It started with an innocent conversation. It was lunch time, and several of us were sitting together eating and chatting. The topic drifted to college plans, and what everyone was planning to do.
"KT, did you ever hear from Forrester?" Drew asked. KT, or Katie, short for Katherine, was my best friend. And my biggest, secretist, crush. So this was where I actually started paying attention to the conversation.
"Yes," KT replied with a sigh that made me wince.
"Aww," Drew said, "you didn't get in?"
"No, I got in, but no scholarship," she explained. "Even with aid, there's no way I can afford it. I'd have to work two jobs and still take out student loans or something."
"But you got in loads of other places," Lexi said, trying to commiserate.
"Yeah, but that's where I really wanted to go. They had the best program for me. Now, I'm thinking one of the state schools to save money. Maybe a local two-year for general-ed and then to state."
Everyone made sympathetic noises and offered encouragement. But it was Becca who started things on a new course by smirking and saying, "Well, there's always a way...I hear Forrester has a harem-scholarship program!" There were giggles and snickers as we thought of KT, the group's vestigial virgin, signing up for harem-life.
"Yeah, right," I scoffed. "She'd end up stabbing whoever she ended up with in their sleep for daring to touch her." Everyone laughed, but KT—who looked annoyed.
"Don't laugh," she said. "I'd consider it. I've been reading up on the program."
That just made everyone laugh more. Except me. In my head, gears were working. The rest of the school day passed without incident. After, I rushed home. I looked up the number for Forrester's admissions office and called them.
"I need information about the Harem program."
+++
I had a pretty long conversation then and got an email with a lot more information and links sent to me. It was a lot. The more I read, the more interested I got. The idea definitely appealed. I mean, at first it was just a way to help KT while, admittedly, getting in her pants.
That wasn't all, though. The program was designed to teach someone how to manage a harem; there was a lot of mandatory curriculum and requirements on my part. I couldn't just pick a person and do whatever I wanted. The program required a minimum of four participants, with lots of rules and regulations, and enough actual coursework to qualify as a minor on its own—independent of my actual chosen area of study. Once I had that minor, and certification, I was qualified to maintain a harem in the "real world."
Which I had never really considered, but after reading all the literature sounded pretty good. I've had several partners, and dominance games were something I enjoyed. But they were just that, games. Playacting. This was being actually in charge. Not that it was all about bossing people around—the program material kept stressing things like responsibility and "mutual dependencies" and I liked the sound of that, too.
But it was a lot. Not just the program itself, but the requirements. There was my tuition, of course. And it was called a harem scholarship because I was required to pay the tuition for my harem—a minimum of three and maximum of eight. On-campus housing for all, required for monitoring purposes. Then implanting each with the control chip. Then the control program, which could run as an app on a dedicated phone—cheap, but lame. Or the expensive option, a sub-dermal, integrated network that would be implanted in me. Plus, meal plans, fees, and such. Like I said, it was a lot. I decided I wanted it, so my next step was clear. I needed to talk to my mother.
About a week had passed since that lunchtime conversation. I spent it reading up on everything and making my decisions. Then I had to bring it to my mom, which I wasn't exactly looking forward to. I found her one evening reading a book and approached her.
"Mom, can we talk?" I asked.
"Of course," she said, but didn't actually put the book down.
"I want to access some of my trust."
"Oh?" was all she said but set the book aside and looked at me expectantly. That was...very
her
. She was going to let me present my case, but she wasn't going to help me do it. I took a deep breath.
"I want to do the Harem program at Forrester," I told her. I sat down and put some print outs in front of her. "It requires I pay for, well, everything. Food and housing, tuition for me and everyone, fees, equipment, etc."
She skimmed over the papers, and was silent a minute before she asked, "Is this just your way to help Katie?"
"No. I mean, yes, I plan on her being part of it, and I'm glad it would help her, if she accepts, which isn't a given. But really, when I started looking into it, it was more about
getting
her first and helping her second, you know?" The corner of her mouth quirked up at this, but she didn't interrupt. "The more I looked into it, the more I liked it, and now it's more about what I want."
"What if she's not interested?"
"She said she looked into it—that's what gave me the idea. But I don't know if she'd actually, you know,
do it.
If she doesn't, I might look at other schools with the program. I started with Forrester, because that's where she wants to go. If she doesn't accept, I still want to do it, but maybe I'll find somewhere else that appeals to me more. Or maybe not, and I still end up there. I haven't looked into other places that do a harem program yet, because I'd rather do it with her if possible."
"Hmm. You know this will change your relationship?"
