ONE MONTH LATER

Amy swung her head from side to side, stretching out her neck muscles, as she and Megan approached the First Year corridor, each of them holding up one end of their hanging platform, carrying it again back to their room after using it in another practice session with Linda and Laney. Two platforms were needed for that.

Megan watched Amy closely. "How's it feel?"

Amy grinned. "Getting better. My neck was killing me the first few days, but I'm getting used to the extra weight. We can add some more tonight." In their own room that evening, she and Megan would each spend part of their hanging practice with extra weights hung from their waists, preparing their neck muscles to hold much more than their own individual body weights while hanging. They did that each evening, while afternoon sessions were spent in Linda's and Laney's room, with their two Second Year friends spotting for them as they worked out some choreography for their "pairs hanging."

Amy stopped suddenly as they entered the First Year hallway, throwing Megan off balance. Megan began, "What..." Then she realized what Amy was seeing, or not seeing. "Huh."

Amy frowned. "Yeah. Where is everybody?"

At this time of day, though classes were over, it wasn't unusual for much of the dorm's population to be missing -- gone to the gym, or the library, or relaxing in the courtyard taking in some sun... But since the start of the year neither Amy nor Megan had ever before seen it as a ghost town, utterly without sound or movement.

Megan looked from side to side wonderingly. "We must have missed an announcement. Or could we both have forgotten a meeting we're supposed to go to?"

Amy shrugged, wide-eyed. "Let's get this put away," she jiggled the platform, "And start looking around."

They looked first in the demo room, which was likewise deserted. Once they got within earshot of the cafeteria, it was obvious that this was where everyone had gone. Amy's eyes lit up. "One of the teachers must have been sold!"

Megan frowned in puzzlement. "Seems like we would have heard about that in the Second Year dorm."

Looking in from the door, Amy could see the caf was nearly wall-to-wall girls: it appeared all of the First Years were there, a few upper class girls, more Third Years than Second, and more red "graduate" uniforms were present than she had ever seen in one place -- as far as Amy could tell, all of the living graduates were there. There were clusters of girls around tables with half-filled pizza boxes and cans of soft drinks, and one large knot of girls near one end of the room. Amy tried in vain to see who the focus of attention was. She walked into the room with Megan and tapped a classmate named Rita on the shoulder. "Who?"

Rita quickly swallowed a mouthful of pizza and laughed. "Where've you been?"

"Second Year dorm. Who's the party for?"

Rita glowed at the chance to impart exciting news to someone in the dark. "Gail!"

Amy and Megan both gasped. Amy stared at Rita, her mouth wide open. "You're kidding!"

Rita shook her head. "For real! She's over there. Go say hi." Rita gestured vaguely with her pizza at the largest knot of girls.

That explained the composition of the crowd in the room. Only a few of the upper-class girls knew Gail, and she or Bridget had probably invited the ones who did individually, but no First Year girl would miss a party for one of their dorm sisters.

Taking Megan's hand as they approached the edge of the crowd, Amy began cautiously shouldering her way in apologetically, hearing Gail's distinctive giggle above the chattering voices occasionally. At last the way parted and Gail was in front of Amy, standing with Bridget beside her and several other graduates nearby. Gail was talking to Jackie, with Erin, quiet as usual, standing next to her. Gail's face lit up on seeing Amy and Megan. "Hi! I was just thinking I hadn't seen you two!"

Jackie gave Amy some room, and Amy grinned and gave Gail a tight hug. After she let go, Megan, after looking uncertain for a moment, put her arms around Gail and gave her a squeeze. Megan would probably never be the hugging type outside of sexual play, but she knew what was expected. Amy saw Jackie giving Megan her usual skeptical look, and noticed Megan, out of the corner of her eye, had seen the look as well -- Amy could see Megan's jaw tighten slightly, and Megan's hand reached out for Amy's again and gave it a crushing squeeze that told Amy that Megan was trying not to react any more visibly. To Amy it was a sign of Megan's progress that it had been weeks since Megan had needed this outlet for her tension.

Amy, for her part, was almost dancing with excitement, imagining herself in Gail's place, the hanging she had trained so long for now so imminent. "So tell me all about it! When are you swinging?"

"This Saturday! I can't believe it's so close now. The carpenters and other crew are already supposed to be over at my owner's house, putting up the gallows and my prep tent and all that in her yard."

"Oh, so a woman bought you..." Amy frowned suddenly. "Ummm, her name's not Grace Millan, is it?"

Gail and Bridget both laughed. Gail sputtered, "Oh, Amy, you got Grace at the party, didn't you? I felt like we should warn all you guys about her, but Bridget said there was no point, if she wants you you have to take her anyway. But no, Grace didn't buy me. I'm hanging for a really sweet lady named Barbara Costman. She owns that chain of clothing boutiques, 'Now Girl,' and she's doing this as a treat for her store managers. And I'm sure she'll invite close friends too -- you know how it is. She says I'll have a pretty big crowd to watch me die."

"Which scene are you going to do?"

