Amy shifted her weight a tiny bit. Her neck muscles weren't really feeling tired yet in the neck trainer, but the enforced immobility did get to her after a time, and she was beginning to have difficulty focusing on her reading. Megan, sitting on the bed with her back against the wall, her hand absently rubbing Amy's ankle, looked up. "Am I bothering you?"

Amy, unable to shake her head, managed a guttural "Uh-uh," with a smile. She pointed towards the clock on the desk, which she couldn't turn her head to see.

Megan looked to the clock. "Just over an hour."

Amy gave a minimal shrug, holding up ten fingers, indicating that Megan should tell her when another ten minutes had passed.

Both of them were startled by a knock at the door. A mostly-suppressed giggle on the other side of the door sounded like Linda's. Megan called out, "Come."

The door opened, and Laney leaned in, stopping in the doorway, looking as if she were striving mightily to prevent a huge grin from breaking out on her face.

Amy's eyes suddenly shot wide open. She pointed at Laney, and tried to lever herself upward with one hand. Failing, she flailed her arms in confusion for a moment, her body trying to do twenty things at once, before she at last gripped the handholds with both hands and pushed herself upward, and was able to gasp out, "You got one!!" She unhooked the trainer with a trembling hand, and at last sat forward. "Right?"

Behind Laney, Linda burst out, "I told you she'd know!" Both girls started laughing delightedly.

Megan was already off the bed, her jaw hanging open. "What, you mean you're sold already?"

Laney shook her head. "I met with them today and we worked out some details. I said I wanted to think about it tonight, so they're coming back tomorrow. But I already know it's what I want!"

Amy bounced off the bed and threw her arms around Laney. Gripping her tightly, she said excitedly, "This is so cool! Oh, you said 'They.' Is some company buying you or something?" She let go of Laney and backed up, wanting to see her face and hear every word.

Laney shook her head again. "A sorority, at the university. Delta Rho. The senior girls put on a show every year, and this year they thought up one where they needed a Hanging Girl! Several of them just got access to their trust funds, at least that's what it sounded like, and they pooled enough money together. And they want me!!" Laney was bouncing in place on the floor, her fists pumping.

Amy hugged Laney again, and kissed her. "So are you the Assassin?"

"No! They wrote their own script. It's really cute. I'll show it to you later. They picked me out for it, out of the picture book." She giggled, "They told the dean I looked 'cute and studious.' "

Megan wrinkled her nose. " 'Studious'? They want that for a hanging??"

Laney laughed. "I said I'll tell you later. But I wanted to ask -- would you guys come with me tomorrow when I meet with them again?" She looked back and forth between Amy and Megan.

Amy frowned uncertainly. "We can do that?"

Laney nodded emphatically. "Oh, sure! A lot of the girls take their roommates to the negotiation, if they're still alive. And I asked the dean if you could come too, and he said that's fine! And I know if I forget to ask something, you'll remember it for me." She was looking at Amy as she said this. Amy suspected that Laney wanted her in particular, but knew she probably wouldn't come without Megan.

Amy looked at Megan. Megan nodded and said, "I was hoping I could go to one soon. You know it'll help when our own turn comes."

Amy turned back to Laney, grinning. "Sure. What time?"

"They're coming at one. Is that okay? We can have lunch together and then go to the dean's office."

Amy nodded. "We don't have anything. It wouldn't last past three, right? We've got a class then."

Laney spread her arms out to hug both Amy and Megan. "I'm so glad you can be there!"

Linda said, "Let's all wear shades. We'll look scary. That's the way to negotiate." They all laughed.

The girls arranged themselves in the conference room as the dean had suggested -- Laney alone sitting at the table, along one of the long sides, with Linda, Amy, and Megan in chairs behind her, facing four empty chairs on the other side as they awaited the arrival of the sorority girls. Dean Porter, waiting with them at the head of the table, had answered Amy's question, telling her that she, Linda, and Megan were allowed to speak, but that they should bear in mind that it was Laney's hanging being discussed, and that they must defer to her wishes on any point of negotiation. Amy felt that that went without saying.

Amy marveled at the knowledge that her own father had once sat in this same room, across from Miranda, succeeding in persuading her to put on a show for his son.

Linda sat with her arms folded, showing the dean a mock pout. "I still think you should let us wear the shades, Sir."

The dean gave her a small smile. "Frightening the customer has not been found to be an ideal strategy." The girls laughed, stopping suddenly as the intercom buzzed.

The dean leaned towards it, "Yes, Tina?"

The voice of Tina, the dean's secretary, issued through the speaker. "Our clients from Delta Rho are here."

"Show them in, please."

Laney, and Amy, Linda, and Megan behind her, stood politely, as did the dean, as Tina ushered four slightly nervous but determined-looking girls into the conference room. Amy realized suddenly she had probably lost track of what girls her own age were wearing now. Each of the sorority girls was wearing a short pleated skirt, the colors varying, and a white buttoned long-sleeved shirt with the collar turned up, each with a red scarf around the collar knotted in front. Perhaps that isn't a universal current style, Amy speculated. Maybe this is how they dress when they're officially representing the sorority.

