Chapter 2

The warm afternoon sun shined brightly onto her tanned bikini-clad body. Maggie stretched her legs and adjusted the brim of her visor to cover her eyes. She lay on the balcony on the second floor of Hudson Hall, soaking up the sun’s rays while ignoring the college boys trying to gawk at her from the sidewalk below.

“Hey!” a voice called out to her. Maggie ignored him. She was not giving him her number.

“Hey!” he repeated. “I lost my key. Can you come down and unlock the door?”

Maggie rolled over and looked down at Matt’s face.

“You don’t live here,” she said.

“My girlfriend does. Can you let me in? I need to see her.”

Just then, the front door opened, and a female dorm resident invited him inside. Matt looked awkwardly up at the tanning coed.

“Uh, problem solved!” he said. He hurried inside the building. Maggie rolled back onto her towel and closed her eyes.

Andrew crouched in the bushes twenty feet away, keeping the viewfinder of his camera focused on the sunbather’s body. He placed his thumb onto the record button and pressed it.

“Any minute now. You better get into position,” he said.

Chris casually walked up the sidewalk, gradually nearing the balcony where the tanning girl lay. She rolled onto her belly, and untied her bikini top, letting the strap hang over the edge of the balcony.

“Perfect,” Andrew whispered to himself. Maggie’s bikini top was ripe for the taking.

Chris glanced up at the windows above. Seeing no one, he slowed his pace. The balcony was only a few feet ahead.

“Come on, Matt,” Andrew urged. Bugs were starting bite his legs. He smacked a mosquito on his knee while keeping his focus on the camera screen.

Matt opened a window on the third floor, and produced an air horn in his right hand. He gave the handle a firm squeeze, and a shrill squeak rang out.

Maggie leaped up in shock at the sudden noise. Chris had timed his pace perfectly, because Maggie’s top was hanging in grabbing distance. He snatched the top with his left hand and yanked it through the balcony bars, yelling out, “I got it!”

“Hey!” the topless bather shouted. She watched Chris sprint down the sidewalk, right past the bushes where Andrew hid crouched while getting a full view of Maggie’s exposed breasts on his camera screen. Realizing she had been sharked, Maggie frantically covered her nipples with her arm and hurried back inside her dorm room.

Andrew pressed the stop button on his camera and ran after Chris.

“Got it!” he said. “Call Joe. Let him know ‘M’ is done!”

“Sit,” Vicky said.

Like a dog, Rob obeyed. He took a seat at Vicky’s desk chair. She sat down onto her bed and faced him.

“Vic, I swear. I had nothing to do with those sharking guys. Honest.”

She looked at him as if he were a defendant in courtroom.

“It’s not cool what they’re doing,” Vicky said. “I mean, Janine was HUMILIATED back there! What if someone did that to me? How would you feel?”

“Horrible. I mean, pissed,” Rob assured her. “But, what can I do? I’m not involved with those guys.”

Vicky stared contemplatively out the window.

“I want you to leave that frat.”

Rob’s mouth dropped open.

“Leave Alpha Tau Zeta? Those are my boys!”

“Oh, they’re your boys now? You just said you weren’t involved with them!”

“I meant I wasn’t involved in Sharking Day. But that frat, that’s my family Vic. Don’t make me choose!”

“That’s exactly what I’m making you do. And you have two minutes to decide.”

“Two minutes? Why two minutes?” he asked.

“You’ll see,” she said with a wink.

With that, she disappeared into the bathroom. As soon as the door closed, Rob took out his phone. He punched out a quick message to Ken: “dropped camera in trash can @ pool. GET IT NOW.”

Realizing Vicky might likely check his phone, he deleted the message from his sent folder.

He wondered what specifically Vicky intended to do when his two minutes were up, but his throat tightened at the thought of leaving his brothers at ATZ. He’d have to make her understand. He’d have to.

The bathroom door opened, and Vicky emerged. She was wearing a red silk thong, and nothing else. She placed her hand on her hip and flipped her hair.

“Well baby, what do you think?” she asked.

He stared at her, wide-eyed.

“You. Look. Amazing.”

“Thank you. I thought I’d treat you to a little afternoon sexy time.”

“Hell, yes!” Rob cheered. Ten minutes ago he’d been dreading what Vicky had in store for him when she asked him to come to her dorm room. Now this might end up being the highlight of his day. A day that included videotaping partially naked college girls, no less.

“But first, I’m going to need to hear your answer,” she said. “What’s it going to be?”

