I paced back and forth, surveying the remaining members and pledges. This time we were in the meeting room, a podium up front, wooden folding chair spread uniformly across the rest of the floor. We hadn’t been using this space enough, but we had to look formal enough when our GAT representative walked through the door.

“Alright ladies,” I told them, finally stopping to rest both of my hands on the table, leaning back and staring at the room. Aleah was behind me, standing at the podium. She normally left these things to me, though as president I really felt like she should take the lead more often. “Aleah and I have talked to all of you, you know what you’re supposed to say, how you’re supposed to say it, and this is EASY, because you’re telling the truth. You’re simply telling them that we’re helping a young trans girl come out of her shell, call it philanthropy, charity, whatever you feel like, just make sure you stick to that story and we’ll be fine.”

“And remember that Audrey doesn’t stay the night here, ever,” Aleah added from the podium “Even if she did…I can’t even remember.”

“Uh, there was that one night when you ruined her life,” A girl pointed out. “When you made her come out to her girlfriend?”

“Is like…everyone following every piece of this bullshit drama?” I demanded. “Okay let’s look at the facts. Yes, we made her come out, but she was going to have to come out eventually anyway. Whether it was here, or at her dorm, or on the quad, the result would have been EXACTLY the same and you know what? At least this way she was among friends who could give her support. Did you WANT her to be alone when that happened? No? I didn’t think so.”

A dead silence hung in the air; the girl who was speaking simply averted her eyes to the floor and played with her fingers. Someone coughed, another girl twirled her hair.

“Our Panhellenic representative is maybe fifteen minutes out,” Aleah finally broke the silence. “Are all of you clear on what you’re supposed to be doing?”

The room nodded, a few of the pledges looked uncertain, maybe even afraid. They probably should be; they’d fought hard to get into this sorority, and it was all hanging in the balance. Funny how life works out, isn’t it? Just as I stood from my leaning position against the table, the front door flew open and in stepped the most ugly pantsuit I’d ever see in my life, accompanied by some blonde bimbo.

“Oh, wow!” The pantsuit said in a light southern accent. “Am I in the right place? This house is a mess! Please tell me this isn’t how Gamma Alpha Tau represents these days!”

I watched Aleah step forward from the corner of my eye, extending a hand toward the pantsuit.

“Hello,” She said in an almost professional voice as the remainder of GAT looked on. “You must be Ellen Trace, I’m Aleah Simms-“

“Yes, I’m aware of who you are, sweetie,” Ellen said condescendingly. “And you know why I’m here, we have to get to the bottom of this.”

“Well,” Aleah said. “I can assure you we haven’t had any…male guests, at least not overnight. The accusations are baseless-“

“Then you won’t mind if I have a little talk with everyone here, alone?” Ellen’s voice was growing more serious with each sentence. She phrased it as a question, but it definitely wasn’t one. I had some doubts forming in my mind but in my heart I knew we’d prepared well for this moment; everyone was on the same page.

“Absolutely not,” Aleah’s voice inflected upward as she shrugged and shot a smile toward Ellen. “If you want you can start with-“

“Her,” Ellen said, pointing toward me. My stomach fell out my asshole.

“Me?” I said, gesturing to myself. “Why-“

“Tiffany Grey, dating Shawn Derringer, president of DEM…if anyone is complicit in this, it would be you, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re saying that just because I’m dating Shawn, I had him sleep over?” I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a little-“

“Likely?” Ellen said accusingly. “Why don’t we step into the conference room and you can fill me in on every little detail.”

“That’s-“ I started to say something sarcastic but I noticed Aleah shooting a serious look at me. I sighed and conceded. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

“Great!” Ellen smiled. “And after that we can get this chapter over with.”

As Ellen turned, I rolled my eyes and followed her lead into the conference room. She motioned for me to take a seat in one of the chairs near the end of the table. I placed myself in the seat and watched as she sat adjacent to me, pulling some papers from a briefcase and laying them on the table and leafing through them briefly before making eye contact with me.

“So,” Ellen said. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?’

“With what, exactly?” I tried to dodge the question, stupidly.

