Chapter 1

When I retired, I looked around for opportunities to 'give back', both in the community and my profession. The community angle shifted often as I would get bored with seeing the same old faces; and having some of them, whom I had gotten close to, die on me.

Not so my role of advisor to an engineering fraternity Theta Tau. Though I hadn't completed my own degree and certainly hadn't been in any fraternity, I'd gained a certain amount of prestige and reputation in the computer sciences. Not so much on the technical aspects but in applying them to the workplace in consideration of human nature. To be blunt, not all technologies caught on immediately. The key being how easy it is to use, and the natural-ness of using them. Think texting ... it never caught fire with adults till the 'Smartphone' and by that time it was already nearly passe due to twitter.

I had the ability to understand and predict that. And it seemed to me really common sense and I didn't understand those who did not get it. It had nothing to do with 'thumb typing', it was the extra strokes and font shifting that created the resistance. Once full keyboards were available, even seniors glommed onto texting in hand.

So why Theta Tau and not Sigma Phi, which is the larger and more popular of the two?

Because Sigma Phi didn't ask and Theta Tau was 'nerdier'. At least on my local university's campus, where it was sometimes disparagingly and sometimes lovingly known as GeekGreek. Sometimes the 'Herd o' Nerds'

At any rate, having been through the corporate wars doing both development and integration, I had something to offer fledgling engineering geeks in the way of career development and, in a broader sense, just living life.

It was actually the 'life as a techie' area where most of the guys and some girls sought me out. As true in the stereotypes a lot of these kids displayed social awkwardness to the point of outright ineptitude.

That's where my Empathic powers proved valuable

Theta Tau was actually coed but, in the local chapter, it was not very popular among females. Most of the six or seven women members would be more akin to Amy Farrah Fowler of Big Bang than either of the other two recurring women geeks' roles. Nothing wrong with that, just that those 'girls' didn't seem to care about social aspects of their careers. They would be perfectly at ease hanging with Sheldon Cooper.

So it was the guys, archetypes of Leonard and Howard who usually came to me for advice.

Sometimes, though it was just hanging around the lounge listening to geek chatter that brought about the most interesting 'teaching moments'

"Hey, look at this!" William exclaimed "the Chi's are gonna do another bikini car wash. And this time they recruited towny girls to do it ... check out these sluts!"

When his phone was passed around to me, I took a look and, sure enough, the girls were not exactly selected for beauty but for 'hotness' and how much skin they would show. The hair styles were missing, straight hair with color straight from a bottle. Mixed cutoff 'wifebeater and micro-bikini tops with non matching bikini bottoms or short shorts. And suds streaming down their boobs and bellies. The kind of shot that's more exciting than if they were nude. And the posture was obvious, 'Pooch out your bellies and jut out your butts.' In other words, the shot was certainly meant to suggest 'Car Wash Slutty.'

I just shook my head. "You guys don't like being slagged off for nerdy but you're pasting labels on these girls?"

"What?!"

"You don't even know them. Sure a few of 'em might be slutty but so what if they are! And maybe most of them just think it's a chance for a little fun."

And then began the 'great debate'.

Sluts are people, too!

I eyeballed the group of ten or so socially challenged 'losers' around me. There were no pocket protectors in evidence but I got the feeling that was only because the Alpha-Nerds couldn't find them in the comic book or computer stores.

"How many of you guys ever thought about 'What if I was a girl?' ... and then thought, 'I would be on my back all the time'?"

They all just displayed blank stares.

"Come on... 'fess up! It doesn't mean you're gay."

One guy raised his hand, then a couple more, and soon all but one had admitted it.

I grinned at him. "Well, what's your fantasy?"

"I ... umm ... well ... I think about bending over. Does that mean I'm gay?"

I chuckled and so did a couple of the other guys.

"Hell, I don't know. Do you think you're gay? ... not that there's anything wrong with that."

He didn't say anything in response and, on thinking about it, I thought that was probably for the best at that moment. I went on with my thoughts.

"So, guys ... if you've thought about that, meaning 'if I was a girl I'd be on my back, fucking all the time', then you've pictured yourself as a slut."

Several of them nodded, a few looked like a light bulb had gone off in their heads.