Mia fumed as she trudged back to her Sorority house after the worst afternoon of her deteriorating life. She tried to avoid being seen by other people as she stormed down the sidewalk of frat row, but sometimes it was unavoidable. Whenever she had to pass too closely to another human being, she brought her hands around to her backside to cover up the large, embarrassing hole in the seat of her pants.
Two of her sorority sisters had played a nasty prank on her. Quinn and Valentina, both popular members of the cheer squad, had invited her out to play a friendly game of tennis with Ryker, a boy they knew she had a crush on. As it turned out, their plan all along had been to trick her into sitting down in a puddle of glue they had put on one of the benches for her.
She had eventually gotten free, albeit after much laughter from her two sisters. Even Ryker had joined in the laughter a little bit. But most infuriatingly, it had ruined her best pair of athletic pants, which they didn't seem the least bit concerned about. That was it! She was going to get them back. She didn't know how yet, but she was going to get them good!
She stormed through the doors of the chapter house, hoping she could make her way to her room without having to talk to anyone. Luck was just not with her today. She had barely gone two steps before she was face to face with Evelyn, the overbearing Chapter President.
"Mia!" she shouted. "For heaven's sake, fix yourself up! You look like trash! I can see half your ass! That is NOT the image I want being presented for Gamma Lambda Upsilon."
"This wasn't on purpose," she grumbled, and shoved past her, having every intention of doing as she had just said.
Things were bad when even the Chapter President had it out for you. Mia had never been popular from the start, but most of the hostilities had started when a boy Evelyn had trying to make herself available to had made a pass at Mia instead.
"If you like him, just ask him out," Mia had said.
"That's not how it works for us girls," Evelyn had retorted, as if Mia where a child with no idea of how adults dated.
Since then, Evelyn had regarded Mia as some sex-crazed harlot, stealing all the men away from the more deserving and proper girls. This was, of course, ridiculous. Mia was far from popular with the boys, and didn't even consider herself all that good-looking. She spent many a Friday night by herself in her room, as she very much intended to do on this one.
Falling out of favor of the chapter president had hurt her status in Gamma Lambda Upsilon enough, but things had really taken a dive when they had all gathered to play Kings a couple weeks ago. When the 'Truth' card was drawn, Evelyn had asked the girls what their secret kink was, and Mia had made the grievous mistake of answering truthfully. She admitted to having a bit of a super glue fetish, that sometimes she played with it on her skin, and often wondered what it would feel like being glued to a romantic partner. A couple of the other girls had admitted to some odd or silly interests, so she figured there would be no harm.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" had been the first thing out of Evelyn's mouth.
And she had found no more sympathy from any of the other girls present. She might as well have admitted to liking feces for how she was treated after that. That bit of gossip had spread to every corner of the chapter house by morning. The glue prank from barely half an hour ago had only been the culmination of the harassment she had received since then, and she doubted she had even seen the worst of it yet.
As she entered the privacy of her room, she slammed the door behind her. She changed into a good pair of pants, and then just sat down on her bed, moping.
...
Mia only emerged when she was hungry. She made her way down to the kitchen, meaning to grab a banana, or whatever else she could find that she could disappear with. But before she was even in sight of the kitchen, she heard the condescending voice of Madison, and the angry retort of Aurora. Mia could only make out a few words of their argument, which was fine with her. They seemed to be arguing about who had the better boobs, which was fairly typical of them. Being the two hottest girls in the sorority, these vain fashionistas always found some little thing to be competitive about, and it wasn't the friendly kind of competition.
She was just around the corner, still trying to make up her mind about whether to walk into the kitchen or come back later, when she heard Madison say something about "that flat-chested glue freak," and Aurora chortle in response. Finally, they both found something they agreed on. Mia turned around, deciding she wasn't starving enough to tolerate the attention she would certainly get if she walked into the kitchen.
She couldn't decide if Madison and Aurora were friends or mortal enemies. Despite their rivalry, they were seldom seen apart. They were always fighting over who was the alpha female. It often involved nasty words and screaming, and sometimes even nails and hair-pulling. The only thing they ever seemed to get along for was picking on poor Mia. They loved to point out her unfortunate lack of breasts, her scrawny, boyish frame, or anything else. To them, she was a hopeless virgin who couldn't attract even the most desperate of boys.
"Well, girls? Which is it?" she demanded to her empty room as she slammed the door behind her for the second time that night. "Am I a virgin, or am I a slut? I can't be both! Which one do you want me to be?"
Neither was true. She'd had a boyfriend before. She'd even had a couple of sexual encounters in her life so far. She'd also turned down a couple of propositions, which she didn't think was all that atypical for someone her age. Sure, the boys weren't exactly drooling over her, but neither was she hopeless.
She slumped herself down on her cushioned windowsill and stared out into the darkening sky, brooding. Across the street, she could see group of young men and women, all laughing joyously, enter another sorority house for a nice social gathering. She wasn't sure whether to be envious or overjoyed. She had met a few of them already, and they were genuinely wholesome people. They didn't fight over sexual prospects, they didn't try to establish a cut-throat pecking order over superfluous things like money or looks, and they never needed to bully someone to boost their own self-esteem. At least she knew there were good people out in the world, outside the walls of Gamma Lambda Upsilon.
Gamma Lambda Upsilon, however, was the most toxic group of women Mia had ever met, and she was regretting ever having pledged with them. She had barely been with them for two semesters, and it was already taking a toll on her mental health. She was actually starting to believe the horrible things her sisters said about her. She was starting believe she was unattractive. She was starting to feel that she was lesser to the other girls for the fact that boys weren't fawning over her, while paradoxically feeling guilty every time she flirted with a boy she liked, as if that would make her a whore. Now, her grades were suffering and she had become even more socially withdrawn. Her life felt like a prison, slowly strangling the life out of her, with no clear way to escape. She hated her sisters for the horrible ways they treated her, yet she believed in the back of her mind that she deserved it, which only made her hate herself even more.
She watched the sky darken as she sat and contemplated. How much longer could she survive like this? She considered whether she should leave the sorority, or even quit the university altogether. But she felt so helpless right now she couldn't even make a decision about what to do for the rest of the night, let alone major life decisions about her future. How could she possibly deal with these horrible, people? Could she get them back? Would her sanity even last another month. She tried to work up the courage to even leave her bedroom and deal with the world outside, even for basic necessities as food, but that motivation would not come.
After some time, Mia was pulled from her thoughts as she saw a bright light streak across the sky. A shooting star! Even Mia wasn't so gloomy as to be unimpressed by such a rare sight. If you saw a shooting star, weren't you supposed to make a wish?
"I wish..." she muttered quietly to herself, "that I had a way to get these people back GOOD for how they've been treating me. All of them!"
