Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 ï>¿The Pledge Mistress by EC

   Chapter 21 - Tracy's strategy

   After the pledges had slept only four hours, Tracy stormed into the
pledge room with her usual:

   "OK, sleeping beauties!  UP-UP-UP!  Let's go...  let's go...  let's go!"

   Lisa was so tired that she had largely forgotten the sympathy she had
expressed towards the Pledge Mistress only a few hours before.  However,
with a groan she got out of her cot and immediately felt the sharp sting of
a hard slap on her unprotected backside.  What made matters worse was a
cold look from Bernadette that clearly stated:

   OK, Lisa, so you still feel the same way about this bitch that you did
last night?

   Because the pledges had upper-body PT with the sophomores, they only had
to put on their shoes and socks.  It was apparent that Tracy would be
leading the exercise group, because she was dressed in the same manner as
the pledges, completely naked except her shoes and socks.

   As soon as they had used the toilet and brushed their teeth, the sleepy
pledges knelt in a row as their mentor strutted back and forth just like an
officer from one of those old World War II movies.  They were too tired to
see the humor in their situation, their sharp-tempered Pledge Mistress
moving about as though she were a naked drill sergeant.  Momentarily the
group would have to go upstairs for morning PT, but Tracy wanted to lay out
what was happening during the rest of the day.

   "We've got house clean-up today.  The whole house, and guess what?  The
Triple-A's aren't bringing their pledges over like they were supposed to,
so it's just us.  When I say 'us', I'm including myself, because we just
can't be spending the whole day doing the house.  I still want to get you
guys over to the library to study after lunch, so we need to have the
cleaning done before noon.  After PT we got a very busy morning ahead of
us."

   After PT, showering, and breakfast, President Alexandra rounded up the
sophomores and juniors for a mandatory sorority trip to the library.  The
trip served two purposes: first to force everyone to study for at least
several hours that weekend, and second, to clear the house so the pledges
could clean it more easily.  The seniors were not required to go to the
library, but they were expected either to leave the house or completely
stay out of the common areas.

   After she cleaned up, Tracy returned downstairs carrying a clipboard and
wearing nothing but pair of work shoes.  That surprised the pledges,
because she was among the more conservative members of the sorority and
normally undressed only for PT and swimming.  However, because she was to
participate in the house cleaning, she felt that it was necessary to comply
with the rule about the pledge uniform, i.e.  that while in the house
pledges could not wear any clothing.

   The Pledge Mistress made it very clear that the only concern on her mind
at that moment was doing the clean-up as quickly as possible.  She was not
interested in having any of the pledges show initiative or memorize
anything out of the cleaning manual.  Instead she organized the clean-up
herself, ordering Lisa and Cherine to clean the bathrooms and sweep
upstairs while taking Bernadette and Kathleen outside to do yard work. 
Tracy immediately pulled out a lawn mower from the tool shed, checked the
gas, and began jerking on the cord to get it started.  When she noticed the
two freshmen staring at her, she snapped:

   "Get started on that hedge, unless you want to push this mower around
instead of having me do it!"

   Lisa looked out a bathroom window to see Tracy behind the mower while
Bernadette and Kathleen were working on one of the hedges.  She began to
wonder if the clean-up had been something the Pledge Mistress had not
anticipated, something thrust upon her at the last minute.  Were that true,
was it possible it was Heather who had ordered Tracy to clean up the house?
Was it possible that the promised help from the male pledges had been
canceled because Heather had told the fraternity not to bring the guys
over?

   Bernadette's hostility towards Tracy was tempered by seeing her at work
in the yard.  Tracy took all of the most difficult jobs for herself,
because she was the one who edged after mowing and then dealt with
chlorinating the pool.  As the two freshmen finished their trimming, Tracy
came by with a bag and rake to clean up, while ordering the two younger
women to get started on the kitchen.  Bernadette noticed Tracy sweating as
she worked, a detail that motivated her to work harder once she went
inside.

   As Tracy scrubbed down the garden furniture, the pledges finished up the
kitchen under Lisa's direction.  Tracy took out a ladder and yelled at
Kathleen to hold it while she hosed the windows.  Lisa snapped at her two
remaining companions to "keep moving".  Bernadette glanced out the window
at the frantic Pledge Mistress.

   "What's going on with her?  Why's she gone off the deep end with this
clean-up?"

   "We weren't supposed to be doing this, that's why.  The Triple-A's were
supposed to have their pledges come over, and guess what?  They're not
here, and that's messed up her plans for us.  She wanted to take us to the
library this morning so we could look around, and she's still trying to
make sure we can get over there today.  That's why she's gone off the deep
end, as you say it!  Now, you move your ass so we can get out of here!"

   Incredibly, after only three hours, the training group had the entire
house cleaned to inspection standards.  While the freshmen showered, Tracy
and Lisa conducted the walk-through and corrected a few minor deficiencies.
Tracy signed the cleaning log and ordered Lisa to get her companions
dressed into their uniforms and ready to "move out!"

   Lisa noticed Tracy seemed to calm down considerably once the group was
safely in the library.  The freshmen had expected to be told to study, but
Tracy passed out lists of books she wanted them to find and bring to her.
The books covered every topic imaginable and came from every single shelf
in the building.  As soon as the pledges presented the books to her, Tracy
ordered her charges to return to where they got the items and reshelf them.
At first the exercise seemed extremely stupid, but the pledges later
realized that Tracy wanted them to memorize how the library's entire
collection was organized.  For example, if they needed to find a book about
pig farming, they would know that the agronomy books were located on the
third floor on shelves 3-H through 3-J.

   Already it was late afternoon when the women left the library.  The next
stop was the Student Memorial Center.  The pledges had some juice and fruit
salad before being ordered to explore the building.  They had a very good
piece of fortune when they came across an alumnus guide leading a group of
parents through the center.  The pledges joined the group and received a
guided tour, complete with trivia and explanations about the building and
its history.

   The final stop was the University Fitness Center.  The five women signed
in and toured the weight rooms, squash courts, and aerobics rooms.  Tracy
actually ordered her group to do a round of exercises on all the machines,
passed out fresh T-shirts and towels, and directed the pledges to go into
the women's locker room and shower.  All the while Lisa noticed her looking
around, as though worried about who might be watching what she was doing.

   Just before the sun began to set, Tracy led her group through Old Campus
to let her pledges see the same area during the day that they had seen the
previous night.  As dusk settled and the university got darker, the women
continued walking around to see how the area compared during daylight and
when it was dark.  They finished around midnight.  When they finally left
campus to return to the sorority house, Lisa and her companions had
memorized in detail the area set aside for the scavenger hunt the following
night.

   The group walked along the detour that by-passed Pageant Street and
Fraternity Row.  As they approached the park where they had changed the
previous night, Tracy frantically whispered:

   "Behind the bushes!  Quick!"

   The five women hid just in time to hear Heather's voice coming up the
sidewalk, accompanied by the sound of a man's voice crying and the
crack-crack-crack of a leather riding crop hitting bare skin.

   "Come-on, you fucking little wimp!"

   Crack!

   "Ohh...  hoo...  please...  "

   Crack!

   "Don't you 'please' me, you pathetic little shit!  Now, keep running! 
The next time you stop without my permission, it'd better because you're
having a fucking heart attack!"

   Crack!  Crack!

   "Ow!"

   "Here!  In the park!  Let's give your legs a rest and have you do some
push-ups!"

   While Tracy and her group held their breaths and watched from the
darkness, Heather forced the fattest member of the Tri-Alpha pledge group
to struggle through several sets of pushups.  He seemed already knocked out
from his exertions, his sweaty naked body trembling from fright and fatigue
as she continued to savagely flog him with the riding crop.  Lisa noticed
one interesting detail about the pledge: that he was somewhat thinner than
he had been the previous week.

   Heather forced her unhappy companion to exercise until he was barely
able to move.  As he lay on his back gasping for air, the Four-Beta
Sergeant-at-Arms astounded her hidden audience by pulling off her running
shorts and squatting to piss in the grass, right in front of prostrate
victim.  In the darkness the pledges could tell that he was watching her
with alarm.  Apparently he knew what was coming next and what would be
expected of him momentarily.

   "OK, fat-bitch, you know the drill.  Get on your knees.  Clean me up and
make me come!"

   Heather placed her shorts on the ground under her bottom and lay back in
the grass with her legs spread.  The male pledge obediently moved between
her thighs and began licking, first to properly clean the sweat and urine
off her vulva, and then to give her an orgasm.  She came very quickly.  It
was obvious the orgasm was no big deal to her; that its main purpose was to
establish her dominance over him as opposed to giving her real pleasure. 
She climaxed, casually put on her shorts, and stood up.  She savagely
struck him across the thigh.

   "OK, blubber-boy!  UP!  Let's see about running some more of that fat
off of you!"

   She slammed the riding crop against his bare bottom a couple of times as
they exited the park.  Lisa heard Cherine comment:

   "Jesus H...  he isn't that fat...  "

   Tracy drew a deep breath, partly out of relief that her group had not
been caught by the Sergeant-at-Arms, but mostly from the distress that her
pledges had seen something she wished they had not seen.

   Once the Pledge Mistress was sure that Heather and her victim were out
of ear-shot, she shouted:

   "OK, Let's move out!  Quick step, move!"

   As the pledges began running, Tracy's voice barked out:

   "Pledge Bernadette!"

   "Yes, ma'am!"

   "Call cadence!"

   Following Bernadette's lead, the women started clapping and chanting:

   "Left...  right...  left-right-left!"

   "Left...  right...  left-right-left!"

   "Runnin' that midnight Four-Beta left!"

   "Runnin' that midnight Four-Beta left...  "

   *****

   The pledges returned to their cots and collapsed from exhaustion.  They
were not at all reassured by what had happened to them that day, nor by the
knowledge that apparently Tracy did not fully trust the other officers of
the sorority.

