Author Note: There will be chapters throughout this “book” that do not contain much - if any - titillating scenery. This is likely one of them. Skip ahead if you don’t care for the “world building” element of my story and you’re just here for more chapters containing more nefarious subject matter.

Cat had barely slept all week. Nightmares of her pre-college interview and horrifying “assessment” occupied her mind every single hour of the day and night. She’d begged her mother and father - multiple times in the past week, literally on her hands and knees once or twice - to withdraw her application. She asked them to let her take the year off. She agreed to go and do charity work and join the PeaceCorps, AmeriCorps, hell, she could go work on a farm for a year, maybe. Her parents shamed her for her desire to squander the thousands of dollars they had already invested in her education at St. Mary’s.

Cat hadn’t been able to tell her parents why she’d had such an immediate change of heart as soon as she’d walked out from the dean’s office - especially not her father. She was pretty sure her mom knew what had happened to her though. Cathy had been exceptionally nice and doting to Cat for the rest of the day after they’d left the college. They’d gone to the recommended shops and bought every last uniform Cat would need for the upcoming semester. Thousands of dollars spent on clothing alone. Most of her skirts were woolen and scratchy. All her jackets and sweaters for class were either too tight around her chest or, like the skirts, also scratchy and made her neck and arms itch like crazy.

Cat felt completely obligated to comply with the course that had been set into motion for her. After all, her father had threatened to completely cut her off financially if she chose to work on a farm instead of going to college. She couldn’t afford to live without her parent’s money. How much worse could things get, really? She already survived the assessment - surely it wouldn’t happen again any time soon since the dean had determined she was a virgin.

Move-In and orientation day arrived. Cat woke up at dawn with her heart firmly lodged in her throat. Her move-in time was 10 a.m. - at least she was sure she wouldn’t be late. Her parents weren’t permitted to bring her to campus. Her father wouldn’t have been allowed regardless, but parents dropping off their daughters was strictly prohibited per college rules and regulations. Scholars were expected to hire a private car. Thankfully the Davis family could easily afford this.

Cat stood awkwardly on the front porch of her childhood home as both her parents gave her sad, uneasy, awkward smiles in response before they sent her off to the college.

“I’m so proud of you, Kitty Cat,” her father said, grasping her hands in his. He wouldn’t have been so proud if he had known what she did in front of the dean of the college just a week ago. What that cruel man had forced her to do.

“Be on time and be polite,” her mother uttered quietly. “Please, please follow the rules, Cat.”

Cat’s eyes welled with tears. Her father was clearly misinterpreting their true meaning.

“What’s going to happen?” Cat pleaded for an answer. A reason to want to actually go to this school and not leap out of the hired car as soon as they cleared the property.

“You will be a great and powerful woman, Cat,” her mother promised, taking her daughter’s hands and squeezing tightly. “IF you follow the rules. Study hard and do well. And always be on time and be polite to the administration.”

The answer only left Cat with more questions and uncertainty of her fate. Seriously how much did her mother actually know about the next two to ten years of her educational life? St. Mary’s had masters and PhD programs - her mother had attended for six years.

“We love you,” her father said as the hired car waiting in the driveway honked its horn. Time to go. Cat descended from the porch and stepped into the waiting vehicle.

:::::

”You’re early,” the patron at the dormitory entrance said as Cat appeared at the doorway, her bags unloaded out in front of the stately Victorian mansion.

“Is that not ok?” Cat asked nervously. “I thought I just wasn’t supposed to be late.”

“Be on time,” the patron said, emotionless. “I’ll let it pass today since you ladies have orientation, but keep in mind that tardiness is NEVER permitted, and scholars - except in rare circumstances - should arrive no earlier than ten minutes prior to a class and no more than five minutes early to a meeting. With the dean I recommend you being there the moment that alarm goes off.” The patron blanched at the mention of this. Cat understood why. The sound reverberated in her nightmares.

“Room 2 with Maxine,” the matron said, moving aside to allow Cat into the house. “You’ll get a tour of the place later, but there is a single toilet under the stairs here on the main floor just over there. Parlor is to the right. Formal dining room is to the left. Full kitchen and pantries in the back. Bedrooms and shared bathrooms on floors two and three. Study in the attic. Thirty ladies live in this house. You got lucky and will just have the one roommate. Maxine is also a legacy and, college rules dictate that you ladies are somehow entitled to not live four or five to a room like everyone else. Lucky you.”

She led Cat to an intricately detailed wooden staircase leading up to a second floor and waved an arm upwards, “You’re on the second floor. Turn left, first door you'll pass is the bathroom if you need it. Campus tour starts at noon.”

“My things?” Cat asked, looking back in the direction of the front door.

“One of the other patrons will handle them, you may head up to your room, Catherine.”

Cat headed up the stairs to see her new room for the foreseeable future.

::::

”Oh! Holy shit, oh my god, I didn’t think you were here yet!” A mass of wild, dark curly hair and energy burst into the room, startling Cat to jump up off the bed she had been laying on in the shared dormitory room.

