The Sisterhood
When I read this story, I saw a slightly different direction. The Sisterhood itself, so intrinsic to the story, got short shrift. Slow _n_Gentle graciously allowed me to use his toys. Many thanks to him and I hope he feels he got them back in the same condition in which he loaned them.
This story dovetails into "Revolt of the Nerd' and "The Sisterhood" but it in not necessary to read either one to enjoy this story...I think.
This story was partially inspired by an Anonymous poster in StangStar's "The Love Boat". She commented that too many of these stories had women who were horrid and reflected badly on their gender. She liked the Love Boat because it actually had a female character she could applaud for. Someone who felt remorse of more then losing a meal ticket.
So, Anonymous, this story is for you. I hope you enjoy it.
The story is dedicated to all the conversations I've had with women which I didn't understand until some woman graciously explained it to me.
There is no sex.
*
The knock on the door startled Rebecca. She'd just gotten back from the gym and her hair was still damp as she walked out of the laundry room where she put her dirty gym things. She had made it a habit every time she came in.
A frown passed her face. Bob was out golfing and wasn't due in for at least another 2 hours. And since it was a weekend, she wasn't expecting any tradesmen or deliveries.
She peeked curiously out one of the beveled medallions in the stained glass side windows of her door. It was a nicely dressed blonde woman in her early forties, attractive with a firmly set jaw. She didn't have a handful of tracts or pamphlets and she was alone. Normally, if it was religious fanatics, they came in pairs. It seemed safe.
She opened the door. "May I help you?"
"Hello. Rebecca Wright? I'm Brenda. How are you?"
"Hi. Do I know you?" she asked puzzled.
"No. I'm the roving editor for the Sigma Omega Delts. I happened to be in town and since you're one of the members, I figured I'd stop in and see if any of your personal information has changed since the last reunion for when I update the book." She reached into her bag and pulled out a small white book with the ΣΩΔ characters printed on raised lettering on the front. Rebecca automatically reached out to shake her hand.
"Where are my manners? I'm Brenda Davi...Brenda Cuthbert." At the look of askance on Rebecca's face, she quickly explained. "I was divorced a few years ago and reverted to my maiden name again. Sometimes I still make that mistake."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Were you married long?"
A shadow passed over her face. "Just shy of ten years."
"Won't you come in?"
Brenda looked around the nicely appointed living room. "You have a very lovely home. It must have been a lot of hard work to get things just right."
"Oh...you know. It was a bunch of work, but I think it was worth the effort. Luckily, my husband was smart enough to stay out of it. Otherwise it would probably look like some sport's bar."
Brenda gave her a look askance at this. She saw a set of photos on an antique rolltop desk. "Is this Bob your husband?" she asked.
"Oh yes. That was from a bunch of years ago." Her tone indicated that the years hadn't necessarily been kind to her husband.
"Well, none of us are twenty two anymore, are we?" Brenda told the mid thirty housewife.
Rebecca was self aware enough to realize her gaffe. "Oh, you look amazing. You must take good care of yourself."
"I do now. Bob looks like a keeper."
Rebecca blinked. "I guess. Of course I love him to death. Would you like some iced tea? I have some in the back."
"That would be wonderful."
"You'll have to excuse me." she shouted from the kitchen. "I just came back from the gym and I was in the middle of putting some dirty laundry away."
She started to walk out with a pair of filled glasses. She stopped and considered. Then she pulled out a tray, put a napkin on top like a table cloth, set down the glasses, carved up a pair of slices of lime as garnish, and set some cookies on a plate. It was always a good idea to leave a good impression on your fellow sisters.
Brenda was comfortably sitting on a love seat, a small white binder on her lap with glasses perched on her nose and a red fine tipped Sharpie in her hand. "Thank you so much." She took a sip. "This is lovely iced tea. You didn't have to go to all this trouble for me."
"Oh, it's no bother, really. So what year did you graduate? And which college were you in?"
"Mmm!" she said around her tea. "Sorry. I don't belong to your sorority. I just edit for it. I used to belong to a sorority back in the day called the Sisterhood."
A faded memory nagged at Rebecca. "I can't say I recall that. I know it wasn't at my school. Was it a local one?"
"Oh no. It was national. But they shut down operations more then ten years ago."
"Oh. That's too bad. What happened to it?"
"I did."
