The Alpha Bet

by Stephanie Hale

  “You’re supposed to do whatever I want,” she pouts.

  She’s right. I’m only on my first letter and I’m already trying to make excuses. If I really want to be an Alpha, I’m going to have to step out of my comfort zone. What’s that saying, ‘think outside of the box’? My personal mantra is going to start being, ‘think outside the geek’. How hard can running actually be anyway? I nod confidently, mentally lacing up my sneakers. Jodi beams from ear to ear.

  “Meet me at the track at seven,” she whispers, disappearing with the bag of trash.

  Wow. My first task. I was picturing some horrible hazing involving alcohol, and quite possibly, animals. I always have been a little imaginative. I should have been more trusting of Lindsay when she said they would never ask us to humiliate ourselves.

  “I need the pledges in the foyer please,” I hear Lindsay call.

  I walk around the corner meeting Jentry and Sloane coming from the other direction. The three of us cluster around Lindsay timidly, not sure what to expect.

  “I don’t want you girls to think we are being rude but you aren’t allowed to stay for the second half of the meeting,” Lindsay clarifies.

  “How’s come?” Sloane asks. I can’t stand her but I’m still glad she asked.

  “Let’s just say that even nice girls have secrets,” Lindsay teases. “Don’t worry. As soon as you are all initiated, you’ll be privy to everything that goes on in the house.”

  The three of us nod and step through the front door.

  “See you tonight, Grace Kelly,” Sloane says, her voice bathed in honey. I smile and wave, acting like I don’t know she is being facitious. I don’t get why she is even here. I can’t imagine that she would voluntarily want to spend time with such nice girls. I just hope our differences don’t become a problem in the house. And I really hope she is done trying to find ways to sabotage me. I refuse to let myself think how disastrous it would be if Sloane somehow found out the truth about Edwina Fay.

  Later that night I’m waiting at the track for Jodi. I had to stop and ask for directions twice. I can’t believe how turned around I get on campus without Jentry.

  “Were you followed?” Jodi asks, suddenly appearing behind a lamppost and causing me to nearly scream.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” I say, sweeping my glance side-to-side for potential stalkers.

  “Okay, come over here in the grass and do some warm-ups with me.” Jodi is wearing a sports bra and teeny biker shorts with some very intense looking tennis shoes with more gadgets on them than my watch. I feel very overdressed in my sweatshirt and sweatpants, but it’s chilly out. Besides, I could never muster up the courage to walk around in just a sports bra. She stands on one foot while bending her other leg back toward her butt and grabbing it with her hand. She makes it look easy so I give it a try.

  Not only does my leg not bend back the way it’s supposed to, but I lose my balance and land, chest first, in the grass.

  “Grace Kelly, quit messing around. I have to keep myself in tip-top condition. I ate two doughnuts this morning and they went straight to my thighs,” she says, smacking her left thigh.

  “Your thighs are awesome,” I say, struggling to my feet. “Wait, that came out wrong.”

  “I used to be really fat,” she says, nearly causing me to fall over again.

  “Oh.” I have no idea how to respond to Jodi’s confession.

  “The Alphas didn’t care. They pledged me anyway. Being an Alpha changed my life,” she admits. While I’m flattered that she feels like she can trust me with such private information, I hate that I can’t come up with an appropriate response.

  “You look amazing now.” It’s the best I can come up with.

  “Thanks. It’s just something I have to battle everyday,” she says, “but now I’m addicted to exercise instead of food.”

  “I think it’s really brave of you to tell me that.” I feel sort of guilty about not fessing up about my recent makeover. I’m not necessarily embarrassed about who I was before my transformation, I mean, I’m still me, but I’m not planning to go around making copies of my senior picture and hanging them on all the trees on campus either.

  “Someday you’ll feel close enough to the sisters to tell them your secrets. That’s what sisterhood is all about.” She grabs me up in a quick hug then bolts down to the track. I’m starting to get that when it comes to running, she’s all business. I follow her, immediately sliding on the cinders. I take a moment to say a silent prayer for my epidermis.

