I am quite easily working on a few stories at any given time - sometimes more, but in the interest of sharing those stories with some of you before they are actually refined and ready for prime-time, I will be sharing them here as a Work In Progress:
ONE
Private Investigator Lacey Jones removed her glasses
with her left hand and gently rubbed the bridge of her nose with her right. The
glare from her laptop computer screen was really doing a number on her lovely
green eyes as she sat in her small apartment’s kitchen, the clock behind her on
the wall nearing three o’clock in the morning. At a very young-looking 26
years-old, Lacey had an amazingly-fit body, standing five-foot-eight, a very
firm and shapely one-hundred-twenty pounds, with waist-length bright auburn
hair, matching fair skin, and beautiful breasts that were a little on the
larger side for a woman her size.
Lacey reached
up her arms and stretched, letting out that sultry moan she made whenever she
did so, her raised arms taking upward her little gray cotton crop top, exposing
her lovely flat stomach, cute little silver belly button ring, and pressing her firm,
hard nipples against the little crop top. Lacey adjusted herself in her seat a
bit, smiling to herself a little as she felt her small white lace thong
settling even further into her shapely round bottom while she tugged downward
at her gray loose sweatpants that were rolled at the waist, and then rubbed her
sock-covered feet a bit on the cold faux wood floor beneath her, finishing the
entire movement with a bit of a cute little giggle to herself.
Lacey was tired of going over the figures she was trying
to make sense of for this case she had taken on for the local university’s
Chancellor’s Office – a case that came along just in time, too, because money
was about to run out in just a few days when Lacey signed the confidentiality
agreement and contract.
For some reason, the school’s Chancellor was insistent
that there were discrepancies in the school’s endowment accounts, but no matter
how hard she looked, no matter how many times she went over the spreadsheets
and the online accounting software, Lacey simply could not find anything
suspicious. Money came in, and money went out, but each transaction had the
proper paperwork to back it up, and at the end of the month, every month, all
of the money was accounted for accurately and completely. Lacey hated to stop
working the case because she really needed the money, but she definitely would have felt
bad wasting the university’s money by dragging out the case when she just felt there
was nothing suspicious going on with the university’s endowment at all.
Many times, while working the case over the past three
weeks, Lacey chuckled a little bit at the fact that she herself never actually
went to college, yet, here she was, working for the university. It was her lack
of experience with the university and college in general that the Chancellor
said won her the contract to delve into the endowment accounts. He said that he
wanted to ensure that the investigation was being conducted by someone who had
absolutely no ties to the school. And that definitely was Lacey.
Lacey was a cheerleader in high school, and while not
necessarily anywhere near the top of her class academically, she was definitely
one of the most popular girls at the school by her sophomore year. As one of
the first openly bisexual girls on campus, she was of course shunned by a few
of the more conservative students, but because of her natural beauty and that
amazing body, most of the students at the school had absolutely no problem with
Lacey liking both boys and girls.
After high school, Lacey thought about going to
college. It was definitely what her mother wanted for her, but instead, to the
surprise of mostly everyone who knew her, Lacey enlisted in the U.S. Navy, just
like her father had, right out of high school. Lacey’s father was so proud of
her, which Lacey did love, but sadly, it created a bit of a rift between Lacey
and her mom that she had never really been able to repair.
In the Navy, Lacey spent her first two years completing
basic training, then completing on-ship training, and was then deployed twice
to the Middle East, where she served both times as a logistics specialist on an
aircraft carrier. It was actually a very enjoyable experience for her – traveling
the world a bit and enjoying some very heavy flirting and fornication with some
her fellow sailors – both male and female. And, of course, Lacey was quite
easily one of the hottest girls on whatever ship she served. Then, at 20
years-old, after working hard and keeping her nose clean – well, more like
never getting caught – Lacey was accepted into the U.S Navy JAG Corps to train
to be a Legalman, which is basically an enlisted paralegal.
Lacey’s uncle was a very prominent lawyer at one of her hometown’s biggest firms and she spent some of her summers in high school working
for her uncle in the legal office after cheer practice, which is what attracted
Lacey to the JAG Corps initially. While she never really saw herself becoming a
lawyer, Lacey did enjoy seeing all of the lovely and amazing paralegal girls in
the office in their sexy little skirt suits and dresses, and of course being
the sexy little flirt she was, Lacey caught the attention of many a lawyer and
paralegal when she would wear her cheer uniform to the office after practice
just to tease them.
