Amy looked around the hallway outside the auditorium, trying to remember the young high school graduate who had been so much in awe of these surroundings three years ago -- the awe persisted, now overlaid with a sense of belonging. This school, the Academy, was her place, destined to be hers from the time she was born. I've done it, she thought, I've cleared all of the hurdles. The only thing left is the finish line.

Around her were the faces of her closest friends, twenty-three of them, the girls with whom she had traveled on all of the journey -- all of them strangers in that dim past, three years previous, now married by the shared experience of becoming the women they wanted to be.

Amy felt herself becoming burdened by ponderous thoughts of this type, and turned to Megan, standing beside her in the whispering and giggling group of Hanging Girls, all dressed in their everyday blue Academy uniforms -- Amy was glad of the absence of cap-and-gown pretentiousness. She kissed Megan and grinned. "Well, we're here!"

Megan grinned back. "Where we were always meant to be." Her beautiful face was aglow.

Amy laughed. The sense of occasion was even affecting Megan.

As the girls milled aimlessly, Amy found she was now near enough to Jackie to put her arms around her in a tight hug, and gave her a kiss. "Took a long time to get here, didn't it?" Amy reached out to include Erin in the hug. Jackie and Erin were one of just three pairs of original roommates who had made it through together -- four, if one counted Shawna and Megan, who had split up but were, at least, both still alive.

Jackie grinned. "Did you do the same thing I did, back at the start? Make a mental list of who was going to make it and who wasn't?"

Amy shrugged. "It's kind of natural, right?" Amy waved her arm around to indicate the rest of the graduating class. "How did you do?"

Jackie laughed. "About as well as I could have if I'd just seen names on the admission list. Or drawn them out of a hat. None of us knew anything about each other."

Erin tightened her hand around Jackie's. "I guess we do now." She leaned in to kiss Amy and Megan.

Jackie laughed again. "Yeah, now we know exactly which girls have moles between their butt cheeks." The girls in the immediate area laughed, and a couple of them got several friendly whaps on the butt.

Vonda Bennett, newly promoted to assistant dean, appeared in the doorway of the auditorium. "All of you get lined up now, so we can go in. You know the order."

Slowly, and with a continuation of low-key conversation and giggling, the girls formed a line in front of the doorway, in order of their dorm-room numbers, so that roommates could march in and sit together -- the two, or in two cases, three, girls in each room lining up alphabetically. Amy took a deep breath as she fell in line behind Wendy, from the room across the hall, and in front of Megan. In the auditorium, where something resembling a graduation march, unfamiliar to Amy, had been playing very softly, the music was now increased in volume, and the murmur of conversations from inside the aud was suddenly hushed. Ms. Bennett gestured to Rita, the first girl in line, and Rita, with the other girls following her in line, slowly walked down the aud's center aisle, as all of the guests turned to watch, each looking to pick out the one particular girl they had come to see.

Behind the guests sat the newly-promoted Second Year and Third Year classes, all wearing their new uniforms. The Second Years were especially excited -- the auditorium was outside the Academy's secure area, and today was the first time in a year that these girls had been allowed out. Amy grinned and gave a thumbs-up to Melissa, who returned the gesture, and saw Jana give a finger-wave to Megan, with whom she had developed a special rapport.

Amy, nearly alone among the graduates, had not invited anyone. Her father, she knew, was not big on ceremonies of this type, and would not be disappointed to miss it -- and there was always the danger that Andrew would come along, the last person Amy wanted anywhere in her proximity. Amy could visit her father later, for as many hugs and thank yous as that reserved man would stand for. Amy had wanted to invite Scott, the only boyfriend she had ever had, to thank him for being so understanding that their relationship had to be temporary, that her budding love for him could never flower in the face of her need to attend the Academy. But she had failed in her attempts to locate him. He was no longer at the address and phone number she knew from three years ago, and she couldn't find a directory listing for him. She knew he should have graduated from the university a few months earlier, and tried to find him through the university, but they informed her stiffly that they didn't give out that sort of information.

