The Skin Ball Ch 01

The Skin Ball Part One: The Bet

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THE AURORA CAFÉ

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If there was one party at Green College that defined Jessa West’s four years, it was the Skin Ball. That one night, more than any other, was the one that she remembered years later, the one that shaped her more than any professor, the one that taught her more about herself than any class. It was a night when she bonded with her sorority sisters, flirted with dozens of guys, and opened herself to new ideas and experiences that she had previously written off as too brazen, too risqué.

But the foundation for Jessa’s eye-opening evening was laid months beforehand, at the opening of her senior fall, at a coffee shop in downtown Hancock. Early on that Sunday morning, the Aurora Café was practically devoid of life, Green College students hesitant to get out of better after what had been the first night, and the first real parties, of the term. Jessa herself was feeling a little hung-over, but it was Alexandra Poe, who was sitting alongside her, that had been popping aspirin all morning. Kristin Douglas, too, looked somewhat out of it, her eyes half-open as she took deep sips from her cup of coffee.

A Sunday morning meeting had not been the idea of the three sorority girls. Isaac Lingle, who sat across the table from the bedraggled sisters, appeared to be wide-awake, despite the fact that Jessa was sure she’d seen him at DZO the night before.

Isaac was obviously excited about the prospect of Ep Chi helping raise money for Homes for the Homeless, and he was throwing out fundraising ideas that the sorority could possibly help him with, but at the same time assuring the girls that they’d have complete control over the fundraisers themselves. Isaac didn’t necessarily care how the money was raised; he just wanted to get a pledge of support from Epsilon Chi.

Ep Chi, as it was known around campus, was easily the richest, quite correctly the snootiest, and arguably the most attractive sorority at Green College. The three girls seated across from Isaac were no exception to those stereotypes.

Jessa West has been born and raised in Tallahassee as a Southern belle, the daughter of a conservative Florida senator. She was every bit a debutante, from the way she carried herself to the gentle country accent that so many Green men found so alluring. She was short, only a couple of inches taller than five feet, and had shoulder-length baby-blonde hair that framed her high cheekbones, bright blue eyes, and a set of extremely sexy red lips.

Kristin Douglas looked less the part of a traditional Ep Chi, but her personality made up for it in strides. She had been more and raised on Long Island, and educated at all of the best and most expensive private schools, before coming to rural Hancock in New England to attend Green College. Kristin was heavily involved in the Green College Riding Club, a bastion of daddy’s little girls. Her straight black hair was cut extremely short, a look that Kristin loved and hated at the same time; on one hand, she looked more grown up and little bit sexier, but on the other, she missed having long hair to arrange and play with.

Completing the trio of early-risers was Alex Poe, ever the troublemaker. When she was a little more awake, and a little less hung-over, there tended to be a mischievous look in her sparkling green eyes that Jessa at once looked forward to and feared. Her hair, hanging down past her shoulders, was a chestnut-brown. She, unlike her sisters, had been raised in a low-income town outside of Burlington, but had found her niche at Ep Chi, becoming every bit the social elite that Kristin and Jessa had both been since birth.

Isaac himself found the girls a little too high-maintenance for his own tastes, but all three were gorgeous nonetheless, despite being dressed in sweats and suffering from bags under their red eyes. But his happiness rose not from the beautiful women across the table from him, but from their pledge to raise money for his organization.

Each fall, Student Volunteer Projects (SVP) held its annual fundraising drives for the programs that were housed within its guidelines, from Homes for the Homeless to Student Mentors to the environmental club (the Green Green Club). And each fall, the Greek houses that lined Calhoun Avenue all offered their support for particular programs.

Ep Chi was one of the strongest houses when it came to fundraising. Last year, it had raised a small fortune for the Prison Tutor Project, and Isaac was ecstatic to have them for his particular group. Jessa was the house’s Fundraising Chair, Kristin the Treasurer, and Alex the current House President, so the three girls were able to speak for Ep Chi as a whole and promise to raised money for Homes for the Homeless’s expanded programs in nearby Swansea.

Jessa made a joke about how much money they’d be able to raise, bragging about Ep Chi’s performance in the past. The other two girls laughed, but it was clear that the jest struck the nerve of another customer at the Aurora Café that morning.

Instead of ignoring the comment, Mason MacNeill saddled down at the table, taking a seat alongside Isaac, with whom he was actually fairly good friends.