"Well, I wound up with the 'Runaway Slave.' When I first started looking at scenes I leaned towards the 'Assassin's Execution' thing, but Bridget convinced me I didn't look mean enough to be an assassin." She giggled and rubbed her shoulder fondly against her roommate's, who laughed. "Anyway, Bridge is going to be my executioner, of course, and I'm taking along a couple of Third Years, Terri and... what's her name, Audra. They'll be other slaves, and they'll do all this weeping and wailing when they see me brought back to be punished for escaping. That's a new thing they're doing this year. The dean wants upper class girls to participate in a hanging before they graduate. He hinted he got the idea from one of the incoming students, of all things!"

"Uhhh..." Amy wasn't sure how to respond. "How about that." She didn't feel a need to claim credit. Just knowing she had put her mark on the process was enough. To change the subject, she said, "I wish we could eat you, but I know it doesn't work that way."

"Oh!!" Gail's eyes glowed. "It's funny you'd mention that, I was just going to say. Barbara knows how all of us over here get really close, and she's going to send a cut of my meat over here! Not very big, probably from my arm, and I imagine you'll each only get like one bite from it. But it'll be me!"

Amy impulsively hugged her again. "That's great! And you know it doesn't matter how much it is. It'll just be nice knowing you're inside all of us. You already are, really, but I mean physically."

Gail brushed aside a tear. "Thank you, that's SO sweet. And..." She hesitated, looking now back and forth between Amy and Megan with a serious face. "Listen, I was hoping to get a chance to tell you two. I'm sorry I had to come down so hard on you, that day. I mean, that's my job, but it's not easy for me to be like that."

Amy laughed. "It is when you get as mad as you were." She unconsciously rubbed her hand against her butt, almost feeling the swats again and pushing aside the memory.

Gail nodded and laughed. "Well, yeah." She looked at Megan, who hadn't spoken yet. "So are we okay?"

Megan blinked, seeming surprised at the question. She reached beside her and took Amy's hand again, rubbing her palm against Amy's and lacing her fingers through Amy's. "Gail, that was... the best thing that's ever happened in my life." She looked to the side and locked eyes with Amy, while reaching out to give Gail a one-armed hug. Then she looked back at Gail and gave her a sincere smile.

Gail looked at her wide-eyed, momentarily speechless. "Ummm, okay then."

Amy, also, was looking at Megan in surprise, feeling a sudden strong urge to throw her arms around Megan and kiss her. She fought it down -- it would be rude to take the attention away from Gail. Giving her head a shake to clear it, Amy looked at Gail's roommate. "Bridget, you're not going to be dorm sister by yourself, are you?"

"Oh, no! Like I could handle all you guys by myself?" She laughed. "Denise is going to share with me."

"Great! She's still going to teach breath control, right?"

"Oh, sure! That's the thing about being a graduate, we all get busier as there get to be fewer of us."

Gail elbowed Bridget playfully. "Tell her about those daily room inspections Denise wants to do." She and Bridget both laughed at the expressions on all the First Year faces around them. Gail confessed, "I just made that up."

Gail looked around at the now-thinning crowd, and back at Amy and Megan. "You two better get pizza while there's any left."

Amy and Megan gradually oozed their way out of Gail's vicinity, the crowd closing in behind them. Amy examined the nearest table laden with now nearly-empty boxes. In honor of the occasion, all of the pizzas included girlmeat among their toppings. Amy asked Rebecca, who was picking out a piece, "Is that leftover Gina?" Gina had just been hanged at a demo the previous Friday.

Rebecca shrugged. "Nobody said, but I doubt it. I think we pretty much finished her off Friday night. And they wouldn't have known this was coming, to save any of her. I think it's store-bought."

Amy waved her hand at the boxes and asked Megan, "You in a pizza mood?"

Megan looked distracted, and seemed at that moment to make up her mind about something. She leaned closer and murmured very softly in Amy's ear, "Hon, would it be okay if I invited Jackie and Erin to spend the night with us?"

Amy did a double take, and knew how astonished she must have looked. Megan had never invited anyone for an overnight, and Amy had respected her roommate's privacy by never inviting anyone either -- their overnights with Linda and Laney had been spent in their friends' Second Year dorm room. Realizing her delay in answering might be taken by Megan as discouragement, Amy at last said, "Oh, sure! That'd be great!"

Amy watched as Megan walked over to Jackie, who had left the knot of people around Gail and was pouring herself a soft drink in a paper cup. Jackie's startlement as Megan leaned over and whispered something in her ear quickly changed to that same stunned expression Amy imagined she'd had on her own face. Jackie looked around the room quickly and spotted Amy, who smiled, shrugged to indicate Megan was doing this on her own, and nodded that it was okay.

The four girls sat on the bed in Amy's and Megan's room, pretending to be absorbed in the movie on television, in which the heroine had infiltrated an outlaw group of antisocial women who had banded together to evade the food draft. Jackie and Erin had sat on the bed together, propping their backs against the wall and stretching their legs across the width of the bed. Megan had taken a place beside Jackie, and looked up at Amy as Amy had started to sit on the other side of Megan. To Amy's surprise, Megan gave her a slight headshake and pointed to her left, indicating she wanted Amy to sit on the far side of Erin. Amy gave Megan a small nod and did so, continuing to wonder what was up. Megan usually wanted Amy nearby when she had to deal with anyone else on a personal level.