   Bernadette in particular was very uneasy over what she had seen.  She
now suspected what Lisa already knew: that there was a rivalry or on-going
fight between Tracy and Heather and that the Sergeant-at-Arms was not
supportive of the Pledge Mistress.  Bernadette's dislike of Tracy had led
her to wonder how she could side with Heather and perhaps ingratiate
herself at the expense of Lisa and Tracy.  Her hatred of the Pledge
Mistress had led her to assume that anyone plotting against Tracy could
count on her support, that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".  However,
watching Heather's treatment of that male pledge in the park frightened
Bernadette and made her question whether Tracy was really as bad as she had
assumed.

   Bernadette glanced at Lisa.  She disliked Lisa almost as much as she
disliked Tracy.  She continued to resent Lisa's role as the "leader" of the
pledge group and her apparently close relationship with the Pledge
Mistress. On top of everything else she resented Lisa's sexual relationship
with Kathleen.  Not only did she think the relationship was inappropriate,
but the very idea of being intimate with another woman totally grossed her
out.  And especially with Kathleen...  Yuck!  Why would anyone normal even
want someone like that around, let alone...  get intimate with her... 
Gross!  Totally gross!

   Bernadette was not at all thrilled about having to pledge alongside
Kathleen, who she found very weird and gave her the creeps.  She took a
deep breath as she contemplated her dislike of the skinny girl sleeping
next to her.  Bernadette had known a couple of girls like Kathleen in
high-school, whose fidgety gestures, shifty eyes, nervous way of talking,
ignorance of fashion, and interest in things not normal for high school
students made them total social rejects.  Were it up to Bernadette, no one
in the Four-Beta pledge program would have been nice to Kathleen.  Instead,
the group would have cold-shouldered her and let her know that she was not
welcome in the sorority.  The only reason she had not dared to express her
dislike of her strange companion was because she had been afraid of Lisa
and Tracy coming down on her.

   Bernadette sat up in the darkness, as her assumptions about life, what
constituted a worthwhile friend, and how she should deal with the people
around her abruptly shifted under her.  Suddenly she felt awful, because in
a flash she understood that her hostility towards Kathleen was totally
unjustified.  Why did she dislike her fellow pledge so much?  Yes, the girl
was kind of creepy, but had she ever done anything bad to anyone else in
the pledge group?  It was obvious she had feelings, and that she had
already endured more than her share of unpleasantness in life.  It was
obvious that she had endured a hellish time in school, at the hands of
girls just like Bernadette.  She always had taken it for granted that
people like Kathleen deserved whatever ostracism and insults were inflicted
on them because they were so creepy, but was that really true?

   Bernadette's thoughts drifted to her own recent years in high school,
and then back to the present.  She realized that how she had behaved in
school was not something she should be proud of, and anyhow, her time in
high school no longer had any relevance.  As much as she hated to admit it,
she was in a new environment and starting her social life from scratch. 
She now was an adult and in college.  Her old peer group had scattered and
her life had changed.  She would have to learn how to relate to others
differently if she hoped to move ahead.  Really, who was Bernadette to
judge someone like Kathleen?  Or even to judge Lisa, for that matter?

   Bernadette felt that her need to change was especially true regarding
her perception of Lisa.  Whatever her personal faults, it was obvious that
Lisa was trustworthy, not particularly selfish, and that her primary
interest was getting herself and the others through the pledging process.
Bernadette's thoughts drifted back to that first night at the Tri-Alpha
house, when Lisa had jumped to her defense when the others were blaming her
for making the group get punished.  From the first night Lisa had pointed
out something that later proved correct, that the pledges' willingness to
stay together and stand up for each other would be constantly tested.  Lisa
had been right about that, and since that first night had been right about
many other things.

   What if Lisa was right about Tracy; that of all the sorority officers,
the Pledge Mistress really was the only one who was concerned about the
pledges?  The truth was that Bernadette knew what to expect from Lisa and
Tracy, but did not have a clue about Heather's personality or how
trustworthy she really was.  What she did know, from having seen it with
her own eyes, was that Heather was capable of being quite vicious.  She
wondered: would I really want someone like that as my friend?

   Finally Bernadette lay back down with a better understanding of her
immediate future and how she had to change her perceptions about her social
life.  She did not think she would ever feel any warmth towards Lisa and
Kathleen.  However, she knew that even if she could not force herself to
like them, she needed to treat them with the respect.  She might dislike
the Pledge Mistress even more than Lisa, but now understood that she could
not possibly do herself or anyone else any good by taking sides against
her. She had to accept Tracy's leadership if she hoped to stay in the
sorority and be a successful member.

   Bernadette finally went to sleep.  She did not yet realize, during those
few restless moments she took a hard look at herself; that she had matured
considerably.

   *****

   Pledge Mistress Tracy had two concerns on her mind for that Sunday. 
First, the pledges had to spend a good portion of the day studying, given
that they had not spent any time studying on Saturday.  Second, they would
have to get some sleep during the day so they could be alert during the
scavenger hunt.  She decided that it would be best to have the pledges
spend the day outside the Four-Beta house and began to wonder where she
could find a quiet location where they could study and sleep.

   There were only two locations she could think of that would meet the
group's needs.  For studying the pledges could go to Burnside's office in
the Economics Building.  That was fine, but what about sleep?  There was a
place that at first glance looked promising, Lisa's dorm room in Huntington
Hall.  Although Lisa was not allowed to stay there during the pledge
training, she still had her stuff there and in theory access to the room.
Would it not be possible to grab some sleeping bags and have the pledges
crash there?

   Tracy then thought of a better option: Ruth Burnside's house. 
Burnside's house would be about as secret a location as she would be able
to find; a quiet and controlled environment where the pledges could sleep
uninterrupted until nightfall.  Tracy then would take them back to the
sorority house, producing her group well-rested and ready for action.  She
decided to e-mail Burnside and see if the professor was amenable to the
idea of putting up the pledges in her house Sunday afternoon.

   Burnside shocked Tracy by responding immediately.  It already was 1:00
in the morning, but the insomniac professor was still on her computer
catching up on her professional correspondence.  Her answer relieved Tracy:
that she could take the pledges over and keep them at the house all day. 
The only problem was that Burnside had to leave at 5:00 in the morning to
go on a day-long boating trip on Lake Michigan with Halsey and some of
their mutual friends.  The pledges were welcome to stay at the house, but
Tracy either needed to pick up a key or bring them over before 5:00.  Tracy
opted for the latter.  She would have the pledges at Burnside's house at
4:45.

   Tracy decided to make the pledges walk over to the professor's house,
which meant getting them up at 3:30 a.m.  She decided to do something else
to psychologically prepare them for the scavenger hunt; they would have to
walk from the sorority to Burnside's house in the nude.  Tracy figured
there would be very little danger walking the four-mile route, given that
the bars already had closed and it was extremely unlikely they would run
into anyone walking in the dark at 4:00 in the morning.  Upon getting to
Burnside's house she would order the group to go to sleep and then return
to the sorority house to pick up their clothes and textbooks.

   At 3:30 a.m.  the light in the basement went on and the pledges heard
Tracy's dreaded:

   "OK, sleeping beauties!  UP-UP-UP!  Let's go...  let's go...  let's go!"

   The incoherent pledges staggered out of their cots, staring at the
Pledge Mistress in disbelief.  It was 3:30 in the morning!

   "OK, lovely ladies!  Dump your bladders and get your shoes on!  NOW!"

   The pledges knew better than to question the Pledge Mistress, in spite
of the fact they were almost delirious with fatigue.  They came very close
to crying as they took turns on the toilet and struggled to put on their
shoes.  They trudged up the stairs and moved towards the door, too tired to
even care that they were about to go out on the street wearing only their
shoes.

   Tracy led them along the dark streets that passed the small park and
bypassed Fraternity Row.  As the cool night air caressed their bodies, the
pledges woke up somewhat and realized what a lovely night, or early
morning, it was.  The streets were totally silent and devoid of cars, the
parties had ended, and Pageant Street had long since cleared of drunken
students.

   The women dashed across the main street to get onto Old Campus and
quietly walked along the dark sidewalks towards the Student Memorial
Center. At first the pledges assumed that Tracy was taking them for a
"dressed" rehearsal of the scavenger hunt, but then she ordered Lisa to
find that hidden path that led to Huntington Hall.  Bewildered, Lisa
obliged and the women disappeared into the bushes.

   As they neared and passed the library, the pledges realized that Tracy
was taking them outside the Old Campus area and leading them towards the
dorms.  They wondered if this was another test or hazing ritual, now that
they had walked for over a half an hour and already were nearly two miles
away from the sorority and their clothes.  Tracy showed no sign of turning
around as the lights of the dorm area shined between the trees.  She had a
question:

   "When you guys came through here on the three-mile streak, where did you
cross?"

   "Over there, about half-way between the two stoplights, past the duck
pond."

   "OK, let's try to get across so no one will see you."

   "Uh...  we're leaving campus, ma'am?"

   "Yes.  We're leaving campus!  Now stop arguing and move your ass!" Tracy
punctuated her statement with a hard slap to Lisa's exposed bottom.

   The four pledges dashed across the deserted street, followed by their
Pledge Mistress.  They became very nervous, because they still did not know
why they were being taken on the naked walk and assumed they would have to
return to the sorority the same way they had come.  There would be no way,
even now, that they could get back before it started getting light outside.
That would be nice, to be seen running naked along Pageant Street by the
early church-going crowd.

   The pledges' anxiety increased as Tracy led them along the quiet
suburban streets towards the park where she and Heather had dropped them
off for the streaking adventure.  Their nervousness really increased when
they passed the park and drifted even further from the university.  If they
went much further, daylight would catch their exposed bodies, not on
campus, but in a residential neighborhood and literally miles from their
clothes!

