Dan sat in his dorm room, working hard on his piling mountain of homework. He was so focused on math that he almost didn't hear the door open. Tommy entered the room, looking happier and more sober than Dan had seen in weeks.

"What's up with you?" Dan asked, grinning.

"I got a date to our fall social."

"That's awesome. Who is it?"

"Kelsey Monroe," Tommy said as he threw himself on his bed, bouncing slightly.

"Holy crap. She was almost the Phi-O president. How did you manage that?"

"Hey!" Tommy said, looking a little hurt. "Are you implying that Moi couldn't get someone that popular and hot?"

"I didn't mean it that way, man," Dan said. He felt bad, but he saw Tommy laughing.

"Nah, it's all good. She needed a stress reliever, and I hooked her up. Turns out she's pretty chill," Tommy replied as he grabbed his controller to play video games while they talked. He started playing Noir Detective 3 but kept the conversation going despite staring intently at the TV. "I learned something about that Marla girl, though."

"Really? What's that?" Dan asked.

"Kelsey can't stand her any more than your girl. It seems half of Phi-O are getting fed up with her."

"That doesn't surprise me. I don't suppose Kelsey knows how Marla beat her to become president, does she?"

"She thinks Marla either intimidated or bribed people into voting for her."

"Again, I'm not surprised," Dan laughed.

"Kelsey said Marla is trying to pull the same thing again to get some internship Kelsey wants. She's pretty pissed."

When Tommy said this, Dan looked intrigued. Tommy glanced at him because he didn't respond. He registered Dan's expression. "Oh, no. You're plotting something," Tommy chuckled.

"I am not."

"Dude, I know that look. Either you're plotting something, or you're hungry."

"How do those look the same?" Dan asked. Tommy shrugged and returned to his video game. "Okay, maybe I am plotting something, but someone has to knock Marla down a peg."

"Be careful, man. Don't go starting drama. That's my motto."

***

Barb and Hana were enjoying an afternoon jog around campus. They discovered their mutual love for running during their freshmen year. Running around the perimeter of the campus provided a nice scenic route. Barb loved how the trees grew over the roads around the school, creating almost a tunnel-like effect. Harrison University had a beautiful atmosphere. A little exercise helped ease her stress, but it also gave them a chance to have their visit.

"Sister Barb, we don't need a visit. I've known you since last year's Welcome Week," Hana laughed.

"We still require visits, and are you complaining about spending time with me?" Barb asked, looking sad.

"No, of course not!" Hana said. She stopped jogging and looked at Barb apologetically, but Barb laughed.

"I was messing with you. Come on, keep up," Barb said, jogging away.

"So, are you going to ask Ben to the Hootenanny?" Hana asked when she pulled even with Barb again.

"Why do you think I would want to?"

"You kept Tommy's drawing from class," Hana chuckled.

"It's a funny drawing!"

"Right. That's why you kept it," Hana smirked. This time, Barb stopped running.

"He's smug. I don't like that."

"Well, is it okay if I ask him then?"

"Sure, knock yourself out, but why would you want to?"

"He's a model. I was hoping to ask him about working with Malloy Modeling."

"Hana, are you serious?" Barb asked. "Won't Jae be mad if you work for a competing company?"

"Jae lives on the other side of the state. Her agency doesn't operate here in town. They're not competing. Besides, Jae told me to go for it," Hana shrugged as they started moving again. "This could be good for me. I want people to look at me the way they look at my sister," Hana added, looking a little sad.

"Hana, I keep telling you you're beautiful. If you want to be a model, you know I'm 100% behind you, but be warned. Malloy works with Marla often."

"I know, but I'm not scared of her," Hana said. She tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and stumbled as she said it, but Hana shook it off and looked around to make sure no one else noticed. Barb saw and kept quiet, but she also knew Hana was bluffing. She spotted the fear in Hana's eyes.

***

"I agree with Tommy. Don't start drama!" Hailey said when she heard Dan's plan. They whispered to each other while waiting for class to begin, but the conversation grew louder as Hailey's stress level rose.

"But this is a chance to help Kelsey and stick it to Marla," Dan said.

"It would also piss Marla off even more, which we don't need."

"Then we find a way to do it without her finding out it was us."

"Dan! I'm serious. We can't make the Marla problem worse. It's already escalating too much. Please, drop it," Hailey said. Dan looked disappointed but nodded and didn't bring the topic up again.

