Leif was fascinated by the new sophomore. "But tell me again, Myron, why do they call her the Viper?"
"Well, she seems really sweet, I know, Leif. But she has a way..."
Leif shook his head. He looked across the Student Union, and he could tell the little redhead was smiling at him, just slightly. Look at those big hazel eyes!
"She seems like such a nice person. She's in the Campus Crusade for Decency."
"Yup, but when Horace Goldrich took her out, you know Horace, he's got a long record with these chicks..."
"Yeah, he's got a lot of female attention. He may be recruited out of State for the Buccaneers, and that's a big deal."
"Yes, and the son of a bitch has a huge family income too. But after two weeks of going out with Viper, usually when he cuts a chick loose, we saw him tied to a tree."
"Tied--what?"
"I got campus security to cut him loose, and he said he was just upset because Viper didn't want to see him anymore. I was like 'Horace, what the fuck, tied to a tree?' and he didn't want to talk about it."
Leif watched as the Viper got up, her boobs bouncing just under the textbooks she held in front of her. She smiled at her friends at the table, and they waved, all guys of course.
"That's awfully strange."
"Yeah. She--"
"There was another person back in freshman year who was called Viper, or Vapors or something."
Geisel, Leif's lab partner that year, had been a great friend, and he'd had a mad crush on her. But she'd gotten involved with--someone called Vapors, who had whipped her with a belt, and then Geis had dropped out of school.
"Yes, that's the Viper. She's not new here, she just was at the Eastminister campus for a while."
"Really? No, the Vapor person was a guy. I think so. I had a friend who dated him, and she wasn't gay."
"Things are weird when you meet the Viper, I've been told."
"If that's true, I think she may have ruined my friend's life."
"Yes, you know whats-his-face, Noah who drives the Ferrari?"
"Lotta action in the back of that." Leif had a friend, a sweet woman who had threatened suicide after Noah dumped her, and had to be talked off the roof of the dorm.
"Well, somehow...I was down in the Narrows, you know--"
"That is the worst part of Buttermilk Falls, Myron. What the fuck's wrong with you?"
"Well, I was buying something."
Leif laughed. "That's why you've had a nosebleed since January. Of course."
"Well, I saw this hideous drag queen, right, and it was propositioning guys outside the Molehill, the dive bar."
"Huh."
"Turns out, that's Noah. Somehow Viper dared him to um, go out as a cross dresser, or something. "
"She DARED him to do that." Noah? Who flattened a bartender outside the Rathskeller last month?
"I don't know if it's a hypnosis thing, but..."
"Right, and before she broke up with Noah, I think the Viper got him to sign over his Ferrari to her."
"No, she's getting into a Lamborghini. That's an expensive car, too."
"Yes, that belongs to Noah's dad. When Noah's dad found out his idiot kid had given this girl the car, he went to see her...
"And now she has his car, too?"
"Well, she might start a dealership after graduation. They really are good investments."
Leif decided not to talk to the Viper just yet. He actually might give up dating for this year anyway. School and all that.
Professor Sebastiana Dunblane had just pivoted on her heel, having left a weeping student who she'd raked over the coals.