“I’m not giving the letters back,” I said adamantly to Tiffany as I finished scrubbing my hair out. It had only taken a few hours but oh my god it had sucked.

“So you’re just going to leave her there?” Tiffany raised an eyebrow.

“They’re not going to actually keep here there,” I was confident that she’d come back the next day.

“Um yes, they will,” Tiffany said. “It’s TRI PI.”

“I’m not giving the letters back, and that’s final,” I began to brush my hair out and dry it. It was such a long process.

“Okay you know what?” Tiffany said. “She’s safe for now. So what about your other problem?”

“What other problem?”

“You know what other problem,” Tiffany scolded. She was talking about my past-due tuition fees. I hated talking about that. What was I supposed to do about it anyway?

“It’s crap,” I said. “I’ve been paying out of pocket for four years. So what if I was a little late this year?”

“Do you have the money?” Tiffany looked at me quizzically.

“Of course I don’t have the money,” I said. “If I had the money I would have paid by now.”

I’d tried to pay at the beginning of the semester but somehow my account had become overdrawn; it went through initially but it bounced back pretty quickly. I was skating on thin ice as it was. I figured I had maybe another week before it became a serious problem.

“What about your parents?” Tiffany asked. I shook my head.

“They wouldn’t help me out because I didn’t become a doctor like they wanted. They told me I’m on my own.”

“Well admittedly, doctor sounds a lot more exciting than business administration,” Tiffany chuckled a little. “So what are you going to do?”

“I shrugged,” I have no idea. “But we have other things to worry about. We’ve got a community service project coming up, we can pick out of three…I’m thinking we do the preschool again.”

“Kids again?” Tiffany groaned.

“Well it’s that or the nursing home, or pick up trash. The photo op is better with the kids anyway, or at least it makes us look better.”

“That’s true,” Tiffany said. “I’m counting the theater thing as an extracurricular.”

“What time is it?” I said looking around for my phone. It wasn’t here.

“9:15,” Tiffany said. “What are you thinking?”

“Line up the pledges,” I said. “They’re getting too comfortable.”

“Audrey’s missing and you’re going to just haze the pledges like nothing’s happening?”

“Yeah,” I nodded and walked out of the bathroom.

I walked downstairs and found my phone on one of the endtables. A group text had been sent out by Tiffany ordering the pledges to line up in front of the house in ten minutes wearing white and to bring nothing. Worked for me. I took a seat on the couch and pulled out a binder, flipping through the list of pledges.

“Hey Allie,” I called to her in the kitchen. She turned around and looked at me. “It says Hailey weighed 187 as of last check, she can probably get that down to 150, right?”

“Um, are you serious?” Isabella said as she walked down the stairs. “You can’t just control people’s weight, I mean…what the hell?”
She was actually getting angry, I didn’t care.

“If they want to be in Gamma they have to look good,” I stated. “You know that.”

“Um, you didn’t do that to me when I was pledging!” Isabella crossed her arms and looked at me sternly.

“Didn’t have to,” I told her. “You could blow away if a strong wind came through and you know it.”

“You’re actually disgusting,” Isabella told me.

“You need to be careful how you talk to her,” Allie said, stepping out from behind the kitchen island. “That’s your chapter president.”

“I don’t really care who you are,” She said to me. “This is disgusting. You’re disgusting. You can’t just body shame people like that.”

“Grow up,” I sighed. “You joined a sorority, not a preschool class.”

“Fine,” Isabella spat. “But you know what? It’s going to come back to bite you someday, and That’s going to be absolutely hilarious.”

“Until then,” I said, waving her off. “About Hailey?"

“We could put her on a diet,” Allie suggested. “All protein, salad, no dressing, maybe make her exercise…a lot?”

“Good start, good start,” I nodded, making notes on a separate piece of paper. “We’ll have her start sending pictures of her meals. Okay, what about…Liz…I don’t like the way she talks.”

“That’s an Appalachian accent,” Allie explained “She’s from Virginia.”

“I don’t like it,” I said. I glanced up and peered through the front window. The pledges were lined up. I looked back down at the binder. They could wait. “We’re going to fix that.”

“Why did we give some of these girls bids if-“

“Because we get TRI PI’s leftovers, Allie,” I rolled my eyes. “Sure, they’re not great, but we’ll whip them into shape.”

“You’re never going to get anywhere if you keep competing with TRI PI,” Isabella said condescendingly. “We have to be different.

“How can we not compete with them?” I said, standing up and closing the binder. “They literally stole our…Audrey.”

“You stole their letters,” Isabella pointed out. “Fair is fair I guess?”

“I…am not sure a human being equates to a set of cedar letters,” Isabella raised an eyebrow.

“You know what,” I said, walking toward the door. “I’m officially done with this conversation. TIFFANY GET DOWN HERE!”

“Don’t call me like I’m your dog,” Tiffany said as she strutted down the stairs. I don’t know how she’d pulled it off, but she was completely clean, hair perfect, and made up like a Victoria’s Secret model.

“Heel, girl,” I said as I pulled the door open and strode out onto the porch. Standing next to Tiffany I looked completely underdressed wearing the Woodcrest sweats and sweater.

“Good evening, pledges!” I shouted. “I hope we didn’t interrupt your nightly activities?”

I stood there in silence, expecting a response but got none.

“I SAID, I hope I didn’t interrupt your evening?!” I repeated, this time putting more emphasis on the sentence. They looked at eachother nervously.
“No Miss Aleah!” They shouted somewhat in unison.
“Well that’s good!” I snapped, looking over the lineup. All twenty of our pledges were here. I paused for a moment, something was wrong. Oh, wait, Audrey wasn’t here, duh. “I would feel terrible if I interrupted a hot date, or homework, or something equally stupid. I didn’t do that, did I?”