Lacey spent the following four years, after her
training stints and two deployments in the Navy, with the JAG Corps, where she
was lucky enough to be assigned as a Legalman assisting some of the actual JAG
officers with their cases. She greatly enjoyed the paralegal work she did on
cases from the very routine all the way up to an on-base murder-suicide case
that made national news, but finally, at 24, Lacey decided not to re-enlist.
Instead, she decided to strike out on her own as a civilian paralegal.
Lacey’s next stop was back at her uncle’s law firm,
pushing paper, this time, in her own sexy little skirt suits and dresses
instead of that cheer uniform, though Lacey did marvel that even now, at 26,
that little cheer uniform still fit her perfectly. Naturally, with that toned
Navy body of hers, even without wearing the cheer uniform, Lacey was the talk
of the legal office during her entire time there.
Then, after almost a year on the job as a civilian
paralegal, something remarkable happened. Lacey’s uncle asked her to oversee
some work that a private investigator was doing for the firm, looking into an
insurance fraud case. Lacey’s more mundane daylight hours in the legal office
turned into late-night meetings and stakeouts, working alongside the investigator
to track suspected fraudsters. Needless to say, Lacey was immediately hooked on
this much more exciting work.
So, not much later, Lacey decided to start her own
investigations firm. She found some early success by working a bit for her
uncle’s law firm, as well as for some of the other smaller law firms in town. But,
after a few unsuccessful cases in which Lacey was unable to prove any
impropriety on the person she was investigating, she found herself feeling
listless, down on her luck, and honestly, hurting for cash a bit.
That is why Lacey was so excited when her ex-girlfriend
from high school, who was now working at the university’s Chancellor’s Office,
recommended her to the Chancellor when he was looking for an unbiased, outside
investigator. Lacey had a good first meeting with the Chancellor and got right
to work. And while she had very little experience with the university and higher
education, Lacey was immediately intrigued by the amount of money that was
flowing through the very unassuming-looking sprawling campus that she had
driven by countless times in her life while never actually setting foot on it.
The university’s endowment was actually getting close
to one billion dollars, an amount that was simply incomprehensible to Lacey, who
was currently charging 50 dollars an hour plus expenses for her services, and
running her business out of her small, second-story apartment in a neighborhood
she couldn’t wait to move out of as quickly as she could. There were thousands
of small-scale donors who gave to the university each year, and a few
mega-donors who had their names on buildings that had found much more success
over the years and gave back to the university what Lacey felt were staggering
amounts of money. While the endowment held some money in cash for operating and emergency
expenses, most of it was continually invested in a wide variety of investments,
all around the world.
Lacey was initially very excited to take on the case,
but now, a few weeks into the investigation, she felt like it was time to call
it quits and just tell the Chancellor that she simply could not find any
impropriety. That was, however, until that early morning in her kitchen when
Lacey was just about to close her laptop after stretching in her chair, and saw
those letters in the books for the first and only time.
It was a very inconspicuous two letters with periods in
the memo line of a finance software program entry in one of the endowment’s
local bank cash accounts: A.O. The transaction was a check payment to a local
landscaping company for what seemed to be re-sodding the main football stadium
field, but the more and more Lacey thought on it, she simply could not think of
anything the acronym A.O. would have to do with re-sodding the football field.
As Lacey sat there, she thought back and simply could
not recall ever seeing A.O. anywhere else in the endowment’s records at any
point in the past three weeks that she had been reviewing them. And when Lacey reached
over to a pile of papers she had sitting there on the table, quickly digging in
to find a sheet the Chancellor’s Office had given her that listed out all of
the abbreviations and acronyms that the Chancellor’s Office used in their endowment
records, sure, enough, while there were well over 200 of them listed on the
sheet, there was definitely no A.O.
Discovering this new little slice of inexplicable
information after three weeks of not finding a single letter or number out of
place, frankly, had Lacey intrigued.
