Meet Anita Olsen. The most popular girl in high school, she ruled as president of The Hot Babes Club - and as a bully who tormented Freddie Simpson for being a nerd. Freddie grew up to be a tech billionaire who invented a system of mind control, and life got very different for The Hottest Babe. All characters are over the age of 18.
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The mirror ball hanging from the ceiling was hopelessly corny. Anita didn't think mirror balls were still a thing, but apparently they remained popular in the small Minnesota town where she grew up. It gave her another reason to feel good about her decision to move to Miami after college. Miami was a city full of beautiful things and beautiful people, although few were as beautiful as her.
She was standing in a circle of women who'd called themselves The Hot Babes Club when they were students at Erickson High School, and Anita was the leader of the pack. A school populated by the descendants of Norwegian and Swedish immigrant farmers had a predictably dull social scene, but Anita and the rest of The Hot Babes did everything they could to climb to the top. Predictably, Anita always reached the pinnacle.
You could see evidence of that in the pictures being projected on a screen near the punch bowl. It showed Anita and her boyfriend Karl when they were king and queen of the prom. A picture of the cheerleading squad showed Anita front and center because she was head cheerleader. One of the pictures from homecoming showed that she and Karl were king and queen then, too. She was absent from most of the other pictures because she didn't participate in choir, marching band, or most other extra-curricular activities. But she had always been good at shoving her way to the front when pictures were taken, so she popped up in a few photos of random scenes of the Class of 2012.
"Don't look now, but Freddie Simpson just walked in," Connie whispered to the rest of The Hot Babes. Anita gave him a sidelong glance and confirmed that he looked completely different than he had 10 years ago, when he was the biggest nerd at the school. He no longer wore thick, heavy glasses. He had a nice haircut and expensive clothes. He looked so buff it was obvious he'd spent a lot of time working out. But the biggest change was the way he held himself. Freddie looked self assured. The experience of launching a successful start-up that made him a tech billionaire had given him the confidence he'd lacked when he was a scrawny, insecure 18 year old.
Several guys flocked toward Freddie when he entered the room. It wasn't because they'd been friends in school - Freddie had no friends back then. But anyone who read the financial press knew all about Freddie's spectacular string of successes. The guys wanted to congratulate Freddie, look him in the eye, and know what it was like to shake the hand of a billionaire.
Anita did her best to look away. She still felt some twinges of guilt over the brutal way she'd bullied Freddie when they were both 18. She'd used her sexy looks like a weapon, taking every opportunity to make sure Freddie knew she thought he was a pathetic loser. She'd recruited other members of The Hot Babes Club into the campaign. It was the typical behavior of a teenage clique whose members make themselves feel better by making some victim feel worse. Freddie was everybody's victim, but especially Anita's.
She briefly considered offering some kind of apology. Freddie deserved one, she knew. But she rejected the idea. She was Anita Olsen, president of the Hot Babes Club. She never apologized. Ever.
"Hello, Anita," said a voice behind her. Anita spun around and found herself face to face with Freddie, a person she'd barely thought about in the 10 years since graduation. He was smiling. It seemed to be a sly smile, suggesting that he knew a secret Anita would never guess.
"Hello, Freddie," Anita said. She had no idea what to say next, so she picked the most obvious possible comment. "You look good," she said. "You've changed a lot."
"And you haven't changed one bit," Freddie said. "You look exactly the way you did the day we graduated."
There was an awkward silence. Anita wished he'd go away. His mere presence was a powerful reminder of the brutal way she'd bullied him, and those were memories she didn't want to revisit. She'd rather talk to the other Hot Babes about all the fun times they'd had putting other girls down.
"A lot of us are a little surprised that you came back here," Anita said. "You must be very busy."
"Oh, my businesses do take a lot of my time, but I wouldn't miss this, Anita. In fact, the only reason I came back is that I wanted to see you again."
That did not sound good. Anita had no desire to hear anything Freddie had to say. Her behavior had been so terrible that she just wanted to forget it. "I'm surprised you even remember me, Freddie," Anita said.
Freddie laughed. "I think about you all the time," he said. "You had a big influence on me, Anita. A lot of my attitudes about women in general are based on the experiences I had with you. The way I treat people is influenced by the way you treated me. In part, I'm the person I am today because of you."
That did not sound good either. Freddie hadn't said anything mean or confrontational, but he was clear and direct enough to make it obvious that the way Anita bullied him had done some emotional damage. Anita didn't know how to respond, so she decided to flee. "Well, it was good seeing you, Freddie. Good luck in the future." With that, she turned to walk toward the ladies' bathroom.
"Halt," Freddie said.
Anita's feet stopped moving. It was as if her shoes were glued to the floor. She struggled to walk, but her legs wouldn't respond. It was alarming.
"Just relax and do as you're told," Freddie said. "You and I have some catching up to do. I've got a limousine outside. Get your coat so we can go."
"I'm supposed to get together with the rest of the girls after this," Anita said. "They are expecting me."
"Well, isn't that nice," Freddie said. "I'll tell you what. You go over to your little clique and tell them you can't make it tonight. Tell them you are going back to the motel with me. Say it in a way that implies you're going to have sex with me. That ought to give those bitches something to gossip about for a long, long time."
With that, Anita found herself walking over to the place where the rest of The Hot Babes were reminiscing over their times together in high school. They were shocked when Anita announced she would skip the party they'd planned for after the reunion, and doubly shocked when she revealed she was taking Freddie back to her motel.
"Anita, won't your fiance object to that?" Connie asked.
He certainly would, Anita thought. "I've got to go," she said.
As she walked away, the rest of The Hot Babes couldn't avoid thinking that Anita was so impressed with Freddie's wealth that she wanted to have sex with a billionaire. Maybe she even wanted to dump her fiance in favor of the boy she used to bully. In the days and weeks ahead, the story of Anita Olsen hooking up with Freddie Simpson would be the most popular piece of gossip for anyone who'd attended the reunion.
Freddie had the driver go to Anita's motel, where he directed her to pack up her suitcases. The driver carried the luggage back to the limousine, then drove to the small airport where Freddie's private jet was waiting. Anita kept trying to get control of herself. She could move, and speak, and she could even object to what was happening, but nothing happened whenever she tried to get away.
