TEN DAYS LATER

Linda leaned back against the wall, able to relax for a few minutes, as the movie reached a scene without Zoey in it. Laney and Amy sat beside her on the bed, Laney in front of Amy leaning back against her, Amy with her legs and one arm wrapped around Laney from behind, both of them facing the TV screen -- Amy wanted to take full advantage of the little remaining time she had with Laney. Megan sat on the other side of Amy, holding Amy's free hand with her own.

Linda closed her eyes and sighed to drain away some of the tension. She nudged Amy and grinned. "Got your bag packed?"

Amy shrugged. "Megan and I threw a few things together. They'll have laundry facilities at the sorority, right?"

"Oh, sure. And we're only staying a few days anyway."

Amy bit her lip, trying to decide whether she'd forgotten anything. "I'm so totally out of the habit of traveling anywhere. It's exciting, but kind of scary." She laughed. "You and Laney are used to it now. You just finished spending the weekend with both your families."

Linda looked at her curiously. "You could do that, you know."

Amy waved her arm to indicate her surroundings. "This is my family, here. Megan..." she rubbed her shoulder against her roommate's, "...you and Laney, all the other girls." She looked at Megan. "Hon, you were close to your family. Compared to me, anyway. Do you want to go see them?"

Megan thought about it. "Next year, I think. I want to see my dad when I'm a graduate. I was so focused on getting in. I want to show him I made it through."

Amy squeezed her hand. "I want to meet him too. He sounds like a good guy." She smiled at Megan.

Megan was about to respond when Linda said, "Hst! Zoey's back on." The girls all grew quiet, watching the screen nearly as intently as Linda.

After Zoey's first line in the scene, a slightly cross, "What are you talking about, Frank?" Linda thumbed the PAUSE button on the remote and said, imitating Zoey's voice, "What are you talking about, Frank?"

Amy blinked in surprise. "That was good! I think you're getting better just since the start of the movie! You've just had, what, three sessions with the voice coach?"

To the girls' surprise, Steffi Bloom had lined up a coach immediately, a woman she had known in college. Steffi was no doubt paying her enough to be discreet. Secrecy was not crucial, as it would not be a tragedy if Zoey found out what was happening -- nothing was going to happen to her. Nevertheless, Steffi hoped to avoid any complications that might arise from Zoey learning what was going on.

Linda beamed at Amy. "Yeah, but she gives me a lot of homework. I've been driving Laney nuts, listening to Zoey on headphones and trying to sound like her. I'm trying to get the pitch just right, and kind of stretch out my vowels more, the way Zoey does. Oh, and did I tell you this lady is helping me on other stuff besides voice? That's her specialty, but she's pointing out some of Zoey's mannerisms too. Like... Oh, I think one's coming up in a few seconds. Hold on..." She set the movie in motion again, then paused it again, and pointed at the once-more frozen Zoey on the screen. "Did you see that little head-turn she did? Like this." Linda flicked her head to the side without taking her eyes off Amy. "She does that when she's mad, which I'll have to be a lot."

Laney laughed. "Pretty soon you'll look so much like her you won't even need the surgery." She got serious again. "Really, you're doing great."

Linda rubbed her roommate's arm fondly. "Thank you, sweetie." She looked at Amy again, and leaned forward to include Megan in her line of sight. "I'll really make you guys crazy after the surgery. By that time I'm going to be trying to use Zoey's voice all the time. And I want you to tell me if I slip back into my own voice. I need Zoey's to come out of me naturally in whatever situation Steffi puts me in..." She shook her head, irritated with herself. "I mean Stefanie. Stefanie. Stefanie. Stefanie. Damn it. I need to remember to call her that. That's what Zoey would call her. She didn't start going by Steffi until college."

Amy was about to tell Linda to go a little easier on herself, but she held back. Linda insisted that the time to catch all mistakes, and edit them out of her behavior, was now. Amy couldn't argue with that, and she knew how important this was to Linda.

It was becoming important to Amy and Megan as well. Both of them, with Linda and Laney, occupied many of their free hours going over bios of Zoey from various sources, and Steffi's own increasingly detailed reminiscences, some of them written, some of them spoken into a recorder. The four of them, whenever they got together now, either watched Zoey Hillcrest movies or else had long bull sessions speculating on how Zoey would react to various contingencies, and what she would say.