The Alpha Omega sorority house was the stuff of legend on and around the university campus. It was the only sorority or fraternity house that was off campus grounds – in fact – it was almost exactly five miles away from the campus’s southwest corner. The house, which was really much more of an estate, sat in a posh, extremely private, perfectly planned, 10-square-mile gated community made up of nothing but large estates, each one its own 160-square-acre oasis. Students always speculated that the house was very purposefully set far enough off campus that one could not easily walk there or just happen by it.
While all of the other sorority and fraternity houses at the university were single, large houses, and all on the same very easily accessible street in campus housing, just to reach the big white Alpha Omega house’s large green shiny double doors, one had to pass through the gated community’s main gate and guards, as well as pass through the actual sprawling estate’s own gate and guards. The security alone had people across the campus continually speculating at what possibly could warrant such security measures and secrecy efforts.
For those who actually had seen the estate itself, which usually was by Googling the address and looking at it on a real estate website, and not actually in person, the sight of the place was quite overwhelming, especially as a sorority house. There was the main, sprawling, three-story, 14-bedroom white house with green trim, as well as four smaller, aesthetically matching separated single-room residences behind the main house, all in a row, on the other side of the large and plush swimming pool and triple hot-tub area. Yes, three large in-ground hot tubs. To the right of the pool area, there was a large, detached garage big enough for a fleet of nine cars that had three separate-but-joined apartment residences above it, also aesthetically matching the main house. To the left of the pool area were four tennis courts, encased in a high chain-link fence. Beyond the entire residence, pool area, tennis courts, and garage, was a sizeable manmade lake with a little dock and small boathouse, which all sat in the middle of a flat, lush grassy area, and surrounding the lake in a wide U-shape, extending to the entire back edge of the property, was a manmade forested area with looping trails running through it. Those real estate websites had the property valued at $10 million; a staggering value for what everyone in university management continually insisted was just another sorority house. The same property in a more-populated area would have had at least twice the value. Ask anyone of even the most meager authority on campus about how the sorority got the house, and you would always get the same simple answer: It was donated by a past member of the sorority sometime in the 1980s when property values were much lower.
On campus, people often openly speculated about the house, its occupants, and the things that went on there, so far off-campus, but always did so in a hushed, whispered voice, and only to people they knew well and trusted. Part of the legend of the house was that if you were ever caught divulging any information about it, or its occupants, or its goings-on, that you were simply never allowed on campus again. Your professors simultaneously dropped you from all of your classes, your remaining paid tuition showed up back in your bank account, your key cards stopped working, and you were stopped and removed by campus security immediately on sight from that day forward. If you appealed, the state education review board was sent a very thick file of all of your disciplinary and scholastic transgressions, greatly padded to make it look much worse than anything you had actually done on campus. And if you had the actual gall to try to get into the house’s gated community without permission? You were detained on-site, charged with trespassing, and immediately expelled from the university after being arrested by the local city police. And then, you immediately had a restraining order slapped against you by some girl you never met, and were never allowed anywhere near the place again. Word had it that a second attempt to enter the gated community got you actual jail time via the local county sheriff’s office, which ran the county jail.
The Alpha Omega house was definitely the stuff of legend – so much so that it was very difficult to disseminate fact from fiction when it came to the lore of the house, but either way, the house was very, very real, the sorority was very, very real, and so were the sorority members who continually did their best to seem like normal, everyday students when on campus.
Angel Rivera, having heard all of these things about the Alpha Omega house, and having taken particular note of the Alpha Omega sorority girls on campus during her first two years at the University, was quite nervous as she approached the house, walking alone in the dark night, stepping off of the long concrete driveway that circled up to the main house from the front gate and up on to the brick steps that led up to the main house’s front entrance – those legendary large green shiny double doors – which that night, were wide open. The entire front of the house was bathed in soft white light and all the house’s opaque green shades were drawn completely closed. Angel’s beautiful purple patent leather stiletto high heels were echoing with each step she took, reflecting the soft light as her feet moved quickly to get inside. It was a little chilly out and Angel chose not to wear a coat since she really did not know what to expect once she arrived at the house, opting simply for wearing a supercute little white sleeveless flowy halter dress with a purple and red floral pattern and a keyhole opening with some dark gold cord accents at the neckline.