“So we were actually looking for a charity, too,” Mason said to Isaac, not paying any attention to the girls across from him. “TriGam, that is. Do you think that we could possibly give to Homes for the Homeless, too?” A smile crept across Mason’s face – he knew that this was going to set Jessa off.

As Isaac’s jaw dropped at the prospect of having TWO houses donate to his group, Jessa butted in. “Mason! Homes for the Homeless is Ep Chi’s charity! Find your own!”

Tall, easy-going, and good-looking, Mason was the dream guy for more than one Green College student of the female persuasion. He had close-cropped brown hair that Jessa herself had dreamed of running her hands through on more than one occasion, though she had held back. Sophomore year, there had been an undeniable electricity between the two, but Jessa had stepped back when she’d found out that her friend Cat was interested in him. After all, most of Jessa’s attraction to Mason was purely physical, and it was clear that there was a little more emotional involvement on Cat’s end of things. Though Cat and Mason had dated for nearly a year, they’d broken up that summer, and the TriGam brother – make that the TriGam PRESIDENT - was suddenly on the market again. Unfortunately, he was currently trying to cause trouble.

“Are you saying that two houses can’t raise money for the same charity, Jessa?” Mason asked the blonde girl, feigning indignance. “Isn’t it about the homeless people, and not Ep Chi?”

Isaac was nodding along, dollar signs in his eyes. “He’s right,” he said to the girls. “I mean, two houses raising money for us would do a lot of good around the community, both in Hancock and in Swansea.”

Jessa was annoyed, though. “He’s not doing this raise money for the homeless. He’s doing it to irritate us.”

“Maybe,” Mason smiled coyly, “maybe I’m doing both at once.”

Jessa wrinkled up her nose at him, but Alex jumped in with a challenge. “So what if we make this a competition?”

“A competition?” Mason asked.

“A competition?” Isaac repeated, the sounds of cash registers ringing in his ears.

“Yeah,” Alex replied. “We see who can raise the most the money. If I remember correctly, Ep Chi has out raised all the other houses for something like five or six years in a row. TriGam…hmmm…TriGam has one of the worst records, don’t you? Didn’t even Mu Tau out raise you guys last year?”

“Well, we had nothing to fight for,” Mason explained casually.

“Actually, the Hunger Awareness program collapsed because they didn’t have enough funding last year,” Isaac interrupted.

Mason gave him a look. “Do you want TriGam’s help?”

“Sorry.”

Mason turned back to Alex. “So what exactly are you proposing?”

Alex had woken up. Her eyes were dancing with a sense of daring, a hint of mischief. “Well, I was at your house last night, before DZO. You guys were having nude tails?”

A rite of passage within TriGam was a brother’s night of nude tails. Each year, TriGam pledges played bartender for an open party in nothing more than a pair of shoes. Most of the brothers stayed behind the bar most of the night, but there were definitely more daring pledges who walked through the party, serving beer to anyone who wanted it.

Mason’s eyebrows were raised at where he figured Alex was heading. “So?”

“So, what if we bet a night of nudity? A naked party?” the brunette suggested, licking her lips.

“A Skin Ball,” Jessa added, not entirely sure that she was sold on the idea. Sure, she’d been naked in front of Mason before. She’d done her fair share of streaking, strip poker, and other things, as those things were practically required of college students. But a whole party, completely naked for anyone and everyone to come in and see her, was a little different. It didn’t seem as safe, it didn’t seem as controlled.

Isaac was hushed. Mason was mulling it over in his head.

Alex continued, “Whichever house raises the most money by Thanksgiving break hosts a party for the other house at the end of the term. The winning house pays for the DJ, the alcohol, the party favors, whatever. The losing house comes over and strips.”

Mason was definitely interested. Just the thought of an entire house of naked Ep Chis was turning him on. But Mason was grounded in reality – he knew that TriGam had a dismal fundraising record, and that if he entered into this bet with Alex, Jessa, and Kristin, it would undoubtedly be the TriGam brothers dancing around with their dicks hanging out at the end of the day. “I don’t know…”

“Okay, what if we sweetened the deal?” Alex asked. She wanted this bet.

“How?”

“Twelve hours,” Jessa added, Alex’s excitement catching hold of her. Out-fundraising TriGam wouldn’t be much of a challenge. “Twelve hours naked. Losers come over, have a party, spend the night, and clean up the next day. You guys can even make us breakfast.”

