"Yeah, she doesn't look nice."
"I thought she was going to kill you when Greyson said your name."
"Oh."
"Do you know him?"
"No, I just met him yesterday for about a minute," I lied for some reason. "He seems like a nice guy."
Nancy made a face. "I don't know that I would call him nice."
"So you do know him?"
"I know of him," Nancy sighed. "I know about him and Brandon Hastings."
"Oh?"
"The guy that Elizabeth mentioned." Nancy looked around and then whispered in my ear. "He was one of the founders. Along with Greyson."
"How do you know?"
"We can't talk about it here." She shook her head. "Later."
"Okay." I nodded in agreement. What else was Nancy hiding from me?
"Good morning, girls," a deep, gruff voice shouted out, and I looked up and froze. There were three men standing at the front, all dressed in the same uniform. The uniform was instantly recognizable to me as the same outfit the two men I'd seen earlier were wearing. But I couldn't tell which two men out of the three in front of me I'd seen.
"Hi, girls. My name is David. I'm the head of security here at the club. I'd like to introduce myself and the two guys I work with, Bruno and Frank."
"Hi, guys," Elizabeth called out flirtatiously.
"We are here to make sure that your time working at the club is a safe and comfortable one," David continued in a serious voice while Frank and Bruno smiled at Elizabeth. I was pretty sure I knew who the two I'd seen in the corridor were now. "If at any time, you feel uncomfortable or in danger, you should call us immediately. Those who get through the first three days in training will be given a button that you will wear at all times. In the middle of the button, there is a small stone. Push the stone and we will be alerted right away. Each button is equipped with GPS, so we will be able to locate you as well." He looked around the group and paused. When he looked at me, I noticed a quick flash of surprise before he moved on.
I stared at him and wondered what his story was. He was a handsome man, but more in the retired boxer kind of way. He was tall and stocky, with a buzz cut and deep blue eyes. His bulging muscles were filled with tattoos and he stood with a straight and rigid back. He reminded me of some ex-military men I'd met the summer before at the Navy pier.
I then checked out the other two guys. They both looked like boys trying to play men. They were both about my age and had average builds. One of the guys had really bad acne and his eyes looked cold. He looked like the sort of guy that would make you shiver in fear if you saw him on a dark night. I wasn't sure if he was Frank or Bruno, but I knew that I didn't want to spend any one-on-one time with him.
"Any questions?" David continued, and I realized that I had spaced out.
"When are we going to learn what our job descriptions are?" Nancy spoke, and I looked at her in surprise. I hadn’t thought that she’d wanted to draw any attention to herself.
"Not until you pass the first three days," Patsy answered, and I looked around to see if Greyson had come back with her.
"When can we call our friends and family?" another girl asked, and Patsy gave her a hard look.
"So today, you girls will cycle through ten different rooms. Each of you will go in one room at a time. Each room will be testing you for a particular quality or skill. You have to complete the assignment in each room to the best of your ability."
"Oh shit, this isn't going to be some written exam, is it?" Elizabeth moaned. "I'm taking a break from college to get away from that shit."
"Such a vocabulary for a Dartmouth girl." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
"Did you say something, Grandma?" she shot back at me, and all the other girls, except Nancy, started laughing.
"I’d rather be a grandma than a bimbo," I muttered under my breath, and Nancy squeezed my arm.
"Ladies, let's stop with the name-calling." Patsy sighed. "We are all friends here."
"Until someone becomes more popular," Nancy muttered to herself, and once again I realized that she wasn't as clueless as she had made herself to be yesterday.
***
The first room I entered was bare aside from a black leather couch and a small side table. I looked around, wondering what I was supposed to do. There was no paper, and I couldn’t see any guidebooks. I stood by the door for a few minutes, waiting for someone to walk in, and then I walked over to the couch and sat down. I sat there in silence for a few more minutes, and then a voice spoke into the room. I jumped up in surprise, taken aback by the suddenness of the voice. I looked around the room, and it was then that I saw the speaker in the corner.
"Stand up," the voice commanded me, and I stood up slowly. "Do a jumping jack," it said, and I stood there for a moment feeling foolish.
"A jumping jack?" I spoke back to the voice and waited. The lights went out then and I sat back down on the couch, wondering if I had already failed the test. All of a sudden, I heard some music playing from the speakers. It sounded like some old-school R&B, something I’d listened to in grade school. The sound of the door opening made me jump again and I turned around quickly to see who had joined me in the room.
"You don't like to listen to instructions, do you?" I couldn't mistake Greyson's voice, and I felt my cheeks warming.
"What are you doing here?" I sounded anxious and weak, and I wanted to rewind the clock so I could answer him in a stronger voice.
"I came to see how you were doing." He walked towards me, his voice lower and harder to hear above the men crying out about making love to me.
"I thought you didn't have anything to do with the training." I spoke more firmly this time. I wanted him to know he didn't affect me.
"I don't." He slipped onto the couch next to me. "Not usually."
"So why are you here?" I questioned him, peering up into his face curiously as my heart beat fast. His rock-hard thigh was pressed against my leg, and a warm feeling ran through me as I clenched my legs. I wanted to move farther down the couch and away from him, but I didn't want him to realize how much he affected me.
"I came to give you your first test."
"Oh." I looked up at him then. "I didn't know you were a part of the tests."
"Why would you know?"
"Why did you choose me?" I burst out, unable to stop myself. "I feel out of place. All the other girls are so young."