“Pledges!” I shouted out in my most convincing drill sergeant voice as I paced the floor in front of the lineup. We hadn’t quite replenished our ranks yet, but Tiffany and I had managed to wrangle three new pledges for the house. I couldn’t remember their names. “Today we have a very special challenge for you, and those who successfully complete it, will remain as a GAT pledge and will also be well on their well to becoming a full sister. Those who fail will face the possibility of immediate expulsion, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Miss Aleah!” The pledges shouted in unison. From the corner of my eye I glanced at Tiffany who stood against the bannister with her arms folded, eyes forward and looking a bit nervous. The past few days with her had been weird, she’d been acting completely different, especially around Audrey. I had to kind of dismiss it as her being nervous over Audrey being a new pledge, or maybe she was constipated. I looked around the room, saw the ceremonial candles lit, the Greek letters above our fireplace properly illuminated; the rest of the room covered in a subtle yellow glow. The setting was right, and this was one of the last big tests for the pledges.

“Today’s challenge will be very simple, each one of you will enter the conference room, and on the table there will be two items. An apple, and an onion. You choose one to bite, and remember, whichever one you choose, your pledge partner will enter the room after you and bite the one that you didn’t. How do you pick the right one? Reflect on your time in our house and come to your own conclusions. Choose what you should be leaving behind for your pledge partner. It’s all pretty simple if you think about it. So, with that being said, the first pair, um…Victoria and…whoever you are. Pick whose going in first.”

It went faster than I thought. I watched Courtney checking the room each time a pair of pledges left, taking a tally of who ate what, and Lauren would swiftly return to set up the room again. All in all it only took about an hour, and as I surveyed the pledges, I saw an awful lot of people in tears and utterly miserable. Shaking my head, I took the sheet from Courtney and addressed the pledges.

“Now, that you’ve gone through THAT,” I said to them. “The idea here, is teamwork. As the first pledge to enter the room, you should have bitten the onion. Why? Because taking one for the team is what GAT is all about. We’re strong women as individuals, but together we’re invincible. Now, let me see which of you got this right.”

I quickly scanned the sheet and nodded, noting that everyone had managed to complete the challenge successfully except…

“Audrey,” I said sharply, lowering the sheet and holding it against my hip as I stared at her. “Conference room, now.”

Without another word, I turned and made my way past the bannister and to the left, storming into the conference room. I could hear the others behind me. Tiffany, Lauren, Courtney, and of course, Audrey who entered last. She had a smug look on her face. God, what was that about? She looked pretty cute today, I would at least admit that. Her hair was definitely more feminine now, maybe her sister had helped with it? On top of that she’d finally gotten her wardrobe coordinated after maybe half a dozen trips to different thrift stores in the area. I couldn’t really approve of her buying from thrift stores but I also knew she wasn’t rolling in cash, so there was that. Good enough, right? Today she was dressed in a white skirt that stopped just above her knees and a tight blue top with a scoop neckline. Kind of 80’s. I would have to talk to her about that.

“Audrey,” I said, keeping my tone as even as possible while Tiffany and the others looked on. “Why did you bite the apple? You went in first.”

“Um, I thought the point was to come out on top,” Audrey shrugged. “I mean, the point of this house is to be a complete bitch, right?”

“The point is to work together,” Lauren said helpfully. “It’s about sacrificing yourself for your sisters. If you can’t do that then-“

“What have you ever sacrificed?” Audrey looked directly at me, cocking her head. Tiffany stared at her hard, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Audrey, I swear to god-“ I started.

“You’re singling me out because I have a dick,” She said to me in an accusatory tone. “If one of the other girls had-“

“If one of the other girls had done this,” I snapped. “They wouldn’t be in here talking to us, they would be out on their ass. Yeah, I’m singling you out, I’m giving you a second chance.”

“Nothing I do is fucking good enough,” Audrey protested. “Last week with the horse thing, this week with the apple, how am I supposed to measure up to your standard if you’re singling me out because I’m trans?”

“No one is singling you out, you silly bitch!” Lauren said, stepping in. “That’s the problem, you’re being treated like every other girl in this house and for some reason you can’t handle it. What happened to you? You suddenly get what you want, you’re out of the closet, you’re in a sorority, and now you’re turning into ‘Little Miss Thing’? Someone needs to take you down a few notches because the last few weeks have been absolutely unbearable.”

“I’m just acting like myself,” Audrey said angrily. “Maybe you need to lighten up and-“

“Screw this,” I said, crossing the room and reaching toward the door; Tiffany moved abruptly out of the way as I snatched the pledge paddle, hanging on the door handle. “Audrey, bend over that chair.”

“Um,” Tiffany finally spoke. “We…don’t actually paddle…pledges with the pledge paddle. That’s more of a ceremonial thing…I mean…”

“There’s a first time for everything,” I huffed. “Audrey, turn around, grab the chair and assume the position.”

“Excuse me,” Audrey said, standing her ground. “I’m not letting you spank me.”

“Yeah, you are,” I nodded, laying the paddle across my opposite palm as I glared in her direction. “Let me just put it this way. You pull your skirt up and bend over that chair, or you’re done. I don’t care what Panhellenic has to say about it. I don’t care what your sister has to say about it. You’re making life in this house unbearable because you’re having trouble adjusting and I’m going to put a stop to this crap RIGHT now. I get it, I really, really do. You’re trying to figure yourself out, you’re trying to fit in, but let me tell you something, you’re not fitting in, you’re acting like a self-righteous bitch and that stops today. Bend over, or walk, your choice.”

At that point, Audrey looked around the room, from Tiffany, to Lauren, to Courtney as if she were asking for help. It was understandable, these were normally sources of support for her, but now they simply stared at her, stone faced. They’d had about enough of her, maybe they were just as fed up as I was. A moment ago, she’d been arrogant, her expression smug, but now it was started to fall away, her eyes were filled with fear. Yeah, it was getting through. Slowly, but surely, she turned and grasped the conference chair, her body trembling.

“Feet back, come on, stick your butt out,” I instructed. She did.

“Aleah I’m sorry,” She said quietly. “I’m sorry okay?”

