ENFasis on Ricky Ch. 01

In the hour before the game, there was a lot of trash talking, all of it coming from or directed at me. In most situations, I hate being the center of attention, but having grown up with 3 older brothers, I like to think that I was holding my own. I was conditioned to be on my guard and not drink too much at the parties but this was a Sunday afternoon, so I was enjoying the banter, developing a bit of a buzz and having fun.

Then Tim, one of the Beta boys said, "The confidence you have in your precious Wolf Pack is darling, but would you care to back that up with a small wager?"

I was feeling like "one of the guys", and in-house bets involving a bit of cash or cleaning duty were a regular thing at Beta house, Sigma house or any other frat or sorority for that matter.

Still, "No!" is what I should have said. A big alarm bell should have started clanging in my head the instant the word "wager" was uttered within those walls. In fact, I should have just stood up without saying anything, and left. Instead I said, "what kind of a wager are you thinking?"

"Oh let's say 50 bucks," he replied in a reasonable voice and I bobbed my head as I considered. I could afford to put up $50. I'd heard someone mention that the Wolf Pack were favored with an 5 point spread, which was good odds.

Then Tim looked at a couple of other Beta boys sitting next to him and they cracked up. "Who am I kidding? You're a girl. There's only one wager that a girl ever makes in Beta house."

Oh shit, I thought. Be clear and direct, I told myself. I looked at him squarely and said "No. I love the Wolf Pack, but I'm not betting any of my clothes on the game."

A couple of moments before, the room had seemed relaxed and filled with fun banter. Now all eyes were on me and Tim.

"Nah ah," Tim waggled a finger. "You've been talking some pretty serious trash about our boys in green and gold. What will we say to Jamal and Ryan if we don't get you to back that up." Jamal and Ryan were sophomore Beta boys that both played for the NC Tech Fighting Bobcats.

Then Tim turned to the other Sigmas. "Plus it's been over a year since we've seen some Sigma flesh here in Beta house. It's about time."

It may seem odd that there was an expectation that they should get to see some "Sigma flesh", but it makes sense when you understand that there had been four naked forfeit bets between Beta and Sigma the previous year, and Sigma had won all of them. Four times over the last year, we Sigma girls had enjoyed having a naked Beta boy do chores around Sigma house. We'd catcalled them, pinched their bare bums and we'd even taken and printed snapshots to put up on the fridge for a few days. Unlike the ENF Wall, we Sigmas didn't want pictures of naked people on permanent display.

Apparently, the Beta house strategy of playing the averages hit pay dirt with the Sigma girls about once a year and they had been experiencing a bit of a dry spell.

For their part, I think the Beta boys actually liked strutting around our place in the buff.

I looked at my Sigma sisters for some support.

Preeta was a junior and we weren't especially close. She pointed at the screen. "Becky is out there cheering for the Fighting Bobcats. I think if you want to wear another team's jersey then you should be ready to have it removed if they lose." She gave me an easy smile. "And anything else you might be wearing, of course." She looked over at the Beta boys. "On the other hand, it sure would be nice to have our floors cleaned. I think Ricky should take a small risk so her Sorority sisters can get their first taste of Beta boy eye candy for the new term."

"Um guys," I said addressing the Betas. "We're pals right? Surely, that's got to count for more than just another naked photo and a pair of panties on your ENF wall."

They laughed. Everyone laughed. Tim said, "That's so sweet. And yeah, we're pals, for sure. But you're also a smokin' hot girl who we all really want to see naked."

Another Beta named Jason added, "even if you weren't hot-looking, it wouldn't matter. You're a girl and this is what we do. It's not personal."

How is it not personal? I thought. I considered getting naked in front of a boy to be incredibly personal. Oh god! Fear welled up in me. I forced myself to calm down and put on my best casual-looking smile. "Um, no. It's a hard pass from me."

Sandy was a sophomore like me. I was as close to her as any other Sigma girl. Which is not saying much because I've never been great at making friends with other girls. Several Beta guys and Preeta were all starting to say something, but Sandy waved them off and pulled me to the side. "You should take the bet, Ricky," she said. "You'll probably win and you'll have passed an important loyalty test to Sigma house. It'll be a long time before you have to risk it again. Heck, you may never have to risk it again."

Facing away from the others, I let Sandy see some of my fear. "What if I lose?"

