Malena draped her dress over a chair and explained how she’d created them on her computer earlier that morning. Because her printer was out of ink, she had called Ray, and he met her before class, took the disk to the computer lab, and printed an original. Also, he was thoughtful enough to go have copies made.
Ray met her out front when she went to get her costume. Malena took the box from him and asked him to wait until practice officially started to come in. He kissed her on the cheek and took off to grab a quick bite to eat.
“I don’t know who has the better man, you or Chancey,” Stephanie said, then put her hands together to send a quick prayer up. “Dear Lord, please send that same blessing my way.”
“You’ll get a man sooner or later,” Chancey said.
“I’m hoping sooner.” Stephanie pouted.
“So what’s the plan for after practice?” Cajen asked in a dry tone. She wasn’t the least bit interested in talk about getting or keeping a man. She had one thing on her mind—settling her problem with the man who had never been hers: Jason.
“We’re going to slide these under doors in all of the girls’ dormitories, and hit the two coed dorms,” Chancey replied.
The line sisters finished preparing the stage. Malena went through her monologue a couple of times, and they discussed the rest of their plans for the auction. Soon it was time for the big sisters and contestants to come for the scheduled practice.
Dean Big Sister Nina and the assistant dean, Big Sister Kendra, walked through the door. The line sisters were always glad to see Big Sister Kendra because she was especially considerate of them. Like clockwork, the girls stopped what they were doing, jumped into line according to number, and began to greet their big sisters.
“Greetings, Most Honorable Big Sisters. We are so pleased to be graced by your presence. We work hard, both day and night, striving to become what you already are. May we be privileged to address you, please?” they said in unison.
Dean Big Sister Nina seemed to get a rush when they greeted her. She was cool as far as big sisters went, but she loved for the pledges to greet her. Once, she made them greet her seventy-five times before she finally granted them permission to stop greeting her. This time she responded, “No, I didn’t hear any sincerity in your voices.”
“Yes, you may address me,” Big Sister Kendra replied. Then she looked at Nina, irritated at the power trip she’d been on since they took the new line. “Now, you know the contestants will be walking through that door at any minute, and we want them to be through all of this hazing nonsense by then so they’ll be relaxed during practice.”
“All right. I’ll let them greet me one or two more times, and then I’ll let them off the hook.”
Kendra shook her head, found a row of chairs in the middle of the auditorium, and took a seat.
The pledges went through the greeting two more times, and Dean Big Sister Nina responded, “Yes, you may address me.” Then she asked, “So are you ladies ready for tonight?”
“Yes, Dean Big Sister Nina!” they replied in unison.
“We’ll see about that,” she smirked, and took a seat beside Kendra. “Go ahead. Break up and continue to do whatever it was you were doing before we got here. I need the secretary to come and inform me and your big sister Kendra of what we should expect to see tonight.”
Cajen, who was the line’s secretary, walked over to her big sisters and opened her notepad to all of the notes she had taken pertaining to the practice. She informed them of all the details that had already been taken care of, and of everything that was going to be covered in the night’s rehearsal. Cajen’s notes were thorough, so when she finished with her report, neither of the big sisters had any questions. They didn’t even object to putting their flyers under doors in the dormitories after rehearsal, even though that meant the pledges wouldn’t have to go through a physically and emotionally draining pledge session.
“Oh, yeah,” Cajen remembered. “Dean Big Sister Nina, the microphones are ready to be picked up. May I have permission to get them now? We won’t need them for the first part of the practice, but they will be essential for the second part.”
“Number two,” Nina called to Cajen. Their big sisters often switched between calling them by their line names and their line numbers. “First of all, I just want to let you know that your minute-taking skills have improved drastically. You are really developing. I’m beginning to think you just might make a fine addition to our sorority.”
“Thank you, Dean Big Sister Nina,” Cajen said.
“Second, you can go and pick up the microphones in a few minutes, but first there is something that I forgot to tell you and your line sisters.”
Tiara heard their big sister delay Cajen, and began to worry because she wasn’t sure how long her friend Gina would be able to stall Jason. She knew that when Dean Big Sister Nina got on her pedestal, she sometimes got too comfortable and dragged on and on.
“Everybody, come over here for a minute. You don’t have to get in line, just come over and have a seat. Cajen, I need you to take notes.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and took seats around their big sisters.
“I hope this show runs as smoothly as it seems like it’s going to, because it was difficult keeping the rest of your big sisters away from this practice, so you really have to be on top of things both tonight and tomorrow,” said Dean Big Sister Nina.
The pledges were relieved that there would be no other big sisters at the rehearsal.
“Remember when I told you all to make sure you get white dresses if you don’t have them?” she asked. “Does everybody have their white dresses and white shoes?”
“Yes, Dean Big Sister Nina, we all have our dresses and our shoes,” Cajen responded.
“Good. You will need to go into your budgets and make sure everybody has the proper panty hose to match.”
“We have those too.”
“Very good.”