“You’re about to be,” I muttered. I stepped forward, took up a position behind her, and swung the paddle. I didn’t do it hard, not really, but she yelped like she’d been shot and nearly fell to the floor. “Oh my god, Audrey, be a big girl, would you?”

I waited patiently for her to straighten herself, sticking her ass out once again, her body still shaking.

“A sorority is about sisterhood,” I said, taking another whack and delivering it right to her bare ass. “We work together, or we don’t work at all. We sacrifice for eachother, or we die alone. That’s what it’s about, that’s why we’re here. We might seem to be snobbish, and stuck up, but at the end of the day, we function as a unit.”

“Okay, I’m sorry Aleah,” I heard her start to sniffle. Was she actually crying? “I won’t do it again, I promise-“

I cut her off with another smack, a little lighter this time. She still screamed, loudly. The girls out in the living room probably though I was torturing her.

“If you’re having trouble adapting, if this is all a bit too much for you, you need to talk to us, or to a therapist, whichever you can afford. Do NOT act like a little bitch, are we clear?”

“Yes,” She said, her voice cracking. I rolled my eyes and began to speak again, but was cut off by the sound of a text message, my phone vibrated across the conference table. I leaned over, glancing at the screen.

“Great,” I muttered. “Mr. Derringer wants me at the office. Tiffany, guys? Hit her like ten more times, would you?”

"The problem, Mrs. Parsons," Mr. Derringer said, walking to the other side of the conference table and resting his fingers against the sleek black surface. "Is that Miratran seeks to change people at their very core. A drug that forces them into a comatose state and pushes them to live out a fantasy of the user's choosing, forcing them to be someone that they're not with the expectation that when they wake up, they will simply BE that person. That works for a period of time, but at the end of the day, they're either going to revert, or you're just going to have a lot of broken people wandering around. That's why we broke with Miratran, and as a stockholder, you should be pleased."

“And you’re sure this is the right move?” Mrs. Parsons scribbled a few notes on a yellow legal pad before looking back toward Mr. Derringer who towered over here. She wasn’t intimidated in the least. I sat at the end of the conference table typing the meeting notes into a laptop provided to me by the company. I wasn’t sure why I was here; he could have done this with a tape recorder. This was one of the nicer conference rooms, a table made of solid tempered glass, black rolling chairs, a massive OLED screen set into the wall at the head of the table. Normally it was flashing the company logo, but today it was blank, for whatever reason.

“Mrs. Parsons,” Mr. Derringer, Michael smiled. “You have a son, Miles, is that correct?”

“You’re up to date it seems,” Mrs. Parsons nodded.

“What if your son, or your daughter, Brianna, identified as something…other than straight. How would you react?”

“I’d still love them, obviously, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Miratran is…how should I put this? The ultimate weapon in conversion therapy. By itself, it’s a mood regulator and works legitimately with decent effects. When combined with another catalyst however, it becomes something else entirely. Imagine a sort of…simulation if you will, manufactured by the resources of the mind. It forces a person to live a scenario or even an entire life as the person you want them to be. If a boy decided to be a girl, for example. The parents use the effects of Miratran to place the child in the mental state of the ‘boy’ they believe them to be and ensure that their body matches when they wake up. They won’t remember the dream, of course, they’ll simply go on living as their new persona. Pretty handy for some religious families if the heir to the family fortune turns out to be a flaming homosexual.”

“You’re telling me that…Miratran can do that? It can make someone live an entirely different life?” Mrs. Parson’s eyes were wide.

“A life that passed by in minutes in real time. The perfect tool for conversion therapy. I have it on good authority that Garron, the owner if Miratran used his own son, or daughter as a guinea pig. Sent her away to camp, she came back as a ‘he’, and all seemed to be going just fine, until he hung himself in his bedroom closet,” Mr. Derringer looked directly at me for a moment, I felt my right hand clench into a fist. I was shaking. “I assure you, our company and our stockholders can move forward without Miratran as a partner. Mrs. Parsons, I suggest you go home and spend time with your children; the world is a very dark place right now.”

“I think I’ll do just that,” Mrs. Parsons nodded. “Thank you for clearing this up, Michael.”

“Any time,” Mr. Derringer nodded as he showed her to the door of the conference room. “My secretary will show you to the lobby.”

Mr. Derringer closed the door slowly and turned, making his way toward the front of the table once again. The room was silent, the glass walls of the conference room permitted no sound to pass from the outside, and the only sound was the scuffing of Mr. Derringer’s shoes against the carpeted floor. The room was bathed in white light, but all I could see was red.

“The real reason, is money, of course,” Mr. Derringer said finally as he turned and placed his palms on the conference table. “If a product like Miratran becomes mainstream, it’s going to leave a lot of broken families behind. I can’t even imagine what will happen when the FDA gets ahold of it. We should probably be glad Trump pulled us out of the Human Rights Council; possibly the only thing he ever did to help us…in this situation at least. The problem Aleah is that we were partnered with Miratran because they were promising as a company. I should have examined their intentions a little more closely, because when this all hits the fan, and it will, they’re going to go after Miratran and everyone who was ever affiliated with them. This company will burn and there’s not a thing we can do about it unless we stop it before it starts.”

“I don’t understand,” I shook my head. “What can I possibly do about it?”

“Well,” Mr. Derringer said, walking slowly around the outside of the table in my direction. “I could take care of it myself, that would be easy, but you’re a good employee, you show a lot of promise. I think we could take our business relationship to the next level, and so I have a question to ask you, Aleah. Miratran has to go, it needs to go down in flames, and it needs to happen yesterday. Your friend Jayne died because her father believed he could change the natural order with a pill and a few implanted memories. He took her from you, you understand. So I’m asking you, Aleah, if I put the man in front of you, and I put a gun in your hand, would you pull the trigger?”

“You’re asking me if I want to kill James Garron?” I stared at him incredulously. On one hand it was a horrible suggestion; something I didn’t even want to think about. On the other hand, why wouldn’t I want to kill the man if I could get away with it? I stared at the laptop for a moment and tried to wish myself away. I knew what I was becoming, but after Jayne’s death, and Mr. Garron’s de facto takeover of the Woodcrest board, I was having a hard time separating what I should do, with what I was going to do. I guess the real question was, could I live with myself if I did it? Mr. Derringer was waiting silently, patiently just in front of me. I could hear his shallow breaths, complimented by my labored breathing. Finally, I said it. I had to say it. “Yes, I would do that.”

