Synopsis: Alpha Gamma has some tough questions for Miles – will he be able to answer them?

I had a million and one questions running through my mind, honestly. Did they know I wasn’t a real girl? What did they think I’d lied about on my resume? Was I going to get out of this alive? I immediately turned toward the door but the blonde girl was standing in front of it. Okay what was I going to do, throw her like a rag doll and run out? That would go over real well. Well, then again, I’m not the strongest person in the world so she probably could have just smacked me and sent me rolling across the conference room.
“Allison?” Remy said from her seat at the head of the conference table. “We need you to sit down honey. We have to talk.”
I slowly turned back toward the chair. I couldn’t move. My feet felt like they were glued to the floor. What the hell was I supposed to do? It turns out I didn’t have to worry about that; another girl was suddenly on my arm guiding me to the chair. I sat down heavily and stared at the floor. Can a person blush when they’re wearing makeup? I imagined my face lighting up like Rudolph’s nose.
“Look up at me,” Remy said. “I need to make sure you’re paying attention.”
Slowly, very slowly I met her gaze. She and four other girls at the head of the table were glaring into my soul. I felt like…if I had been a real girl this wouldn’t have been nearly as bad but what if they found me out? What if they had already found me out? There was a deafening silence throughout the room as I tried to contend with the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Were they waiting on me to say something?
“Is…is there a problem?” I tried to say it as confidently as I could, but I think it came out as something of a half-whisper and half whatever sound baby birds make when their mother kicks them out of the nest.
“Well,” Remy said as she read through the paper in front of her. I guess it was the application I’d submitted complete with my fake name and apparently my VERY real phone number. “First of all you definitely lied about your major. You have pre-med written down here but you’re definitely a journalism major.”
Oh my god.
“I’m not going to go so far as to say this is a fake name,” The redhead next to her spoke. “But it’s definitely not your legal one.”
I swear to god I’ve never cried in my life but I was caught. They knew who I was, they knew I’d lied to them. I could feel the tears starting to rush from my eyes. Oh god my mascara was going to run.
“I think the question here,” Remy said, staring straight at me, completely unphased by my tears. “Is do you think we’re stupid? Rush is something we put a lot of work into, seriously. If you weren’t serious about it then you took time away from some other girl who could have been talking to us for the sake of your little joke. You thought we wouldn’t see through your act, really? Your makeup is terrible, you’re wearing a long skirt, probably to hide the fact that you don’t shave your legs. Let’s see, what else? Oh, your clothes look like they came from a thrift store and today your wig isn’t even on straight. You don’t act like a woman, you tear through the house like you own the place. You might fool people on the street but I guarantee you you didn’t fool any of the other houses and you definitely didn’t fool us. You know at first I was pretty upset but then we took the phone number you left on your application? Your real one…that you left up there for some reason. Maybe you wanted to get caught, I don’t know. It didn’t take us long to figure out who you were, and we started looking up your online activity.”
As she finished speaking she turned to the girl beside her, another brunette, this one a little shorter and with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She cleared her throat and began to speak.
“You visit a lot, and I mean a LOT of transgender forums. I have some trans friends, I talked to them and they were able to confirm that you’re in some of the trans groups they’re in on Facebook. I’m going to be honest here, that’s not the behavior of someone that’s just pulling a prank, unless you wanted a really elaborate cover for…wow, you’ve been in this one group since 2016.”
“So explain,” Remy said to me. The room was silent. Every girl in the chapter was in this room staring at me waiting for their explanation. I guess they deserved it.
“I…” I started to speak but fell silent. I wanted to run but my legs were lead. They weren’t going to let me out of here until they got their answer. “I just…wanted to be a girl for a night, and…I needed to go somewhere people wouldn’t know me.”
“But you feel like you are a girl?” Another girl asked from my left, from another part of the conference table. I nodded, dropping my head again.
