Charise followed the sounds of synthesized video game music and male voices verbally sparring, and she soon found herself in the campus game room. She smirked, as she always did, when she caught sight of the chubby long-haired worker, Jessica DeSidiro, also known as Valo.

Christ, she’s ugly, Charise thought. This is college-- why doesn’t she do like normal people-- lose some weight, lose the glasses, and hack off a few feet of hair?

She watched as Valo circulated around the room, making a comment to one young man, briefly hugging another as he passed by, mildly scolding a third for playing music too loudly. Charise rolled her eyes. She derives her confidence from the attention of these guys. No wonder she’s acting like a total attention whore! Even though we are friends… kind of… I guess.

Valo smiled and approached Charise. “Hey, what can I help you with?” she asked, greeting the slim young woman.

“English help,” Charise replied. “I need help with rewriting an essay for English, and I remember in psych you mentioned that you really liked writing, so I thought…”

“Mm… I’ll see what I can do,” Valo responded. “I’m kind of busy at the moment, making sure no one gets killed. But I get off work in a few minutes. We can discuss the assignment while I head to class.”

“Sure. Which class?”

“Women’s studies.”

Charise groaned. “Urgh. I don’t want to take that class, ever. Full of those psych femiNazis… must be hell for you.”

Valo gave her an angry glare. “Actually, I am a feminist, and there’s no ‘femiNazis’ in the class.”


Crap, Charise thought. Now she really won’t help me. And Cy told me she’s scary when she hates you.

“Valo’s the kind of person who keeps her friends close and her enemies closer,” Cy had explained. “Her ex, Chad Guapo, is still on good terms with her, and between the two of them, they know most of the student and teacher population. Your reputation can easily be stained if they say the right things to the right people”

Doubtful, Charise thought, but still, she wasn’t going to take anymore risks, just in case.

“Sorry,” Charise said apologetically. “I tend to speak without thinking.”

“Mm, I guess,” Valo replied. “I just don’t like when people assume things like that.” She glanced at her cell phone. “Let me sign out and get out of uniform, and we’ll talk English assignments, hm?”

Without waiting for a reply, Valo tossed a key to a similarly uniformed young woman and hurried out of the room. Three minutes later, she returned, wearing a different outfit and with her hair hanging freely.

“Wore ‘em under my uniform,” she explained, indicating her clothes. “So, shall we?”


The duo walked across the campus, discussing word choices and editing ideas. As they approached their destination, they simultaneously spotted a young woman handing out pamphlets.

“Wonder what cause they’ll try to force on us,” Charise muttered.

“They try to force anything on us, and they get to meet Evil Jess,” Valo replied.

They had no choice but to walk past the girl to enter the building. The girl beamed at Charise and Valo as they came closer. “Do you love animals?” she chirped.



Valo glanced down at the pamphlet the girl held out. “Vegan, eh?” Valo said aloud. She looked the girl up and down. Charise braced herself, waiting for the worst. “Let me guess,” Valo continued. “You’re going to tell me that animals are tortured and slaughtered mercilessly for the sake of heartless meat-eating humans?” The girl nodded eagerly, eyes bright. “Well, honey, let me tell you, I love animals, especially of the ‘well-done’ variety. In fact, right now, I think I’ll go get a pepperoni pizza and some chicken and wash it all down with a big glass of milk.” The girl glowered, but when Valo continued to stare, the girl lowered her head, abashed. “Let me guess, they made you do this for freshman-level environmental science class, something like that?” The girl nodded. Valo sighed and continued, “Look, honey, it’s not the dumb animals you need to worry about. I mean, if you let those farm-raised animals out in the wild, do you really think they’ll survive very long? You need to worry about the smart animals.”

“Smart animals?” the girl replied.

“Yeah,” Valo responded. “Women, for instance. We’re oppressed, expected to live up to unrealistic standards imposed upon us by the media, we’re generally paid less than men, treated as second-class citizens, and if we choose to ever deviate from what is ‘normal’ for women, we’re ostracized.”

The girl gaped at Valo and whispered, “I didn’t realize it was so bad.”

“People seldom do.” Valo patted the girl’s shoulder. “You don’t have to do this bullsh*t. Go show people what really matters.”

The girl nodded, eyes bright. “Yeah, I’ll do that,” she replied eagerly, hurrying off.

Valo smirked as the girl tossed the pamphlets into the trash can. She turned to Charise and remarked, “I love f**king with people like her.”

“What, with PETA people?”


“No. With people who will believe anything you tell them. If I told her that ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ was a religious allegory, I bet she’d have believed me.”

Charise raised an eyebrow. So Valo really was as brutal as she was rumored to be. “How’d you know she’d be that way?” she asked.

Valo smirked and rolled her eyes. “The cutesy bows and the designer sundress. Not exactly protester-type material, you know? More along the lines of ‘Look at me, hot guys, I’m political and stuff!’ If she’d actually been serious about it, you know, I would have listened. Wouldn’t have changed my views, but I’d have kept my comments to myself. I’m not totally evil, y’know.”

Charise chuckled awkwardly. Does she know what I’m thinking? she thought nervously.

“I need to get to class. See you afterwards?” Valo asked.

“Yeah, okay.”

“By the way, there’s going to be an event sponsored by the women’s studies department… I know you’re not into the whole feminist scene, but you should still come by and check things out. It’ll be fun, promise.”

“I’ll see about it. My boyfriend’s pretty demanding of my time,” Charise replied with a chuckle.

“Boyfriend? Does he go here?”

“Yeah, he’s a grad student. I think he was a TA a few years ago.”

Valo chuckled. “Did you fall for him while he was teaching you or something?”

Charise averted her gaze. “Something like that.”

“So, who is this guy?”

“You probably don’t know him.”

“Look, I’m older than you-- I'm all of twenty years old, albeit with the maturity level of a middle-aged woman. I know a lot more people on campus than you think. Spill.”

“Fine,” Charise replied. “Dunstan Diggory.”

Valo’s eyes narrowed to slits. “You don’t say,” she intoned. “Well, I need to be going. Can’t afford to get a tardy, y’know.” She scurried into the building, and Charise stared after her, puzzled.

“I wonder what got into her,” she muttered.