“Alright pledges, listen up!” I shouted, pacing back and forth in front of a row of traumatized girls. I grinned widely seeing them tremble beneath their blindfolds and I swear one of them was about to fall out of the metal folding chair we’d shoved her into. “Here’s how it’s going to work. I’m going to ask you some questions. Answer them correctly, nothing happens. Answer them wrong, and you get a little surprise! Does everyone understand the rules?”

I heard some scattered acknowledgement and I think a few whimpers. I shouldn’t have expected much more at 3 in the morning. We’d dragged them out of their beds, after all.

“I don’t think I heard you right, Pledges!” I barked. I was doing my best to sound aggressive. Truth is I was holding in some serious laughter. To my right I saw Aleah standing in the corner looking at me completely uninterested.

“Yes Miss Tiffany!” They all shouted, almost in unison, except for Audrey who I think was more confused than the rest of them. She probably should have been; she wasn’t a pledge, after all.

“That’s a little better, but we’ll have to work on it!” My voice rang hard against the basement walls. I hated using the GAT house basement for this; it meant that someone would have to clean it up later.

“Um excuse me,” Audrey said, not even attempting a feminine voice. “Why am I here?”

I would have rolled my eyes for dramatic measure if any of them could see me, but instead I just tried to sound as bitchy as I could.
“Because we have things to teach you Audrey, and I’m a little busy, so I have to shove everything into one, now shut up and listen. Pledges! Remove your blindfolds!”

I stood as patiently as possible as they removed their blindfolds. They were slow as molasses, and none of them looked great. One of them, Hailey, was struggling with the blindfold literally stuck in her frizzy and now matted hair. She gave up at some point, having pulled it off but leaving it stuck to the side of her head thanks to static electricity. Audrey had red indents on the side of her face, as if she’d been asleep on the carpet in her dorm. I would have to ask about that later.

“If you ladies are DONE,” I said, crossing my arms and doing my best Satan impression as I glared at them. “First thing’s first. The person next to you is now your pledge buddy, you’ll be with them at all times. That doesn’t go for you, Audrey.”

It was unspoken for Audrey; ever since the Mike incident a few days ago, one of us had been with her practically 24/7. I was really glad she was low maintenance, other than being a potential target.

“Now that you know the rules,” Aleah said, stepping from the shadows and addressing the horrified pledges. “You’re going to be asked questions about your sorority. The sorority that YOU pledged to. I hope you remember what we told you about it during rush week, or better yet, maybe you read your handbook?”

The pledges looked at eachother. Of course they hadn’t read their handbooks, it was the first week, well, actually the first few days. We probably shouldn’t have been hazing them this early on but hey, what the hell right? Though to be perfectly honest, if the Greek council found out that we were actually hazing our pledges, I mean really hazing them, there would be hell to pay.

“If any of you leave this room,” I said, stepping in again “For any reason – ANY reason at all, you fail, and you and your pledge buddy will be removed from Gamma Alpha Tau. Trust me, you don’t want your membership in this sorority to end this early on.”

“Okay you know what,” Audrey said, standing up. “I’m not a pledge, I can’t be kicked out so –”
“If Audrey leaves, everyone fails,” I said. Immediately, the two girls on either side of her grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back into her chair.
I took my attention off Audrey and walked over to a random girl. Ashley, I think was her name. She was kind of a cute red head, freckles and all. Should probably mention that she was tiny, so tiny that she would probably be swimming in my clothes if she were so inclined to try them.
“You, pledge,” I unfolded my arms to point at her. She sat straight up like a lightning rod. “What’s your name?”

“Um..my name is…Ashley,” She stammered. Well hey, I got it right.

“Wrong!” I snapped. She jerked back like I’d shot her. I grabbed a handful of her red hair, gently. She cringed. “You kind of remind me of a red velvet cupcake. I’m gonna call you cupcake.”

I heard a few of the other girls snicker.

“Hey!” I clapped my hand to get their attention. “Over the course of the next three months, you will remain pledges to Gamma Alpha Tau! Those of you who make it to initiation will do so because you learned to rely on eachother. Now with that being said, that means you need to work together, support eachother, come together! Do I make myself clear?”

