Disclaimer: Not mine! All the characters you recognize belong to JE, I'm just playing.

Warnings: While this is an AU story, it has the potential to possibly spoil or mention something from any of the books 1-18.

Author's Note: I just wanted to note that I was not in a sorority so I don't know any more than what I've heard about the going-ons in one. Also, I am not trying to stereotype anyone, so please take no offense at my version of a snobby sorority. It is fiction, and I'm just here for a good time!

Please, forgive any inaccuracies. It is fiction, so some things happen the way they do merely to fit my purposes. I hope you enjoy! I want to thank everyone again, it means so very much that you are taking the time to read and review my story. Truly, you are making me so very happy. Please, keep them coming!

Previously:

My mouth dropped open. I could not believe what she was saying. My feet moved of their own accord and instantly I was right in front of her smacking her across the face again. Before she regained her composure we heard a loud explosion. We both moved to the window, which over looked the parking lot, and there, in the lot was my car on fire. And next to it, was Annabelle's car, also on fire.

The next thing that registered was Annabelle screaming. "Oh my God, my car!" And then she took off running out of the room. I heaved a heavy sigh, went to my desk to get my insurance card and then went down to the parking lot to wait for the police to arrive.

Ch. 7

The parking lot was pure pandemonium. Annabelle was freaking out and squealing at a decibel I thought only dogs should be able to hear. There were tons of students, everywhere and then there was me. I had my insurance card in hand and was sitting on the curb waiting patiently and listening.

"Serves her right. Did you hear the way she was talking about some of the SAE guys?" One girl said to another.

Yep, this definitely wasn't my fault. If Annabelle talked about the other guys in Lester's frat in a similar way that she talked about Les, there was no doubt in my mind this was all her fault.

"Oh, I know. She is terrible. I heard there was no way they were going to let her be a Kappa, it doesn't matter who her mother is." The other girl responded.

That made me smile a little bit.

"I heard they were going to put her through the ringer this week of RUSH and then deny her at the ceremony on Saturday. I even heard her Mom is supposed to be here to initiate her."

Oh great, another visit from Beatrice. I'll have to make sure I avoid the room as much as possible this weekend.

"I just feel sorry for whoever owns the car next to hers. I mean, it is hilarious that the bitch's car is up in flames, but no one else should have had to suffer."

To be quite honest, the car got me to Miami, and I have pretty good insurance, so the fact that Annabelle's car is up in flames makes me happy enough not to be too upset about my own bad luck.

"It's all Jake's fault. He made the stink bomb, but did something wrong and when he tossed it under Annabelle's car it kept rolling and hit some oil and ignited that other car. The fire from it caught Annabelle's soft top on fire and the rest is a burning mess in front of us," the girl said with a giggle.

It was about that time that the fire department and police arrived. One of the cops on the scene asked who owned the cars and after Annabelle claimed hers, I claimed mine. The two girls sitting next to me both went pale. They had to know I had overheard their conversation. I gave them both a soft smile as I headed over to talk to the police.

Annabelle told the police that she had her suspicions for who could have done this and I heard her mention Lester's name. I immediately butted in on her conversation with the police.

"There is no possible way my friend could have had anything to do with this," I said. "For one, he and his fraternity have their weekly house dinner tonight so I'm sure that is where he is right now. For two, there is NO WAY he would risk my car trying to get yours."

The police officer whose tag said Sanchez looked at me and asked, "Do you have any idea who could have done this ma'am?"

"Officer Sanchez, I assure you I have no idea. If I had thought someone was going to blow up her car, I certainly wouldn't have left mine in the lot." I noticed the two girls who had been talking about the explosion relaxed visibly when I denied knowing anything about it.

Officer Sanchez handed us both a card and told us to call him if we heard anything. Annabelle spoke then, "Wait a minute! What am I supposed to do? My car isn't insured yet. Daddy was busy at work and told me he would get it added to the plan later this week. Who is going to pay to replace my car?"

"I assure you, ma'am, as soon as we have a suspect and can prove something we will let you know," Officer Sanchez said.

