Caitlin has been busy with classes and visits with the shrink but now she has a bit of a problem that is making her a bit crazy. She needs to deal with it so she can keep her sanity.

Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. There should be no way that these characters are like anyone else, but if that isn’t the case, it has definitely been unintentional. Also, if you happen to find that your life is represented in these pages, I’ll be impressed.

Sorority Boy
By poetheather
Chap 15

The English paper was making me crazy. I was supposed to write what I had done over the summer but there was no way in hell I was going to write down what had actually happened and it would certainly take more than a thousand words to write down and explain everything that had occurred to me. My summer had been almost too crazy to believe and I was not a happy camper.

The homework for some of the other classes was a bit easier with the help of the girls in the sorority. Learning things like the history of the Sorority was easy as well, but I was definitely at a loss for what to put down in the stupid paper. I needed some help to at least get me started. Standing up, I went over to Meredith to get her two cents. “You gotta help me with this. I can’t think of something to say.”

“Caitlin, you are brilliant, just write something, anything. You can talk about a lot of what occurred if you mask it some. You went out with friends, made new friends, hung out and tanned, leaving out all of the gender stuff all together. This shouldn’t be that hard.” replied Merri, looking almost as frustrated as I felt. Was I over thinking again?

Not getting the kind of help I wanted from Meredith, I stalked back to the table and started trying to write about my summer without really talking about the most major event in my life. That alone made the paper a hell of a lot more difficult to write for me. How in the hell did you not talk about a massive life changing event? I hated this. I really did, almost more than waxing which I hated with the burning passion of a thousand suns.

Anyway, after a while I managed to finish my paper, or at least the rough draft. That was nice but had been a complete brain strain. All my other class work was done easily and I was able to get up and leave the study session with a sense of accomplishment. As I left the dining room, Alison followed me, hustling in order to catch up with me before reached the stairs. “Caitlin, can we talk some?”

“Sure. Come on up to the room.”

The two of us headed upstairs while Alison was talking a bit excitedly. “I kind of had a bit of an idea and I wanted to run it by you before I give it a shot.”

“What?” Now I was getting concerned. What the hell could she have in mind at this point? I seriously hoped that it had nothing to do with me.

“I thought what might be fun was to have a party.” She stated somewhat nervously.

I closed the door to my room behind us as I asked, “What’s so wrong about a party that you aren’t sure if you want to mention it?”

“I want to have a Goth party for everyone.” She said, not looking me in the eyes.

“A Goth party?” That sort of confused. What sort of party was a Goth party?

“Yeah, everyone would have to dress up in Goth fashion and just have a lot of fun. What do you think? Do you think people will go for it?” She looked so excited about her plan that I wasn’t sure if I could tell her anything but I liked it. I did like it, but I almost felt trapped by what she had said.

“It sounds like it could be fun.” I was amazingly noncommittal, as the idea on one hand was exciting and on the other a bit scary. This sounded like the kind of party that could end in flames, literally.

“I figured that we could have a DJ, and decorations and everything. And I can totally help everyone with their costume ideas. I think it might be fun and something very different from what the House is used to doing. Wouldn’t that be great?” Alison’s eyes were wide in excitement.

I thought about it and realized that it might actually be kind of cool. I had a hard time picturing some of the Sisters in Goth clothing, but it certainly sounded like it might be a hoot. “You mean for Halloween?”

“No, more of a lead up to Halloween.” She replied happily. “Halloween has many more fun things you can do.”

I was almost sorry I asked and it took some effort to not ask her to tell me. “Okay, so did you want to do this party as a pledge class thing?”

She nodded, which I had expected. “I figure the group of us can set everything up and make it a really fun party. What do you think?”

“I think it sounds like it might be fun.” The idea was sounding more appealing, the more I heard about it, especially as it had nothing to do with my gender. “You want to take it to Holly.”

The free climber had ended up as our class president because she had started acting like one and everyone was fine with that. Dawn was the vice president because she contrasted Holly quite well. Esperanza was the secretary as she had the patience to endure about anything either girl could come up with. All in all I think we were fairly lucky in who we had in charge.

We headed downstairs, hoping to catch Holly before she left for the night. We managed to catch up to her out in the parking lot before she got into her car. She liked the idea, after Alley explained it, and she was going to email everybody about it when she got home. The email group that she had set up let us stay connected all the time, which was nice.

Once that whole thing was taken care of, Alison thanked me and headed home, happily plotting the Goth party in her head. She was obviously enjoying herself. I was happy with that. It made me glad that I had worked to get her into the House. She would certainly make things a bit more interesting around here, though in all honesty I had to say that things were interesting enough in this House. It took a special kind of crazy to choose to do this to me, not that I was completely upset about this but it was a bit disconcerting nonetheless.

I headed back into the House to hang out with Meredith and Gwen, as it was movie night again, and I was looking forward to whatever piece of chick flick they had in mind to subject me to. I was enjoying the films and they were all in English and not the trauma that was foreign. So, that alone, in my opinion, was a good reason to count my blessings. I had enjoyed a few of the foreign films I had seen but those had been the exceptions that had proved the rule, at least in my opinion. I had a lot of opinions on the matter.