The girls knew, now, the origin of Steffi's grudge against Zoey Hillcrest. That was a great help with planning. Amy thought back to what Steffi had said in her notes.

High school junior Stefanie Bloom had just begun emerging from a gawky, nerdy, and rather lonely adolescence, her body beginning to blossom into womanhood, and with her physical development had come a determination to leave the safe havens of Math Club and Chess Club, to meet more people, make more friends, to be regarded as a normal girl. Her pursuit of Real Life had culminated in the decision, unfortunate in retrospect, to try to wriggle her way into the small circle of friends surrounding the most awe-inspiring girl in the school, Stefanie's classmate Zoe Hill -- a name Zoe disliked, the last name too pedestrian, the first too often mispronounced. Zoe, soon to start spelling it Zoey, had already had small parts in a couple of low-budget films, which, in the eyes of the other students, already made her a star. Nearly every student at the school, male or female, fantasized about somehow finding themselves in bed with the mega-cute redhead, though given her exalted social status, relatively few could picture how to make it come about.

Stefanie began hanging around and joining conversations in Zoe's vicinity, with the goal of getting the movie girl accustomed to seeing her face, and soon was butting into Zoe's own conversations with the chosen few whose regular presence Zoe allowed. Zoe's friends seemed annoyed at first, but Zoe herself appeared welcoming, as Stefanie had not yet had a chance to learn to distinguish a friendly smile from an amused, self-absorbed one.

No one could have been more thrilled than Stefanie on the day Zoe approached her, sans entourage, as she walked towards the cafeteria for lunch. Want to come to a party, Zoe had asked? Sure, gasped Stefanie. The party, Zoe explained, would be at the home of Zoe's friend Amber, whose father was out of town on business. What should I wear, asked Stefanie. We're all pretending to be burglars, Zoe giggled. Can you wear black pants and a black long-sleeved sweatshirt? If it's got a hood, that would be perfect. Oh, and black gloves, of course. Quivering with excitement, Stefanie memorized the address and the time. I'm in! thought Stefanie. I'm in with the innest crowd in the whole school!

I guess I'm early, Stefanie thought as she arrived at Amber's house, dressed as required in a black outfit that had almost entirely drained her allowance. Is this the right house? It must be, Amber's last name is on the mailbox. But it's dark. And so quiet. No music yet. But the front door is open. I guess I can go right in. Maybe they're all upstairs. To the right of the door, Stefanie saw, with surprise, that a window was also open, its raised lower pane broken. Seems like Amber would put something over that, she thought. Even if her dad's not here.

She nearly tripped over a black backpack just beyond the front door, and the backpack, open, spilled some of its contents on the floor as she kicked it. Her puzzlement grew as she tried to stuff the things back into the pack. Household items, some of them expensive-looking, and a small pile of cash. Weird this would just be sitting here in the living room, she thought.

The police arrived hardly a minute after Stefanie had entered, pointing flashlights and guns, ordering her to freeze, as she still knelt over the backpack. Stefanie's mind spun as her body shook with fear. Maybe some neighbor thought I looked suspicious, she fretted. But how could the police have got here so fast? But it'll be okay, she told herself, trying to calm down. I'll just explain.

At the police station, an officer told Stefanie that Amber, contacted via her cell phone, was at her friend Zoe Hill's house, and had told the officer she knew nothing about a party at her own house. She was staying with Zoe while her father was away. But Zoe herself invited me, Stefanie wailed tearfully. Miss Hill doesn't know anything about it either, she was told. I had to describe you before they even knew who you were.

Stefanie was charged with breaking and entering with intent to rob. There was a short hearing, in which Amber and Zoe repeated their denials of any plans for a party, or inviting Stefanie to come to one, and laughed at the idea that their friends would all come to a party dressed as burglars. If Stefanie had been eighteen, as a female criminal she would have been executed, her body afterwards sent to a cannery, her anonymous meat destined to be spread on sandwiches. At sixteen, as a juvenile with no previous arrests, she was merely put on probation, her records to be sealed once she turned eighteen.

