Author's Note
Risk Versus Reward is a prequel to Girl Friday and focuses on the story of Karin, the 'H.R. Lady' who provided Charlotte's rather unique interview experience when she was hired. You do not need to read Girl Friday to understand what's going on in Risk Versus Reward. But if you enjoy this story, Girl Friday should most definitely be on your reading list.
In the last chapter, Karin got to experience the joys of The Academy's own special version of home economics class as she was turned into a living appetizer tray under the direction of a slightly sauced Miss Chowdury. And while Karin was served up at the faculty luncheon she finds herself intrigued by an attractive woman she refers to only as Miss Spiced Latte. So intrigued in fact, she decides to offer her mystery woman a happy ending under the luncheon table. But what will become of Karin's
chutzpa
h?
I hope you enjoy Karin's continuing story.
WaxPhilosophic
* * * *
Chapter 9: Spirits in the Night
Dinner that night was the usual weirdness. We were served a wonderful gourmet meal by the lovely lab-coated wait staff and the wine seemed to be available to us in endless supply. All we had to do to get the royal treatment was to follow the advice of the flat panel monitor that showed a cartoon girl pressing a rather uncomfortable-looking conical-shaped plug between her butt cheeks. The animation was especially amusing tonight in that it showed the poor girl in various stages of frustration and having to try again several times -- once with lube, another time by placing the plug on a bench and sitting down, and then finally with the help of a friendly cartoon girl sporting a lab coat and nitrile gloves.
If you've never sat down to dinner with a plug up your butt -- and really why anyone in their right mind would do that outside of The Academy's walls I don't know -- but you do sort of get used to it after a while. I'm no scientist, but I suppose that after being stretched long enough, the human sphincter muscle sort of adapts to the new reality and accepts the fact that things are indeed bigger on the inside. Add to that the wineglass that was never allowed to become completely empty, and except for when I shifted my posture I really didn't take much notice of the plug. I don't think any of the other girls paid it much mind either. Everyone seemed to be laughing and talking and enjoying the culinary delights presented to us.
I sat with Desi of course. We were nearly inseparable these days. But rather than being seated right up next to each other in sets of two, all of us girls sat along one of two long benches with plenty of elbow room factored in. Celia was on my other side, and nobody was tied at the wrist at the moment which definitely made it easier to enjoy our meal. Just a bunch of girls having a nice dinner while our butts got stretched. We talked about the classes we had this morning, and it's definitely Contemporary American Literature for me tomorrow, though a couple of the girls look positively enthralled as Desi and Celia recounted my luncheon experience in all of its harrowing detail. The way they talked it up I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Chowdhury had a full class tomorrow.
Desi and Celia also knocked back a fair share of wine as they gabbed, and though not quite as pickled as Miss Chowdhury was at ten in the morning, they did start to get a case of the wandering hands. As a result one or both of them would plunge a finger between my thighs or their own and then bring it up above the table to be presented to any one of us, or in some cases selfishly kept and savored alone. Soon they really got going and started likening it to the sorbet used to clear the palate between courses. Except with those two, the sorbet seemed to come with every third bite.
"What's with you Karin?" Celia teased. "You've been so somber since lunch. Miss Chowdhury wore you out, huh?"
I shrugged. I knew what it was and it wasn't Miss Chowdhury, that was just the warm-up, the introduction. The current source of my whoa was Miss Spiced Latte all dressed up in a white suit, but I wasn't about to tell these two characters. I'd never hear the end of it.
"She just needs another sorbet, that's all." Desi grinned as she and Celia both presented me with their fingers simultaneously.
"Thanks." I slurped them both off with a great smacking of lips and curling of tongue and that was enough to convince my two slightly obnoxious friends to leave me alone for a while. So every few minutes I would slurp at a juicy finger to let them know I was still here, but otherwise I let my mind turn inward to the woman I had met while cling-wrapped to a platter serving up appetizers.
Why was I so obsessed with her?
She was fucking gorgeous, yes, but then that was pretty much the norm around here. It certainly wasn't her charming personality, she had barely said two words to me other than saying she was impressed by my chutzpah. I even had to look that up to find out what it meant. The dictionary seemed to imply it could have either a positive or negative connotation associated with it depending on how it was used. So when she said my shower performance had chutzpah was that a good thing? And when I decided to stuff my face between her thighs under the table was that chutzpah too, or was that simply bad manners?
The thought of her never left my mind that evening, nor did the nagging feeling that not all of my chutzpah was viewed as the good kind.
* * *
I had trouble sleeping that night, and was eventually awakened by a stirring and swishing of sheets in the big harem-style bed where I lay spooning Desi while she in turn held onto the diminutive Celia. Judging from the dim light and the many girls still slumbering I guessed the hour to be sometime just after bed, but not so late that the dawn would be creeping through the window at any time soon. I thought maybe I'd go have a pee since I was already awake.
I blinked and blinked again. I found that I was looking straight into the eyes of Headmistress Hendricks, and you know what? -- she was still wearing a pencil skirt, stockings and heels, even in the middle of the night. But she was also wearing a mask. It was one of those masquerade ball type masks all glittery and bedazzled, and the bottom of it rested right on her cheekbones, really only succeeding in covering the area directly around her eyes so it's not like she was hiding. Still it was enough to be a bit unnerving, particularly in the middle of the night when I thought I was just getting up to pee.
Headmistress Hendricks was flanked by two other figures also in masks, a half-face white one that reminded me a bit of the Phantom of the Opera and a second but much more sinister-looking one that was a straight out of a horror movie kind of scary. It even had horns twisting up from the top and I swear I heard a few bars of Toccata and Fugue running through my head in some sort of hyper-realistic auditory hallucination when I gazed upon it.
Once I stopped fixating on the masks I could see that in each one of Headmistress Hendricks' hands she held a strap. That made me nervous -- being immobilized at lunch was enough for me, thank you very much. Each strap was about two feet long and if I'm not mistaken they appeared to be made of black leather. I wasn't too sure about the details because the light was dim and I was slightly freaked out at this point, and that was entirely due to the other two masked figures. The two flanking apparitions in Headmistress Hendricks' entourage were even scarier in their attire, that besides the masks, included a couple of unmistakably large flesh-toned appendages dangling from about their waists.
"Des," I said, "I think we have visitors."
No sooner had the words crossed my lips than I felt a hand grasping my ankle and dragging me over to the edge of the bed. I found myself staring bug-eyed and open-mouthed right up at Headmistress Hendricks. I was wide awake at this point, my fight or flight instinct kicking into overdrive and if it weren't for the headmistress's words I honestly think I may have bolted for the door and run screaming all the way back home.