Bela Malhotra

**Bela Malhotra** is an Indian-American student from Nutley, New Jersey, who wants to become a comedy writer and is sex-positive.

## History

### Arrival at Essex

Bela's parents both came with her to drop her off at Essex. Her mother surprised her by bringing Mr. Busby, her teddy bear. Bela was embarrassed, saying she was in the middle of her reinvention and that didn't involve her teddy bear. Still, she wasn't ready to get rid of him and asked her mother to put him on the shelf in her room. In her room, she met Kimberly Finkle and Whitney Chase. While Evette Chase, Whitney's mom, was talking to them about her expectations for the girls, Leighton Murray joined them, though she was disappointed to find herself rooming with them instead of her high school friends and walked out. Bela and the others went to a dorm meeting, where Frude Rasmunssen, their advisor, introduced himself and had them share a time when they were scared to bond them.

Bela went to a meeting of potential new writers for The Catullan, a comedy magazine that was the reason she chose to come to Essex. Wanting to prove herself, Bela approached Eric Miller directly and tried to get an edge with him, only to find out she wasn't likely to get a spot as they had limited spots for women. She found out The Catullan was throwing a Drop it Like it's F. Scott party, so she planned to attend. At the party, she gave six voting members of The Catullan handjobs in exchange for them voting for her to join.

She was excited to learn that they'd voted for her and she was a member of The Catullan. Leighton, through her bother, got an invitation for herself and her roommates to a frat party. At the party, Bela spotted two other women writers for The Catullan, Evangeline Hashima and Jo, and introduced herself. They were upset that she'd offered handjobs in exchange for her spot. Bela found Kimberly and the two of them left the party together.

### Start of Classes

As classes started, Bela attended her first meeting with The Catullan staff, along with the others who had made it through. Ryan and Eric told them they would spend the next six weeks interning as support staff. Those still around in October would submit their final pieces for consideration. As people mingled, Bela talked to Evangeline and apologized. Evangeline tried to blow her off.

Bela vented about how rough the start of college was for her while eating with Jocelyn. Jocelyn, on the other hand, had had a great start and told Bela about a naked party happening that night. Bela had Travis come to her dorm and paint fake muscles on her abdomen and back in preparation for going to this party.

When she, Kimberly, and Jocelyn arrived at the party, they struggled to get undressed and go into the party until Jocelyn decided she was going to do it. Once she had entered the party, Kimberly and Bela decided to strip down and enter together. Inside, they still struggled to get comfortable and mingle. After talking to Jocelyn about her secret, they decided to start drinking to get more comfortable. Jocelyn also taught them to mircoglance to check people out.

At the party, Bela ran into Evangeline and apologized, believing Evangeline was upset that Bela had given her boyfriend a handjob, only to learn Evangeline had gone to bat for her only to find out that Bela gave handjobs out in exchange for her spot. The two of them made peace.

Bela met Milo on campus and was instantly attracted to him. They went on a date and she was excited to hook up with a guy with abs. However, while they were having sex, she realized that he only liked her because she was funny. She tried to end things with him, but because he was so hot, she said she'd probably have sex with him a few more times.

### Catullan Alumni Dinner

Bela was excited that Danny Marawitz was coming to the Catullan alumni dinner. She shared her excitement with Kimberly and invited her to come along. Since Kimberly didn't have anything appropriate to wear, they went shopping together and Bela encouraged Kimberly to get a dress she couldn't afford by telling her to leave the tags on and return it.

At the party, Bela was excited to meet Danny, but disgusted when she learned that he was sexist and racist and called him out for it, causing him to withdraw his promised donation to the Catullan. Eric was upset by this, but Evangeline said she'd noticed the same thing and was proud of Bela for standing up to him. Thomas, who was from the same class at Essex and also a writer for the Catullan, also supported Bela, saying Danny had made working on The Catullan a living hell for everyone else. He agreed to write a check of his own to replace part of what Danny was going to donate.

Bela overheard someone being invited to a wine and cheese soirée thrown by the Catullan editors. She had enough information from that to crash the party. At the party, Ryan told her he liked the last piece she'd written and had some notes on it if she wanted to go over them with him. They went back to his room, where he gave her the notes. Then he said he had a funny video to show her and turned on some porn.

Bela left and told her suitemates what had happened. They agreed that it wasn't okay. Bela thought maybe she'd just missed the joke, so they watched the video together, but couldn't find anything funny in it. Bela took his notes home with her and started working on the piece.

### Parents Weekend

In preparation for their parents arriving for the weekend, the residents of the dorm met up to talk about it. Bela suggested they all share the lies they'd told their parents that they wanted each other to corroborate, which everyone else agreed was a good idea. She shared that her parents believed she was a neuroscience major.

