Note: This side story takes place during Book 3

They all left me there. They seriously just piled out of the basement and left me on the floor. What the actual crap? I groaned and tried to pull myself into a sitting position only to be greeted by a sharp pain that shot through my right ankle. I yelped a little and fell back against the concrete floor. I had to get out of here, like now. I had barely gotten out of being punished for sneaking into the GAT house, I couldn’t imagine what would happen if Tri Pi caught me in their basement dressed like this. Whimpering, I placed my palm flat against the floor and struggled to push myself up. Against the extreme pain I finally managed to raise myself into a sitting position, but by now I saw shouting out in agony, not even trying to maintain my female voice.

Outside I could hear yelling, I think I heard Aleah scream once, and I swear to god there was someone out there with a megaphone. What the hell was happening? Was this really normal for sororities? If so, then like every movie I’d ever seen was right. The cellar door was still wide open, and I could see the night sky overhead, though by the time I finally managed to drag myself to the steps it had quieted down a lot. Okay, if I could just get to the top of the steps I could drag myself across the lawn. That would be easy enough, right? I shifted my body toward the stairs and finally managed to lay a hand on one of the concrete steps. They were pretty narrow but I could do this. I could definitely do this. I tried to push with my good foot, but as soon as my sprained ankle dragged across the ground, I screamed, and fell back to the ground.

“Come on, get up,” I muttered to myself, well, more like pleaded to myself. I absolutely couldn’t be caught down here.

“Hey,” A new voice spoke from across the room. “Are you Audrey?”

They were closing in on me, four girls, didn’t know who they were, didn’t matter. I had to get out of here. It was too late, they were on top of me, one, a brunette with glasses was kneeling beside me, her hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I choked. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

I kept repeating it as if that would make this any better. They were going to find out who I was, they were going to report this to the school, oh my god I was going to get expelled, or arrested, or worse. I didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Audrey?” A different girl said from behind. “We need you to calm down, okay? Just take a deep breath, you’re safe here. Let’s get you upstairs.”

I complied numbly as two girls interlocked their arms beneath my shoulders and lifted me to my feet, the pain radiating through my ankle causing me to wince and cry out.

“You weren’t supposed to twist your ankle, silly,” The first girl said.

“You gotta stop beating yourself up like this,” Another girl joked from behind.

I didn’t find any of this funny. How did they know my name? How were they going to react when they figured out…what I really was? Nothing but the occasional moan escaped my lips as we crested the basement stairs and emerged into a baby pink hallway flanked with white-trimmed windows. Interior spotlights burned overhead, lighting our way to a pink themed living room. The two girls hold me lowered me gently onto one of two couches, this one faced a large flat screen television while the one on the opposite side of the room faced an inert fireplace framed by a white wood molding. They were going to figure me out, oh god they were going to figure me out. Should I just tell them right now? No, I needed to go, I needed to get out of here. Right now. The panic building within me was indescribable, I tried to push myself off the couch, but the displaced joint in my ankle screamed and sent a wave of sharp pain into my leg. I screamed and felt my eyes begin to water as I fell back onto the cushions and rolled onto my side.

“Audrey, honey?” The brunette laid a hand on my cheek and stared into my eyes, my lip quivered as I stared back. “You need to calm down, no one is going to hurt you here.”

“The yard is clear!” A new voice said from behind, I didn’t bother to lift my head and look. “Looks like they went running back to their van.”

“Audrey sprained her ankle,” The girl in front of me called out. “Can we get Marie in here to look at her?”

“Someone call me?” I heard someone shout from down the hall.

“Yah, Marie, get in here and fix Audrey!”

Moments later a taller girl was in front of me with her hands on my ankle. I winced as she ran her fingers up and down the bone, concentrating heavily on the injury.

“Hey Audrey,” She said, looking up at me for a second. “I’m Marie, I’m planning to go to medical school after Woodcrest, I volunteer at the hospital, so I promise you I can fix this. We just need to get a brace on here, okay?”

“O…okay,” I whimpered. “I’m sorry I’m so much trouble.”

“Don’t be sorry,” The girl with glasses told me reassuringly. “You’ve been through a lot, just let us help you.”

It was complete chaos, girls everywhere, talking, shouting, I couldn’t keep track of it all. My vision began to swim, but the pain was alleviated a little as Marie slid a brace onto my ankle.

