Rush

by Sara Bennett Wealer

  “This is horrible,” Monica murmured.

  “I can’t believe anyone would do this,” said Elizabeth.

  They passed the phone to Delia, whose face went white as she read the messages. Sophia grabbed the phone away and read, too, her mouth thinning into a line of rage.

  “Delia,” Elizabeth Andrews said softly. “This goes against everything we stand for in the Greek system. How could you let this happen? Courtney Mann is your vice president.”

  Sophia handed the phone back to Delia, who looked up from the screen. Her gray eyes welled with tears.

  “I didn’t know,” she said.

  “She didn’t,” Cass agreed. “I can tell you for a fact that Delia didn’t know.”

  Monica regarded her coolly. “And how do you know that?”

  Silence. Cass realized that she’d talked herself into a trap.

  “That’s a good question,” Elizabeth said. “How do you know that Delia didn’t know about this?”

  Delia’s features had taken on an expression Cass couldn’t read. Not desperation or panic—but more disbelief, tinged with resignation.

  “Cassandra?” Elizabeth pressed. “I asked how you knew that Delia was ignorant to the fact that something like this was going on inside her house.”

  Cass swallowed hard. There was no way around it; she had to tell the truth. “Because I told her I thought something like this was going on.”

  “Oh God.” Sophia sank into her chair and began rubbing her temples.

  Monica and Elizabeth both turned back to Delia, who was now staring out the window.

  “How do you explain that?” Monica asked. “You were warned and you chose not to act?”

  “But I didn’t know for sure when I told Delia,” Cass went on. “I didn’t know the details. It was just a hunch. It’s not like I had proof yet.”

  Delia’s gaze flicked over to hers and she smiled, the tiniest of smiles before looking out the window again. This small girl with the hollow eyes wasn’t the Delia Cass knew.

  Monica and Elizabeth regarded each other regretfully, then Monica spoke.

  “I’m sorry, Delia, but I don’t have a choice. Sigma Theta Kappa will have to forfeit its first-round pledge picks. As will every other house whose members participated in this . . . I don’t even know what to call it. This scheme.”

  “And we expect every sister who participated to be disciplined,” Elizabeth added. “We’ll leave it up to your individual chapter’s discretion, but my personal recommendation would be that their memberships be revoked immediately.”

  Delia nodded like she was letting the situation sink in, absorbing the weight of it. Cass waited for Sophia to come to Delia’s defense. Delia called this woman a mentor; so shouldn’t she do something mentorly?

  But Sophia seemed to have forgotten Delia was even in the room.

  “What about Imogen Ash?” she said. “She’s a quadruple legacy! Her family will be furious if she isn’t invited to pledge Sigma. I’m sure you can imagine the ramifications for everyone involved if a family like that chose to retaliate. Can’t we work something out?”

  “Not possible,” answered Monica, as cool now as Sophia was out of control. “Imogen Ash is expelled from recruitment. Even if she wasn’t sneaking out to meet the Sigmas, she violated the lockdown. We have rules for a reason, and breaking those rules brings consequences, no matter who a person is or how much power her family has.”

  Sophia turned on Delia next. “How could you be so stupid? How could you be so blind, Delia? You failed me and you failed Sigma. If we lose the chapter, it will be your fault.”

  A shocked silence fell over the table as everybody waited to see how Delia would respond.

  Delia looked calmly at Sophia and said, “How did you get Imogen Ash to come back to Sigma?”

  “Excuse me?” said Sophia.

  “She’d turned us down already. I know because I had Marina check, and Imogen Ash definitely declined our invitation to Pref Day. So how did you get her to come back?”

  “What are you suggesting?” said Sophia, incredulously.

  “I think you called her family. You said she just made a mistake, but how often does that really happen? I think you called them and they called her and talked her into reversing her decision.” Delia now looked across the table at Monica and Elizabeth, and Cass was relieved to see some steel returning to her eyes. “And then someone from Greek Council decided to let her go back to Sigma, which I’m also sure is against the rules. If any other girl had asked to change her schedule, would you have let them?”