“There are a few options here,” Remy said as she shuffled some papers. “You know the current social and political changes have altered the way we do things at our houses. National has been pushing us to be a little more inclusive and honestly, they wanted us to bring a trans girl into the house, discreetly of course. That would depend on a trans girl actually approaching us which you…kind of did at rush even though that definitely wasn’t your intention. I think you planned to never hear from us again which was a mistake on your part, especially if you’re going to leave your real phone number sitting at the top of the application.”
I heard a few giggles from around the room. They thought I was an idiot. Okay I was an idiot.
“I don’t…understand,” I said. “What are you saying?”
She stared at me for a moment and then reached beneath the stack of papers in front of me. She pulled out what looked like a greeting card I guess, it had the house letters for Alpha Gamma embossed on the front and their house logo, or shield or whatever printed on it.
“This is a bid,” Remy said, staring at me very seriously. “You can take it, and live out your dream, or fantasy, whatever it is, or we can go to the dean and tell him about your little prank. The fact is you we need you to look good to national, like we’re actually trying for the whole equality thing. Don’t get me wrong, we’re very inclusive people but this is going to be a lot of work for us. You need us to become who you are, and quite frankly to avoid being expelled.”
“You’re blackmailing me?” I said weakly. It was almost an accusatory tone on my part but let’s be honest, I wasn’t really in a position to be accusing anyone of anything.
“Either you wanted to join us and get the real sorority experience,” Remy said simply. “Or you were just screwing with us and making fun of our house. Which one was it?”
As she said that she nodded toward the bid card that was now sitting at the edge of the table. I think I was still crying. Oh god, what was I supposed to do? I wasn’t ready for this but seriously, what was I even…oh god? I had to make a decision like right now. I felt myself slowly rising on unsteady legs, moving toward the table. Every single eye in the room was on me as I inched forward and finally took the bid card in my hand. My hand was trembling so hard I’m surprised I didn’t drop it. Remy looked straight up at me, a slight grin forming on the corners of her lips. As I took it, she reached for a tablet sitting on the table, an iPad I think. Yeah, it was an iPad. She tapped the screen a few times and then turned it around to me, leaning it up on a sort of stand. On the screen was the Skype logo, it was ringing. Seconds later a woman appeared on the screen, I think she must have been in her thirties with long blonde hair and makeup that put mine to shame any day. She took a moment to look at me, almost as if she was inspecting me and then spoke.
“Hello Miles,” She said in kind of an upbeat but still stern tone. “My name is Amanda Geer, I’m a national representative for Alpha Gamma. I’ve been filled in on your situation and I’m really glad to hear you’ve accepted our offer. We’re all about equality, of course, and I think this will be a great opportunity for both of us.”
How in the hell was I supposed to back out of this? I looked up at Remy as if I was looking for some kind of help. Any kind of help really. She simply pointed at the iPad where I immediately redirected my attention.
“I…thank you,” I croaked.
“Now if we’re going to move forward with this there are a few steps we need to take. First of all as you probably know, we don’t allow pledges to live in Alpha Gamma houses,” I didn’t know that. “But for you an exception will be made. The girls tell me there’s a lot of work to do, and honestly, being a woman is more than just wearing the clothes. We expect you to be a lady and to represent our organization well, do you understand?”
I nodded numbly. Literally was this really happening? Could they really just uproot my entire life like this? I mean I can’t say I didn’t like it a LITTLE but was I about to give up my entire life? Seriously?
“Alright then. There are some conditions you’ll need to abide by while you’re living in the house. First of all, you’re here to learn, not fraternize, so no funny business with anyone in the house. Second, you do as you’re told without question. We follow a tap system, which you’ll become familiar with. If you’re out in public as a pledge doing something that is against our code or morals and one of the sisters sees you, you’ll get a tap on the shoulder. If you get two taps, you come back to the house and wait to be dealt with. For you it goes double, I’m sure you know why.”
I nodded again. She went on for a while longer, filling me in on rules and regulations for this little experiment that I was certain I wasn’t even going to remember. After about half an hour the tablet was put away and I was left alone in the room with the girls. I felt so exposed; I can’t even describe it.
“Is Allison the name you want?” Remy asked, staring at me again. I nodded softly. “Sign these papers then, we’re going to get started.”