   Finally, after more than an hour of walking, the pledges noticed they
were on the street where Dr.  Ruth Burnside lived.  They sighed with relief
upon realizing that the purpose of their walk had been to travel one-way to
the professor's residence, not to make a round trip to the sorority.  They
saw Dr.  Halsey's car parked out front and the two professors loading life
jackets and other boating supplies into the trunk.  The pledges sank to
their knees in the driveway while Tracy greeted their hostess and her
lover. A minute later the professors got into the car, while the four naked
women gratefully filed into the house.  Lisa glanced at the sky before
going through the door.  Already it was just beginning to get light towards
the east.

   The pledges took off their shoes and knelt in Burnside's living room. 
Tracy finally explained the purpose of the strange outing.

   "We'll be staying in this house until 7:00 p.m.  tonight, and then we
gotta head over to the Tri-Alpha house.  Between now and 7:00 tonight I
expect you to be doing one of two things: sleep or study.  When you don't
want to sleep, I want you to study.  When you're too tired to study, I want
you to sleep.  That's it.  No music, no TV, no Internet.  Sleep and study.
When the sun comes out you can grab a towel and use the yard, but if I see
you out there in the sun, you'd better either be asleep or with one of your
books.  Get it?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "OK, shower up in the guest bathroom and get to bed.  As soon as you're
up, what are you gonna do?"

   "Study, ma'am."

   *****

   Cherine and Bernadette collapsed in Burnside's bed as soon as they had
cleaned themselves up.  The bed was king-sized and there was plenty of room
for two women who were not intimate with each other to sleep comfortably.

   Lisa and Kathleen took the much smaller bed in the guest room.  That bed
was only a double, but given that they were planning to cuddle, its size
was adequate.  As soon as they were cleaned up from the walk and had dried
off, Lisa and her lover locked the door to the guest room and crawled into
the small bed.  Kathleen nestled her body against Lisa and promptly fell
asleep.

   Lisa heard the front door open and close, and footsteps going down the
sidewalk to the street.  Undoubtedly that was the sound of Tracy leaving to
go back to the Four-Beta house.  In the silence of her professor's guest
room, she relaxed for a few minutes as the sky lightened outside.  She was
dead tired, but it would take her a few minutes to actually fall asleep.

   Still, Lisa was content at the prospect that she and the others could
sleep as long as they wanted, a luxury sure to be denied to them had they
stayed behind in the sorority house.  Tracy really had thought ahead,
wanting to make sure her group not only was familiar with Old Campus, but
also well-rested and alert for what was likely to be a very stressful
night.

   Lisa stroked her lover's hair for a few minutes and finally fell asleep
herself.  For once she felt that she did not have to worry about anything.
Hopefully Tracy had everything under control.

   *****

   Lisa did not wake up until 3:00 in the afternoon.  She looked at the
clock in disbelief, realizing that she and Kathleen had slept more than
nine hours.  She eased herself away from her lover, not wanting to wake her
up before she had a chance to leave the room.  She knew that Kathleen would
be desperate to make love to her as soon as they got up, but decided that
with Tracy in the house and the other pledges already awake that having sex
with Kathleen probably was not a good idea.

   Lisa stepped into the hallway, trying to shake out the unpleasant
tingling from her left arm that had "gone to sleep".  She was surprised to
see Tracy asleep on the living room sofa in her gym shorts and T-shirt.  It
occurred to Lisa that, however little sleep the pledges had enjoyed over
the past several days, their Pledge Mistress had even less.  Lisa found her
backpack near the front door and slung it over her shoulder.  She found
Bernadette and Cherine already sitting out on Burnside's patio, each of
them quietly studying in a lawn chair.  Each of them had a large glass of
orange juice, which reminded Lisa that she was hungry.  Lisa went to the
kitchen, filled a glass for herself, and took a bagel to snack on.  With
that she joined the others and began reading for the classes she had the
next day.

   The final member of the group to wake up was Kathleen.  She didn't get
up until 4:30, having slept nearly 11 hours.  She was sorely disappointed
that Lisa was not still in bed with her, but otherwise felt refreshed and
better than she had felt in days.  Yes, adequate sleep really can make a
difference.  She picked up her backpack and joined the others on the patio
in the late afternoon heat.

   At 6:30 Tracy woke up and told her group to clean up the house and get
ready to "move out!" As the pledges made the beds and cleaned the kitchen,
Tracy turned on her cell phone and called the sorority.  Lisa overheard her
part of the conversation:

   "...  yes, of course I'm with the pledges...  yes, they've studied... 
look, I understand that...  OK, let's get something straight here,
Alexandra...  No...  No...  No, my job was to get them ready for the
scavenger hunt, that's what you told me.  You told me yourself that I'm
responsible if they lose.  Those were your words, and to me that means it
was up to me to decide how to get them ready...  yes, they're ready... .I
understand that, but you didn't say anything about me keeping them at the
house...  you did not specify that, Alexandra...  I took them off-campus so
they could rest, that's why...  Yes, they're rested, and I'm just about to
bring 'em back...  Look, I don't give a shit about Heather, I really don't!
Those pledges are my responsibility, not hers!  Alexandra, you know what?
If her feelings are hurt, tough shit...  now, either you want my group to
win, or you don't!  Which is it?"

   *****

   Tracy and the pledges made their way back to the sorority house on foot,
a trek of nearly four miles in the heat of an early summer evening.  They
calmly crossed the street back onto campus and passed the dorm parking
lots. The five women contemplated dozens of cars blissfully occupying
spaces without parking permits; vehicles that would be on their way to a
towing company's impound lot later that night.

   The massive parking enforcement operation was a ritual that took place
Sunday night of the second week of every semester.  It was Campus
Security's hard lesson to the arrogant freshmen who cheerfully assumed that
university parking regulations did not apply to them.  Later that night the
lot would be full of tow trucks and the exits would be blocked to prevent
frantic dorm residents from getting their vehicles off campus before they
could be towed.  A few days later most of the cars would be back in the
lots, but this time properly adorned with parking permits.

   The event would be a perfect time to conduct a naked scavenger hunt,
because the attention of the entire university would be focused on the dorm
area.  As word of the operation spread, frantic students who had not
bothered to purchase permits would be rushing back to the dorm lots, while
the more compliant students who already had bought permits would be
standing around watching the fun.  The police would be on hand in force to
make sure no one interfered with the tow trucks, so it was certain that Old
Campus would be completely deserted.

   The group was left the university just as the sun was setting.  Tracy
stopped to give the pledges one final set of instructions:

   "Alright, you've got a rough night ahead of you, but I'm sure you're a
lot more ready to do this than the Triple-A's.  This'll be it for me,
because I'm gonna be spending the night with their Pledge Master, running
around Old Campus and making sure all of the scavenger hunt items are where
they're supposed to be.  I've done what I can to get you ready and the rest
of it's up to you."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   What I'm telling you now will be explained by President Alexandra when
you're ready to move out, but you might as well hear it from me first, in
case you have questions.  There are going to be two kinds of items you're
looking for.  One's gonna be a list of things you'll need to take pictures
of with a digital camera, items that are part of the university and cannot
be picked up.  That's where I expect you to beat the Triple-A's, 'cause you
know where everything is.  You understand that part?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "The other list is of stuff you need to find and bring back to the
judges, who'll be set up at a table behind the Alumni Clubhouse.  Your list
is gonna be different from what the Triple-A's have.  I haven't seen either
list yet, but I do know there's gonna be stuff on there like library books
and flyers out of the Student Center.  You might be bringing back something
weird, like a toilet seat or a typewriter, but I don't know that for sure.
A word of warning: once you bring your items back to the judges, do not
leave until you're absolutely sure they've been logged.  Get it?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "I would recommend that two of you carry items you've already picked up,
while the other two retrieve new stuff, and to take your findings to the
judges several at a time to save trips.  Now, one more word of warning.  No
matter how rushed you think you are, do NOT separate!  Stay within sight of
each other, always, even if you're inside a building!  Stay together and
work together!  I cannot emphasize enough what I just said.  No matter
what, you've got to stick together!  Get it?"

   "Yes, ma'am!"

   "So, who do you think's gonna win?"

   "We are, ma'am!"



   Chapter 22 - The scavenger hunt

   A few minutes later Tracy turned the pledges over to a sophomore from
the fraternity, who in turn escorted the women back to the Four-Beta house.
The sight that greeted Lisa and her companions was not re-assuring.  The
sorority's members were dressed in formal clothing and all were carrying
cameras.  Obviously the scavenger hunt was going to be a serious matter.

   The pledges stripped off their uniforms and knelt in front of President
Alexandra.  The sorority president told them essentially the same thing
Tracy had told them, that they would be looking for the contents of two
separate lists: campus landmarks and retrievable items.  There were 50
items on each list, for 100 total.  The contest would end if one side found
every item on both lists.  If neither side managed to complete their lists
by 5:00 a.m., the team that had retrieved the most items would be declared
the winner.

   Either way, the losing team faced a very humiliating experience the
following afternoon, a public punishment from the Sergeant-at-Arms of the
winning side.  On Monday after dinner, the losers would be handcuffed and
publicly marched over to the house of the winning side.  Upon entering the
house the losers would be stripped and caned, one cane stroke for each item
not retrieved from the group's list.  The punishments would be photographed
and videotaped, and copies made available to anyone who wanted them.  The
losing pledges would remain in servitude in the winners' house until the
cane marks disappeared from their bodies, which possibly would take as much
as a week.  The servitude would include some sexual favors, such as
submitting to being touched and photographed, and giving physical favors
such as foot rubs and erotic massages.

   Lisa and her companions trembled upon hearing the contest conditions for
the losers.  No wonder Tracy had taken getting them ready so seriously. 
President Alexandra suddenly shouted:

   "PLEDGES!  STAND UP!"

