Woodcrest Book #5: Investigating Audrey
I paced back and forth, surveying the remaining members and pledges. This time we were in the meeting room, a podium up front, wooden folding chair spread uniformly across the rest of the floor. We hadn’t been using this space enough, but we had to look formal enough when our GAT representative walked through the door.
“Alright ladies,” I told them, finally stopping to rest both of my hands on the table, leaning back and staring at the room. Aleah was behind me, standing at the podium. She normally left these things to me, though as president I really felt like she should take the lead more often. “Aleah and I have talked to all of you, you know what you’re supposed to say, how you’re supposed to say it, and this is EASY, because you’re telling the truth. You’re simply telling them that we’re helping a young trans girl come out of her shell, call it philanthropy, charity, whatever you feel like, just make sure you stick to that story and we’ll be fine.”
“And remember that Audrey doesn’t stay the night here, ever,” Aleah added from the podium “Even if she did…I can’t even remember.”
“Uh, there was that one night when you ruined her life,” A girl pointed out. “When you made her come out to her girlfriend?”
“Is like…everyone following every piece of this bullshit drama?” I demanded. “Okay let’s look at the facts. Yes, we made her come out, but she was going to have to come out eventually anyway. Whether it was here, or at her dorm, or on the quad, the result would have been EXACTLY the same and you know what? At least this way she was among friends who could give her support. Did you WANT her to be alone when that happened? No? I didn’t think so.”
A dead silence hung in the air; the girl who was speaking simply averted her eyes to the floor and played with her fingers. Someone coughed, another girl twirled her hair.
“Our Panhellenic representative is maybe fifteen minutes out,” Aleah finally broke the silence. “Are all of you clear on what you’re supposed to be doing?”
The room nodded, a few of the pledges looked uncertain, maybe even afraid. They probably should be; they’d fought hard to get into this sorority, and it was all hanging in the balance. Funny how life works out, isn’t it? Just as I stood from my leaning position against the table, the front door flew open and in stepped the most ugly pantsuit I’d ever see in my life, accompanied by some blonde bimbo.
“Oh, wow!” The pantsuit said in a light southern accent. “Am I in the right place? This house is a mess! Please tell me this isn’t how Gamma Alpha Tau represents these days!”
I watched Aleah step forward from the corner of my eye, extending a hand toward the pantsuit.
“Hello,” She said in an almost professional voice as the remainder of GAT looked on. “You must be Ellen Trace, I’m Aleah Simms-“
“Yes, I’m aware of who you are, sweetie,” Ellen said condescendingly. “And you know why I’m here, we have to get to the bottom of this.”
“Well,” Aleah said. “I can assure you we haven’t had any…male guests, at least not overnight. The accusations are baseless-“
“Then you won’t mind if I have a little talk with everyone here, alone?” Ellen’s voice was growing more serious with each sentence. She phrased it as a question, but it definitely wasn’t one. I had some doubts forming in my mind but in my heart I knew we’d prepared well for this moment; everyone was on the same page.
“Absolutely not,” Aleah’s voice inflected upward as she shrugged and shot a smile toward Ellen. “If you want you can start with-“
“Her,” Ellen said, pointing toward me. My stomach fell out my asshole.
“Me?” I said, gesturing to myself. “Why-“
“Tiffany Grey, dating Shawn Derringer, president of DEM…if anyone is complicit in this, it would be you, wouldn’t it?”
“You’re saying that just because I’m dating Shawn, I had him sleep over?” I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a little-“
“Likely?” Ellen said accusingly. “Why don’t we step into the conference room and you can fill me in on every little detail.”
“That’s-“ I started to say something sarcastic but I noticed Aleah shooting a serious look at me. I sighed and conceded. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”
“Great!” Ellen smiled. “And after that we can get this chapter over with.”
As Ellen turned, I rolled my eyes and followed her lead into the conference room. She motioned for me to take a seat in one of the chairs near the end of the table. I placed myself in the seat and watched as she sat adjacent to me, pulling some papers from a briefcase and laying them on the table and leafing through them briefly before making eye contact with me.
“So,” Ellen said. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?’
“With what, exactly?” I tried to dodge the question, stupidly.
“Well, we received an anonymous tip. The tipster said that Gamma Alpha Tau has been hosting overnight guests of the male persuasion and as you know, that’s a serious breach of protocol. Panhellenic is compelled to investigate, and upon conclusion of our investigation, if we find proof to substantiate the claims, your charter will be revoked and corporate will reclaim this house. From all of the previous complaints we’ve gotten, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to pan out in your favor. So, start talking.”
I took a deep breath. Aleah had given us a very specific and unusual directive: tell the truth. Well, to be honest it wasn’t all going to be the truth but it was pretty close.
“Okay,” I said. “So first of all, we know who gave you that anonymous tip, and we also know that it’s a jealousy issue.”
“Jealousy?” Ellen looked at me intently. “Do tell.”
“Okay, so, we were working on a super secret project, it wasn’t supposed to get out but…this trans girl we found…well, she came to us for help. She needed help learning to uh…be a girl and how to dress, and act, and whatever. We were kind of doing it as a secret philanthropy thing. Learning about the transgender community, it’s just…I think it’s done a lot for us as a sorority and-“
“You’re telling me, that Gamma Alpha Tau, Woodcrest chapter, headed by Aleah Simms, suddenly decided to undertake an equality project instead of doing your nails or sleeping with frat boys?”
“Hey with respect, that’s not entirely fair,” I argued. “We do a lot of…other things.”
“Alright,” Ellen shifted in her chair and scribbled a few things down into her notepad, then aimed her stony gaze directly at me. I wanted to gulp but it might indicate intimidation. She probably fed on fear or something, like an empathic velociraptor. “I’m going to interview the other girls, and IF, I emphasize IF, they corroborate this bullshit you’ve fed me, then I’m going on to the next step.”
“The next step?” I raised an eyebrow as she closed her notebook and folded her hands on the table.
“I want to speak with this…girl.”
“You mean Audrey?”
“Is that her name?” Ellen once again opened her notebook and began to scribble. “Then yes, I’ll want to speak with Audrey. Honestly, I’ll be surprised if you can actually produce her.”
“Well I mean that could…be a problem,” I objected. “She’s…pretty skittish, even around us-“
“Tiffany, if you want to save this chapter, then you’re going to produce Audrey, no questions, no arguments, just get her here and make sure she’s ready to talk.”
I left the conference room feeling a little bit numb. We’d already put Audrey through so much, did we really want to make her out herself to national? The answer was yes, of course. Yes we did.
“Aleah, we’re fucked,” I sighed as I walked past her. “They want to talk to- hey, whose that?”
I pointed toward the couch where a girl I didn’t recognize was sitting, cross legged, reading a book and dressed in the GAT uniform which I hadn’t touched since my pledge days.
“Um, that’s Kari,” Aleah explained quietly.
“Kari? From Omega Psi? Why does she look so different?”
“Makeup, I guess,” Aleah shrugged. “Okay, so basically she suffered some…brain damage a few months ago and every once in a while she thinks she’s part of a different house. Like, she sneaks in and just…acts like she belongs there. I’m not sure if she’s actually mentally ill or if she’s just trolling. Last week she was in Tri Pi, the week before that, Zeta Tau, and so on. I guess it was our turn this time.”
“Uh…that’s bizarre,” I frowned. “Anyway, she wants to talk to Audrey, we need to get her here.”
“Fine, whatever,” Aleah seemed distracted. “Get her over here-“
“Hey guys, there’s someone here for you,” Courtney interrupted us. In the distance, I heard Ellen call the next girl into the conference room. As I looked up, past Courtney, I saw a short girl with long brown hair strutting toward us, stopping just short of Courtney and regarding us with what I could only describe as an amused grin. Who the hell?
“Well hello there,” The new girl smirked. “You must be Tiffany.”
“Uh yes-“ I started to say, just as she cut me off.
“Oh and you,” She grinned again, walking past me and staring at Aleah as if she were a piece of meat. “Aleah, president of Gamma Alpha Tau, I would say it’s nice to meet you, but from what I hear you’re a piece of human garbage.”
“Hey!” Aleah protested angrily. “Just who the fuck do you think-“
“My name, is Leina,” She said smugly. “And today we’re going to discuss what you’ve been doing to my little sister.”
“Who exactly are you?” I raised an eyebrow at the new girl. Leina, Leina, who the hell was Leina?
“Oh don’t worry,” She giggled as she stepped confidently around me, leaning in and speaking quickly into my ear; her hot breath resonated against my skin. “You’re going to get to know me REALLY well.”
“Jesus!” I stepped back quickly and glared at her. “Personal space, bitch!”
“I just happen to be the sister of someone you know really, really well,” Leina grinned, side stepping and circling us. Aleah, Courtney, and I turned rapidly, trying to track her confident movements. She seriously moved around like she owned the place. “You know…Audrey?”
“Oh dear god,” Aleah gasped. “Audrey has a SISTER?”
“Ding ding, that’s right!” Leina confirmed, stopping abruptly in front of Aleah and leaning inward so that their noses nearly touched. “And I want to know EVERYTHING you’ve done to her because let me tell you, I’ve heard some really nasty things. Now we wouldn’t want them to turn out to be…true, would we?”
I stared at Leina, trying my best to read her. From her words, I would have expected her to be angry, but she wasn’t, or at least not as far as I could tell. If anything she was gleeful, and that was even more terrifying.
“Okay look,” Aleah said defensively. “Audrey came to US, she wanted to know how to do the whole girl thing and-“
“Bzzzzzt! Wrong!” Leina made a mock buzzing sound with her mouth, wagging her finger. “You mean you beat her, tied her up, and then convinced her to come back here so you could play dress up with her. You naughty, naughty bitches. Lie like that again and there’ll be consequences.”
“Oh my god,” I growled. “She broke into the house, so yeah, we tied her up, she looked like a guy, what were we supposed to do?”
“You’re supposed to tell the truth,” Leina smiled sweetly and extended her index finger, just enough to give me a swift poke on the nose. I recoiled. “And then what did you do? Ohhh yes, you made her break up with her girlfriend.”
“They were going to break up anyway,” Aleah argued. “Chastity is a bitch and if you’ve been following it all this closely, then you know that.”