“Good,” Mr. Derringer nodded. “I’m going to give you the opportunity, and soon, I promise you, but it all starts with you.”

“What do you mean?” I furrowed by brow. “What could I possibly do?”

“I need you to something for me, and it involves a friend of yours. Audrey Remeika.”

“I want to ask you a very simple question, and you’re going to give me a straight answer, well, two questions,” Leina nodded as she pressed a button on the control panel, increasing the incline of the treadmill. Around us, the sound of pounding feet, dropped weights, and the occasional grunt resonated throughout the gym. Leina towered over us on her treadmill, dressed in a gray mid-riff tank top and a pair of skin tight black leggings. “Why are you asking this?”

“Well,” Tiffany said, stumbling over her words a bit. “I mean, Audrey…she doesn’t always listen to us and-“

“Is she supposed to listen to you?” Leina asked us, her voice filled with mock confusion. Tiffany sighed and tried to restart her line of dialogue.

“It’s…it’s kind of important, I’ve looked at…Theta Kappa’s list of…goals, and they want to this morality amendment before the school board. They want to make it so…you know, you have to be the one…gender to get into the sorority or uh..fraternity-“ Before Tiffany could finish speaking, Leina abruptly dismounted the treadmill and pushed past us, making her way across the floor and toward a set of weights.

“So you’re coming to me,” Leina said, as she began to perform a set of lunges, a ten pound weight in each hand. “Because she’s acting like the little brat you turned her into, and you want me to make her listen to you? That’s kind of pathetic, Aleah. You’re the sorority president. I’m not an expert on sororities, but she’s a pledge, you’re the president, you should kind of have her in your pocket.”

“Look, you know as well as I do that she’s…stubborn,” I sighed and stepped around Leina, leaning up against a stack of weights as she continued to perform her lunges. “Like, maybe we made the monster but there’s no way she wasn’t always stubborn.”

“Not wrong, but like I said,” Leina cleaned the weights and put them back on the rack, narrowly missing my fingers as she dropped them into their slots. “She’s taking her cues from YOU. Not anyone else, YOU. If I’d know she was trans before I never would have let her get into the whole Greek thing, I would have led by example and not turned her into a raving lunatic-“

“Okay bitch,” I interrupted her as I watched her grab an exercise mat off the wall and begin a series of stretches. “If you think we’re THIS much of a problem then WHY don’t you just pull the plug on this. She LISTENS to you. You could just tell her to quit and she’d be eating out of your hand. Then you could turn her into the ‘sister’ you want her to be.”
“Oh no, no no no,” Leina suddenly laughed as she assumed a planking position on the mat. “See that might work for you, then you’d be absolved of all responsibility. Me? I have class, I have extracurricular, most importantly I have SOME free time that I’d really like to keep. Teaching Audrey how to be a respectable young girl? That’s not on my radar right now. Deal with it.”

“Can you at least get her to listen to us?” I said, fully exasperated.

“Maybe you should try spanking her some more,” Leina suggested. I couldn’t tell if she was serious. “She was pretty calm for a few days after that.”

“I…Leina I can’t spank her every time she steps out of line.”

“Did you try candy?”

“What?”

“I mean did you try giving her candy every time she behaves? Look up Pavlov’s dog. Wait, you can read, right?”

I glared at her, though from her position on the floor it was doubtful that she could even see me, let alone my facial expressions.

“Bitch, I can read,” I growled.

“So tell me, what’s your plan, exactly? How are you going to put a stop to this Theta Kappa stuff? Audrey hasn’t quite caught on yet, but she will, I guarantee it. Then what?”

“Maybe she should catch on,” I muttered. “Then maybe she could see how serious this is.”

Leina suddenly leapt to her feet and turned to look at me.

“Okay look, Aleah,” She shook her head, face dripping with sweat as she spoke to me. “I know what you’re doing. You’re using Audrey to make your house look diverse and accepting. You’re going to use her to put an end to Theta Kappa because it makes YOU look good. You’re doing this for all the wrong reasons.”

“Do…you not care that Audrey will actually suffer if Theta Kappa gets their way?”

“It’s not the end of the world if Theta Kappa wins,” Leina said coldly. “Not even a little. You know what’ll happen? I’ll get my parents involved and we’ll move Audrey far, far away. Maybe send her back home for a while, find a college that’s a little more accepting. I mean jeez, North Carolina’s a terrible place to be a trans woman. We could ship her off to Michigan or maybe a nice school in California. Somewhere she’ll be safe. I’m not worried.”

“But what about the thing that happened in the bathroom, with Mike?”

Leina smiled at me but I could swear there was something much darker behind it, something I couldn’t place. For a brief moment I was literally afraid of her.

“Oh honey,” She said evenly with a hint of laughter in her voice. “Do you honestly, truly, really think that I’d let anything like that happen to her again? Audrey is my little sister and I’m going to do EVERYTHING in my power to protect her. And believe me, Aleah, I have a LOT of power. If anyone so much as touches a hair on her head I’ll bring down holy hellfire on the person that hurt her and then I’ll take her away from here. I’ll take her so far that none of you will ever see her again. I’m letting her have this college experience because she’s a young woman who needs some freedom. At the same time she’s a little girl whose just learning about the world. I’m not going to shelter her if I don’t have to but take me at my world when I say there will be blood if harm comes to her.”

She was serious, I could see it in her eyes. I shivered and stepped away, slowly at first and then bit my lower lip as I turned and made my way to the door. There was nothing more to be gained from talking to her and I felt her gaze on my back the entire way.

“Have a nice day!” The guy at the counter said as I blew by and practically ran toward the parking lot. Stepping down from the curb I made my way past a few cars and finally found my own parked comfortably between a blue Mercury Milan and a yellow bug.

“Yo, Aleah!” I heard the familiar sound of Shawn Derringer’s voice from a few cars over. I looked up to see him waving and offered him a pathetic half smile. I walked away from my car and met him halfway. “You look great.”