Instead, they spent the rest of class playing their favorite game. Dan pulled out a piece of paper, and they marked down how many times their teacher, Mr. Emmerich, said the phrase, "What have you." He ended every other sentence with it, and they counted twenty-three times during this period. However, Hailey seemed distant and distracted. Dan worried he had caused this distraction, but he didn't know the half of it.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Did you want to grab lunch?" Dan asked after class.

"No, we need to talk," Hailey said, leading Dan to a private corner. They sat down on a couch away from the bustle of students. Dan felt uneasy because no good conversation ever started with that phrase. "I know you wanted to go to the Aeternum social together, but I think you should ask someone else," Hailey said without meeting his eyes.

"What? Why?"

"Dan, I know you still have feelings for me, but I'm worried about how it might affect our friendship. You mean everything to me, and that's exactly why I need to let you go," Hailey cried. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She still couldn't look at him.

"But..."

"Please. Do this for me. Ask someone else to your social and see how it goes. You hit it off pretty well with Tamara on Bid Night. Maybe you could ask her," Hailey said, cutting him off before he could protest.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, but the tears increased.

Dan hesitated. Hailey didn't look at him, but she watched him out of the corner of her eye. She could tell how conflicted he was from his body language. Hailey stood up because an argument was the last thing she wanted. If she remained there, he would make this harder. "I want you to be happy, and I don't think that's with me. Promise me you'll try to find someone else," she said, looking at him for the first time since the conversation began. She hoped he would answer soon because holding the gaze hurt.

"Okay, I promise," he nodded.

***

Meanwhile, Tamara was in the theatre department looking for her director, Molly Langley. Tamara weaved through stagehands, other actors, and racks of costumes, but she couldn't find Molly. However, she ran into her understudy, Kim Marley.

"Kim, do you know if they fixed my dress yet?" Tamara asked.

"Yeah, I think Marla was working on it," Kim replied, gesturing toward the back of the room. This revelation elicited a groan from Tamara, which Kim noticed. "Don't worry. She seemed to be in a good mood."

"I think that worries me more," Tamara laughed. Kim patted her reassuringly as Tamara headed toward Marla's location. She found Marla sitting at a desk. The dress hung on a rack behind her. Tamara felt relief when she saw it looked pristine. "Marla, is the dress ready?"

"Yes, I fixed the tear. You should be more careful on stage," Marla replied without looking up from her work.

"Thank you," Tamara said, ignoring the remark.

"Uh-huh," was all Marla said in return. Tamara collected the dress and turned away. She was glad for a short and uneventful exchange but didn't escape unscathed. "Maybe I wouldn't have to keep mending your wardrobe if you weren't so damn clumsy," Marla muttered.

"Excuse me?" Tamara asked.

"Honestly, I don't know why they chose you over Kim. She's much better at this than you."

Tamara knew Marla was baiting her, but she wouldn't let her win. "Molly is the director, and you work in costume design. I think Molly knows better," Tamara replied.

"Watch your tone, young lady. It would be a shame if something happened to your dress," Marla chuckled, making Tamara shiver.

"You..." Tamara began but stopped short. Marla turned with widened eyes and an expectant look. "...are right. I apologize," Tamara finished, leaving before she made things worse.

***

Later that day, Dan found Tamara in the food court, drowning her sorrows in ice cream. He approached her table because he could tell from her expression that she wasn't having a good day. The sight made him feel a kinship with her, and he thought they might commiserate together. Tamara smiled when she saw him.

"You alright?" Dan asked.

"No, I'm about to lose my freakin' mind," Tamara replied.

"Whoa, easy on the language," Dan laughed as he sat down, earning an annoyed glance from Tamara. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Marla threatened to mess with my dress if I didn't treat her nicely."

"How did I know it would be her?" Dan said, shaking his head. "I have something that might take your mind off it. Would you like to go to the Aeternum fall social with me?"

Tamara looked confused when she heard this. "Aren't you going with Sister Hailey?" she asked.

"Hailey made me promise to ask someone else. She only wants to be friends," Dan said, not hiding his disappointment.

"Oof. I'm sorry, man," Tamara said, patting him on the arm. "Okay, I'll go, but just as friends. I still have faith in you and Hailey. Maybe I can help you change her mind."

