College Girl
By poetheather
Chap 22

I was walking through the University Center, the wind billowing around my legs and up my skirt. I was heading to the food court, weaving my way through people. The crowd was pretty dense but I was a not so big person, so I was able through to slide through several holes in the mass of people.

I slid through one such mass and ran into someone. Whoever they were smelled heavily of Old Spice, which made me think of Bruce Campbell. “Watch where you going!”

I knew that voice. Oh God. I looked up and it was Thomas Fairbanks, the old Quarterback for our football team. I eeped in surprise.

He glanced down at me sharply. “Richard?”

I stood there dazed. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. What was I going to do? “Uhm…”

“Dude, why are you in a skirt. You look like a chick.” accused Thomas.

I spluttered and my head spun. I was paralyzed with fear.

“I always knew you were a fucking faggot! Hey everybody!!” His deep masculine voice honed by years on the playing field immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. “Check this out!”

With that he lifted my skirt and pulled my panties down. My penis flopped out of the tuck, clear as day. “Check out the little Tranny!!”

I didn’t know what to do but my body had a plan. I started to run. However my panties tripped me and I landed ass up, with my skirt on my back. I started crying. What else could I do? The crowd roared with laughter and jeered at me, calling me all sorts of things and none of them kind. My face burned with embarrassment, literally.

I tried to cover my shame but various hands kept me from moving or covering up. I cried, too impotent to do anything else. I barely felt it when the cold steel cuffs went around my wrists and I was hauled upwards roughly.

* * * * * *

I jerked awoke, safe in my bed, covered in darkness. I could hear Gwen breathing softly as my eyes scanned the room, my heart still pounding in panic. Everything had been so clear, so real. I started crying.

I…I didn’t know if I could do this. What if someone found out? I hadn’t been popular at school and if one of those asshat jocks saw me and realized who I was, then I was screwed and the House as well. I would be exposed and then everything would collapse: my new life with friends, any hope of going to school here, my Sorority, basically I would be left with nothing.

I hugged my bear. She was getting a lot of mileage lately and that kind f made me feel bad. But she made me feel a bit calmer and that always helped. I think I finally realized my bear’s name…Felicity. I think my getting her was a felicitous event. She certainly had stayed by me and helped me through some of this insanity.

I sighed as I felt my heart rate slow down. I kept holding Felicity close and tried to relax. I began to get sleepy again as the adrenaline that had been racing through me faded. I lay back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Was I really that easy to spot as Richard? Did I really look that much a guy?

I tried to get my mind to shut up and eventually it did. I finally got back to sleep.

In the morning I made sure to shower and clean the sweat off of me. I felt a bit gross. The warm water of the shower was really nice and the detachable shower heads let me direct the water wherever I wanted to. The tension from the nightmare flowed down the drain.

“Caitlin? You in here?” called out Meredith.

“Uhm…yeah. Just getting out now. What is it?”

“You need to get dressed and out of the House right now, like right now right now.”

My heart kicked into gear again. “Uhm…wha?”

“You need to get out of here. We will all see you at the thing at noon. Once you are out we can get to a number of the secret Sorority things we need to get done before today and we can’t do them if you are in the House. So you need to go so we have a chance of being ready by noon.” explained Merri as she was pulling me to my room. I was stumbling along trying to catch up.

I got into the room, still mostly dripping. As I was drying off she was going through my things, pulling out clothes for me to wear. I just focused on my getting dried off. Gwen was only starting to wake up because of the bustling, and I was supposed to hurry?

I dried my hair with the towel and turned to find Merri looking at me. “What?”

“Okay. I got you some clothes. Get dressed and head out. I am sorry this all seems so sudden but we really have to do a lot in a short period of time.” She explained apologetically.

I groused some but in the end I was dressed and out the door fairly quickly. As I drove away from the House I wondered what was going to happen today. I mean…was it really necessary to kick me out?

I looked at the clock on my car radio and tried to figure out what to do. We were supposed to meet at 1130 at the University Center to head out to the last part of Rush. This was where they called your name and you became a pledge. At least, so far as I knew.

I headed for the place with the lovely muffins, thinking that breakfast would be a good first step, since I was rushed off without the chance to grab anything. I headed there and considered what I was going to do.

The dream/nightmare flashed into my mind. What the hell was I going to do about that? I knew, KNEW, that there were a number of people from my High School here and what would happen if I ran into them? I don’t think that had actually been discussed. Granted, I had a lovely false background with the ID’s to prove it, but…

My nightmare could become real and I could be exposed. Things had been so crazy this morning that I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Merri, Gwen, Nadia, anybody about this. I really wanted their two cents on this. Hell I also wanted to talk to Becca about this, but since Friday was her film night she would still be asleep. So here I was, alone with only coffee and muffins to console me.

I had gotten a seat easily and the coffee was quick. It had taken longer for them to heat up the chocolate chocolate chip muffin. The butter was really nice and melted quickly, making the moist chocolaty goodness rich with the flavor of butter. Yum.

The food was making me feel better about life. There was really something about chocolate that really helped. I wish I could figure out what it was, because if it were bottled you could make a fortune. However, who would do that when they could simply get chocolate? So much for that idea.

