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"Before I answer any questions, who else have you talked to?

"Okay. I understand that, but it's important.... At least, who are you going to talk to next? Are you going to talk to Sydney?

"Okay then. Ask away.

"Carl Munroe.

"Look, I'm gonna call Sydney a girl for this, okay? It's easier, the way she looked and... all, okay?

"Um... well, the first time I saw her the Greek council people, for rush, they were just getting ready to close up the table, as far as the pledge stuff, so that was probably, oh... nine-fifty, and Sydney and the other two, Kim West and Chelsea Bonner, they came in before.... Trent said they just beat the deadline, but they had a little time yet. So sometime before ten.

"Well, it was... everyone noticed... they had great costumes, or Sydney did, but with the entrance and music and all, I guess it was a good group costume. And Sydney won, you know.

"I don't think so. I think I just noticed her, that she was a bride, that's all.

"I was just there as member, not on the council... Neil Linden's Dee Kay's president, Delta Kappa, and, well, he's my best friend. We were talking, I guess... it's wasn't serious Greek or anything, just stuff.

"No, they table anything that has to be done in-house or that's... controversial, I guess. But, yeah, it was still official.

"Well, they came over to the tables to register for the costume contest stuff and for Sydney to do the pledge requirement thing and Trent Winters didn't know who she was and Chelsea had to tell him, that she was there like she had to be, the challenge and all, and then Winters got shitty...

"Look. I can see having challenges and stuff, and even the stupid hazing that's still legal, but...

"I guess what Winters asked was technically okay, but... what he wanted, it was what all the rules were supposed to stop. That's all I'm gonna say about that, okay?

"Yeah, almost. Neil forced the issue out of Winter's hands... he made a quick motion and it was seconded and all... really fast, and Sydney was... well, passed? Anyway, Winters shut up and I think Neil and a couple of the other houses basically said, made her a council acceptee, like a legacy, maybe. I didn't ask and I don't think I want to know, but Winters basically said he wasn't gonna have anything to do with her after that.

"I know Neil said he didn't agree with Winters. He voted with the council.

"Then? I thought....

"I thought she looked really pretty. I didn't know until the... Chelsea said.

"Well, she looked like a bride. White... beautiful dress, flowers. Veil stuff.... She had a great figure... which I guess is a bit odd, but she did... and she was... well, tall for a girl, I guess, but not really.

"Well, after, when I thought about it, she looked scared out of her mind. Like she was gonna pass out, or run or something when she had to listen to Winter's shit. Chelsea and Kimberly did all the talking, or Chelsea, maybe, and she never said a word, just to nod who she was, and yes or no.

"About ten minutes maybe. I don't remember exactly. No more than that. I know the contest was closed, after her. So at ten, anyway.

"Y'know, I think Neil was the first one. He told me he was gonna rescue "him" from the grrrrls. He said it like that, and he went over and asked her, I guess, and... I could see her face was all white then, but he bowed and held out his hand, just like the house lessons for formals, and she accepted.

"Nope. Slow dance. I remember he had to reach for her hands and place them. He was laughing too, like at jokes and it was all normal, and he hardly moved, just swayed? But she smiled too, I remember, when they stopped at the end.

"Well, he came back and some other guy must've asked her, or she started dancing again, anyway. Neil said she was about ready to explode.

"Yeah... he said she.... I noticed, yeah.

"No, he said she was so stressed out by everything she was almost crying. I don't remember, exactly.... But she was at the edge, anyway. She didn't look that way, when I looked, but it was a long way over to the dance floor and I only saw her sometimes 'cause the new guy was moving around with her, more than Neil.

"No, he said she'd been railroaded into the wedding dress and stuff, mostly by the girls, and she was going to walk out in a few minutes and quit rush and he told her about the legacy thing and...

"He said he'd offer her a pledge spot in Dee Kay if she wanted it, but he just thought of that then.

"I asked, and he hadn't....

"I dunno.... I guess a guy. I mean, Dee Kay is a frat.

"She was.... she was screwed over by Gamma, and Neil said by the girls too, at least... even if maybe they didn't have any idea about what it'd be like, from the way they were acting, anyway, and she was on like the fourth guy, maybe more, and I'll bet money they were, most of 'em, they were doing it on bets and laughing at her, making it even worse.

"Yeah. I was pissed a bit. I was ready to pound Winters, anyway.

"I guess Neil. He said maybe I should dance with her, get all the facts.