“Thanks, I just threw this together,” I sheepishly indicated my outfit.

“Well keep it up,” He laughed. “How have you been? It’s been forever since we talked.”

“You mean yesterday?” I laughed. “But yeah it feels like it’s been an entire year.”

“More like a year and six months,” Shawn joked. “I wonder why that is?”

“It’s almost like we’re characters in a story that the author forgot and just left sitting around?” I shrugged. “Almost like the author was going through some serious emotional issues and lashed out at everyone around them, slipped into an alcoholic depression and wrote some weird ass dystopian fiction instead of dealing with us. What a bitch, were the important ones.”

“Oh my god,” Shawn suddenly sighed and looked up toward the sky. “Hey, Audrissa, stop venting in the dialogue and just write the god damn story, okay?”

“Uh…” I looked around and then looked upward. “Who…literally who are you talking to?”

“What? No one,” Shawn shook his head. “So how’s the whole Audrey thing going?”

“Not so good,” I admitted. “You’ve heard about the whole Theta Kappa thing, yeah?”

“I saw the school paper,” Shawn admitted. “Isn’t a whole lot to be done about it at this point. I mean if Audrey needs protection we can bring her over to DAM. It’s a fraternity but we can give her a private room-“

“You can’t protect her, it’s not like Greek organizations are like…military.”

“True but-“

“We need to put a good spin on the whole thing and I need your help. I want to make Audrey the face of Gamma Alpha Tau. Can your dad get us a TV spot for some commercials?”

“What are you thinking?” Shawn eyed me curiously. “Like a PR campaign?”

“PR would be a good start,” I nodded “We need to show everyone on campus that she’s just a regular girl, that she has enjoys the same thing, has the same goals, same fear, same likes as everyone else. They need to not be scared of her.”

“But she’s not the only trans girl on campus,” Shawn told me. “What about that Kari girl? The one in Omega? Maybe you can coordinate something.”

“We can work on all of that,” I assured him. “But first we really need to work on getting a TV spot.”

“You’re going to need to do a lot more than that,” He took a quick look at his phone before putting it away. “What you’re doing affects the entire Greek council. You need to inform Panhellenic, I need to call the council together.”

“How long do you think that’s going to take?”

“We only meet like once a month,” He shook his head. “I can call an emergency meeting, given the circumstances.”

“Fine, do it. Oh, and Shawn? How big is your back seat?”

I walked into my room and tossed the car keys on the bed. With a loud sigh that half the house probably heard, I plopped down on mattress and began to go through my phone notifications. Most of it was stupid, some of it was straight from the GAT app. One of the messages pertained to Audrey apparently eating someone’s leftovers from the fridge which made me roll my eyes. Leina was right; she was imitating us but in my opinion she was taking it to an unnecessary extreme. It was time to have a conversation with her and it was going to be uncomfortable. I texted two words to her phone: ‘House, now.” It had to happen eventually I guess.

I slipped out of my blouse and grabbed a different from the closet; the old one smelled like sweaty gym sweat. After about thirty minutes I heard the front door open and as I walked out of my room I could see Audrey entering the foyer. I have to admit she was seriously cute when she was fully dressed, almost no trace of maleness about her other than the horrid attitude.

“Audrey, up here,” I beckoned. She smiled and waved in my direction, making her way up the stairs and turning at the landing.

“Hey, what’s up?” She smiled. “Is everything okay?”

This was getting weird already.

“We need to talk about your attitude,” I told her point blank. “You’ve been positively horrifying and we’re trying to work with you given your special circumstances but things are going to change around here-“

“Okay, I understand,” She nodded. I paused and stared at her. Why was she being so compliant? I thought the next part was going to be hard, but maybe not.

“Audrey, you’re a pledge and you’re walking around like you own the place. That’s going to top right now, do you understand?”

“I do,” She nodded. “And I’m really sorry for any trouble that I’ve caused. I guess I was just lashing out.”

“I-“ I stuttered and tried to pick my next words. I didn’t have a clue what was going on here.

“Okay anyway, as a pledge, you need to wear the pledge uniform, not to mention the pin-“

“Oh, can I wear the old one? It’s cuter!”

“Old…what, Audrey?” I was thoroughly confused now.

“The old pledge uniform, it’s super cute and I’ve always wanted to wear it!”

“Old…unifo….the one from the 80’s?!”

“Yeah!” She nodded happily. “It’s so cute and I really want to do better. Can I wear it?”

“I…I think we have them in the basement, I guess?”

“Thank you soooo much,” She clasped her hands together. “And I’m going to try to do better, I promise, I really do. What do you want me to do?”

“I…what…” What was she playing at? Was this a joke? I started to turn the situation over in my mind and then it clicked, it completely clicked.

“Oh my god,” I stared at her for a full minute before remembering the pill I had dropped into her water bottle. Mr. Derringer had told me it was a mood stabilizer and to be honest, I was trying to get her under control but this? This was way beyond what I was trying to do. I swallowed hard and looked at her, completely eager and willing. “Um, I…Audrey I need to think.”

“Oh I can go down stairs and sit on the couch or something,” She nodded. “You can call me up when you’re ready.”

“I….no,” I shook my head. “ Just…go find something productive to do okay? I need to think. Just…something, I don’t know.”

“Okay!” Audrey said cheerfully as she literally skipped away. I watched her round the banister and practically float happily down the stairs. I mouthed the words ‘Oh my god’ as she disappeared into the basement. I immediately called Tiffany and told her to get her butt over to the house and then brought up Mr. Derringer’s number.

“Hello? Aleah?” Mr. Derringer answered the phone.

“Uh, hey, Mr. Derringer, I need to talk to you, it’s kind of an emergency.”

“Well I’m always here for you, Aleah, what is it?”

“Okay let me lay it on you. That sample of Miratran you gave me? You said it was a mood stabilizer by itself, and that it needs to be activated with a second part. I gave it to Audrey because I thought it would calm her down.”

“How did that go?” He asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“You’re not even angry?” I asked, a little incredulous but also apprehensively.

“Well no, I want to know what it did,” He said nonchalantly. “Did it calm her down?”

