman, and Monica glanced down to the label pinned on her chest that indicated her name was Mary. "Can you please tell me if there is one in my size?" 

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that," Mary quickly said, and Paula widened her eyes in disbelief. "Your accent was too distracting. Can you please repeat your question?"

So Monica nodded and repeated her question with embarrassment, this time trying to sound less Belfast.

"And may I ask what dress size you are?" Mary asked next.

And when Monica told her, Mary eyed her critically before shaking her head.

"Biba clothing is designed to fit slender girls only." Mary flatly told her. "I'm afraid you won't find anything here."

Paula's jaw dropped, and Monica wanted to cry, but she tried to keep composed. 

Her voice cracked, "Well, th-thank you anyway. Where would you recommend..."

Mary spun around and walked off before Monica could finish her sentence. And all of a sudden she felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach, causing her breathing  to hitch.

"Are you alright?" Paula put her hand on her shoulder. "That girl's a wee cheek, someone should tell her manager about her customer service..."

[Author's note: 'Wee cheek' is Northern Irish slang for someone who isn't too pleasant. I know that Mary Austin is a very Marmite person in the Queen fandom and even though I don't like her that much I feel terrible for making her mean here. I hope you all understand why I'm doing this. You'll see more of Mary later ;) ...]

Monica slowly nodded, "But she's right..."

She looked in a nearby mirror, feeling utterly embarrassed and ashamed of her appearance.

"Mo, listen. Half the stuff here doesn't even suit or fit me either." Paula tried to explain, grabbing her shoulder. "But if this shop's policy is to typecast young girls into one image which is like... I don't know, big eyes and skinny legs then this shop isn't going to stay open for long. Why don't we just pay for our things and look elsewhere?"

Monica nodded, feeling a little better. Then she said, "...that worker had funny telephone shaped eyebrows, didn't she?", referring to Mary's over-plucked, arching eyebrows.

"I know, right?!" Paula giggled as they made their way to the till. "Thank god we don't look like we're scared half the time!"

The girls left when they paid, then as they walked back out onto the street Paula said, "Let's keep looking around for shops. We will find you something."

Monica nodded, still feeling defeated as though she'd been kicked in the stomach.

About five minutes later, still walking down Kensington high street Paula spoke up, "Why don't we give this one a go? The dresses in the window look nice."

Monica stopped in her tracks and looked at the window, and indeed they did. The shop seemingly contained a variety of different clothing, all from different eras and periods.

"Yeah, maybe..." Monica smiled, and glanced up to the sign that appeared to be blank, "But, it doesn't have a name. How strange."

"Well, it's definitely open." Paula pointed to the sign on the stained glass door, "and it's definitely a shop, the items in the window have price tags"

Before Monica could stop her Paula opened the door as the bell rang above her head.

Inside the room was square-spaced with a railing on each wall and a staircase across the room with a sign advertising more clothes upstairs. There the shopkeeper at the till decorated with Jewellery stands and scarves, a woman with a blue Paisley scarf wrapped around her flaming red hair with black tassel earrings, "Hello dears, can I help you with anything?"

"No thanks, we are just browsing for a killer outfit for this one," Paula answered as she nudged Monica playfully, "Wow... this is even more eclectic than Biba"

"Oh, that place down the road," the woman rolled her eyes sarcastically, "I've been selling vintage clothes longer than it has for twenty years, real vintage clothes at that. You'll find nothing that is made in a sweat shop here."

Whilst Paula and the shopkeeper continued to talk, Monica started shifting through the dress rail and forgot about what happened in Biba quickly.

 Then, a strapless black velvet bustier, embellished with silver beads and diamanté of different shapes and sizes caught her eye. She slowly lifted it off the rail, not noticing that Paula and the shopkeeper had gone silent behind her.

"Oh, that does look nice," Paula rushed over as Monica checked the label. And the wonderful thing about it was that it was in her size too, "I wonder if you have anything that you can wear it with."

"It's from the early 1940s, I think you'd suit it," The shopkeeper smiled. "I can open the changing rooms upstairs if you'd like to try it on."

"Please!" Monica nodded as she held the beautiful garment in her hands, and the woman took a key and opened a door at the back of the shop.

Five minutes later, Paula came to check on her friend, "How are you going in there Mo? Can I see?"

Monica was feeling incredible. She couldn't avert her eyes from the mirror. The bustier fitted perfectly. It hugged and shaped her waist gently and pushed her chest up subtly. She never wore skirts or dresses much except with her school uniform, which thankfully she'd never have to wear again. She felt more confident and even sexy in trousers.

"Yes..." Monica opened the curtain, and Paula gasped.

"Ooh la la!" She smirked, causing Monica to blush.

"You need a type of skirt to go with it," the lady appeared. "Do you want me to see if I have something?"

Monica looked again and thought for a moment, "Actually, do you think trousers would go?"

"...Now you're talking. I have just the thing..." the lady rushed out, and a few minutes later she came back in with a pair of black velvet flared trousers. "Try this!"

And Monica did, and soon enough she had an outfit.

"Splendid!" The woman smiled, clapping her ringed hands together. "You're going to grab the attention of everyone in the room!"

Monica blushed, feeling very flattered. And although she didn't believe her words, the shop lady was right.

Especially the attention of one man in particular...