"There's way less boys here right now than there are at the parties," she said, shrugging. "If you lose, you strip, do the picture with hammer and panties and you're done. You'll have proven your loyalty by taking one for the team and we can all go on drinking free booze at Beta house. And Ricky, whatever you do, don't let them know you're nervous. They smell fear and they'll make it way worse."

She was right. Looking at her, I made the sane choice and turned back to the others having resolved to accept the bet.

I looked back at the boys and they were all grinning, getting ready to cheer. They knew that I was about to accept the bet and they were practically drooling. I couldn't do it. There was no way I could strip completely naked in front of all of them, so I changed my mind and thought of a different strategy.

"Look. Our sorority president isn't here to negotiate this and you guys do this a lot. I don't want to end up having to do something REALLY embarrassing if you somehow end up winning and have managed to trick me when we're negotiating the terms of the wager." I looked around at them, holding my hands out like I was trying to calm a wild animal. "So today it's a no. Okay?"

Megan spoke next. "It's a fine wager for Sigma house, Ricky. As a senior, I can negotiate the terms in Ellen's place. I say let's do it!"

The Betas started to celebrate with high fives and chest bumps. "This is going to be awesome!", "Ricky's gonna get naked!", "Oh, she looks worried. Do you think Ricky is shy?" It was just the kind of teasing that I'd learned to hate growing up with older brothers. Except that it was about me having to take off all my clothes in front of everyone! My heart was pounding.

Before it got too loud I looked at Megan and said, "Who said you could negotiate terms on my behalf?" Megan was without doubt the hottest girl at Sigma Zeta Iota. The problem was that I'd come to think that she really didn't like me. I really didn't want to do this, and I could see Megan somehow manipulating things to make it even worse for me.

"Any senior can act as negotiator in a wager involving sorority sisters," she replied matter-of-factly. "Do you trust me?"

No, I didn't trust her. She could be stabbing me in the back. "Of course I trust you," I said. I had to say that because trust and loyalty were the foundation of our bond as sorority sisters. "It's just I don't remember that policy from anywhere."

Everyone else was following our conversation.

"Why don't we just call Ellen?" Preeta offered, pulling out her phone (there was no phone prohibition at Beta house while watching football games).

Megan gave me a disgusted look, "sure, go ahead."

Preeta dialed. Our sorority president answered after the third ring. She was visiting her family downstate. After Preeta apologized and then quickly went over the details, Ellen said, "it's great that Ricky is taking one for the team and of course Megan can sign off to the negotiation. In case Ricky loses, be sure you get permission up front to take a few pictures to show all us sisters who aren't there. We want to see everything that happens. Ciao!"

Megan grinned at me. My heart fell.

Conrad, the Beta house president spoke directly to Megan. "So the usual? If we lose you get one of us to come and do naked chores. If Ricky loses, she strips completely naked, right here, right after the game."

"No," I said, but they didn't even look at me. "Look, If I lose, I'll take off this stupid shirt and wash your cars with it. Outside in my bra and panties."

"I think Ricky's scared," one of the Beta boys said and then high fived the guy next to him. Sandy had been right, they tasted my fear like sharks taste blood in the water. Right then I was holding a slashed artery, trying to prevent my fear from gushing all over the place.

"Who's on offer from your end?" Megan asked Conrad as if I hadn't said anything. She briefly flicked her eyes at me and grimaced. "Hopefully our offering won't require any further convincing."

"I believe Logan is up next," Conrad said.

Logan leaped up and put out his right hand toward Megan. Unlike me, he apparently did not need any further convincing.

"If you think it's such a great idea," I said, looking at Megan, "why don't you take up the bet?"

"Wow! She did not just say that!" Nora had a look of disbelief on her face, but she was grinning. The game hadn't even started and the afternoon was already very entertaining, at least for everyone other than me.

Sandy just looked at me and shook her head.

Megan looked at me squarely with a calm, pensive look on her face. "Okay, Ricky," she said, "if we take a vote and everyone here agrees that it should be you, will you take the wager?"