When I entered the House, I ran into Gwen in the kitchen, where she was busy getting some snacks for the movie. I moved to help her and lightened her load. “Thanks Caitlin.”

“No problem Gwen. So what is it we’re watching tonight?” I asked, because Meredith hadn’t told me.

“It’s a surprise for you, duh.” I could tell that Gwen was teasing me about it, which made me wonder just how much I was going to hate this movie. Surely they hadn’t gotten anything that would truly make me cringe… right? Oh, god… surely they hadn’t gotten a foreign movie to watch, had they?

I should have known better and trusted my instincts to run.

“We’re going to watch Bring it On.” announced Meredith happily when we had gotten somewhat settled.

“The cheerleading movie?” I asked, somewhat confused.

“Yep.” She was almost smug.

“A cheerleading movie?” I was having trouble figuring out why we were going to watch something like that. There was no way that it was a decent movie.

“Yeah, it’s a fun movie and funny. You’ll like it, so shut up over the whole cheerleader thing.” Meredith smirked at me.

“I’ll have you know, I do know a few decent cheerleaders, thank you very much. I’m just not sure I am ready for something like a cheerleader comedy. The idea just doesn’t sound right.” I replied, trying to show I had no problem with those who willingly chose to jump up and down and scream as a hobby. It was a lifestyle choice that I might not understand, but who was I to judge.

Gwen snickered and said. “It’s a romantic comedy.”

“It is?” I was confused.

Meredith nodded and simply said, “Just wait for it.”

* * * * *

“I was sure Torrance and Missy were going to end up together. I mean, honestly.” I griped. I felt cheated. Why the hell had Tor ended up with the brother anyway when it was clear that she had better chemistry with Missy?

“See, romantic comedy. Just ignore the whole Cliff thing and you have a lovely Lesbian Romantic comedy that everyone can enjoy.” quipped Gwen.

“Okay, you have me there.” I agreed. Taken that way, the film was actually a whole lot more fun. That and hot girls in love worked for me. I mean, despite everything I was a guy, for the most part and I did find the idea of two girls together hot.

“I’m glad you liked it.” replied Meredith. “I have always liked this film and The New Guy as well. Eliza Dushku is hot in both.”

“I agree with that.” I mean… was there even a question? She had been just as hot in Buffy as well.

“I thought you might.” snickered Meredith, leaning over to give me a kiss.

“Well, on that note, let me take off.” said Gwen, gathering up her stuff.

Meredith glanced at the clock and agreed. “Time for bed alright. Need a hand carrying anything back to your room?”

“Don’t worry about it. I have it.” Gwen headed out with her arms full of stuff. I walked with her, as I was sure things were going to tumble out of her arms when she tried to open the door to her room. Once we got her into her room, she smiled at me, “Thanks Caitlin. That made this whole thing easier.”

“No problem. Good night.” I walked back to the room I shared with Meredith, smiling softly. My life was pretty good so far and I hadn’t fallen into a funk recently, which was nice. Things with the whole gender madness were starting to calm down as the shrink was actually helping me get some sort of perspective on all of this. That was certainly quite nice. Having less stress over what I was wearing was going to make my life a hell of a lot easier. I knew I was a guy but I was also a girl, at least until I graduated, so what was the purpose of stressing over something I had accepted and agreed to do? All it did was make my life a bit of a living hell.

Another thing that was helping was that I was no longer constantly being challenged with something so new that I had no way to cope with it. Since Alison hadn’t told anyone about my not being a girl that in itself had seriously reduced my stress. She was my friend and I now knew her well enough to be sure that my secret was safe with her. Right now, my biggest stressors were from classes, but I could deal with that. My life had leveled off for the moment, for which I was thankful. I chuckled, thinking back to how this all started. I had been so sure I was smarter than these ladies. Man, I had been a bit of a pompous jerk.

I got back to the room and Meredith was waiting for me. She noticed the smile I had and quirked an eyebrow at me, questioningly. I smirked and answered her unspoken query. “I was just thinking about what kind of jerk I was when I first got a hold of the House.”

“You weren’t a jerk Cait, you were self-assured of your own rightness and weren’t going to accept anything but your own point of view on things. And what’s funny is that you only chose the wrong House to pull this on. All the others would have had screaming fits and you would have had your lawsuit.” She chuckled as well. “You just had to choose freak House for your little game.”

I laughed at that. Yeah, I screwed up on that end and picked the one House out of a fair number that would even remotely think about doing this. “Yeah, but I think it did pay off in the end.”

“Oh… really now?” She quirked her eyebrow at me questioningly.

“Without that particular act of stupidity I would never have met you or have made as many friends. I would be stuck in a boring dorm room with someone who might not have been able to stand me.” I explained happily. Yep, the shrink was really helping me cope.

“There is that. I am glad that you are a lot less stressed. That panic attack you had before the beginning of classes scared the hell out of me.” Meredith hugged me at that.

“Me too.” I whispered, hugging her back. “I was so scared that I was going to die.”

“Well, it looks like you still have some life left in you Caitlin.” She kissed me passionately, almost taking my breath away. She headed to the bed, holding my hands in hers, looking at me through half lidded eyes. My heart began to race. “Let’s put that to good use. Shall we?”