She was lucky the police and courts were discreet about juvenile records. Her father knew, but no one at school did. Except for...

Stefanie never approached Zoe Hill nor any of her circle again. Seething with fury, she promised herself she would get Zoe back one day.

Her social networking site, which grew out of a freshman class project in college, had been inspired by her motivation to help shy teens with few social skills meet people with whom they shared common interests -- and avoid the potential disaster of trying to bond with people who were entirely out of their league.

The sale of her site made her wealthy, able to pursue her heart's desire. Her heart had just one real desire.

Amy shook her head, shying away from thinking about the depth of the anger Steffi must have experienced -- still experienced. "Are you sure this fake hanging is really going to be enough for her, Lin? Won't she go after the real Zoey eventually?" Amy was amazed that that hadn't happened yet.

Linda smiled. "That's why I really want to make this as real as I can. Stefanie is going to have this memory of killing Zoey Hillcrest. She'll really feel like she did! If I do my part right, anyway. I don't mean she'll actually believe it. She's not crazy. But the satisfaction will be there! That's what I want to give her. The feeling. The memory! She'll remember killing Zoey, the rest of her life. And who knows -- maybe I'll be saving Zoey's life!" Linda's smile spread into a grin. "If you ever meet Zoey, tell her for me."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, like that's likely."

Linda was about to start up the movie again, but stopped at the sound of a knock on the door. After Amy called, "In!" the door opened and Melissa peeked around it tentatively. "Amy? You really busy? Hi," she said, nodding and smiling at the others in the room.

"A little, right now. We're helping Linda get ready for her hanging."

Melissa gasped, her eyes alight. "Really? That's great! I hadn't heard, Linda!"

The girls had decided on keeping the details a secret from the rest of the students, though they did plan to host a party for Linda after Laney's hanging -- before Linda's surgery. Amy simply asked, "Did you need something, hon?"

"Oh, I was just hoping you could help me a little with the sex moves. I'm still having a hard time breathing while I'm doing it."

Amy nodded. "Everybody does, at first. Want to come by around..." Amy looked at the clock. "Eight? We're leaving in the morning for a few days for Laney's hanging, but tonight is okay." Amy wrapped her arms more tightly around Laney and gave her a kiss on her neck, where the noose would be in a few days. Laney giggled in response.

Melissa smiled. "That one I knew about. Eight is okay. I'll see you then, Amy." She gave Amy a little wave and backed out the door.

Amy made a tiny shrug. "Funny she never asks Megan for help."

Laney laughed. "Don't be dense, Amy."

"What?"

"You know she's got a big crush on you, right?"

Amy blinked. "On me? What makes you say that?"

Linda groaned in exasperation. "You really are dense about this. Do you think she's really having trouble with the moves? She was in those classes you and Megan did, and we've all seen her practice. You've seen how good she is. She just wants to be with you!"

Amy frowned, looking down. "I just... can't picture Miranda having a crush on somebody. She was so..."

Laney interrupted her. "A, Melissa isn't Miranda. And B... Amy, you really need to take Miranda off that pedestal and get face to face with her sometimes. Miranda was human! Years ago she was just a scared First Year girl, and probably had crushes on some older girls, and thought she could never be as good as them -- the same stuff we've all been through. I agree she was special. We all admired her. But she was a real girl, too! You met her when she was a graduate of the Academy, and you know now what that means, the kind of training she'd had. You're expecting Melissa to be like that already. She can't be. But I'll bet anything she will be!"

Amy sighed again. "Yeah, okay. It's just... really confusing." She rested her chin on Laney's shoulder and rubbed her head against Laney's.

Linda suddenly bubbled over in laughter. "You think you're confused now? Wait till I'm Zoey!"

Amy stood wide-eyed in the front entrance to the Academy, looking up and down along the street as she and Megan waited for Linda and Laney, seeing the outside world for the first time in over two years. Even the sunlight looked different, somehow, from what was available in the Academy's inner courtyard, where the girls did their tanning and running. She took a deep breath. Yes, the air tasted different too.

She squeezed Megan's hand. "Seems weird, doesn't it?"