"Excuse me?"
"A number of Sisters and I happened."
"That sounds like a story." Becky said.
"No, it sounds like a scandal." Brenda watched Rebecca lean forward on the couch, hooked.
"I was like you. I went to high school. I was pretty so I was popular. I dated a lot, lost my cherry and I went to college." Her eyes got a far away look. "And like most of us, I got a little wild in college. No parents. No rules. No one monitoring my bedtime and money. To make matters worse, I had already decided that I liked sex a lot without any of those guilty feelings most girls carried around."
"How is that worse?" Rebecca asked uncomfortably. She recalled her own days in school. Women liked sex. This wasn't the fifties for God's sakes!
"It wasn't good for me." Brenda quickly amended. "It would have helped put a brake on the things I did later. See, my parents weren't church goers. They were more laissez faire."
"Anyway," she continued, "I went to school and I majored in 'party' for the first few weeks. I had more lovers those first weeks then I had in my 4 years of high school, not that that was a high bar. Except we started to go to a bunch of frat parties." She trailed off.
"We?"
"Sorry.
I
started to go to a bunch of frat parties and because I still thought I was still in Small Town USA, I didn't think twice about going alone."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah. Big Uh Oh. That was when the 'roofie' thing just got started. I hadn't heard about roofies. None of us girls had. And..." she blushed a deep crimson, her eyes falling into her lap.
Rebecca reached out her hand and grasped it. "Oh my God!"
"No...no. It didn't happen. But just barely. I woke up in a strange room naked but I hadn't been...used. There were these two girls I vaguely remembered from the party there looking at me. They gave me what for about being stupid and not being careful. They saw what was happening and got me out of there."
"Then...what were you doing naked?"
"I asked that too. I checked myself thoroughly, but I hadn't had sex that night. She told me that she wanted me to know exactly how stupid I was and how badly things could have gone by me being a stupid bitch."
"Anyway, their names were Beth and Amy and they wanted me to join a Sorority of sorts. It was called the Sisterhood."
"That's wonderful!" Rebecca gushed. "I mean...that's what a sorority should be like. Looking out for you. I guess you joined."
"Yes. They told me all about it. All about networking, having fun as a student, helping one another as a career." Rebecca nodded in understanding. The Sigma Omega Delts had similar goals. "Well, Beth and Amy recruited for the Sisterhood. For the most part, it was prosaic. It picked smart, disciplined, pretty, socially active girls. They helped with school work. They pointed out good and bad teachers. They'd trade secrets about who was and wasn't a good date, provide cover if you needed to break a date, and watch our backs. Anyone Frattie who pissed off the Sisterhood would see their reputation destroyed with all the other Sisters and Sororities. I mean, a guy could be stupid, but their Frat wouldn't cover for him. We could have sex without too much worry and it was tacitly encouraged, though not forced. Later, as we got closer to graduation, we'd have internships arranged, some career help, and some help to look for The One."
"The One?" Rebecca fidgeted.
"Yes. A nice, social guy who seemed to have real potential as an earner. One you clicked with. The guy you were going to marry."
"That doesn't sound so bad."
"No. It wasn't. But the problem was, some girls didn't see it quite that way, including Beth and Amy. They asked Marcie and I, another girl almost raped at the party, to join the Sisterhood, but then they talked us into a modified version of it."
"You see, some of the girls looked at successful husbands who married young, built a career with their wives, and then dumped them as scum. They noticed that mothers didn't get promoted quickly. The glass ceiling was biological. Men had all kinds of biological freedom and used it to advance their careers. Well...they felt that there was no reason for women to be any better then the men. Why be loyal if they were just going to toss us aside after our best years were wasted? Why not fuck to get ahead? Men would if they swung that way. We wanted to use our biological benefits to the max."
"So Marcie and I joined the regular Sisterhood, but we signed up for Beth and Amy's plan."
"What was the plan?"
Brenda sighed in remembrance. "It was simple. Instead of finding a guy who we'd marry for the rest of our life, we'd find a guy likely to be successful but totally socially inept. That way, we'd keep control of the marriage, wouldn't love him and after ten years, when the law mandated a wife get at least half of his assets, we divorce him. Of course, we wouldn't ruin our figures or futures with children, at least not with the first one. No. We were grabbing all the assets we could, fucking our way up the corporate ladder, and