As the movie's final credits rolled, Amy leaned forward slightly to look around Erin and Jackie and watch Megan. She could see the signs of tension in Megan -- her hands pressed palms together to keep them from balling into fists, the slight clenching of her jaw muscles as she fought to keep from showing any signs of nervousness. Amy had to fight with herself to keep from getting up to... do something, whatever was needed to drain off Megan's tension, but it was so clear that Megan wanted to handle this herself.

After a few moments of general uncomfortable silence, Megan turned to Jackie and said, "I know you don't trust me."

Jackie blinked in surprise. Whatever she'd been expecting, it hadn't been anything quite so blunt. "Ummm... What do you mean?"

Megan looked to the ceiling as if the words she wanted might be found there. "You've seen me... acting differently, lately, and you don't think it's for real." The reading of Jackie's thoughts was a statement, not a question. Megan looked back at Jackie. "I've seen those looks you give me."

Jackie reddened, as if she hadn't intended to have been quite so obvious about it. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just thinking... well, nobody changes that much, so fast."

Megan leaned forward, smiling suddenly, as if she'd got the response she wanted. "But that's just it. I haven't changed. Everything that's made me what I am, for as long as I can remember, that hasn't changed at all. I'm going to be the best Hanging Girl ever. Everything I've done since long before I got here, and after I got here, and now, is pointed towards that. I'm... going about it differently, lately, because Amy showed me a better way to get there. So what you see on the outside might look different. But it's really me, as much as anything you saw before was really me." She tapped her chest with both hands. "What's on the inside is written in stone. It's always been there, and it'll always be there. I want you to understand that much about me, because then you'll understand everything there is to know about me."

Amy was leaning far enough forward that she could see that Jackie's eyes were wide, and fixed on Megan. In a tiny voice, Jackie asked, "Why do you want me to understand you?"

Megan was looking back just as fixedly. "Because I want us to be friends. I know you've been Amy's friend since we all got here. I know Amy would like it if you and I could be friends too, but this isn't about making Amy happy." She reached down and took Jackie's hand, and Jackie, though obviously startled, didn't jerk it away. "It's just that I trust Amy's judgment, and if you're Amy's friend, that tells me you'd be a good friend to have."

Jackie, sounding almost hypnotized, murmured, "Maybe you'd be a good friend too."

Megan suddenly beamed at her. "Amy! Want to show them what we've been working on?" She looked excitedly at Jackie. "You'd be the first ones in our class to know about this. Keep it to yourselves, for now, okay?"

Amy shook herself out of a trance of her own. Of all the members of the First Year class, Megan had known that Jackie would be the first one Amy would want to share this with. She jumped excitedly off the bed and pulled the hanging platform to the center of the room, under the noose, while Megan got their equipment out of the dresser drawers, and Jackie and Erin looked on, mystified. Reflexively, Amy popped off her bra and pulled her shorts and panties off -- whatever the circumstances, it was hard to imagine hanging any other way than naked.

Megan looked at Amy, and saw she was already undressed. "Okay, you go first." She handed Amy the belt, which Amy fastened around her waist. Megan grunted as she lifted the first weight and hung it on the belt next to Amy's hip. Erin, startled out of her usual silence, blurted, "What in the hell are you guys doing?"

Megan continued hanging weights on Amy's belt. "We're working on strengthening our neck muscles. We're both up to forty pounds now. The goal is to handle a hundred extra pounds in about another month."

Jackie shook her head. "Supposedly that doesn't really help. They've found that just holding your own body weight is enough to condition the muscles."

Amy made her own negative gesture. "Not for what we're going to do." She went on to explain.

Sleep released Amy for a moment, and she opened her eyes in the darkened room. She stifled a giggle as she realized her dream of floating on the ocean was probably caused by the slow rise and fall of the sleeping Erin's chest underneath her head. Amy felt the soft rubbing of Megan's hip against her own, as Megan lay beside her on the bed on top of Jackie. Megan's head was turned towards Amy, and presently Amy saw Megan's eyes open to squint at her. Amy smiled at her roommate and mouthed "Thank you."

Megan returned Amy's sleepy smile, and whispered, "Love you."

Amy heard Jackie's breathing change, and knew her friend had awakened. Jackie mumbled, "What's up?"

Moving as little as possible, Amy leaned over and kissed Jackie, Megan moving her head aside to give her room. "Shhh, 's nothing. Sorry. Don't wake Erin."

Erin raised her arm and put her hand behind Amy's head, pulling her more snugly against her breasts. Amy gave a short laugh. "Guess we're all awake now."

She felt Megan's shoulder rub hers. "Want to switch?"

Amy smiled. "Sure." She lifted herself off of Erin to let Megan slide over onto her, then climbed over Megan and onto Jackie, wrapping her arms around her friend and slipping her right leg between Jackie's. She looked down at Jackie, smiling. "Missed you."

Jackie said softly, "Me too," and pulled Amy's head down onto hers for a long, soft kiss.