Megan shrugged. "It's been here the whole time."

Amy laughed and kissed her. "I knew you'd say something like that." She watched the limo pull up in the circular drive in front of the building, and looked behind her. "Where are they -- oh, here they are!" She grinned as Linda and Laney came running into the foyer, laughing, holding hands, each gripping an overnight bag in her free hand, as were Amy and Megan. Amy recognized the signs that Linda was bursting to tell her something. Amy gave her a look and said, "What?"

"Tell you in the car! You ready?"

"We've been waiting for you."

"Oh, sorry. Laney was having a hard time getting out of the room."

Laney laughed. "Come on. I'll never see it again." She turned slowly, looking at the building. "And now I won't see this again."

Linda giggled. "Parts of you will." The sorority girls had promised that a few cuts of Laney's meat would be returned to the Academy to be shared among the students.

Laney took a deep breath. "I just can't believe it. This is it, Lin! I'm going to my own hanging!"

Anthony, their huge driver/bodyguard, stood silently by the limo doors, his hands in front of him. He had no doubt seen the same scene many times. He knew to be patient.

At last Laney grabbed Linda's hand again. "Let's go! I can't wait to see the gallows!" She nearly yanked Linda off her feet as she ran down the steps to the car. She and Linda threw their bags into the open trunk and piled into the first seat behind the driver, buckling their seat belts as Amy and Megan entered and settled into the seat behind them. Laney giggled and pointed ahead, saying, "Onward, Anthony!" as Anthony opened the driver's-side door and sat down.

Amy leaned over the back of the seat in front of her and slapped Linda on the shoulder. "Okay, give. I know you've got news." She hadn't seen Linda or Laney since last night. They'd wanted to spend one last night alone together in the Academy, though there still remained today and all of tomorrow before Laney was hanged the following day.

Linda clasped her hands together, to stop them fluttering around as if they had minds of their own. "Well, the plastic surgeon came by last night..."

Amy gave her a puzzled look. "At night...?" Then it sank in, and she gasped. "Oh!! And she says it'll work?"

Linda pumped her fists. "Yes! Yes! That was the last thing I was worried about! I know she thought my pic looked okay, but she had to see me in three dimensions to make sure. She said she can do it!! I'm sure she must have told Steff... Stefanie, by now. So now Stefanie will get the contractor working on the dungeon, and... It's all going to happen, Amy!"

Amy threw both her arms over the back of the seat and gave Linda as much of a hug as she could. Laney, who already had known the news but couldn't help getting caught up in Linda's excitement, pressed against her roommate and kissed her.

Even Megan was staring at Linda in admiration. "So you know for sure how you're going to hang. That is so great." As soon as Amy let go, Megan gave Linda an awkward hug over the seatback.

Amy wanted to know everything instantly, despite knowing she would be with Linda constantly over the next two days. "Did she say what she'll have to do?"

Linda rolled her eyes. "Well, it's going to be pretty elaborate. She's going to give me a little bit bigger breasts, but of course mostly it'll be my face. I need a little bit wider chin, and higher cheekbones, of course. And obviously, the nose." Linda's nose was not overly large, but was fairly straight, where Zoey's was smaller with a gentle inward curve, a cute button nose. "Oh, she'll make my lips a little fuller too, and make them kind of upcurve into dimples at the end. I mean, you know what Zoey looks like, but it's funny thinking about all the things she'll do to me. She'll even do a little bit of electrolysis to give me Zoey's hairline, but the Academy's hairdresser will do the rest of that -- bleach all the color out of my hair, then give it the red, and cut it like Zoey does. And color my eyebrows, and my bush." She giggled, then grimaced. "After the surgery I'll need about four weeks to really recover. The dean says I can stay in the infirmary after I'm brought back to the school, post-surgery. Oh!" She giggled again. "Once my face is healed enough, then the doc will make the freckles."

Amy gaped at her, grinning. "She's doing that too?"

Linda nodded eagerly. "I guess I hadn't thought much about how that part would get done, but as a plastic surgeon, she knows a lot about skin. In fact, she gave me a shot..." She absently rubbed her upper arm.

Amy blinked. "A shot? For what?"

