The Nerd Ascension Pt. 01

Janice waited until Harmony finished her most recent set then ran up to meet her by the stage. "Hi," Janice said nervously. "I'm Janice."

"Harmony," The girl returned as she shook Janice's hand. "You new here?"

"Yeah," Janice answered. "Yeah...I guess I am. I mean I'm trying out tonight."

"Good for you," Harmony said as she waved down one of her customers. "I have to give a lap dance. If you wanna hang out a minute, I'd be happy to show you the ropes."

"That would be so sweet," Janice answered. "I would be so grateful."

"Sweet," Harmony replied. "Back in a sec." She took off running across the floor area and dove into an older gentleman's arms. The man gave her a hug and squeezed her plump ass cheeks with both hands.

Janice took a seat by the stage area. She looked back at Brooke, who was still in her booth taking advantage of the open bar tab.

The floor area felt much more open than Brooke and her seat tucked safely in the corner. The club's customers stared unapologetically. Janice was used to men checking her out, but, in the real world, most guys did so more subtly.

One guy, a younger man with a shaved head and a leather biker vest, sat a couple tables down from Janice. The girl on stage occupied most of his attention, but his gaze occasionally wondered toward Janice, who did her best to avoid making eye contact.

Janice was about to retreat to her booth when Harmony returned from her single lap dance.

"I hate cheap guys," Harmony complained as she plopped into the chair across from Janice. "When are you trying out?"

"I don't know," Janice said. "When Mitch gets here."

"He's here already," Harmony said pointing to a large man sitting on the bar stool closest to the entrance.

Mitch bookended the bar with the other large gentleman who had eyed Janice earlier in the evening. Mitch was an even bigger man whose gut hung out over his pants. His dress shirt strained to stay inside the tight belt around his jeans as he rested a single ass cheek on the stool. He was holding a giant plastic cup from a convenience store while reading something on his phone.

"Hey, Mitch," Harmony yelled across the club while waving her hands in the air. When Mitch turned around, Harmony pointed at Janice. "Tryout. She's trying out."

Mitch held up a finger indicating that he would be over in a minute.

"So how does all this work?" Janice asked Harmony. "Do you make most of your money from tips?"

"Oh, no," Harmony laughed. "Tips are fine, but that's not where the real money's at."

"The real money?" Janice returned attentively.

Brooke offered Janice a brief summary of how the club worked. Each girl had to pay the bar fifty dollars every night; this was their tip-out. They also had to chip in five dollars for every lap dance they gave and fifty dollars for every fifteen minutes they spent in the VIP rooms.

The girls made their money from several sources. They would get tips while onstage, but their big money came from dances and the VIP. Girls could charge thirty dollars for each lap dance and would receive 150 dollars for every fifteen minutes in the VIP room.

The girls had to wear their panties during dances, but, as Harmony explained, many of the girls would get naked in the VIP room. "Never take your panties off during someone's first time back there," she advised. Finally, she warned Janice to never, under any circumstances, have sex with a customer in the club. "If you get caught having sex, you'll be banned from the club forever," Harmony insisted.

"Don't worry about that," Janice assured Harmony. "There is no chance of that."

"Are you Janice," Mitch said as he approached Janice and Harmony's table. "Anna tells me you're trying out."

"Good luck," Harmony said as she stood up from her seat. "I'm sure you'll knock 'em dead."

"Uh, yeah," Janice replied to Mitch. "You want me to go right now?"

Mitch sat down at the table with Janice and handed her a stack of paperwork. "You need to fill all this out first. Once it's complete, bring it up to the bar. Then go check in with the deejay. Ted will set everything up for your tryout."

Janice combed through the various forms, most of which were designed to protect the strip club from potential liability. As she finished the paperwork, the realization of what she was about to do hit her like a Mack truck. As a teenager, Janice used to joke about strippers all the time, but she never would have predicted that she would eventually work as a dancer herself. Now she was mere minutes from taking the stage.

After dropping off her paperwork, Janice dutifully made her way back across the club to the deejay booth. Brooke mouthed a few words of encouragement as Janice passed the corner booth.

"You must be Janice," the deejay said as Janice stood on her toes trying to look into the seat. "That your stage name or your real name?"