“Well, we received an anonymous tip. The tipster said that Gamma Alpha Tau has been hosting overnight guests of the male persuasion and as you know, that’s a serious breach of protocol. Panhellenic is compelled to investigate, and upon conclusion of our investigation, if we find proof to substantiate the claims, your charter will be revoked and corporate will reclaim this house. From all of the previous complaints we’ve gotten, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to pan out in your favor. So, start talking.”

I took a deep breath. Aleah had given us a very specific and unusual directive: tell the truth. Well, to be honest it wasn’t all going to be the truth but it was pretty close.

“Okay,” I said. “So first of all, we know who gave you that anonymous tip, and we also know that it’s a jealousy issue.”

“Jealousy?” Ellen looked at me intently. “Do tell.”

“Okay, so, we were working on a super secret project, it wasn’t supposed to get out but…this trans girl we found…well, she came to us for help. She needed help learning to uh…be a girl and how to dress, and act, and whatever. We were kind of doing it as a secret philanthropy thing. Learning about the transgender community, it’s just…I think it’s done a lot for us as a sorority and-“

“You’re telling me, that Gamma Alpha Tau, Woodcrest chapter, headed by Aleah Simms, suddenly decided to undertake an equality project instead of doing your nails or sleeping with frat boys?”

“Hey with respect, that’s not entirely fair,” I argued. “We do a lot of…other things.”

“Alright,” Ellen shifted in her chair and scribbled a few things down into her notepad, then aimed her stony gaze directly at me. I wanted to gulp but it might indicate intimidation. She probably fed on fear or something, like an empathic velociraptor. “I’m going to interview the other girls, and IF, I emphasize IF, they corroborate this bullshit you’ve fed me, then I’m going on to the next step.”

“The next step?” I raised an eyebrow as she closed her notebook and folded her hands on the table.

“I want to speak with this…girl.”

“You mean Audrey?”

“Is that her name?” Ellen once again opened her notebook and began to scribble. “Then yes, I’ll want to speak with Audrey. Honestly, I’ll be surprised if you can actually produce her.”

“Well I mean that could…be a problem,” I objected. “She’s…pretty skittish, even around us-“

“Tiffany, if you want to save this chapter, then you’re going to produce Audrey, no questions, no arguments, just get her here and make sure she’s ready to talk.”

I left the conference room feeling a little bit numb. We’d already put Audrey through so much, did we really want to make her out herself to national? The answer was yes, of course. Yes we did.

“Aleah, we’re fucked,” I sighed as I walked past her. “They want to talk to- hey, whose that?”

I pointed toward the couch where a girl I didn’t recognize was sitting, cross legged, reading a book and dressed in the GAT uniform which I hadn’t touched since my pledge days.

“Um, that’s Kari,” Aleah explained quietly.

“Kari? From Omega Psi? Why does she look so different?”

“Makeup, I guess,” Aleah shrugged. “Okay, so basically she suffered some…brain damage a few months ago and every once in a while she thinks she’s part of a different house. Like, she sneaks in and just…acts like she belongs there. I’m not sure if she’s actually mentally ill or if she’s just trolling. Last week she was in Tri Pi, the week before that, Zeta Tau, and so on. I guess it was our turn this time.”

“Uh…that’s bizarre,” I frowned. “Anyway, she wants to talk to Audrey, we need to get her here.”

“Fine, whatever,” Aleah seemed distracted. “Get her over here-“

“Hey guys, there’s someone here for you,” Courtney interrupted us. In the distance, I heard Ellen call the next girl into the conference room. As I looked up, past Courtney, I saw a short girl with long brown hair strutting toward us, stopping just short of Courtney and regarding us with what I could only describe as an amused grin. Who the hell?

“Well hello there,” The new girl smirked. “You must be Tiffany.”

“Uh yes-“ I started to say, just as she cut me off.

“Oh and you,” She grinned again, walking past me and staring at Aleah as if she were a piece of meat. “Aleah, president of Gamma Alpha Tau, I would say it’s nice to meet you, but from what I hear you’re a piece of human garbage.”

“Hey!” Aleah protested angrily. “Just who the fuck do you think-“

“My name, is Leina,” She said smugly. “And today we’re going to discuss what you’ve been doing to my little sister.”