“I know all of that,” Leina stepped a little closer to Aleah; if she’d moved any closer they would literally be kissing. “In your own twisted, fucked up way, you’ve done alright by her, but you know what I want to know? I want to know if it’s all been some stupidly lucky coincidence. Sure, you’ve pushed her out of her shell, but was it intentional? What are your intentions toward my sister? You know, the sister I’ve known since…well, since we were kids. You know, I walked her to the bus stop every day for school, I made her lunch every single day since she came off mom’s teat, I was there for her first play, her first piano recital…”
“Um, when did Audrey stop breastfeeding?” I raised an eyebrow.
“She plays the piano?” Courtney mused.
“Okay look,” Aleah said, raising her hands. “We just help her, we don’t have any grand design. We haven’t really pushed her to do anything.”
I think that was a lie. That was definitely a lie.
“I’m not convinced,” Leina said, raising a finger to her chin. “Here’s the thing, I’m keeping her away from here until I know for SURE that you’re not using her for something. You’re Gamma Alpha Tau, the supposed ‘toughest’ sorority on campus. You use people, it’s what you do.”
“And what makes you think that?” I rolled my eyes. As I spoke, Leina moved in close, too close for comfort and whisper into my ear.
“Because I use people too,” She said gleefully and immediately pulled back. “Oh this is going to be so much fun.”
“Yeah,” Aleah sighed. “You have your fun, but we need Audrey back here, like now.”
“Oh?” Leina smiled. “Why’s that? What’s the hurry?”
“Panhellenic is here,” I explained. “They want to talk to Audrey; Chastity told them that we had guys living here, and we need to prove that Audrey isn’t a guy. Well more importantly we need to prove that Audrey exists.”
“Oh, you’re in quite the pickle then, aren’t you?” Leina grinned. “Your chapter is on the line, and you need my sister, but to get to my sister, you need me. Wow, you’re having a bad day.”
“Look, I’m begging you,” I said insistently. “Please, get Audrey here so we can fix this. We help her a lot, it’s not going to help her if the chapter is shut down-“
“I can help her,” Leina shrugged, suddenly stepping backward and plopping down onto the couch next to Kari who was still lost in her book. “She’s MY sister after all. I can share my clothes, teach her to act like a girl, all the cool things that sisters do for eachother. I’m kinda looking forward to it actually. She won’t be spending her time here doing your bidding, so I don’t see what the downside is?”
“She doesn’t do our bidding!” I argued. “Come on, we just help her with makeup and stuff-“
“So making her fix that laptop wasn’t-“
“How do you even know about that?” Aleah demanded. “Like literally, how do you know all of this?”
“I see everything,” Leina said, giggling almost manically. “I hear everything, I know EVERYTHING. If it has to do with my little sister, I know it. Don’t try to hide stuff from me, I’ll come down on you like the Goddess of Thunder and eat your thyroid like a snack.”
“Listen,” Kari said, finally speaking up. “I’ve been a member of GAT for two years, and I can say with certainty that Aleah would never do anything to hurt Audrey.”
“Three years?” I mouthed silently at Aleah, who shrugged.
“Be that as it may-“ Leina began, but was cut short by Ellen re-appearing from the conference room.
“Okay ladies,” She said, clapping her hands as she stepped forward. “I think I’ve gathered enough information, and my resolution stands. I’m going to need to speak with this…Audrey before I even consider allowing this chapter to continue. So, as it stands, you have forty-eight hours to produce her or I’ll be filing my report with Panhellenic which will undoubtedly result in the closure of this…cess pool, which was a long time coming in any case.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I rolled my eyes.
“Hey,” Kari said, glancing up from her book again. “You didn’t interview me, I’m a proud member of Gamma Alpha Tau!”
“Oh, that’s right,” Ellen frowned, looking through a list affixed to her clipboard. “What’s your name?”
“Kari,” She said proudly, standing from the couch. Of course, her name wouldn’t be on the list, she wasn’t actually a member of GAT.
“Oh, here it is, Kari Leanne,” She nodded. “Alright, follow me into the conference room please.”
I gawked at them as they disappeared into the conference room, then looked over to Aleah who looked just as shocked as I was. I shook my head and returned to the matter at hand.
“Leina,” I said firmly, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. “We really need Audrey, why don’t we go get her, sort this whole thing out, and then we can positively show you that we only have the best of intentions toward her.”
“Or we can do it the other way around,” Leina smiled, standing up from the couch. “You prove to me that you want the best for Audrey, and then we’ll talk about bringing her back here and saving your little clubhouse.”
Stepping over to the table where Leina, Aleah, Courtney, and Lauren sat, I dropped a thick folder onto the surface and opened the cover.
“It’s all here,” I said as I met Leina’s gaze. The tension was thick here; she literally held the fate of GAT in our hands, though at this point I was beginning to wonder if it was even worth the effort of saving. I mean I liked my room and everything, but I could always get a dorm. Aleah would be pissed but at least she had her job. The other girls? Well, who cared about them? Then again, it would look really, really bad on my student record to have a sorority dissolved for abusing a trans girl, even if it wasn’t entirely true.
“What are we looking at?” Leina craned her neck, peeking at the folder.
“This is actually a folder we made up for Audrey, she doesn’t know about it yet,” I explained. “There was really no reason to tell her, but it’s information on GAT’s national equality policies and information for trans girls. We wanted her to join, but she has to meet certain standards, like she has to present a woman 24/7, she has to be actively pursuing transition…she hasn’t done any of those things, so we can’t talk to her about rushing or joining. We just…keep this around for when she finally comes out of her shell.”
“That’s great and all,” Leina said smugly, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward. “But why would my little sister want to join your little club?”
“Okay real talk,” Aleah interrupted. I glanced over at her. “Being part of a sorority is more than just a little ‘club’. If you’d bothered to look into statistics you’d know that two percent of Americans are involved in Greek organizations, but eighty percent of that two percent are Fortune 500 executives. Seventy-six percent are involved in congress. The list goes on, all but two presidents have been involved in fraternities, it’s not just some after-school activity, it’s a way to prepare us for the next step in life. It teaches us to work together, it teaches us the rules of business, management, competition, you name it. The bullshit we do here translates into the real world and if Audrey wants to be a part of that, then why shouldn’t she?”
“That’s great and all,” Leina said, rolling her eyes. “But even if Audrey were going to go Greek why should she be in THIS sorority. You’ve put her through hell, probably on purpose, and you know what? There are better options for her.”
“There might be,” I confirmed, drawing a glare from Aleah as I nodded. “But the fact is, Audrey keeps coming back here. She doesn’t go out and look at other houses. She likes it here, and if she does, then none of us have the right to stop her, short of dinging her out at pledge initiation.”
“That’s so adorable,” Leina laughed. “But she hasn’t had a CHANCE to look at other sororities. She can’t just go knock on doors and say “Hey, I’m a girl, let me tour your house!”
“You’re right,” I smirked. “That’s why I dropped her off at Tri Pi and left her there for a few days.”
I could hear the muscles in Aleah’s neck creak as she slowly turned to fixate her piercing glare against my skin.
“See something you like?” I asked, turning toward Aleah whose hardened expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“Do you want to elaborate on that?” Leina demanded. “What do you mean you dropped her off at Tri Pi?”
“Wait,” I laughed. “I thought you knew everything.”
Leina started at me with even more vitriol than I could feel coming from Aleah. So there WAS something she didn’t know, and that made me slightly more comfortable.
“We pranked Tri Pi,” I explained slowly, trying to savor the moment. “I arranged to leave Audrey there so she could talk to the Greek council. If she had anything to say about us, she would have said it. We’d all be in hot water right now.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Leina demanded.
“Yeah,” Aleah said, still glaring. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
“You were busy,” I shrugged to Aleah. “and I’m sorry, but it was the right thing to do. I know I’m not always the most upstanding person but I’m not going to watch another human being suffer.”
“She wasn’t suffering,” Aleah said flatly. “She was perfectly fine, you didn’t have to sic the Greek council on us.”
“We’re still here, aren’t we?” I pointed out. “Obviously everything went fine. We’re not as bad as people think, not by a long shot.”
It was either that, or Audrey had lied her ass off when Shawn and the rest of the council questioned her. I was inclined to think it was the latter. A silence hunger over the room as we sat there, contemplating what had been said. Beyond the conference room I could hear murmuring from pledges and other members against the hum of the television. I could briefly discern a newscaster, his words broken, but a singular phrase made its way to my ears: “—a faith based fraternity, Theta Kappa introduced by Garron to uphold the morals—’
I turned my attention back to Leina.
“You can believe us, or not,” I stated. “But if you want the truth, go find Audrey and ask her. If you’re wrong, and if we’re not as bad as you think we are, then you’re going to get this house shut down, and Audrey is going to be lost. Believe me, when the year started, none of us expected to be doing this. I thought it was going to be a normal year. You know, homework, boys, the occasional prank. I didn’t expect to help a trans girl come out of her shell, and I certainly didn’t expect to lose our charter, but we’re here, now, and Audrey has plenty of opportunities if she transitions and if she rushes our sorority. We have work-study programs that can reduce her tuition, we have tutoring programs, she can put us on her resume when she applies for a job after college. If that’s what she wants, then it’s not up to you, or I, or this bitch over here to take it away from her.”
“Maybe you could not call me a bitch,” Aleah suggested.
“Whatever you say, bitch,” I said smugly, drawing an even more intense glare from Aleah.
“Alright, look,” Leina said finally. “I’m willing to entertain the idea that maybe you want some good for Audrey, and maybe your little disaster house here has some redeeming qualities to it.”
“Then help us,” I said insistently. “Get Audrey back here, and help save the house for our sake and for hers.”
“I would love to,” Leina smiled.
“Okay then?” I raised an eyebrow, leaning forward.
“Just one problem,” Leina sighed. “I don’t know where she is.”
“Okay,” Aleah sighed, pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Beside me I distinctly heard the sound of Kari flipping through her book, probably ignoring the world around her, as usual. “I hate to actually be productive today, but we need to find Audrey. We have…forty seven hours to get it done, so we need to think. What do we know about Audrey?”
“Oh, her favorite show is Power Rangers,” Leina interrupted. “She absolutely loves it. When we were kids playing pretend she would be the pink ranger.”
