Synopsis: Allison learns the consequences of being a legacy and goes shopping for the first time.

My stomach was in knots. I slowly turned from the plaque to face Remy and Laura, both of whom were regarding me with serious looks.
“I…I didn’t know,” I stammered.
“Yeah I find that really interesting,” Remy said, stepping toward me and maintaining eye contact. “Because this house was a big part of her life, you know she was the external vice president? Did she never talk about it?”
“I…maybe she did?” I said. I was so confused. “I don’t know.”
“Or maybe you were too focused on yourself to listen to what your own sister was saying when she talked?” Laura suggested. “Like we keep telling you, typical male behavior. You might be a girl on the inside, but you have a LOT of things to unlearn. Including that.”
“Oh by the way, if you look far enough back, up there,” Remy said pointing toward the plaques that were higher up. “You’ll find your mother’s name too.”
“And your grandmother,” Laura added.
“The point we’re trying to make here is that you have a responsibility,” Remy said. “We didn’t bring you into our house because we felt sorry for you, or JUST because National is pushing for equality. Yeah that’s a part of it but hm…let me put this in a way you can understand. Your family has always been a huge part of this house. Do you understand what it means to be a part of a Greek house exactly? It’s something to brag about. It’s something that you put on a resume. Your entire family has those bragging rights, they have that prestige, they used their time here to prove that they were qualified for the top jobs. Your sister is a chemical engineer for a top oil company, your mother is the vice president of a multimillion-dollar corporation. You can bet they put Alpha Gamma on their resume. Their legacy affects our legacy, we have bragging rights because they were so successful. Then here you come, using our rush to get your fix, or whatever it was you were doing. Every. Single. House. Every one of them that you visited knows who you are, they know your family, they know your legacy. Do you know how that reflects on us? Do you know how that reflects on your family? We took you in because we take care of our own here but also because you were about to turn us into a laughing stock.”
“I’m sorry,” I choked out. I think I was starting to cry again. “I didn’t know. I really didn’t know, I’m so sorry…”
“I bet you are,” Laura walked around me to join Remy in staring at me judgmentally. “But sorry doesn’t get you out of it. You weren’t ready to come out of the closet yet, we get that. Maybe you weren’t ready to show the world who you were but guess what? We weren’t ready for you to sucker punch us with that crap you pulled on Rush night. We weren’t ready for you to soil our entire legacy.”
“You’re not going to tell them, are you?” I asked, indicating my mom and sister. They couldn’t know about this, ever.
“Bitch, they already know,” Remy rolled her eyes.
“What?!” I shrieked. “No, no, that’s not possible!”
“We called National as soon as we figured out who you were. They called your mom and sister. We talked to them this morning on a conference call, at like six in the morning,” Remy was really talking down to me now. “Finding out you’re transgender, that didn’t phase her much. Your sister didn’t really bat an eye either. It took them by surprise but they weren’t upset. Finding out you rushed their house with a fake name and lied your ass off? That pissed them off. So this whole thing takes another surprising twist, you ready for this?”
I stared at her, my mouth agape. What was even happening here?
“Your mom doesn’t really want to speak to you right now, so she told us to tell you that she’ll continue to pay for your education if you continue to pledge to this sorority, AND do as good a job of it as the rest of the women in your family have.”
I collapsed. I literally just fell and slammed my butt onto the floor, my back against the wall. The room was spinning. I gripped the hardwood floor with the tips of my fingers. I wanted to run, I wanted to puke, I wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear. I wanted to do so many things. Oh god. What had I gotten myself into? I squeezed my eyes shut, and then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw both Remy and Laura crouching next to me.
“Allison,” Remy said softly. “You messed up, but we cleaned up your mess. We did our part but now you have to do yours. You need to honor your pledge, you need to be an upstanding member of this house. You don’t have to like, become the external VP or anything, but you do need to honor your legacy. We’re going to be there for you every step of the way. Trust me, we would NOT do this for just anyone. Your success is just as important to us as it is to you and we’re going to take care of you, do you understand?”
I nodded slowly. I could feel tears dripping onto my chest as they rushed down my face and splattered against bare skin. My legs were a tangled mess in front of me. I couldn’t believe this was happening, at all. I couldn’t believe this was even POSSIBLE. I had made such a huge mistake and now my future, my family’s name, all of it was intertwined with the Alpha Gamma house. If I messed this up it would reflect poorly on my family, I would be expelled, how could I even go home again?