Amy spotted a man who fit the description Megan had given her. She turned enough to see Megan nod at her in confirmation, while giving the man a quick wave. Amy gave the man a smile, despite knowing he wouldn't know who she was. She was a little puzzled that there wasn't a twelve-year-old girl beside the man -- Megan's sister Kathleen. Though Megan hadn't said so, Amy had no trouble reading Megan well enough to understand that Megan was more eager to see Kathleen here than her father -- or, more accurately, that Kathleen should see her. Megan didn't really display any conscious pride in being a Hanging Girl. It was simply the most natural thing in the world to her, and she could never have seen herself as anything else. The extent to which she did take pride in it lay in whatever inspiration it could provide for her sister. Amy could see, now, the disappointment in Megan's eyes behind the happiness at seeing her father.

Rita, leading the line, now mounted the steps leading up to the stage on which a single row of twenty-four seats faced the audience, so that no girl would be hidden behind others, and walked, from right to left, across the row of seats to the far end, all of the girls sitting as they reached their seats. Amy followed Wendy, sat, and immediately took Megan's hand, lacing her fingers through Megan's and giving her hand a squeeze. To her left, beyond the row of seats, Amy glanced at the noose she had just passed, that represented everything she had worked for. For the thousandth time, she felt that thrill shoot through her at the sight of a rope tied in that special knot.

Once the graduates were seated, the music faded and the dean stepped up to the lectern on the left side of the stage, Amy's right.

He smiled out at the audience. "I'd like to welcome all of you here to the Hanging Academy on this special day. I am Eric Porter, the dean of the Academy, and it is my pleasure to present to you this year's graduating class." He gestured to his left, indicating the graduates, and the guests applauded, accompanied by a high-pitched cheer from the students behind them.

"As part of our program today, I'd like to present one of our graduates, Amy Cameron, who has a few words to say on behalf of the class. Amy?" He gestured towards her.

Taking a deep breath, her heart fluttering, Amy stood and walked to the lectern. She hadn't exactly wanted this assignment, but had volunteered to save Megan from doing something a little out of her comfort zone. The student speaker was always chosen from the top three students in the class -- in this case, in order, Megan, Amy, and Jackie. Amy checked quickly to make sure the printed list of names was still there on the lectern, though it was not obvious how it could disappear in the time since she had checked earlier this morning. Her hands shaking slightly, Amy held the sides of the lectern and looked out over the audience.

"I..." She swallowed and started again. "I don't have a speech written down. I wanted it to come from the heart. My heart is doing a little bouncing around on its own right now, but I'll try to make this work." She held her hand over her chest. There were appreciative chuckles and encouraging nods with smiles from the audience, and Amy felt her nervousness beginning to subside.

"I'd much rather be over there," she pointed to the noose, "Than standing here. Every one of us feels that way," she gestured to her classmates to her left, "And I think that if you understand that, you'll know the most important thing about us. Those of you who came here to see your daughter, or granddaughter, or sister, or best friend, I just wish there was a way you could really know how much work she has done in the last three years to be sitting where she is today. Please believe me, you can be really, really proud that she is.

"For myself, the one personal comment I want to make is to thank you, those of you out there who either created these girls, or had any part at all in making them who they are today. Because I really needed their friendship and their help, and without them I wouldn't have made it here.

"And now... I want you to stop focusing on us for just a minute, the twenty-four girls you're seeing on the stage. Because in the beginning, there were fifty-eight of us. And if you're wondering what happened to the rest -- they were all hanged at some time during the last three years." Amy could hear a few murmurs of surprise from audience members not familiar with how the Academy worked. She went on, with slow emphasis, "But they are here. They are part of us, and I don't just mean in the ordinary way of being food. They helped make us what we have become, teaching us things we couldn't have learned except for their sacrifice. And since they are part of us, they are graduating today, just like the girls you are seeing. You're going to hear all of our names in just a few minutes, so I want to make the list of graduates complete, by introducing the girls who are here but invisible to you, though they are very visible to us."