“In a manner of speaking, she’s just doing whatever I say, like she has no inhibitions.”

“Yeah, that was one of the side effects, I gave you a whole list, did you read it?”

“No I didn’t read it! I’m a sorority president, do you think I read?!”

“You’ll have to work on that Aleah. Don’t worry, the effects will wear off in a few days. In the meantime I would keep her away from any MLM peddlers and definitely keep her away from churches.

“That’s it?! That’s the advice you have for me?!”

“Hey Aleah?” Audrey interrupted my call, I looked up and nearly died. She was dressed in the old pledge uniform with the round collar and the pleated skirt that went to her knees. To make it worse, the entire thing was pepto bismol pink.

“This…is not happening,” I shook my head.

“Everything okay, Aleah?” Mr. Derringer asked. “You going to be able to make it to work today?”

“I have to call you back,” I said, hanging the phone up in a complete panic. “Audrey you can’t wear that, it’s a crime against fashion.”

“Okay, I understand,” She nodded and began to pull the top over her head.

“No, I don’t mean take it off now!” I lurched forward and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling the top back down. “Don’t strip on the balcony, just, I mean, you have to…I don’t know, there are other pledge uniform! You don’t have to dress like Alice in GAT land, that’s not what I meant! I’ll find you a different uniform, I promise.”

“Oh I hope it’s cute!” She giggled. My face flushed. I took her by the arm and literally dragged her into my room, ordering her to sit on the bed. She straightened her skirt from the back and sat down, folding her hands over her lap and smiling at me. I checked my text and messaged Tiffany again.

“Okay, Audrey, listen to me carefully. You don’t have to do EVERYTHING I say, okay? You understand that, right?”

“But I thought that was the problem,” She said, her face wrinkled in confusion. “I haven’t been doing my part and I’ve been kind of bitchy. It isn’t fair to you or the rest of the house. I really need to be a team player.”

“Yes, but you have to have your own personality,” I argued. “Look, you don’t…you don’t need to be a doormat. I know it might seem that way right now but you can be your own person!”

This wasn’t happening. This COULDN’t be happening. No way. Miratran couldn’t possibly be that effective and even if it was, Audrey was too much of a bitch to be affected like this. I absolutely refused to believe it.

“Okay, okay, I know, Audrey, I want you to make your own decisions, okay? I know it seems like you can’t but I’m telling you do, okay?”

“Okay,” She nodded.

I thought hard for a moment and then walked over to my makeup vanity, grabbed a handful of lipsticks. I tossed them on the bed beside her, then stepped back, my arms folded.

“Pick one, put it on,” Pointed.

“Which one?”

“Decide on one you like,” I instructed. “I’m not going to tell you which one to wear, just pick.”

She looked at me and then looked at the pile of lipstick. She finally picked up one of the assorted tubes, popped the cap and applied it to her lips. Okay, so she COULD Make a decision on her own, that was a good sign. Maybe this wouldn’t be so problematic after all.

“It looks good on you,” I smiled with relief.

“You too,” She smiled back.

“What? What do you mean?”

“I picked it because it’s the one you’re wearing.”

I turned around and looked in the mirror, my mouth hanging open. Magnetic Mahogany – the color shed picked. Oh my sweet fucking Jesus. Below, I heard the door open and the familiar sound of Tiffany’s platform heels pounding up the stairs.

“This better be good, bitch,” I heard Tiffany growl from the edge of the stairs as she made her way to my room. I turned and stared at Audrey who sat on the bed, smiling sweetly and literally waiting for her next set of instructions. As far as I could tell the drug had simply erased all of her inhibitions and made her completely open to suggestion. Tiffany appeared at the door and stepped beside me, stealing a glance at Audrey. “Why is she wearing that?”

“I uh, asked her to wear the pledge uniform,” I explained. “It’s standard for, you know…”

“That’s the pledge uniform from the 80’s,” She pointed out as if I didn’t already know that. “why didn’t you put her in the other one? She looks like a pink lollipop or something.”

With absolutely no warning, Audrey stood from the bed and walked over to us, embracing Tiffany and burying her head in her shoulder. Tiffany looked at me, eyes wide. I shook my head with no clue what was happening either.

“I missed you so much,” Audrey told her. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“What the hell?” I mouthed.

Tiffany placed her hand on Audrey’s shoulders and gently pushed her away, looking into her eyes.

“Audrey, are you okay?” She asked. “What’s going on?”

“I’m just really happy to see you!” She explained happily

“Aleah?” Tiffany turned to me. “Is she sick? What’s going on?”

“I…okay, so Mr. Derringer gave me a sample of Miratran, he told me that by itself the thing works as a mood stabilizer and I thought it would get Audrey to stop acting like a cunt, so I slipped some into her drink when we were doing the fundraiser. Ever since then she’s kind of been acting like this- I stopped speaking as I noticed Tiffany’s eyes going wide. Her expression changed from one of surprise, then to shock, and suddenly anger.

“You drugged my FUCKING girlfriend?!”

I bit my lip as I stood outside the gymnasium doors. I sighed a bit; I really didn’t want to do this, not in the least, but GAT had to at least do SOME philanthropy, right? The event in question was a phone bank – a tradition I was super familiar with. The idea was to get as many of our pledges and actives together to make calls to complete strangers and beg for money. Okay, maybe I’m oversimplifying it. I sighed and turned toward a bathroom off to the right, the ‘Women’s sign was a little crooked, probably from some idiot jumping up and trying to slap it. After a short, swift walk I pushed through the wooden door and bounded around a brief corner, into the bathroom. As I transitioned from the antique style hallway that dominated the majority of Woodcrest’s campus, my eyes were assaulted by bright white tile and modern sinks bathed in fluorescent light; I blinked a bit to allow my eyes to adjust. As I did, I took notice of Tiffany standing at the far side of the room touching up her makeup in the mirror.

“Hey, Tiff,” I called out. I didn’t have to speak loudly, the sound carried far better in this bathroom than it should have, anything louder than a whisper would probably make your ears bleed. She glanced over in my direction and then returned her attention to the mirror.

“Sup?” She asked nonchalantly.

“Have you seen Audrey?”

