I’ve always been pretty proud of my car, it was a blue Mercury Milan; my parents paid for it. I can’t say I was really proud of it as I pulled into Shawn’s driveway. If you could call it a driveway. It was more like a road, to be honest. As I pulled in I was greeted by a guardhouse and a wrought iron gate, both of which barred me from entry until I rolled down my window and spoke with the guard.

“Go right in, Miss Grey,” The security guard waved me in as the gate was pulled aside. “Mr. Derringer is waiting for you.”

“Where do I go?” I asked, looking a bit nervously at the huge house.

“Just head on to the front door,” He said. “Someone will let you in.”

I nodded and pressed on the gas pedal, driving the car down the long asphalt driveway. Seriously, it felt like I was on a country road, what the hell was this? I finally came to the end and parked the car in the cul-de-sac, though I wasn’t even sure it would be completely out of the way there. I shrugged and climbed out of the car, shouldering my purse and heading toward the front door. Even the walk there was kind of exhausting honestly.

I walked past the tannish-red brick façade, wondering if anyone was peeping at me through the windows, but shrugged it off as I stepped up and knocked on the door. It took no more than three seconds for a man in a tuxedo to open it and user me in. Seriously, what the hell, Derringer’s family was loaded.

“Wow this is uh…big,” I waved my hand around the huge foyer. It was white marble, because of course it was, and flanked on either side by two massive staircases. Let’s be honest, the floor itself probably cost five times more than the GAT house.

“I appreciate the compliment, Ma’am,” The butler smiled and signaled for me to follow him to the back of the house. We passed beneath the stairs and the landing, eventually walking through a dining area, and finally the backdoor.

“Is he…out here?” I asked as I surveyed the massive green lawn. I couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Right this way Ma’am, we’ll need to take a cart.”

“A cart?”

The butler led us down the porch stairs and to a waiting white golf cart sat upon a concrete slab and plugged into a charger. Unplugging it, he slid into the driver’s seat and waited for me to hop in. Immediately, we began moving down the green.

“How do you even remember where anything is?” I asked the butler. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.

He laughed a bit as the cart moved along.

“Well,” He said. “You get used to it after a while, and you can call me Jerome.”

“Jerome,” I said, nodding. “That’s a great name.

“Why thank you!” He said, chuckling “I’m pretty fond of it myself!”

“I guess you would be,” I smiled. “So what’s Shawn doing all the way out here?”

“Oh he’s out here shooting I suppose. I think he’s got something special planned for you.”

“Shooting?”

“Skeet,” Jerome explained as he took a sharp left turn to align the cart with a gravel path. “He likes to shoot skeet in his off time.”

“Is that all he does?” I asked curiously.

“Well no, he golfs too.”

“I’m glad he’s so diverse,” I said, staring off at some trees on the horizon. “How big is this place?’

“About 30 acres,” He told me “A lot of it’s wooded, makes for great camping.”

“Oh? You’ve gone camping here?”

“One of the perks of the job,” He said. “Every summer, don’t even have to leave the property to get in tune with nature.”

“I guess that would be a…perk,” I said. I’d never been camping. I didn’t even want to go camping. Why would anyone want to sleep outside?
“Here we are,” He said as he pulled up to a wooden barricade with parking spots carved out in front of it. I could see Shawn off in the distance.
“Thank you, Jerome,” I said as I stepped out of the cart and walked around the barricade.

“Not a problem, young lady!” Jerome called after me as he reversed the cart and drove back toward the house.

“Hey!” I shouted to Shawn as I crossed the grass. He turned toward me, holding a gun of some kind. I think it was a shotgun. He aimed it at the ground as he turned.

“Hey there!” He called out. He walked toward me and embraced me in a half hug, his other arm busy with the gun.

“So…skeet?” I asked innocently.

“Hah, yeah, it’s just a hobby,” He said with a smile.

“Just a hobby,” I laughed. “Most guys your age are playing video games for a hobby.”

“Well I do that to,” He shrugged.

“Well it sounds exciting,” I nodded. I wasn’t really into it.

“Do you want to try?” He asked, motioning to the gun.

“I’m sorry, what?” I blinked.

“Do you want to try shooting a Pidgeon?”

“What? Oh my god, I don’t want to kill a bird!” I recoiled, staring at him wide eyed. He laughed. Why was he laughing? Did he like slaughtering innocent animals? Was I trying to date a psychopath? Holy crap, this was a good way to end up as a lampshade.

“No no,” He reassured me. “I mean a clay pigeon, it’s just a target.”

“Oh! Oh, I am so sorry,” I said. “I thought you meant-“

“It’s not quite hunting season,” He joked. “Come on, I’ll show you how.”

I followed him nervously; I wasn’t sure I wanted to hold a gun, let alone shoot one. What if it exploded in my hand? Oh god, what if I shot someone?

“I don’t…I don’t think this is a good idea,” I stammered as he led me to a wooden block. He explained to me that it was a firing line. I had no idea what that meant. Moments later he was putting the gun in my hands. I immediately doubled over. Oh my god it was heavy!

“Okay here,” He said, wrapping his fingers around the barrel of the gun and holding it in place for me. With his other hand, he guided the end up toward my sounder. “This is the butt of the rifle, now here, use your other hand to hold…yeah, here.”

“What if I shoot…someone?” I asked. I was a little terrified, not going to lie.

“Tiffany,” He said, motioning toward the empty field in front of us. “There’s no one out here to shoot. Just relax, you’re going to be fine.”