Amy looked down at the list. "Susan Fennel. Sela Turner..." She gave each name its own emphasis, pausing after each and looking up, as she went through the thirty-four names printed on the page in front of her. She had practiced naming them from memory, but decided to use a list just in case nervousness caused her to blank. She wanted to get this part exactly right, because she knew the graduation was being filmed -- and she intended, later, to ask the dean to send copies of the video to the families of all of the departed girls.

Amy looked up again as she finished the list, then stole a quick look at the dean, sitting just to her right and behind. She hoped he wouldn't feel she was exceeding her authority, of which she had none. "We, the students you can see, now declare all of the girls whose names you've just heard to be graduates of the Hanging Academy." Her voice broke. "And we thank every one of them, with every beat of our hearts."

Tears running from her eyes, Amy walked back to her seat.

For a moment, there was dead silence throughout the auditorium. Then came the sound of two or three pairs of hands clapping. Instantly the applause spread through the hall. Behind the guests, the Second and Third Year girls leapt to their feet, followed seconds later by the guests themselves. Amy, her lip quivering, saw that her classmates were applauding as well. She wiped her eyes and joined in the applause. It wasn't for her, she knew, or anything she had said. It was for Susan, and Sela, and all of the rest.

As the applause subsided, the dean arose again and stepped to the lectern. To her astonishment, Amy saw him brush the back of his hand across his eyes. He had to clear his throat twice, and spoke his first few words in a slightly more husky than normal voice. "At this time, Ms. Vonda Bennett, our assistant dean, will help me present to each of our graduates a symbol of her accomplishment. Let me say a few words first that will help you appreciate the meaning this symbol has for our girls.

"As you can easily understand, our graduates have little use, themselves, for a diploma, since they all anticipate dying in the next few months, and in the process bringing honor to their school and recognition of their high level of training. We will shortly be mailing diplomas, already mounted and laminated on plaques, to their families. Today, though, each of our girls will be presented with a red slave collar.

"In their wardrobes here at the Academy, the girls have a number of attractive outfits and collars, in which they perform their duties at our periodic Academy parties, in a variety of colors -- with the exception of red. Only our graduates are allowed to dress in red, and I ask you to imagine the degree of pride felt by every one of our graduates which that color then inspires, reminding them of the years of intellectual and physical effort that have earned them the right to wear it."

He looked to his right, where Ms. Bennett was standing beside a table strewn with cloth choker collars, and she gave him a slight nod to indicate she was ready, and said, "Will the graduates please rise."

Amy stood, along with the others, feeling a wave of unreality break over her. She had seen this ceremony three times before, the first time through the grate in the secured area which she was not allowed to leave, the last two in the audience, and had been especially thrilled by the one last year, when she was able to see Linda and Laney graduate. But now, she told herself, it's for me. And for Megan, and for Jackie, and for all of the rest of the girls with whom she had shared all of the classes and studying for three years. I did it, she said over and over to herself, I really did it!

Amy was barely conscious of Ms. Bennett calling the names one by one, as the line of girls inched forward and led each girl past the dean for a handshake, then past Ms. Bennett, who went through an elaborate ritual of replacing the girl's Third Year slave collar with that special red, the audience applauding, and each girl afterwards circling around behind the row of chairs to allow the next girl in line to come forward.

And now Amy was at the front of the line, watching Wendy being awarded her collar. Amy felt a helpless, ecstatic smile spread across her lips, and felt as though a shimmering bubble were forming around her. She heard Ms. Bennett say, "Amy Cameron," and the bubble now seemed to float her the few remaining feet to Dean Porter, who smiled and took her right hand with his, covering it with his left, saying something warm and congratulatory that Amy did not quite pick up, as she murmured vague thanks. Then she drifted in the bubble towards Ms. Bennett, whose words succeeded in penetrating the bubble. "You said when you applied you were going to be here someday, Amy."