Their dean gave them an address and a time, but left out the date. She told them not to lose the address or the time, because she would later give them only a date and they would need to put all the information together. She then asked if they had black dresses, shoes, and panty hose. When they answered yes, she informed them they would also need to make sure everyone had a black sweat suit, black socks, and black tennis shoes. She reminded them they could get cheap ones at Wal-Mart, if they didn’t already have them, and suggested they use some of the money they would make from the auction. Half of the proceeds were to be donated to the charity of their choice.
They looked at one another in anguish, wondering how, with their already full schedules, they were supposed to manage to shop for sweat suits.
“Here’s another address and time,” she continued. “Don’t confuse it with the first ones. You will be using this information before the address I just gave you, and I will later call you with a date.” Big Sister Nina gave them the new location and time and told them to be in their sweat suits. She then instructed them to be at the location at the exact time noted. She warned them that if they lost the information she just gave them, they were out of luck. Chancey always made sure to pay extra special attention to any information that had that term attached.
“Any questions?” Big Sister Kendra asked.
“No, Big Sister Kendra,” the pledges responded.
“Okay, that’s all,” Dean Big Sister Nina said, and stretched her legs and crossed her arms. “Number two, you can go and pick up the microphones now.”
Cajen put her notebook and pen in her backpack. As soon as she walked out of the auditorium and into the lobby of the building, she saw Jason talking to a girl. Her heart stopped. She panicked. She didn’t know what to do. Should I talk to him now? Who is that girl? What do I do? The questions raced through her mind. Overwhelmed and unsure, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Jason looked up and saw Cajen. He was glad to see her because Gina was talking her head off about nothing and he didn�
�t want to be rude and cut the conversation short. Now he had an excuse—Cajen.
Gina, who was cued earlier to look for Cajen, knew she was supposed to stop the conversation when she saw her walking out of the door of the auditorium. So she told Jason that she’d talk to him later. He said okay and turned and waved to Cajen.
He has some nerve. And why is he waving at me? He hasn’t returned any of my phone calls. I don’t believe this jerk, she thought.
“Hey, Cajen,” Jason said, with a fake wide grin.
She looked over her shoulder to make sure none of her big sisters was coming through the door, and then walked over to him.
“Cajen, I’m sorry I haven’t returned any of your calls,” he said in a deep, mellow voice. Then he contradicted himself. “Actually, I did try to call back, several times,” he explained. Then he went into some story about hearing that one year some big sisters went into a pledge’s room and listened to her messages on her answering machine, and she got into trouble because of a message her boyfriend left. He assured her that he didn’t want to get her into the same kind of trouble if something like that happened.
Cajen refused to fall for his story.
“So, why did you say you hated me on my answering machine? What was that all about?” he questioned.
Maybe he doesn’t know, Cajen thought. Her heart started to soften. She then came to her senses and realized she still had to let him know what he had done to her. She had to let him know how irresponsible they had been and how much he had hurt her. She remembered what Tiara had said about the third floor being empty. “We need to talk, Jason.”
“Well, I’m supposed to be in this rehearsal. Didn’t you know I was going to be in the auction?” he asked.
“Jason, we really need to talk, and rehearsal can wait. I need to talk to you now,” she demanded.
“Cajen, you trying to tell me this can’t wait until later? All my boys are gonna be here in a minute, and we promised your line sister—what’s her name? Tiara—that we’d be in practice, and on time.”
He spoke quickly, hoping to change her mind, but Cajen was feeling the anger that had been building over the past four and a half weeks. She knew if she didn’t take Jason to the third floor and talk to him, she was going to explode. Staring him right in the eyes, her right eyebrow stood at attention, “Jason, fuck practice!” she said in a low, strong voice. “I need to talk to you now.”
“Damn, baby,” he said, in his usual cool voice. “Is it that bad?”
“Come on,” she said and started to walk, not even looking behind to see if he followed. He’d better be behind me, she assured herself.
They walked down the lobby and up the stairs to the third floor. Tiara was right. Unlike the heavy activity on the first floor, the third floor was empty. Most of the lights in the classrooms were out. It was as if they were in a different building altogether. Cajen and Jason walked midway down the hall and into one of the classrooms. He sat on the desk in the front of the room. Keeping her distance, she sat in a chair in the middle of the room.
“So what’s so important that you had to drag me all the way into no-man’s-land?” he asked sarcastically. “What’s up?”
“I should be asking you that same question.” She folded her arms and rolled her eyes.
“Cajen, it’s not my fault you started pledging. I can’t help it if we haven’t been able to talk. You can’t be mad at me for that,” Jason said in a placating voice.
“You don’t know, do you?” she asked. She couldn’t believe it. He was acting like he still cared about her.
“Don’t know what?” he questioned. “Listen, I don’t have time to play games with you. Just spit it out so I can get down to the practice.” He was becoming frustrated.
“Jason, after I spent the night and had sex with you, I went to the doctor a few days later and had an examination.” She paused and walked over to one of the windows in the back of the classroom. “The doctor told me that I have an STD.”
“An STD. Wait a minute, are you trying to say I gave you a disease?” Jason exclaimed.
“I’m not trying to say anything. I’m straight-up telling you you did,” she said, and walked closer to him. Her anger gave her the strength to move into his space. “When was the last time you went to the doctor to get a checkup?”