   She handed Lisa a digital camera, and told her to take a picture of the
other three pledges.  Lisa fumbled with the camera for a few seconds as she
figured out how it worked, and finally took the picture.  The president
continued:

   "OK, now you know how this camera works.  It has a new video card and
batteries, so there shouldn't be any problems with it.  One rule about the
pictures.  For the pictures to count, you must have at least one member of
your group in each shot, to prove you were at that location.  Full body
shots, ladies, 'cause we're not allowing any modesty, and I expect you to
take turns posing.  The shot doesn't count if it's not of your entire
body."

   With that Alexandra ordered the pledges to go out the front door.  They
cringed at the thought of walking naked through fraternity row and the
Pageant Street businesses at a time plenty of people were still out and
about, but to that problem the sorority had a solution.  The members lined
up around the pledges, forming a human curtain to shield the four naked
women in the center.  Two sophomores carrying flashlights and stop signs
moved out in front of the formation.

   With that a tight rectangle of well-dressed women marched down Sorority
Row, completely concealing the four naked contestants.  The two sophomores
jumped into each intersection with their stop signs to halt traffic and
make sure the women could cross without breaking formation.  The women
marched right down the center of Fraternity Row and were joined by the
Tri-Alphas, who were using the same formation to shield their pledges.  As
the two marching groups moved down Pageant Street, they began singing the
official songs of the fraternity and sorority in front of dozens of
bewildered pedestrians and bar patrons.  The concealment ended as soon as
Tri-Alphas and Four-Betas had crossed the street separating the Pageant
Street businesses from Old Campus.  The two formations stopped, the
marchers in the front stepped aside to let the pledges pass, and the two
presidents ordered the aspiring members to move into the open.

   The four women and five men (one of the male pledges already had quit)
walked in single file towards the Alumni Club and the judges' table. 
Sitting at the table with checklists and laptops were two seniors from the
sorority and two seniors from the fraternity.  The nine contestants knelt
in front of the judges as several cameras flashed at them.  The fraternity
and sorority members circled around the table and positioned themselves so
everyone could watch what was going on.

   Lisa glanced at the male pledges, noticing they appeared to be
exhausted. She wondered how much sleep they had been able to get over the
weekend and what, if anything, they had done to prepare themselves for the
scavenger hunt.

   Holding a megaphone, President Alexandra addressed the entire group,
while the pledges nervously waited on their knees.  She repeated the rules
of the hunt, emphasizing the high stakes for both the contestants and for
determining who would go naked at the "Skins and Shirts" ball.  She added
that the spectators from neither side could do anything to impede the
contestants from the other side, but that everyone was free to observe the
hunt and take as many pictures as they wanted.  She concluded by shouting:

   "PLEDGES!  STAND UP!"

   With that one of the judges stepped forward with four tightly typed
sheets of paper.  He told Ken to pick one sheet, and then Bernadette to
pick another.  On one side was the list of places that needed to be
photographed, and on the other side were the items that needed to be picked
up and returned to the judges' table.

   "OK, that's it!  Go find your stuff!"

   The two groups stepped away from the judges and consulted their lists.
It was obvious that the males and females were going to employ totally
different strategies, because the males divided up what was on their list
and ran off in different directions, apparently forgetting that there was
only on digital camera for the entire group.  The women, mindful of their
Pledge Mistress's admonition to stay together, did not even consider
splitting up.

   Bernadette read:

   "Item 1 - Three rose bushes, one of them dead, next to a large lilac
bush under a large window with 18 windowpanes."

   Cherine immediate blurted out: "I know!  The old theater!  It's got
those big windows and lilac bushes!"

   "OK, let's check it out!"

   The women dashed across the lawn and sure enough, the old theater
building had 18-pane windows and was surrounded by lilac bushes.  A quick
circle around the building revealed the dead rose bush.  Lisa held up the
camera:

   "OK, Cherine, you found it, so you get the honor!"

   Cherine proudly posed next to the dead rose bush, while Lisa was careful
to include the other details listed in Item 1.  Bernadette read:

   "Item 2 - A freshly-painted cement staircase next to three newspaper
dispensers and a vandalized bicycle rack!"

   Lisa smiled.  "I ought to know that one!  That's the back entrance to
the Econ Building!"

   "OK, Let's go!"

   Less than a minute later the group had their second picture, Lisa
standing next to the bicycle rack.

   "Item 3 - An anti-Mega-Town Associates poster and a Danubian national
flag.  A Danubian flag.  Anyone know what'd that look like?"

   "It'd be a blue flag with a yellow griffin on it.  Kind of
medieval-looking," interjected Lisa.

   Kathleen excitedly raised her hand: "I know!  I think there's a flag
like that at the Economic Justice Forum in the Student Center!  And I
remember seeing something there about Mega-Town!"

   "Alright, let's go check it out!"

   A minute later the camera's flash went off again, this time documenting
Kathleen's body in front of a window displaying a Danubian flag.  The
Danubian Duchy's national flag was rapidly becoming a symbol for everyone
who hated the largest corporation in the U.S., which was why the Economic
Justice Forum had one on display in its office.

   The Four-Beta pledges quickly and calmly progressed through their list
of pictures, vindicating Tracy's preparation and advice to stick together.
It seemed that there was someone in the group who knew where each item was.
Within two hours Lisa's camera had 50 pictures stored on its memory card;
each photo portraying a member of the group posing in front of one of the
places on the list.  The women actually began having some fun with their
assignment, enjoying the cool night air and the daring feeling of running
into various university buildings completely naked.  It was true that they
had to deal with constantly running past dozens of male and female
spectators, but most of the people watching were members of the sorority
and fraternity or friends, and thus no one was making fun of them or
yelling catcalls.  During the entire time Campus Security was nowhere in
sight, given the on-going action at the other end of the university in the
dorm area.

   Lisa caught only a few glimpses of the guys.  They were clearly in deep
trouble, partly because they had not tried to memorize Old Campus, and
partly because they were not working together.  Instead each Tri-Alpha
pledge had taken 10 items off the list and was trying to find them himself.
The only member of the male group who was even close to finding his 10
items was Ken, who already was familiar with Old Campus from having been a
student the year before.  The others were hopelessly lost.

   Lisa took a breath and decided to take a slight risk.  She decided not
to turn in the 50 pictures to the judges until her group already had begun
collecting the items from the other side of the list.  The pledges went
straight to the library, where they had to retrieve a total of 20 titles
from the bookshelves.  They slipped in through a side entrance, let in by
Stacy, the library employee.  Standing next to Stacy was a sophomore from
the Tri-Alphas, to make sure Stacy did not do anything to tilt the library
portion of the contest in favor of the female pledges.  There was no
concern that the group would be charged with stealing books, because
Alexandra and the Tri-Alpha president had previously checked them out and
then re-shelved them.

   Lisa had a question:

   "Have any of the Triple-A's been in here yet?"

   "Only Ken.  He got five books off the list and just left.  I haven't
seen any of the others."

   Holy crap!  This really was going to be a disaster for the guys!

   The four naked women scrambled about the library with maps, calmly
finding and grabbing the required books.  They even had time to stop for a
bathroom break and to drink some water.  After about 30 minutes all 20
titles were in the group's possession.  Lisa handed her camera and the list
to Cherine, while she, Kathleen, and Bernadette split the books between
them and carried them out of the building.

   The judges looked at the Four-Betas in amazement when they approached
the table.  After just three hours, the women already had found 70 of the
100 items on their list.  Following Tracy's advice, Lisa carefully watched
while the judges downloaded the 50 pictures from the camera's video card.

   Lisa had set aside the remaining 30 items because they were the most
difficult and none close to any of the others.  True to Tracy's word, one
of the items they needed to retrieve was a toilet seat from the men's
bathroom of the Economics Building.  That particular item was somewhat time
consuming, because to get the toilet seat off the toilet the pledges had to
either find or improvise a screwdriver.  They wasted nearly 30 minutes
before Kathleen suddenly remembered that the janitor's closet in the
library near the door where Stacy had let them in was open.  Maybe there
were tools in there?

   The four women frantically ran back to the library, and sure enough, the
janitor's closet was open and contained a toolbox.  Lisa suddenly realized
the closet was part of the contest, that it deliberately had been left open
as a resource for either side who needed tools to retrieve their items. 
She wondered if the guys had figured that out yet.  Probably not.

   With a screwdriver and wrench in hand, the women returned to the
Economics Building to retrieve their toilet seat.  Kathleen triumphantly
held it up while the others laughed and Bernadette took a picture.  Then
Cherine shocked the group by standing at one of the urinals and pretending
to piss.  Bernadette took a picture of her before Lisa chased the group out
of the bathroom.  Her humor had deteriorated.  In spite of the moment of
levity, she was somewhat less confident about winning the scavenger hunt
after the toilet seat retrieval, worried that a single item had taken up 30
minutes of their time.

   Items collected over the next hour included several campus fliers and
publications from the Student Memorial Center, a cat-tail from the pond
behind the Alumni Clubhouse, a white stone from the rock garden near the
Old Theater, and a 50-pound weight from the Fitness Center.  Carrying the
weight across Old Campus was a very unpleasant task, because it had to be
carried by two of the pledges at a time.  The task was especially hard for
Lisa because she was so much taller than her three companions.  Whenever
she took her turn helping with the heavy disk she had to bend down to avoid
pushing the majority of its weight onto her companion.

   Once the weight was dropped off Lisa's group only had nine items to go,
and it was not even 2:00 in the morning.  She glanced at the collection of
items retrieved by the guys.  They were not even close.  She wondered if
they even had all of their pictures taken yet.

