Synopsis: Allison meets with her mother, and a new pledge joins the house

Have you ever seen those soap operas from the 80’s where they get to the end and a narrator sets the scene for the next episode while everyone just stands around and stares at eachother as horrible organ music plays? What was happening right now was kind of like that but there was no narrator, and as far as I know, no cheesy organ music. I had so many thoughts running through my mind. Why was my mother here? What did she want? Was she still mad at me? How did I not even notice her coming into the house? Did we still have any of the cheese dip from earlier? We stood there for the longest time, and finally she began to walk toward me. I didn’t quite know what to say, though I suspected she knew exactly what to say; she always did.

“So,” She said as she reached out to straighten a wrinkle in my dress. “You’re the Allison I’ve been hearing so much about. Your sister has been keeping me filled in on your progress and I think for the first time in a long time I can say that I’m exceedingly proud of you.”

“You…you are?” I asked, a little confused. Those weren’t words that I ever expected to hear my mother say.

“Yes, I am,” She nodded. “I have to say that before all of this, you were arrogant, you were disrespectful to everyone around you, and to be honest I didn’t think you were even going to finish school. I’ve never stopped loving you but I was beginning to lose hope. From what I’ve been told you’re doing excellent in school, you’ve made all kinds of new friends and you’re even doing my old house proud.”

“Mom I’m…I’m really sorry about Rush—” I started to speak, but she raised her hand, which was her go-to for ‘shut up’.

“Don’t worry about that,” She reassured me. “I was angry at first but now I can see that you weren’t just being stupid. You made a terrible man but from what I’m here you make a fantastic young lady, so let’s go ahead and forget the past.”

I nodded, pondering over whether or not I had actually been a terrible man. It was interesting that now what I had this perspective I was able to think back on the way I had acted back them, and honestly, I couldn’t think of much that I could be proud of.

I wasn’t sure what to say here exactly; my mother had never spoken to me like this before. She had always been kind of cold and distant – not the way she’d been with my sister. There was something different now. It was almost as if I had been inducted into some kind of secret club, and it was definitely one that I wanted to be a part of. Over the last few weeks I’d been privy to human affection and contact unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and this only compounded it.

“There’s just…one thing I really need to know,” She said, frowning.

“What’s..that?” I asked. Now I was starting to fear for my life; I knew that frown.

“Allison,” She said, kind of shaking her head. “Why did you think I wouldn’t approve of this? What on earth made you think you had to rush every single sorority on campus instead of just coming out to your family?

I heard Brianna snort.

“I guess…I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Allison, I’ve donated thousands to the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTS friendly organizations, I don’t keep it a secret. I just don’t understand what was going through your head. Frankly that’s the only thing that really offends me here.”

“Okay,” I said a little defensively. “To be fair I didn’t know this was your old sorority house even when Brianna pointed it out to me in person.”

“Well,” My mother said. “That’s just a new level of-“

Whatever her thought was, it was interrupted by a light knock at the conference room door. We turned to see Remy standing there. I’m so glad that they had taught me how to tuck.

“Can I come in?” She inquired. Of course she could come in, she was the president.

“Of course!” Brianna exclaimed. “Mom, this is Remy, current president of Alpha Gamma AND Allison’s big sister.”

Mom actually looked really impressed. Remy stepped into the room and shook her hand, smiling wide.

“Remy,” She said. “We talked on the phone briefly and Brianna has been telling me quite a bit about you. I want to thank you and Alpha Gamma for taking such good care of my daughter.”

She called me her daughter. My mom called me her daughter. Her daughter. She called me her daughter. Of all the things I could have imagined happening in my life this was never one of them, not in a million years. I was her daughter. I was Brianna’s sister. Years and years of hiding and absolute torture were over; I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. I stood there silently and listened to the three of them talk, mostly about me, how I was doing in school, and I heard Remy re-iterate that as my big sister it was her job to make sure that I was keeping my grades up. The thing I was having the most trouble processing at this point was how much they seemed to care about me and what I was doing with my life. A few weeks ago, well okay a month ago, my sister had just dropped me off at my new dorm, helped me move a few things in and pretty much said ‘Well there you go, good luck’. At the time I liked it. I’d wanted to be alone. If we’re being honest, I’d always found my sister to be kind of overbearing and I couldn’t wait to get away from her, and mom. Now as I stood here in the AG conference room listening to them talk about me, I couldn’t imagine a life without them. I guess the whole thing must have shown on my face because Brianna glanced over at me and stopped talking.

