A/N: Thanks to those of you I have picked up along the way! My first reviewer suggested that I should give some of the characters Disney names-I did want to shy away from that, and I think that the barrage of names I threw at you in the first chapter will probably not all be important as we learn more about Anna and Elsa's relationship. I kind of want to stick to this fandom and not throw a ton of other folks in, but I do understand that all those names may have been a turn-off!
We will see a Frozen character or two-look out for someone next chapter who you will hopefully recognize in his anthropomorphic state!
A flurry of leaves swept into the lobby of Buckeye Pets Foundation along with a fired-up sorority girl.
Zeta Kappa had two main philanthropies: No Kid Hungry, which worked to eliminate childhood hunger in America, was one. And animal welfare was the second.
In the past, they had just tossed money at the problem or half-assed a fundraiser. But Anna was having none of that. There were, like, a thousand animal rescues in Columbus and she had never even been in one. It was a perfect opportunity for her to get sisters out and active in the community.
Anna leaned an elbow on the counter and opened up Twitter. She had just started a new account for the house and wanted to take the opportunity to hype up her sisterhood as much as possible.
"Thinking of organizing volunteer day at BuckeyePetsFdn," she typed, adding at least five exclamation points and posting it.
She tapped her toes as she waited for an employee. The lobby was clean and friendly-looking, a burnt orange color on the walls barely visible behind rows and rows of animal photos.
"Coming, sorry!" she heard another girl's voice. A young woman with platinum-blonde hair pushed open the door behind the counter. Anna smiled-the girl had a big orange cat draped around her shoulders like a scarf, and had animal hair all over her navy blue shirt.
"Hi, how can I help you?" the girl said in a slightly raspy voice, looking up with a smile.
"Oh, hey!" Anna exclaimed. "You're in my Spanish lit class!"
The girl's bright blue eyes crinkled. "Oh, hey Anna," she said. "What's up?"
Shit, Anna thought. What is her-ah, that's right, she thought, glancing at the girl's name tag. It's Elsa.
"Hey yourself, Elsa!" she said brightly. "Um, I'm looking to volunteer here, actually."
"Great," Elsa said, the snoozing cat on her shoulder shifting as she rifled through papers on a desk. "We always need volunteers. When is open for you?"
"Well, it's not just me," Anna amended. "I'm hoping to get my sorority in here since one of our national philanthropies is animal welfare. I was thinking we could come here and see how everything works and then maybe, I dunno, help organize some adoption event on campus or maybe educate the general public somehow about the importance of spaying and neutering? I was reading online and, like, I was astonished at how many animals are put down because the population is too high." she felt her cheeks getting flushed. "And I just think that is so ridiculous that there are so many animals who need homes and then there are people out breeding them for like thousands of dollars, you know?"
Elsa was watching her with a bemused expression.
"Sorry, I just get fired up," Anna sighed.
"No, that's good," came the reply. "Trust me, I feel the same way."
"You guys don't...uh…"
"We try not to," the blonde said softly, looking down at her hands. "Only when animals are too sick or too hostile or too feral to be adopted out. And sometimes...when we don't have enough room..."
Anna felt a little deflated.
"Oh."
"I don't like it either," said Elsa, reaching up to scratch the cat on her shoulders and gently lift him over her head. "But sometimes we just need to."
"Well," Anna said, setting her chin stubbornly, "Maybe we can help with that."
"How many girls are in your sorority?"
"Right now, we only have 53."
"...only?"
Anna laughed. "Yeah, numbers have been down for us, but we're working on recruiting some new girls!"
Elsa opened a drawer, nudging the cat as she did so. "Well, let me see when we have an afternoon open. Do you want to do it before Thanksgiving break?"
"Oh yeah, totally, we can get our shit together before then." Anna leaned over the counter to stroke the cat. "What's his name?"
"His name is Crookshanks," Elsa said as she thumbed through the calendar. "That was Hermione's cat in 'Harry Potter.'"
"Um duh, of course it was!" said Anna. "I only read 'Prisoner of Azkaban'" like a hundred times. Too bad he didn't eat Wormtail when he had a chance, that dude is such a fucker."
The blonde looked up, amused. "Harry Potter fan, huh? I wouldn't have pegged you for that."
"What, sorority girls can't like HP?" The cat started purring as Anna scratched his ears. "Believe me, we're more than just parties and cute t-shirts. At least," she slumped partially onto the counter. "We're trying to be. Had some problems earlier in the semester."
"Yeah, I heard about that."
Anna's stomach dropped. "Really?"
"Mm, just bits and pieces," came the noncommittal reply, the blue eyes fixed on the calendar again.
"Like what?"
Elsa looked up.
"Sorry," said Anna, blushing a bit. "Don't mean to push the subject, I am just really working hard to change things around here."
The blonde smiled. "Well, how about we start changing things on Nov. 3? It's a Sunday, and that's usually when we do the most cleaning, reorganizing, etc. Plus, we'll get a big shipment of stuff in from the SPCA. My boss is having surgery the day before, so he won't be able to help."
Anna was already texting away, spreading the plans to some of the sorority sisters.
"I think we'll be more than happy to!"
"Great," said Elsa with a grin, and Anna found a smile sliding across her own face. "Tell the girls to wear something they might not mind getting dirty, would you?"
"Of course, of course." Anna spaced out for a moment, suddenly realizing she had never really talked to Elsa before, much less seen her this close, and she definitely hadn't seen those light freckles across her cheeks.
"Cool," Elsa said, still smiling after they held one anothers' gaze for a while. "Let me know how many will be coming, can you? Look me up on Facebook or on the student email list."
"Or I could just tell you in Spanish class," Anna said with a laugh, looking down to see a text coming in. "Hey, our service chair is on board with it, so that's good. I'll have her rally the troops."
She looked up, excited. "Hey, this will be great. And I'm sure we will be more than happy to help!" She pocketed her phone and stuck out her hand. "A pleasure doing business with you. And you, Crookshanks," she said, tapping the cat on his head with her other hand.
Elsa laughed and offered her own palm. "We'll see how pleasurable it is when I have your whole sorority picking up dog poop."
Anna shrugged as she clasped the other woman's slender hand. "I'm the president, I just get to oversee. I'm not picking up any shit."
"What a good leader," Elsa drawled, rolling her eyes. "Hasta luego."
"See ya," said the sorority girl, tossing her strawberry blonde bangs back as she exited.