This story was originally posted to DeviantArt on March 15, 2010.
Meghan shut the door to her room and kicked off her shoes. The room was empty. She had lucked out with the random roommate selection, and gotten someone who went home every weekend. So she had the room to herself until the evening, which she was thankful for.
She groaned, rubbing her head and trying to ease the hangover. She staggered over to her bed, and lay down on her back, staring at the ceiling. Slowly her fingers drifted from her temples down to the metal band that circled her neck. It felt perfectly natural; she could easily forget it was there. It seemed to flex with her skin, and when she swallowed, it didn't get any tighter.
She reached up, and twisted the ring to the right, as Amanda had done, and felt a separation form along the middle of the metal band. The ease of it took her by surprise, and her head fell off her neck onto the pillow. "Oof!" she muttered.
She still felt normal. She was able to breathe, and see, only now her head was no longer attached to her neck. She picked up her head and tried not to get disoriented as she lifted it into the air, then turned it around to face her headless body. Wow, she thought, freaky. She got up carefully, walking across the room and set her head down on her desk. The bottom of her neck was flat, and as her fingers brushed it she felt a shiver of pleasure through her spine. Renee had been right about the sensitivity; she would have to explore that later.
Now, watching from her vantage point on the desk, she tried walking up and down the length of the room. She grinned, swishing her hips and doing a little twirl like a model on a catwalk. She laughed at the sight of her headless body twirling and sashaying; she was still dressed in the sexy lingerie she had worn to the party last night, and she admired the curves of her body. Somehow, it looked sexier from this vantage point. Not because her head was ugly, but because whenever she looked at herself in the mirror, it was "her", and all her emotional baggage and self-confidence issues factored into her appraisal of her looks. From here, across the room, it was as though her body was not really part of her, and she was able to evaluate her looks more objectively, the way somebody else would. She grinned, feeling a boost of self-confidence, and laughed as she made her body do a little pirouette.
Just then there was a knock on the door and Meghan hurried her body back over to her head. "Who is it?"
"It's Renee!"
"Oh," Meghan was about to pick up her head, but instead, she sat her body down in the chair and left her head where it was. "Come on in."
Renee walked in the door, dressed in a t-shirt and tight jeans, her dark red hair tied back in a ponytail. She had two arms now, and seemed more… well, more together than their last encounter.
"Hey, Meghan." She saw Meghan's head in its detached state and grinned. "I see you're having fun. Have a good time at the party last night?"
Meghan crossed her eyes, struggling to remember. "Yeah," she said. "I think I did pretty well. Mara doesn't like me, though."
"Bah," Renee waved her hand, and Meghan caught a glint of the nearly-invisible seam around her wrist, where the sunlight from the window glanced off the thin band of metal. "Mara doesn't like anyone, at least not 'til they sleep with her. Don't sweat it." Renee walked over and sat in the chair by her roommate's desk. "So I saw you drinking with Pam last night. She's pretty cool, isn't she?"
Meghan blushed as she recalled what little she could of the experience. "Yeah, she was nice."
"She likes to 'induct' the new pledges, particularly the ones she likes." Renee chuckled. "So you've got her on your good side, at least. But we still have to worry about Mara."
Meghan noticed her friend's use of the word 'we', and couldn't help but grin. It was good to know Renee had her back. "Any ideas?"
"Well, for four days this week, all the pledges will be spending a day with a sister, and then rotating to a different sister each morning. So you'll be spending four days with four different people, and each day they get to use rings to shape you however they want." Renee was fidgeting with the band around her hand, detaching and reattaching it as she talked. "But I know the girl in charge of setting the schedule, and was able to finagle it so you're with some of the most influential people. You're with Amanda the first day, Mara the second, and a girl named Kaitlyn on the third. She's nice, you'll like her. She's Mara's backup on the social committee. Then you're with me on the fourth. I'm not exactly influential, but I'll put in a good word for you. And besides, I couldn't resist getting you for a day." She grinned.
"Thanks, Renee." Meghan smiled, and tried not to blush again. But Mara? She seems harsh."
"Oh, she always is. Her secret goal is to try to get pledges to quit, I think, so she probably has something degrading in mind. But if you don't quit at the end of her day, it's a win. It's definitely the best way to prove yourself. I was with Mara last year, and it's what got me in."
"What did she have you do? Or do I even want to know?"
Renee looked up at the ceiling and laughed. "Oh, she put me in the skimpiest string bikini she could find, then vanished my legs and attached my feet right to my torso. And then she vanished my arms, and attached my hands right to my shoulders."
Meghan tried not to be too distracted by the mental image of Renee in a skimpy bikini, with her fiery hair cascading down over her bare shoulders, her full breasts barely contained by a tiny bit of fabric, and her hourglass figure totally on display… she pushed the mental image aside for later retrieval, and rejoined the conversation. "Well, that doesn't sound too bad."
"Then she tied a leash to my neck and made me walk down to the student center in the middle of the morning rush. And I had to attend all her classes with her like that."
Meghan winced in sympathy. "Ouch."
"I basically had to waddle like a penguin around campus. Yeah, it was hard, but it was only for a day. You can handle anything for a day, right?"
She tried to put on a strong face, but only managed to grin weakly. "I guess."
"Just look at it as fun. And besides, you may get laughed at, but in reality, most of the student body will be insanely jealous of you." Renee grinned. "We're one of the most exclusive, well-known groups on campus, and not just because of our parties. Most students don't get to use real magic until their senior year, and even then it's pretty tame. On the other hand, we… well, you already know."
Meghan nodded as best as she could with her still-detached head sitting on the desk.
Renee looked her in the eye, and suddenly grinned. "College is gonna be so fun," she said. "The two of us, together, in Delta Theta… it's gonna be awesome. Just like high school, but better."
Meghan laughed at the memories. "You haven't changed. Always scheming, always dreaming up the next big idea…" she couldn't help but smile. "Always getting me in trouble…"
"Ah," Renee winked, "you know you enjoyed it."
"Yeah, I usually went along with it in the end." Meghan's smile grew wider. "You know, senior year was totally boring without you there."
Renee laughed. "I knew you'd just revert back to your usual ol' smart self without me there as a bad influence. You probably even got Straight A's."
"Yeah, I did, actually." Meghan blushed. "But the admissions counselor really liked it. Said it was good that I didn't have a senior slump."
"Makes me wonder how I got in. My senior year was the worst grades I ever got, and that's saying something." Renee leaned back in the chair and grinned. "Anyway, don't sweat this whole pledge week too much. For the next few days, just go with the flow. Do what the other sisters tell you, don't balk at doing anything, and you'll get in fine." She grinned, her face lighting up in that mischievous, half-cocked grin that Meghan had always been unable to resist. "That's how they weed out most people, you know. They want girls who'll go along with anything. Makes it more fun." There was a mischievous sparkle in her friend eye, that half-cocked grin that Meghan had always loved, and she knew without a doubt she would do whatever it took to get in.
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