Amy and the others, of course, were wearing their Academy uniforms. Only Laney had made any special preparations, having stopped by the hairdresser, asking them to make her look more "cute and studious," if they could somehow figure out what that entailed. Amy had to agree, afterward, that they had succeeded in some undefinable way.

The sorority girls all looked a little surprised at seeing so many Academy girls in the room. One of them, dark-haired, spoke for the others, saying to the dean, "I recognize Elaine," tilting her head in Laney's direction, "But who are the others?"

The dean, while genially gesturing the girls to seats, spoke as they pulled out the chairs and sat, and Laney and her friends behind her then sat as well. "Sharon, Gina, Heather, Lindsay..." he gestured from left to right, "Megan, Amy, and Linda are here as Elaine's guests. They will not be direct participants in the meeting, but I'm permitting them to offer Elaine advice when she feels the need."

All of the sorority girls looked miffed in varying degrees. Gina, the one who'd spoken earlier, muttered, "I had no idea buying a slave was so complicated."

The dean offered placatingly, "We have no intention to make it complicated, and it needn't be. I'm sure you understand that we take pride in offering exactly the right girl for the hanging needs of any customer. We're very meticulous in ensuring that there is indeed a perfect match between our clients and the slave they purchase."

Amy had felt Linda stirring next to her, and suspected the dean had saved Linda from blurting out that the girls were free to shop elsewhere for a Hanging Girl. Amy was sure the girls knew there was no other place they could obtain a Hanging Girl of anywhere near the quality they could find here. It seemed clear to Amy, though, that insulting the customer was no better strategy than frightening them.

The dean indicated several sets of papers in front of him. "I have copies of the sale contract here, in case our meeting is successful. I assume you have read the copies of the contract I gave you yesterday. Do you have any questions about the terms of the conditional slave sale?"

Sharon frowned. "About that. The way it sounds to me, she's not exactly... well, really our slave, is she?"

The dean gave her a brief head shake. "Oh, quite the contrary. By law, Elaine will indeed be your slave. With only a few reasonable limitations, you are free to treat her as your property, obviously including ending her life at a time of your choosing, provided it is within one month of the signing of the contract, as well as cooking and eating her afterwards. The limitations exist mainly to protect the interests of the Hanging Academy. A representative of the Academy will be on hand to ensure that the terms of the contract are observed." Amy choked back a giggle. A really big representative, she thought to herself. "The slave's death must be by hanging, of course. Obviously, if you had any objection to that requirement, you wouldn't be here. The slave's chosen assistant will prepare her on-site for her hanging, including all adjustments of the noose, and our own equipment must be used, which we will provide at no additional charge. No photographic or video record of her hanging is permitted. And no physical injury which would adversely impact her ability to perform during a hanging will be allowed. Elaine has trained for three years to give you the best hanging show available anywhere, and I am sure you would not wish for that training to go to waste -- and the Academy would never want one of its graduates to put on a substandard show. But of course, few slave owners of any kind choose to injure one of their slaves to the point that the slave is unable to perform her duties.

"As with any slave, you may whip her should she fail to follow an order, though I'm sure that will never be necessary -- Elaine will be very happy to meet any of your needs." He looked towards Laney, who smiled and nodded.

The dean continued, "Do you have any additional questions you wanted to ask?"

Gina continued in her role of doing most of the speaking for the group. "You've kind of answered them. But we can ask Elaine some things, right?"

The dean made a gesture of offering Laney to them. "Of course."

Gina turned to Laney. "Anyway, Elaine, you read the script, right?"

Laney smiled. "Laney, please. Slave Laney." Among things Laney and her friends had discussed, one conclusion they had reached was that Laney should encourage the sorority girls to address her that way. It would help seal the deal if she had them act as if they already had bought her. "And I loved the script! There's just one thing though..."

Amy could see Lindsay's face suddenly cloud up. Laney evidently noticed as well, as she looked towards Lindsay. "Oh, you wrote it?"

Lindsay's eyes sprang wide open in surprise, clearly not aware of Hanging Girls' abilities to read people. "Uh, yeah. Well, me and Heather." Beside her, Heather nodded.

Laney gave them both a placating gesture. "Oh, don't worry. I wasn't about to say I wanted to change anything. It sounds fine. But you've got to understand, I've been studying our standard scripts for over a year, and this one is just suddenly coming at me new. And I think it's going to require some rehearsal time. When did you want to do this?"

Gina bit her lip. "Two weeks from tomorrow. Is that okay?"

Amy bit down on a smile. She could tell the sorority girls had expected to dominate the meeting. Now, following the dean's speech, Laney's assertiveness seemed to have wrested control from the girls. In any case, it would never be easy for a customer to throw weight around in this room, as they tried to work out a deal for a slave who had the unique privilege of vetoing the purchase.

Laney nodded. "That would be fine, but in that case, I'd want to be on-site for the last two days before that, so I can have some practice sessions with the girls who'd be involved onstage. I'd hate for all of us to try to wing it. This will be a lot of fun as long as we all know what we're doing."

