The brick walkway up to the sprawling old house was dappled with flickering shade from the overhanging oaks. Nearly invisible little bugs flitted through the sunbeams, blazing for brief moments into the light and vanishing just as suddenly. Susan clomped up the path, one plaid sock drooping around her ankle. She tugged on her pleated skirt and pushed her glasses all the way to the top of her nose.
"It's now or never," she whispered to herself.
She passed under a wrought iron gate bearing large Greek letters--Delta Lambda Delta. It was just a few more steps to the stairway and the porch. She knocked on the large door and stepped back, looking down at her worn sneakers. One of them had come untied on the walk over and was dangling long pink strings. The door creaked open.
"What's up?"
Susan dragged her eyes up the girl in the doorway. Flip flops with painted toenails and a pinky toe ring. Skinny jeans, worn threadbare in all the right places. Band shirt with the bottom third cut off so her navel would never have to hide. Her blonde hair was tied back in a rough ponytail.
"Hi, I'm, uh, Susan Blan--"
"Oh yeah, Susie! Tammy said you'd be getting in today."
"Er, yes. Susan."
"Yeah. I'm April by the way. Come on in." The girl held the door and Susan slipped inside. "Come and meet Tams. So your mom was in Delta Lambda Delta, huh?"
"Yeah, she said she was, back in her school days."
"Well things may be a little different now than when she was here." April chuckled as they passed through an empty reception hall lined with narrow sofas. "Here, I bet she's in the gym."
"Gym?"
"We've got a couple of treadmills, you know, some weights." The blonde girl glanced at Susan. "A pretty nice hot tub."
"Oh. Cool, I guess."
April wrinkled her nose at her. "Right in here."
Susan followed her into a bright space lined with foam mats. The machines were back against one wall under the windows. The middle of the room was occupied by a weight bench, and on that reclined an older girl in yoga pants and a sports bra. Her hair was shoulder length and bright, vibrant blue. Her arms were trembling, corded with lean muscle, lifting a long bar with metal discs on either end. The bar clanked into a pair of supports and the girl let her arms drop.
"You should get someone to spot you, Tams."
Tammy sat up, regarding Susan coolly. "The new girl can do it." She cocked her chin, a cascade of blue hair spilling down one shoulder.
"Me?" asked Susan, looking around uneasily.
Tams gave her a grin. "Come on. Over here."
She lay back down as Susan approached, reaching up. Her abs flexed, strong but sleek, adorning a body full of smooth curves and long lines. A fine sheen of sweat glossed her skin and reflected the light as she moved. Susan put her hands tentatively on the bar.
"Just help if I choke myself out, Susie. You can let go for now."
"It's Susan."
Tammy glanced up at her appraisingly, then hefted the bar once more. Susan watched as beads of sweat swelled on her brow, her chest, and trickled downward, disappearing between round breasts pressed close together by her snug sports bra. She jerked her gaze upward, to Tams' face, and felt herself flush when she saw the girl's eyes resting steadily on her. The bar clanked down again.
"Okay Susan. Why don't you take a turn?"
"Oh, I don't..."
"Come on." Tammy swung her long leg in tight spandex over the bench and stood up, inches from Susan and taller than her. They made eye contact and she felt powerless to break away. The older girl's hand landed on her lower back, nudging her around. "Let's see what you've got."
Susan sat gingerly on the padded bench. She was acutely aware of her skirt lying lightly over her thighs, and pulling up higher as she stretched out and lay back, her legs straddling the bench. April could probably see her light green panties, standing where she was over there. The blonde grinned at her. Susan looked up at the bar above her head.
"I'll take a few pounds off for you."
"Don't bother." Susan's jaw was set.
Tammy smiled and touched her fingertips lightly underneath the bar. "Alright. Go ahead."
Susan gripped the cool metal. She tensed and pushed up, and it barely moved. She blew her dark bangs out of her eye and focused, pushing with all her strength, lifting first one side and then the other. The bar rose haltingly until her unsteady arms were fully extended. She was breathing hard. Tammy's gaze never left her face. The bar started to drop, not completely under control. In a movement almost too quick to track the other girl snatched it back against the posts and guided its descent into the supports.
"Not bad," she said, leaning on the bar and looking down at Susan with big hazel eyes, blue hair tucked behind one ear.
Susan sat up, catching her breath. "Thanks."
"So you want to pledge, huh?"
"She's a legacy, Tams," chirped April cheerfully.
"Why now?"
"Look, I just, I really needed a place to stay, and I talked to my mom, and she said she'd make a few calls, and here I am."
"I see. Well, you know the number one rule here, don't you?"
Susan shook her head.
"This sorority is run by women, for women. No boys allowed."
"Well, no straight boys, anyway," added April.
"No guys hanging around outside to pick you up. No boyfriends staying over, showering in our showers, leaving our toilet seats up. None of it."
"Well, that won't be a problem. That asshole is why I'm looking for a place to stay." Her fists were clenched at her sides. "Making out with that bitch from his philosophy class right on our couch! Can you believe the nerve..."
"Okay, we've heard this story before. I'm just saying, we don't want to see him around here in a couple of weeks when you start missing the piece of shit." Tammy held her hand out high and April gave it a slap.
"Don't worry, girls. He's dead to me now."
"Uh-huh. Let's find you a bed."
"A... bed? Just a bed?"
"There are no empty rooms, babe. But some can fit two. We'll squeeze you in someplace."
April's fingers slipped through hers as they followed along after Tammy. She turned her head and smiled. "I'd be happy to take you in mine," she said. "But I've already got Summer in there."
"There's space for a second bed in the studio with Vanessa."
"Oh, she thought she was getting that whole room to herself all year? Ha!"
"She did say she needed the space for her, um, dancing."
"Yes," April nodded solemnly.
Susan looked back and forth between them, feeling a little bewildered. April winked at her as Tams knocked on a door.
"In."
With a shrug Tammy led the way. The room was hardwood floored with a gallery of windows along one wall overlooking the pool in the back. The young woman inside was seated at a bank of computer screens, bare feet propped up on the desk, large headphones on so her voluminous curly black hair squeezed out around them haphazardly. Her skin shone like polished mahogany. And there was a lot of its smooth expanse on display. She was wrapped in a towel that barely reached the tops of her thighs, and the twist holding it together around her substantial breasts looked like it might fly apart at any moment.
"Hey Van," began Tams.
"Cut the crap. What's up?"