Chapter Text
When Wednesday first transferred to the University of Vermont in her sophomore year, all she wanted was to complete her Writing major with her head down. She even had a special request granted for her own dorm without a roommate.
She had no interest in sororities or fraternities or social clubs — that is until members of Delta Psi, one of the university’s fraternities, started going missing. No one was particularly alarmed by a few “frat boys” disappearing off campus, assuming various non-nefarious reasons.
Wednesday had been more suspicious, which only cemented itself when a body turned up. The official explanation was an animal attack — the body being a mess of disembodied parts, some missing, and claw marks. Nobody was convinced it was an intentional murder connected to the other missing Delta Psi fraternity members — except Wednesday.
At the top of her suspects list was Delta Psi’s sister sorority: Kappa Delta. She was getting nowhere with her investigation and was almost considering attempting to pledge and going undercover. Despite the very thought of it disgusting her to the core, a good investigator stops at nothing to complete her investigation.
Thankfully though, she had one last reserve of investigating to go through before she would resort to that, which was Delta Psi’s member files. If it was just one or two files, she would ask Thing to retrieve them. As it was, she was planning on photographing every member’s file to find a connection between the missing boys and predict the next one. Three hands were better than one for such a big task.
Breaking into the fraternity house and the president’s office had been no matter at all. She had just gotten out all the files on the missing boys before hearing someone fiddling with keys and the lock on the door.
“Hide,” she hissed at Thing who scrambled out of sight.
She is able to just hide her camera away but not the files when she finds herself in plain sight of Tyler Galpin, fellow sophomore and the youngest Delta Psi president in history.
Tyler was used to finding wannabe Kappa Delta girls breaking into the fraternity — they were Delta Psi’s sister sorority. It was just the beginning of rush week which meant those hoping to pledge were sometimes dared to dumb shit like “steal a Delta Psi’s boxers.”
This girl did not look like a wannabe Kappa Delta. He had seen her around campus, always by herself, always dressed like someone’s goth schoolgirl fetish.
He crosses his arms now and raises his eyebrows. “Can I help you?”
“I’m from Kappa Delta. I got lost finding the bathroom,” she says, trying to walk past him.
“I don’t think so.” He steps in front, blocking the exit as he scans the files open on his desk.
“What do you mean ‘you don’t think so’?” She asks, sounding indignant.
“I mean, I think I would remember if you were a member of our sister house.” He stands his ground as he continues to scan the files. Shit. She was looking at all the guys that were missing.
“I was hoping to pledge,” she says dismissively, trying to walk past again. “I missed the first social mixer, you will see me at the next one.” She tries to walk past him again.
He wasn't buying it. He grabs her arm to stop her and she flips him onto the floor.
The girl was quick but so was Tyler. He makes a grab for her ankle as she tries to walk past him while he tries to get up.
They end up in a tangle of limbs and a struggle that Tyler knows he could’ve won if he wasn’t holding back because it was with a girl. She ends up “winning” and getting up to leave again.
“Why are you looking up missing members?”
That stops her in her tracks as she turns around. “You are the president. You tell me why they are missing.”
He gets up. “Well, the officials all think they just dropped out without a word.”
“Is that what you think as the official president?”
“I don’t know, what do you think?”
“That’s on a need-to-know basis.” She turns to leave. Shit.
“I could help you.”
Wednesday turns around now at the interesting offer and turn of events.
“How would you be able to help me?”
“Well for one, I’ll let you go through the rest of the files.”
“I can just break in again,” she dismisses.
His lips quirk. “Okay, Nancy Drew…well I’m still the president and could tell you things that are not on these files.”
She perks up. “Such as?”
He shakes his head. “This is a two-way street. You tell me what you know and I’ll tell you what I know.”
“You mean to say you have been conducting your own investigation?”
“Not exactly,” he shrugs. “But I am the president. If something’s going on, it concerns me, so yeah I’d like to help. But you gotta let me know what you know.”
Wednesday purses her lips, considering.
The president of the fraternity with the missing members could indeed be a useful ally. He also happened to be the son of the recently deceased sheriff of Jericho, which could also prove useful. She was not naive enough to completely dismiss him as a suspect but of all the people she could connect to the missing members (one found dead), he would be at the bottom of the list — certainly with the most baffling lack of motive to kill members of a fraternity he was president of. Additionally, she trusts she can handle herself.
After quickly weighing up the costs and benefits in her head, she decides working with him would be in her favor.
“Your terms are amenable.”
“Sweet.” He walks closer to her. “I’m Tyler by the way but I’m guessing you already knew that.” His lips quirk as he holds out his hand. “I didn’t catch your name or is that on a need-to-know basis too?”
“Wednesday,” she says, without touching his hand. His lips quirk again as he puts his hand down. “Now, what I know so far is that all the boys have gone missing shortly after gatherings with Kappa Delta girls.”
He eyes her with a distinctly amused expression as he walks closer and she pores over the files. “So you think a Kappa Delta girl is behind it?”
“Yes, probably a werewolf. Maybe even multiple.”
“Like a sorority-wide thing?”
“I am not ruling it out.”
He raises his chin. “What would be the motive?”
“On the lighter end of the theory spectrum, women scorned over heartbreak.”
“And on the darker side?”
She meets his eyes silently for a second. “Avenging sexual assault,” she says unflinchingly, expecting a defensive denial that his members could be capable of such a thing.
His eyes and jaw tighten. “And if that was the reason? Would you throw the killer, or killers, in jail for that?”
She meets his eyes. “What I plan on doing with the killer, or killers, is not for your need-to-know. Do not mistake my investigation as altruism. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being right, especially when everyone else is convinced there is not even a mystery present.”
“I see…” He tightens his jaw again before looking down. “You got a plan for proving yourself right?”
“I was going to go through the files of all the members, find a connection other than being from the same fraternity. Something you should be able to help me with.” She raises her eyebrow at him.
“Right…then what?”
“Try to predict the next victim before the next event.”
He meets her eyes challengingly. “And what happens if you can’t?”
She looks down. “…A last resort.”
“Which would be?”
“…I believe the next event is a second mixer for those interested in pledging at Kappa Delta.”
He looks her up and down now, smirking, while Wednesday feels heat run to her cheeks from both the confession and his evaluation.
“Don’t tell me…”
“If I am able to maintain residence in the sorority house, it would open up many doors for investigation, both literally and figuratively.”
He runs his gaze up and down her again, more slowly this time. “I guess if you lost the pigtails, black nails and tomboy boots, we could pass you off as preppy, just in black-and-white…” he says thoughtfully, “As for your personality…I suppose you wouldn’t be the first ‘Hot but Bitchy and Unapproachable Sorority Girl.’”
Wednesday frowns. That was a lot to take in from Tyler’s “assessment.” The idea that she would not need to drastically alter her appearance was both a relief yet disturbing to hear at the same time. “Bitchy and unapproachable” was something she was used to hearing about herself but not “hot” — at least not to her face. He was still running his eyes over her in a way that she suspected was not entirely scientific appraisal.
She stiffens. “If we are to work together, you must refrain from such derogatory language.”
His eyes meet hers now. “What, ‘bitchy’?” He grins. “Didn’t exactly mean it as an insult but alright.”
She clears her throat and tries to direct his attention to the open files. “Now that you know what I know, it is time for you to tell me what you know about all your members.” She tenses up as he comes to stand close to her, looking over the files with an amused expression again.
“And if you don’t solve your mystery before the next event, I’ll get to make you over to go undercover?”
She frowns. “Let us hope it does not come to that.”