“And that didn’t raise any suspicion?” I stared at her.
“Well no, she said she just liked her ‘can do’ attitude. She’s right, that bitch is fire.”
“That’s true, I’d do her,” Aleah nodded.
“Well that’s neither here nor there,” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone would ‘do’ Amy Jo Johnson.”
“I wouldn’t,” Courtney shrugged. “She’s not really my type.”
“Show of hands,” Aleah announced. “Who would do Amy Jo Johnson?”
“We’re off track,” I said, standing from the couch. “Let’s think more about where she’d be likely to go – did anyone check her GPS?”
“You have a tracking device on my sister?” Leina asked, narrowing her eyes.
“She gets lost easily,” I shrugged. “Plus she has an eating disorder so we like to see where she’s been getting food. Surprisingly when she DOES eat she goes to fast food places.”
“…have you considered encouraging her to buy real food?” Leina sighed. “She knows how to cook.”
“Her dorm room is the size of a shoebox, I’m afraid she’ll start a fire,” I explained offhandedly.
“Back to the topic at hand,” Aleah said, bringing our attention back. “I DID check her GPS and it’s been disabled. She’s not answering her phone, and to quote Mason: ‘I haven’t seen him you sordid bitch, why don’t you know go yourself’. Mason is always very agreeable where it comes to Audrey.”
“Leina,” I said, turning toward her. “You know your sister best, where do you think she would go?”
“She likes the theater,” Leina said. “She has that play coming up.”
“Theater’s closed right now,” Courtney chimed in. “She likes video games, what about the arcade?”
“What year is this?” I snorted. “We’re in 2019, people don’t go to arcades anymore, they go to uh…well no, they stay home.”
“Well in the end,” Courtney said, stepping around the couch and leaning over onto the armrest. “Our best bet is to go talk to Mason, in person. Think about it like this. Audrey doesn’t really have anywhere that she goes. She’s ridden with anxiety, she doesn’t have many friends outside of Mason, and us, and she’s just…really timid. On a normal day I’d say she’s just cooped up in her dorm room and that may be EXACTLY where she is.”
“I already checked with Mason,” Aleah reminded us. “He said-“
“He probably lied to you,” I said. “He doesn’t like us.”
“Why doesn’t Mason like you?” Leana turned to us suspiciously. “Mason is the nicest guy ever.”
“Because as soon as Audrey started hanging out with us, she hung out with him less, and no one can tell him why. You already know what happened with Chastity, we don’t want to do the same thing with Mason.”
“You know,” Leina said, pressing her palms against the fabric of the couch to push herself into a standing position. “I have to say I’m surprised you care this much, this isn’t at all what I pictured.”
“Well we’re bitches,” I shrugged. “But we’re not going to intentionally ruin her life. In the beginning we had the opportunity to blackmail her, she gave us enough material, we could have done anything we wanted, but we didn’t. Yeah, you can characterize us as the ‘mean girls’, and it’s accurate but for better, or worse, Audrey is one of us now.”
We all contemplated that for a moment. I watched Kari switch from her book to a magazine that had been sitting on the coffee table. A cosmetics magazine of some kind. As it fell open in her hands, the centerfold spilled out revealing an ad spelled out in huge letters. ‘Miratran’. She hummed happily and quietly as she flipped through the magazine, looking at the pictures I think.
“Well,” Aleah said finally. “What we need to do is spread out, check every place she usually goes and maybe ask some people. I’ll start by asking Mason again, and Courtney can go check the library. We’ll talk to Melissa, see if she’s found some new friends in the theater group to hang out with. The campus is pretty big, not going to lie, but if we ask enough people we’re bound to find her. Okay, so when you’re out there looking for her, I want to remind everyone to call her by her male name, which is Todd, in case anyone’s forgotten. Um…Tiffany, you can go talk to Melissa and see if she’s seen anything. Leina, you probably know her better than anyone else here, so pick your own search locations. If anyone finds her, at all, even if you find her damn shoe, text the group chat.”
“Oh we could start by asking the clerk at Gamestop!” Kari chimed in, smiling as she laid her magazine down. Everyone in the room turned to look at her. I bit my lip.
“Um…did she go to Gamestop?” I asked.
“Well yeah,” Kari nodded. “We spend the entire evening together, it was great.”
“Kari,” Aleah said, desperate tones dancing on her breath as she stepped forward ever so slowly and carefully. “This is very, very important, okay? What did you do with Audrey last night?”
“Huh?” Kari asked, confused as her eyes darted from left to right. “With who?”
“Oh dear god,” Aleah said. “Okay, um…Kari, what did you do last night?”
“I just drove around,” Kari shrugged.
“And when you were driving around, did you have anyone with you?”
“Of course I did!” Kari said, rolling her eyes and displaying a goofy grin as if we were supposed to know. “I was with Audrey!”
“Okay, you were with Audrey,” I confirmed. At this point, everyone in the living room was leaning in, as if being closer to her would help us to solve the mystery any faster. “Why don’t you tell us the first place you guys went?”
“We went to Gamestop first,” She smiled. “Just before it closed. She bought a game. For her XBOX 360. It was um…the Hannah Montana Movie Game. She said she liked the dress up part.”
“Holy shit that’s cringe,” I shuddered.
“Okay, then where did you go next?” Aleah leaned closer. Kari looked up at her again, her stare blank once again.
“What? When?” Kari shook her head. “I’ve been sitting right here.”
“Everyone get to the van!” Aleah said sharply, standing up. “Load Kari up, we’re going to Gamestop.”
I heard two loud mechanical ‘thuds’ as Aleah threw the van into gear and rumbled down the GAT driveway. As we emerged onto the street I cast a wayward glance at Leina who was busying herself with her phone. I glanced at the screen silently but couldn’t make out what she was doing. I shrugged and looked toward the window, observing the world as it blew by.
“Do you want to ask me something?” Leina asked. I looked back, she’d set her phone on her lap, hands crossed over it, her gaze fixed directly on me.
“I just…” My eyes darted around the van. It was myself, Courtney behind, Leina beside, and Kari in the front, in the passenger side adjacent to Aleah. “I don’t know…much about her, I mean…we haven’t really sat down and…”
“And actually talked?” She finished my thought for me. “You should do that, with people you care about you know. You should get to know them, it helps.”
I sighed.
“Yeah you’re right but…I mean…I guess I want to know, was she like this growing up? Did you know? You just…accepted it so easily when Chastity-“
“Let me stop you right there,” She said abruptly. “I’m not Chastity. Don’t compare me to her.”
“No, no I wasn’t,” Shook my head. “I guess I just want to know, why are some people so accepting and others aren’t? What makes—”
“A lot of things,” Leina told me. I could tell the others were listening now, the silence in the air was too telling. “It has to do with how you’re raised, what you were taught. Let’s say you have a kid born to super religious parents, they got that from their parents, and their parents, and their parents. Bigotry is passed down most of the time. What about you? Why are you so readily accepting of Audrey?”
“Well I mean…she hasn’t done anything to me, and…”
“She hasn’t done anything to a lot of people,” Leina cut me off again. “But a lot of people are going to hate her. I was suspicious of you at first, and honestly I still am, but compared to the rest of the world, GAT is a god damn dream. You’re not taking advantage of her, at least I don’t think, and you accept her for who she is. That puts you light years ahead of everyone else but let’s be fucking honest here, the bar isn’t raised very high. The bar is basically rolling around on the ground.”
“Oh wow…” I heard Aleah mutter from the front seat.
“I meant what I said,” I nodded. “I want Aleah in GAT-“
“And yet, you aren’t the president,” Leina smiled. “You’re not an officer, you’re not anyone, what does the president say?”
“I say just listen to the blonde bitch,” Aleah took a left turn, careening us into the Gamestop parking lot and lodging us into a space.
“You know, you ask a LOT of questions for someone whose just a friend,” Leina pointed out, suddenly batting her eyelashes at me. “How are things going with that frat boy you’re dating?”
“Um, things are going fine I—”
“Are you sure?” Leina asked, her face contorted into an even more twisted grin.
“We’re here,” Aleah threw her door open and stepped out. I quickly followed suit, barreling over Leina as she chuckled, and cast myself out onto the blacktop.
“Okay, what are we doing again?” Courtney asked. Kari skipped happily ahead of us.
“We’re going ask the clerk if he remembers Audrey and if he remembers where she was going, remember, it’s Todd, male pronouns.”
“Right,” I said, walking intentionally ahead of Leina. I practically caught up to Kari who already had a good lead on us and slammed into the steel and glass door of the Gamestop. Yanking it open, I careened into the air conditioned space and bumped into a ‘Dark Pantheon’ display case, I guess there was a new expansion or something. I shook my head. The guy behind the counter was your typical geek, slightly overweight guy in his thirties, a Gamestop lanyard around his neck. He looked slightly intimidated as we approached.
“Hey there!” Aleah said, flashing her sorority girl smile and cocking her head as she allowed her eyes to tear into his. “I was wondering if you could help us!”
“I um…I can certainly try,” The man smiled. “What are you looking for, exactly?”
“A guy, maybe about 5’9, kind of geeky, came in here with that girl over there last night?” Aleah pointed to Kari who was now wandering into the nether regions of the store, out of our sight.
“Well, no,” The man shook his head. “Well I remember her, but she wasn’t with a guy.”
“Figures,” Aleah looked to us. “Kari’s imagining things again, she came here alone, for whatever reason.”
“What? No she wasn’t alone,” The clerk shook his head. “She was with another girl.”
“Another girl?” I asked. “What did she look like?”
“Um, about 5’9, like the guy you described, shoulder length brown hair-“
“Oh my god,” Aleah blinked.
“Wow,” I blinked. “Did that all on her own, huh?”
“I don’t understand,” The clerk shook his head. “What’s going on?”
“Where did they say they were going?” Leina broke through the banter and stepped closer to the counter. “Did they say?”
“I think they said they were heading to the quad, over at Woodcrest,” The guy shrugged.
“Okay so last night at the Quad there would have been that drum thing,” Aleah mused. “Like, there are these students that play street music on the quad with buckets and stuff. Maybe they went to see that.”
“Except…yes,” Courtney said, staring at her phone. “Last night there was a…disturbance in the Quad, it’s all over the news. Apparently some unknown girl blasted the school mascot with a firehose, then she ran from the police. Guess who the girl was?”