Dan laughed upon hearing this. "Maybe, and I appreciate the help," Dan said, but then he got an idea. "Hey, maybe I can help you with your Marla problem. I know a way we can get back at her."

"I'm trying to stay on her good side!"

"There's no such thing. Besides, if we do this right, she won't know it was you."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Marla is trying to steal this internship away from Kelsey Monroe. It's with this fashion magazine called Stylez. What if we called the magazine, pretending to be Marla, and ruined her chances?"

"I don't know about this," Tamara said nervously.

"How good are you at imitating voices? I'm sure you do dialogue work all the time."

"I'm decent at it."

"Try to imitate Marla."

Tamara straightened up in her seat and cleared her throat. Dan watched her concentrate for a moment before speaking. "Hi, I'm Marla, but you can call me Miss Snooty Pants," Tamara said in her best Marla voice.

"Not bad. It sounded enough like her to work."

***

They went to Tamara's dorm room for some privacy, and Tamara held the phone in her hand. She stared at it for so long that Dan thought she had frozen in fear.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Dan said.

"No, I want to help Kelsey. Let's do this," Tamara replied. She smiled at Dan and dialed the number for Stylez magazine. When a lady answered, Tamara almost hung up, but she composed herself and spoke with her Marla imitation. "Hello, this is Marla Knox. I'm calling about the internship," Tamara said. "Yes, I realize you scheduled our phone interview for tomorrow, but I have things to do. We can do it now," Tamara continued.

Dan couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but he caught enough noise to know the lady on the other end became agitated. He had to bite back a laugh.

"I'm sure you are busy, but so am I. Don't worry. I'll keep this brief," Tamara said. "I want a weekly column listing all my reasons why we should bring back Zubaz pants. Yes, I'm serious. Have you worn them? They are so comfy! Also, I want my own office," Tamara added. After listening to the response, Tamara said, "Well, I don't care. Kick someone out. You're getting Marla freakin' Knox here!"

Dan moved to the other side of the room because he was laughing and didn't want the lady to hear him. He watched as Tamara became more comfortable in her role. She even made facial expressions like Marla. Dan found the imitation almost too accurate. A shiver ran down his spine.

Tamara had a copy of their magazine in front of her. She looked through the list of contributors until she found a name. "Kick Stan out of his office. I heard that man has shit for brains," Tamara said, earning a shocked look from Dan. Her cursing ceased his laughter because he didn't expect it. "I don't care if Stan has been there ten years. What? He's your husband?" Tamara asked. She hadn't intended to land on the perfect name. It had been a happy accident. "Well, now we know how he got the job," Tamara laughed. After she said this, she glanced at the phone and said, "She hung up. I think it worked."

"Tamara, you cursed!" Dan said.

"I can do it when the script calls for it. It's acting. I just don't like saying those words otherwise. Plus, it sounded like something Marla would say."

"You are such an enigma," Dan said.

***

A few days later, Dan and Tamara learned Kelsey got the internship, and word spread about Marla throwing a loud tantrum when she heard about the phone call. Marla swore she never spoke with the lady from Stylez magazine, but the woman insisted it was her. Tamara couldn't help but notice Marla was in a sour mood when she spotted her in the costume department later that day. She avoided her, but it didn't seem like Marla suspected Tamara had anything to do with it. Later, Tamara met with Dan in the campus center. They were laughing about the situation until Dan spotted Hailey approaching them. He knew from the moment he saw her face he had screwed up big time.

"Dan! I told you not to mess with Marla. Why did you go behind my back and do it anyway?" Hailey asked, giving Dan a dangerous look. "And don't even deny it was you. Who else would it have been?"

"I was just trying to help Kelsey."

"Please tell me you didn't drag Tamara into this too."

"I..." Dan started but couldn't finish his sentence.

"Dan, what the hell? This could backfire on her. Did you even think about that?"

"Sister Hailey, I agreed to do it. It's not all Dan's fault," Tamara said timidly.

"This Marla mess is already out of hand, and you two probably made it worse. Tamara, tell the other pledges you're doing another morning run. And make sure they know why they're doing it," Hailey said. Tamara nodded, but she couldn't look Hailey in the eyes. "Dan, you're unbelievable," Hailey muttered, walking away.

"Hailey," Dan called, but she ignored him. "Hail," he said again, but she kept going.