It was my turn to sigh. "Yes, there's no way to know exactly how, but it'll definitely change. But it's going to change anyway. In every other scenario, we'll end up in different schools, and we'd end up drifting apart at least some. I mean, we'd try and stay in touch, but we'd be in different places having different experiences, and meeting different people. Hopefully, we'd stay friends, but our time as best friends is probably limited. We'd see each other on breaks, maybe, and no telling where we both end up after school, or what we'd be doing.
"So, change is inevitable. Would this be a good change or a bad change for our friendship? I don't know. I hope she'll always be my friend. But, either way, she'll
always
be my big high school crush, and this is really my only chance to live out that fantasy. I hope, if it'd make her hate me, she'd rather just refuse, because I still want to be her friend. We'll have to talk about it, but we can't till I know I can do it."
"I can tell you put a lot of thought into this, have you thought of everything?"
"I don't think that's possible," I said, which caused her to smile outright.
"Well," Mom told me, "as you know, your trust explicitly covers your education. Tuition wherever you go, and all associated costs and fees. All of this," she said, gesturing at my printouts, "seems to apply, if the Harem program is part of your course of study. So, you don't need me to authorize a withdrawal, this is something already covered."
"Oh," I said,
really
hoping I wasn't blushing. I hadn't thought of that at all. I was silent for a moment. I mean, she was right. I was covered for anything related to my education, and this would apply. Which made the purpose of this conversation a bit pointless, but... "I still want to know what you think."
Mom leaned over and hugged me.
"I think I'm proud that you're thinking through what you want instead of just jumping in head-first. It's something with a lot of long-term impact, so it deserves to be thought through. Even if most of that thinking was to convince me. As for the program itself, I don't object as long as it's something you want and will make you happy. I can't know if it will actually do that, and honestly neither can you. But you're thinking it through, which I'm proud of. So, tell me, why are you interested in a Harem program?"
What followed was one of the more awkward mother-daughter conversations in recorded history. But my mom was...not
cool
. She wasn't the "cool mom." But she was accepting and understanding. I've always known that only girls really interested me, and were all I ever pursued. I've also known I was kinda kinky for awhile. Never once had I been afraid my mom wouldn't accept my sexuality. This was no different. She wasn't there to pass judgement.
Since it wasn't something that required her approval anyway, Mom told me it was my job to contact the firm who maintained my trust and make the arrangements. Which scared me, mostly because I had never done anything like that. But then she said she'd come with me, which helped.
That put us in an office, and I had to explain that while I wasn't fully settled on a school yet, any school offering a harem program required proof I had the means to pay for the program before I was considered. Eyebrows rose when I explained what the program was, and the lawyer or accountant or whatever he was looked at my mom and asked if this was something she approved of.
"As it's well within her rights according to the terms of her trust," Mom said, "how does my approval matter?" Which is mom-speak for
why are you asking me?
Hah! The mom smack-down, go Mom! I may have smiled. A little.
"Uh..." said the guy. Banker? I really had no idea what he was called. "Of course, of course." And arrangements were made.
Once my financials were secure, the school was willing to get the ball rolling. But it wasn't a quick process. I had a series of interviews and evaluations I had to sit through before I was accepted into the program. About twenty percent making sure I knew what I was getting into, how the program worked, and the rules I had to live by—and about eighty percent making sure I wasn't some kind of psycho that shouldn't be left in charge of another human being like,
ever
.
While doing that, I looked into other schools a little and did some preliminary work in case KT didn't go for things. I decided, if she wasn't a factor, Forrester wouldn't be my
first
choice, but it'd probably be my second or third so I wasn't shooting myself in the foot by going there. Then I got my acceptance.
I needed three people, which shouldn't be hard. I was permitted to invite specific people—that would be KT, obviously. I didn't have anyone else specific in mind, but the university kept a list of people seeking a place in someone's program. I listed KT as an invitee, and looked through the candidates, but didn't reach out to any; unless KT accepted, I wasn't sure this was where I'd be going.
I decided not to talk to her about it. She'd get the notification from the school. I'd let that be the first she knew about it, that way I'd be out of the blast radius. KT would
not
be amused. I figured she'd calm down a bit before she talked to me, and then we could talk it over. That wasn't how it worked out.
It was a couple days later, and my phone woke me. At eight in the morning. On a weekend. It took a couple tries, but I managed to tap the screen to accept the call. I planned to say 'who's calling so early?' or maybe 'what do you want?' Instead, what came out was more like "wrahh-uhh?"
"What the
hell
are you doing?" KT's voice barked at me.
"Sleeping?" I whined.
"You know what I'm talking about!"
"...no?"
"I got an email, from Forrester's admissions office," she said. I couldn't hear her teeth grinding, but she didn't sound happy either.
"Oh."
"Oh? Oh?! What kind of game are you playing?"
"No game."
"Then why are you doing it?"
"Wanna," I murmured, and started rubbing my eyes. "Why are you even up so early? It's Saturday!"