“Oh dear god,” I shook my head. “Well at least it can’t get any worse.”
“Well it can,” Courtney nodded. “The kid in the costume was Shawn Derringer’s nephew, so Audrey just blasted his affluent ass to hell with a fire hose. Good on him, down with the bourgeoise, or whatever.”
“Okay…then we need to go talk to Shawn,” I nodded. “If Audrey’s in trouble, maybe he can get the charges dropped.”
“You are being way, WAY optimistic about this,” Aleah stared at me. “This looks like actual assault.”
“That beaver deserved it,” I said, referring to the mascot. “He groped me at the last football game.”
“You DO know it’s not an actual beaver, it’s a guy in a suit, and the guy changes every few weeks.”
“I hear you talking, and I see your mouth moving, but I can’t really understand what you’re saying.”
“God dammit, Tiffany,” Aleah sighed. “Let’s go talk to Shawn, or is dad, or whoever you have to blow to fix this.”
“Why isn’t Shawn at the DEM house?” Aleah asked curiously as we pulled into his driveway. The trek down the long stretch of pavement was smooth and involved only a slight turn, leading us easily onto the parking space just in front of the house. Shawn’s house was big, really, really big. So big in fact that if he ever wanted to move out, all he’d have to do is move his stuff to the other side. To be perfectly honest no one was certain what Shawn’s dad did for a living; Mr. Derringer was as mysterious as he was dangerous I supposed. At least I assumed he was dangerous, I hadn’t asked Shawn much about him.
“He likes to hang out here on weekends,” I explained with a brief shrug. “He uh…likes to shoot scat.”
“Skeet,” Aleah corrected. “The other thing is um…oh look, here we are.”
Aleah turned the key and yanked it out of the ignition, exiting the van quickly followed by the rest of us. We met her around back and from the corner of my eye I noticed Leina using a single hand to guide Kari back toward the group as she attempted to wander off. I smirked a little bit, as per usual she was wearing her red hair long, draped over her shoulder. Her outfit was the simple red Woodcrest PT uniform that you could literally buy from a vending machine in the admissions office. It came wrapped in plastic, sizing was questionable but it seemed to fit her perfectly. Emblazed on the front was the brown Beaver mascot below the black and white Woodcrest letters. The uniform was a little rank, like she’d been wearing it for a few days. Maybe someone needed to talk to her about that.
We left the lot and climbed the brief stairs leading to the front door, and I kept a subtle eye on Kari as Aleah knocked on the door.
“There’s a doorbell,” I pointed to the left side of the entryway. Aleah rolled her eyes and pressed a slender finger to the button; inside I could hear the sound of the bell ringing throughout. Moments later, Jerome, the Derringer’s butler opened the door and looked us over.
“Well Miss Gray,” He said with a hint of happiness permeating his tone. “You’ve returned, and brought friends!”
“Great to see you again,” I forced a smile. “Is Shawn around? I really need to talk to him.”
“You know he is,” Jerome nodded. “If you and your friends would like to take a seat downstairs in the waiting area, I can give him a call.”
“You know,” Aleah said in a voice just above a whisper as we followed Jerome into the house and into the waiting room caddy corner to the main stairs. “If you’re dating the guy you should be able to just…you know…walk in and find him.”
I blushed a little.
“I guess we’re not at that level yet,” I shrugged. Aleah shook her head and smiled a little. No sooner did we sit down in the waiting room than did Shawn appear, dressed in his blue polo and khakis – standard attire for skeet shooting around here but his shoes weren’t muddy. He hadn’t been outside. That was interesting.
“Hey guys,” Shawn greeted Aleah and I, then nodded to the others. “Tiffany, you don’t normally drop by on the weekends, to what do I owe the honor?”
“Your cousin,” I sighed, standing up. Shawn gave me a knowing grin and nodded a bit.
“Nothing that can’t be worked out,” He laughed. “I see your girl’s getting a bit out of hand. Like a rowdy teenager.”
“How much does he know about her?” Aleah shot me a sidelong glance.
“Enough,” I said quietly, quickly returning my attention to Shawn. “We’re worried that she might be in trouble and we also can’t figure out where she is.”
“You lost her again, then?” Shawn teased as he motioned for us to follow. Leina urged Kari to stand, and we followed Shawn deeper into the house, single file until we came to a large office. “This is where I do my homework, among other things.”
“How quaint,” I said, glancing around the room adorned with wooden paneling and a few bookshelves filled with volumes that I would never even want to touch, let alone read. Then again, I was never big on reading.
“Thanks love,” He laughed. “Okay, so first thing’s first-“
“What’s going to happen to her?” Leina demanded. Shawn gave her a long, hard glance.
“You must be Leina,” He nodded. “The sister.”
“You KNEW Audrey had a sister?” I glared at him.
“I did my research,” He shrugged and stated offhandedly. “It wasn’t exactly a small matter, I had to make sure that the Greek council wasn’t in danger. I’m still not convinced that it isn’t.”
“It’s a completely internal matter – what’s that?” My attention was suddenly drawn to a massive pistol sitting on Shawn’s desk, which we were huddled around. It was a revolver, chamber open, sitting flatly upon the glossy wooden surface.
“Oh, that,” Shawn laughed, as if everyone, ever, everywhere had a gun just sitting on their desk. “It was a gift from a family friend, Checkov. I’m actually about to hang it on the wall.”
“Well, have fun with that,” I shrugged. “So what about Audrey?”
“My nephew isn’t interested in pressing charges,” Shawn explained as he slid the revolver from the desk and moved it to a mounted display case. “Audrey will be fine, but I get the feeling that’s not why you’re looking for her.”
“We just…need to talk to her,” I explained. “Trouble at the house, you know.”
“If GAT is actually putting effort into something, then it must be some serious trouble,” Shawn pointed out. “IT would be of the Panhellenic variety would it?”
“Absolutely not,” Aleah lied. “We just…have some internal issues we need to take care of.”
“Audrey left the toilet seat up,” I interrupted, keeping my face as straight as humanly possible.
“Right,” Shawn rolled his eyes. “If I were you guys, I would check the theater.”
“Theater’s closed,” I objected.
“Doesn’t mean she can’t get in,” Shawn sighed. “Besides I know for a fact she’s in there because she ran into Melissa along the way, and I talk to Melissa pretty often. Maybe you guys should…I don’t know, find a way in there to get her? Unless it’s not urgent.”
“Um, how do we get into a locked building?” I demanded. “It’s not like we can break through plate glass.”
My eyes wandered again to the desk, this time toward an open file folder, its contents revealing the name ‘B. Parsons’. Shawn show me a wayward glance and closed the folder before I could see any more.
“I would suggest,” He said. “That you find someone with a key, and that would mean Melissa. You can usually find her in her dorm on weekends; she’s kind of a homebody.”
“Right,” I said to the group. “Find Melissa, get her to open the stupid auditorium, get Audrey, and go home. We’re pretty much home free already.”
God I wish it were that easy.
“So according to Melissa, we’re meeting her here and she’s giving us a spare key to the theater,” Aleah informed as she turned left into a parking lot behind what looked like the shadiest building in the city. That’s a lot coming from me, by the way. Woodcrest had seen its fair share of ‘shady’ buildings, with one of my favorites being an old record store that housed a pallet of cocaine in the back room. I guess at some point the police realized that a vinyl record store was a little bit out of place in a college town. I wondered what kind of drugs this shithole was hiding.
“She’s just…going to give us the key?” I raised an eyebrow.
“We’re plenty trustworthy,” Aleah shrugged. “If anything went wrong they’d just blame it on GAT and we’d have even bigger problems, see how that works?”
“I guess so,” I nodded. “So what do we do when we find her?”
“We get her to come back, we have her talk to Panhellenic-“
“Are you going to dress her up?” Leina asked from the back seat. “I wanna do it.”
“Uh…sure, you can do it,” I nodded. “But first we have to literally FIND her.”
“I want to try frosted lipstick on her, something in pink,” Leina nodded. “I have this liquid one that will look SO adorable on her.”
“It’s like she has a new toy,” Aleah rolled her eyes as she parked and switched the engine off. The van ceased rumbling, I stared straight ahead at a chain link fence, overgrown with vines and punctuated with a faded sign that probably said ‘no parking’. There were few other cars in the lot, a rusted Chevy HHR lingered at the far side. Melissa probably lured us here to murder us. We probably deserved it. “Okay everybody out, I don’t know what this is about, but you know…theater nerds.”
I kind of resented that term, I was starring in their stage production of Les Miserables as Eperdine…or whatever it was. Did that make me a theater nerd? I shook my head, pursed my lips, and followed Aleah across a broken asphalt parking lot toward the back door of…whatever this building was. Honestly it looked like an abandoned store, but I was slightly reassured when the aging metal door popped open and Melissa appeared in her usual attire; an oversized turtleneck, huge glasses, and a pair of leggings that she could have easily stolen from Aleah’s closet.
“Hey guys,” She smiled. “Come on in, I have the key back here somewhere.”
“Thanks,” Aleah said with clearly faked gratitude. “We really, REALLY appreciate this.”
“Oh it’s no problem at all!” Melissa said cheerfully as she led us through the doorway. “You know I only want the best for Audrey and right now, it seems like the GAT house staying intact MIGHT just be for the best, even if I disapprove of how you guys operate.”
“I um…we’re trying to do better,” Aleah said apologetically. My eyes finally adjusted and I noticed that she’d led us into what appeared to be some kind of industrial kitchen.
“I know you are, and I truly believe that,” Melissa said with a smile, walking to the wall and flipping a switch. The kitchen was immediately bathed in fluorescent light, the steel surfaces were clean, and the left wall appeared to be a serving line cut off from the rest of the building by a shuttered door. “Which is why I’ve asked you to come here today.”
“Uh we came here to get the key,” Aleah said. “So we could find Audrey. We need her, to convince Panhellenic to get off our case.”
“Of course you do!” Melissa nodded, smiling brightly. “And I know you really, truly have her best interest at heart, but you know….Leina here needs some more convincing. She really needs to see you in action as a sorority.”
“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded. “Just give us the key-“
“Not so fast,” Melissa held her hand up and shook her head in our direction. “There’s someone I really want you to meet. Ms. Evans, are you back there?”