I smiled. I couldn't help it. Talk about Karma. Who buys a new car and doesn't get insurance for it right away?

Once the fire was out and the cars had been towed the crowd began to disperse. Annabelle had headed back inside just after her pile of metal, I mean car, was loaded onto the tow truck. I was getting ready to go back inside when the two girls who had been talking earlier approached me.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about your car. I'm Alicia," she said.

"And I'm Jeannette," the other said. "That was so great of you not to mention anything you heard us talking about."

Alicia was beautiful. Tall, dirty blonde hair with hazel eyes and a bright smile. Jeannette was black, with beautifully braided hair and she was even taller than Alicia. She was skinny but not too skinny and her warm brown eyes and kind smile made me smile back.

"If I was as dumb as Annabelle and didn't have insurance, I might have said something. But considering I'm stuck living with the bitch, I wasn't going to offer her any help."

"So you're the roommate. I'm so sorry," Alicia said straight faced.

"Me too," I said back and then started laughing. "Gosh, she is terrible. I've never met anyone that mean before, well, except for my mother."

"Your mother can't be that rude," Jeannette said. "She has been harping on everything since we met her Saturday night at the house party. How the house wasn't fancy enough and that she couldn't believe the Kappas would partner with SAE. She said they looked like a bunch of thugs. I swear, I wanted to hit her!"

"I have hit her. Twice now," I said with a smile. "I'm friends with Lester Santos and she just keeps talking trash about him. I've smacked her twice and if my car hadn't exploded earlier, I'm not sure she would have made it out of the room alive," I said with a grin.

"Well just let us know if you have anymore trouble," Alicia said. "We'll help you hide the body." We were laughing when Lester came running up to the front of the dorms. Before I could say anything Lester swept me up in his arms into a huge hug.

"Geez, Beautiful. I'm so glad you are ok. Jake came rushing into our house meeting sputtering about a stink bomb and two cars exploding in front of the Freshmen dorms. As soon as he mentioned a P.O.S. Escort, I knew it was yours. If our darn corporate sponsors weren't there, I'd have been here sooner."

"Corporate sponsors?" I asked.

"Yeah, former brothers that sponsor the frat. Help us keep up with maintenance on the house and supply scholarships. Really great guys but they like to keep tabs on us and we occasionally have to suck up to them. Tonight was a suck up night."

"I'm fine. A minor issue with my car, but the good news is Annabelle's car exploded too. And apparently, she doesn't have insurance," I said with what I'm sure was an evil smile on my face.

Lester looked at me for a second and then broke out into laughter. Once he regained control of his laughter he said, "I've got a second cousin that owns a dealership downtown. I can help you get a good deal."

"I'll take you up on it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

What a week. As if my car exploding on Monday wasn't bad enough, but now it is Friday and after a long week of classes, work and studying, I managed to forget that Annabelle's mother was going to be here.

Thankfully, I had plans to grab dinner with Lester, so after only a few degrading comments, and an eye roll at my tank top, denim capri's and flip-flops I managed to escape.

Lester and I sat across from each other shoving greasy burgers and fries into our faces in between bouts of laughter. Lester filling me in on all the new guys rushing SAE and me telling him of the pranks the Kappa girls had played on Annabelle.

"Normally those girls seem really snobby, but maybe I was too quick to judge them," Lester said. "The fact that they are giving Annabelle grief and not going to make her a member makes me rethink my opinion of them."

"According to Alicia and Jeannette, the Kappas really like all the SAE guys. Alicia said they are constantly talking about how they partner with the best frat on campus and that you are the only ones that treat girls with any kind of respect. Sometimes girls have a hard time showing how they feel, but if what Alicia and Jeannette say holds any truth, they really think a lot of you guys."

"Huhn. I guess I'll make more of an effort to get to know them this year," Les said. "So, heard anything from your insurance company on when you're going to get a check so you can go get a new car?"

"Well, they said normally it can take a while because it is still under police investigation regarding what happened, but no matter what, they know it wasn't my fault so they are going to speed up the process for me. Hopefully I'll have it sometime next week and we can go car shopping next weekend if you're free."