“Well, it’s been a while . . . but I haven’t needed to go to no doctor.” He was offended by her attitude. He had never seen this side of her.
“Well, I wish you had gone to see a doctor before you met me, because since I had sex with you, I have herpes. And I got it from you, Jason.”
“Herpes . . . from me? Nah, Cajen, you didn’t get nothing from me. Un-uh, I’m sorry. No sir.”
She couldn’t believe his nonchalant attitude. “Jason, you know I’ve only had sex with one other person in my life. And I haven’t been with him in half a year. I’ve had my annual checkup since then. It wasn’t until after I was with you I got herpes, and you cannot deny it, because you did give it to me,” she argued. “I can’t believe that you are trying to deny this.” Cajen was furious. She had to sit down to calm herself.
“Look, I’m not trying to deny nothing. It’s just that I don’t have any symptoms, so I don’t have it,” Jason said.
“Do you even know what the symptoms are?”
“Well, not really.” He stood up, sighed, and put his hands in his back pockets.
Cajen wasn’t sure if he was going to walk out of the room, or if he was even paying attention, but she continued.
“Jason, you need to go to a doctor or a clinic, or something, because you do have herpes and you gave it to me—and God knows whoever else.” She got up out of the chair. “You know what? I’m outta here, ’cause I can see I’m wasting my time with you,” she said. “I just want you to know that you have completely ruined my entire life. Thanks a lot,” she said, as she started toward the door. He stopped her.
“Wait.” He grabbed her arm.
“Why? Why should I wait?” Cajen asked.
“Well, because I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I messed up your life. But I do want you to know I’ve been thinking about you since I saw you last. You have been on my mind, and I know you are mad at me, but I don’t want to stop seeing you just because of this. We can work through this,” he said, and stroked her cheeks with his fingers.
Cajen found some small relief in those words, because although she was upset with him, in a strange and inexplicable way she felt comforted by his still wanting her. She rationalized that if they stayed together, she wouldn’t have to ever worry about being with another man and explaining that she had an STD.
Who else would want me anyway, she thought. Then she looked deep into his eyes to make sure he was sincere.
“I want you in my life, and those other girls don’t mean nothing,” Jason said. “Listen, when you cross, we’ll talk about this again. No, as a matter of fact, let’s leave this discussion in this room. Let’s not talk about it again. We’ll just move forward together.”
Jason left Cajen speechless. She was under his spell again, and she couldn’t argue.
Maybe there was no need to talk about this situation again, she assured herself. Everything was going to be all right between them.
Jason put his arms around her and said, “This don’t mean nothing. We can get past all of this. I know we can.” Then he pulled away to look in her eyes and asked, “Are you all right now?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Cajen answered.
“You don’t still hate me, do you? Because if you do, it won’t work,” Jason said, pulling her close to him again.
“I don’t hate you,” she whispered, as she breathed in his scent. Her anger started to dissipate and was replaced with relief. She felt that as long as he stayed with her, and she didn’t have to go out into the world and face other men, she would be all right.
“Good . . . Good . . .” He hugged her.
“We need to get back downstairs.” Cajen pulled away rel
uctantly. Although she wasn’t ready to leave that room and the closeness she felt with Jason at that moment, she knew she needed to be at the rehearsal.
“Yeah, we do,” he said. “Are you gonna be okay?” he asked again, and looked into her eyes.
“As long as I have you in my life I will,” she responded. They hugged again. Cajen embraced him even tighter this time, convinced he truly cared about her.
“Well, I have to pick up the microphones. I’ll see you in the auditorium in a few minutes. Okay?”
“Okay, beautiful,” he replied.
Cajen walked into the auditorium just as they were ready to run through the entire show. Her line sisters looked at her and noticed she seemed to be in better spirits than she’d been in for some time.
“You can bring the mikes over here,” Tiara said. Cajen walked over to her. “Jason’s here,” she whispered into Cajen’s ear.
“I know,” she whispered back to her, while they connected the microphones to the plugs in the stage floor. “I already talked to him.”
“Are you all right?” Tiara asked. She was unsure about Cajen’s emotional state, but relieved that she wasn’t a wreck.
“I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it later,” she said, and walked off the stage past Don and Chancey.
Don told Chancey of the conversation he had had with his agent. He was excited because his agent had assured him that his chance of going in the first round of the NFL draft was great. He was even expecting him to go in the top twenty-five.
Chancey shared his excitement. “We need to celebrate the news!” she said. “I can’t wait until things get back to normal. Then we can really spend time together again.” She looked over her shoulder. She wasn’t comfortable, because she was preoccupied with making sure her two big sisters weren’t watching.
“Chancey, they’re not watching us,” he assured her.
“I know. I wish I could get just one little kiss from you, but I know I can’t,” she teased.
“You can,” he said. “Wait one sec.” Donald walked to a corner in the very back of the stage that was blocked from the seating area by the half-opened curtains. Once there, he motioned for Chancey to come over. She was nervous but excited. She casually walked over to him. He grabbed her and laid an extra-wet, extra-sensual kiss on her. She tried to pull away, because she didn’t want anybody to see them kissing, but he wouldn’t let her go. He was getting a kick out of the whole thing.
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