Angel had styled her mid-back-length black hair to perfection and had spent what she thought was way too much time doing her makeup, testing out three different shades of eyeshadow and lipstick until she settled on a very pretty soft lavender eyeshadow and bright fire engine red lipstick with shiny lipgloss applied over. Angel almost went for the boldness of a red lace or deep purple lace thong, but because she worried that a vivid-colored thong would show through the dress, opted for a little sexy white lace thong instead, though Angel knew you could still make out the outlines of the white thong in just the right light. And while Angel could feel her nipples were so hard in the cold night air and visibly see them protruding slightly through the top of her dress, she still felt going without a bra that night for the overall look was the way to go.
One of the things that Angel heard about the Alpha Omega sorority, as well as saw herself with her own eyes in observing the sorority’s members on campus, was that, above all else, how an Alpha Omega girl dressed was extremely important, and Angel wanted to be sure to make a good first impression with every detail of her outfit – details that included big silver hoop earrings, a dainty silver necklace with rhinestone heart charm, and a small purple bow hair clip on her right side that perfectly matched her shoes and was perfectly even with her soft brown eyes. Angel did have this really dainty cute silver ring that her dad gave to her when she was young that she still wore on her pinky, but worried about losing it, Angel opted to leave it hidden back in her dorm room. And as a girl who genuinely dressed cute, but not too flashy, and honestly considered herself to be kind of a nerdy, quiet girl, Angel was so hopeful that her outfit would meet with approval, even though she was so very nervous and was fighting every urge in her body to turn around and run back to her car, which she had been instructed by the security guard at the house’s main gate to leave right there and proceed up to the main house on foot.
Quite frankly, Angel was amazed to be there. The previous night, as she crawled into bed in her shared dorm room, exhausted from a four-hour study session with her economics study group, Angel found a little white printed business card under her pillow that simply said, “Alpha Omega Sorority House. Tomorrow Night. Midnight. Come Alone. Don’t Tell Anyone. Walk In. Sit Down. Say Nothing Until Spoken To. Destroy This Card After Reading.” And while Angel struggled all night and all day with what to do, her curiosity got the best of her, and she was now about to walk through those large green shiny double doors and discover a world that she could never have even imagined.
Angel was the first of her family to actually even go to college. She had worked hard through high school and managed to piece together three separate small scholarships upon graduating, that coupled with what little money her parents could offer to help, and the money she made working off-campus at a trendy clothing store part-time, barely made it so she could pay her tuition and cover her housing, book, and meal expenses.
Her more than humble circumstances are part of what had Angel wondering why someone had gone through the trouble of breaking into her dorm room and leaving that card under her pillow. In the two years that she had been on campus, Angel had never even been to a single sorority or fraternity house. She had never been formally invited to a fraternity or sorority party or other gathering, and quite frankly, she was never really all that interested. That was, however, until she received an invite to the Alpha Omega house. And while Angel had always admired the Alpha Omega girls from afar, it was her generally inquisitive nature that simply would not allow her to pass up the opportunity to see even a glimpse of what went on in the off-campus Alpha Omega house, even if she was never going to be able to talk to anyone at school about it.
So, that evening, after her last class ended at exactly nine o’clock, Angel hurried back to her dorm room, nervously still deciding if she was going to follow the instructions on the card that she had promptly burned in her small metal waste can, using a lighter she kept to light candles, just seconds after reading the card and committing it to memory. Angel’s roommate was off campus for a couple days so she really did not have anyone there to discuss the situation with, even though she might not have mentioned the invite to her roommate at all because the card said to tell no one. Other than her dorm roommate, or maybe her older sister back home, there really was no one else Angel would have discussed the invite with anyway.
All of these thoughts quickly left Angel’s mind as she took her very first step into the house and heard her heels click loudly on the white marble floor entryway. Angel took just that one step inside and stopped right in her tracks, breathing a little heavy due to her quick walk from the front gate in the chilly night air. The lights inside the house were completely off and with just the outside lights, Angel could not really see much, just the white marble floor stretching off into the dark in all directions, the very faint shadow of an open arched doorway to each side of her, a U-shaped white marble wall encircling the entryway, and just as Angel had imagined the inside structure of a house like this to look – imagined because she had never actually been inside a house like this before in her life – a curved staircase on either side in white marble and black rod iron hand rails, disappearing up into the darkness.