"To get started lightening my skin tone. You know how pale Zoey's skin is. Do I look any different?" She turned her head in various ways to give Amy a look.

Amy frowned. "To be honest, no."

Linda laughed. "It's okay. You wouldn't see it yet. She'll have to keep giving me treatments over the next few weeks for that, but she says gradually it'll get lighter. All over, of course, not just my face. I mean, obviously Stefanie's going to see me naked. Same with the freckles."

"How does she do the freckles?"

"It'll be kind of like tattooing, the way she described it. Well, I guess that is what it is. She'll use a brownish food coloring, just under the skin, and it won't affect the taste of my meat. That's the part that's going to take longest. Probably several days. She's got to do hundreds of the little buggers. Mostly concentrated on my face and arms -- you know, people who are really freckled get them mostly in exposed areas -- but some of them everywhere else too."

Megan squinted at her, her jaw agape in amazement. "Does she... know what she's doing it for? It must seem really weird to her. I mean, she can't get requests like this very often."

"Well, you'd be surprised, according to her. But yeah, Stefanie told her the whole story. Same with the voice coach. They both think it's really cool that she's doing it this way."

Amy shook her head. "All those movies of Zoey we've been watching, and the bios... I'm getting to feel like I know her, and pretty soon you'll be walking around looking and sounding like her!"

Linda bounced in her seat. "Isn't it a trip? Oh!" She suddenly looked, for almost the first time during the ride, at the scenery outside the van. "We're on campus already! Anthony, can we see the building yet from here?"

Anthony's deep voice rumbled, "According to the directions I got, it should be down that street." He pointed.

Linda suddenly looked serious. She held up her hands, looking over the seat at Amy and Megan. "Okay. I knew you'd ask about the surgery once I told you I'd seen the lady. And I wanted us to talk about it with Laney here. But that's it, now. We're here now, so no more talk about me, and my surgery, and my show, and Zoey... any of that." She turned back to look at Laney, reaching out to take both of her hands. "From the time we get out of the car, it's all about Laney. This is her time, what she's been working towards all her life." Her voice grew softer, yet somehow more intense. "Babe, you are going to have the best show ever. And we'll do everything we need to do to make sure they always, always remember when they saw a real Hanging Girl."

Laney looked back at her roommate, her eyes suddenly moist. Her voice was a tremulous whisper. "Thank you for... Well, I've only got two days left with you, so I can't possibly say all the things I want to thank you for."

Linda said in a progressively more husky voice, "Just watching them when they see you hang. That's all I need." She rubbed her eyes with her shoulder, not letting go of Laney's hands.

The girls felt the limo slowing, and looked out the window. A large residential structure with the capital letters Delta and Rho came into view, several girls standing in front of the huge front door. Linda saw them first, withdrew her hand and pointed excitedly. "Look, there's Gina and the rest of them, out front waiting! We're here!"

Laney turned to look, her mouth open in an expression of awed delight, her fingers reaching up absently to brush the soft fabric of her choker. Turned as she was, Amy could clearly see the stitching on the front of the choker: "Laney -- Property of Delta Rho." Amy smiled, knowing what Laney must be thinking.

Moments later the limo had stopped in front of Delta Rho house, and Anthony was opening the door next to Amy. As Amy emerged, with Megan coming out behind her, she was suddenly overwhelmed by the memory of seeing another limo, in what felt like a previous lifetime, stopping at her own house, and Beth emerging from it, followed moments later by Miranda. And now I'm one of those Hanging Girls, she told herself wonderingly.

She waited as Anthony opened the other door, and Linda pulled herself through the doorway and stood. The three of them, now, stood back respectfully as the star of the show, Laney, emerged and stood in the sunlight, swung her gaze slowly around the landscape of the campus, and at last faced the sorority house, with a smile brighter than the sunlight. She walked towards her welcoming committee, the other three girls trailing behind her, and gave each of the sorority girls a warm hug. She giggled. "I guess I'm in the right place."

Gina, as usual, spoke for the others. "We've got rooms ready for you, if you want to see those first."

Laney nodded. "Sure. Oh, let us get our bags first. Then we'll be right with you."

A minute later, Laney entered her final home, flanked by her closest friends.