“Spend the night?” Isaac asked. He wasn’t in either house. He wouldn’t be stripping naked either way. But the thought of an entire naked sorority, cuddling up in bed together at TriGam, was definitely getting him excited.

“No impropriety involved,” Jessa added. “In fact, it’s probably best if we stipulate this now – this is about stripping. We’re not all going to descend into an orgy. Girls will sleep separate from boys, no matter who wins.”

“And no one else,” Kristin added, much to Isaac’s disappointment. “Just Ep Chi and TriGam, and that’s it.”

Mason was definitely interested, despite his doubts. He tried to hedge a little bit more, saying, “Honestly, I can’t make this bet, no matter how much I want to. President or not, I still have to talk to the rest of the guys, run this by them. And even though you’ve got your little Cabinet here, I think it’s probably a good idea for you three to the same with your house.”

“Is that a yes?” Jessa asked devilishly. “Are you making the bet?”

“Pending house approval,” Mason replied slowly, “that’s a yes. We’re up for the competition.”

Alex and Kristin squealed in delight. Jessa was excited, too, but there was still an inkling of doubt in the back of her mind. The chances of this backfiring were small, but they were still there.

“Okay,” Alex smiled. “Isaac’s the witness, though if he breathes a word about this to anyone on campus, even to the other people at Homes for the Homeless, then we drop our pledges, and give them to Green Green.”

Isaac nodded – he didn’t want to foul up the chance to bring in this sort of money for his project.

“Alright then,” Mason said. “It’s on.”

“It’s on,” Jessa repeated.

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ADAMS DINING HALL

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That Thursday, the day after House Meetings, Mason found Jessa and Alex eating lunch with Cat McIntyre in the Adams Dining Hall. Mason dropped into the seat next to Cat, giving her a polite hello, awkward as it may have been. His attention was on Jessa and Alex, though, to whom he winked and said simply, “It’s a go.”

Alex said the same thing. As Cat sat there, wondering what had just happened, Jessa smiled to herself. Beating these guys would be absolutely no problem.

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KENNEDY STUDENT UNION

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Isaac sat his desk, working on an e-mail to his community partners in Swansea, thanking them for all the help that they’d given him over the course of the term. He was entirely enthralled in his work, barely looking up at the twelve Ep Chi sisters who had invaded the Homes for the Homeless office at the Kennedy Student Union. For their own part, the girls talked smugly among themselves, positive that they’d won the bet.

Isaac wanted to wait for the TriGam brothers to show up before he announced anything. His policy all term was to keep the amounts raised a secret, knowing that Homes for the Homeless would benefit a little bit more if each house were blindly raising money, unsure of how much the other had raised. And despite being tempted to side with his gender, Isaac remained nothing more than a fair referee, doing his best to stay neutral throughout the challenge.

Jessa sat there with them, on the couch with Alex, Kristin, Courtney Gagnon, and Wendy Stone. She was lost in thought, recounting the money that she and her sisters had raised for the charity. There was no way that TriGam even stood a chance. Ep Chi had worked three times as hard as they’d ever worked before, and had raised four or five times more money they’d raised in the past few years. On top of their normal events, they’d scheduled even more. They’d gotten a band. They’d raised money among Hancock community members. Some of their parents had even sent in money, seeing how hard the girls were working.

TriGam, apparently, seemed to be working no harder than they had last year, when they’d raked in only a few hundred dollars. At first, Jessa had been stunned by the fact that TriGam’s fundraising had been limited to a single five dollar party they’d held back in October. Courtney Gagnon had dug deeper, though, and had discovered from her boyfriend Evan that TriGam was recycling its beer cans as well. Jessa laughed, just thinking about the brothers’ attempts to keep their recycling program secret. THAT was their big plan? THAT was how they were going to raise more money than Ep Chi?

Ep Chi had even held a Beach Party in early November. No one on campus could deny that they wanted to see all the Ep Chi sisters in bikini tops and grass skirts. And because they’d opened the party up to the whole campus, they were easily able to charge seven dollars at the door and still get two or three times as many people in their house than TriGam has with their “Five Dollar Festivities,” as Alex had nicknamed the frat’s pitiful party.

In contrast to the twelve girls who’d shown up to view the results, only two TriGam brothers came to the Homes for the Homeless office that afternoon. Mason was joined by Dunny Groom, his perennial sidekick, with his perfectly gelled hair done up in contrast to Mason’s.

