Despite the glitz and the glamour the neon-lit sign suggested outside the establishment, inside the building it was dark and hazy from the customer's cigars, the smell being mixed in with the sweat glistening off the female staff. The second most favourable activity to participate in here was to drink alcohol amongst the crowd, leaving behind any lingering thoughts of immodesty and losing yourself to senses of the staffs entertainment; the first most favourable activity being more intimate in the booths in the darker areas of the club, but of course it was much easier and far cheaper to get a fix of pleasure from being close to the dance floor. It was dark now. The scene being quieter than usual. After a short silence from the dimmed stage it quickly lit back up, the many vintage-looking light bulbs being switched on with a static hum. The mob had quieted down from the last act and was now focused on the sound of bedazzled high heels clacking onto the dance floor.

The crowd began to cheer as Serenity Wheeler walked on stage wearing nothing but a stringy black thong and glittery black matching pasties covering her nipples shaped in a flower blossom pattern, she had her hair up in a messy tight bun with a simple, single black feather pointing upwards from her head; gripping the pole in one hand, as tense as she was, she began to perform an exotic dance. It had been her first time dancing on stage, and it was nerve-wrecking for her. She spent a whole month giving only lap dances to the gentlemen at the strip club, they loved her lap dances. However, customers began to desire a new stage dancer so the club owner had requested Serenity to perform.

It was an unusual case that Serenity had turned to stripping for money. Everyone had always known her to be an innocent beauty. She spent most of her time in college, studying hard, and was a cashier at her local retail mall. Things were going fantastic for her; she was making enough to support herself and was able to rent a little cute studio apartment. Her college was paid for by a scholarship she was granted. However, her little spirit shattered when she discovered that she had a tumour in her head one day from a CAT scan the doctor performed on her. He advised her that she needed to undergo surgery or else she would be facing death.

That day, Serenity came home and cried herself to sleep wondering why she must face one medical problem after another. She had recovered from a major eye surgery just a few years prior, thanks to the help of her brother Joey, and now was facing a brain tumour. Luck was not kind to her. She closed her eyes briefly, thinking about her brother and what he had gone through to help raise the money for her eye surgery. Not wanting to trouble him, even though she knew that he wouldn't mind helping her once more, she kept the tumour a secret and took extra shifts at her retail store.

Serenity worked for hours folding and stocking clothes at the clothing boutique. Her endless hours of working left her tired and the stress from thinking about her tumour made her nights restless. She had a hard time focusing on school and her grades began to fall behind causing her to lose her scholarship.

'I am strong.' She reminded herself. 'I will get through this.'

Unfortunately, Serenity got laid off one day from work and was falling behind on rent. She applied everywhere, retails, fast foods, banks; only to get a sympathetic letter of rejection each time. The economy was certainly suffering. Out of her most desperate moment, she turned to one of the most frowned upon occupation, stripping.

She viewed her bank account and found that she had about a hundred dollars left. She invested that small amount of money she had into a couple of pole and lap dancing lessons. After a couple of lessons she auditioned in a strip club and they granted her employment.

Within a month she made enough to catch up on rent and was very close to reaching the amount of money she needed for her surgery. Gentlemen there adored her and her innocent looks worked to her advantage. One of them tried paying her to have sex with him but she did not hesitate to refuse. Prostitution was where she drew the line. There was no way in hell she was going to let herself sink to that level, being a stripper was humiliating enough.

As she performed an exotic dance on the pole, her breasts bounced up and down gracefully; gentlemen began to wave dollar bills in the air waiting for her to fetch it. There was no pride left in her now as she began to lean closer to them, allowing them to stuff the side of her thong with dollar bills. Not a proud moment for her, but she was determined to save enough money for her surgery. The music finally ended and she was anxious to get away. She staggered off the stage as fast as her stripper heels can carry her. She can hear the audience cheering and clapping from behind as she headed for the make-up room.