I figured I could futz around for a few hours, get and early lunch and head off to campus. This was a big deal and I wanted to be ready for it. I had a fairly full tank of gas and this would give me some time to explore the town. I mean I was going to spend four or more years here and I had only run around a few places. Maybe this would be a good time for that. Plus it would give me time to think. And I think I needed to do a lot of that.

What was I going to do? That nightmare was so real that it still scared me. If it ever became real I would never be able to deal with it. Doing this was tough enough and I always felt like someone was going to realize that I had a penis, despite the amazing job that had been done transforming me. Sometimes it was a battle between my urge to explore this world and the urge to hide under my bed. Mostly I exploration won out but with the nightmare and the thoughts associated with it, it was getting harder to keep from hiding.

There were times I wished I was really the kind of person who just took orders because then I would be following what Merri said, or Nadia or Gwen. Hell, if that were the case I wouldn’t have even gotten into this screwed up situation in the first place. I haven’t fussed so much because it was interesting and Merri is really hot and I hadn’t wanted to loose her. It was good to know I wouldn’t loose her if I quit but at the moment it wasn’t much help.

I had seen a number of interesting stores and places as I had been driving about, my thoughts running the same information over and over and over. I still hadn’t come to any conclusion. But it was time and I needed to be heading over to the UC.

I was on the late side this time and I had to park a bit away and ended up walking to the UC. It was hot but I didn’t sweat all that much, the baking had helped with that. I got inside and things seemed to be chaotic. I looked for Alison, but didn’t spot her, which shouldn’t have been a problem. The doors shut and things began quickly.

“Ladies, today is what we have all been waiting for. Today you will get your bids and can get started on the way to becoming a Sorority girl. In a little bid we will be heading out to where the different houses waiting. There we will go down the names and let you know who offered you a bid. You have to make a decision right there, so make sure you know who you want to be with most.

“Each House will be in a solid color t-shirt with the letters, so you should be able to pick them out. When your name is called, make your choice and head over there. After we have gone through the list of names that have been given bids you will then head out with each House and start your first steps in this journey into Sisterhood. Those who are not chosen are to come back to here where we will discuss what will happen from there. Are there any questions?”

The room was quiet, though it buzzed with excitement. The tension was really high and I was glad things were going to be held outside where it wouldn’t be so compressed. Since there were no questions we headed out of the UC and down the hill to a tree shaded area with several hordes in colored t-shirts. Once they saw us they began to sing, each group vying for volume and clarity against all the others. Maybe the girls of the various Houses were as excited as this group?

When the woman who had been running this circus stepped up on a podium so she could be better seen, the crowd grew quiet. The process was deceptively simple. A name was called and when the girl walked over towards that House they cheered wildly. I heard Alison’s name called but I still couldn’t spot her. It really was annoying.

Finally they got to me. I headed over towards the House, spotting them by their letters fairly easily. That and spotting Gwen and Meredith hadn’t hurt much either. They cheered loudly and several people hugged me as I joined the mob. All too soon it was over and we were moving away from the rest of the groups. Sandra got everybody’s attention. “Thank you all for showing an interest in our House. I can honestly say that we are honored to have you among us. Let’s head back to the House where we will have lunch and start your orientation to our Sorority. So hurry off and drive on over.”

I hustled over to my car and drove over to the House. I was excited. The whole name calling thing had been energizing. And this was it, the end of Rush. Now I was a pledge to the House. I was smiling as broad as I could. I really couldn’t believe this. I was becoming a Sorority Girl, of sorts.

There were already a few of the other girls there ahead of me and so I just followed them into the House. It was beautiful. There were fresh flowers everywhere as well as beautiful decorations. The difference between last night and today was amazing. I was so impressed by what they had managed to get done that I was suddenly okay with this morning. Merri hadn’t been kidding.

“Hey there Caitlin.”

I turned and there was Alison, except that instead of being all Gothed out she was dressed really simply in jeans shorts and a black t-shirt. She did have a nice collection of silver on, but she looked so conservative compared to what I had seen her in earlier. “Wow.”

She smiled. “Thanks. I try to save the really Gothy stuff for clubs and wear basic black otherwise. So…disappointed?”

I hugged her quickly. “Not on your life. You look fine however you dress. I am so happy that you decided to stay.”

“Yeah…so am I. I fully expected to be one of the girls still standing on the field at the end of this, but I wasn’t. Thank you for keeping me in.”

“I didn’t do anything except to talk encouragingly to you.” I blushed. I really wasn’t used to praise, especially from someone as hot as she was.

“Well, you had my back and I am grateful.”

We hugged again and found seats at the tables. I wondered what tastiness was going to be dispensed for lunch. Even though I had something small at eleven I was hungry again. Before people started to eat the flowers Sandra stood up and addressed the group again. “For today, you pledges will be served, to thank you for joining our House. Thank you. Now let’s eat before the food gets cold.”

It was Thai food. I almost started drooling when I figured out what it was. There was soup, Pad Thai and Pad Khing. There were also spring rolls and lettuce wraps. I knew I was going to burst from the amount that I ate. It was a lot and it was so good.

There hadn’t been a lot of chatter and people dove into the food and savored the goodness that was the Thai. Soon you could see people sitting back with a stupid happy grin on their faces. Soon enough, everyone seemed to have stopped eating. Sandra again rose, “Ladies, please follow me to the Chapter Room. We will tell you more about the House and what you get to look forward to.”