“One second!” A voice called out from further back in the building. A few moments later a middle-aged woman appeared, long-ish blonde hair, wrinkled features, and a pantsuit that looked as if it came right out of the 90’s.
“Oh, I’m so glad you girls decided to come!” Ms. Evans said excitedly. “When Melissa told me that Gamma Alpha Tau had volunteered to run the food kitchen this week I could hardly believe it, we’ve been so short staffed lately, it really is a godsend.”
“Run…the kitchen?” My eyes widened, I could swear I heard maniacal snickering coming from Leina who was positioned directly behind me, right beside Kari.
“Of course, silly, don’t you remember?” Melissa laughed. “You volunteered to feed the homeless today! There’s a huge sign out front, and behind that shutter? Well, there are a ton of underprivileged people just waiting to be fed. Don’t worry, the food is all prepared, you just have to serve it…and do the dishes, obviously, they aren’t going to do themselves.”
“Wait-“ Aleah started, but Melissa wagged a finger.
“You want to find Audrey, today, right? What are the chances of you pulling it off yourself, right now? Have you EVER gone out of your way to find her, physically, in the real world? I have, and let me tell you, it’s a nightmare. Besides, all of the nice people are out there just waiting for you to feed them! You wouldn’t want them to go off and spread the word that GAT abandoned their philanthropy project, would you? You guys LOVE doing philanthropy after all, don’t you? I’ve seen you doing so much of it around town.”
Well that was a fucked up sentiment if I’d eve heard one. The truth was that we hadn’t done any of our philanthropy projects in months. Philanthropy, roughly translated, was charitable works. We just hadn’t had time to volunteer at schools, or freeway cleanups, or even soup kitchens, so we’d spent an ungodly amount of time faking the paperwork and forging signatures. I didn’t know for sure if Brittny was aware of that, but the smug grin on her face was telling. Did Leina know? Had Leina told her? What the hell was going on?
“We have to doooo it!” Kari said, dancing to the front with a stupid grin on her face. She looked like a deranged barbie, passing so well that no one would have ever known she was trans if it wasn’t common knowledge already. “This combines all of my favorite things! Food, people, charity, blackmail, and industrial kitchens!”
“Wow, that’s really specific,” I blinked.
“I really, truly appreciate you girls volunteering,” Ms. Evans smiled again. “We’re serving from four to eight PM, I hope you’re ready to work hard!”
I turned and threw a glare to Leina who stood beside me, grinning widely.
“Dance GAT girl, Dance.”
“Hamburger, soup, or what the fuck do you want?” I asked the next man in line, an older guy in a scally cap with a worn army jacket. He glared back at me.
“Young lady, you need to work on your attitude,” He lectured me.
“You need to work on your fashion choices,” I said, gesturing to his outfit ensemble. “Soup or burger?”
“I’ll take the fucking burger,” He growled. I reached into the pan on my left and slapped a hamburger onto a plate, handing it to him.
“Don’t you think you ought to wear gloves?” The man asked me, glaring at me intently.
“You should feel privileged to have my hands all over your food,” I snapped. “Maybe later I’ll breathe on you. NEXT!”
It had gone on like this for three hours, and while I was beginning to see the end of the line, I was exhausted, angry, and feeling utterly betrayed. Beside me I could tell that Aleah was feeling exactly the same way but down the line, Kari was having an excessive amount of fun.
“Oh wow, I love your hat, it’s soo cute!” Kari said to the man gleefully. “Did you make it yourself?”
“No, I dug it out of the trash,” The man laughed. “I ain’t got the skills to make a hat.”
“I could teach you! We could make hats together!” Kari said happily. “Oh my gosh, you should try the mayo on that burger. You know over at Maris’s, the burger place they use Miracle Whip and it’s a sin against god and nature, but we actually have Hellman’s here. It’s in a huge tub in the back. It’s less fluffy and has a tinge of like…acidity when you bite into it but I think that’s because it’s old.”
“Young lady, are you on drugs?” The man laughed.
“No, I’m totally high on life!” Kari laughed. The line moved along, I rolled my eyes as it finally came to an end.
“Are you fucking done?” I growled to Aleah.
“I think so,” Aleah nodded. “Now we just need to-“
“Not so fast,” Leina laughed from behind us. “Someone’s gotta do these dishes.”
“No, absolutely not,” Aleah protested. “We have to get to Audrey and-“
“Last I checked,” Melissa said, folding her arms. “You had more than twenty-four hours before Panhellenic made a decision. I think you have time to do some dishes.”
“Okay but I have to get to class too,” I shook my head. “When am I supposed to sleep-“
“Since when have you cared about class?” Melissa laughed. She brushed a strand of hair away from her face – perfectly dry hair. She’d been working just as hard as us, yet her hair and makeup were perfect while I looked like a melted snowman with my hair literally just matted to my head. It was like she’d done this before. A lot.
“Oh very funny,” I snapped. “Fine, we’ll do the dishes but then-“
“And then we’ll go to the theater and find Audrey,” Melissa confirmed. “Now, scrub scrub.”
Leina threw a wet dishcloth in my direction; it spattered against the side of my face, sliding down onto my shoulder and landing on my shoulder. Jesus Christ; I’d just bought this top.
“Leftover food,” Melissa instructed. “Put it in those Tupperware containers and put them in the fridge in the back. Trash goes in the cans, take the bags out when you’re done. You need to leave this place clean when you leave.”
“What did we do to deserve this,” I muttered as Melissa walked away and we began to empty the food from the huge industrial steel pans.
“Um, a lot,” Courtney informed us. “Do you remember when you made Audrey fix that laptop? Or when you forced her to cater the pledge event for no reason? Or maybe the time we literally hazed her?”
“Excuse me,” I said, staring daggers at Courtney. “You were involved in the hazing, you dumped the crap all over her.”
“Because you told me to,” Courtney said, shaking her head and placing hamburger patties into a Tupperware container. “You’re not an officer, but Aleah listens to you, and I didn’t want to get booted out. In spite of how shitty this place is run, it has some great scholarship opportunities that I don’t want to miss out on. You have more influence than you think and it’s problematic.”
“What and you’re not worried about getting booted out NOW?” Aleah asked from behind, a threat suddenly looming in the air.
“I’m starting to care less and less,” Courtney acknowledged. “If you keep acting like a little shit, maybe I’ll find another house to join. I hear there are some openings over at Omega Psi.”
“Maybe you should go talk to them,” Aleah snapped.
“Maybe I will,” Courtney nodded. “But I tell you what, if I leave, I’m going to make sure Audrey has a place over there, it’s a co-ed house, and they’d take her next year in a heartbeat.”
“Why do I care if you take her?” Aleah demanded, making sure that Leina was out of earshot.
“Oh don’t play stupid with me,” Courtney smirked. “If you have Audrey you have your little vanity project. You can make it look like GAT cares about diversity, and you can ease your conscience over the friend you lost. Best of all? Audrey does exactly what you say. She’s a broken, little lost lamb that you’re taking advantage of and I’m fucking tired of it. You get your ass in line or I’ll not only take her away from you, I’ll get her to tell the Greek council EVERYTHING that you’ve done to her, to the pledges, to your own sister. The lies you’ve told to Panhellenic, the philanthropy fraud, everything. Be careful, or fucking judgement day is going to come down on your head like the wrath of god, except Instead of god, it’s going to be me, and I’m a lot less kind.”
“Just one question,” Aleah folded her arms and leaned against the counter, staring at Courtney amidst the sound of Kari chattering with the patrons in the dining room, still enjoying their means. “When did you grow a pair of ovaries?”
“Always had them,” Courtney said. “Just never needed to use them until I got sick of your shit. Let’s finish the dishes.”
It took another hour, but we managed to clean the dishes, stack them, and even mopped the floor. As we finished, Melissa and Leina walked over to us. They must have been having a grand old time somewhere while we cleaned.
“How did it feel to do some honest work for once?” Melissa asked us.
“At least we DID the work,” Aleah, pointed past the counter, toward Kari who was bouncing around the dining room, socializing.
“That’s low,” Melissa shook her head. “She’s making them happy, there are lots of different types of philanthropy. So, are you ready to go to the theater, or what?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Let’s go to the theater.”
“Great,” She said, smiling. “There’s just one more thing you need to do first.”
“So you’re telling me the ONE thing we have to do is climb this pile of boxes and crawl through that window?” I stared incredulously at the side of the theater.
“Well if you want to do more philanthropy we could have you clean up the flooding in the front,” Melissa shrugged. “The show is in like two days, we really need to get a bilge pump in there.”
“How exactly did it flood?” Aleah folded her arms as she watched me hop onto the first tier of boxes and begin to crawl my way to the top, toward an open window. To be honest it wasn’t that high up but it still irritated me to no end.
“Someone from DAM dropped a cherry bomb in one of the first floor toilets,” Melissa shrugged. “Run of the mill stuff really.”
“Don’t you mean DEM?” I glanced down from the pile as I neared the window.
“No, DAM, Delta Alpha Muh,” Melissa confirmed. “You’ve never heard of them?”
“Well I mean…there are so many on campus,” I shrugged. Reaching down, I gave Aleah a hand as she neared my position at the top of the stack. A second later, she lost her footing and slipped, slamming her knee against one of the wooden crates and yelping as she nearly tumbled back down the stack. I gripped her hand tighter and pulled her back, dragging her toward the window as Melissa and Leina stood below shaking their heads.
“You guys coming up or what?” Aleah gasped as she gripped the windowsill, staring at the cold, dark void of the hallway within.
“Yeah, we’re going to take the side door,” Melissa explained. She, Leina, and Courtney began to walk past us.
“There’s a SIDE door?” I demanded. “Seriously?!”
“Yeah, just wanted to see how well you could climb,” Melissa shrugged as they disappeared into the night.
“You fucking-“ Aleah began to shout. I placed a hand on her shoulder.
“We’re already up here,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s just go in.”
“Fine, but once we get Audrey, the bitch gets it,” She growled and threw a leg over the window, trying her best to propel herself inward, but the moment she cleared the sill, I heard her collide with the floor, a thump resounding from within the darkness and her muffled cry as she immediately tried to regain her footing. I rolled my eyes and cl imbed inside effortlessly. We were in the upper hall, normally researched for storage but also an access point for the box seating high above the floor. I immediately reached a hand down, into the darkness which Aleah found by moonlight and grabbed to bring herself back to a standing position.
