Synopsis: Watch the story from Brianna’s point of view as she receives an unexpected phone call.

My eyes shot open as I heard the phone ring. The room was bathed in darkness, still, and the clock beside my bed read 5:59 AM. Who in the actual hell was calling me at almost 6 in the morning? This was my day off, right? I checked the phone screen. Yep, Saturday. I squinted a bit, I knew the number. Why did I know that number? I swiped the answer icon and held the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I said, doing my best impression of an ‘awake’ person.

“Hello Brianna,” I heard my mother’s voice from the other end of the phone. “It’s your mother.”

“Gathered that,” I said. “Why are you calling so early?”

“We have a problem,” She said to me. I could feel the tension in her voice. This had to be bad. “We need you to go pick your brother up from school. Just bring him to your house, he’s done.”

“Done?”

“I’m cancelling his tuition. You and I are in a conference call right now with Amber Geer.”

“Wait wait, hold on,” I sat straight up in bed. Thank god I was sleeping alone last night, I didn’t want to have to chase anyone out. “Amber Geer from Panhellenic?”

“Hi Brianna, it’s been a while,” Amber’s voice came from the other end of the phone. What the hell were they doing calling me at this hour? This was all so…random? Yeah that was the word I was looking for. Random. “As you know, this time of year all of our houses nationwide host Rush. It’s a weeklong event, where—”

“Amber I remember what Rush is, it hasn’t been that long,” I snapped. “What does this have to do with Miles exactly?”

“Your brother,” Mom said. “Decided to dress up as a girl and join the rush group. Not only that, he gave them a laundry list of false information and was dumb enough to put his real phone number on the application he filled out.”

Well that was weird, but it was college, right?

“So some kind of college prank? I mean we’ve had guys do that to a house,” I said. “It’s not like it’s anything new. Why would you pull his tuition over that?”

“He rushed every house.”

At this point I turned my bedside light on.

“Every house? You’re joking.”

“We decided to inform you first,” Amanda said. She sounded almost sympathetic. “Normally we would just let the school take care of it but because of who your family is, we wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Hold up,” I said. “If he rushed every house and gave his real phone number that means every house is going to be out for blood. Just one, not really a problem, but all of them? That’s going to get some blood boiling. It’s like….”

“Making a mockery of the Greek system,” My mother finished. “The Greek system that we poured our heart and souls into when we were that age. I don’t know about you, but I’m not happy.”

“I’m going down to his dorm right now,” I said hurridly. “I want to know what’s going on.”

“Okay but before you do that,” Amanda said. “We have Remy Francis from Alpha Gamma on the line.”

“He rushed Alpha Gamma?!” I practically screamed.

“I said every house,” Mom said very matter of factly. “I don’t know what you thought I meant by-“

“Let’s just get Remy on here,” I head a click as Amanda opened the line. “Remy, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here, who are we on with?” Remy’s voice came in a little strained. It was way too early for her too.

“I have Brianna and Valerie Parsons, Miles parents. What did you want to speak with us about?”

“When we realized who Miles was and how his family was associated with us we did a lot of digging. I mean a LOT. We realized that Miles…might not be playing a prank. We used some fancy search algorithms and found him in a lot of transgender groups on Facebook, and he’s posted on quite a few forums. We…have a pretty complete picture.”

“A complete picture? What do you mean?” Mom demanded. “Are you saying he’s—”

“Yes, that’s what it looks like,” Remy said.

“Mom?” I said questioningly.

“I’m an educated woman,” She said. “I’m not going to discount the idea, but even if that were true, it’s still a potential expulsion. The other houses could report it has harassment, they could do…any number of things. I think we should pull him out of school before it escalates and turns our family into a laughing stock.”

“Maybe there’s another way,” I interjected. “I…kind of keep up on Alpha Gamma and I know you guys were thinking of opening your doors to transgender women.”

“We have thought about it, yes,” Amanda said thoughtfully. “But we just haven’t had the time and there are so many nuances. Like being able to trust-“

“If my brother is a transgender woman then you have your answer,” I said quickly. “He…she…would be a legacy. A member of an upstanding Alpha Gamma family going back generations. This is doable. It solves all of the problems. It helps to get your initiative off the ground and it makes it look like he…I mean she was seriously looking for a house.”

“So you’re saying you want your brother to join Alpha Gamma?” Remy didn’t sound opposed, more curious than anything.
“Yes,” I said. “If she’s a transgender woman, for real, then I want her protected and I can’t think of a better place for her than Alpha Gamma. I want this to happen.”

“This isn’t my decision alone,” Amanda said. “I’ll call you back in half an hour.”

“Yes, do that,” I said, as I hung up the phone.

I climbed out of bed, no use trying to go to sleep now. For a while I just wandered around my house in a daze. Downstairs I put a pot of coffee on and tapped the counter impatiently as I waited for my phone to ring again. The coffee poured from the machine and into the pot, and suddenly something occurred to me. I left the kitchen in a hurry, my long cotton robe trailing behind me like a cape as I tumbled up the stairs toward my bedroom.

I tore open my closer and sifted through the dresses until I came to it. Yeah, this one floral blue dress. Well, dark blue. This was weird to me because first of all, the sash was untied, I always tied the sashes when I hung my dresses up. It was just an OCD thing I guess. Then there was the fact that the front was facing the back of the closet. I always hung my dresses up with the front facing the door. I’d noticed it earlier and figured maybe I was losing my mind but maybe…maybe there was something else to it.

I quickly pulled the dress off the hanger and partially turned it inside out. Deodorant stains in the armpits. This definitely wasn’t just some one time prank, there was something serious going on here. I felt a quick twinge of pain for him. If he was really transgender, and if he had been hiding it, then I couldn’t even imagine the amount of pain that he had been in all this time. It was…astronomical. Before I could think about it too much, the phone rang. It was Panhellenic again. I answered.

“Yes?” I said.

“Hi Brianna, it’s Amanda again. I’m on with Remy and your mother. I just spoke with Tracey and the other board members. We’re going to give this a try.”

“You are?” I asked. I was shocked.

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Amanda said. “You know we’ve been trying to move in this direction for a while, this is just a really good opportunity. Like you said, a legacy from an affluent, upstanding family. If you can get h..her to pledge then you should be able to clean up the mess.”

“I can get her to pledge,” Remy interrupted. “We can just trick her into coming back by the house, I’ll say I have her book or something.”

“There are conditions,” Amanda said. Of course there were. “You’re going to be in charge of her, Brianna. I want you to move into the house, room with her. You’re her sister, you keep her under control.”

“I can do that,” I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me nod. “But I have a condition of my own.”

“What’s that?” Amanda asked.

”I want to take her pledge. When she says the words, I want her to say them to me.”

“That can be arranged,” Remy said. “We’re having the ceremony on Sunday; if you get up here before then I can have you walk up to her in line.”

“I’m on my way, right now,” I said, hanging up the phone. I closed my eyes and clenched my fist. “I’m so sorry Miles, I didn’t know.”