“I’ll leave Alpha Tau Zeta,” he said without hesitation, and without taking his eyes away from her naked breasts.

“Smart man,” she said. With that, she dropped to her knees, unzipped his pants, and took his penis into her mouth.

Kerry hung up her phone.

“Mandy’s on her way,” she said.

Laura was still blushing. She could feel the stares of her fellow classmates in the cafeteria, all of them who had just seen her bare ass and pussy.

“I don’t see a cameraman anywhere,” Sheryl said. “Are you sure he was here?”

“They ALWAYS film it. That’s the whole point. Keep looking,” Pamela said.

The fours girls scanned the room, but all they saw were the wide-eyed stares of students either frightened for, or amused by, the recently-sharked Laura.

Pamela grabbed Kerry’s arm. Kerry flinched, but looked to see what Pamela had found.

“Look,” she said, pointing to the security camera up on the wall.

Kerry looked at Pamela. “You don’t think...”

“The security center. Let’s go. Now!”

Together, the four girls ran from the cafeteria. They hurried down the hall, searching for any sign of Ken or any of the other guys from Alpha Tau Zeta. While none of the four of them had ever been in the security center before, they at least knew where it was. It was a quick sprint down the hall, up a short flight of steps, and the door was there. The girls hurried inside.

Ken was slipping a disc into a jewel case when they entered.

“Oh, shit,” he said, caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

“Shit is right,” Kerry agreed. She, Laura, Pamela and Sheryl stood to block his path to the door.

Ken dropped the jewel case into an open backpack and ran to the rear of the security center with the bag in his hands. The four girls advanced towards him, determine to wrestle the disc from Ken’s grasp before he could deliver it to his brothers back at the frat house.

Ken found himself cornered, literally, but a light switch was in his reach. As he switched it off, the room went dark, and Ken took advantage of the momentary confusion to weave his way between the advancing coeds.

“I got him!” Sheryl said, grabbing a sleeve.

“No, that’s me!” Laura said, yanking her arms free of Sheryl’s grasp.

“I got him!” Kerry corrected, and she was almost right. She’d gotten both hands on Ken’s backpack, but he was almost at the door and the girls were no longer in his path.

“Give me it!” Kerry demanded, as Laura switched the lights back on. Pamela and Sheryl grabbed the backpack as well, only for Ken to reach inside, grab the disc, and run for the exit, letting them have the bag.

The backpack hit the floor, and the girls gave chase as Ken fled down the hallway. Laura tripped over the discarded bag, causing Ken’s phone to topple out. The girls ignored the bag as they frantically pursued the fleeing frat boy.

He reached the exit long before they did. By the time they arrived at the double doors leading from the Student Center, Ken had vanished with the disc in his possession.

“Damn it! How does a guy who spends every night chugging from a keg run so fast?” Pamela asked, leaning against the wall, panting.

“He’s not in heels,” Kerry noted, tapping Pamela’s fashionable footwear with the side of her own shoe. Pamela had known it was a bad idea to wear heels today, but being a 5’1” bookworm, heels were the only way to not appear as a socially challenged computer geek, which admittedly, she was in spades.

“Fucking hell,” Laura cursed. It was only a matter of time before Ken made it back to his frat house, and the security camera footage of him pulling her jeans and panties down showed up on the Internet.

“Hey, you guys. Check this out.” Sheryl approached them from down the hallway holding Ken’s cell phone.

“Anything on there that might help us?” Kerry asked, moving to Sheryl’s side.

“He got a text message two minutes ago. From Rob. ‘dropped camera in trash can @ pool. GET IT NOW.’”

The girls looked at each other.

“Did Ken see that message?” Laura asked.

“Looks like it. Which means he’s probably on his way back to the pool now,” Sheryl said.

“Let’s move!” Kerry said, and the girls took off running.

Ken ran, quickly but stealthily, back into the pool room. He ran to the trash can nearest the door, and peeked inside. No camera was there.

“Shit,” he said. He peered around the room, looking for another trash can, but found none in sight. Nothing but students in swimsuits splashing about in the water.

He reached for his phone, but his pockets were empty. Cursing, he stepped out of the pool room doors and found a pay phone on the nearby wall. He grabbed the receiver and inserted 35 cents.

“Alpha Tau Zeta,” the voice greeted.

“Joe! I can’t find the camera. It’s not in the trash can!”

“Woah, woah, woah, you’re telling me you LOST the camera?” Joe asked.