"You did excellent! Oh, my gosh! I can't believe that was your first time on stage. I couldn't tell!" Exclaimed Cherry, another stripper who was a young slender blonde girl. Cherry had been very kind to Serenity; the rest of the strippers at the gentlemen's club had been bitches. Serenity never bothered to ask Cherry what her real name was, she only knew her by her stripper name. The girls quickly adapted to having been seen as mere objects for their customers, because of that, their names where something the ladies could hold onto for the night, something personal to lock away when their shift started and something to go back to when their shift ended. Serenity remembered a tale from her childhood from a happier time when her mother explained why she gave the name 'Serenity' to her when she was born. She was named so she could be blessed to have a calm & peaceful life, and for the first half of her childhood, it was right, Serenity was a calm and happy child in a stark contrast to her older brother Joey who was hyper and impatient. However, her name could not fix the problems she had to face, and so when first starting the job she made sure to choose a name that was nothing like her real name.

It took Serenity a while to come up with a stripper name herself, but Cherry suggested that she be called Blossom and together they would be 'Cherry Blossom.' Serenity agreed and everyone at the strip club knew her by that name.

Gossip began to spread throughout the make-up room that a wealthy man was going to pay the club a visit. He came once a month and tipped the girls there with hundred dollar bills rather than a one dollar bills. Girls began to scatter around the make-up area attempting to look even more beautiful; reapplying lipsticks and foundation to freshen up their looks.

"Why does he have to come the day my tanning salon screws up on my spray on tan?" Complained a brunette stripper dressed in a red set of bra and panties. She was trying desperately to powder down her orange tan, fogging up the area around her.

"Take it easy!" Cried another as she coughed and fanned away the powder in the air.

Serenity was anxious to meet this gentleman; if he was as generous as they portrayed him to be, then she might get lucky and score big. She might even make enough for her surgery and never have to look back. She joined the girls at the make-up table and began to doll up as well.

Later, Cherry ran into the make-up room, excited, and announced that the generous man had arrived. "He's here! He's here!" She shouted, ecstatically.

The girls threw themselves out the door in a frenzy to welcome him. Serenity stayed behind re-brushing her hair and questioned herself if she had looked good enough.

'I'm beautiful.' She said to herself. 'I'm a young confident woman.'

She sighed at the mirror to her reflection and picked up a black feather boa from her chair and loosely held it so that it would rest on each of her forearms. She began to make her way out of the make-up room and into the club where music played vividly. "Where's the wealthy man?" She asked Cherry.

"In the VIP room." She answered. "Only a few girls are selected to join him."

"Blossom!" The club owner yelled suddenly. He was an old hefty man dressed in a grey suit. He gestured her to come over.

"Yes?" Serenity asked once she reached him.

"That guy in the VIP room is a big spender, one of my most precious customer's." He began as he puffed out a ring of smoke from his cigar. "I want you to join him tonight. You're a fresh face and the gentlemen here adore you. I think you are what he needs tonight."

Serenity heart began to race. She had been selected to join the wealthy man in the VIP room. She nodded and nervously made her way to the VIP area. She reached for the door knob and twisted it slowly, trying to calm her nerves down. As she opened the door and walked in she saw a familiar face. He sat comfortably on the couch and gazed at her with his blue eyes.

She gasped and blood rushed to her face when she realized that those were Seto Kaiba's blue eyes staring back at hers.

(A/N: Doing a new thing where I don't subtitle the chapters in my normal way & just number them.

Okay so, the title may seem silly now but it's meant to reference the tumour in Serenity's brain and the grind being a pun with how Serenity is doing so much work to get the surgery and how she pole dances.

Yes this story was adopted from 's 'A Pole to Grind On.' The author has abandoned the story (And I guess ?) but I have adopted it before they orphaned it. The author has now deleted the original story from their page but if you were a fan of it, please give this version a go! I'll try to keep as much to the original storyline as possible but I'm going to put my own spin on things.

I have a friend that does pole dancing but not in a strip club. This story is a work of fiction so if you actually know how pole dancing works this story will make you laugh. (For one it doesn't take just a few lessons to learn how to do a full dance on the pole, mostly the first few sessions is training your body on how to pull yourself onto the pole and how to do a simple spin. I recommend pole dancing for anyone wanting to build toned muscles. It works really well on your torso, legs and arms but if you do please seek a trained professional because it can be dangerous. (As can any sport!)