"No, I didn't care. Look, I was gonna be like the fifth or tenth guy, so what did it matter? But Neil was right, and I was just gonna get an ulcer listening to him. So yeah, I went up and cut in and danced with her.

"Listen. I... about all the stuff that, that... happened, and....

"We danced... a slow dance, and I asked her stuff... how she was doing. All 'you' and 'them,' kinda avoiding how she was, what she looked like, even though I... I thought it was just a costume, then, and I don't know, but it seemed right, too.

"Well, she *looked* like a girl, even dancing with her. That was a big thing, but more was that she talked like one, or I thought so, but...

"I guess... her tone, maybe. She sounded like a girl, and looked like one, and I was dancing with her, and, well... I guess that's where I got the idea, anyway.

"That she *was* a girl.

"No, she didn't... but I didn't ask, or say it, either. I joked about stuff like our costumes matching and almost got her to smile at my lame-o tux and at the end I asked her if she wanted to sit down, her feet must be sore, and she did smile.

"Yeah, I walked with her, back to the girls' table.

"Now I know they were the whole problem, then. But she sat down there, and I sat back at the Dee Kay table.

"A couple of more times.

"From what she said it was worse than what I'd thought, and after I thought about it, after I'd got my courage up, I guess, I asked her to dance again and then said if she wanted, we could dance all night.

"She couldn't. She didn't have any money, or a ride, except Chelsea, and she left her keys at Chelsea's place and was stuck. So no ducking out, even ditching the whole rush thing.

"We just talked.

"Yes, later on.

"No, I'm not going to tell you about it.

"Okay. Well, the prizes.... she didn't want to go up, and the girls said they'd just spotlight her on the floor, so while they were pinning on her veil thing again I said I'd go with her and when she won it seemed like the thing to do, so I gave her a little one on the cheek and everyone laughed and cheered and I think it made it all a bit of a joke instead of the shit some of the assholes had said. So, yeah.

"That was when we were walking from the stage steps, just a few feet in the crowd, and... this jerk pulled on her veil and about pulled her head off and I guess... I didn't know it was attached that hard, so I guess he didn't either and it was just a stupid thing to do, but it was, well, I guess the capper... but she started to cry, tears and all, and the asshole *laughs*.

"No. I shoved him is all. Open hand, chest, shove, fall.

"Nope.

"I danced with her another hour, I guess, but really we just talked, they were playing slow music and she was... the girls repaired her face stuff, but she was shaking almost the whole first half hour.

"That's private.

"I took her home.

"That's private.

"I don't know. I don't think she knows. But it's her business.

"I wasn't trying to hide. Yes, I kissed her again. I like her. She has guts and brains and she... she's...

"Can you imagine what it was like? All that shit, and she still stood there when they lifted her veil, and smiled? And she danced with those guys, after pretty well the first one after Neil made fun of her? And just *looking* like that? She never cried before that pull on her hair, in her whole life since she was little, and that night was enough to make her. I *woulda* pounded him if I knew that, then....

"I have no idea. What's gender? Am I? I kissed a girl is what I felt like. I still do, that's why I'm saying she.

"If she looked like a boy? Like now?

"If she was a boy, it wouldn't have happened like that, would it?

"If I saw all the shit, and saw someone hurt her... a boy, even... yeah. More, probably.

"What difference does it make if some asshole hurts someone, if it's a guy or a girl? Would it make any difference if someone *shot* a guy or a girl? Would one be any less bad? Less guilty? So what's the difference with hurting?

"I wouldn't have danced with her if she were a boy, I guess. That's the real difference. That we could talk. If I was in a dress costume and all, maybe, but I can't know or feel what she did, all that stuff, so even then it wouldn't be the same....

"I.... *I* kissed her because she was a girl, and because she cried and was scared and I was dancing with her and we... I got to know her and like her and I... wanted to... and she let me, after I asked.

"But she isn't, to me.

"Would *you* change, if you put on different clothes? Do you really think that you'd change, just from looking a certain way, for one night?

"Okay. Valid point. So *I* changed, talking and looking at her and all. *I* changed, dancing with her and feeling like I was with a girl, and *I* asked her if I could kiss her.

"But I kissed *her*.

"Why should I be? She's a pretty, smart girl to me. Kissing her was nice.

"I.... Y'know, I don't know.

"I think... it wouldn't make any difference, maybe.

"It wouldn't."

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