“Did you bring enough support?” Mason teased Jessa as he walked into the room, settling down on the corner of Isaac’s desk.

“Or did you bring them all so you wouldn’t have to relay the bad news later?” Dunny asked.

“Shut up, Dunny,” Jessa and Alex said in unison.

“Besides, I think we probably did okay,” Alex said, quite sure of herself.

“Actually,” Isaac said, turning from his computer, “you didn’t.”

A hush fell over the room. The girls weren’t sure what Isaac meant, but the grins on the brothers’ faces showed that they suspected they’d won.

Isaac called up a graphic that he’d created with Excel for the fundraiser. There, to the horror of every single girl in the room, was a bar graph that clearly showed TriGam’s tally significantly higher than Ep Chi’s. Not even by just a little – TriGam has clearly brought in a larger sum.

The room went into an uproar. Mason and Dunny were so excited that they were dancing and hugging in the center of the room. Alex was trying to shut the girls up who were yelling and screaming about how they weren’t going to go through with the bet. Kristin was asking Isaac if he’d done the math right. Jessa was demanding to know how Mason had possibly raised that amount of money.

Smiling, Mason replied, “Alumni.”

Jessa blinked.

“Well, technically, it was ‘alumnus.’ Singular. A TriGam alum.”

“Who?” Jessa asked, though she knew the answer as soon as it was out of her mouth.

“Jupiter Knox,” Mason and Dunny replied together.

One of Green College’s most successful alumni, Jupiter Knox had inherited his family’s industrial company and had turned it into one the largest and wealthiest corporate conglomerates in the world. Knox was one of the richest men in the metropolis of Babylon, and ranked up there as one of the richest men in the world, sitting alongside Bill Gates and that Walmart family. Jessa had known that he was a Green College alumnus. She hadn’t known that he’d been a brother at Gamma Gamma Gamma.

“You can’t do that!” Kristin cried. “That’s illegal! That wasn’t part of the bet!”

“How?” Mason asked. “How is that illegal?”

Kristin was stumped. Jessa had to admit that she was, too. It wasn’t illegal for TriGam to have gone to their alums. After all, Ep Chi had turned to their parents. It was just hard admitting defeat.

“So we have to do this now?” Alex asked, resigned to their fate, but willing to see if Mason would let them out of it somehow.

Mason, predictably, didn’t budge. “You’re damn right you do.”

“You don’t think that walking around a frat house naked is a little dangerous for all of us? What if we did it at Ep Chi, instead?” the brunette asked. Jessa liked her thinking – it would be a little easier in their own house rather than having to get naked down the street at TriGam.

“Oh, come on, Alex,” Mason whined. “You guys are the ones who set the terms of the bet. I had almost nothing to do with them.”

Alex begrudgingly agreed.

“I hear the safety thing, though,” he conceded. “We’re going to have to sit down and set out some ground rules before we do this. The last thing we need is trouble.”

Jessa couldn’t believe that they were going to go through with this. She couldn’t believe that she’d be parading all around TriGam in absolutely nothing. Not that she hadn’t been naked in the basement of the fraternity before, but it had been two years ago, and only in front of four brothers – not ALL of them. She sighed. At least this time, she’d be in good company, surrounded by dozens of other nude girls, instead of just one.

Looking around, it was clear that all of the girls were shocked and dismayed about their predicament, but they were slowly becoming more and more resigned to the reality of the whole thing. Jessa was one of them – she didn’t want to do this, but she knew she had to. And that was that.

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TRI GAM

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It was three o’clock that following Sunday afternoon, and Mason was lying flat on his back, grunting in pleasure. Seated atop him was Alyssa Patton, a petite redheaded freshman, who herself was squealing in delight, grinding her pussy harder against Mason’s mouth. Her small hands were in front of her, massaging Mason’s cock, his hips bucking against her grip. Her tongue flicked against his tip, providing sensation that was shooting through his body. She never took him completely into her mouth, instead teasing her with her tongue, her lips – but never her full mouth. It was driving Mason absolutely wild.

The redhead herself seemed to be more interested in what was going on behind her, though. Mason’s tongue was flicking deeply inside her, driving deeper than she would have thought possible – but not getting quite as deep as she might have wanted. Her clit, seemingly on fire with sexual energy, was rubbing against the older man’s chin, getting her hotter and hotter, until she couldn’t stand it any longer.