“Not ME! Rob’s the one who dumped it in the trash! And he’s not answering his phone!” Ken shouted.

“Hey, you two need to communicate better. Keep trying him, we got a schedule to keep.”

Ken stammered.

“I- can’t. I’m out of change, and, I lost my phone.”

Joe broke out in hysterical laughter.

“You lost your phone too? Man, you need to cut back on the Mary Jane!” Joe remarked. “All right, you figure out your shit, I’m gonna tell Andrew’s team to move in on Natasha. Got it?”

“Excuse me?” a female voice said.

Ken spun around, to see a strikingly beautiful brunette looking at him. She stood next to a bulletin board, where she was in the process of tacking a pink flier to the board. She wore a low cut t-shirt with the letters Delta Delta printed across the front, and a pair of black shorts that showed off her long tan legs beautifully.

“Are you looking for a camera?” she asked.

“Uh ... yeah,” Ken said, lowering the receiver. “A video camera. You seen one?”

“My friend did. She found it in the trash can. She’s returning it to the tech center,” the girl said. She looked at the jewel case tucked in the back of Ken’s pants curiously.

“Oh, thank God,” Ken said. “What’s your friend’s name?”

“Erin O’Neil. She left only like, five minutes ago.”

“O’Neil,” Ken said, curiously. “Can you call her, and tell her to stay put? I’m coming to her.”

Ken held the receiver to his mouth again.

“Never mind Joe, camera has been found,” Ken said. “And tell Andrew’s team to hurry up. I may have a lead on an ‘O’.”

Anna and Mandy stepped into the cafeteria and looked around the room.

“I don’t see them,” Mandy remarked. She kept Anna’s phone to her ear, listening for anything she might pick up in the frat house. So far, nothing but muffled voices in the background.

“Maybe they found the guy that sharked Laura?” Anna suggested.

“Let’s hope so. Find a phone to borrow and ask Kerry where they all went,” Mandy instructed.

“Oh-KAY,” Anna responded, giving her friend the side eye. It seemed Mandy had become bossier lately, much to Anna’s annoyance.

She walked among the lunch tables, looking for someone friendly enough that they might be willing to loan a phone for a moment. She locked eyes with someone she wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk to, but having spotted each other, there was no avoiding it now.

“Anna,” Tony said. “How are you?”

“Good,” she said, reservedly. She folded her arms in front of her stomach. “Is that a new leather jacket?”

“Yeah, it is,” he said. “Had to get a new one cause someone still hasn’t returned my old one.”

Anna giggled.

“Sorry.”

They looked at each other for a second.

“Have you seen Kerry around here?” she asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, she and her friends took off in a hurry. One of them, Laura, I think her name was, just got sharked by one of those frat guys. Poor girl was so embarrassed.”

“That’s awful,” Anna said. “Mandy and I are trying to help them find the guys doing this and stop them.”

“Well, good luck,” Tony said. “Those Alpha Tau Zeta guys have gotten sneaky. I’ve been warning all my female friends to watch their asses today.”

“Good,” Anna said, forcing a smile while wondering just how many female friends Tony had.

“Um, do you have a phone I could borrow?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said. He reached into his jacket pocket and handed her his cell phone. She flipped it open and she froze. The background photo showed him at a party with his arm around Mandy.

“When was this picture taken?” Anna asked.

Now it was Tony who went cold.

“A ... few weeks ago. At my birthday party. After we broke up, of course.”

Anna turned and marched towards Mandy, still listening to the receiver of Anna’s phone.

“MANDY!” Anna snapped.

Mandy held up her index finger. Anna scowled at her friend’s dismissive gesture.

“I can hear someone talking!” Mandy whispered.

“Did you go to Tony’s birthday party?” Anna asked, making no change to the volume of her voice.

Mandy shook her head and kept listening into the phone.

“You didn’t go?” Anna asked.

“No! I told you. Listen, I just heard Joe say he’s going to have Andrew’s team move in on Natasha. We have to find who that is and warn her!”

Anna held up Tony’s phone and showed her the background photo. Mandy stopped, and her face went white.

“Okay. Yes, I went,” Mandy admitted. “Look, I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be mad.”

“Damn right I’m mad!” Anna said.

“All right look, can we stay focused? We need to stop Natasha from getting sharked. I promise I’ll talk about this with you later,” Mandy said.

Anna scowled. She angrily punched Kerry’s number into Tony’s phone.

“Kerry, it’s Anna. Where are you guys?” she asked.