As soon as the words left my mouth, she dropped the gloss wand right into the sink. If she hadn’t been wearing so much makeup I probably would have witnessed the color draining from her face.

“What the hell, Tiffany,” I demanded, my tone probably incredulous. “Why are you acting so WEIRD lately? Everytime Audrey is near you, you practically try to climb up walls to get away from her. Like, are you afraid of her all of a sudden?”

“That’s none of your business!” Tiffany shrieked. She discarded the tube of lip gloss into the trash and then rushed past me, blowing through the bathroom door, leaving behind nothing but the sound of her heels pounding against the hardwood floors outside. I shrugged and walked to the counter, setting down my bag and pulling out a bottle of water. The lid’s seal clicked as I twisted it and dropped it onto the counter. Taking a deep breath I reached into my bag once again and drew out an orange pill bottle. I pursed my lips as I read the label. Miratran. I tried to recall what Derringer had said to me, then simply shrugged and pulled one of the white capsules from the bottle. I rolled it over in my fingers for a moment and then dropped it into the open water bottle. It fizzled for the briefest of seconds, and then dissolved entirely into the water. There wasn’t a single trace of the drug anywhere within the clear water. If we were being honest, that was a little scary. I screwed the lid back onto both containers and tossed them into my bag. Turning toward the door I gave myself a sidelong glance in the mirror and sighed.

“You really are a bitch,” I said to myself, shaking my head and walking hurriedly toward the bathroom door. A second later I was back, outside the doors of the gymnasium, pushing them open and walking into a scene of long, folding tables, phones, and GAT members setting up for the event.

“Hey everyone, listen up!” I called out as I crossed into the gym. All at once the chatter ground to a halt as the thirty-five or so girls ceased their activities and looked in my direction. The tables were arranged in a sort of rectangle with an open end, leaving me plenty of space to stand in the center. “Okay, I want to make sure everyone has their uh…list of phone numbers, remember we’re all hitting different businesses, and I know the paper says we’re raising for the American Heart Association but someone bombed the Planned Parenthood on Riker Avenue yesterday so we’re collecting for them instead. The number is um…I…shit, okay, I’m going to post it on the GAT board. Anyway, make your calls, try to sound convincing, and most importantly, stay hydrated! We don’t want anyone passing out this time, our insurance won’t cover it!”

I wrapped up my speech and watched the girls get back to work, setting up phones and reading their call sheets. God, I hoped we could raise at least a thousand dollars, but it wasn’t going to be from Audrey, I seriously doubted her communication skills. As I looked around, I quickly spotted Audrey sitting near one of the corners of the rectangle, probably for a quick escape if she got nervous. I walked toward her, finally stopping in front of the table just across from her. She didn’t even notice me; too busy setting up the phone.

“Yo, Audrey,” I snapped. I can’t even describe the fear in her eyes as she looked up at me.

“Um, hi,” She said, though it was almost phrased as a question.

“You got your list?” I asked, placing a palm on the table and partially supporting my weight. Her eyes went wide as if I’d just invaded her personal space. She nodded and pointed to her purse.

“It’s not going to do you any good in your purse,” I sighed. “Get it out, get started, god.”

“Sorry,” She muttered, opening her purse and pulling out a folded sheet of paper.

“Why are you so nervous? Whatever, did you bring water?” She shook her head at me. Of course she hadn’t brought any water. She spaced food half the time, so why not water. I reached into my bag and passed her the water bottle. “Drink something, you don’t want to do this all dehydrated.

I watched quietly as she removed the lid and took a few sips, and then a gulp.

“This water tastes like ass,” She said, frowning and bunching up her forehead.

“Best I have,” I shrugged. “You ready?”

“I…I really don’t know how to start,” She admitted. I think she was shaking. The other girls around her were already busy on their own calls. “I don’t know how…to talk to people and…”

“You just read off the script, you get them to give you money. Honestly it’s really easy, they give money every year, most of them, I mean. Okay let me put this another way, um, if they were planning to donate, they’re going to donate. If they weren’t planning on it, they’ll just make up an excuse or say no thanks. You don’t really have any control over the outcome.”

She took another sip of the water, made a face and nodded. Hesitantly, she lifted the phone from the receiver, I smiled and tried to encourage her a bit. She dialed the first number on her list and held the phone to her ear.

“Hi, um,” She started. “This is…I’m Audrey Remeika from uh…Gamma…Alpha Tau and I was calling to see if you’d be intere—”

“Follow the script,” I said, pointing to the sheet of paper in front of her.

“I mean,” She stuttered. “We’re calling on behalf of um, Planned Par— Hello? Hello?”

“Try the next number,” I suggested. “Try not to sound like as much of a spaz this time.”

She obediently picked up the phone and dialed the next number.

“Hi,” She went through the same spiel. “This is um, Audrey from Gamma Alpha Tau, I’m calling on behalf of- What?”

I frowned and leaned in, straining my ears to hear the voice on the other end.

“They’re letting guys into sororities now?” The voice on the other end squawked. It was an old lady. “You listen to me, back in my day-“

“Hey!” I shouted, grabbing the phone from a stunned Audrey. “Why don’t you mind your own business, you piece of shit? I didn’t know they let half-dead old ladies run businesses. Shouldn’t you be planning your funeral—hello?”

“Um, that was Zimmerman’s, the really big cheese shop…place downtown,” Audrey said, looking down. “I don’t think I should be-“

“No, no no,” I interrupted her. “You’re fine, I’m going to get to my own phone, but Tiffany is right over there, you could always ask her for tips.”

At the mention of Tiffany, Audrey’s eyes went wide and I think I watched her physically sink into her wooden chair. What the hell was going on with her and Tiffany? I shrugged and stepped away from the table, ready to head over to my chair when I noticed a familiar face standing near the edge of the gym, by the exit doors. Mason. Audrey’s best friend. I looked around, casting a glance at Audrey; she was busy chattering away on the phone, or making an ass of herself. She hadn’t seen him. I quickly made my way over to the door and watched Mason exit. I followed him and suddenly found myself face to face with both him and Leina.

“Uh, hi guys,” I nodded. “We’re a little busy in there so-“

“Did you spank my sister?” Leina asked, folding her arms.