There was a stunned silence, as I expected.

“I said –” I started to shout, but they cut me off before I could finish with a chorus of ‘Yes Miss Tiffany’. Audrey said nothing. She looked angry, actually. Of course she was angry, we’d dragged her out of bed at three in the morning. “Audrey.”

As I said her name she looked up at me. I glared at her in absolute silence, you probably could have heard a pin drop in the cramped basement. I briefly heard Aleah shifting positions from her observation spot over by our washing machine.

“Yes Miss Tiffany,” Audrey said quietly.

I fought the urge to smile. I can be a sadistic bitch sometimes.

Before I go any further I should probably explain what was happening here. Okay, you already know what a hazing is, but what was the deal with Audrey. To put it simply: Audrey, formerly known as Todd, had been surfing Transgender forums and social media groups trying to figure out who she was. Her little search somehow ended in her breaking into the Gamma house and putting on a dress belonging to our chapter president. Just when we were getting ready to ruin her life, Aleah, came across the internet history on her phone, and from there on out, for some reason, we decided to try to help her transition. Okay, let me correct myself: Aleah decided to help. I think it was a mistake, and honestly, with school starting up, who had time for all this? So, in order to speed up the process, it was my idea to interlude her transition with our pledge hazing. A little bit cruel? Yeah, but what’s a gender transition without a little trauma?

I stepped over to the girl beside Ashley, really cute, definitely younger than me, and with bright blonde hair.

“I’m gonna call you lemondrop,” I said snidely. “Goes with your hair.”

The girls snickered again. I looked over at Audrey again who was staring at me intently. I paused for a moment and then stepped over to her.

“And what’s your name?” I asked her, bending over to speak to her at eye level. Her chair was clattering against the ground; she was shaking.

“It’s um…it’s…Audrey,” She said. I could tell she was still uncomfortable saying it out loud; it came out as a half-whisper.

“Again.”

“My name is…Audrey.,” She repeated with a little more confidence. “Are…you going to give me a nickname too.”

I shook my head and moved on.

Finally, reaching the next pledge, I asked the first question.

“You, beanstalk!” I said to a taller, lanky brunette who looked as if she’d never sat in a chair in her life. Seriously, she was sprawled all over it like a spider. “What year was Gamma Alpha Tau founded? You have five seconds, go!”

“Uh..eighteen….” She said, her voice trailing off, her eyes wide.

“Eighteen isn’t even a year!” I barked at her.

“Eighteen-Ninety-seven!” She suddenly choked out.

“Well look at that,” I said. “We have ourselves a little know-it-all here. The boys aren’t going to like that very much!”

More snickering.

“You!” I moved on to the next girl. “What does GAT stand for?”

“I…” She stuttered. I glared at her.

“Come on!” I taunted. “You can’t tell me you joined a house and didn’t learn the motto!”

“It’s uh—,” She was close to tears now.

“Do you want to quit?” I asked her. “Go ahead and walk out the door right now, take your buddy with you!”

“I..no, I don’t want to quit!” She sobbed. “I just don’t—”

I looked up to Lauren and Isabella standing in the darkness behind them. I nodded. They both came forward and hoisted a huge white bucket over the pledge’s head – it took both of them to lift the thing. Suddenly, the pledge was covered in off-brand chocolate syrup. She shrieked and raised her hands to her head, grasping at her matted hair, then tried to rub the chocolate from her eyes. I stepped closer to her, took a finger, and rubbed a but of chocolate from just under her eye.

“Your tears are delicious,” I said with a twisted grin as I licked my finger.

The rest of the session went about as well as I could have expected; every pledge soaked in chocolate syrup, one of them had fallen out of her chair and was rocking back and forth on the concrete floor. The only person in the lineup completely untouched was Audrey; I hadn’t asked her any questions. How could I? She didn’t know anything about our house. Nevertheless, I walked to her.

“Audrey,” I said. She stared up at me like a deer in headlights. “If you get this wrong, everyone here gets a bucket. You’d better be ready.”

“I can’t—” She stated to say. I pressed a single finger to her lips and shushed her. She looked completely defeated.