Kerry, Laura, Pamela, and Sheryl burst through the doors into the pool room and immediately ran to the trash can. They peeked inside and found nothing.

“It’s not here! Damn it!” Kerry said.

“Ken must have gotten here already,” Sheryl said. She looked around the room, fuming.

“Why do you think he dropped his camera in the trash?” Laura asked.

“Who knows?” Kerry said. Her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but answered.

“Hello?” She turned to her friends. “It’s Anna.”

Kerry listened to Anna explain what Mandy had overheard. As she did, the gorgeous brunette girl walked by. Sheryl stopped her.

“Hey, Yasmine, did a frat guy come in here recently?” Sheryl asked.

“Yeah,” Yasmine said. “Short guy? Dorky glasses and a CD case in his pants?”

“That’s him!” Laura said.

“He was looking for a video camera. Erin found it and took it back to the tech center. I called her and told her to wait for him because it was his.”

“You told her to give it to him?” Sheryl exclaimed. “Yasmine, he’s one of the guys that’s been sharking girls today! He’s going to film them with that camera!”

Yasmine’s face dropped.

“That was HIM? Oh shit, I’ll call Erin back right now.” She took out her phone. “I’ll have to step outside to get a signal.”

“Guys!” Kerry exclaimed. “Mandy just heard them say they’re moving in on someone named Natasha next. Anyone know a Natasha?” Kerry asked.

“Natasha Kaplin?” Yasmine asked. “She’s said she was going to the fitness center. She might be there now.”

“Okay, Anna, can you hear me?” Kerry said into the phone. “Can you and Mandy run to the fitness center right now? Andrew and his team might be sharking someone there soon.”

Kerry shut her phone. “We need to go the tech center right now. Yasmine, please try to get a hold of Erin and tell her not to let Ken have that camera!”

“You got it!” Yasmine said, and ran for the exit.

“The rest of us, let’s get to the tech center now!”

Erin O’Neil climbed the steps towards the tech center, with the video camera in her hands. She felt a few reservations about handing the camera over to someone who’d left it in a trash can, but was glad to get it back to its rightful owner regardless. Having worked at the tech center for two semesters, she knew how expensive it was to repair and replace equipment.

“Erin!” Ken shouted. She turned around to see him running towards her. She had on the same pink t-shirt and black shorts as her fellow sorority sister, Yasmine. Ken glanced at Erin’s ample cleavage peeking out from her tight t-shirt briefly before meeting her gaze.

“That’s me,” she said. “You looking for this?”

“Yeah,” he said, taking the camera from her. “My friend Rob, real dumbass. Thought that would be a good place to keep it from being stolen. I won’t let him have it again.”

“Good. You’re lucky isn’t isn’t broken,” Erin said. “But your battery is almost dead. They gave you the spare, right?”

“Yeah,” Ken said, inspecting the camera. “Hey look, I lost my phone. Any chance I can borrow yours?”

“Sure,” Erin said.

Andrew had his camera hidden inside a gym bag, resting on the bench beside him. He had the lens focused on Natasha. She was on a treadmill four feet in front of him, dressed in a black tank top and tight leggings. He could just faintly make out a pink thong showing through her pants, nicely framing her round firm ass.

He looked to Chris, who was using the chest press machine, and Matt, who sat at a bench hoisting two dumbbells. Both had their eyes on Natasha, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Andrew’s phone rang. He answered.

“Hey, it’s Ken!” the voice on the line said. “What’s the 411 on your current project?”

“We are in position, and awaiting an optimal moment,” Andrew said.

“Any chance you guys can hurry? I am here with the lovely Erin O’Neil and I won’t have long.”

Ken heard a beep from Erin’s call waiting. He ignored it and smiled at her.

“Understood, but this isn’t something that can be rushed. I’m sure you understand,” Andrew said.

“I understand, all right,” Ken said, nervously. “But time is a-wasting. Please keep me apprised the moment your task is done.”

“Will do,” Andrew said. “By the way, any chance you have a spare battery? Ours is running low.”

Ken paused.

“Negative,” he said. “Mine is also nearly drained. But I believe there is a fresh one in the charger back at the house.”

“Good to know. We’ll fight you for it, then,” Andrew chuckled.

He watched as Natasha shut off the treadmill, and sat down at a nearby leg press machine. She took an iPod out of her pocket and tapped through the menu. Andrew nodded to Chris.

