~~Young~~

Chapter Two

   As the acceptance letters starting coming in for her east coast schools Sera couldn’t have been happier, but her parents rejected each of them. And despite her years of feeling nothing towards her parents, nothing of their indifference towards her, to Sera it felt as if they were rejecting her. She still needed them to pay her tuition, even though she had most of it covered in scholarships, Ivy League schools were still a pricy matter.

   She thought she was doing exactly what they wanted, thought they’d be happy that she was staying far away from them, but their marriage had fallen apart and they were taking turns blaming it on her and her sister even though they had no impact in their lives. They needed that punching bag- if only verbally- to make themselves feel better so they decided to keep their daughter nearby. Not too close, they enrolled her in a far inferior Kelowna school despite the great universities the city was known for. But that might have been because it was one recommended by their peers, meaning it was going to be no better than the boarding schools she had escaped.

   It should have broken Sera, to be taken away from the only thing that mattered in her life, but it only made her stronger, determined. It wasn’t long before she fell in with an advocacy group at her college, one full of people such as herself, raised to believe there was nothing they could do to change their world but needing to try. Disguised as a sorority house- with a brother chapter sharing the same building- the façade it presented to the world was exactly what she needed. The discriminating selection committees, rushes, even the rules of fashion insisting that all members of her chapter wear pearls at their neck and ears at all times.

   Sera’s mother was ecstatic to learn that her daughter had finally done something right with her life when she pledged, and was accepted, into the sorority. It was the first positive words Sera’s mother had to say to her since she was a child and told her she photographed well.

   But the pearls were just to fit in with the rest of Greek row, the rushes to make it appear that they had reasons to dismiss certain candidates, only the selection committee was real. They needed to make sure only those with the will to change what was around them were let in, those who would commit themselves to their cause and who could keep their group, the Better Angles Group, a secret. Though it was ironic because in truth they advertised themselves, they had that, BAG, emblazoned on all the same stuff that any fraternity or sorority would only none was the wiser. Shirts, hats, jackets…but everyone assumed it was for their Greek letters, Beta Alpha Gamma.

   Now in her senior year as a political science major Sera had risen to lead the whole of the Better Angels at her university. Having seen many criminals who hid behind their status or false fronts fall to her organization, her name would be spoken long after she left. She was changing the world, at least there, in British Columbia, making it better for the day her sister and her could finally be reunited. But there was one more job she wanted to take care of before that day came, and tonight was the night the biggest offender would get his wake up call.

   At the worst her Uncle would keep it out of the public eye but still be left millions of dollars poorer.

   At best the media would get a hold of the story- which they would do all they could do to ensure they did- giving someone more honorable a chance to carry on their work when her Uncle was dismissed from Parliament.

   But first they had to succeed.

   “Sissy I’m telling you,” Duncan whispered harshly at her, “I can do it a hell of a lot quicker. I’ll be in and out in ten minutes, tops.”

   “For the last time D-Rom, no. Something just doesn’t feel right about this and I won’t let you take the fall.”

   “There’s nobody there! We’ve been squatting out here in these bushes for almost an hour and I haven’t seen so much as a curtain twitch.”