"My stage name?" Janice returned. "I didn't think about that."

"No problem," Ted assured Janice. "I'll just call you Paris."

"Paris?" Janice asked. "Why Paris?"

"I don't know," Ted said. "You kinda look like a Paris. You're up next. I'll play two songs for you. Dance the first number in what you've got on now then strip naked for the second song. Got it?"

Janice looked nervously at Ted.

"Got it?" Ted repeated.

"I got it," Janice finally assured him. "I got it."

With a nod, Ted turned his attention from Janice and grabbed the mic. "Let's give it up for Sugar," Ted spoke into the sound system using his deepest announcer's voice. "She's coming back to you for one more song. Up next, we have a special treat for you as Paris takes our Beach House stage for the first time ever."

Janice's body tensed up as she heard the announcement. She was next. A single song stood between her and her first public striptease.

Janice's knees weakened as she forced herself back around the main seating area toward the stage. She looked down at her body covered in nothing more than a few strings and some thin yellow material. As much as she hated that bikini, she was terrified about what she had to do next.

Janice sat down near the stage and watched Sugar, an older dancer by strip club standards, finish her final dance. While most of the audience didn't pay much attention to Sugar's show, one guy sat attentively behind the brass bar separating the seating area from the stage. Sugar sat her butt directly in front of the man and spread her legs open. She held her hand just above her pussy. On cue, the man put a dollar in his mouth and descended toward her exposed vagina. Sugar gratefully accepted the dollar and pivoted her hips away from the man.

Janice could hardly believe what Sugar was willing to do for a single dollar. Before tonight, Janice wouldn't have considered such a maneuver for a thousand dollars, let alone a single bill. Even if Janice had to work at this place for the next six months, she wasn't going to let that happen to her; she would never devalue herself in such a way.

"Let's give it up for Sugar," Ted said through the sound system as he faded the dancer's second song down. "Up next, we have a special treat for everyone. For this first time on this or on any stage, please welcome the lovely Paris."

The muscles in Janice's stomach clenched involuntarily and forced her head downward; she felt as though she was about to throw up. She gripped the edge of the table firmly to prevent her hands from shaking. The room started to fade as she grew lightheaded. "Don't faint," she thought to herself. "Not here. Not like this."

"Are you okay?" Harmony asked as she sat down at the table and wrapped her arm around Janice's back. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Janice looked around the club. She saw a couple of guys making their way toward the stage, no doubt excited for the prospect of unfamiliar flesh. She looked back at Brooke, who was standing in front of her booth with her arms folded over her chest.

"No," Janice said to Harmony after a long pause. "I'm all right. I'm doing this. I'm just a little nervous. That's all."

Janice stood up from the table and adjusted her yellow bikini ensuring her nipples and pussy were as concealed as the sheer fabric would permit. She chuckled at the irony considering what she was about to do. The placement of her bikini top was the least of her concern.

Janice slowly ascended the stairs to the stage. Sugar, who had to stay on the platform until the next dancer was in place, wished her successor good luck before exiting oval.

Janice slowly circled one of the two poles. About a dozen men surrounded the stage staring unapologetically at her barely covered body. The group was diverse. There were a couple of older businessmen who most likely had wives and families at home. There was a group of construction workers who seemingly didn't go home to shower before visiting the club, and a few frat-looking boys were chugging on a pitcher of beer. Janice didn't know any of these guys, but she was about to perform for them, to strip naked for them.

"Shake it," one of the frat boys yelled up at the stage; his friends followed suit with whistles and catcalls.

Even though Janice studied the previous performers, she wasn't sure exactly what to do. She wrapped both hands around the metal pole and slowly swayed her ass back and forth; the movement felt awkward and forced. She slid down the pole almost letting her ass touch the floor then hiked her ass back upward and pulled her body back up the pole.

A couple of the construction workers made their way to the chairs by the stage. They set dollar bills on the brass bar expectantly. Janice didn't want to approach the men; she certainly didn't want to press their faces into her boobs or spread her legs in front of them. Instead, she continued dancing by the pole.

"Put your hands together for Paris," the deejay said as he faded the first song out. "She's coming back at you one more time. Up next is Lacy."