Chris shook his head. Andrew tapped his wrist. Chris looked at Natasha and shook his head again. He pointed his index fingers to his hips, and mouthed the words “pants.” Andrew tapped his wrist again.

Chris did a few more reps on the chest press machine, not taking his eyes off Natasha, who was still flipping through her iPod.

“Hey, Andrew!” Ken called through the phone’s speaker. “Any progress? I’m running out of time!”

Ken could see Kerry and her friends approaching from the distance, waving their arms to get Erin’s attention. They ran past a statue of the University’s founder and hurried along the sidewalk towards the tech center.

“Can I have my phone back?” Erin asked. “I really need to get going.”

“Just a second longer, I promise,” Ken said. He watched warily as the quartet of girls in the distance came closer. To his luck, Erin hadn’t heard them shouting yet.

Andrew tapped on his wrist a third time, rapidly, and finally, Chris got up from the chest press machine and walked over to Natasha.

“Excuse me?” he said. “Do you mind if I use this machine?”

Natasha said nothing.

“Excuse me?” Chris repeated, louder.

Natasha looked up at him. She pulled one of her earbuds from her ear and he repeated his request.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Yeah, I’m just trying to find the right song. Go ahead.”

She got up from the machine and moved aside so Chris could sit down- putting the machine right between her and Andrew’s camera. Chris was about to reach for Natasha’s pants, but Andrew swiped his hand horizontally.

Chris shrugged and took a seat at the leg press machine. Andrew slid the gym bag two feet to his left to get a clear view of Natasha again. She slipped her iPod into her cleavage and walked over to the weight bench where she began a series of squats. Andrew framed the camera on her.

“Andrew! Should I abort?” Ken asked, more urgently than before.

“No! Do not abort, repeat, do not abort, our mission completion is imminent!” Andrew said.

Andrew nodded to Matt, who dropped both of his dumbbells and hurried over to Natasha- just as Anna and Mandy entered the fitness center.

“NATASHA LOOK OUT!” Mandy shouted, but the music blasting from Natasha’s earbuds drowned out the warning.

Matt grabbed the waistband of the exercising girl’s leggings and yanked them down just as she began her squat. She screamed, and Matt pulled down her pink thong as well. Andrew stood up, and made sure his camera got a clear view of Natasha’s bare ass just seconds before his camera battery went dead. He picked up his phone.

“Mission complete, you are good to go! I repeat you are good to go!” he said into the phone.

Ken breathed a sigh of relief. He pressed the record button on his camera and turned the lens towards Erin’s chest. With his other hand, he shut Erin’s phone. He extended his arm to hand the phone to her, while resting the side of his foot upon the edge of the top step.

“All good, here’s your phone,” he said, and as he held the phone in front of her face, he let his foot slip over the top step, making him momentarily lose his balance. He dropped the phone to the ground and grabbed the top of Erin t-shirt, pulling it down as he fell from the top step, keeping the camera trained on her chest as he did.

“Whoops!” he shouted. As luck would have it, Erin was not wearing a bra, and both of her breasts popped into view as he yanked the shirt down.

“Oh God, I’m sorry!” he said, letting go of her top.

“Oh my God!” she shouted, covering her breasts with her hands, and watching her phone hit the ground and tumble down the concrete steps.

“Erin!” Kerry shouted, and she and her friends rushed towards her.

“Got to go. Thanks,” Ken said, and took off, camera in hand.

“What the FUCK?” Erin shouted, watching Ken race away.

“Erin!” Kerry repeated, slowing down as she reached her side.

“Damn, we’re too late!” Laura muttered.

Erin pulled her t-shirt back up to cover her breasts, and picked up her cracked phone.

“What an ASSHOLE!” she cursed, examining her phone.

“We tried to warn you. We got here as fast as we could,” Kerry said consolingly.

“Warn me? What do you mean?” Erin asked.

Kerry brought Erin up to speed about Sharking Day.

“Oh my God, that’s TODAY?” Erin exclaimed.

“You’ve heard of it?” Laura asked.

Erin nodded... “My sister told me about it. They always got her for ‘O’ all four years she went here.”

Kerry’s phone rang. She checked the call ID and saw it was a number she didn’t recognize. She answered. She listened to the caller, and turned to her friends.

“Anna and Mandy want to meet up,” Kerry said. “I think it’s time we had a meeting.”

They met in the cafeteria, where their lunches were still sitting, untouched. Pamela glanced up at the security cameras and hesitated to approach their table.