“Clumsy bitch,” I muttered as we moved down the hall, past a storage closet and toward the stairs at the back.
“Were are we going?” She demanded. “I can’t see anything.”
“It’s fine,” I reassured her mostly to keep her from freaking out. “I’ve been in here like a million times. We follow that orange exit sign, down the stairs, and to the right. We’re going backstage, there’s a dressing room. If she’s anywhere, it’ll be there.
“Do we even know she’s IN here?” Aleah asked, exhaustion tainting her tone. I pushed forward, walking toward the stairs and making my way down.
“It’s where she always is when she’s here,” I confirmed. Truthfully she normally played her game back here, but I’d checked to see if she was online, and nothing. I hoped she was here, I really did. As soon as we reached the bottom of the stairs we were swiftly rejoined by Leina, Courtney, and Melissa who were probably staring at us with smug looks; not that I could really see them in the dark.
“How was spelunking?” Melissa asked us with a chuckle.
“Just what I needed to stay in shape,” I shot back. I stepped forward and threw open the double doors leading to the theater. It was a side door that allowed us quick access to the stage and subsequently, the area behind the curtain that was littered with spotlights, props, and ropes intertwined with pullies far above the stage. Leina, Melissa and I navigate the space easily, but I heard Aleah stumble more than a few times. For some reason I felt a twinge of satisfaction, knowing that I was more familiar with this place than she was. Was that really something to be proud of?
Sure enough, just toward the back of the stage we could see a sliver of light beneath a black door. It was a dressing room generally designed for the star of the show. Inside, the room was connected to the others via a long hallway, but it was mostly kept separate.
“What, did she turn into a damn hermit?” Aleah muttered.
“No,” Melissa laughed. “She just likes to have a space away from YOU.”
I stepped away from the group, pressing both hands against the release bar and practically storming into the room.
“Alright Audrey, I said loudly. “It’s time to-“
She was there, she was definitely there but it wasn’t what I was expecting, not at all. I expected to see her hunched over the makeup vanity with her laptop, playing video games as usual, but her laptop was nowhere to be seen, and she wasn’t sitting in the chair. Instead she was sitting cross legged on the floor, her head down, and dressed in the outfit she’d wear in the play. The lace-up bodice dress and chemise, but it was haphazard, the lace loosened, one shoulder pulled down as if she’d started to undress, but stopped partway. Around her I could see various feminine items; a contour kit, a few brushes, a wig, all strewn haphazardly across the floor. Most of all, I could hear the sobs emanating from her bowed head.
“Audrey?” I said softly. “Are you okay?”
“Hey, little sis?” Leina stepped forward and knelt on her haunches, coming to eye level with her. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”
“Why do I have to go back?” Audrey sniffled, after a seemingly long silence. “I don’t want to go back.”
“Go back where, Audrey?” Leina asked quietly. “You can’t stay in this room forever-“
“Go back to being him!” Audrey suddenly screamed, falling forward as Leina caught her. “When I get dressed up I look in the mirror I see ME. I see ME and it’s the ONLY time I ever see me! I want to be me, I want to be her, I want to be Audrey but it’s just a FUCKING costume! I’m hideous, I’m fucking hideous and I have to be…him…because people expect it. I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I can’t do it!”
Her sobs intensified, I glanced at Aleah and instead of seeing her usual, hard countenance I could see her beginning to break. She’d seen this before, with Jayne. Melissa shot me a sidelong glare and Courtney dropped to the floor next to Leina, doing her best to help reassure.
“Audrey,” Courtney said, placing a hand against her cheek and speaking softly. “You don’t have to go back, I promise, you can do this, you can transition, and you can be YOU. You can start today.”
“I can’t!” Audrey suddenly screamed, hurling herself away from Leina and dropping onto the floor. I cringed as I heard the sound of her impacting with the concrete floor. A dull thud. “I can’t do it, I can’t do it! Mom and Dad…and Mason…they all know Todd. They all expect HIM. I can’t be him. I can’t be here. I don’t…I don’t want to be here!”
What came next were pained screams, howls that ripped through the dressing room and filled the air with sadness. I’d never heard anyone cry like this, this was a completely new level. I could feel her sadness, I could sense it in the air, and there was nothing I could do about it. Suddenly, Leina turned and glared daggers at me.
“You want to do something useful?” She demanded. I nodded numbly. “Go get Mason right now.”
“Mason, open the door,” I cop-knocked against his dorm room door as hard as I could. “God dammit, Mason-“
Before I could finish my sentence, the door flew open and a rather annoyed looking Mason appeared in the entryway. He was dressed in a worn green bathrobe atop a white t-shirt, and his hair looked as if it had just gone through a blender.
“The fuck do you want?” He demanded.
“Mason,” I frowned. “Why are you asleep right now? It’s like seven-thirty in the evening.”
“Why are you showing up at my door like you know me?” He demanded. “If you’re looking for Todd, he’s not here. I don’t know where he is.”
“Yeah, but we do,” Aleah said softly but very pointedly. Mason stared at her for a moment.
“Give me like, five minutes,” He said, slamming the door in our faces. I stared at Aleah for a moment and began to speak, but then realized I had nothing productive to add. Instead I turned around and stared off the balcony, out into the distance where the main Woodcrest University building stood prominently. Now, more than ever, I really wanted to graduate and move on, this place was getting less and less appealing as of late. A few moments later, I heard the sound of the door opening, and as I turned, I saw Mason reappear with a coffee mug that said ‘Fuck You’ in block lettering. “Sorry, I got the feeling this was a conversation I wouldn’t be able to have without coffee.”
“Mason, I really need you to take this seriously,” I said, stepping a bit closer. “We need to tell you something about Todd, and it has to be fast because we’re going for a ride.”
“You’d BETTER make it fast,” Mason sighed. “And I’m not going anywhere with you, I have to get a nap in before the next Pantheon raid. Tell Todd to get his ass back here because he’s supposed to be my DPS and he’s left me high and dry the past two times. Ever since he let that bitch wake the Standard of the Dain the server is in shambles and everyone hates us as it is.”
“Um yeah, whatever that means, look it’s um…okay there’s no easy way to say this-“
“Todd is a girl,” Aleah interrupted me, stepping forward, finally. Mason stopped mid-drink but didn’t lower the cup. Instead, he simply held it, staring at her over the top of the rim. “Mason? Put the cup down and take this seriously.”
“What are you talking about?” Mason asked, his voice reverberating off the interior of the coffee mug.
“Mason,” I said. “Put the cup down and be serious, this is important.”
“I’ll put the cup down when I get some answers.”
“Okay, Mason, Todd has been avoiding you because…he’s been with us…learning how to be a girl…well, a woman. He didn’t want to tell you because…I guess he was afraid you’d…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mason finally took the cup away from his face and stared at us. “Literally what did you get him into? Todd isn’t a girl…okay you know what? Take me to him, I’ll sort this crap you.”
“Wait,” Aleah said, stepping up again. “He already lost Chastity over this, he can’t lose you to.”
“Just fucking take me to him,” Mason growled. He reached a hand to the side of the door, grabbing what looked like his wallet and a set of keys, which he shoved into the pocket of his bath robe. “I’m going to sort out whatever this is.”
I cast a sidelong, concerned glance at Aleah, she returned a stony expression. This was even more telling than what had just happened with Chastity a few weeks ago. We were setting Audrey up for failure again but what could we do at this point? Mason would find Audrey, even if we didn’t take him to her, so what could we do? Cut and run? Yes, we could.
“You know what,” I said. “I was just kidding, about the whole thing, we don’t know where Todd is-“
“I don’t know much about you,” Mason said, shutting the door behind him. “But I do know you don’t have a sense of humor, take me to Todd.”
“Her name is Audrey now,” Aleah snapped. “Get it right.”
“Then take me to…whoever it is,” Mason sighed. “Come on, let’s go.”
“No,” I said, folding arms. “Not if you’re going to act like that.”
“Alright,” Mason shrugged. “He’s probably over at the theater where he’s been spending all his time, getting ready for that play, you know.”
“Ugh, Jesus, Mason, you can’t-“
“Look!” Mason said, finally shouting. “I’m not mad at…what the fuck, what’s his name now? I’m not mad at him, I’m mad at YOU, because you’re coming to me with this at this god awful hour and you’ve been hiding things from me for weeks. He was FINE before he met you.”
“She wasn’t fine,” Aleah said stiffly. “You need to stop thinking that. There’s a reason she broke into a sorority house and played dressup. That doesn’t just come out of nowhere.”
Mason stopped and blinked for a second, then shook his head.
“I’m going over there, with or without you, and I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” He informed us.
“Wait,” Aleah pulled out her phone and began scrolling. “Before you go, why don’t you talk to Leina?”
“Leina’s involved in this?” Mason asked, amused now. “Alright fine, let me talk to her.”
Aleah pressed the ‘call’ button and held the phone to her ear.
“Hey, Leina?” Aleah began to speak. “What? Yes, I found Mason. Yes, I’m capable of carrying out a simple task, Leina. No, I don’t have the brain of a rabid gopher. Leina, listen, I need you to talk to Mason- …yes, here he is.”
Mason practically snatched the phone from her hand and pressed it to his ear.
“Leina, what the fuck?” Mason demanded. “What? Okay.”
He ended the call and handed the phone back to Aleah.
“Well?” I demanded.
“We’re going over there,” Mason sighed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you two, or if it can even be pronounced, but we’re going over there to find out.”
It was a short walk from the dorm to the theater, which was to be expected considering the damn building was within line of sight from Audrey’s dorm. We walked around the side of the building and pressed on, toward the side door that Leina, Melissa, Courtney, and Kari had used maybe an hour ago, if that. It was propped open with a wooden doorstop, and we easily walked into the theater, this time on the ground floor, and right onto the stage.
“Through this door,” I sighed. “Mason, I’m warning you, be delicate, this is-“
“I think I know my best friend,” Mason growled. “I don’t need any input from you two.”
