"Best money I ever spent." I thought to myself confidently.
I walked through the front door and threw my bag on a couch and took out the folder I had been given. With a sense of self-satisfaction I opened it up to looked at the document inside. 'Answer key' it said in big bold letters at the top. That test was as good as done.
I was a young, 20 year old, college student at the time. Since the campus was only about two blocks away, I still lived at home with my mother and little sister Sarah. My father left when I was an infant. So basically I was the man of the house. Growing up I was the favorite child and as such was pretty much always handed everything. My mom worked two jobs to pay for my going to college.
I had recently been getting really lazy in my studies, however. I was skipping classes, not working hard on any assignments, and generally not taking school very seriously. I was slacking off so much; in fact, that I didn't even realize there was a big mid-term exam coming up in one of my classes until only the day before. It was an important class and I would almost certainly fail it if I didn't do well on the test. I had already failed a few courses, and if I didn't pass this one I would probably flunk out of college. Fortunately I had heard of someone who could sell me the answers to the test ahead of time.
The evening before the exam I was to meet the seller in a private parking garage on the college campus. It happened to be Halloween night so nobody was around. This made breaking into the garage no trouble. Everyone thought that I had to study that night so no one would wonder where I was. It all seemed like it would fit together perfectly. Unfortunately not everything turned out as it seemed.
When I got home after buying the test answers, I immediately went about memorizing them. Mom was at some kind of Halloween gathering at work, so I knew this would be a good time to do so. But, just as I opened the folder, I was interrupted.
"Whatya got there?" said Sarah startling me. I looked up, quickly closed the folder and shoved it behind my back.
Sarah was a couple years younger than me, still a senior in high school. I had never thought of her as anything other than a pathetic little annoyance to me, but apparently she was very popular at school. It wouldn't have been hard to see why. She was tall and a little bit slender but still very well built. As captain of her school's basketball team, she was very athletic and kept in great shape. She had long brown hair and a pair of large ample breasts that had come in only a couple of years ago. Though I tried not to at the time, I could never help noticing them for some reason.
"What do you want?" I asked harshly. "I see you've been out buying some study material." she responded in a sly tone.
Did she know what I had done? How could she? I had made sure no one was following me.
"Again, what do you want?" I demanded.
"Just wanted to see if you were ready for your big test. But you're more than ready aren't you? How much did those answers set you back?"
She did know somehow. It didn't matter though. I figured if she told anyone I'd just deny it. Everyone would believe me over her.
"You don't know what you're talking about," I said dismissively. "Now go bug someone else little girl."
"Little girl huh? Funny you should mention that."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing," she replied. "By the way, do you know my friend Tina?"
Just then a large African American girl stepped in from the living room. I recognized her as the star center on my sister's basketball team. Her nickname on the team was The Amazon Enforcer. Now that I saw her up close I could see why. She was quite tall, at least 6'5" and even though she was only 18, she had muscles that would make a grown female bodybuilder jealous.
"Good to see you," she said, 'though this is actually the second time I've seen you tonight."
"What do you mean?" I asked, starting to get a little suspicious.
"Well, you see," said Sarah, "Tina here came over to talk about our next game, but the conversation drifted and we got to talking about other things. It turns out that her dad works security at the college. Well, since I had a feeling that you weren't really going out to study, we thought we'd go find out what you were really up to."
"My dad wasn't in the security office this late," continued Tina, "But I had his key, so we were able to get in without any trouble and have a look at the security cameras. Imagine our surprise when we saw you in the parking garage, illegally, I might add, buying test answers."
I was shocked. There was a security camera in that garage? Sarah held up her cell phone. On it was a picture of me handing over some cash in exchange for a folder which clearly contained the answer key.
"They take those tests very seriously in college you know. This sort of thing could get you into a lot of trouble," Said Sarah. "You'd definitely be expelled if anyone found out. Not to mention the fact that you illegally broke into the parking lot after hours."
"Don't worry" said Tina, "we erased all the pictures on the security tape, but not before we downloaded them to Sarah's cell phone.
"It would sure be a shame if Mom, or better yet the disciplinary board at the college, ever got a look at these," said Sarah.
"Or even the police," Tina added.
"You can't," I said, all of a sudden feeling scared.
"You're not really in a position to tell us what we can or can't do, are you?" responded Sarah.
"What do you want?" I asked tentatively.
"Well, its Halloween night and we thought we'd have some fun. And you're going to be a big part of it."
My insides went cold. "What do you mean?"
"Well," said Sarah calmly. "Since its Halloween, you're going to play a little dress up."
At first, I didn't understand. She wanted me to wear a Halloween costume on Halloween night? What was that supposed to do? Then, all of a sudden, I realized what she had in mind. She wanted to humiliate me in front of her friend by making me wear some embarrassing outfit.
"Is that supposed to scare me; wearing a Halloween costume," I said, faking a tone of defiance, even though I secretly was a little nervous at the thought of what was happening. I hated the idea of costumes in the first place. Even as a little kid I thought they were silly. I always avoided trick-or-treating or going to Halloween parties, and was actually glad that I could use studying as an excuse this year not to get mixed up in any of that nonsense. But it sounded like she not only wanted me to parade around in a costume, but some particularly embarrassing one at that.
"Not exactly just a Halloween costume," answered Sarah. "And you're going to do a little more than dress up. Tonight you're going to pay for the way you've treated me over the years. You've always waved me off like a little child. Well, tonight, things are going to go a bit differently."
I desperately searched my brain for a way out of the situation, but there was really nothing I could do. She had those pictures on her phone, and it would be very easy for her to quickly send them to whomever she wanted.
I sighed. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, resigned to my fate.
"We've already picked out a nice outfit for you," replied Sarah. "Don't worry; we're going to dress up too. In fact, why don't Tina and I go get everything ready while you wait down here thinking about what's going to happen."
As the two girls ran upstairs, I carefully put the folder with the answers back into my bag and hid it in the closet by the front door. Again I tried to think of a way out. I could try to tell Mom that Sarah was just trying to get me into trouble. She might believe those pictures were fakes. But Mom wasn't the only one to worry about. She could send those pictures to the authorities and they could quickly verify their authenticity. I couldn't believe it. Sarah cornered me with no way out.
After I bit Sarah and Tina came downstairs excitedly laughing. They were both dressed in their costumes. As I looked at them I felt my stomach pitch as they gave me a clue to what my costume might be. Sarah was dressed as a catholic nun, and Tina had on a priest's outfit.
"Ok," said Sarah giddily, "you're next. I left instructions for you upstairs, now go get changed. We'll wait for you down here."
I was feeling down right scared now but I couldn't let them see it.
"Whatever," I said trying to sound like I didn't care.
I went upstairs to see what was in store for me.