“Okay but what if it explodes?!”

“It’s not going to explode, now just aim it up, like this.”

“It’s…really long, and heavy,” I complained.

“Wow.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

I tried hard to hold the gun up. He told me to close one eye and aim down the barrel, so I did.

“Okay,” He said. “Now I’m going to—”

Whatever he was going to say, he was interrupted by a roar as my finger bumped the trigger and the gun fired. The ‘butt’ slammed against my shoulder, knocking me back onto the grass with the gun falling to the side. I screamed.

“Oh my god!” He shouted. “Tiffany? Tiffany are you okay?”

“What the hell?” I demanded. “I barely touched it! Oh my god! Oh my god it hurts!”

I clutched my throbbing shoulder as he dropped to his knees and began to inspect it.

“It’s fine,” He said crouching. “Just a little bit of recoil, but you’re going to be okay.”

“I am?”

“You’ll bruise a bit,” He admitted.

“What did that happen?” I demanded. “Why the hell did it do that?”

“I guess I forgot to tell you to keep your finger off the trigger.”

“Did I kill anyone?”

“Probably not.”

“Oh.”

“Are you disappointed?” He asked quizzically.

“No no,” I said as I finally sat up and let him help me to my feet. He immediately bent over to retrieve the gun. I guess I wasn’t doing a great job of impressing him so far.

“Well,” He said. “If you’re okay, I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise, huh?” I said. “It’s not another gun, is it?”

He laughed.

“No, it’s something a little more…domestic.”

Gun in hand he led me away from the ‘firing line’ and toward a gazebo.

“Oh wow,” I said. He’d set up a table, complete with a dining set and wine. He really liked his wine.

“I thought maybe you’d like dinner out again,” He said coyly.

“Well I guess I am a little hungry,” I smiled as he pulled out a chair and I took a seat. He immediately sat opposite of me. In the center of the table was a cloche. I don’t know what I knew that’s what it was called. For those of you who aren’t up on the latest dining terms, a cloche is one of those dome covered pans.

“I took the liberty of having some roast chicken made for us,” He said, removing the lid to reveal one of the most amazingly cooked birds I’d ever seen.

“Oh…oh wow,” I said. “This is amazing.”

“So while we eat,” He said, his expression suddenly turning serious. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Well that doesn’t sound good,” I said jokingly as I served myself.

“It’s not that bad,” He chuckled. “It’s just that…you know that missing pledge I told you about?”

“You mean that Tim guy?” I asked.

“No, Todd,” He said, staring at me. “I assume you know his name too. Please don’t insult my intelligence.”

“I…what?” I asked. What did he know?

“I got a call from him the other day, he apologized and told me that Greek life just wasn’t for him.”

I remembered hearing Audrey’s side of that conversation. That was sort of how it went, if you accounted for her stammering and nearly vomiting all over our floor from nerves.

“Well that’s great,” I smiled. “I’m glad you got that worked out.”

“Yeah,” He nodded. “He called from your phone.”

I had been taking a sip of wine when he said that. I don’t think there could have been any possible way to keep my composure. I immediately swallowed and immediately choked; so hard in fact that he was at my side in a moment slapping the small of my back until I could breathe again. I doubled over the table and clutched the white cloth on my fist.

“Are you okay?” He asked me after my breathing was finally under control.

“Yeah I’m fine,” I said. “It just went down the wrong way.”

“Right,” He nodded, returning to his seat. “So, what was Todd doing with your phone?”

“I mean…”

“Tiffany,” He said, looking directly into my eyes from across the table. “I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, but I have to clear it up. Obviously you’re not recruiting Todd for your sorority, I mean, that would be…stupid, but I have to make sure you’re not discouraging people from joining DEM. It’s not something I want to bring up with the Greek council, or even Aleah, so I’m coming to you first. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

I paled and shook my head. This was a problem. The Greek council at Woodcrest had strict rules about interfering with the recruiting process for other houses. We couldn’t steal members from Tri Pi, they couldn’t steal them from us, and we couldn’t try to prevent other people from joining houses, no matter what. Did it really look like we’d stopped Audrey from joining DEM? What was I even supposed to say?

“I…” My voice caught in my throat. Was I supposed to tell him that Audrey wasn’t joining DEM because she’d decided she was a girl?
Seriously, what the hell do you even do in this situation?

“Look,” He said. “I can tell from the look on your face that there’s something serious going on, maybe…maybe you’re not trying to interfere, and that’s why I wanted to ask you first. Can you at least tell me there’s nothing going on?”

“There’s nothing going on,” I said quietly. I was shaken. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid. This was like, something that could get me kicked out of GAT, and not by Aleah.

“Tiffany,” He said. “It’s okay, I’m not going to say anything, I just needed to know there was nothing going on. If you can’t tell me any more than that I’ll accept it. I understand some things are private.”

“Alright, alright,” I said, there had been a knot forming in my stomach and it was working its way up to my throat. “I…no…we’re not interfering with your recruiting I just…I can’t tell you what’s going on with Todd. It’s just…it’s private.”

He nodded.

“You know what, I can respect that.”

I suddenly smirked a bit.

“Is something funny?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” I laughed. “I was just thinking…it’s kind of hot when you take authority like that.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, it’s just, I mean…”

“You mean what?” He asked. I couldn’t tell if he was being assertive or genuinely curious.

“I mean you’re…”

“Would you…like me to take charge…some more?” He grinned.

I tilted my head.

“Please.”