It was then that Angel noticed, right where one would expect to see a large table with a large floral arrangement, centered right in the middle of the entryway, there was a single red wood chair with a white cushion, just barely visible enough to make out thanks to the outside lights falling inside the open double doors. It looked just like any other dining room chair, but this one was a bright fire engine red, just like Angel’s lipstick. She thought a moment about how the bright fire engine red lipstick might have been the perfect choice. But then, abruptly, Angel remembered the card that she found under her pillow the night before and its instructions.
Angel quickly made her way over to the chair, being careful not to trip in her heels, and not to scuff the beautiful floor, but also being very mindful of sitting down in the chair as quickly as she could, once she remembered that she had been instructed to do so. As she was sitting, Angel felt like she heard the faint sound of someone shuffle just a little bit on the staircase landing above and behind her, but she dared not turn around and look up. Angel simply sat in the chair as she was instructed, making sure to sit up tall and straight, and looked back out the double doors from where she had just come inside.
Monica Anne Heart stood right in the middle of the staircase landing above, having just shifted her weight in her white six-inch patent leather stiletto heels on the lush, cushiony white upstairs hall carpet. She smiled as she watched Angel nervously sit her cute little butt into the red chair while turning to face back out the wide-open doorway. Monica admired and studied Angel’s movements and what she could see of Angels’ outfit in the pale bathing of the outside lights. It was not an outfit Monica remembered seeing Angel wear before, including the cute purple shiny stiletto heels. Seeing that Angel was wearing a brand-new outfit let Monica know Angel knew exactly how special it was to receive that invitation under her pillow. Monica particularly loved how Angel was sure to still carefully tuck the back of her dress underneath her as she sat, even though she was obviously trying to sit as quickly as possible.
It was a little drafty and slightly chilly that night inside the house, given the wide-open front doorway, but traditions were traditions, and Monica always felt that having the doors open in such an inviting yet contrastingly ominous manner always made for such a powerful first impression on the new girls when they arrived at the house for the first time.
Monica always waited twelve seconds from when the new girl sat on the chair, counting silently in her head as she checked herself over with her eyes, even though she could not see much in the darkness, ensuring not to make any sound with her five-foot-ten-inch, one-hundred-eighty-pound frame during those twelve seconds. Tonight, Monica was wearing her signature royal blue sleeveless skater tank dress that fell far up her thighs – casual, but supercute – with a short white petticoat underneath, her signature white patent leather stiletto heels, and most favorite royal blue lace bra and thong. Monica’s ample C-cup breasts and hard nipples, which she never tired of looking down and seeing, strained against the top of the fit and flare dress and her long, sexy legs protruded downward towards her heels from the very short hemline of the dress. And while she always wore supercute hair accessories in her long black hair and jewelry on her neck, wrists, and fingers, on Invite Night, to ensure there was no glimmer of light off of anything she might be wearing for the new girl’s first steps into the house should she look up, Monica was completely without accessories, which to anyone who knew her, was an extremely rare sight indeed.
Finally reaching a count of twelve in her mind, Monica’s smile turned into a bit of a more sinister grin as she then broke the total silence in the entryway by bellowing in her most authoritative yet still very feminine voice, “Angel Genesis Rivera, why are you here?” Monica was then again completely silent, allowing for the usual pause and reaction time it took once she asked the new girl sitting in the chair each Invite Night why she was there.
Monica loved to note how each of the new girls reacted physically while sitting in the chair, and also, how long it took her to respond. Some girls jumped a little as soon as they heard the voice. Some were so startled that they stood up from the chair. And sometimes, always to Monica’s surprise, some girls even turned around to look up towards where she was standing on the staircase landing above. Needless to say, the girls that were startled enough to get up, and the ones who turned around, were immediately asked to leave. It was honestly a bit rare, but it did happen. According to Alpha Omega rules, a girl must not startle easily, and Monica was very strict about that rule.
Monica watched Angel intently as without any start, without moving, continuing to look out the double doors, Angel replied in a voice loud enough to ensure she was heard, but not shouting – which was the exact tone that Monica was looking for – “I received a…”, but then, Angel stopped herself mid-statement and a second later, re-answered, “I am here because I want to know what goes on in this house.”
Monica nodded a bit, continuing to grin, as Angel’s answer registered in her mind. Hearing those first three words, Monica had become instantly disappointed because answering that she was at the house simply because she had been invited also got a girl immediately turned away. But, having heard the admission of curiosity that Monica was looking for from Angel, her disappointment immediately disappeared.