The sorority girls looked back and forth among themselves, and individually nodded.

Laney nodded as well, and went on, "My roommate, Linda, is going to be my assistant. So she'll need to rehearse with us too." She reached blindly behind her, and Linda automatically took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "And... oh, how many people do you have for that first scene?"

Gina answered, "We're going to use all the senior girls for that. Ten, altogether."

"Okay. It wouldn't hurt to have a couple more, then. Would you mind if Amy and Megan were in it?" She gestured with her head to remind the girls who Amy and Megan were, behind her. "They wouldn't necessarily need speaking lines, but having the group be a little bigger will help."

Amy nearly gasped, and held her breath. Oh please, she thought, please let me be there! She hadn't imagined she'd get to see Laney's hanging.

Gina frowned and looked at the dean. "Would that cost extra?"

The dean shook his head emphatically. "Not at all! Everything you need for the hanging is included in the purchase price of the slave. We often send additional students out to participate as extras in the hanging performance. They, of course, remain the property of the Hanging Academy, and would return to us immediately following the performance. You may or may not allow them to stay for the consumption of the slave's meat, as you choose."

Gina looked again at her sorority sisters, and nodded. "They can come."

Laney beamed at her. "Great. That means a lot to me."

Amy was startled as Megan suddenly spoke up. "Could one more person come?" Amy struggled to keep a neutral expression. They had all agreed beforehand to act as if any suggestion made by any of them was a purely standard request, but she had no idea where Megan was going with this.

The sorority girls all frowned at Megan. Gina spoke again. "Who?"

Megan reached ahead and stroked Laney's shoulder. "Laney's sister is a student at the college. Could she come?"

Smoothly taking up the idea, without making obvious the sudden excitement Amy could read in her, Laney said, "...and be onstage in that first scene?"

Amy was sure that Laney could now read the sorority girls' expressions as well as Amy herself could. Laney then proved it by holding up her hand. "Listen, I'm sure this is seeming like a lot more hassle than you thought. But any girl you buy here is going to need an assistant, as the dean said, and any girl is going to want her closest friends there, and any girl is going to want at least one family member there." Amy nodded to herself. Laney had indeed read the sorority girls' thoughts: that perhaps this girl wanted too many things, and that they might get a better deal if they picked a different one. It was important that they believe that all of this was perfectly normal, whether it was or not.

Laney continued, "My sister's name is Emily Stiller. Any of you know her?" She looked at the sorority girls, who looked blankly back at her and shook their heads.

Laney shrugged. "Well, anyway, I'll give you her phone number. And look, I'm really thinking how to make your show better. Wouldn't fourteen girls onstage for that first scene be better than ten?"

All of the sorority sisters reluctantly nodded. Their instincts were clearly to say no, but they couldn't find a reason to.

Laney sat back and smiled. "Just one more thing, I guess. What about sex?"

The sorority sisters seemed puzzled. Gina asked, "What about it?"

"Well, who should I be expecting to have sex with, beforehand?"

This was something that was taking the girls genuinely by surprise. Gina said, "We really were just thinking of the show."

Laney leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "That's fine, really. But sex is another thing I've been... specially trained for." Without obvious transition, Laney's voice was becoming huskier, more seductive. "Like my hanging abilities, that's something you wouldn't want to see go to waste, right?"

Amy knew that had to be working -- it was working on Amy herself, who had to restrain herself from wrapping her arms around Laney from behind. Across the table, she could hear the sorority girls suddenly breathing slightly faster, see their faces flush, and see them suddenly squirming in their seats, helpless to stop the small twitching in their hips. In a tiny voice, Heather said, "Well, I wouldn't mind..." Her friends on either side of her breathed "Uh-huh..." and they all suddenly giggled self-consciously.

In that same voice, Laney purred, "If the four of you are the ones buying me, I'd love to spend some time alone with each of you. If you want."

Unable to speak for the moment, all four girls nodded, wide-eyed.

The dean broke into the growing silence. "Is everything agreeable then?"

Each of the sorority girls seemed to shake herself out of a spell. They looked back and forth among themselves, all finding the others were nodding eagerly.

The dean smiled beatifically. Gently pushing the contracts towards them, he asked "Will that be check or credit card?"

As soon as the sorority girls had left the room, Laney spun and threw her arms around Megan. "You remembered about my sister! I never thought they'd let her set foot in that snooty sorority!"

Megan returning her hug, shrugged. "I was just thinking, they'd already agreed to all these extra people, after you'd made such a great argument for it. One more shouldn't matter."

"Well, it matters to me! Thank you so much!"

Amy tapped Laney on the shoulder. "Let's go pick out a costume for you."

Laney shook her head. "They'll have those for us. We'll all need to look like students."

Amy shook her head in turn. "Not for that. What about when you, ahh, errr, entertain them before the show?"

Laney brought her hand up to her mouth. "Oh, that's right! Let's get me something really hot!"

Linda laughed and kissed her roommate. "Let me be the judge of that." She patted Laney on the shoulder. "Go with Amy and find something. Then come back to our room and spring it on me. I need to ask the dean something."