"Hurry up!" Danny whispered to Ashley and Natasha as they held the door open to the ballroom. All three of them wore the same black outfits and black ski masks as before, the nighttime darkness assisting them in remaining hidden from others. Natasha carried a black backpack while Danny held onto a flashlight that was turned off at the moment since the hallways were lit. After zig zagging down a few more corridors, Danny led them to the doors to the back of the ballroom where all of Madison's clothes for the fashion show were stored.
"How did you manage to get someone to let you in here?" Ashley asked.
"I didn't." Danny said as they pushed the door open and pointed to the hole in the metal frame where the metal latch of the doorknob would normally connect. Instead, wedged inside the hole was a wadded piece of paper. "This is a trick I learned in high school, you put a piece of paper in here so the latch doesn't close and therefore doesn't lock.
"Clever." Ashley said with a smile as she followed Danny into the ballroom. Danny turned on the flashlight, letting the beam illuminate the back of large black curtains and a set of steps that led to a stage. Lined up behind the stage were racks of clothes. The three of them walked along the racks and examined them closely, finding an array of dresses and swimsuits, most of them reminiscent of the 50's era.
"Ugh." Natasha said as she examined a sun dress with flowers on them. "I hate this 1950's revival. I bet you money the fashion show is going to have a bunch of women with front bangs and curled hair like those pin-up women have."
"Probably." Danny said, "But that's kind of hot, especially since they won't be wearing these clothes for very long."
The three of them smiled as Natasha pulled open her backpack and pulled out needles, sewing scissors and thread. They broke up and began taking clothes off the rack so they could remove the threads from the seams.
"This is going to be so awesome." Ashley said as she finished removing the threads from the straps of a swimsuit.
"Yeah but it's a lot of work to humiliate someone." Natasha said. "I doubt they'll go through all of these clothes by the time the models realize they won't stay on their bodies.
"We can't take the chance." Danny said, "We need to scare the models so Madison will be forced to wear them."
The three friends remained silent as they focused on sabotaging all of the clothes. It took them several hours to unthread all the seams and replace them with poor stitching in order to keep the clothes from falling apart too soon, but finally, they were finished as Danny removed the threads from the last pair of trousers. "Okay, that's it." Danny said.Then they heard the doors click open. "Shit! Hide!" Danny whispered. All three of them darted onto the other side of the curtains and onto the stage, hoping that whoever was there wouldn't check it.
"Did you hear something?" a voice said. Danny recognized it as Madison's.
"No." Kara said.
"I swear I heard something." Madison insisted, raising her pitch almost as if she were shouting.
"Calm down Madison." Cammy's voice said, "No one can get back here.
"Sorry, I'm just really stressed out right now." Madison said in a whiny voice. "I've spent months working on these clothes and everything has to be perfect."
"Yeah well I'm not worried about that." Kara said, "I'm more worried about what's going to happen to the sorority once they are in public."
"Don't even think that Kara!" Madison shouted, "I'll just die if someone gets humiliated again!"
"We still haven't heard any news about who is doing this." Kara said. "No one knows anything and my mom is pressuring me to figure it out."
"God just the idea of being humiliated like Brianne or Taryn makes me dizzy." Madison said.
While the Three Furies talked, Danny looked beyond the stage to the floor of the ballroom and saw two large doors on the other end. Slowly, Danny knelt down on the stage and slid off of it so they could head towards the door, gesturing for Natasha and Ashley to follow. The three friends walked a few feet across the room and exited the main doors. Danny tried to close it without making noise, holding the door as it swung shut but despite their efforts, the door clicked as soon as it closed.
"What was that?" Kara asked.
Cammy ran to the other side of the curtain and turned the lights on, frowning when she saw that the room was empty. "No idea." She said. "Must have been a janitor or something."
Kara curled her lip as she stared at the door and was silent for a moment. Finally, she said, "Let's go. Madison's going to need some sleep to calm her stupid nerves."
*****
Danny, Natasha and Ashley ran back to Danny's dorm building, taking their masks off and panting as each of them tried catching their breath. "That was close." Danny said.
"I'll say." Natasha added. "You think they saw us?"
Danny shook their head. "No. We should head back to our rooms so no one sees us though. See you tomorrow?"
Natasha nodded and they parted ways. Ashley followed Danny back to their dorm since Morgan the Mormon was gone again. As they walked, Ashley had her arm wrapped around Danny's. "That was really exhilarating.' She said, "The rush of almost getting caught."