It was very rare, actually, for a girl that Monica personally chose and invited to the house to be sent away during Invite Night. And according to the extremely detailed sorority records that Monica was one of only two people in the world currently privy enough to view, she had the very best track record with personal invites of all the Alpha Omega sorority co-chairs that had come before her, going all the way back to the sorority’s founding in 1946. And while the early days of the sorority were very different than the sorority Monica co-chaired today, she was still extremely proud to know she not only held that particular record for Invite Nights, but also, that she held the record for being the longest-serving co-chair in sorority history.
Monica held both of those records because she put a lot of time into observing and studying any girl that she personally invited to the Alpha Omega house. The quickest Monica had ever reached a decision to invite a girl, was actually, in fact, with Angel Rivera, whom she had only studied and watched for just under two short months – 59 days to be exact. And yes, Monica was also very mindful of making that decision about Angel in what would be her current record time, beating out her previous record of 60 days very purposefully. And while Monica was always at least semi-recruiting in her mind while she walked around campus, she truly waited to start actually actively recruiting a girl until she knew there was going to be a spot available for a new girl on the 21-girl sorority roster.
And without knowing it, Angel Rivera had actually lucked out. One of Monica’s long-time sorority girls had gotten married and left school mid-semester, both of which were reasons why a girl would be asked to amicably leave the sorority. With Tanya Billings, however, her departure was anything but a surprise and had been a well-planned, albeit sad, celebrated event. Monica definitely understood when a girl moved on, and did her best to be happy for her, but it always created a bit of uncertainty in finding a new girl, which Monica enjoyed in some ways, but completely loathed in others.
So, upon learning that Tanya was officially leaving, the very next day, Monica started the clock on observing for invitation a cute Hispanic girl that she had seen around campus, whom she already knew was named Angel. Following some initial background checking and asking around a bit quietly, Monica spent some of her days dressed-down on campus – undercover if you will – watching Angel’s every move, whether in class, at campus events, study groups, dining, and even during her off-campus work at the clothing store and other off-campus activities.
After having observed potential sorority members for so many years, Monica fancied herself to be a bit of an amateur sleuth. She often joked that she was preparing herself for a future career as a private investigator.
And while Monica had definitely noticed how pretty, sexy, well-dressed, and very presentable Angel Rivera was upon initially seeing her and taking note of her, it was while observing her more thoroughly that Monica became convinced that Angel was Alpha Omega material.
Monica never once saw Angel dressed down. Even when she was going to the laundry mat on campus, or out for a run, Angel looked impeccable. She always looked cute, and she always looked so pretty and so well-put-together. Monica observed Angel handle every challenge in class, every challenge at work, and every challenge in campus life in stride, with dignity and poise, even that time Angel got her skirt caught on a railing while walking up a set of concrete stairs leading into the math building, which not only ripped the skirt on the side but successfully showed everyone who happened to be looking her way, including Monica, the cute little pair of royal blue satin and lace thong panties Angel was wearing that day.
Everything Monica observed about Angel – her demeanor, how she interacted with others throughout the day, how she handled guys hitting on her, how she managed her time, how she managed her limited resources – completely impressed her. And while Monica felt she had a pretty good grasp of Angel’s life, she was still even further impressed the night she used her campus master key to sneak into Angel’s room and leave the Alpha Omega Invite Night Card under Angel’s pillow – a chore that Monica always did personally so she could make one last final snoop of the girl’s room before actually placing the card under her pillow. Needless to say, by the night Monica was in Angel’s room to leave the card and was curiously going through everything in Angel’s room for a third time, including Angel’s closet and panty drawer, Monica was just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
More importantly, though, when Monica dug into Angel’s family life and background, she saw what she was really looking for in a girl to replace Tanya – a humble upbringing, modest means, just enough financial headwinds to make her eager and hungry, and a loving family that Angel would jump at the chance to give a better life. In fact, Monica was convinced Angel was her next sorority girl long before the 59 days, but Monica was always overly-cautious when it came to recruiting since secrecy at the sorority was so vital to its continued operation.