  Jodi removes a stopwatch from somewhere on her teeny-tiny workout outfit and starts punching some buttons on it.

  “Okay, I need to run a five-minute mile. I need you to run behind me and shout out my time so I know when to start kicking it in. I don’t expect you to keep up but try not to fall too far behind or I won’t be able to hear you,” she says, handing me the stopwatch. I look up at the well-lit track and breathe a sigh of relief. I can easily jog this entire track in five minutes, no sweat. Jodi must be kind of a slow runner if it takes her five minutes to run all the way around, but hey, what do I know?

  Jodi grabs a quick drink from her water bottle then does some more stretching and deep breathing. I’m starting to think she’s a tad melodramatic.

  “Are you ready?” I ask, eager to start the stopwatch and get this over with. Jodi bends down, cocks her butt in the air, and places her hands on the cinders. She’s got such an intense look on her face that I almost laugh. I shouldn’t be so critical though, I probably look like that when I’m breaking down a chemical reaction.

  “Go,” she yells, jolting me back to reality. She springs into the air like a gazelle. Thankfully I remember to push the stopwatch before I start jogging, carefully, so that I don’t fall too far behind her.

  Before I know it we are rounding the first bend, practically neck to neck. I start to wonder if I should fall back so I don’t make her feel bad since she’s the ‘runner’ and all. But she wanted me to be her partner. I choose my footfalls very carefully, knowing Jentry will not be happy if I come home with a face full of cinders. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually enjoying myself. We fly by the empty bleachers and I imagine masses of people screaming my name.

  “What’s my time?” She yells, not the least bit out of breath.

  “One minute, ten seconds,” I answer, a bit winded. Jodi is going to blow her time away, I think, as we approach the start of the track.

  “Kicking it in now,” she says, blasting ahead of me before I know what hit me. She plows right past where we started and keeps running full speed. What in the world is in those shoes of hers? I pump my arms and make myself move faster even though my feet feel very uncomfortable at these speeds. I watch Jodi move faster and faster around the track until she eventually laps me, her feet practically smoking.

  Okay, so I’m supposed to be a genius and I just figured out that one time around the track obviously isn’t a mile. I try to unfold the track in a straight line in my mind to get a good idea how many times I’m going to have to lap it before this is over. I’m concentrating way too hard on measurements and not nearly enough on coordination.

  My foot slips and I take a dive onto the track. It hurts, really bad.

  “Are you okay?” Jodi screams from the other side of the track.

  “I think so,” I answer, brushing off my sweat suit. Thankfully I wasn’t dressed like Jodi or I’d be looking picking cinders out of my skin for weeks. Luckily, my face survived but the palms of my hands weren’t so lucky. “Three minutes, forty seconds,” I yell as Jodi sprints past me. I kind of doubt Jodi is going to mind if I hang up my tennis shoes so I wobble back over to the grass and squat down.

  I get sort of bummed, knowing I didn’t accomplish my task. Why do I have to be so uncoordinated? It’s like my body parts and my brain can’t communicate with each other. I pull out a clump of grass and toss it away in frustration.

  Jodi sails up, barely out of breath. I hit the button on the stopwa
tch. “Wow, four minutes, thirty seconds. You were awesome,” I tell her.

  She collapses next to me in the grass.

  “You better do some more of those stretching exercises. You don’t want your lactic acid building up,” I tell her, pulling random knowledge from some orifice.

  She looks at me and giggles. “What are you talking about?”

  I’m about to break into a full spiel on the three systems that produce energy to re-synthesize Adenosine Triphosphate, but somehow I don’t think Jodi will appreciate the beauty of the formula. “Just do some cool-downs or your muscles will be really sore,” I tell her.

  She nods and starts stretching in poses that I didn’t know were physically possible. Just one day I’d like to be at peace with my body, I think, picking more cinders out of the knees of my sweatpants.

  “You’re so lucky,” Jodi says, gazing over at me.

  “Huh?” I ask, confused. Is she being sarcastic or what?

  “To be so smart. I’d love to be as smart as you are,” she says, jumping up.