I closed my eyes in defeat as Mason walked toward the dressing room door. Finally, I opened them and followed him, cringing as he threw the door aside and stepped into the same scene that Aleah and I had stumbled onto earlier. Audrey, on the floor, sobbing, but this time looking even more crushed. I followed closely and watched as her eyes rose upward to meet Mason’s, a cry erupting from her lips as he approached. Leina rose from the ground, where she had been providing comfort and stood eye to eye with Mason.
“Mason,” She said rather cordially. “I’d like you to meet my sister, and your best friend, Audrey.”
“I’m sorry,” Audrey sobbed from the floor. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Mason asked, stepping closer. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“Because I’m this…because…I’m not who I’m supposed to be. I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“No, no no, fuck no,” Mason stepped forward, dropping to the ground and placing his hand on Audrey’s shoulders. “Look up at me, come on, look at me.”
Audrey’s head rose slightly, as if she were deigning to face the monster under her bed. Finally, her eyes met his, tear stained cheeks came to bear.
“Audrey,” Mason said, shaking his head and smiling. “None of that matters, it doesn’t mean shit. You know what matters? You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re brave, that’s what matters.”
“I don’t get it,” I whispered to Leina. “He seemed-“
“He was mad because he knew you’d been handling it, and he knew you sucked at it,” Leina explained. “He’s not the greatest at conveying his thoughts.”
“Leina,” Aleah said. “We need to get Audrey to-“
“No,” I raised my hand, silencing her. “This is more important, let GAT die. We deserve it.”
It was going to happen. We did deserve it.
“So,” Ms. Trace said, folding her hands atop the conference table as she regarded us smugly. “You’re telling me that after all of this, you’re not unable to produce Audrey, you’re just unwilling.”
“Correct,” Aleah nodded.
“She’s going through a lot right now,” I added. “If the chapter can’t stand on its own, without her, then so be it.”
“I see,” Ms. Trace nodded and shuffled through some papers on the table in front of her. “Then, unfortunately, or rather fortunately I think, it will be my recommendation to the board, and to Panhellenic, that this chapter be dissolved immediately. Honestly, I think you made the entire thing up to cover whatever kind of orgies you’ve been having in the house and that’s just not acceptable. Despite the actions of this chapter, Gamma Alpha Tau has an impeccable reputation on the national level. You shouldn’t be allowed to soil it any more than you already have.”
“That’s your opinion,” Aleah said as she pursed her lips. “Do what you need to do, and so will we. I’m sorry that you didn’t believe us.”
“To be honest,” Ms. Trace remarked as she gathered her papers and closed the binder. “It wasn’t that believable of a story in the first place. GAT, this chapter, doing that kind of philahtrophy project? You guys don’t care about progressive causes, you care about clothes, makeup, seeing how many positions you can fuck DEM jocks in. I’m going to give you a piece of advice, if you’re going to come up with a fabrication in the future, try to make it one that actually makes sense.”
I saw Aleah’s knuckles turn white as Ms. Trace stood from the table and shouldered her messenger bag, I thought for a moment she was going to launch herself across the table and rip her head off, which I can admit would be pretty awesome to see, but it never happened. The three of us turned our heads as we heard the conference room door click, and open slowly. Who the hell was that? Why would anyone actually burst into the conference room during a meeting? My jaw dropped, it was Audrey, but she didn’t…look like herself. Before when we’d dressed her up there was always a hint of that boyishness in her face, we could always tell, though I’m not sure if the rest of the world could. This time I barely recognized her; she was gorgeous, kind of geeky really. Her contour was in point, her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a few strands hanging down in front to give her that girlish look. She was dressed in a blue cami, a lot like the ones I wear, covered with a black cardigan and complimented with a knee-length black skirt. Who the hell made her up?
“Um, hi,” She said, waving nervously. “I’m Audrey.”
Ms. Trace stopped in her tracks and stared at her for a moment, blinked and then looked back to us, a frown forming on her face. Aleah nodded and gave a partial shrug.
“How do I know that’s true?” Ms. Trace demanded. “You don’t look…you don’t look like a transgender…woman.”
“I…put a lot of work into my appearance today,” Audrey smiled.
God damn right she did. Ellen sighed and set her bag down.
“I need to talk to Miss Audrey, alone,” She said, motioning us out of the room. Aleah and I both gave her a glance as we stood and brushed past her, entering the hallway and closing the door behind us.
“Should we stay and listen?” I motioned toward the door.
“I don’t really care,” Aleah shrugged. “We make it through this, or we don’t. I’m more worried about my new job.”
“Yeah, right, for Mr. Derringer,” I nodded. “What’s that like?’
“I’m an administrative assistant mostly,” Aleah shrugged but couldn’t hide the look of concern that was creeping onto her face. “But sometimes he’ll ask me to…deliver a package, or send e-mails that just…the whole thing just sounds weird, you know?”
“Weird how?’
“I just…I don’t know how to explain it,” She shrugged.
“Well when you do, will you let me know?” I suggested. We began to walk from the conference room, toward the living room where several of the remaining GAT members were either watching TV or doing homework. Courtney gave us a bitter look as we emerged from the hallway.
“So, here’s the situation,” Aleah said, addressing them. Lauren closed her book, Courtney straightened up in her chair, and another girl switched the TV off. “We thought the end was here, but Audrey burst in at the last minute, so maybe, just MAYBE there’s hope.”
“You know,” Courtney said. “Even if by some miracle the chapter survives, you’re going to have to make some changes around here. You can’t just keep lying about your philanthropy hours, you can’t constantly break the rules. We’re supposed to be representing Gamma Alpha Tau-“
“Aren’t you supposed to be applying to Omega?” I snapped, interrupting her. She looked back at me with a smirk on her face. I shook my head. Aleah wandered into the kitchen, I took a seat at the dining room table, scrolling through my phone and checking for updates. Nothing seemed interesting anymore, not compared to the drama that was unfolding in the house. I sighed, dropped it onto the table and placed my head in my hands. I didn’t have to wait long, I heard the door open, down the hall, and Audrey walked past. I opened my mouth to speak to her, but she was out the door before I could say anything. Shortly after, Ms. Trace appeared and called Aleah and I back into the conference room.
“I hate to say it,” She said to us. “But the story you told me SEEMS to check out. For right now, your chapter is safe, but there are other issues you need to address immediately.”
“Such as?” Aleah asked, as I stared in disbelief. What had Audrey told her?
“Such as you not meeting your member quota. Half of your members walked out it seems, and you’ve also lost quite a few pledges. I have no idea why, at this point I don’t care to find out but it has to be fixed.”
“We can’t do anything about it until next year,” Aleah pointed out. “We’re only a month into the school year, rush isn’t until-“
“Aleah, you have continuous open bidding,” Ellen pointed out. “You can still bring members onboard.”
“Where are we supposed to find members this late?” Aleah practically demanded. “All of the other houses have-“
“You have one new member, actually,” Ellen smiled. “I wanted to see how serious you were with your little project. If you actually consider Audrey to be a woman, then you’ll have absolutely no problem accepting her into your house. You have no choice actually, I’ve already had her sign the paperwork, it’ll be processed when I get back to Panhellenic.”
“What?!” Aleah’s jaw dropped. I facepalmed.
“And after you get done welcoming your new pledge, you can start looking for others. Also, Tiffany,” She said, looking directly at me. I raised my head and looked back at her.
“This house needs an external vice president, you’re the interim, until new elections can be held. We’re cleaning this house up ladies, get ready for a ride.”
“Hand me the mascara,” I said to Audrey, staring into her eyes and checking her eyeshadow. Beyond the door, I could hear the muttering of the audience and the shuffling of frantic feet behind the curtain. The show was almost on and in my opinion, Audrey was less than half ready. Audrey turned her head slightly and looked at the mascara bottle which was, by all rights, mere inches from both of us.
“Um, it’s right there,” She said. “Can’t you just-“
“Hand me the mascara, pledge,” I said, putting as much emphasis on the word as I could. “You’re not special, Audrey. If you’re going to be a Gamma Alpha Tau girl, we’re going to treat you like every other pledge in the house. You sure that’s what you want?”
Audrey reluctantly reached onto the table and picked up the black bottle. I snatched it out of her hand and placed my other hand on her forehead, pushing her back slightly in her chair and bathing her face in the dull yellow light emitted from the vanity mirror. Carefully, I held the mascara wand beneath her left eyelid, making sure to press the bristles against the lashes.
“Blink,” I ordered. She did. Her eyelash ran through the brush, dousing it in mascara. I moved the brush over slightly and said it again. “Blink.”
“Tiffany, I can do this myself,” She protested as I leaded in further, drinking in the utter discomfort that was more than defining her appearance now.
“No you can’t,” I said firmly. “You suck at eyeliner and mascara, we both know this. Blink.”
“Are you guys about done in here?” Melissa poked her head into the dressing room door.
“Yep,” I called back. “Just need to finish her mascara.”
“Alright, I need Audrey out here at the beginning, um, Tiffany you’re on in act two, you know your lines, right?”
“Uh yeah, the barricade thing,” I nodded, still doing my best to concentrate on Audrey’s eyelashes. The girl was a mess. Both of them.
“Yeah, the barricade thing,” She confirmed. “Get Audrey out here.”
“Moving as fast as I can,” I said offhandedly as Melissa disappeared into the hallway.
“Tiffany my neck hurts,” Audrey complained. I was still pushing back on her forehead.
“What year was Gamma Alpha Tau founded?” I demanded, smirking at her.
“What?” She asked, a bit fearfully.
“What year was Gamma Alpha Tau founded, pledge?” I asked again. Her eyes darted around the room, I could feel pressure from her forehead as she tried rather futility to squirm out of my grasp.
“Um..eighteen…ninety…six?” She asked, staring up at me.
“Eighteen ninety-seven,” I snapped. “Get it right. Gamma Alpha Tau, what does it stand for?”
“I um…I…”
“Two minutes!” Melissa called out from the hallway.
“Um?” I demanded. “Is that your answer? Did you just join for the pillow fights, or do you want to actually learn about our house? Come on pledge, speak up, I can’t hear you.”
“Um...Grace…Accutity…um…I…uh…”
“Come on,” I hissed. “It’s one word, it can’t be that hard.”
“Ten…tenacity,” Audrey said the correct word, finally. “Grace, Acuity, Tenacity-“
“Why?” I demanded.