  Sophia leaned over and took Delia by the chin. Cass could see the woman’s fingernails digging into Delia’s cheeks.

  “How dare you make accusations?” Sophia snarled. “I’m not the one who’s in trouble here, and if you say anything more about it, I can assure you I will get you kicked out of Sigma Theta Kappa—if they don’t decide to get rid of you on their own, since you obviously are incompetent and probably unethical to boot.”

  Sophia let go. Delia didn’t move.

  “Do you want to be kicked out, Delia?” Sophia pressed.

  “No,” Delia replied. “I’m resigning.”

  She stood, looking more and more like the old, confident Delia, and addressed the table.

  “My father always said integrity is a person’s most valuable possession, and I have done everything I could to guard my own. I may not have known about some of the things that were happening in the house, and I’m sorry for how Courtney and some of the other sisters behaved. But not knowing is not unethical. I certainly didn’t contact a rushee’s parents to have them influence her decision. Nor did I bend the rules to allow that rushee a second chance. I don’t have the handbook memorized, but I’m almost certain that all declines are final—or they should be.”

  She looked pointedly at Monica, who squirmed in her seat.

  “We’ll look into it,” Monica said. “I don’t know who would have done that, but you’re right. They shouldn’t have let her change her schedule.”

  Delia nodded, then turned to Sophia. “I’ve given too much to Sigma over the past three years to let you drag me into Standards and Discipline. After what’s happened today, I don’t feel like I should stay the president. But I also don’t feel like I need to be punished or have my name kicked around. So I am going to leave. And if anybody asks why, I’ll tell them it’s because Sigma failed to live up to my standards.”

  Sophia sputtered and reached for her purse, looking desperate to make a fast escape. Just then, a phone rang and everyone jumped. They all looked at the iPhone, which was now, for all practical purposes, a crime scene.

  But it wasn’t the iPhone ringing. It was Cass’s phone. She checked the ID: It was Ruby.

  “Are we finished here?” she asked. “Can I take this?”

  Elizabeth Andrews nodded and Cass went into the hall.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked a sobbing Ruby

  “I just got a call from home,” Ruby said. “The bank’s taking our house.”

  “Wait right there,” said Cass, running for the exit. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  FOURTY-FOUR

  Maddy rolled over, awake way before her alarm went off, and stared at Imogen’s empty bed. For an hour or two, when she’d been able to drift off, what had happened the night before seemed like a dream. But the empty bed reminded her how real it was. She’d come back to the dorm to find Alex cleaning up pizza boxes in the commons. She’d told her about Imogen and the Sigmas, Alex had called Greek Council, and Imogen had been kicked out of rush on the spot. Maddy hadn’t even seen her roommate because Imogen had spent the night in Rachel’s room.

  Maddy got up, showered and did her hair, trying not to feel nervous about the bids that would be handed out in just a couple of hours. She told herself she’d done everything she could. She’d followed the signs and now the situation was out of her hands. Whatever sorority she ended up pledging, she would be happy and make the most of i
t.

  Deep inside, though, she knew there was still only one she really wanted: Still and always Sigma.

  The rush hacks had all said she’d spend Bid Day doing getting-to-know-you activities with her new sisters, so Maddy put on comfortable shorts and shoes. Someone knocked on her door as she was pulling on a plain white tank top.

  “Come in,” she said, thinking one of the other rushees might be looking for breakfast company. Instead Alex walked in, followed by Imogen and a woman she’d never seen before.

  Imogen stood behind the other women, near the door. She didn’t say hello, and Maddy didn’t say anything either; she didn’t care if she ever spoke to her soon-to-be ex-roommate again.

  “Maddy,” said Alex. “This is Monica, from Greek Council.”

  Alex seemed so serious and Monica looked even more grim. She motioned for Maddy to sit on the bed and then sat next to her.

  “I want to know more about what happened last night,” said Monica.

  Maddy gulped. She told the story again, feeling a little like a bug under a microscope.

