“Wait a minute. Something’s wrong with this picture,” Chancey said. “Tiara hasn’t said a word.”
“Get out of my business,” Tiara joked.
“I think Miss Tiara’s got herself a little crush,” Stephanie said.
“I got more than a crush. I got his phone number.”
“You go, girl,” Stephanie said, and reached over to give her a high five.
Tiara told them about the conversation she and Ben had had before the auction, and shared that he was the first man with whom she ever felt like she could have a relationship.
Uneasy discussing her hopes for Ben and herself, Tiara changed the subject. “Can y’all believe how much money they were spending on those men?”
“Ooh, and did you see the attitude Allen’s new girlfriend had when his ex-girlfriend outbid her?” Malena said.
“Ooh, she was pissed,” Stephanie said.
“Which one was Allen?” Chancey asked.
“The second one out on the stage. You know, he’s got the cute little dreadlocks,” Tiara said.
“I missed that. But can you believe our big sisters got together and paid a hundred and thirty-five dollars for Derrick? Who did they buy him for?” Cajen asked.
“Didn’t he pledge with Jason?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah. He’s fine too. I was talking to Big Sister Caren, and she told me that Derrick’s interested in Dean Big Sister Nina. Y’all know she’s single, right? So I bet they bought him for her,” Tiara said.
“Would y’all ever do something like that for me?” Stephanie asked her line sisters.
“In a heartbeat,” Tiara responded.
“Who was the girl who bought Jason?” Cajen asked. “I don’t know her.”
“Aw, you’re talking about Shanika. We used to stay in the same dorm during my freshman year. As a matter of fact, she used to have a thing for Donald, but he never gave her the time of day, not in public anyway. But I guess she’s digging on Jason now,” Malena said. She was not very fond of Shanika, or the way she exploited her body by wearing clothes that always seemed at least two sizes too small.
“Donald?” Chancey was surprised. “That girl lives in our dormitory now, Cajen. But I couldn’t see Don liking somebody like her.”
Malena continued. “She’s the kind of girl who is extremely persistent and goes out of her way to let a guy know that she’s interested. And from what I hear, she doesn’t have a problem pursuing brothers who are in committed relationships.”
“How much did she pay?” Cajen asked.
“Let me see,” Chancey said, looking over her books again. “Sixty-one dollars.”
“She spares no expense, huh?” Cajen commented. “But I’m not gonna worry about it.”
Nobody responded, because they knew how sensitive the whole Cajen-Jason ordeal was, and didn’t want to experience another dramatic scene like the night before.
“We only have thirty minutes to get to Nina’s,” Stephanie said.
“What did you call her?” Chancey asked.
“Oh excuse me, Dean Big Sister Nina.”
“Somebody is getting way ’laxed, but I ain’t saying no names,” Tiara commented.
“It’s almost over,” Malena said.
The girls finished cleaning the stage, grabbed their things, and closed up the auditorium. They were all mentally prepared for yet another long pledge session with their big sisters.
SEVENTEEN
“Did anybody get the newspaper?” Stephanie asked her line sisters, as she carried a box of bricks into the kitchen. “We need it to cover the floor.” She put the bricks down, yawned, and stretched. Her body ached, and she craved a long hot bath.
Their big sisters had given them bricks and little lavalieres shaped in the sorority’s symbol. They were to paint the bricks pink and choose one of the founders whom they felt they were most like, dedicate the brick to her, and carry the brick through the end of Hell Week, which, according to the urgency in their big sister Kendra’s voice, had already begun. They spoke more with her and less with Dean Big Sister Nina ever since the night of the auction. The line sisters assumed she and Derrick had hit it off pretty well after the auction, because in the last few sessions they had with their big sisters, she wasn’t as demanding as she had been during the first part of their pledge period.
Big Sister Kendra informed them that the bricks required two coats of paint, and needed to be ready yesterday. She also told them that they needed to put each person’s line number on their lavalieres.
