A few moments after Eve had managed to hypnotize Rayne and Laura, there was a knock on the door. As Trisha and Eve turned around, they saw Jackie on the other side of the glass. Trisha sighed as she moved towards the door, whispering "Wake them up quickly, please." to Eve as she passed.
"Of course!" came Eve's playful response as she hugged both girls, one on either side of her, and whispered "1...2...3...Wide awake!" Fortunately for her, she was able to cover up the fact that both girls had been hypnotized from the unsuspecting Jackie.
As soon as Trisha unlocked the door, the room was filled with high pitched squeals that can only occur when two college girls see each other for the first time in literal hours. Hugging ensued.
"Come in, come in!" Trisha said, waving Jackie inside. "Thank you so much for showing up! This is Rayne, of course you know Laura, and this is Eve."
"Pleasure to meet you, Eve" Jackie said with a smile as she turned to Rayne. "We actually have met before, just briefly. But it's good to see you again!" she said excitedly as she gave her a hug.
"It's good to see you too, are you joining the sorority?" Rayne asked, knowing that she had already helped hypnotize Jackie once and put the idea in her mind to, at the very least, show up to the meeting.
"We'll see...no offense, Trisha." she said, putting her hand on the older girl's arm apologetically. "I don't believe in hypnosis, so joining a sorority based on it seems a bit disingenuous. I'm simply here because Trisha and Laura asked me to show up and I want to support them in any way that I can!"
"So you don't believe in hypnosis...and I assume you don't believe you can be hypnotized either?" Eve asked, giving her a confused look.
"Nope, I'm sorry to say that I'm completely unable to be hypnotized." she said as she shrugged her shoulders. Rayne and Laura, on the other hand, knew better from experience and shot each other a look as they rolled their eyes.
Before the conversation could devolve into a debate about Jackie's ability to enter hypnosis, Cheyenne interrupted with a knock on the open door. "Am I in the right place?" she asked with a knowing smile. As expected, more high pitched squeals, hugs, and introductions followed. Do I really have to write that all out for you guys? No? Sweet!
As the introductions began to wrap up, Cheyenne, like Jackie, also admitted to not believing in hypnosis. Instead she claimed that she was just there to support Laura and Trisha in any way she could. Rayne and Laura smiled at Trisha, who replied with a subtle wink, knowing that the two of them had been responsible for slipping those very suggestions into both girls' minds.
Despite their attempts at subtlety, however, Jackie and Cheyenne both happened to notice the looks that were being exchanged. Fortunately for the more devious girls here, Carly arrived just in time to break up what would have been a rather accusatory conversation. Yet another round of squeals and hugs followed as Carly made her introductions.
"What are you doing here?" Cheyenne asked in confusion. "They didn't rope you into joining this too, did they?"
"No!" laughed Carly with a smile. "I'm doing a report on hypnotism for the school paper. Trisha was kind enough to let me sit in on the meeting so I can get some firsthand information on how hypnosis is being used on campus!"
Cheyenne was clearly about to question what was going to happen that needed to be reported, just as Trisha stood up and began to address the rest of the group as professionally as she could manage. "I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight..." she started, smiling as the other conversations began to die down. One by one, everyone else took a seat on the various couches and chairs that were arranged in a semi-circle around Trisha. "I wanted to begin by briefly explaining the structure of the sorority. I am the head, and as the grad student in charge all final decisions will be made by me. With that being said, as far as I am concerned, you are all now official members of the hypnosis sorority!"
The response was a bit mixed. The hypnotists, Laura, Rayne, and Eve, all clapped enthusiastically. Jackie and Cheyenne, on the other hand, rolled their eyes and clapped politely, but briefly. Carly never looked up from her notes.
Not one to be easily deterred, Trisha moved on. "Tonight, however, we will be installing the first officers of the sorority." She smiled proudly and picked up an old top hat filled with torn up pieces of paper in it to show the rest of the group. "The officers of a hypnosis based sorority have to be good at...well, hypnosis! So if you would all take a piece of paper out of the hat, you'll find that there is a number written on it. There are two of each number inside. In a moment we will pick the first pair and they will come up and try to hypnotize one another. Whoever succeeds first will be installed as an officer!"
Once again the girl's reactions were not what Trisha had hoped for. This time she was met with six confused faces. It was Jackie that finally spoke up first. "I have a question..." she started, waiting for Trisha's nod to continue. "What happens if no one gets hypnotized? I mean...I'm not a hypnotist, and I'm not weak minded enough to go under hypnosis. And I have a feeling based on conversations I've had with everyone else that that is a common theme here..." she trailed off, looking at the rest of the girls who were all subtly nodding in agreement. "So...what happens if no one gets hypnotized?"
Trisha merely smiled, as if she'd expected that very response. "If no one is hypnotized, if no one is good enough to be an officer, then no one will be installed as one. And those who are interested will simply have to practice harder, won't they?" She looked over to Rayne, Laura, and Eve and managed to successfully hide her wink this time. "Let's begin, shall we?" she said with a smile as she leaned down to hand Rayne the hat. As she did, she whispered "Relax, it's rigged."
Rayne gave Trisha an even more confused look. She wasn't sure how she could have possibly rigged the pulling of random numbers from a hat, but she also wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. She pulled a small piece of paper from the hat and passed it down the line until it reached Carly, who looked down at it as if she had no idea what it was or why it was in front of her. "Oh, no thank you. I'm just here to observe." she said politely, turning her attention back to her notes.
"Oh come on Carly! Think about it, you'll be able to add so much more to your story! How someone tried to hypnotize you, and you tried to hypnotize someone...people will love it!" Trisha said with as much energy as possible. Which, believe me...is a lot.