   The final nine items included a light fixture cover from the ballroom of
the Student Memorial Center and a ceiling panel from the main dining
facility.  Both items required using a ladder, which entailed a frantic
dash back to the library and the janitor's closet.  The pledges made a very
amusing sight as they ran back to the Student Center carrying a ladder in
the dark while completely naked.  Once the ceiling panel was passed down,
the pledges folded the ladder to carry back to the library.  At that moment
Ken came into the dining area with a totally desperate look on his face.

   "Lisa, please...  where did you get that ladder?"

   "You haven't figured it out?"

   "No!  And I gotta get one of those ceiling panels!"

   Bernadette interjected: "Well, that's tough shit, isn't it?  If you
jerks are too stupid to figure out where the ladders are, why should we
help you?"

   Lisa felt somewhat differently.  She had no intention of telling Ken
about the janitor closet, but saw no harm in letting him borrow the ladder
to get his ceiling panel.  After profusely thanking her, Ken climbed up to
get his panel.  Bernadette snapped:

   "What'd you do that for?  You want us to lose?"

   "Look, they're not gonna win.  Really, what difference does one item
make?"

   As Ken got down from the ladder with his ceiling panel, Lisa was
curious:

   "So how many things have you collected so far?"

   "All of us?"

   "Yeah, all of you.  What do you have?"

   "I think our last count was 37.  This panel will make it 38, unless
someone's gotten something that I haven't seen yet."

   "Thirty-eight items?  In five hours you've just gotten 38 items?  What
the fuck are you doing?"

   The tone in Ken's voice reflected his resignation to his group's
impending defeat: "I don't know what the fuck we're doing.  We're just
running around.  Anyhow, thanks for the ladder.  By the way, how many items
do you guys have?"

   "I think the ceiling panel makes it...  " Lisa checked the list, "... 
97.  We've got three to go."

   Ken's face turned white.  At this rate the males were facing a
punishment of more than 60 cane strokes each, delivered by none other than
Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms Heather.

   By 3:30 the Four-Beta pledges had everything on their list.  The final
item was a detachable microphone from a speaker's podium in the Student
Center.  The women were en route to the judges when Bernadette announced
that she needed to use the bathroom.  The closest one was in the Economics
Building.  While the three freshmen went into the bathroom Lisa remained
out in the hallway, twirling the microphone that would be the winning item.
At that moment Ken rushed by.  He was just about to go into the women's
bathroom to retrieve a toilet seat when Lisa told him that he had to wait
until her companions came out.  As he stood nervously waiting, Lisa felt
sorry for him.  He seemed to have done relatively well with his portion of
the search, but his incompetent companions had found very few of the items
assigned to them.  Because of their stupidity he would suffer horribly
later that night.

   At that moment Lisa realized that she really was in no mood to watch Ken
and his companions receive 60 cane strokes.  She still had every intention
of winning, but did not see what good it would do anyone to have Ken and
his group punished so severely.  What she wished was that the tally could
have been much closer.  She wished that, because in spite of everything,
she still deeply cared for Ken and did not want to see him and his group so
thoroughly defeated.  She wanted a victory, not a blow-out.

   Lisa made a significant decision.  She decided to give the guys an extra
hour to find more items, so the final tally would not be so lop-sided. 
Really, wouldn't watching them get 20 or 30 strokes from the cane be better
than having to sit through 60?  She held up the microphone.

   "You know what this is?"

   "A microphone?"

   "It's our last item.  Once we turn this in the contest will be over."

   Ken sighed.  Lisa took a deep breath and continued:

   "I'm gonna tell you what you did wrong, and then give you a chance to
fix some of it.  You shouldn't have split up, especially for the
picture-taking portion of the hunt.  For that type of thing you've got to
put your heads together, and instead you're all running off in separate
directions.  Now go find your group and tell them you've got an hour to get
what's left of your pictures."

   "But, I thought you're gonna...  "

   "We're gonna win.  There's no doubt about that because I'm not letting
you get your toilet seat.  Anyhow you'd need a screwdriver to do it, and
I'm gonna guess you didn't notice the toolbox in the janitor's closet where
Stacy's standing in the library...  " Ken closed his eyes and groaned, "...
but anyhow don't worry about it because I'm not letting you have the toilet
seat.  What I am gonna let you have is the rest of your pictures.  I'm
giving you an hour and I'll give you one clue.  If you're looking for
windows with 18 panes, the only building that's got 'em is the old
theater."

   Ken was quiet for a moment.  Finally he asked:

   "How come you're letting us...  "

   "Because I don't want to sit up all night tonight watching your butts
get demolished.  I want to win, but I don't want to totally slaughter you.
Now move your ass and go find the others.  I'm giving you an hour before I
turn in the microphone."

   Ken took off to find the group-mate that currently was using the camera.
At that moment, Lisa's three companions came out of the bathroom, assuming
they would continue their trek to the judges' table.  Instead, Lisa
directed them into the outer portion of Burnside's office and explained
what was happening.  The other three vehemently objected, shocking Lisa by
angrily demanding that the group return to the judges immediately.  The
most forceful objection came from Kathleen:

   "Yes, those guys are gonna get humiliated and that's what I want!  I
wanna totally slaughter them!  And I do wanna see the shit get beat out of
them!  Fuck giving them an hour!  We've busted our asses to win, and you
just want to give it away!  Fuck that!  No way!"

   Cherine interjected: "You think they'd do the same thing for us?  I
don't think so...  "

   Bernadette added: "It's three against one, Lisa.  The deal you made with
them is canceled.  We're going back, now."

   To that Lisa countered: "Before we go back, I want you to think about
something.  We're gonna be seeing those guys for the next four years.  Four
years!  We're gonna be going to dances with 'em, raising money with 'em,
doing all kinds of events and trips with 'em.  How we treat them when
they're down is something they're gonna remember.  If we cut them some
slack now, maybe, when they're in our shoes and we're in theirs, they'll do
the same for us.  Think real careful about what you're planning to do,
because this is our chance to either make five friends, or make five
enemies.  As for me, I'd prefer to have five friends."

   Before her companions had a chance to object, Lisa continued:

   "Also, maybe the scavenger hunt isn't the only test tonight.  Maybe
they're also seeing how the winners treat the losers.  You ever think about
that?"

   The three freshmen stood quietly.  It was Bernadette who gave in first.

   "Alright.  An hour.  So what are we gonna do in the meantime?"

   "There's two sofas in here, so you and Cherine can take a nap.  I'll get
you up in an hour."

   "And you?"

   "We are gonna win.  It's just that I don't want a blow-out.  Just to
make sure, I'm going back to the bathroom and make sure no one takes off
with the toilet seat."

   The promise of an hour of sleep shifted Cherine's opinion in favor of
Lisa's proposal.  She promptly settled on one of the sofas and prepared to
nap.  Being uncovered in the office didn't bother her, given that she had
become used to sleeping uncovered on her cot.  The sofa was considerably
more comfortable and the rest welcome.  Bernadette settled on the other
sofa and promptly closed her eyes.

   Lisa went back down the hallway, with Kathleen forlornly trailing behind
her.  Kathleen still wanted to return to the judges' table immediately. 
She would have been quite happy to see five males get 60 cane strokes each.
The women had worked hard to find their items and part of the reward should
have been enjoying the very public flogging of the losers.  She would have
been perfectly content had the punishment been 90 cane strokes instead of
60, happier still to see the backsides of the males completely torn open
and blood running down their legs.  She hated young men, all young men, and
for her to not take advantage of an opportunity to inflict suffering on
young men was an abomination.

   Kathleen suspected that she could not discuss her vehement hatred of men
with Lisa, because it was obvious that Lisa did not hold any general grudge
against them.  She had enjoyed two relatively stable relationships with men
before hooking up with Kathleen and could relate to them with no problem.
Kathleen felt betrayed by Lisa, but couldn't figure out how to express why
she felt she had been betrayed.

   Lisa understood more of what was going on in Kathleen's mind than her
lover realized.  She also understood that an opportunity had presented
itself to get Kathleen to talk about her feelings.  The two women returned
to the bathroom and Lisa tried to hug Kathleen.  At first Kathleen pushed
her away, but finally she fell into Lisa's arms and hugged her, in spite of
her on-going anger over her leniency towards the males.

   Lisa leaned against a wall and allowed Kathleen to rest against her. 
She decided to break the silence by talking a bit about Ken and trying to
explain why he really wasn't so bad.  Lisa's purpose was to portray her
former boyfriend as a confused human being, in reality struggling with many
of the same issues that Lisa and Kathleen were struggling with.  She tried
to get Kathleen to sympathize with the guys, who were terrified at the
prospect of losing the scavenger hunt so badly.  Kathleen didn't respond,
but she didn't argue either, which Lisa took as a good sign.

   Lisa abruptly changed the subject and asked Kathleen a question to which
she already knew the answer.  She casually inquired what Kathleen thought
about the guys in her high school and what her social life had been like.
Kathleen kept her head pressed against Lisa's chest.  She heard her lover
sniff loudly, and then felt a warm drop running down her skin.

   "Everyone hated me.  They all laughed at me.  I mean, I tried...  I
really tried to get them to like me...  I mean...  I did what they
wanted... I always did what they wanted, but all they ever did was make fun
of me."

   "The guys?"

   "Everyone.  I mean...  even after I gave 'em what they wanted...  "

   "You mean sex...  "

   "Yeah...  "

   "Kathleen, you don't just give that away.  You gotta make 'em earn it.
You gotta make 'em beg you for it.  That way, you're in control, not them.
That's where things went wrong for you.  You made it too easy.  A guy only
appreciates what he has to fight for."

   "The girls hated me too.  And I hate them.  I hate them all."

   "But you were trying to make them like you...  "

   "I guess.  I mean...  I wanted someone to like me, at least someone...
and I tried...  "

   "If you want to make friends, you can't 'try'.  It just doesn't work,
because people can smell your desperation.  And I know, when you're lonely,
it's hard not to try.  But the more you need someone else, the more they're
gonna push you away.  It's kind of a cycle, I guess.  You get used to
thinking a certain way, even though what you're doing has the exact
opposite effect of what you want.  I 'spose the more desperate you get, the
harder it is to just let it go.  That's what you should've done, let it go,
and tell them to go fuck themselves.  But you couldn't, could you?"