“Allison, are you okay?” She frowned. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

“I just…” I said. I didn’t have any words. I didn’t know what to say.

“Okay come here,” She said, taking my hand and drawing me in. She wrapped her arms around me and I laid my head on her shoulder.

“Hey so um, I need to go welcome the new pledges into the house,” Remy said suddenly.

“New pledges?” I asked, letting go of Brianna. “I thought we didn’t add any after Rush.”

“Continuous open bidding, dear,” My mom informed me. “If a house doesn’t meet their quota, after Rush week they can reach out to the girls they turned away. Not every girl accepts their bid; some go to other houses.”

“Yep,” Remy said. “We reached out to a bunch of girls and they accepted their bids, so they should be on their way here now.”

“Wouldn’t that bother them?” I wondered aloud. “You know, being second pick?”

“Being second pick for Alpha Gamma is practically first pick,” Brianna informed me. My mother nodded. Remy smirked as she turned and walked toward the door.

“I’m glad to see this place hasn’t changed much,” My mother said as she looked around the conference room. “You ladies have taken excellent care of it.”

“It’s our home,” I said. “At least until we graduate.”

“So you definitely think you’ll stick with it until you graduate?” My mom turned to me.

“Well it’s not just a phase,” I said. “I’m…I’m going to see about starting hormones soon. I already have an appointment.”

“I’m not going to sugar coat this,” She said to me. “That path you’ve chosen is…not an easy one. At AG you’re living in a sort of bubble. It’s much worse out there than you think.”

“I…I’ve actually been wondering about that,” I said. “Everyone here is so…accepting. I really don’t understand because statistically, at least one person should have been against me.”

“It has a lot to do with the quality of people that are accepted into Alpha Gamma,” My sister explained to me. “Thorough background checks are carried out and there are pretty extensive interviews.”

“I don’t remember getting an interview,” I frowned. “I just remember getting chewed out when I came to get my book – which I don’t think they had, by the way.”

“Well that was part of it,” My sister explained. “But a lot of it was them talking to us and learning more about you. I came here the day after you rushed. I insisted on being the one to take your pledge and believe me, when I got here, they asked me a LOT of questions. I mean seriously, they must have an entire book on you by now.”

“I got a lot of questions too,” My mother confirmed. “They pretty much asked for everything but your dental records.”

“It really helps that you’re a legacy, though,” Brianna pointed out. “Without that, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”

“Not in a million years,” Mom said. “But even if you weren’t part of AG, Brianna and I still would have supported you. This is just a bonus.”

“Well,” Brianna clapped her hands. “They’re going to want you out there to help welcome in the new pledges, so why don’t you leave mom and I to talk and you take care of house business, okay?”

I nodded and smiled.

“Okay,” I said as I hugged my mom for what really felt like the first time, ever. I left them alone in the conference room and I could hear their voices as I closed the door. I kind of wanted to stay and listen but that just wasn’t the kind of person I was anymore. I smiled to myself as I realized how much I’d changed in the last month and walked down the hall, back to the front room where Remy was standing on the stairs, just as she had the night she’d literally outed me to the entire house.

“As you know,” I walked in just as she began to speak. “We have a continuous open bidding system as allowed by Panhellenic, and it means that we have the freed om to welcome new girls into our midst even after rush week. So, you’ll be glad to know that eight new girls have been brought on, finally filling our quota gap!”

I clapped along with everyone else, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the part about the quota gap was even necessary. I shrugged and continued to listen to her.

“Okay so just like before we’ll have a brief pinning ceremony and then we’ll get on with our night so you can have a chance to get to know the new pledges and fill them in on how we do things here!”

Remy stepped down from the stairs and wandered off into the common room where the couches and chairs had already been moved aside. I smiled a bit, remember how scared I had been when I’d been part of this ceremony. It was funny to think that I’d been standing there terrified while every other girl was having the time of their lives.

“Okay everyone!” Laura clapped to get everyone’s attention. “If I could get the new pledges over here please, and if everyone else could stand…over there. We’ll get this underway!”

I watched the eight new girls as they made their way into the common room for the ceremony, and then, suddenly, my heart stopped. She passed right by me without recognizing me, but how long could that last? It was Stephanie Williams, my old nextdoor neighbor. She had been accepted as a pledge. Oh my god.