Bela took her parents to Professor Harpin's Biochemistry and Biophysics class, pretending it was her favorite class. This backfired at dinner later, when Harpin was dining at a table nearby and her parents pressured her to go say hi. Harpin informed her parents that Bela wasn't in his class. Her mother made a deal with Bela that if she took the course the next semester, she would work on getting Bela's father to support her.

### Final Catullan Submissions

Bela stressed over which six pieces to submit for consideration for The Catullan. She had Milo help her, which he did while also going down on her. Once her submissions were in, Bela and a few other hopefuls were invited to see the upstairs with Ryan, without permission of the other members. Upstairs, Bela impressed Ryan with her knowledge of comedy. He promised he'd be voting for her in the deliberations. While they were talking, he came up behind her and groped her. She stepped away and said she wasn't interested, then excused herself and left. In light of this, Bela assumed she wouldn't be chosen for The Catullan, so she was surprise to have Eric and Evangeline, among others, to come to her dorm that night to take her for the rituals.

### First Catullan Meeting

After being initiated, Bela attended her first meeting with The Catullan along with the other new writers, including Carla. They were asked to submit a new piece each and one would be selected to be featured on The Catullan Instagram account. Carla asked Bela to work together. While they were working, Carla told Bela that Ryan had showed her his penis unsolicited. She asked if anything like that had happened to Bela and Bela said no. They continued their work.

When Bela went to the next meeting, she learned that Carla had quit and the piece they had written together had been chosen. Feeling guilty for having silenced her, Bela tried to reach out to Carla, but couldn't find the words. At Nico's party, Leighton noticed that she was acting off and asked her about it. Bela told her what had happened and Leighton had Alicia meet them and Carla at the Women's Center, where Alicia listened to their stories and promised she was their ally.

### Leaving the Catullan

After hearing their stories, Alicia suggested they go to the Title IX office and learn all their options. At the office, Rikki told them to submit written statements and the office would decide if they needed to take action to protect the large community. She also suggested avoiding Ryan, even though it would mean taking a break from The Catullan. When Bela told her roommates she didn't know what to do, they suggested going to some of the upperclassmen with The Catullan for their advice. She went to Evangeline and Eric and told them what had happened. Evangeline was immediately supportive, while Eric said that was a heavy accusation and he didn't want any part of it. Eric later found Bela and told her he was sorry for how he reacted initially, but she had his full support.

They held a meeting with Ryan and told him they knew what he'd done and they were kicking him out. He said they couldn't do that, but they told him it was already done and took his co-editor plaque off the wall. In his place, Evangeline was named the new co-editor. At a later meeting, some of the other writers said that what happened with Ryan was wrong, but Evangeline said they could leave as well if they wanted to defend him. Bela told them that being on The Catullan made her realize it kind of sucked, so she decided to quit.

At the Anything But Clothes Party, Evangeline said she and Jo had also quit because they realized Bela was right. They decided to start their own women-only magazine and wanted Bela to join them. She immediately agreed.

### Starting The Foxy

Bela and the others had women start submitting pieces for consideration, but Bela was disheartened when none of them were funny. Evangeline assured her that it would come in time and they could also teach their new writers to be good. Bela went to Eric and tried to get her spot back, but he said she couldn't have it. She asked him for his advice for how to build their team. He told her to find a bunch of funny people.

Bela, Whitney, and Leighton decided to participate in the annual snow run, despite the snow on the ground and the freezing temperatures. Bela also scoped out their options for parties at the finish lines. At the party, Bela talked to Lila and invited her to join the magazine. At the party, a Theta told them they weren't welcome at any future parties on campus because Kimberly turning in the files and revealing that the Thetas were cheating got several of them expelled. After the party, Bela went to Eric's place to thank him and they hooked up.

Eric and Bela continued hooking up, which she attributed to a lack of options due to being banned from the parties. She decided to go to the frats directly to try to make things right. She and Leighton told them to throw a fundraiser for something Essex cared about to get back into their good graces and show them they were good guys. They decided to put on a Magic Mike Live show to raise money for climate change. Dean Miller showed up and tried to shut them down until she learned they'd raised $11,000 and Jackson appealed to her directly, explaining how climate change had forced him to transfer when his dorm was destroyed by a storm. The show went forward as planned and was extremely successful.

### Dating Wes

Bela met Wes, the coxswain for the crew team, while working out at the gym. She enjoyed flirting with him via text and was intrigued when he asked if she'd considered the benefits of having sex with someone shorter than her. They hooked up and she wrote a piece for her new magazine about the benefits of dating short kings.