   "No.  I'd get home...  and I'd clean myself up...  and I kept promising
myself I wouldn't let it happen again...  but it always did...  "

   "Clean yourself up?"

   "Yeah."

   "You mean, like, get the cum off yourself?"

   "Yeah...  I mean...  one time I went out...  and the guy I was with...
he like...  took me to this park...  And he told me to suck on him... 
right there in the parking lot...  and I was totally scared that someone
would see us...  and he came...  but he pulled out and came all over my
face...  and then he stood there laughing at me...  I started to cry, and
he just left me there and drove off.  I had to walk...  I had to walk an
hour...  I couldn't take the bus...  cause I was all covered with cum... 
and I couldn't let anyone see me...  and I hate it.  And I hate them... 
That's what the guys did to me...  That's why...  "

   For a long time the two women were silent, Kathleen's arms still firmly
wrapped around Lisa.  Finally Lisa broke the silence.

   "Kathleen, has it ever occurred to you that maybe some of the guys went
through the same thing, or something similar to what you had to put up
with? They take a girl out, spend their money on her, and then after a few
months she 'just wants to be friends'.  And they do it over and over, take
a girl out, then they get told that they are a 'really sweet guy and a
great friend', and then off goes the girl with some arrogant abusive
scumbag?  And the guy keeps wondering: what's wrong with him?  My high
school boyfriend (his name was Mike) had a friend who that kept happening
to.  He was always 'the nice guy' and 'the great friend', but none of the
girls wanted to go out with him.  And you know what he did?"

   "What?"

   "It finally got to him on Prom Night, when he couldn't get anyone to go
with him to the dance.  He had enough of being all the girls' 'good
friend'. So at sunset, he drove out to the coast, all dressed up in a tux,
and jumped off a cliff.  And you know what?  The girls couldn't understand
why he did it, 'cause they all said he was 'such a great guy'.  And the
counselors came around trying to tell us that it wasn't their fault.  And I
said, yes, it was your fault, because if you had treated him decently, and
if one of you had the courtesy to do something else besides take his money
and tell him 'what a great friend he is' and then go run off sucking the
cocks of the football players, he'd still be alive.  I made 'em cry quite a
bit, but I doubt it changed anything."

   "...  what'd the school say?"

   "I got suspended 'cause I pissed off the counselors.  My mom had to file
a petition so I could take my final exams and graduate.  The whole thing
pissed me off, which is one of the reasons I came to Chicago.  Deep down I
was relieved that the California colleges wouldn't take me and Mike, 'cause
I really wanted to get away from Santa Cruz.  But the point is, you're not
the only one.  And it doesn't just happen to women."

   There was another long silence.  Finally Kathleen noted: "I didn't go to
Prom either.  I got stood up."

   "But you didn't jump off a cliff, did you?"

   "I wanted to.  And my dad knew what I was thinking.  He wouldn't let me
out of his sight until I started college, because he knew...  and that's
why he insisted I start at the beginning of the June instead of September,
'cause he didn't want me sitting at home all summer...  "

   "And he wasn't worried about you pledging the Four-Betas?"

   "He actually wanted me to pledge a sorority.  Thought it would be good
for me."

   "So, you're here because of your dad?"

   "Sort of."

   "Are you glad about that?"

   Kathleen looked up at Lisa with teary eyes:

   "I'm with you, aren't I?  Of course I'm happy."

   Lisa forced herself to smile and let Kathleen kiss her.  Lisa's heart
pounded as Kathleen pressed into her body, hugging her tightly.  Kathleen's
next words did nothing to set Lisa's mind at ease.

   "I love you.  I really love you.  I love you more than I've ever loved
anyone.  You know that, right?"

   "Yes, of course I do."

   "And you love me?"

   "You know I do."

   "I need to hear it.  I need you to say it."

   "I love you, Kathleen."

   Kathleen hugged even harder, as Lisa's heart continued to pound.  She
was very frightened by the intensity of the desperate young woman in her
arms.  She did love Kathleen, sort of, but it wasn't that simple.  With
Lisa nothing was simple, certainly nothing having to do with her emotions.

   As Kathleen continued to cuddle against her, Lisa pondered how best to
handle her situation.  The thought of trying to break off the relationship
never crossed her mind, because the truth was she did care for Kathleen and
wanted to play a positive role in her life.  Lisa accepted that it was
quite possible that she and her lover would have a serious relationship for
a very long time, possibly for the rest of their lives.  What Lisa wanted,
however, was to be in charge of that relationship and make sure it did not
restrict her pursuit of other goals in her life, especially possible
relationships with men and her various sexual fantasies.  She would have to
make her lover understand that she was indeed willing to give her a
lifetime of commitment and support, but that commitment would have to be on
Lisa's terms, not Kathleen's.

   At a moment when Kathleen was vulnerable and scared of losing her, Lisa
realized that she had a good opportunity to shape the relationship to
better suit her own needs.  She reached down and began massaging the girl's
thin bottom.  Kathleen's body responded immediately.  Lisa was silent for
another moment as she continued to gently explore her lover's backside and
contemplated how to best phrase what she wanted to say about the future of
the relationship.

   "I love you," she finally repeated.  "...  and I'll take care of you. 
I'll make sure that no one ever hurts you again.  Anyone ever who tries to
hurt you will have to deal with me.  But I'll need you to promise me
something."

   "Anything."

   "If I'm gonna take care of you, I need you to accept that you belong to
me.  You understand that, right?"

   "I belong to you.  Of course."

   "I will guide you, and I'll give you a sense of direction.  But to do
that, you'll need to let me take charge of your life.  When I tell you to
do something, I'll expect you to obey me, because I'll always have my
reasons.  You OK with that?"

   "Yes."

   "I won't ever do anything to deliberately hurt you, but sometimes I'll
need to be a bit firm with you.  Someday I might have to discipline you, if
you ever misbehave.  If that happens, I'll make sure you understand why,
and I'll only do it because I love you.  But if you belong to me, and you
love me, you'll have to obey me.  I can't have it any other way."

   "Of course, Lisa.  Of course I'll obey you."

   "And accept the consequences if you don't?"

   "Yes, Lisa.  I'll do what you tell me.  I promise."

   The two women sealed their agreement with a passionate kiss.  Lisa
grabbed Kathleen's bare bottom and squeezed with both hands.  That bottom
now belonged to Lisa, along with the rest of Kathleen's body and soul. 
Lisa was hugely relieved.  With just a few words, she had taken control of
her lover's life and would be the one determining the course of their
relationship.

   *****

   A few minutes later Ken and the other four males sheepishly entered the
Economics Building.  Lisa heard them coming down the hallway and stepped
out of the bathroom to greet them.  Ken showed Lisa the group's list; they
had completed the 50 pictures on the sheet and retrieved 11 library books.
In one hour they had added 35 items to their inventory, simply by working
together.  They had a total of 73 items collected, which would reduce their
upcoming caning from 62 strokes to 27.  Lisa decided to allow the guys to
reduce their canings by one more stroke, by letting them take the toilet
seat.

   While the guys entered the bathroom to extract their 74th item, Lisa and
Kathleen returned to Burnside's office to wake up Bernadette and Cherine.
They were in a somewhat better mood after having enjoyed an hour of rest.
With that the nine pledges made their way to the judges' table.  The guys
went first, and then Lisa turned in her microphone.  The judges stood up
and announced the winners: the Four-Betas.

   The women cheered while the Tri-Alphas stood silent.  Tracy stood back,
not wanting to take credit for what her pledges had accomplished, even
though they had won because of her efforts during the days leading up to
the scavenger hunt.  The truth was the women knew that it was because of
the Pledge Mistress that their side had won.  The pledges' absence from the
sorority house on Sunday and Tracy's secretive approach toward getting them
ready had caused some resentment among the seniors and sorority officers,
but her strategy ultimately was vindicated.  Tracy's victory greatly
improved her popularity among the sophomores, and even among some of the
juniors.  Alexandra and Heather pretended to be pleased at Tracy's win, but
in reality they resented her sudden popularity.  Had Lisa seen Heather's
expression in the darkness, she would have realized there would be trouble
waiting for Tracy and the pledge group later in the summer.

   However, it was the Tri-Alpha pledges that had a much more immediate
problem.  There would be hell to pay later that night, along with the
indignity of the entire fraternity having to attend the "Skins and Shirts"
ball in the nude.  For the summer dance a better name would be the "Skins
and Skirts" ball, since it would be the women who would be showing off
their evening gowns while the men were committed to showing off their
bodies.

   A few minutes later several sophomores from both the fraternity and the
sorority gathered up the scavenger hunt items to return to where they
belonged.  By 5:30 everything would be in place and the buildings locked
up, leaving no trace that the hunt had ever happened.  Meanwhile, the
fraternity and sorority members walked back to their houses, leading the
pledges across the street.  The groups did not march in protective
formation, because the streets were empty and no one was around to see the
handful of naked freshmen accompanying the dozens of well-dressed men and
women.

   Lisa enjoyed the walk back.  She loved the feel of the cool air against
her exposed body, and the daring sensation of being naked among a large
group of well dressed people.  She also was happy that her relationship
with Kathleen seemed to be somewhat resolved, and that she had been able to
do something worthwhile for Ken.  She hoped, really hoped, that one thing
she could accomplish that summer was to make peace with him.