  “If I’m so smart, why can’t I manage to get my feet to do what I want?” I ask, disgusted.

  “We can’t all be good at the same thing or it would be a pretty boring world, Grace Kelly.” She laughs, pulling me up.

  She’s absolutely right. Okay, so maybe I’m not the most graceful person on the face of the earth, but I’m definitely smart. Who cares if I can’t run a five-minute mile? I’m a rock star with a Bunsen burner.

  “So, did I complete my first task?” I ask, excited.

  “One down, twenty-five to go,” Jodi confirms.

  I’m starting to think that these tasks are going to be a really good thing. I get to spend individual time with most of the sisters while proving my loyalty to them. Besides, I’ve always worked for anything else I wanted. Why should the Alphas be any different? Once my twenty-sixth task is complete I’ll know that I’ve earned my spot with the Alphas, even if I lied to get there.

  The Alpha house is alive with lights and music as Jodi and I approach it.

  “The Welcome Back mixer. I totally forgot,” I say, disappointed. “I’m never going to have time to get back to the dorm, get ready, then get back here before the Omegas leave,” I say, depressed. I can’t believe I forgot. I’ve been looking forward to this all day. When I found out that the Alphas were hosting Charlie’s fraternity, the Omega Tau Nu’s, I about busted with excitement at the thought of seeing him. But in my sweat-stained workout clothes and dorky headband I look way too much like the old me to risk seeing him like this, even if I was probably wearing something very similar at the science fair last spring.

  “You can wear something of mine,” Jodi offers.

  We tiptoe through the door, neither of us wanting to be questioned about the task. The door leads into the kitchen and we take the back staircase to Jodi’s second floor bedroom.

  “Pick whatever you want,” she says, stripping down faster than I knew was humanly possible and disappearing into her bathroom.

  Laughter curls up through the registers from downstairs. I throw off my sweatshirt in anticipation of a few laughs with Charlie, and hopefully some more flirting that maybe I’ll be able to pick up on tonight. I can hardly wait to point Charlie out to Jentry. I throw open Jodi’s closet and flip on the light. I’m pleasantly surprised when I realize that all of her clothes are hung up by color families. Jodi has even stuck to the Roy G. Biv mneumonic in the placement sequence of hues. If I had more time I would help her even further by arranging them from long sleeve to short sleeve representing the decrease in wavelength, making her closet the perfect visible spectrum. I can’t believe I didn’t think to sort my closet this way!

  It doesn’t take me long to realize that my boobs are way bigger than Jodi’s. Button-down shirts are definitely out. I groan while flipping through all of her extra-small T-shirts. I have a choice to make. I either show up to the mixer in my stinky, sweaty shirt that I wore to the track, or I show up squeezed into one of Jodi’s tees looking like a wet T-shirt contestant. I yank a black tee with rhinestones that spell out ‘high maintenance’ and throw it over my head. I peel off my sweatpants and slide into a pair of jeans that fit perfect.

  “Wow, you look great,” Jodi says, coming up behind me wrapped in a towel.

  “Really?” I ask, surveying myself in her full-length mirror.

  “Total hottie. My makeup and hair stuff is over there. Help yourself.” She points to a vanity before going into her walk-in closet to get dressed.

  I use a face wipe to clean off my sweaty pores then very carefully apply some of Jodi’s makeup. I twist a few curls into my still damp hair and spray it so it doesn’t frizz the minute I walk out of the room. I dab on some lip-gloss and give myself another once-over. I’m still not quite used to my new reflection in the mirror. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the girl staring back at me really was high maintenance. I practice a few smiles so I don’t look like a total dork when I see Charlie.

  “The Omegas are gonna be all over you, girl,” Jodi laughs, emerging from her closet in a hot pink silk tank top and mini-skirt. She fixes her hair and makeup in a flash and soon we are descending the stairs to the party.

  “I’m nervous,” I admit, fidgeting with my pledge pin on the collar of my shirt.

  “You did really great today, Grace Kelly. Listen to your heart and you’ll find your place here, she says cryptically. She gets swallowed up by a group of Greeks and is gone before I can ask her what she means.

