Karen woke up the next day in her apartment to her alarm clock. Fighting her grogginess, she managed to take a shower without falling back asleep. The panic from forgetting whether or not she remembered to bring her purse home woke her up like a shot of caffeine, while she was soaping up.

Wrapping a towel around herself, she flew out of the bathroom, but was relieved when she saw her oversized handbag on a chair in the kitchen. She went back to the bathroom, finished her shower and got dressed in a loose pair of jeans, a light-blue blouse, and those weird slippers.

Since she only had afternoon classes today, Karen set about making some eggs and toast for breakfast. She split her attention between her food and digging through her purse. Getting her sneakers out, she tossed them under the table. While she was eating, she wormed her right foot into her sneaker and felt something in it. She grabbed her shoe and looked inside. Seeing what looked like a booklet, she pulled it out:

"Dear New Employee,

We can't tell you how happy we are that you have joined our company. As you are probably aware, you may notice some odd twitches and delays in your actions during the next few weeks. These are normal and no cause for concern. Please avoid operating machinery during your first week. Symptoms may last longer, so please exercise caution. Transportation will be provided to and from your worksites.

Her eyes narrowed when she read that first paragraph and Karen almost tore the whole thing up in anger.

"Of course they leave that out. Bastards." At least she never drove anywhere... She just hoped she wouldn't do anything embarrassing or dangerous. She continued reading the first page:

Arlington Associates will call you when we have a position for you. Generally, we will give you at least 24 hours advance notice, but please try to be ready to go within an hour, as emergency positions will be granted to the first available employee.

If there is anything you need that our training doesn't cover, we will provide it on-site. Please remember to remain relaxed and present a cheery smile; while stress won't effect the programming, the clients report dissatisfaction with obviously nervous employees.

Thank You,

Arlington Associates"

She thumbed through the rest of it; it looked like standard stuff, she'd read it later. She stood up, walked over to her cabinet and stuck the pamphlet in an empty folder labeled "Work stuff". She noticed her shoes were on and started fuming again: she hadn't put them on

She spent the rest of the morning doing minor chores and watching TV, and right before she left for class she got a call from Arlington about a new job tomorrow. Her first job was as a member of the wait staff at a high class party.

Nothing strange happened during class, so she wasn't thinking about it when she got home around six. Making some mac and cheese, sat down on the couch, took her shoes off and started watching TV. At around ten, she headed to bed. Picking up her shoes, she started walking to her bedroom when her legs launched into a split. She stifled a scream as she hit the floor, and tried to stay calm enough to wait for the little adventure to be over. She watched her foot wriggle for a little while, and then her legs folded suddenly and stood her up. She couldn't move and started panicking. When would this episode end? Should she call a doctor?

"I can't believe I signed up for this." she spat.

All of a sudden, she could move her legs again. Starting cautiously, then racing, she ran into her bedroom, stripped, and got into bed.

The next day she was picked up outside her apartment by a fairly large van. It was almost full of women her age; she seemed to be the last stop before drop-off. She debated whether to ask anyone in the van about her episodes, but nobody else mentioned anything about it. In fact, they all seemed to ignore her. She decided to wait until she could talk to someone one on one before saying anything.

The van drove around what looked like a building complex, and everyone got out near a small building in the back. Not knowing what else to do, Karen just followed everyone else inside.

Eventually, the group came to a room set-up as a make-up room. Karen saw names attached to each chair, so she looked for hers. It was alphabetical, but her name was missing. Starting to get nervous, she kept going down the row of stools until she found hers at the end. Following everyone else's example again, she took the garment bag off it's hook behind her chair and took the dress out. It was a slender blue dress that she thought she'd look good in. She looked around and saw everyone else get changed, so she did too. The dress did look good on her. She grabbed the hose off the counter and slid them on, too. Now where were her shoes? She couldn't go out in her sneakers, after all.

A couple of other women came in and started to do makeup and hair. They moved down the line, each one doing one girl, than moving to the next. Eventually, there was just her and the last make-up artist left. Karen was kinda nervous, but she had to ask someone, after all.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

"There's been some weird stuff going on lately. Last night I was stuck for almost ten minutes! Is it going to stop like the book said?"