Amy, her burning eyes suddenly informing her that she hadn't been blinking, whispered, "Yes, ma'am," as Ms. Bennett reached behind Amy's neck to unfasten her collar, lifted the red one from the table beside her, held it up in front of Amy's now-streaming eyes so that she could read the standard words "Amy -- Property of the Hanging Academy" on a red collar, a red one, red, and then looped it around Amy's neck and fastened it.

The bubble floated Amy a few feet farther still, and turned her to watch as Ms. Bennett called out the name "Megan Sadler." Amy's bubble dissolved, allowing her an unhindered perception of Megan receiving the honor she had been born to achieve. Megan, a huge grin on her own face, stepped towards Amy with her new collar, and Amy reached out for her, her arms sliding around the waist of her roommate for a joyful hug, a minor breach of the protocol of the ceremony for which, Amy knew, no one would fault her.

Holding Megan's hand, still floating on what remained of the bubble, Amy circled behind the chairs and returned to her seat to watch as the remaining girls received their well-earned honor.

As the last girl sat, the dean gestured towards the graduates with his arm. "It's my pleasure to present to you twenty-four..." he hesitated, looked towards Amy and gave her a small nod, a slight smile on his face. "Excuse me, fifty-eight new graduates of the Hanging Academy." His smile broadened, and the audience applauded warmly, standing once more, backed by exuberant shouts from the students behind them.

At this point, Amy knew, the videotaping of the ceremony would end, but not the ceremony itself.

The dean waited for the applause to die down, and spoke again. "At this time, the Academy is pleased to present to you, our guests, a demonstration of the type of show your daughter, grand-daughter, sister, or friend, will put on as an Academy graduate." He looked behind him, and Amy saw Pam emerge from behind the curtain at the back of the stage, a Second Year... no, Amy shook her head to remind herself, now Third Year student, whose career at the Academy would go no farther than today. The dean went on, "I present to you one of our fine students, Pamela Ashton. I would say more, but she has asked me to be allowed to introduce herself to you, prior to her hanging."

Pam, dressed in her everyday uniform, her Third Year uniform on the one day she would wear it, stepped up to the lectern. Behind her, her roommate Christie had also come out from behind the curtain and stood now behind and to the left of Pam. Pam bit her lip and grinned, looking excited, nodding to acknowledge the applause. "Thank you. Really." As the audience quieted, she continued. "I'm Pam Ashton, and I am just so glad to be able to participate in a graduation, even if it's not my own." She paused as the audience briefly applauded again. "And the reason I wanted to talk to you before my hanging is that I sure won't be able to do it after." The audience laughed.

Pam gestured towards the graduates. "Now, I know you all know what... okay, just to keep it simple, I'll just say 'your daughter,' though I know a lot of you have a different relationship with the girl who invited you -- you all know what kinds of things your daughter has been learning here, but probably most of you have never actually seen a show before. And you may not necessarily get to see your own daughter do her show, because that's up to her owners to decide. So just imagine I'm her, and then you'll be able to picture her when she does hang. Except..." Pam leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "...she'll do it better than I can." She giggled, and waited as the audience laughed appreciatively, and applauded once more. Obviously, Amy decided, whether they knew the specifics of how students were chosen for demonstrations and shows, they understood that the Academy would never sacrifice one of their best students at a free show.

The applause went on, and suddenly increased in volume, as the audience members, one by one, rose to their feet again. A little puzzled, wondering what she'd missed, Amy noticed the dean looking at her, his eyebrows raised, giving her a barely perceptible hand-shrug and slight nod. He wasn't expecting it either! she realized, and it came to her suddenly -- they were all thinking about what Amy had said, in her speech! And they understood that Pam was exactly one of the students Amy had been talking about -- giving her life up for the school. Amy, applauding along with everyone, also stood, and around her the rest of the graduates rose as well.