  “There you are,” Jentry shouts, grabbing my arm.

  “I would tell you where I’ve been but then I’d have to kill you,” I joke. She looks adorable in a white shirtdress with cranberry-colored tights poking out from underneath. Jentry could make a garbage bag look good.

  “Love the shirt,” she says, winking at me. “This is Ron,” she says, introducing me to the extremely muscular Omega that she was deep in conversation with before seeing me.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Grace Kelly or GK,” I say, holding my hand out. His face lights up as he nearly pumps my hand off my body.

  “I know who you are. You’re the chick who gave Miller the lump on his head.” He starts laughing uncontrollably.

  “Guilty,” I admit, not sure if it is a good thing that Charlie told him about me or not.

  Before I can obsess over it I feel someone pulling at my arm. I turn to see Brock, an active sister, looking frantic.

  “What’s wrong, Brock?” I ask, concerned.

  “Kelly needs to see you in the bathroom right away.” She rushes off before I can ask why a sister would possibly want me to meet them in the bathroom. This gives a whole new meaning to being close.

  “I guess I’ve gotta go. We’ll catch up later,” I tell Jentry. She nods, having already gone back to ogling her muscular Omega man.

  I rush to the half bath near the staircase and knock lightly on the door. A delicate arm reaches out and pulls me into the bathroom.

  “Kelly, what’s wrong?” I say, taking in her teased hair and shorter-than-short jean shorts and bikini top.

  “I need to give you your task. Now listen, I know we are supposed to be picking stuff that builds your character and all that crap, but there is something that the Alphas need to do to keep a good reputation with the Omegas. They are starting to think that we are all a bunch of goody-goodies.” She turns up her nose in disgust.

  “B is for beer. The Omegas brought their beer bong and none of the other girls will try it. The guys are getting bored just standing around drinking. We’ve got to liven the mixer up or the guys are going to bail and head to the Zeta house.” She sucks her breath in at the mere thought that the Omegas would ditch the Alphas for the skanky Zetas.

  I blow out a huge sigh of relief. I don’t exactly know what a beer bong is but I know it’s gotta be better than the b task I was imagining. Besides, I don’t want Charlie bailing on the mixer before I even get a chance to talk to him.

  “Sure, I’ll do it,
” I agree. Kelly jumps up and down, knocking my hip into the corner of the bathroom counter. Pants were definitely a good choice tonight to hide all my battle scars.

  Five minutes later, I’m thankful again that I wore jeans. As if drinking beer sitting right side up wasn’t bad enough, I’m now inverted with a plastic PVC pipe stuck between my lips trying not to gag as the urine-smelling beer flows into my mouth. I pretend its Mountain Dew and chug as fast as I can. I try not to think about Charlie’s hands around my ankles holding me in the air. I try to tune out all the people chanting my name. I do calculate, based on my height and weight, how much beer I would have to drink to get smashed. I quickly realize that I passed that amount about three gulps ago.

  After what feels like an eternity, someone removes the tube from my mouth and several hands are on my back and arms spinning me right side up again. Everyone is clapping and screaming, but I’m too dizzy to care. Charlie steadies me by grabbing my shoulders. He is laughing and saying something about how cool I am. If he only knew. He leans in, his eyes on my lips. Is he really going to kiss me right here in front of everybody?

  My eyes dart behind him to Jentry who gives me a thumbs-up. I look back to Charlie whose lips are closing in on me at an alarming speed. My stomach gurgles in panic. Charlie closes his eyes and his lips are so close to mine that I can feel his breath. I close my eyes and pray that I know what I’m doing. I lick my lips and take a deep breath. To my horror, the breath comes back out as the biggest burp I’ve ever let, right in Charlie’s face.

  Chapter Six

  “I swallowed some air when I was upside-down and then when that combined with the air that was already in my stomach from the bacteria that forms gases…”

  “It’s cool, Grace Kelly. If you didn’t want to kiss me, you should have just told me,” Charlie says, cutting off the detailed explanation I was about to give for why I burped in his face.