"Yeah. All that weird stuff is the spell getting used to not getting commands regularly. You'll be fine in a week or two."

"Ok, I guess. Wait. Spell?"

The make-up girl laughed. "They didn't tell you? It's all done with an old spell, that's why they knock you out. So you can't piece it together."

"That's... wow. Weird." Karen tried to hold still while the girl applied her make-up. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Sarah"

"Hi, I'm Karen." She paused for a second, "I'd shake your hand, but I can't move."

Sarah smiled. "It's alright. You'll be headed out once we finish up here."

"I need my shoes, I couldn't find them. And is there any way to stop the side-effects of the spell?"

"Um... Not really..." Sarah was rummaging around near Karen's feet. Karen felt a shoe slip on her immobile foot and she giggled.

"Ticklish much?"

"Not until- Eek! Cut it out!" Karen yelped, then giggled as Sarah toyed with her other foot for a minute, before slipping her other shoe on.

"Ok, you're good to go!"

As if on cue, Karen's body got up and headed out. Karen tried to relax and ignore the growing warmth within her...

Karen's body walked around the party for a few hours, serving trays of little things she didn't recognize, wines, and whatnot to the people milling about the party. She just tried to smile and pretend to look where she was going. She was surprised at how fast time went by when she didn't have to think about it. She didn't spill anything, bump into anyone, or anything, it was like she had been doing it forever, at least to any observer.

As the party wrapped up, Karen's legs walked back to the make-up room along with everyone else, and sat her down. Able to move again, she got changed and put the dress back in the bag. Looking underneath the counter, she saw a shoebox and put the heels in it. Everyone else was leaving and it looked like a few other people were picking up all the outfits, so she headed outside.

The vans were filling up and about to leave, so she started heading to one.

"Want a ride?"

"Oh hey, Sarah. You didn't come in a van?"

"Nah, those are for you guys, 'cause sometimes side effects flare up right after events, you know?"

"No, I didn't; but I didn't finish reading the book, either. Um.....Yeah, I'll ride with you. It'll probably take forever to get home in the van."

Sarah walked Karen to her Malibu, and they both got in. Karen saw that the backseat was full of boxes and junk.

"You moving?"

"Yeah, soon as I find an apartment." Sarah said, starting up the engine and heading out. "My landlord threw me out a week ago, I'm just lucky the apartment came furnished. Bastard was pissed 'cause I turned him down. Perv." She paused for a second, "Sorry to unload on you. I guess I'm still upset about the whole thing."

"It's alright." Karen grinned, "I think it's your day, though."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"'Cause I've been looking for a roommate for almost a month now, since my money dried up. I was about to put an ad in the paper at the college! You interested?"

It was Sarah's turn to grin. "Hell yes, now how do we get to your place?"

Karen gave directions, and they made it to Karen's apartment in about twenty minutes. They decided to unload Sarah's stuff tomorrow, and Karen went to make up the second bedroom while Sarah brought up some clothes. They talked for a little while, mostly about the job, and then they each went to bed.

Karen realized how flushed she was, but tried to write it off as an after-effect of the job, and tried to ignore it. She didn't even notice her right hand sneaking down until she felt something slip inside her.

Gasping, she tried to grab her right hand with her left. She didn't want to get off the first night her roommate was here, for starters. She managed to grip the rebel hand, but couldn't pull it out even a little. She kept getting distracted as her right hand seemed to hit all the best spots in the right order. It felt damn good, but she didn't want it to continue.

Trying more, she thought she felt some give until something started stroking across her right breast. She arched almost immediately, as her left hand stroked and tickled her breast, and her right continued its own activities. It felt so good she got lost in the feeling entirely, and when they switched to her clit and nipple, rubbing and stroking, she couldn't hold it in anymore and moaned. Her hands finally decided to hit all the right spots at once, and she exploded.

After she recovered, she feared her new roommate heard her, and wondered what she could say. This worry was negated somewhat by the afterglow of the best orgasm she had for some time, but in spite of her worry she eventually fell asleep.