  “I went to the Sigma house,” she finished, “and Imogen was there on the sidewalk with the president and another sister. She said she was going to a Beacon party, but obviously that wasn’t where she went.”

  “I did go to a Beacon party,” Imogen broke in. “I was with Ben Sherman, my editor.”

  “I didn’t see any guys with you,” Maddy snapped back.

  “He left right before you showed up.” Imogen rolled her eyes. “God, Maddy, I get that you don’t trust me. But you do not know everything, okay?”

  “That’s enough.” Monica gave them both a stern look. “I think I understand everything now. There’s no need to fight.”

  “I know what I saw,” said Maddy. “It was dirty rushing.”

  “It might have been. But what you don’t seem to grasp, Maddy, is that you were out of the dorms without permission, too.”

  Maddy pulled back, surprised. “I was trying to keep someone from breaking the rules.”

  “Yes, but you also broke the rules. Whatever your motivations were, you violated the lockdown by leaving the dorm.” Monica folded her hands in her lap and gave a final-looking nod. “You’re disqualified from recruitment as well.”

  Maddy gasped. “What? I don’t . . . That’s not . . .”

  “Fair?” said Alex, looking scarily different from the peppy recruitment counselor of the day before. “Actually it’s totally fair. You were both out of the dorms when you weren’t supposed to be. So you’ll both receive the same punishment.”

  Maddy couldn’t even find words to answer that. In just a few seconds her world had turned a complete 180. How could she be kicked out of rush? She’d never been kicked out of anything in her entire life!

  Tears began to slide down her cheeks as she thought about going through the school year with something like that on her record. How would she explain it to her parents? How would she tell Logan? Or Miranda?

  Forget Sigma. Suddenly, just being able to pledge a house—any house—seemed like a gift she would be happy to take.

  “Don’t do that.”

  At first Maddy thought Imogen was telling her not to cry. Then she realized Imogen was actually talking to Monica.

  “Excuse me?” said Monica.

  “Don’t kick Maddy out,” said Imogen. “I’m disqualified, I accept that. But don’t kick Maddy out, too. She thought she was doing the right thing.”

  Maddy stared, not believing what she’d just heard. Monica, meanwhile, got to her feet, looking more than a little offended.

  “I don’t know who you think you are,” she told Imogen, “but it’s not up to you to tell me how to run things.”

  “I don’t think I’m anybody,” said Imogen. “I don’t have any power here and I don’t want any. I’m just asking. Please, let Maddy stay.”

  Maddy held her breath. Everything she’d worked for hung by the tiniest thread. If she moved, she was afraid it would break.

  “Let’s say I really was going out to meet the Sigmas,” Imogen went on. “Shouldn’t somebody have told you that that sort of thing was going on? Maddy has high standards and she cares so much about things being done right that she was willing to go out and chase me down. It might not have been the best decision, but it shows real dedication, right? That’s the kind of girl you want in a sorority. Someone who really cares.”

  Imogen glanced over at Maddy with a hopeful smile. Maddy shut her eyes. She couldn’t handle knowing that if everything turned out okay, she’d have Imogen to thank—Imogen, whom she’d yelled at and stalked and gotten kicked out of rush. She’d thought she knew who Imogen was and why she’d done the things she did, but maybe she’d been wrong.

  “Maddy.” Monica’s voice startled her into opening her eyes. “What do you think about this?”

  Maddy let out the breath she’d been holding. “I think I shouldn’t have made assumptions. I should have just stayed in and left the whole thing alone.” She was crying now, so hard that she could barely get the words out. She gulped, getting mascara down the front of her tank top as big tears rolled off her cheeks.

  Monica handed her a tissue. “It sounds like you’ve learned quite a bit.”

  “I have!” Maddy pressed the tissue into her eyes but the tears wouldn’t stop.

  “Hey. It’s okay. Calm down now.” Monica’s voice turned softer, almost motherly. “Because I can see how much this means to you and to Imogen, I’m going to make a very, very rare exception and allow you to pledge. But I want this to be the last time we have to speak, Maddy. Several houses are going to be under tighter scrutiny going forward, so if I hear about any other problems that involve you in any way I can still have you removed from the Greek system. Understand?”