“Now, all that aside,” Laura said as she helped me to my feet. “Tomorrow we have a meet and greet for the pledges, after which we’ll drop by your dorm and clear it out. We have a lot of stuff to go through obviously. I want to see what kind of feminine clothes you have, and obviously we need to get rid of your male clothes.”
“All of them?” I asked timidly.
“You’re a girl now,” Remy said firmly. “Whether you wanted it this soon or not. Time to deal with it. We need to take you out now, get you an outfit for tomorrow evening.”
I nodded. I was so numb. I barely registered walking out of the trophy room and getting into the car. Remy drove us to a nearby mall, a huge mall. I think it took us five minutes to walk from the car to the front door, and as we passed through the airlock I was immediately intimidated by the number of people who could see me dressed like this. Laura must have sense my hesitation.
“Just keep walking,” She whispered into my ear. “No one is paying attention to you.”
“Hey before we do clothes let’s get her some makeup,” Remy suggested. “We’ve already figured out her colors and there’s a Sephora over there.”
“She needs like, everything,” Laura said as we walked toward the Sephora on the other side of a huge marble fountain. I tried to concentrate on the sound of running water and the millions of voices and conversations going on around me. Above us, natural light shone through the glass ceiling, tinted blue and bathing the marble beneath our feet. It felt so amazing, so organic, and I walked through it all dressed as a woman, as myself. Did anyone notice? Was anyone looking at me? It didn’t seem like it. We passed out of the natural light and into the Sephora. I hadn’t seen anything like this before; I’d ordered all of my makeup online and I didn’t even know a place like this existed. I simply followed Laura and Remy around, watching them talk about foundations, brushes, and lipsticks. They grabbed items, tossing them into a plastic cart as they went. Foundation, a brush set, bronzer, concealer, things I didn’t even know existed. At the end they grabbed a vinyl makeup bag for me to keep all of it in and set it up on the counter.
“Okay,” The sales lady said with a smile. “With your discount it’s…$716 and 32 cents. Will you be paying with cash or credit?”
Holy. Shit.
Remy handed them a credit card. I really hoped the sorority was paying for this. I didn’t have much time to think about it as they ushered me out of the store and further into the mall. We rode up an escalator and walked past a huge gondola of plants. I glanced at the Gamestop – a store I would have gone into in another life. Laura noticed me staring at the store.
“You’re not going to have time for games for a while,” She said. “We have a LOT of work to do.”
They pushed me through about three different clothing stores, talking amongs themselves, and buying way more clothes than I had anticipated. Dresses, skirts, underwear, we even started looking at shoes. They picked out a pair of black pumps for me and had me try on a few different flats.
“We’ve gotta replace those ugly flats you’ve been wearing,” Laura had said to me. “They look like something you dug out of the eighties.”
I blushed. I really liked those flats. Was everything I liked just terrible? At some point I was being shoved into a dressing room with Remy standing in front of the door, arms crossed and staring me down with every outfit I tried on. Some of them she approved of, others she had me put back onto hangars and place on a rack at the far side of the room. They had picked so many outfits and I had to try them all on. It was like running a marathon. Occasionally she would tell me to try a top with a different skirt, or to try a top tucked in instead of pulled out. Exhausted, I started to slow down again, but she snapped her fingers and told me to hurry up. I had no control over my life anymore. I eventually had a ton of clothes, and I felt like I knew every single piece intimately at this point, even the ones that we left behind in the dressing room. Completely spent, I exited the dressing room, the clothes draped over my arm and weighing me down.
“Welcome back, how was Narnia?” Laura teased as I stumbled out.
“Huh?” I guess the joke went way over my head.
“We’ve gotta get you another wig soon,” Remy remarked. “It’s not a bad one, that’s why we’ve let you keep it, but I was thinking about doing a weave or something.”
“A weave would be good,” Laura nodded as we checked out and I watched Remy pay another stroke-inducing amount of money on my behalf. “You wouldn’t have to worry about the weight of the wig on your head and it would frame your face a lot better.”
“Framing is everything,” Remy confirmed. “We can contour all we want but at the end of the day your hair is going to make all the difference.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “What’s a weave?”
“It’s like hair extensions but they’re sewn in to your natural hair. It’s a little expensive but not too bad really, considering. Maintenance is a bit high but hey, we have a budget for you and…I know you have money.”
“Okay we have really got to get back to the house,” Remy said as we reached her car and climbed in. The interior was hot, really hot.
“Yep,” Laura said. “Hey Allison, you ready to help us get set up for the party tomorrow?”
I really wasn’t ready.