It was a Saturday morning, and the line sisters hadn’t slept all night. After their big sisters left one of the biggest parties of the year, which, of course, the line sisters missed, they decided to conduct a pledge session until five-thirty a.m. The big sisters were on a high from the party, and a few were a little tipsy. The big sisters quizzed the pledges on their sorority’s history and questioned them on every possible fact about one another. The pledges answered every question, and their big sisters became bored with them, so they made them stand in line for hours doing absolutely nothing. The justification was that the pledges needed to know what it felt like to be in a helpless situation that was mentally draining, unnecessary, and a waste of their time, and still function normally the following day. Their big sisters went home and got sleep afterward. The poor pledges, however, only had time to grab a quick nap because their day started at seven a.m.
“There’s some newspaper in the trunk of my car,” Cajen said. “I’ll go get it as soon as my body lets me.” She forced herself off the sofa, reached into her backpack, grabbed her keys, and went to her car.
“I’m so tired, and I’ll be glad when I get my apartment back,” Stephanie complained. “I can’t believe Dean Big Sister Nina volunteered my place for us to move into for an entire week or longer.” She yawned, sat on the floor beside the bricks, and closed her eyes for a brief moment. “I love you ladies a lot, but I’m not gonna miss any one of you when it’s time to say bye, and I promise I’m gonna get a maid in here and get my carpet and upholstery shampooed. I’m gonna pamper my poor, abused apartment,” Stephanie said.
Tiara, who had caught Stephanie’s yawn, responded. “I hear you, girl. Some people got it like that.”
She opened her eyes. “Nah, I’m sending that bill to my daddy. It will be his gift to me for crossing.”
“You’re saying you want us out now, but you are going to be sick when we leave, because you’re gonna miss us,” Malena said.
“Whatever!” Stephanie laughed.
The line sisters spent the rest of the evening painting and preparing their bricks and lavalieres. They discussed the improvements they wanted to make once they got into the sorority. They also talked about how much fun their next campus party was going to be. They would be sorority sisters and everyone would watch them and think about how exciting their lives must be as they danced their sorority steps in line around the party. They imagined they would be the envy of all non-Greek women.
The sisters talked about what they had missed most while pledging. Tiara said she missed studying with Sandra and Gina in the hall on her floor. Malena missed double-dating with Tammy. And she longed for quality time with Ray. Cajen couldn’t wait to have one of those long talks with Eric that she enjoyed so much. Chancey missed Don’s apartment more than her dorm room, and lying on his bed talking before class.
Although she tried otherwise, Stephanie could think only of her friendship with Sidney. That is what she truly missed. Her full days as a pledge didn’t allow her time to speak with her about their previous argument and Sidney’s being pregnant. She realized how much their relationship meant to her and wanted to resolve their differences.
The line sisters talked about their plans for the summer, and Stephanie invited everybody to her parents’ house for a weekend when her mother would throw a party in honor of her joining the sorority. She warned them that Savannah was small, but promised that it was a beautiful city to visit. They were excited to go,
and chose a weekend.
The evening flew by as they continued talking. They sang some of the sorority’s songs, and practiced their sorority call. And although they were exhausted, they had an enjoyable evening. They were functioning purely off the adrenaline and the excitement of knowing that Hell Week always ended in crossing the burning sands into the Greek world.
The pledges were in Malena’s car. It was five a.m., and they were leaving the worst session of their pledge period. If they hadn’t known that in less than a week it would all be over, they all would have dropped line and gone back to their normal lives.
Dean Big Sister Nina instructed them to travel in one car instead of two to save time. Malena drove and Chancey was in the passenger seat. She was awake, but mentally she had checked out. She was shocked by the tremendous hazing experience she had just endured, but she was too tired to stay awake, so she zoned out. Tiara and Stephanie were passed out in the backseat. They were asleep before Malena got the car on the road. Cajen sat in the middle of her two sleeping sisters. She didn’t want Malena to be the only conscious person in the car, so she kept up the conversation.