“No Miss Aleah!” They shouted again, this time looking a little more nervous.

“Great!” I said. “Now you’re all going to head over to the practice field! Be there in half an hour, or there WILL be consequences!”

“Yes Miss Aleah!” They responded, all running off in the direction of campus. Perfect.

“What’s next? You going to make them run back here?” Tiffany asked, rolling her eyes. “Whatever you’re going to do, you probably could have done in the yard.”

“Yeah but I don’t want to ruin our yard,” I shrugged.

“Oh wow,” Tiffany said with mock appalment. “Do I even want to know?”

“Just get to the van,” I said. “Before they get to the field.”

Leaving Lauren and Isabella behind, Allie, Tiffany, Courtney, and I rushed to the van and piled in. I immediately noticed the smell as I buckled my seatbelt and threw the vehicle into gear.

“Oh my god that stuff STINKS!” I exclaimed, gagging and holding my nose.

“I’m going to KILL those Omegas!” Tiffany growled from the passenger seat.

“So what are we doing?” Allie asked, leaning forward between the seats.

“Greek alphabet,” I said, handing her my binder. “You guys are brushed up, right?”

“Kinda hard not to be in Gamma,” Courtney laughed.

“True,” I pushed on the accelerator and took a hard right, taking us the back way into the practice field. I didn’t even bother parking properly; no one else was here. I just stopped in the middle of the gravel parking lot and jumped out, breaking into a full run toward the field. Normally we were more organized for these things, but I’d done this on a whim, and it was obvious. Maybe I was angry and taking it out on the pledges. Oh well, it would toughen them up a little.

We somehow managed to make it to the field before any of them showed up and the Allie started by grabbing the nearby water hose. She knew what to do.

“Here they come,” Tiffany said, tilting her head to indicate the far left side of the field. They rushed in, streaking across the gravel looking absolutely exhausted.

“Line up!” I shouted. “Come on, hurry up, on the field!”

They were clumsy. Really clumsy. Liz ran right into Hailey and literally bounced off of her, falling butt-first into the grass. I rolled my eyes.
“Come on!” Courtney stepped forward, clapping her hands. “Is this what we have to work with? Are you Gamma Omicron Epsilon material or not?!”

They finally managed to line up, I had no idea how they pulled it off. They were such a mess.

“Alright ladies!” I shouted, stepping forward. “You’ve all opted into Greek life, so you should know the Greek alphabet, am I right?”
They looked at eachother nervously. None of them knew the Greek alphabet.

“We’ll start at the beginning,” I said with a slight smile. “Everyone down, on the ground, face down, get ready to crawl!”

They all gave eachother nervous glances again, none of them moving.

“I didn’t stutter!” I shouted. They immediately hit the dirt, some a little more cautiously than others. “Okay, repeat after me, everytime you say a letter, you can crawl forward: Alpha!”

“Alpha!” They repeated.

I nodded to Allie who nodded back and let loose with the hose, immediately soaking all of our pledges. I heard a few screams. I didn’t care.

“Beta!” I shouted. They repeated it back and moved forward a pace. At this point the dirt was wet, turning into mud. I could hear groans, and I think at least one person was sobbing.

“Come on!” Tiffany shouted. “Let’s see that Gamma spirit! Show us some actual resolve!”

“So uh, question,” Courtney said, stepping closer to me.

“Shoot,” I said as I let Tiffany take over.

“You just like…left Audrey behind with the TRI PI’s, you really think that's okay?”

“Probably,” I shrugged.

“What if they figure out she’s trans?”

“Unless they’re blind they’ve already figure it out,” I watched the pledges. They were slow.

“Won’t they like…tell everyone?” Courtney asked, I could hear a little bit of concern in her voice.

“Probably not,” I concluded. “There are like a million LGBT students on campus, she’s just another one.”

“Good point,” Courtney said, walking away and returning to the lineup.

“Hey,” Tiffany said, walking over to me. Courtney took over directing the pledges. “You know, if you need the money I can help you out. I might not be the nicest person in the world but we’re still sisters. We look out for eachother.”

I looked at her.

“You know I don’t like to ask for help,” I said stubbornly.

“Yeah I know,” She shrugged and nodded. “But the offer is there, if you want it.”

“I appreciate that but I think I can handle it,” I walked forward, back toward the pledges. “Come on Hailey! You need to lay off the cheesecake!”

“You know what I could do,” She said, staring off at the field. “I could get you a job.”

“What, working for Shawn’s dad?” I snorted. “No thanks.”

“He’s not a bad guy, Aleah,” She insisted. “It’s not like you’d be doing anything illegal. I think he has a secretary position open.”

“You want me to work for the biggest crime boss in Woodcrest,” I raised an eyebrow. Everyone knew that Michael Derringer was loaded but his business practices weren’t exactly the most ethical. Yeah working for him might get me tuition money but it might also get me a jail sentence.

“It’s either that,” She said. “Or go back to Ohio and…what could you do there again? Work at a gas station? Flip burgers?”

I rolled my eyes, but secretly I was really considering it. I couldn’t imagine going back to Dayton and working some mediocre minimum wage job. It might sound a little conceited but I really thought I was better than that. Seriously, I was in my senior year as a business administration major. I wanted to work for a Fortune 500 company and live in a high-rise apartment. I wanted to eat caviar and drink three-hundred dollar glasses of Moscato. All of that was at stake right now because of a stupid money issue. I sighed.

“Get them up,” I said. “I’ve had enough.”