“Hey we need to get this started, I have class in the morning!” I heard a male voice shout. I immediately froze; I knew that voice, it was Shawn Derringer, the president of DEM. I had a brief flashback to the day I’d rushed his fraternity and had been accepted. I hadn’t shown up the next day for orientation and Tiffany had literally forced me to call him and explain myself. I hadn’t give him a real explanation of course, just some bullshit excuse about how fraternity life wasn’t for me. Now he was here, did he know? Jesus, if he found out, who was he going to tell? I shrunk my shoulders and tried to make myself as small as possible, maybe he wouldn’t see me. No such luck, I saw him stroll around the front of the couch followed by two girls that I didn’t recognize.

“Hi, Audrey?” Shawn stared directly at me as the girl with the glasses took me by the shoulders and helped me to sit upright. “You probably remember me, I’m Shawn Derringer, president of DEM, this is Sakiya, president of Tri Pi and Willow, president of Omega Psi, we represent the Greek council at Woodcrest.”

I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to that, I really didn’t. Did they all know who…what I was? I dropped my eyes and mumbled some kind of response, no clue what it was, maybe they didn’t know either.

“Okay, so basically,” Sakiya said to me. “We’re here to ask you what’s going on with GAT and we want to know if you’ve been hurt in any way. I’ve spoken with Tiffany and she filled me in a little, but I really need to hear this from you.”

I noticed that the room had become uncharacteristically quiet, a quick look around revealed that all but these three had left the room, we were alone. Willow, Shawn, and Sakiya took seats and stared at me.

“Here’s the thing,” Shawn continued the dialogue. “We don’t want to call Panhellenic, as much as we take issue with the way GAT handles their business, a Panhellenic investigation would be bad for everyone. We do have other options, we could shun GAT from Greek events, we could stunt their ability to host parties, we could do any number of things. We could even call them out on their philanthropy hours, we all know they’ve been faking that. So, I guess what we need is for you to tell us if they’ve been hurting you, that would be the last straw.”

“Why…why am I important?” I frowned. “I’m just…”

“What we’re trying to figure out,” Willow interrupted me. “Is if GAT is torturing a transgender woman. To put it simply. Don’t worry, outside these walls your secret is safe. If you don’t want to come out then no one is going to force you to. In here we need to know what’s going on. How did this happen? Where did it start?”

“I…it….” I said nervously. I didn’t want to say it. God it was embarrassing. I could feel my cheeks turning red as I tried to work up the courage to speak.

“Audrey,” Sakiya stared directly at me. “If you can’t tell us anything new then we’re going to have to call Panhellenic. We can’t let GAT bring down the entire Greek system, it’s just not happening, so tell us something, anything,”

“Okay,” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “I…I broke into their house and tried on a dress…they…thought I was a rapist…or a robber or something and they tied me up but once they figured out I was trans they started helping me with makeup and…learning…to be a girl and…things…”

“So they’ve been helping you?” Willow raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound like something GAT would do unless there was something in it for them.”

“Yeah I…I wouldn’t be…things would be a lot harder without them,” I choked out. “I really appreciate everything they’ve done.”

Did I really appreciate it? Hadn’t they done some screwed up things to me? Yeah probably but if GAT was disbanded then where could I go to be myself? Who would know my little secret? I would be all alone again, wouldn’t I? They weren’t all THAT bad, were they?”

“Okay,” Shawn said. “I have a very, very important question for you and I want you to think about this very carefully before you answer. Is GAT hazing their pledges?”

My mind raced back to a week ago when I’d been dragged into the GAT basement and bore witness to a line of terrified pledges forced to answer questions, and then showered with chocolate syrup when they’d misspoke. I remembered how terrified I’d felt, I remembered how badly I’d wanted out of there, but I also remembered how much I’d enjoyed being treated just like any other girl. Was it really a bad thing? Was it? I looked from Willow, to Sakiya, and back to Shawn.

“No,” I lied. “No they’ve…treated everyone really well.”

Shawn nodded.

“Alright,” He said. “That’s all I needed to know, I think we can hold off on calling Panhellenic but I also think you should stay away from GAT, I really, really do.”

“I second that,” Sakiya nodded. “If you need help you can always come here, we’ll help you with your makeup, we’ll do…whatever GAT was doing, seriously. It would be better for your mental health.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t stay away from them, they’re my…friends.”

“No,” Willow said softly. “They’re not.”

“You can stay here until your ankle heals up a bit,” Sakiya sighed. “Let’s…find you a room.”