“What?” I frowned and looked at both of them. What did that matter?

“She says you spanked her,” Mason shrugged. “I’m just curious.”

“Yes, I spanked her,” I admitted. “She was being a little shit.”

“Okay,” Leina shook her head. “I’m not going to get into sorority politics. I’m sure you guys spank eachother and have pillow fights all the time, but your house has a problem.”

“And…what kind of problem is that?” I demanded. “The kind where I need to get back to the phone so I can actually PARITICPATE in our philanthropy project?”

“You’re just going to scroll Facebook the entire time,” Leina said. She was probably right. “But Audrey is acting like a bitch because she’s imitating YOU guys. Maybe she’s doing it poorly but you’ve given her a pretty poor impression of what a woman is supposed to be-“

“Okay listen,” I said sharply, but Mason raised his hand.

“Besides that,” He told me. “You’re really doing a good thing here. Audrey is…happy. Happier than I’ve seen her in a very, very long time. I was stupid, I couldn’t see this was who she was and she was afraid to tell me, dunno why, but she came to you for help and you delivered. I really appreciate that. You got me my friend back.”

“Well technically they tied her up and-“

“Thank you,” I interrupted her, speaking directly to Mason. “She has a long way to go, but she’ll get there.”

“If you all stop acting like bitches and teach her how to be a lady,” Leina interjected. “I live over on the east campus, there’s only so much I can do.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We’ll work on it.”

“Great,” Leina said. “And for the love of god, next time don’t leave marks.”

“Audrey!” I called out, down the stairs as I pounded down the steps, clutching a manila envelope. “Audrey where the hell are you?”

“Calm down,” Courtney said as she passed me on the way to the back of the house. “She doesn’t live in the house, she’s probably at her dorm.”

“Oh…right,” I nodded. I often forgot that she didn’t live here yet. That was something we would probably be dealing with next year. I looked at the folder in my hand, kind of dreading going out in the world today. It was a Saturday after all. I noticed Tiffany standing in the kitchen staring blankly at the counter. “Hey, Tiffany, can you run this over to Audrey?”

“What the fuck?” She demanded, sort of stumbling away from the counter “Why do you suddenly think I want to be around Audrey all the time?!”

“For the last time,” Sighed. “What happened between you and Audrey? Did she borrow your lip gloss without asking?”

“Whatever,” She snapped. “I’ll take it over-“

“You know what, I’ll do it,” I walked toward the door, feeling Tiffany’s eyes on me the entire way. For the briefest moment I considered turning around and forcing me to tell her what the deal was, but I instead simply opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. The first thing I noticed was the paint peeling on our front porch; it was probably time to get the pledges on that. Then again we could probably borrow the DEM pledges, that would be a lot better to look at. The second thing I noticed was the darkening sky; even though the Woodcrest dorms were in plain sight less than a mile out, there was no way I’d walk there and risk getting my new top drenched. I could either use my car or take the GAT van, and a few days ago we’d gotten a letter from national about excessive fuel use, so I guessed I’d have to use my own today. I hopped into the car, pulled out, and drove the .8 miles over to the dormitory.

I’d always gotten stupidly confused whenever I visited Audrey’s dorm; there were three buildings, side by side, and all of them were identical. Tiffany had finally pointed out to me that Audrey’s dorm was the one with the single dead shrub outside below the second window; that helped a little. I passed the shrub and pushed into the lobby. It was a mess, really. The white tile floors were stained with footprints, the light in one of the vending machines was flickering like something out of a horror movie. I stared at the machine for a moment and watched a bag of ‘Fritos’ flicker in and out of view with the light, then turned toward the elevator. It was still out of service. God dammit. I resolved to take the long way and trudged up the stairs, finally stopping at the 5th floor and emerging onto the open air balcony. The rain had started and the smell of petrichor was floating in over the railing. I walked to Audrey’s door and tapped lightly with my knuckles, waiting a few moments as the door finally opened. Mason stood there, dressed in a bathrobe as usual, but with his hair unusually messy and the room behind him uncharacteristically clean. I’m just going to say right now, it’s bad when you notice a room is clean the moment someone opens their door.

“Oh um, hey…Aleah,” Mason said, tripping over my name momentarily.

“Hey Mason,” I smiled. “I’m looking for Audrey-“

“Not here,” He shook his head. “She went um…I…don’t know where girls go. I need your help with something though…”

“Um, sure,” I nodded, trying to appear mildly interested as Mason waved me into the dorm room. The entire thing was clean, even Mason’s side. The place smelled good, like it had just been steam cleaned and both beds were made. “Mason, what happened here?”

“Aleah,” He said, finally, practically gasping. “I’m…having a total panic attack.”

“Sorry, what? Why?”

“I’ve never lived with a girl before, Aleah, like, I want everything to be perfect but…how do I make it easier for her? Like, where does she put her girly stuff in the bathroom? What kind of air fresheners do I get? Does she use tampons now? Like, I have so many questions and I don’t want her to feel weird here-“

“Mason,” I frowned. “Are you…on drugs?”

“Maybe a little?” He phrased it more as a question, as if he didn’t really know for sure. “I just-“

“Trans women don’t use tampons,” I informed him. “And she’s the exact same person you knew before, you just call her she, or her now instead of he and him. Look, the weirder to make it, the more weird she’ll feel-“

“I was going to put a sheet up between our sides of the room so she wouldn’t feel weird getting changed,” Mason stared at the ceiling as if he were trying to figure out the logistics of such a feat.

“Did she ask you to do that?” I asked, staring at him expectantly. “If she didn’t, wait until she says something, or ask her if she’d like that. Don’t make a bunch of changes if she doesn’t want it.”

“How do I know if she wants it?”

“I…I don’t know Mason,” I rolled my eyes and then remembered the manila envelope in my hand. I held it out to Mason who took it gingerly in his hands and turned it over curiously. “Okay, so part of being in GAT is a mandatory exercise program, we want our members to stay fit, I go to the gym twice a week, but since Audrey tends to get her ass kicked, I had her enrolled in a martial arts program. Well, self defense I guess. Anyway, the details are in there, she needs to go on…Tuesday and Thursday after class. Okay?”

