“Come on!” Mollie grinned to the girls. “The tour group will be here soon! We should get ready to welcome them! You know, I have a fun idea, if you’re up for it?” she suggested, standing up and brushing crumbs off her black trousers.

“Ooh, what?” Jessica asked and both girls looked intrigued.

“Well,” she giggled, her eyes sparkling with mischief, “I’m going to grade Emma in front of them so that they can see the process, what would you say if we let them have a go at doing some grading themselves afterwards? If you two don’t mind modelling for the class?”

“That sounds awesome!” Marcia agreed instantly as Jessica nodded her enthusiastic agreement. “Oh but…” her face fell a little as the realisation struck her. “You did say we were A-grade, right? What if they say something different?”

“Don’t worry.” Mollie assured her. “It’s just for fun. My grading is the official one and will stand come what may.” Reassured, the girls stood and brushed themselves down, collected up their rubbish to drop into the bin by the entrance and followed her back inside. The afternoon’s batch of volunteers had started to arrive and were getting signed in at reception.

“Hey Mollie, heard the good news!” the receptionist grinned at her as they past. There was no hint of sarcasm in her voice. She was as genuinely happy for her colleague as she would have been over an engagement or pregnancy announcement.

“Thanks!” she replied cheerfully. “Kinda figured it was time to put up or shut up!”

“I’ve often wondered how that ass hasn’t been roasted already!” the receptionist teased and Mollie stuck out her tongue.

“Well someone had to do some work around here!” she retorted, the good-natured teasing of the banter understood perfectly by both of them. “Come on,” she ushered the girls forward and back into the corridor, “we’re in Prep Room Four this afternoon and I want to make sure everything’s ready, then we need to warn the guys in the stock room that we’ve got a tour coming through. Don’t really want to walk in on them having a crafty wank with a bunch of thirteen year old girls!”

“Do they really do that?” Jessica asked with a giggle.

“Who knows?” Mollie shrugged. “Wouldn’t put it past them! You’d think naked girls would stop being a novelty after working somewhere like this for a couple of months but, hey,” she shrugged again, “boys, eh?” The sisters giggled and nodded. Boys were simple, silly creatures and everyone knew it!

Not wanting to spoil the surprises for her young friends who would be joining in the tour as well, Mollie left them in the vacant inspection room which seemed to be identical to the one they had originally been graded in except everything was set out in a mirror image of how it had been in Room 2 and there were more chairs. This must, they decided, be the one that was normally used for tour groups and they wondered how often such tours took place. They supposed that, during term time, it was a good place for a school trip and wondered whether it was normal to always cook one of the visitors or whether a volunteer like themselves was sometimes purchased for the occasion.

“Okay!” Mollie clapped her hands together, coming back into the room. “Everything’s clean and everyone who isn’t supposed to have their willy out has them put away!” The girls giggled again. “Let’s go see if our friends are here!”

In reception, the Guide troop was indeed waiting for them. Fifteen girls aged between ten and fourteen, not in full uniform but all wearing their branded, light-blue polo shirts, some with shorts and others with jeans, some wearing light jackets and most carrying small backpacks. There were three adults with them too – the mature lady who Mollie had spoken to on the phone, a younger woman, possibly in her late twenties, who was also in uniform and one in her mid thirties who was in regular clothes and so was probably a parent helper. As to be expected, the girls covered a broad range of sizes, body-types and ethnic backgrounds and Mollie could not help applying her professional filter as she looked at them, making quick assessments of their meat quality and the most suitable cooking methods for each.

“Good afternoon!” she announced loudly to get their attention. “Welcome to SB catering where we make every day delicious!” There were polite smiles and some good-natured chuckles from the girls. “Before we begin our tour, I’d like to introduce you to two friends of mine.” She ushered the sisters forward. “This is Marcia and Jessica.” They both gave slightly awkward little waves. “They’re going to be joining you on your tour today and maybe helping me out a bit later. Now, before we begin, just a couple of things I need to go through. You’re welcome to keep your phones on you but please try to stay focussed on the tour. Take pictures of any of the equipment you like, or of each other, but please don’t take pictures of anyone else without asking first. We’ve got a lot of registration and grading going on today so you might well be seeing some naked people but remember they’re still people so be polite, okay? If they say you can take a picture with them, go right ahead, but no creeper shots,” she made air-quotes around the expression, “okay?” The girls all nodded politely.

“Okay, great!” she continued. “Now, because there’s a lot of us and limited space, I’m going to ask you to leave your bag and jackets behind reception. If you need to grab a water bottle or inhaler or insulin or anything else out them first, go ahead and do that now. As you all know, we’ll be preparing a meal together as part of this tour,” there was a lot of excited giggling and Mollie couldn’t help scanning the crowd to try to work out which one was Emma, narrowing it down to three likely candidates from the way they reacted to this comment, “and we’ll provide drinks too so try not to fill up on snacks as we go around!” The girls and the three chaperones happily complied, leaving anything they didn’t need to bring with them in a reasonably neat pile behind the desk. “Ready?” Mollie asked with a warm and cheery smile. “Great! Let’s go!”


To be continued...