“I think I’m gonna sit this one out, guys,” she said. “They just got O’Neil, that means they’re on ‘P’ now.”

“I think that’s a good idea. I’ll walk her back to the house,” Laura said.

“No problem. Be careful, guys,” Kerry said. She watched the two of them walk off and eyed the nearby guys carefully.

Kerry, Sheryl, and Erin took a seat at their table while they waited for Anna and Mandy to gather their lunches from the front counter.

“So did anything happen between you and Tony at this party?” Anna asked, sliding up next to Mandy in the lunch line.

Mandy groaned.

“Are you still on about that? God Anna, let it go already!”

“Well sorry, I thought were were friends, who valued honesty. I guess some things don’t matter as much as I thought.”

Anna angrily scooped a spoonful of noodles onto her lunch tray.

“Nothing happened, Anna! I’m sorry I went to his party. Can we stay focused? We’ve got to help stop any more girls from being sharked!”

“Everything okay?” Kerry asked, as Anna and Mandy arrived at their table.

“Anna’s upset I went to Tony’s birthday party, “ Mandy said, and sat by Kerry’s side.

“No I’m not, I’m mad she lied to me about it,” Anna corrected.

Kerry shrugged.

“I’m sorry, Anna, you were really down at the time and we were worried you’d get more upset we didn’t all cut ties with Tony,” Kerry said.

“You went TOO?” Anna asked, her anger growing.

“Can we stay FOCUSED?” Mandy asked. “I’ve still got my phone on the line. I’ve been picking up tidbits of conversations back at the frat house.”

Mandy set Anna’s phone on the table and set it to speaker. The five girls listened in to the voices on the other end of the line.

“Did you feed Baxter?” a voice asked.

Sheryl looked up at the other girls. “Who’s Baxter?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Kerry said. “I know they don’t have a dog or a cat.”

The girls continued listening. It was hard to hear, but sounded like the boys were discussing Rob- and not in a flattering way.

“ ... dropped his camera in a trash can so his girlfriend wouldn’t catch him with it. Not exactly alpha male material,” a voice said.

The girls laughed.

“So THAT’S why the camera was in there!” Erin said.

As the boys’ conversation continued, the girls distinctly heard the words, “where’s the charger?”

“It’s right here, boys!” Mandy smirked, holding up the battery charger she swiped from the house. Kerry and Sheryl smirked.

“Hey Kerry, isn’t that your boyfriend?” Anna asked, pointing at the cafeteria entrance.

Kerry turned around, only to see Kurt had indeed entered the cafeteria. He spotted her, and she waved to him.

“Better turn off the speaker. He’s in that frat!” Sheryl said. Anna pressed the speaker button on her phone.

“Hey babe, how’s it going?” Kurt asked. He kissed her forehead.

“Your brothers have been busy. Erin just got sharked,” Kerry said.

Kurt turned to Erin.

“I’m really sorry about that. My brothers aren’t the most mature bunch,” he said.

Erin rolled her eyes.

“I don’t need an apology, just make those idiots stop,” she said.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kurt said. “In the meantime, just so you ladies are aware, Delta Delta is hosting their biannual bikini contest this evening at the Delta Delta sorority house, and yours truly will be one of the judges! Any of you fine young ladies interested in entering?”

He handed them five pink fliers, showing a clip art image of a girl in a bikini with the date and time of the contest on it.

“Really not a good time, Kurt,” Sheryl said, not touching the flier he set in front of her.

Kurt backed away.

“Okay, understandable, but, it’s an open invitation. Hope you’ll attend just to watch, if you want.” He walked away.

Sheryl rolled her eyes.

“Seriously? What idiot would enter a bikini contest today, of all days?”

“This idiot here,” Erin said, pointing to herself. “I’m in Delta Delta. I already signed up.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Sheryl said.

“Turn the speaker back on,” Mandy said. “Maybe we’ll hear if the guys are planning anything.”

Anna pressed the speaker button on her phone.

“It was there this morning,” a muffled voice said.

“Well, that’s a problem, guys. No charging means no sharking,” another voice said.

“I think that was Ken,” Sheryl said.

“Shh!” Mandy said. She leaned closer to the phone.

“There’s gonna be more sharking, guys. Let’s keep looking. It’s around here somewhere.”

The girls looked at each other. It sounded like Joe’s voice.

After a long pause, Anna spoke, “Well, it doesn’t sound like they’re planning anything.”

“Yeah, only because they don’t have the charger we took!” Sheryl chided.