Smiling, I reached into my pocket and produced a liquid eyeliner pen.

“If you’ve been practicing like we told you,” I said. “Then you’ll be able to draw a straight line from one end of your eyelid to the other.”

I grabbed her right and shoved the pen into it.

“I’m waiting.”

If she’d been afraid before, she’d elevated it to a completely new level. I think her teeth were chattering.

“You’d better get this right,” The girl next to her said through gritted teeth.

“Remember,” I said. “If you get this wrong, EVERYONE suffers. That includes you, Audrey.”

“I know!” Audrey suddenly snapped.

“Female voice, Audrey,” I sighed. “Pitch it up.”

“Fine!” She was trying.

I stood and waited. With a shaking hand she raised the pen to her eyelid and as soon as she made contact, she twitched and drew a line halfway up her forehead. I shook my head and looked to the two behind her chair.

As I took a step back, they dumped the bucket over Audrey’s head, and I swear she screamed louder than any of the other girls here. Yeah, she had to have, from the way they looked at her.

“Oh knock it off, Audrey!” Isabella called out from behind the row of chairs. I had to agree, she actually managed to slide out of her chair and slammed into the basement floor, rubbing her eyes and generally freaking out.

“Audrey, get back on the chair,” I commanded. She wasn’t listening. I sighed and motioned to the Lauren and Isabella who reached down and picked up the burlap bags, filled with down feathers.

“You know,” I said to the pledges. “I was going to give you a pass, but this is the most pathetic display I’ve ever seen.”

As soon as I finished that statement, they opened the sacks and dumped the feathers on the pledges, none of whom made a sign movement. If I had to use one word to describe them, I think it would probably be rage. Silent, terrible rage. I feel like if I’d been alone, someone would have found my body buried under the football field twenty years from now.

I stayed silent for a moment, allowing the entire thing to sink in. Then, finally, I spoke, pointing to Audrey who was still rocking on the floor.

“You all have a task. Audrey needs to learn to do her makeup properly, and you’re all going to help her. I want her to learn contouring highlighting, eye shadow, eyeliner, I want her to know fifty different ways to wear lipstick, and I want it in the next day. There are ten of you, you should be able to figure it out between all of you. Now, get out of here, get some sleep. Audrey, stay behind for a moment.”

It’s not like I had to tell her to stay behind; I don’t think she could have peeled herself off of the floor anyway. We waited until the traumatized pledges and piled out of the basement door and into the night before approaching her.

“Audrey, are you okay?” Aleah asked. She didn’t answer.

“Audrey!” Lauren snapped. Audrey immediately looked up.

“What’s wrong with you?” I demanded. “It was chocolate syrup.”

“I don’t…I don’t know…,” Audrey said, finally beginning to relax a little. “It’s just that…I guess…I’ve been by this house and…seen you guys...out a lot and…I didn’t think you were capable of this…”

There was a moment of stunned silence. We all stood there trying to comprehend what had just been said to us by the chocolate coated girl on the floor. Aleah was the first to break the silence, her hysterical laughter echoing through the concrete room.

“Audrey,” I said. “Have you ever like…watched those college movies where pledges get hazed? Like any? At all?”

“Well yeah, but they were just movies,” She said.

Aleah and I looked at eachother incredulously.

“You know that GAT is always called the toughest sorority on campus, right?” Lauren smirked a bit.

“Well yeah but—”

“Audrey, honey,” I said, crouching down beside her. “Listen, you really want to experience being a woman, right?”

She nodded slowly.

“Okay, you just got hazed by a sorority. As a woman. I mean, you can be happy about that, right?”

“You’re really not supposed to coddle her after the fact,” Isabella said, her arms folded.

“She’s right,” I said to Audrey who was a bit more relaxed now. I reached a hand out to help her up and cringed when I realized it was sticky. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Okay,” She nodded.

“Good. Now stand up, there’s a shower stall over there in the corner…well, sort of. It’s just a little cubby with a drain grate. Stand still, we’re going to hose you down; you don’t want to walk back home and explain to Mason why you look like a chocolate duck.”