First you say, "Welcome to McDonald's at Penn Station, may I take your order?" And make sure you smile.

Camille had to train the new girl today, she called herself Ivy, and she couldn't seem to keep her mind on her work.

" I didn't always have to do this you know. I made mad cash as a dancer at this club in Manhattan," Ivy started.

"I'm from out that way," Camille said.

" Grilled chicken pickup!" someone yelled from the back.

" Yeah, I work hard here at McDonald's because I have a natural tendency to want nice things," Camille said as she noticed Ivy's Versace jeans and suede Hush Puppies.

" How long have you been working here?" Ivy asked.

" It seems like a lifetime, I don't know for sure though. An accident a while back messed up my memory," answered Camille.

" Damn, that's a fat ass tattoo," Ivy said. "How long have you had it?" she questioned.

" Oh, I dunno; Probably forever," Camille said. "I'm pretty sure it says,

" SHY" but it's fading away now into just a design," she said.

" Yeah, I like tattoo's but not too many, you know?" Ivy said. "See, mine says "SEXY." All the girls had one like it where I worked," Ivy lifted up her Versace T-shirt to expose her tattooed stomach and belly ring.

" The funny thing is, I didn't even know I worked there until I walked past the place last week and everything just came back to me all at once," Ivy said slyly.

" I wanted super size," a cunt of a customer yelled at Camille.

" Anyway, I caught the A train at precisely 4:15 every Friday to go to work at this place called the Paradise Club in Manhattan. I remember most of it clearly now," Ivy started.

"Packed as always, the train seemed to move much more slowly while standing, and my feet hurt so bad from these Prada stilettos. So anyway, I start winking at this business guy so that he'd give me his seat. The whole time I'm thinking "Raise Up, Fatass!" So at first he's shocked that I'm even looking his way, but eventually he gets up, and says, "Wanna sit?” So I'm like "Gracias senor," because I always pretend like I'm Cuban or something when guys talk to me that I'm not interested in. It doesn't matter whether or not they believe the accent's real, but most guys don't want to go through the trouble of figuring it out.

" So I'm sitting there going through my Coach bag looking for my MAC lipstick, when this Asian guy across the isle in a cheap Armani imitation suit, a "pleather" briefcase and a toupee is like, "You look muy bien senorita. No makeup necesario".

" EXCUSE me can I get a number two, with a Sprite"

" Anyway," Ivy continued, I was like "Yo tengo novio," (that means I have a boyfriend,) and he doesn't understand, so he gets up and stands near me, and I'm flagging him like a Spanish fly! Ha ha ha ha.

" Ivy, you have to take the orders!" Camille shouts.

" Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't care about this job. I'm just working here until I'm off probation with the club," she said.

" So it's going on 5:00 and I'm walking in the door and the blonde girl with like ten tattoos is like "Watch it!" and I'm ready to fight her, until I remember these Gucci boots I want. They're like $600 so I need to concentrate on the making money.

" Welcome to Mc Donald's at Penn Station, may I take your order?", Camille said to a nice looking young boy in jeans and sneakers, she slips him her number on the receipt.

" So, I go to Hillary (she's the hostess), and I'm like how're we doin' tonight?" Ivy continued.

" Good eighty-five men on the floor, plenty of money to be made tonight, you better get on it!” Hillary said.

" I go back to change my clothes. All the girls are silent when they're changing. Partly because of a reluctance to make friends because of mistrust between females, also because of resentment and jealousy, but mostly because of vanity. Every girl wants to be the best dancer, with the most desired body. She strives to drive the most expensive car. She needs to be envied, have the best clothes, make the most money, and that's understandable. Competition and goals are good right?" she asks.

" Sure!” Camille says.

" But I did have one friend there, that's the only thing that's still cloudy. I don't remember her name, but I can tell you she wasn't like the other girls, not to many tattoo's, not too many piercings, you know?" Ivy said to Camille.

" Sure, I know", Camille retorted.

" So anyway, all night I'm stepping on the other girls' toes to make this money. All the "ballers" come to our club, and making money is easy when you don't care how you get it. This older white man with alligator cowboy boots and a diamond horse buckle whose attention I stole from the blonde tattoo girl was spending money on me all night. I turned all the other grease balls down for a dance. I came at them with the cheesy Spanish "No habla ingles!" "No habla ingles!"

Camille and Ivy, both laughing now, paid no attention to the customers.

" I wanna see the manager!!!", one shouted.

" What's goin on back there??", said another.

" Shut up, Fatass!", Camille retorts.

" Good for you," said Ivy.

Ivy and Camille hid in the back room laughing and eating French fries. Camille felt a sense of deja vu come over her, and suddenly she was actually interested in what Ivy was saying.

" So, it's like 10:00 now and I've got like a "G" in my purse. I'm walking to the corner behind the club to catch a cab home like I do every other night with my friend, and all of a sudden everything goes black. I wake up lying in the street alone with no money, no Coach bag, no Calvin Klein pea coat, and no Prada stilettos. I had a knot on my head the size of a five-karat diamond and no recollection of what went down. The only thing lying near me was my school I.D. I had to call the school just to find out where I lived. I never would have guessed I was a dancer, but your past always has a way of creeping up on you."

" So, last Friday after school, I'm shopping downtown, when I pass it. The Paradise Club. And outside, talking with cowboy, I notice this blonde girl wearing the hottest stilettos I'd ever seen. So I'm like "Excuse me, are those shoes Gucci?, and she turns around and says "No, they're Prada," and then she laughs. "Just another sucka," she says under her breath to cowboy. "But don't worry she don't know what the deal is, they never do."

And it all came back to me Camille. I recognize that "star" tattoo on her cheek and you know I went buck wild on that ass!

Camille looked at her arm. She traced the cursive of her tattoo over and over with her finger.

It didn't say "SHY".

As she ran out of Mc Donald's the boy in the jeans and T-shirt shouted, "I'll call you later!"

" No es necessario", Camille replied.

Ivy smiled, and checked both time sheets out at 4:15.