Pam, also taken aback, colored slightly and covered her face for a moment with one hand. As the applause died down at last, she cleared her throat and went on. "Now, I know you all probably know more about Hanging Girls than most people do, since, well, you've got one in the family. But I don't want to take anything for granted, so I want to make sure you know that when you go to a show, there's a little play-acting before the hanging. And there's one more thing that I know you couldn't know if I didn't tell you, and it's something I'm really excited and proud of.

"I'm sure you've seen female criminals or game show contestants hang on TV, and you know their feet are usually free so they do a lot of kicking. But people are all different, and the people who buy Hanging Girls are all different, and sometimes they want the girl to hang with her feet tied together. That's always a special challenge for us, because we can't do all of the things we'd ordinarily do. But in the past year, some of the girls have been working out some new moves for us to do if we find ourselves in that situation -- and today will be the first time we'll -- well, I mean, that would be me -- I'll be showing off that new stuff in public for the first time ever." She beamed at the audience, who applauded once more, with a buzz of murmured conversations behind the applause, continuing for a moment after the clapping subsided.

"I only found out a week ago I'd be hanging for you today, and even though we've all been practicing the new stuff for most of the past year, none of us spend that much time on this kind of hanging, because it's a just-in-case kind of thing. But I decided I wanted to try it this way, and be the first, and I've had so much help getting ready, so I want to thank some girls. I especially want to thank Jana, who invented a lot of these moves and spent the most time helping me in the last week." Pam made a stand-up gesture, and the audience, realizing Pam was signaling to someone behind them, turned to see Jana stand up, blushing more brightly than Pam had as a burst of applause came her way. She sat down again quickly and took Melissa's hand.

Pam continued, "Jana has only been here a year -- she's in the class behind me -- but that's just telling you what kind of school this is. All of us work together to try to help each other get better. And I also got a lot of help from..." Pam gestured in a mock-dismissive way at the graduates, "These older people over here." She paused as the audience laughed. "So I want to give some recognition to Shawna, and Megan, and Amy." As Pam gave the get-up gesture, Amy stood, with Megan beside her, and Shawna farther down the row of graduates, and gave the audience a grin and a little wave before sitting again, to yet more applause.

"And I want to thank the dean, so much, for inviting my dad to come today. Daddy, I got to do a show!" She made an exultant fist-pump gesture, and heads in the audience craned to see who she was looking at, satisfied when a man in the middle of the audience blew her a kiss. "My sister Kim just became a puppygirl last year, so she couldn't make it today. Daddy, if you see her owner, tell him to give Kimmy a little puppy treat from me, okay?" The man responded, "Will do!"

Pam went on, "And especially..." her voice suddenly became husky, "I want to thank my roommate for the last two years, Christie, who is just... the best person there could ever be." She turned and reached for Christie, as Christie stepped forward, and wrapped her arms tightly around her, patting her back and at last giving her a long kiss. With their foreheads pressed together after the kiss, they both said something inaudible, but Amy was sure what the gist of it must be.

Pam let go of Christie at last, and turned back to the microphone once more. "Now, we do need a little bit of time to get ready. About fifteen minutes, or so. I hope all of you will stay around long enough to sample a little of my meat. My classmates are going to eat me tonight, but while you're still here for the reception, they're going to microwave some of my leg and go around..." she giggled, "handing out little cubes of my meat on toothpicks, or on crackers or something." She looked towards Ms. Bennett, who smiled and nodded. Pam turned to the microphone one more time and said, "Okay, I'll be right back out as soon as I can." She turned and took Christie's hand, and together they disappeared behind the curtain, followed by Rita, from her seat among the graduates, and several students who had come forward from behind the guests, who would be helping Pam with her hanging. The quiet murmuring of the audience rose to a conversational level as the sound system began playing music quietly in the background.