Amanda Nguyen grinned a bit to herself, just as Monica was doing up at the center of the top of the staircase landing. Amanda stood just inside of the arched doorway on the right side of the Alpha Omega house’s entryway. As the other co-chair of the sorority, beautiful Amanda was a five-foot-five, 110-pound aura of gorgeous cuteness, and was also wearing her signature outfit that night as well, a tight, short, silky little black dress with cute little sleeves and a short slit on the right leg. Not having to worry about any light glimmering off of her like Monica did, Amanda was fully done up with accessories and jewelry – a lovely black flower headband, beautiful sparkling rhinestone earrings, necklace, and bracelet, and her two rings she always wore. Amanda’s long dark hair was perfectly wavy for the occasion and she looked so magnificent in her bright red lipstick and black six-inch patent leather stiletto high heels – the same exact lipstick, and the same shoes Monica was wearing, just in black instead of white. And naturally, like Monica, Amanda was also wearing her favorite bra and thong set for the night – black velvet.
Having heard and also loved Angel’s answer to Monica’s question, Amanda was just about to step out from the doorway as planned for the next step in the Invite Night Ceremony, but abruptly stopped in her tracks when she suddenly heard Monica’s bellowing, authoritative voice call down with a second question – completely unorthodox and completely surprising to Amanda.
“And what do you think goes on in this house, Angel Genesis Rivera?” Monica asked.
Angel answered immediately, in the same strong tone of her first answer. “Whatever it is, I just hope I am dressed appropriately for it.”
Amanda took a second to register what Angel had just answered as she felt such further surprise to hear Monica up on the staircase landing chuckle a bit at the answer. Amanda wasn’t sure if she should proceed out of the doorway now, as was the usual next step for the ceremony, so she gave it a few seconds to see if Monica was going to ask Angel anything else.
Finally convinced that Monica was done, Amanda stepped through the doorway towards Angel as she sat there in the chair. The second Amanda emerged, Angel’s eyes shifted right to her and after a puzzled look for the first few seconds, Angel smiled. It was the same relief that Amanda always saw on the new girl’s face when she emerged through the doorway to be the first member of the sorority to greet her. Amanda had even asked some of the girls once they had been long-time members of the sorority about that moment and they all said that seeing a young female dressed well and smiling always immediately put them at ease after the uncertainty of every second that had passed from when they found their Invite Night Card under their pillow until they saw Amanda come through the doorway. Amanda was so happy to know that she was the first friendly face the girls saw and that her presence provided them with such relief.
When Amanda was close enough to the chair to reach Angel, she outstretched her open right hand, and as usual, without question, the sitting new girl reached up and took her hand. “Please rise and stand with me,” Amanda said, continuing to smile.
Amanda took particular note of just how beautiful Angel really was as the new girl returned her smile from her sitting position and then stood up next to Amanda, taking the cue to face towards the staircase as Amanda was doing. Then, as soon as Angel had turned, Amanda saw the next step in the ceremony beginning. There were lights that began to flicker ever so faintly up on the second story of the house, and then, one by one, each of the members of the sorority – all twenty girls – ten on each side – emerged to the side of Monica up on the staircase landing, single-file, each carrying a lit candle at different stages of having been burned, some newer than others. Each girl then carefully descended the side of the curving staircase from which she had emerged above, ultimately stopping with an empty step between them, taking up the full length of the staircase on both sides.
No matter how many times she saw it, the sight was such a thing to behold for Amanda. Twenty absolutely flawlessly beautiful girls, completely done up in cute dresses, heels, and all the trimmings, each in a different color, standing and facing her and the new girl, lit candle in hand, shining brilliantly in nothing but the candle light.
Amanda was always careful to observe the new girl’s demeanor when she saw the sorority members emerge and take their positions on both sides of the staircase. Amanda was always so happy to see the new girl enjoying and relishing in the amazing sight as much as she was. Amanda observed that Angel was no exception, her smile beaming ear to ear, her excited yet still composed hand, slightly squeezing and slightly shaking Amanda’s hand as she held it.
Knowing what was coming next, Amanda’s eyes looked right to Monica’s as she was now much more visible at the top of the staircase landing in the candlelight. Amanda recited the words with Monica in her head as Monica said, this time in her normal voice, looking right at Angel, “Angel Rivera, welcome to Alpha Omega House. Tonight, you are our guest.”