   Chapter 23 - Pledge Ken's servitude

   The pledges returned to their cots at 5:00 a.m.  Ordinarily they would
have had to get up for PT in just a few minutes, but that particular
morning they were allowed to skip the mandatory exercise session.  They had
endured plenty of exercise already, having spent the hours between 10:00
p.m.  and 4:30 a.m.  in constant physical activity.  Instead Tracy
announced that the pledges would be allowed to sleep until 7:00 a.m.  and
not have to get up until the sophomores were ready to have breakfast.

   Shortly before 8:00 Tracy led her group back to campus for their morning
classes.  Lisa was somewhat tired, but she was sure she could make it
through the lectures given her Sunday of sleeping at Burnside's house and
the two additional hours of rest after the scavenger hunt.  She noticed the
totally exhausted look on the face of the Pledge Mistress, realizing that
Tracy had not had any sleep at all since the previous afternoon.

   Lisa wondered what motivated the Pledge Mistress.  However hard Tracy
pushed the pledges, she pushed herself much more.  Only once had Lisa seen
Tracy sleeping or relaxing, and that was the previous afternoon when she
collapsed on Burnside's living room sofa from sheer exhaustion.  Over the
entire weekend she only had about four hours of sleep, because Lisa knew
for a fact she had not slept Saturday at all.  As for Monday morning, Tracy
led the sophomores exercising, so she did not even get the two hours her
pledges got after the hunt.

   So what was it that drove Tracy?  Was it the military?  There certainly
was a lot of the military in her personality: she had completely
internalized whatever those drill sergeants had done to her in Basic
Training.  But something else drove her as well.  Lisa suspected that Tracy
was worried about displaying any personal weakness to the point it had
become a phobia.  Perhaps it was fear, fear of herself and her own
vulnerabilities; that gave Tracy so much drive and energy.

   As she contemplated her strange Pledge Mistress and the bizarre
adventure she was leading, Lisa felt genuine admiration for her.  Tracy's
powerful personality matched that of Ruth Burnside, but there were many
differences as well.  While Burnside's nature exuded raw sexuality,
whatever sexual desires Tracy had she seemed content to keep hidden. 
Burnside never skipped a chance to indulge herself with sex, fine food, and
physical comfort, while Tracy's life seemed extremely austere.

   Still, what impressed Lisa was not what made the professor and the
Pledge Mistress different, but what they had in common.  Both women
dominated their surroundings and imposed their will on the people around
them.  Both provided role models for Lisa, personality traits she wanted to
adopt for herself.  The differences in their personal lives made Lisa aware
that she could, and would have to, find her own balance between indulgence
and sacrifice.  Lisa would adapt what she needed from both her mentors, but
then use that knowledge to follow her own path in life.

   *****

   Monday passed uneventfully.  Lisa split her time between her duties in
Burnside's office and her attendance at class.  In the afternoon Tracy,
appearing more exhausted than ever, came by with the three freshmen to
retrieve her and take the group back to the sorority house.  Of course,
after dinner there was plenty of excitement waiting for the members and
pledges of the Four-Beta Sorority: the public caning of the five Tri-Alpha
pledges.

   As soon as the Pledge Mistress and her charges returned to the sorority
house, it was obvious the punishment was going to be a major event.  The
majority of the women already were well-dressed and armed with cameras and
camcorders.  In the sitting room a sturdy table, complete with restraining
straps, had been set up and the sorority's entire collection of canes was
assembled in a nearby umbrella stand.  Lisa noticed another table in a
corner containing a box of medical gloves, two very large pitchers of warm
water, and five enema bags and hose sets.  A pair of leather restraining
cuffs hung from chains attached to the ceiling.

   Tracy ordered the pledges to take their book bags downstairs but not to
get undressed.

   "This is an official punishment event for their group.  Because of that
you'll stay in uniform."

   The sorority's benches were set up along the sides of the room and
momentarily the seniors would be occupying them with the sophomores and
pledges standing behind.  The juniors would be in charge of the five
unfortunate males: cuffing and un-cuffing them, restraining them to the
table, taking official pictures, and sexually tormenting them both before
and after the punishments.  Along with 26 cane strokes, each male pledge
would be chained to the ceiling and subjected to a forced ejaculation (in
full view of all the women, of course) before the physical punishment. 
Following the physical portion of his punishment, each male pledge would
endure an enema and then be cuffed and escorted downstairs to evacuate and
shower.

   Once the punishments were completed, the officers of the fraternity
planned to leave their pledges at the sorority house.  Rather than wait for
the cane marks to fade, the fraternity simply decided their pledges would
remain in service of the sorority until Sunday night.  There was a final
indignity waiting for the Tri-Alpha aspirants during those grim six days.
They would have to wear the Four-Beta pledge shirt whenever attending
classes on campus.  Yes, that's right...  the dreaded pink shirt with the
message:

   PLEDGE

   This pledge is property of the Four-Beta Sorority. If found unescorted,
please return to rightful owner.

   As cruel as the week would be for the male pledges, the fraternity was
not acting out of simple sadism.  The Tri-Alpha officers had decided that
the pledges' internment in the sorority house would count as their "Hell
Week", the most grueling part of their pledging experience.  "Hell Week"
was a tradition for the fraternity; the worst part of the hazing that was
designed to determine who finally got to be let in as a
member-in-full-standing.  Normally "Hell Week" came somewhat later in the
semester, but in the case of the summer pledges, it made sense that "Hell
Week" would simply be the week the group had to perform penance at the
sorority house.  During that time the males would be at the mercy of the
sorority's women, and that included Lisa and her companions.  The advantage
of the plan for the male pledges would be to quickly get the worst part of
the pledging experience behind them.  By the end of the first month of the
summer semester the males would have "Hell Week" completed and most likely
anyone remaining in the group eventually would become a
member-in-full-standing in August.

   During their week at the Four-Beta house the males would have to do
anything the women commanded them to do.  The only limitation was that they
could not be ordered to risk arrest or permanent physical injury.  Apart
from that, anything, including sex, was fair game for the Four-Betas.  The
men would to be allowed to go to class and the opportunity to sleep six
hours per night.  With the exception of that allotted time for class and
sleeping, they would be completely at the mercy of the sorority's women.

   Lisa could tell that Bernadette most certainly had plans lined up, and
quite possibly some ideas were floating around Cherine's head as well.  As
for Kathleen, Lisa would have to keep her eyes on her.  If Kathleen wanted
to have some fun with the guys or use them for personal enjoyment, that was
OK.  However, if she wanted to torment them out of anger or eagerness to
avenge the earlier trauma of her life, Lisa would have to intervene.

   As the time approached for the males to be brought over to the sorority
house, Lisa pondered how she would deal with Ken.  An idea slowly formed in
her head to grab Ken for the pledge group and try to keep him away from the
sorority's other women.  If she could carry through with that plan, it
would have several advantages.  She wasn't too thrilled at the thought of
seeing Ken at the mercy of someone like Heather.  Perhaps, if he were
claimed by the pledge group, his "Hell Week" would be somewhat less onerous
than that of his companions.  Lisa might remain mad at him, but still, she
did not want to see him suffer unreasonably.  Also, her old desire to
control him had resurfaced, and the idea of having him under her command
for a week appealed to her.  She knew he was an expert at providing good
oral sex and massages, so the sexual appetites of the pledge group were
guaranteed to be satisfied.  Finally, Lisa vaguely understood that if she
controlled Ken and determined how the pledge group could enjoy him, she
would exert even more influence over her companions.

   Lisa decided to briefly talk to Bernadette and try to get her to support
her plan to keep Ken under the pledge group's control, and leave the other
male pledges alone.  To her surprise, Bernadette agreed.

   "If he's as good as you say he is, I 'spose that's not a bad idea you
got.  At least you know where his dick has been.  If you can convince
Tracy, or whoever, to let us have him; I'd go along with it.  Cherine's
still thinking about the VP, so I'd imagine she really doesn't care."

   "Thanks."

   "One condition.  If you get him, me and Cherine get to do whatever we
want with him.  He's not your ex-boyfriend; he's our property.  He belongs
to all of us, not just you."

   "I know.  That's fine with me."

   With that Lisa and Bernadette went back upstairs.  Lisa had managed to
ease the on-going tension between herself and Bernadette by seeking her
approval for the idea of claiming Ken for the pledge group.  She realized
something important, that if Bernadette felt that she had some control over
Lisa's decisions, it was likely that she would be much more cooperative. 
If Lisa approached Bernadette individually and presented any ideas in
private before announcing them to Cherine and Kathleen, she was
acknowledging her as a "co-leader".  She now knew how to deal with the most
difficult member of her group: simply consult with her before presenting
any ideas publicly.

   There was another significant detail that came out of that conversation.
Bernadette had spoken for herself and Cherine.  She did not mention
Kathleen.  Bernadette now took it for granted that Kathleen was Lisa's
responsibility and did not really have much of a voice in the pledge group.
Whatever Lisa told Kathleen to do she would go along with, so her opinions
were not much of a concern for the other two pledges.

   *****

   Lisa knew better than to pursue her desire to claim authority over Ken
without first requesting permission from Pledge Mistress Tracy.  As the
sophomores continued setting up, Lisa found her mentor, knelt, and
requested permission to speak.  Tracy agreed to talk to her in private.

   Once Lisa assured the Pledge Mistress that she already had consulted
with the other members of the pledge group, Tracy agreed to support her
idea of claiming Ken.  Tracy added it seemed likely that the male pledges
would be divided up anyway.  Undoubtedly Heather would take the unfortunate
"fat" guy she had been tormenting for herself, and the seniors, juniors,
and sophomores each would claim a Tri-Alpha pledge.  Because the women
dismissed him as being gay, Tracy figured no one would object to turning
Ken over to the Four-Beta pledge group.  Really, what could the freshmen do
with a gay guy anyway?

