Tonight, We Are Young

"I haven't heard anything about it," Emma said. "You're probably fine, live a little!"

Emma was walking across campus after eating supper at the dining hall, with her annoyingly responsible friends, who were adamantly opposed to go party with her afterwards.

"I know, but it's such an Adams move to just have a homework assignment worth 30% of our grade sprung upon us at the last minute," Jess responded.

"C'mon...where's your sense of adventure?" Emma pleaded. "This is what college is about!"

"Well, personally, I'm gonna use my college to get an education," Ava said.

"You're such a wet blanket," Emma teased. "Whatever, I'll catch up with y'all tomorrow."

"If you're not drunk off your ass," Jess teased back.

Emma walked the other direction, heading towards the townhouse complex where she had overheard there was a party happening. She wasn't necessarily innocent, but she was young and...she could be a little scatterbrained sometimes. She was aware of this though, and tried to curb it when it became a problem.

"Ha, drunk off my ass," Emma repeated. "Like that'd ever happen. It's only happened at the last...five parties I've been at."

As she continued down the path with a skip in her step, a headache washed over her.

"Damn, I haven't even started drinking yet," Emma said, slowing down to a strolling speed. "Maybe this is a sign I shouldn't go out?"

The feeling only got worse until she was sitting down on the brick path, holding her head as if it was about to fall off.

"Fuuuuck...I should've just listened to Jess and Av-"

That was the last thing she said before she fell into the alternate universe.

"Kendra, you can't bring in Emma, she's too young to be drafted into something like this!" Turner pleaded.

"All of these contestants were drafted specifically for yours—and the viewers'—enjoyment," Kendra explained.

"But Emma?" Turner continued to protest. "She's like a little sister to me! I wouldn't dream of doing anything with her, and I doubt she would with me either!"

"As I said before, maybe not in hers, or your, current state," Kendra responded. "This game, though, it changes people. Those who came out are never the same that they came in."

"You can say that now, lady," Paige piped up, "But your magic or whatever is no match for my willpower."

"Oh, right, the same willpower that has you stuck in a dead-end job at Kroger or whatever earning minimum wage," Becca retorted.

"Hey, shut up!" Paige defended. "Not all of us can leech off of our boyfriend's money to get a graduate degree!"

"So now you're accusing me of being a gold digger?" Becca got angry yet again.

"Gals, gals," Kendra's soothing voice cut through. "You're gonna make my head fall off if you keep up that bickering. Look! Here she comes!"

Kendra's sudden interruption wasn't merely a distraction, as Emma was walking down the pathway, and if there were only two words to describe her, Turner would've chosen "Dazed" and "Confused".

"Turner?" Emma said inquisitively.

"Ugh, I'm not gonna have to explain this to everyone, am I?" Kendra groaned. "Didn't you read the paper in there?"

"No, I just saw some sort of terms and conditions mumbo jumbo and signed at the bottom," Emma said blankly.

Becca rolled her eyes as Kendra slapped her forehead with her palm and muttered, "Of course you did."

"Basically," Paige said, taking charge. "Turner here has been selected to be a harem leader on some smutty TV show in an alternate universe, and...lucky us...we get to be his little harem girls because this 'Southern belle' said so."

"Wait...what?" Emma managed, overwhelmed. "So...Turner was randomly selected...alternate universe...but what does this have to do with a TV show?"

"I'll fill you in when everyone's here, because a refresher couldn't hurt any of you," Kendra said, regaining control of her show again. "Now, until everyone else arrives, why don't you sit right over there." She pointed to the couch where Becca and Paige were already sitting. Emma followed suit and sat on the other side of Paige.

"I do have a question, actually," Becca said, her voice towards Kendra not hostile for the first time since they met. "How many people are you planning on bringing here?"

"Well, telling you would ruin the surprise, dear, wouldn't it?" Kendra answered mysteriously, causing Becca to sit back angrily. "Our next contestant is another friend of Turner's, and bears somewhat of a resemblance to one of the members already here, please welcome Abigail!

"Psychology is the pits!" Abigail, or as her very close friends called her, Abby, exclaimed as the door to her bedroom slammed behind her. "And to top it all off, Becca and Turner aren't answering my calls!"

Abigail and Matt had gotten apartments in the same complex as Becca and Turner, something about offering a deal for renting two apartments at a time or something. She'd never seen anything like it before, but a deal is a deal, and cheap housing didn't come often in a college town, so she had been quick to take the offer.