As a vulgar rap single with a bruising baseline pounded through the speakers, Janice considered what was next. She glanced back across the club at her former college-mate as a look of vindication flooded Brooke's face. Janice realized how poorly she had treated Brooke over the years but had never imagined her victim would find revenge, at least not like this.

Down on the main floor, Harmony waved her hands at Janice. "Take it off," Harmony mouthed as she motioned for Janice to remove her top. "You have to take it off."

Over at the bar, Mitch stared at Janice. He fully expected his newest dancer to be naked by now.

Janice reached her hand behind her back and untied the bikini's strap. With as much seduction as possible, she held one arm over her tits and used the other to remove her top. Nervously, she twirled the bikini over her head for a few moments before letting it fall to the stage's polished black tile floor.

Janice grabbed the pole with her free hand and shook her ass mechanically; she wasn't about to look up at Mitch or Brooke, both of whom were probably pissed off with her stalling. Janice knew she had to continue with her strip show. For starters, that meant exposing her tits to the attentive crowd.

Nonchalantly, Janice released her large breasts and swung around the pole with her free arm extended into the air. She could feel the centrifugal force pulling her tits away from her body. The cool club air combined forces with the sweat running down her body and her heightened nerves to send shivers up and down her athletic frame.

Janice did her best to avoid eye contact with the growing group of guys around the stage. Dollars lined front row as the gentleman hoped for any form of contact their singles might afford them. She couldn't worry about the dollars right now; she still had to remove the tiny yellow bikini bottoms.

Janice positioned the narrow silver pole between her body and the least crowded side of the stage. She pulled the knot loose on one side of her hip letting the bikini drape from the other hip down the inside of her leg. Looking down, Janice could see her shaved pussy illuminated by multi-colored strobe lights. She quickly untied the other string letting her final piece of clothing fall to the floor beside her Christian Louboutin heels.

Janice fought the urge to crouch over and wrap her arms around her naked body. Even without looking at the crowd, she could feel their stares burning into her skin. Her pride, her dignity, and everything she thought she had become melted inside of her. She was completely exposed. She had woken up this morning a senior manager at a prestigious investment firm and was ending the day naked on stage begging for dollars.

Not sure what to do next, Janice spun around the pole more like a little girl on a playground than as a stripper. All Janice wanted was for the song to end, for the deejay to allow her off the stage.

"Hey, Paris," Harmony said from the first row of chairs. She was sitting next to one of the businessmen and waving a dollar in the air. "Come and get it."

The last thing Janice wanted to do was retrieve that dollar, but she was thankful that Harmony, rather than one of the perverts, would deliver her first tip.

Janice knelt at the stage in front of Harmony, who put the dollar in her month. Harmony dropped her face between the exposed tits while Janice wrapped her boobs around the bill. She had just accepted her first single and was now 99,999 dollars away from stripper retirement.

Before Janice could back away, the older businessman stepped in front of her with a dollar in his mouth. He removed his glasses before plunging into her bosom. She felt his whiskers scraping the sides of her breasts as she squeezed her tits around his face. She looked away and grimaced as the man twisted his head back and forth between her ample breasts. The man pulled back and reloaded his mouth with another dollar before diving back into her tits. Several guys formed a line behind the man hoping to find their own solace in her soft white flesh.

Just as one of the construction workers was about to tip Janice, the deejay faded the song down and announced Lacy as the next girl on stage. Janice apologized to the queue before retreating to the pole and scooping up her yellow bikini. Her hands shook so wildly that she could hardly tie the outfit's string behind her back.

"That was incredible," Harmony said as she greeted Janice at the stairway. "You're gonna do so well here." She gave Janice a huge hug and led the club's newest stripper to an empty table.

"Congratulations," Mitch said as he approached the table. "You're on the rotation. Harmony'll show you the ropes."

"Uh, thanks," Janice responded.

"Welcome to the team," Mitch said shaking Janice's hand.

Janice felt a strange sense of pride from her successful audition. This was the last thing she wanted to be good at, but she was never one to shrink from a challenge.

As Mitch walked away from the girls, Janice turned to Harmony looking for advice. "I need to make a lot of money, and I need to make it quickly," Janice said. "Tell me how."

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