“Can you believe that session?” Cajen asked her. “I can’t believe we actually made it through that chaos.”
Malena didn’t respond, but Cajen continued. “They had the nerve to say we all were gonna drop by the time the night was over. I guess we showed them,” she said.
“They oughta know it’s too late for us to turn back now,” Malena said. Her tone was dry, but she was glad Cajen was talking to her, because she was sleepy.
“This has got to be Hell Week, because our big sisters are crazy. We are supposed to recite history, answer petty questions about our sincerity to join the sorority, and learn five songs by the end of the night. And just where do they get off thinking they can break our line up? We are much too tight for that. They better recognize physical hazing doesn’t work either,” Cajen joked. “And what about the one-eighty-degree change Assistant Dean Big Sister Kendra pulled? I never thought I’d see that side of her.”
“Girl, please. Anything that happens now until we cross will not surprise me. It didn’t even surprise me when Big Sister Attitude Adjuster said we’d better not go to sleep when we get to Stephanie’s, and that she expects us to call her at the start of every hour and each tell her answering machine we are awake,” Malena replied.
“She’s psycho. I think she missed her calling. She should have become a lion tamer, or something barbaric like that, ’cause she insists on training us.” She looked around. “Can you believe these wimps fell asleep on us?”
“I’m not asleep,” Chancey replied, but not one bone in her body moved, and her eyes were glazed over.
“Oh, yes you are,” Cajen and Malena answered in unison. They laughed.
The girls arrived at Stephanie’s apartment and dragged themselves out of the car, each wondering if it was really worth it.
EIGHTEEN
“Oh, shit!” Cajen screamed, as she got off the phone and ran into the living room where the rest of her line sisters were going over new pieces of history and other important information about the sorority their dean conveniently forgot to give them until the end of last night’s session. The girls were irritated and cursing more frequently. Even Chancey found occasion to swear.
“I just got the first of the two calls Nina told us about at the auction practice. Now get this. She said we need to be dressed in our black sweat suits and drive all the way out to Sawanee Park and be there at exactly 11:45 p.m.”
“It’s almost ten now. Isn’t that park an hour and a half from campus?” Chancey asked.
“You’re right. Anyway, then she said she wants us to park the car and walk to the large gray pavilion,” said Cajen.
“What gray pavilion?” Chancey asked. She was stressed, and her right leg began to bounce as it always did when she was uncomfortable.
“Why we got to meet them all the way out there?” Tiara complained.
“Wait. That’s not all.” She continued. “Then she said if no big sisters show up in an hour, we are to go to the blue pavilion and call her to make sure she has already left. If she’s not there, we are to call this new number she gave me for further instructions.”
“They’re trying to make fools of us,” Malena said. She was sitting on the floor filing her fingernails. “We’re gonna get to that park and nobody’s gonna be there but us, sitting in the dark, looking like some damned fools, waiting to make a stupid phone call that will more than likely lead us to drive back to campus, and that’s why I’m not going.”
“You’re probably right, but what if we don’t show up and they do? What if they come out there, and we’re nowhere to be found? Big Sister Nina’s exact words were ‘If you mess up, then you’re shit outta luck,’ ” Tiara said.
“True, but we are forgetting one important thing. Big Sister Nina already gave us the time and the location of our second destination. What was the time and location Cajen? Wasn’t it Vine something?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah, the corner of Jackson and Vine at one a.m.,” Chancey said.
“That’s it exactly,” Cajen confirmed.
“They won’t have anything to do with us until one,” Stephanie explained.
“So, they’re just trying to wear us out. I’m not going,” Tiara said.
“I’m not going either,” Stephanie huffed. She crossed her arms and legs.
Everyone sat in silence for about five minutes. They weren’t sure what their next move was going to be, but time was passing and they needed to act.