She'd been dating Matt for about two years, and moving in together seemed like the natural next step. However, she soon realized that living with him showed all of his negative emotions in broad daylight, so the two of them split up. Matt was at least generous enough to let her stay in the apartment and he slept on the couch with some of his guy friends while he tried to find another place to live. At least it was amicable, and nothing like what Paige did.

Studying psychology had helped her get a general insight into how and why people acted the way they did, but it wasn't the mind-reading ability that she had initially hoped. Rather, a lot of old people's names and random terminology she had to memorize, but it was her passion for the field that had gotten her through. It was senior year now, anyways, she had gotten most of the difficult and laborious classes over with and could specialize her interests more.

But she had just been pissed off by the D- she got on her first exam.

"It's far too quiet, I'm gonna turn on some music and unwind in the shower" she mumbled to herself. Living alone had its perks, but it was days like this where she wanted someone to be around her and consoling her. Clingy was a good word that her friends threw around when describing her, but she didn't hide it, she wore it on her sleeve, to some people's detriment.

As she turned on the hot water and stood underneath the spray, something immediately felt off. Not about the water, but about how she was feeling. It was her sister that was taking all of the physical health courses, so she couldn't exactly diagnose herself with any reasonable methodology, but she knew it was a headache. And it was only getting worse.

"This is...not good," she reasoned as she stumbled out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry her hands off enough to use her phone. Unfortunately, she never reached her phone before collapsing on the bath mat.

"Abigail?" Becca yelled, although Kendra expected her to be mad. "You can't possibly bring my SISTER in here!"

"I mean, we can," Kendra smugly answered. "We have the technology to bring anyone here, we could bring Angelina Jolie here if we really wanted to."

"You know what I mean," Becca's eyes narrowed.

"Ohhh...you mean WHY would we choose your sister?" Kendra said, feigning as if she only now realized what Becca meant. She got another glare in response.

"Well..." she continued, unfazed. "Your sister is one of Turner's closest friends, so she's a natural candidate for this!"

Turner was sitting in his chair, mouth agape and eyes wide ever since the mention of Abigail's name came out of Kendra's mouth, but at the mention of his name, he came back to his senses.

"Yeah, that's a step too far, Kendra," he agreed. "I mean, bringing us all here in the first place was already like four steps too far, but you get what I'm saying, right?"

"I do get what you're saying," Kendra assented. "But how could you deny having a chance with Abigail? She's gorgeous! Brown wavy hair, dark brown eyes, large br-"

"I could very easily deny having a chance with her, just like all of these girls!" Turner said, getting louder. "No offense, by the way. But, you know, maybe it's that I have some sense of loyalty?"

"Is this gonna be a thing where you all are going to argue with me every time I announce a new guest?" Kendra said, exasperated. "Because it's gonna get real old, both for me and for our audience. Usually we like drama, but you all are creating more of it than an entire high school cheer squad."

"It's kinda hard not to argue with you when you've been forcibly signed up into a harem and you're adding more people to it," Paige noted.

"Especially when one of them is my SIST-" Becca began.

"Christ, now y'all are giving ME a headache," Kendra said. "If I had half a mind, I would use my 'magical powers', as you seem to be fond of calling them, and get y'all to shut up, but I'm not sure our audience would like that too much."

While the five of them were still bickering, Abigail exited the doorway, dressed in nothing but the towel she had been clutching when she was transported here. She looked meek, almost afraid, although it was likely the fact that she had no clothes on doing that to her.

"And there's Abby!" Kendra said, swiveling her head at the sound of a door closing.

"Do I want to know why you're wearing a bath towel...?" Becca asked wearily.

"I was in the middle of showering when you did...whatever these people did to me...and I guess it brought me here with everything I was wearing, which I was only holding onto a towel at the moment," Abby explained. "Anyways, how's it going, Becca, Paige, Emma, Turner...wait a second...Turner? You're the harem master?"

"Looks like someone actually bothered to read the rules, eh Emma?" Kendra said.

"It's...it wasn't my choice," Turner explained. "Far from it. It also wasn't my choice to bring you all into this. Kendra's the one who's calling the shots around here, apparently."

"I wouldn't say 'calling the shots'", Kendra spoke up. "I do have people that I report to. I'm just the host around here. Now, Abby, if you won't mind sitting next to Emma there..."

"At the very least, can you get me some clothes?" Abby requested. "Or a hairdryer?"

"The hairdryer we can do, as for clothes, well I think you look ravishing that way!" Kendra said, earning a blush from Abby, who sat down on the fourth cushion. "Next up, we're heading back to Turner's hometown. A 26-year-old grad student in the field of law, please welcome..."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Turner interrupted. "It wasn't enough to invite Becca's sister?"