  Maddy swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  “Okay then,” said Monica. “Take a minute to freshen up and then come downstairs. Bids will be here soon.”

  Alex made a disgusted grunt, then followed Monica out of the room without saying another word.

  “Alex is pretty pissed,” Imogen said when it was just the two of them. “She got in trouble for not seeing us leave last night.”

  “I don’t blame her for being mad,” said Maddy. “I never wanted anybody to get in trouble.”

  “Except for me.”

  Maddy pressed fingertips into her cheeks to keep the tears from welling up again. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble so much as I just wanted to not feel stepped on all the time. God, I should have just left it alone . . .”

  Imogen lingered by the door as an awkward minute went by. Finally, she asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay.” Imogen took a step toward the door but then turned. “Look, you’ll probably never believe me about what really happened. I know it looked weird, and even I don’t really get all of it. But I don’t want us to be enemies.”

  “We don’t have to be.”

  “Can we be friends?”

  “We can try. Maybe when all this is over?”

  Imogen nodded. “Speaking of which, I figured while you were out getting your bid I could pack up a few things in here. I’m not sure where I’ll end up after all this. Maybe I’ll stay in this room if you move into whatever house you pledge, but until we know for sure, Rachel said I could keep sleeping over there. So is it okay if I come back in a few to get my stuff?”

  “Yes,” said Maddy.

  “Great,” said Imogen. “Thanks.”

  She left then, leaving an emptiness in the room and inside of Maddy—emptier than she’d ever felt before because she had nothing to fill up the space; no rules, no advice, no certainty.

  The only thing Maddy Christopher knew for sure was that she didn’t know anything at all.

  FORTY-FIVE

  Cass talked to Ruby on her cell all the way back to the Sigma house. Ruby’s parents had been given fifteen days to get out of the house they’d lived in for almost ten years.

  “I feel l
ike I should be home with them,” Ruby sobbed into the phone. “They want me to stay here like everything’s normal, but I can’t stay if I can’t pay the house fees. I’m basically homeless!”

  “Where are you now?” Cass asked. She checked her watch and walked faster. Bids were going out and the new pledge class would be arriving soon.

  I haven’t been out of my room. I’m scared. What’s going to happen to me, Cass?”

  The Sigma house came into view and Cass broke into a run. “Just stay where you are,” she ordered. “And don’t talk to anybody.”

  She’d just rushed through the front door when Megan stopped her in the foyer.

  “Did you hear?” Megan said, breathlessly. “Courtney’s gone and Allison and Aimee Wu, too. People are saying they got kicked out. And more people might get kicked out, too.”

  Cass looked around to see groups of sisters whispering in the parlor and sunroom. All eyes were on the house mother’s suite. The door stood half open, and milling about inside were official-looking women Cass had seen maybe once or twice during her time at Sigma. Before she could tell Megan what had happened, a woman she recognized from a Founder’s Day luncheon emerged and posted a sign at the foot of the grand staircase.

  Mandatory All-House Meeting, 10:00 a.m. Dining Room

  Ten a.m. Cass checked her watch: that was just ten minutes away. She bounded up the stairs, past more groups of whispering sisters, and burst into their room to find Ruby on her bed, clutching her cell phone.

  “Oh, Roo . . .” Cass ran to her friend and pulled her into a hug. They sat that way, Ruby sniffling and Cass wondering just how much more surreal the morning could get, until Ruby lifted her head.

  “I’m going to talk to somebody about the money,” she said. “Do you think they’ll let me work something out?” For the first time, Cass saw doubt in her friend’s eyes.

  “I hope so,” said Cass. “Everything’s such a weird mess, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. But I’ll leave, too. If you’re not here, then I don’t want to be, either.”

  Outside in the hallway they could hear one of the alumna going room to room, banging on doors. Within seconds, their own door thudded. “Mandatory meeting, downstairs now!” the woman barked.