I didn't have any moves left. "Yes," I said. I was surprised that Megan had accepted my suggestion. They would obviously want to see her naked more than me. Don't get me wrong, I knew that I was quite pretty and I was fit too. But Megan was gorgeous. She had a strikingly beautiful face and whereas I almost never wear makeup, hers was always perfect. She was also very fit and her boobs were bigger than mine. She dressed better and her hair was long and always beautifully styled. At that moment, like always I had my brown hair tied back in a ponytail.

Someone pointed out that the game was starting in a few minutes.

Conrad announced that there would be a vote and stood in front of the screen. "Everyone in favor of Megan taking the bet?" he said. I put up my hand.

I was the only one. "What?" I said. "Guys! She's gorgeous! Are you crazy?"

Megan smiled and Conrad continued. "Everyone in favor of Ricky taking the bet?" Everyone else there put up their hands.

"No, no, no," I said, my heart pounding again. Lee, the guy who always took shots of girls getting naked with the Polaroid camera stepped in front of me and took a shot.

As the camera whined and emitted the photo, Conrad came to stand in front of me, and Megan said, "Ricky, if Missouri Eastern State University loses the game today, do you agree to immediately take a position in front of everyone present here, remove every last piece of your clothing and give them over into the custody of Beta house?"

She'd made it sound like a legal contract or something. Feeling a little sick, I said, "Yes."

"Shake on it."

Conrad and I shook hands.

I was hardly paying attention as Conrad said, "Logan, if NC Tech loses, do you agree to get naked at Sigma house and do some chores for them for a couple of hours sometime this week?"

Logan grinned and said, "sure!" and he and Megan shook hands.

It was done, the bet was on and the game was starting. All I could do was wait and hope that the Wolf Pack came through for me.

Megan sat on a couch and motioned for me to sit next to her. I'd done everything exactly wrong so far and, having formally agreed to the bet, I knew that there was no getting out of it. If I lost and refused to take my clothes off, my sorority sisters would hold me down and strip me. I resolved to just do as I was told from then on.

"You should have done a bit more research," Megan said to me. "I'm already on the ENF Wall."

Dammit! I thought. Why didn't that possibility occur to me?

"Well, you may have won the vote anyway. You're admittedly quite pretty for a hick-town girl," she said dismissively, "but more importantly, you're fresh blood and for these boys, it's always the fresher the better." She almost looked wistful. "Thinking back, it was VERY embarrassing. Quite humiliating. If your Wolf Pack loses, I'm pretty sure it will be a lot worse for you though." And she gave me a sly grin.

Crap! for the duration of the game, unless the Wolf Pack got an insurmountable lead, I was going to be in a state of constant terror.

The Wolf Pack did not get an insurmountable lead.

At the end of the first quarter, we were up by four. Worse was the fact that there eight more Beta boys that had either arrived home or emerged from elsewhere in the house. They'd let in six more of my Sigma sisters, too. There were more than 40 of us watching the game. They'd had to bring over a dozen more chairs.

I'd figured out by then that everyone other than me was rooting for me to lose and have to strip. The audience for the game was growing rapidly as the news that I might be "enfasized" spread.

"You know," Conrad, who was sitting on the other side of Megan from me, said, "I couldn't help noticing that Ricky wasn't as respectful to you as she should be. I'm surprised you put up with it."

"I have to agree," Megan said. I didn't like where their conversation was going.

"It's been so long since we've had a wager this fun." Conrad smiled and glanced at me. "I'd be willing to double down."

"You'd put up another of your lads?" Megan said, and I had a moment thinking that, if one of the other girls had to join me, it wouldn't be quite as bad. Maybe it would be Sandy. Then Megan asked, "and in return?"

"Double enfasis for Ricky."

"Of course."

Double enfasis! There was a small section of the ENF Wall at the far end, where the pictures were in pairs, one set of panties for two photos. One of the photos was the same as all the others, a stark naked girl trying to smile while holding up her panties and a hammer. In the other photo, the same stark naked girl would be on her knees, looking up and forward like she's begging. I'd asked about it when I saw them, but the only explanation I'd received was that the girl was begging for the opportunity to be enfasized.

That second Polaroid photo was, apparently, the end product of a double enfasis.

"Who's up next?" Megan asked.

"It's Serge, I'm pretty sure." They were both relaxed and smiling like they were planning to meet for tea.

"Let's do it," Megan said. The second quarter was starting as Conrad went to fetch Serge to agree to the wager and shake Megan's hand.