“You guys…are taking good care of her, right?” Mason looked concerned. “Look she’s been my friend for…my entire life and I somehow missed ALL of this. I feel bad, like…I should have been there for her.”

“I’m not your therapist, Mason,” I said firmly, trying to avoid snapping. I really didn’t have time for this. “Just give her the packet and…for god’s sake, mess the room up a little, this is creeping me out.”

I left the dorm room and made my way back down to the first floor, sweating by the time I dismounted the staircase and bounded out the front door. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, I ran into Mike, who was making his way into the dorm with a stack of papers in hand.

“Um, Mike?” I tilted my head. “What are you doing here?”

“Cool your shit,” He said, annoyed. “I’m not here to beat up your pet, I’m hanging up these fliers.”

He handed one of the sheets, a black and white flier advertising a brand new fraternity on campus. Theta Kappa.

“YOU’RE in a fraternity now?” I said, smirking a little. “I didn’t think you were a joiner.”

“Finally found a cause I can get behind,” He shrugged. “And you know what? Once we start making the rules on the Greek council, we’re going to get that faggot out of your house, and out of this school.

“I wish you the best of luck with that, Mike,” I laughed as I turned and walked away, resisting the urge to look over my shoulder. As I walked toward my car I couldn’t help but wonder how serious he was, and if he could actually do that. I had a bad feeling and I couldn’t shake it.

“At least the phone bank went well,” Tiffany said from across the desk. She was trying to cheer me up; in the past that would have been unusual for her but even I could tell that something was different. She was changing, we all were.

“We raised six thousand dollars,” I said, placing the school paper on the desk. “That’s like, what enough to pay rent for a month at Planned Parenthood? Maybe they could buy a box of bandaids. Has Audrey seen this?”

Tiffany tilted her head forward and brushed a strand of golden hair away from her face as she scanned the headline once again. She didn’t need to; she’d seen the paper already. The house beyond the door of my office was quiet; our members were at their respective classes, and Audrey? Who knew where Audrey was.

Theta Kappa to Challenge Gender Identity Statutes at Woodcrest

That’s what it said. Black ink, block letters, all the way across. The rest of the article was a sham, and maybe a few years ago I would have just ignored it, but Theta Kappa was larger than I’d expected. It had grown to one hundred members while we weren’t looking, and they even had multiple houses to support it. Why had no one noticed? Where had this come from, exactly?

“If she has eyes, probably,” Tiffany shrugged. “Does she comprehend it? Questionable.”

“I don’t like this at all,” I pushed the paper away, the brief rustling sound a brief interlude to the noise of cars, passing by on the street just outside the window. “Okay, so the gender identity thing is…one thing, it’s horrible but it’s just the start. Theta Kappa says that they want to ‘restore morals to Woodcrest’. How far are they going to go? What’s next, do I have to start wearing knee length skirts?”

“Red dresses, probably,” Tiffany nodded. “Under his fucking eye, I guess.”

“But can they get away with it?” I wondered. “Can they really make that much of a change here?”

“Well let’s do the math,” Tiffany said. I choked back a laugh, had she ever been good at math? “Garron bought his way into the board of directors here, so he has…some influence. He’s backing Theta Kappa, he bought them their houses. If he wants something he can just throw money it until it happens so I would say yeah, they can probably do it.”

“What do we do?” I was the president of GAT, and I usually had the answers, but the school board was always one monster that I couldn’t overcome. They had final say in everything, and now it looked like they were using Theta Kappa to bring Woodcrest back to the stone age.

“You know what I learned from watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu?” Tiffany asked me.

“What the fuck is The Handmaid’s Tale?” I furrowed my brow. “Is that like…a video game?”

“Okay, so in the show,” Tiffany said, rambling as if I had a clue what she was talking about. “Canada is kind of a safe haven for women or whatever, but it’s not as good as you think. See, Canada does what’s best for Canada-“

“Why are we talking about Canada? We’re in North Carolina-“

“But, Canada cares about the women and people from the US because their PEOPLE care about it. If the people stopped caring, they would just…do whatever and protect their own people you know?”

“So…” I said, staring at her as if she had three eyes. “You mean we have to show Woodcrest that we care?”

“You know how many times you’ve run for student body president? You know how you never get it? That’s because no one turns up to vote. A lot of people like you, but if they don’t vote, nothing happens. If you want something to happen, people need someone to follow.”

“Um, who would they follow?” I stared at her again and glanced back down at the paper. What on earth was she even talking about? “You?”

“What?” Tiffany frowned and stared at me. “No, I mean…we have someone who is trans, looks…really, REALLY cute, and can kind of put a human face to all of it. Look, Aleah, we’re Gamma Alpha Tau, we might not be at the top of the Greek totem poll but we ARE on the council and we should have a say. We can stop this before it turns into an absolute disaster, right?”

“It already IS an absolute disaster,” I sighed. “So you want to use Audrey to launch some kind of campaign against Garron and-“

“I want people to sympathize with her, be a person they can get behind. I mean look at her, Aleah. She’s…amazing, ABSOLUTELY amazing, she’s beautiful, she has this soft voice that just…resonates with you and I love the little faces she makes when she’s eating and thinking at the same time-“

“Tiffany,” I cut her off and cocked my head. She stopped speaking and blinked. “What the hell?”

“I just mean we really need to get in front of this, so let’s do it,” Tiffany said quickly. I continued to stare, what the hell had just happened?

“Audrey’s motivation isn’t exactly…the best,” sighed. “We need Leina to give her a push, so how do we find Leina?”

“Leina’s at the eastern campus,” Tiffany said, standing up. She tugged the hem of her top and pulled it back down to meet the top of her jeans. It was a silky tank top; normal for her really. I’d gone pretty casual today, just a white t-shirt, skin tight as usual; something to show off my boobs. I rose from the desk, carefully picking up my purse and slinging it over my shoulder. “If we can find her, we can run the idea by her and-“

“Tiffany,” I said, cutting her off again. “What IS the idea? What exactly are we going to do? I mean, are we going to have her post a blog or something? Hand out flyers?”

“No,” Tiffany said, shaking her head as she turned toward the door. “We’re gonna have to go a lot bigger than that.”