“Shit! I hate this. We have to go,” Malena finally said. She put her emery board on Stephanie’s coffee table and got up off the floor. They were all becoming relaxed in their treatment of the apartment.
“This is crazy,” Cajen said. She got up and followed. She didn’t want to go, but she, as well as her other line sisters, knew that they had no choice.
“We’ll go,” Stephanie said, still sitting on the couch. “But I’ll tell you what else we are going to do. Chancey, how much money do we have left in the treasury?”
“What are you thinking about doing with the money?” She was protective of the line’s money and wanted to make sure every penny of it was spent wisely. “We only have sixty-five dollars.”
“The money is ours, right?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah . . .” Chancey wondered where she was going with her questions.
“Well, we will only be on line for what . . . two, three more days tops.”
“Well, maybe . . . maybe not,” Cajen interjected.
“When was the last time that any of us sat down and ate a real meal? We have been chomping down burgers and chips and all kinds of other junk on the run. I say if we’re gonna be sitting in an empty park passing time away, we think smart and make it worth our while.”
“Keep going, Stephanie. I like where you’re going with this,” Malena said.
Knowing her idea was going to be the bright spot of their gloomy pledge period, she began to overarticulate, as she always did when she felt she had a brilliant idea. “I’m merely suggesting that we indulge ourselves in a much-deserved moonlight picnic feast.”
“But what if we need the money for something else?” Chancey asked.
“You only live once,” said Tiara. “I’m with Steph. Let’s go for broke and stop at KFC and get a bucket of fried chicken, some mean turnip greens, cole slaw, and I say we don’t stop there—let’s even get corn on the cob. Then let’s stop at a grocery store on our way to no-man’s-land and get a pie. Why the hell not?” Tiara added.
“Y’all are crazy. What if the big sisters show up?” Cajen asked.
“What if they don’t?” Malena responded.
“Let’s do it!” Cajen said.
Everybody looked at Chancey who had to give permission to use the money. She held tightly to the pad she used for the accounting, and stared at it. It seemed too risky.
“Don’t be a scaredy-cat!�
� Tiara teased.
“I am scared,” Chancey admitted.
“What’s the worse thing that could happen?” Stephanie said. “It’s not like they want to kill us. They just want to haze us.”
“Well, Big Sister Attitude Adjuster might want to kill us, but if she comes out there by herself, I think we can take her,” Tiara joked.
“Chancey, get up off the cash and let’s go. We’re running out of time,” Malena insisted.
“Okay, I’ll go. But if we get caught in the park eating fried chicken, of all things, it will be our last supper, and Big Sister Attitude Adjuster and the crew won’t have to kill us . . . I’ll do it for her.”
“That’s cool. We can handle that,” Tiara said.
They quickly changed into the black sweat suits and socks, grabbed their backpacks and property, slipped on their tennis shoes on the way out the door, and piled into Stephanie’s car.
On the radio, an old tune was playing.
“Oh, I love that song,” Cajen said.
“I do too. That’s my jam,” Tiara added.
They sang, and everybody knew all the words.
“Ooh!” Malena said. “This song reminds me of Ray. We danced together for the first time to that song.”
Everybody sighed. The next song was an oldie too.
“What station would play that tired mess? Stephanie, why do you listen to that oldies station anyway? Sometimes I swear you act ten years older than you really are,” Tiara complained.
“There is nothing wrong with my preference in music, and as far as my mannerisms are concerned, I’m not old. I’m just mature for my age. That’s why I don’t have a boyfriend right now. These little campus boys are just too young-acting for me. I need a real man in my life,” replied Stephanie.
“Why, no matter what we’re doing or where we’re going, do we always end up talking about men?” Chancey asked. “We are pitiful. I know I am because I miss my Donnie-wonnie so much. We’d better hurry up and cross, because I couldn’t take another week without him.”
“I know how you feel. As soon as Ray and I found direction in our relationship, we were torn apart by the Attitude Adjuster and her torturous crew,” Malena joked.
Sorority Sisters Page 16