As they prepared for the launch of The Foxy, Bela helped Eric finalize the cover of The Catullan's holiday issue before the print deadline. They realized their publications were coming out the same night and would be competing. Bela had the idea to go to the printer and swap out The Catullan's cover for one with a QR code linking to The Foxy. Once they were printed, they started handing them out at the Kiss-mas party. When Eric saw this, he took the issues from her and rushed out. She thought he'd be proud, but he was just upset. In retaliation, he hacked their front page and put on The Catullan logo with a penis on it.

Bela got upset when Eric showed up at a frat party with another girl, despite their arrangement being casual. Bela pretended to be with Aaron at the next party to make Eric jealous. Eric confronted Bela about this privately and Bela admitted that she wanted to be exclusive with him. He agreed to do that.

### Dan O'Connell's Visit

When Bela found out Dan O'Connell was visiting Essex, she got herself assigned to be his student liaison, which she hoped to use as leverage to become an unpaid intern on his late-night show. While she was assisting him, Bela helped him write a joke for his show and he agreed to take a look at her resumé to be considered for an internship on his show. At the afterparty, Bela bragged to Eric about it and he took the opportunity to meet Dan himself. Dan suggested they get writers' submission packets ready. Bela said she'd get one ready, but Eric already had his. Dan gave Eric his contact information, which made Bela jealous. After working all night on her submission packet, Bela took it to Dan, then they had sex.

Bela told her roommates about what had happened and debated over whether to tell Eric. She decided not to tell him, but he confronted her when he found out from a friend who worked on Dan's show. He ended things between the two of them. Bela went to Eric's place to try to get his forgiveness, but his dads answered the door and told Bela to leave. Bela later went to Eric directly and asked for his forgiveness, but he said that she just wanted people to like her and didn't care about the people who already did. He deleted her number from his phone and walked away.

### Priya's Visit

Bela's high school friend, Priya, came to campus for their pre-frosh weekend and Bela was shocked to see that she'd grown up significantly and was much cooler-looking than Bela remembered. She got jealous when Priya drew a lot of attention and got invited to a party. Wanting to impress Priya, she decided they'd throw their own party instead. When Bela found out that Priya went to the party in the woods instead, she went to confront her. Priya told her that she wanted to re-invent herself at Essex and being around Bela made that hard because she had stories that made Priya look bad. Priya later returned to Bela's party and said she wanted to spend the rest of her evening with Bela.

### The Foxy Write-Up and Fallout

Bela came into a Foxy meeting excited to tell the others they were getting a write-up in the Essex View. She told them a reporter would be coming to their next meeting and she would personally curate the entire thing. Bela showed the reporter around and they talked about their work at The Foxy.

The reporter gave Bela a sneak preview of the article and she realized it was more of a profile of her than of The Foxy. He said he tried to spread it around, but her quotes were the funniest and most passionate. She was also the loudest. Bela worried about the others feeling left out, but said to go with what he'd written and the picture of just her.

When the issue came out, Bela picked up many copies and started handing them out to everyone on campus. The other editors for The Foxy were not pleased to see that the story was mostly about her. Bela claimed she had no idea how that happened. Bela then upset one of the writers by suggesting she quit The Foxy. This backfired when the girl, Jorja, took to social media to criticize Bela. Whitney, Kimberly, and Leighton told her not to let it ruin the last party of the year, but at the party, Jo and Evangeline confronted Bela and said they were kicked her out of The Foxy and didn't want to room with her the next year as they'd planned.

The next day, Bela went to administration and put in for a transfer to another school.

## Notes and Trivia

* She takes Accutane for acne, had LASIK surgery, and had botox injected into her armpits to control her perspiration.
* Seth Meyers is her dream guy.
* She can name every host and musical guest pairing on SNL since 2000.
* She snores.
* She had a 1.8 GPA at the end of her first year.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Welcome to Essex
2. ↑ Naked Party
3. ↑ Le Tuteur
4. ↑ Kappa
5. ↑ That Comment Tho
6. ↑ Parents Weekend
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 I Think I'm a Sex Addict
8. ↑ The Surprise Party
9. ↑ Cheating
10. ↑ The Truth
11. ↑ Winter is Coming
12. ↑ Frat Problems
13. ↑ The Short King
14. ↑ Will You Be My Girlfriend?
15. ↑ Taking Shots
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Doppelbanger
17. ↑ The Essex College Food Workers Strike
18. ↑ Pre-Frosh Weekend
19. ↑ Sex & Basketball
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 The Rooming Lottery