"Should be. I'll let you know if anything comes up," Les said.

We finished up our dinner and as we were heading back toward campus, Bobby called Les on his cell phone.

"'Lo,"

"'Sup, man?"

He turned to me and said, "Hey, want to head to Bobby's apartment and watch a movie?"

I nodded and Les quickly answered, "Sounds good, man. Steph and I'll be there in ten."

As he quickly hung up I turned to him and said, "You forgot to say bye." With a grin, Les made a quick left and headed toward Bobby's apartment.

Sunday night

I had listened to Annabelle crying for at least the last 12 hours. I felt only slightly bad that she hadn't been initiated as a Kappa. Her mother, who was furious and apparently beyond embarrassed had left in a huff Saturday night and headed back to Atlanta. Thank God!

Just as I was finally wearing down and trying to come up with a way to comfort Annabelle, that evil bitch in her reared its ugly head and pounced on me.

"This is all your fault you know?"

I choked a little. "Excuse me?"

"The Kappas found out what a loser roommate I had and they didn't want you tagging along with me to parties. That must be why they didn't let me in."

I stared at her, completely speechless.

"So now, I'm stuck with no car, a loser roommate and I'm not a Kappa. Miami sucks!"

I wanted so badly to tell her off and smack some sense into her, but I decided she wasn't worth the effort anymore. Instead, I cleaned up my desk area, climbed into bed and prayed to anyone listening that my room change request would come through soon.

Two months later…

These last two months had been a combination of fun and torture. Fun anytime I'm with Les, Bobby, Cal, Bridget, Alicia or Jeannette. Torture anytime I'm forced to spend time with Annabelle.

Les took me down to his second cousin's dealership when my insurance check came through and I was able to afford a cute little Volkswagen convertible bug. It was a dark blue with a tan interior and it was perfect for me. It was in way better condition than the Escort had been in and with the discount Les's cousin gave me, I had enough to afford it without making payments.

Unfortunately, my room change request had been denied. Something about the paperwork getting lost and when they had recovered it, it was past the deadline and there were no other rooms available for me to move into. So, I was stuck with Annabelle until the semester. She had found a crowd that would put up with her for a while, the stoners. I couldn't believe it the first night that Annabelle came into the room smelling to high heavens and completely mellow. Truth be told, I actually liked that Annabelle. She only hung out with them for a few weeks and then she had taken to staying in a lot, making me want to avoid the room as much as possible.

After about three weeks of her always being in the room, she found a new crowd. I hadn't met any of them, but they certainly kept her occupied. Of course, when she did come home, she was always totally drunk and would strip completely naked and climb into bed and sleep. I never noticed her going to class anymore and would be surprised if she even passed the semester.

As I came home from work tonight to get ready for the big SAE/Kappa Halloween party, Annabelle sat on her bed dressed like the sluttiest devil I had ever seen. She was wearing a skin-tight, strapless red dress that barely covered her lady parts, black fishnet stockings and red FMP's with what must have been 5-inch heels. Her makeup was complete Goth and horror of horrors her hair was black. And nope, it wasn't a wig. She topped the costume off with a headband donned with red sequined horns, and she carried a red, plastic pitchfork. It was great costume, though she did look a little frightening.

"Hey, Annabelle," I said in greeting when I walked in. "Wow! Your costume is really amazing. Which party are you going to?"

She gave me a steely look and said, "Brad and I are going to the SAE party."

"That's cool. I'll be there too. Maybe I'll see you around? You can look for me if you want, I'll be dressed as Wonder Woman." I said smiling at her. I was really starting to feel sorry for her.

"Yeah. Maybe," she said before getting off the bed and leaving.

I gave a slight headshake, grabbed my shower stuff and a robe and then headed into the bathroom to clean up and get ready. Tonight was going to be great, or so I thought.

TBC…

Author's Note: What do you think? What is really going on with Annabelle? What is going to happen at the party? What will the guys be dressed like? Let me know your thoughts and what you would like to see!