"I didn't agree to this. What the hell is double enfasis?" I demanded.

"Don't worry so much," Megan said. "It's true that double enfasis will require you to do some embarrassing tasks and involves a lot more exposure than a regular enfasis, but they've never done double enfasis at a Friday night party. If you lose, you'll strip and they'll make you do a couple of laps around a circuit of, well, obstacles that they set up in the main hall here. You'll do it tonight, it'll just be Betas and Sigmas enjoying the spectacle and you'll get to be one of the few that are honored with two photos on the ENF wall."

And then she added, "you do trust me, right?"

I answered without thinking, "no I don't trust you! You still haven't told me what double enfasis even is!" My voice was shaking. "I'm sure as hell not going to add anything to the wager I've already accepted, so you can't make me do it."

"Oh, don't worry, you don't have to agree to anything else." Megan gave me that sly grin of hers. "You already agreed to get naked and give Beta house all your clothes. What they make you do to get your clothes back, minus your panties of course, is not up to you."

My jaw dropped. "You bitch!" I said to her. I said it quite loudly, everybody looked over at us, and it took me less than two seconds to start to regret it.

She smiled calmly at me and took her time before she replied. "That's right. What they make you do to get your clothes back is not up to you. It's up to Beta house. And me."

I knew it would be a very good idea for me to begin apologizing immediately, but before I could start, Conrad arrived back with Serge in tow.

"Hey Conrad," Megan said, "how would you feel about doing a triple?"

Conrad looked taken aback. "Triple enfasis? We've talked about it, but it's never been done. You want us to do that to Ricky?"

Oh fuck! I thought. What the fuck is triple enfasis? That sounded bad. Really bad. A feeling of hopelessness came over me. I looked at Conrad. I knew he liked me. They all did. From the way he'd ominously said "do that to Ricky", I thought maybe that was more humiliation than they wanted to heap on me. Maybe he would decline.

Please let him decline!

"I think we need to use Ricky as an example," Megan replied. "She's shown a complete lack of trust in and loyalty to her sorority sisters. Not to mention her disgraceful lack of loyalty to the Fighting Bobcats. And a public show of disrespect for a senior Sigma sister."

"Well you'll get no pushback from us," Conrad said, crushing my last hope that friendship might count for something. "It will be absolutely epic and the boys will all be ecstatic. Especially knowing that it's Ricky. The longer she has to stay naked and the more fun stuff we get to make her do, the better. I assume you'll want a third of our boys to commit. I'll go get Peter."

Word of my possible triple enfasis was making its way around the room. The Beta boys all seemed to know what double enfasis would entail so they were all celebrating how amazing triple enfasis would be, presumably because it would be even more humiliating for me.

Meanwhile, I just sat there staring at the screen, wondering what they had planned for me. I reminded myself that my team was probably going to win and tried desperately to focus on that. The Wolf Pack got another field goal, taking our lead to seven and that gave me a little strength.

Just before half-time, NC Tech got a touchdown, but failed to convert, giving them a 2 point lead. I tried to hide the fact that I was shaking all over. When I'd thought the ordeal would just consist of me being photographed holding up a hammer and my panties, THAT had seemed like the end of the world. Now, knowing that it would be much worse, and not knowing any of what was in store for me, that was torture.

They turned the sound off for the half-time show. It was pretty lame anyway. Tim stood up and said, "The house bard has written some poetry to commemorate this momentous occasion." When I was a freshman, Serge had taken a few of us Sigma girls up the the ENF Wall and read us limericks that were written on the back of some of the enfasis photos, so I knew what to expect. I remember wondering at the time if any of the panties had ever been washed.

It was Serge who stood up. "I call this, ENFasis on Ricky.

"These Beta boys are friendly, thought Pretty Ricky

But really they were all just being tricky

Then they made her get nude

And do things that were lewd

Now Pretty Ricky thinks all boys are icky"

That was a massive hit and kept everyone very entertained for the duration of the half-time show. I couldn't help laughing at it despite how ominous the foreshadowing might be. That made me think how that first drunk girl I saw get enfasized had laughed along with the crowd, even when they were cheering and hooting at her humiliation. If the Wolf Pack lost, I was feeling that my humiliation would be worse than hers.

The Wolf Pack did well in the 3rd quarter, finishing up with a five point lead.