“Are you…Maxine?” Cat asked, rubbing her eyes. She must have fallen asleep for a bit. That’s what happened when one stopped sleeping at night, they just randomly would fall asleep when presented with a surface to lie down on.

”Oh. God. MaxEEEne,” she rolled her eyes. “Fuck no. I’m Max. Literally no one calls me Maxine except for that fucking weirdo who runs this whole place.”

Cat was aghast. She also kind of immediately fell in love with this girl named Max. She was crazy and had a bold way about referring to something that had haunted Cat for the past week. She also used far more profanity than Cat could ever have remembered hearing in one sentence. She remembered the receptionist’s advice from her interview and assessment that the dean didn’t like profanity.

”And I’m hoping that you’re Catherine and not some weird patron come along to punish me for my filthy mouth or some crazy bullshit like that,” Max continued on. “Did you know the patrons will fucking WHIP the girls in their dormitories? Like, what the fuck are we doing here, honestly. What the hell were our parents smoking that this is the highest standard of education for their precious daughters.”

“I’m Cat,” she introduced herself dumbly. “Please don’t call me Catherine. Unless. You know. You have to because of protocol or something?” Max guffawed. “Did you… interview?”

“God. Don’t remind me. Interview and assessment? More like interrogation and fucking assault,” Max sat on the bed opposite Cat and crossed her legs underneath her body. “I practically had to beg my way out of it,” she lowered her voice, “That fucking creep didn’t believe I still had an intact hymen - oooh big fucking deal, I’m sure I haven’t had one since I was like, oh, SIX years old because I was an equestrian for ten fucking years. He would have known this anyway, my parents made me plaster the information all over my application.”

”How did you pass?” Cat whispered in a gasp.

“Well. I told him exactly that. Then things got real fucking creepy. Pervert insisted on sticking his finger up there to, I dunno, make sure I was still tight or something? Yeah, I better be, asshole, since I am actually still a virgin. Tragic.” Cat was horrified. And Max was so… nonchalant? Pissed off? Probably both, but it was a wildly different response than Cat would have had if the dean had put a finger inside of her body.

“Then, you know, because sticking his finger in there wasn't sufficient enough for some reason, he took that horrid wooden rod…” her bravado broke for the flash of a moment and she shared a look with Cat - their mutual memory of how that rod had been utilized, very differently, on each of them connecting them. Max swallowed, “…He stuck that inside me. Until I screamed. He was pleased that I cried out before the full width of it was put in there.” She shuddered. “I guess that proved that I’d never been fucked. I only told him as much, repeatedly, before he violated me with a broom handle.”

“Are you scared?” Cat asked quietly. Again, they shared a silent look between the two of them and Max shrugged.

“Gonna get date raped or sexually assaulted by the dean? Sounds like college to me, girl.”

Cat gaped at her in response and Max laughed loudly.

“Oh Catty Cat, can I call you that?”

“My dad calls me Kitty Cat.”

Max burst out laughing. “Oh my god, that’s hilarious. Gross.”

Cat gasped, but also smiled a little bit, “Catty Cat?”

Max softened. “What happened to you, Catty Cat? Are you scared? I’m so sorry, I totally AAAAHH just came up in here all over you and now that I actually - breathe, Max - stop and take a look at you… You’re so sweet and you just look like a total doll. But I also feel like you might be a little bit catty…just a little bit.” Max winked.

Cat laughed, “I was fine up until a week ago. Totally normal 18 year old getting excited to go to college and get away from my weird religious parents.”

“And you were the one to choose St. Mary’s Scholars College, I’m sure,” Max interjected.

“I would have liked to go to the State school, but my parents were willing to pay for literally everything for as long as I go here,” Cat explained. “My mom took me to the interview and assessment. She was so weird the entire day - the entire drive here she was just like, sweaty and cagey and she’s usually so effortlessly confident. I was terrified when we got to the gates with the armed guards and the rest of the day only went downhill from there.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Max encouraged.

“The assessment was…” Cat’s eyes involuntarily welled with tears. “So humiliating. I’ve never… in my life… I…” she took a deep breath. “He didn’t touch me. At least, not with his fingers. He jabbed me a couple of times and told me that I was intact.”

“Oh,” Max inhaled sharply. “Shit.”

“I can’t DO anything here,” Cat said angrily. “As you alluded to, if I so much as go horseback riding, I could risk expulsion, apparently. Forget finding a boyfriend. I had to take out my earrings that I literally just got like, a month ago before I came here today. And these stupid skirts are itchy.”

Max laughed, “Yeah, the wool is seriously questionable quality for the price. I hope a disgruntled former student of this college is now a sheep farmer reaping great profits from the school through the sale of shitty uniforms.”

Cat smiled. She was relieved to discover her new roommate was someone like her, someone that she could see herself becoming close friends with, and someone who she could likely confide in, regardless of what sort of bizarre situations may occur in the weeks to follow.