“What?”
“Why does it stand for that?”
“I…I don’t know,” She admitted. I moved forward a little bit, practically straddling her lap and moving my face within an inch of hers.
“Because,” I said, allowing my hot breath to sear across her face. “In your life you must be beautiful, but you also need to be precise, alert, and ready to handle everything that comes your way. You need to be ready to perform and come out on top. What’s our mascot?”
“The…the lioness,” Audrey spoke correctly once again. I smiled a bit.
“Because the lioness embodies everything that Gamma Alpha Tau stands for. Beautiful, graceful, but ready to strike. Are you ready to strike, pledge? Probably not, but you will be.” I moved my hand away from her forehead and allowed her to climb out of the chair, watching her mount unsteady feet. “Now get out there, and perform. Do us proud, be a GAT girl.”
I literally smacked her on the ass and pushed her toward the door. She looked back at me almost fearfully. I almost grinned.
“Hey,” Aleah said, walking through the door. She must have just passed Audrey in the hall. “How’s our new pledge doing?”
“Hopefully in fear for her life,” I shrugged. “I’m not treating her any difference from the other girls.”
“Good,” She nodded. “So um, I forgot to tell you, we need to get a letter out to the athletics department, they want us to do a flag football thing with the other houses. You’re the external VP now, so…”
“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes a bit. “I definitely am. We also have that telethon, the fundraising event. Director Madson doesn’t want us to stay in the house, he’s setting up a bunch of table in the gym, and phones, and stuff. God I hope it won’t be televised.”
“I hope not either,” She laughed a bit. “Look um, after the play, tonight, we were planning on throwing a party, are you in?”
“Will there be wine?” I asked, half jokingly.
“Yeah, and beer, and boys, the usual,” She laughed. “We’re going to invite DAM over.”
“You mean DEM?”
“DEM is too snobby,” She snorted. “I want to get in trouble tonight.”
“The pledges can wait on us,” I laughed. “Make Audrey go through her paces, at least.”
“Yeah about that,” Aleah said. “If we have her working the party we need to keep an eye on her. She doesn’t know how to say no and I don’t want some DAM guy dragging her off. I mean, we know she likes girls and…we can’t have some guy sticking his hand up her skirt. Can you imagine?”
“Jesus, yeah,” I nodded. “I can keep her occupied, make her stay near us at all times, that should do it.”
“Just don’t torment her too much,” Aleah instructed. “I don’t want Ms. Trace to catch wind of us hazing her.”
“I think our actual hazing days might be over,”I sighed. “It’s too bad, I really wanted to mess with her.”
“Not true,” Aleah corrected me. “Hell Week is coming up, and Ms. Trace is off at Panhellenic.”
“We can’t put Audrey through Hell Week,” I laughed. “We can just like…send her over to Tri Pi to do pledge stuff.”
It was true, sometimes we loaned pledges to Tri Pi to do yard work; there was always PLENTY to do over there, from chlorinating the pool, to cutting the lawn, power washing the side of the house, it was a never-ending cess pool of manual labor and Sakiya was always happy for the help.
“No,” Aleah said, her eyes narrowing. “If she wants to be a pledge in this house, she’s going to go through the same things all the other girls do. Look, Tiffany, I’m pissed, okay? She went behind our backs and got placed with us on a COB. We didn’t have a chance to review her application or ding her out. I’m not saying we would have but I would have liked to have the option, you know?”
“I get that,” I agreed. Outside I heard the play starting, the opening number ‘Look Down’ was belted out loud and clear. “We could…just try to go easy on her though, right?”
“Nothing easy about being a woman,” Aleah shook her head. “She’d better learn that right now. Alright, I’m going to get out there into the audience. Um, break an arm, or whatever.”
“Leg,” I corrected. “Break a leg.”
“Right,” She shook her head and exited the dressing room. As she did, I caught a brief glimpse of a young girl, maybe eight or nine years old rocketing past the dressing room, an older girl close in tow trying to wrangle her. I hated kids.
“Makayla!” The older girl hissed. “Get back here!”
“My name is Michael!” A distant, squeaky voice shouted. “I don’t want to play stupid Eponine!”
Right, the younger Eponine. Whatever. Was this a theater or a petting zoo? I grabbed the folds of my dress and prepared to exit the dressing room. Before, I didn’t really want to do this, but now I had to admit I felt a little bit exited. I smiled as I walked through the door, it was our big night, I guess. I wish I’d known what was coming after.
“Pledge!” I called out to Cassandra from across the room. She was one of the few remaining pledges, and I had to get in all the fun I could. She looked up, staring at me from across the crowded living room and then made her way over, weaving through a line of dancing bodies belonging to both DAM and GAT members. I grinned a bit, noticing her discomfort at the entire situation. She probably wasn’t one for social settings; probably shouldn’t have joined a sorority then. As she neared, I pointed to the empty glass in my hand, rattling the half-melted ice cubes. “My glass is empty, pledge.”
Cassandra stared at me for a second, I looked her insistently, finally managing to get her to take the glass from me and walk toward the kitchen. I smiled inwardly; sure we were tormenting them but it would end as soon as hell week was over. If they could put up with our crap until then they totally deserved to be a part of our house.
“Enjoying the party?” Aleah asked as she sat next to me on the couch. I laughed.
“You know I am. I’m going to be honest, I expected to be packing up tonight, not throwing a party. Audrey really came through for us.”
“She did,” Aleah nodded. “We owe her big, but don’t let up on her. She wanted to be a GAT girl, and that means she gets everything that comes with it.”
“I’ll be sure to get the chocolate syrup ready,” I grinned.
“I was thinking apples to onions,” Aleah took a sip of her drink.
“Really?” I said. “You think they’re ready for that?”
“It’ll be a great way to kick of hell week,” She nodded. “See where their loyalties lie, you know?”
“Right,” I said in agreement. “Um…what about Audrey? Do you still want her to be a part of hell week?”
“Why not?” Aleah raised an eyebrow. “She wants to be a GAT sister, right?”
“Right,” I nodded. “But um…Leina might not be too happy about it.”
“Fuck Leina,” Aleah practically spat. “She needs to let her sister have the full college experience, if she keeps interfering then what’s all this for anyway? Oh hell, there’s Matt Proctor, I’m going to go dance.”
“Just dance?” Stared out at the living room and saw Matt grinding against another girl, I couldn’t even remember her name.
“Well, maybe ride his face a little.”
“Try to do it in your room,” I suggested. “That presidential suite is going to waste.”
As Aleah stepped away from the couch I craned my neck around the room and looked for Audrey. I spotted her easily, she’d been cornered by some huge DAM guy, he had her pressed against the staircase with a hand above her, on the wall. She looked uncomfortable as hell. I stood up immediately, and as I crossed toward her, I collided with Cassandra who had been returning with my drink. The contents of the glass splattered across my top and the glass fell to the floor, thudding quietly against the carpet. I glared at her.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, pledge?!” I demanded. Immediately stepping forward and pressing my chest against hers.
“I…I’m sorry,” She stuttered, stepping back. “I’ll clean it up.”
“Clean it up?” I shouted, moving closer and pressing my face toward hers. “What about my top? Do you know how much this cost? What the FUCK am I supposed to wear?!”
“I…I…I’m sorry,” She repeated.
I briefly considered making her switch tops with me, it would have been kind of funny to make her strip in the middle of the party, but my eyes wandered to Audrey who was growing more and more panicked at the advances of the DAM guy. Yeah, probably rightly so, if he groped her and found a penis we were going to have a problem on our hands.
“Clean it up,” I snapped. “Then get me another fucking drink.”
As Cassandra stumbled back toward the kitchen, I made a beeline toward Audrey and slapped the guy on the shoulder.
“Buzz off,” I told him, jerking my head to the side.
“Fine, cockblocking bitch,” He growled.
“Are you okay?” I asked Audrey. She was kind of cute today; I’d put her in this pink polka-dotted dress and bright pink lipstick. Okay, I’d made her look like a preteen, and I’d done it because I was bored, or maybe it was a sort of hazing on my part, I don’t know. Either way she was adorable and the guys were taking advantage of it. I needed to tone her down a little. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
I took her gently by the hand and walked to the right, winding around the stairs and pulling her up the steps until we reached the landing. I paused for a moment and then walked her to the bedroom. I had to find her something a little more dull to wear.
“What are we doing?” She asked shakily.
“I’m changing you,” I informed her. “Maybe something a little more…adult. I forgot what kind of pervs we were dealing with here.”
“If they’re pervs then why did you invite them over?”
“Sometimes I like pervs,” I laughed. “It’s just not working out well for you. Let’s see, do you want sleeves or now?”
“Uh, yeah, sleeves,” She nodded. I stood her in the center of the room and turned toward the closet, looking through the myriad of dresses that belonged to me, Courtney, and a few of the other girls. Audrey didn’t have too many of her own clothes, and the other girls didn’t really mind dressing her up in theirs; she fit pretty well after all. “Tiffany…can I just stay upstairs? Or go back to my dorm?”
“Absolutely not,” I snatched a gray dress from a hangar. It was plain, but it would still cling to her curves; what little curves she had. It was kind of a church dress to be honest, but it was still pretty cute. “This should keep them off you. When we go downstairs you’re going to clean up the meat and cheese trays and get the others out of the fridge. You’re pretty familiar with that, right?”
“Yeah,” She kind of blushed and looked down toward the floor.
“Yeah,” I cocked my head.
“Yes Miss Tiffany,” She corrected herself.
“I’m going to fix your makeup too, you look like a prepubescent girl, it’s drawing the guys to you like flies. We’ve gotta fix that.
“Okay,” She nodded. I handed her the dress and stepped forward to examine her makeup.
“We don’t have to do much,” told her. “Maybe cut back on the blush a bit and definitely change the lipstick. A lighter red will make you look like more of an adult…”
I suddenly trailed off as I examined her makeup. I don’t know what came over me, I honest to god don’t, but suddenly, leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, I became immediately aware of our lipstick smearing, her pressing back against me, and my hands clutching her waist. Almost as quickly as it started, I pulled back in utter horror as I stared at her, my jaw dropped, and I immediately pushed away from her as she stared at me in shock.
“Oh, shit.”