   Tracy confided to Lisa that there would be a surprise that evening. 
Because of his group's pathetic performance during the scavenger hunt,
Tracy's counterpart, Tri-Alpha Pledge Master Arnold, was officially
reprimanded by a unanimous vote of the fraternity's seniors and would have
to perform penance alongside his pledges.  He did not face a caning like
the others, but he would have to subject himself to six days of naked
servitude in the sorority.  Most likely he would be handed over to the
Four-Beta officers, who in turn, would share him with the other seniors. 
Lisa could tell that Tracy felt somewhat sorry for Arnold, because for a
fraternity officer to be publicly punished as though he was a pledge was a
big humiliation.

   *****

   "Here they come!"

   A cheer went up from the women as they crowded onto the front lawn to
watch the spectacle of six nude, cuffed and blindfolded men being led
towards the sorority by the Tri-Alpha seniors.  Now this really is
humiliating, thought Lisa to herself: being forced to walk several blocks
as naked prisoners.  There was nothing the young men could do to cover
themselves, because their hands were secured behind their backs.  To make
matters worse, two of the male pledges had erections that bobbed around as
they walked towards the sorority.

   The women from other sororities frantically ran out of their houses as
word spread about the spectacle on the street.  The entire block echoed
with the cheering of hundreds of women as the Tri-Alpha officers and their
prisoners walked up the Four-Beta driveway and were led into the house.  As
soon as the men entered the front door, the fun was over and the crowds of
cheering women quieted down and returned to their own sorority houses.

   A few minutes later a police patrol car came by to respond to a
citizen's complaint about six naked guys walking around on the street. 
However, the officer didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  He radioed
dispatch and kept on driving.  There's no naked guys out here.  Must have
been a prank call.

   *****

   The women quickly took their positions: the seniors sitting on the
benches, the juniors sitting in the front, and the sophomores and pledges
standing behind.  Heather stood next to the punishment table wearing
nothing but a sport-bra and running shorts.  She was looking over the
collection of canes and swishing them through the air, more to raise the
anxiety in the room than anything else.

   The males were led into the room and ordered to kneel.  The Tri-Alpha
officers took their positions standing near the window, with the exception
of the Pledge Master, who knelt in naked disgrace.  Tracy stepped forward
and removed the blindfolds of the kneeling males, given that the sorority
wanted them to witness each other's punishment.  With a riding crop the
Four-Beta Pledge Mistress tapped the males to properly position them:
kneeling upright with knees properly spread and genitalia exposed.  Once
the Pledge Mistress had her subjects properly positioned, she gently
touched the testicles of each frightened pledge with the tip of the riding
crop, hoping to force an erection.

   Lisa expected the punishment to have a ceremonial beginning, a speech or
other pronouncement excoriating the pledge group for having lost the
previous night's scavenger hunt.  However, the officers did not see the
point in any speech.  The males had lost and would be punished for it.  It
was that simple.

   Pledge Master Arnold faced humiliation, not because his group had lost,
but because it was obvious that he had not properly prepared them.  He was
being punished for somewhat different reasons than his group, having failed
in his duty as Pledge Master.  He would be spared the initial caning, but
there was no restriction against the women punishing him later in the week
if they wanted to do so.

   Already the cameras were flashing.  President Alexandra moved in front
of the group:

   "Pledge Master Arnold!"

   "Yes, President Alexandra!"

   "Stand up and explain to us why you are here!"

   Arnold stood up.

   "My pledge group is here to comply with the conditions set out for the
losers of the summer scavenger hunt.  Specifically that means 26 strokes of
the cane applied to the naked bottom of each member of the losing side,
followed by a week of servitude in the Four-Beta Sorority house."

   "...  and why have you presented yourself along with your group?"

   "Because we did not prepare for the scavenger hunt, President
Alexandra."

   "There is no 'we' Pledge Master Arnold.  You were responsible for not
preparing your group.  Now let me ask you something.  Is it true that our
pledges actually had to wait an hour before turning in their final item so
your group would not lose so badly?"

   "Yes, President Alexandra, that's true."

   "You failed your pledges and your fraternity.  Your pledges actually had
to rely on the mercy of our pledges because you did nothing to get them
ready.  That's why you're here.  The failure of your group is a personal
failure on your part."

   "Yes, President Alexandra."

   Lisa felt sorry for Arnold, because it was obvious that he and his
pledges had been busy over the weekend with other activities and had not
really thought about the hunt.  It also was likely that, unlike Tracy, it
had not occurred to him to sneak his pledges out of the Tri-Alpha house and
risk angering the other officers of the fraternity.  Part of his casual
attitude about the hunt came out of complacency, because the Tri-Alphas had
won the last four competitions against their female counterparts, not
having faced an opponent as determined as Tracy.

   Tracy, on the other hand, was obsessed with winning and was totally
unconcerned about risking her standing with her fellow officers.  Whatever
objections the other officers might have had about taking the pledges away
from the sorority house were silenced by the success of her strategy. 
Tracy's preparation of her group had been so thorough that the females felt
they needed to wait over an hour to give the Tri-Alphas a chance to find
more items.  To the judges it was obvious the females had decided to hold
back finishing the contest, because more than an hour went by between the
time they turned in their 99th item and their final item.

   Heather raised her hand:

   "President Alexandra, I request permission to speak!"

   "Yes, Sergeant-at-Arms Heather!"

   "I propose, given Pledge Master Arnold's personal failure, that five
cane strokes from the punishment of each member of his pledge group be
reassigned to him, that he gets 25 strokes and the strokes of the pledges
are reduced from 26 to 21!"

   "OK, a motion has been made.  Any seconds?"

   Two Tri-Alpha officers raised their hands.

   "OK, let's vote, officers only.  All officers in favor of transferring
five strokes from each Tri-Alpha pledge to Pledge Master Arnold raise their
hand."

   The five remaining Tri-Alpha officers and five of the Four-Beta officers
raised their hands.

   "Against?"

   Tracy raised her hand.

   "By a vote of 10 to one the officers have decided to impose a caning of
25 strokes on the naked bottom of Pledge Master Arnold, and that the
canings of each of the five pledges will be reduced from 26 to 21."

   *****

   A few minutes later the first male pledge was standing with his hands
immobilized by the cuffs hanging from the ceiling.  A Four-Beta junior
picked up a jar and two pairs of medical gloves.  She then ordered
Bernadette to stand up and assist her.  The junior and the pledge put on
their gloves, took positions on opposite sides of the male, and began
massaging his chest, bottom, and upper thighs.  The junior ordered
Bernadette to massage the young man's penis, while she lubricated her index
finger and inserted it into his bottom.  The male jerked forward, further
exposing himself to Bernadette.  The freshman firmly gripped his penis and
pushed him back to make it easier for the junior to find their victim's
prostate.  As the cameras flashed and the women applauded, the male pledge
groaned and released his semen into the jar.

   The junior told Bernadette to hold the jar up high, while she took a
thick indelible marker and wrote "Bad Boy" on the pledge's chest.  The two
women then stood on each side of the male and posed for numerous pictures
before finally being ordered to un-cuff him and resume his kneeling
position.

   The next member of the Tri-Alpha group to be masturbated was Ken.  Not
surprisingly, Ken already was quite hard, given his sexual attraction to
pain and fear.  The next junior in the punishment group called Kathleen to
assist her.  She whispered into Kathleen's ear:

   "Pledge, would you like to take him from the front or from the back?"

   "You mean...  like, put my finger up his bottom, ma'am?"

   "Yeah."

   "Yeah...  I...  I'd like that...  I mean to try that...  ma'am."

   "You know what to do, Pledge?"

   "I think so, ma'am."

   "OK, you get the honor."

   Kathleen lubricated her finger while her companion grabbed Ken's penis
and pushed him backwards.  Ken did not resist, because what was about to
happen to him was not anything he had not experienced before.  He enjoyed
having his bottom penetrated and the strange feeling having his sphincter
stretched always gave him.  He stuck his bottom out, trying to make it easy
for Kathleen to enter him with her finger.

   Kathleen was fascinated by what she was doing, to the point that she
forgot that she was in a room full of witnesses and she was being
photographed and videotaped.  She explored Ken's waiting bottom-hole as she
applied the lubricating gel, and then pushed in and moved her finger back
and forth.  She was curious to see what a man's insides felt like and how
far in she could push her finger.  As she moved her finger around and Ken
felt the familiar pressure against his sphincter, a wave of arousal swept
over him.  With her free hand Kathleen explored his bottom, fascinated by
the smooth skin and the knowledge that before long it would be marked by 21
cruel welts.

   Ken perspired and groaned as the two women worked him into an erotic
frenzy.  They sensuously massaged him inside and out as discharge after
discharge came out of him into the jar.  Ken had surrendered himself
entirely and loved what was happening to him.  Kathleen was totally aroused
at the thought of so intimately exploring the bottom of another person and
the warm, soft feel of the young man's intestine on her gloved finger.

   As she continued to feel around inside her male counterpart, Kathleen
wondered what it would be like to be taken from behind.  She certainly knew
what it felt like to be fucked in various positions in her vagina, but most
of those experiences had been associated with very unpleasant memories. 
She had given oral sex to her high school lovers on many occasions, but
sucking a man's penis did not satisfy her in the least.  Until that moment,
with her finger shoved up Ken's bottom, it had not occurred to her that she
might enjoy anal sex...  with a guy.

   The thought of being penetrated up her bottom both frightened and
fascinated Kathleen.  She had been thoroughly aroused whenever Lisa kissed
and licked her bottom-hole, but obviously her lover was not capable of
actually penetrating her.  As she held up the jar and posed with the junior
and their exhausted captive, Kathleen mulled over the idea of submitting to
being fucked up the ass, just to see what it would feel like.  She felt
guilty because the love of her life was Lisa...  however...  wasn't she, as
a member of the Four-Betas, expected to explore her sexuality?  What would
Lisa say about her secret desires?

   *****

   Cherine was the next of the female pledges called up to assist in
masturbating one of the males.  The third guy was fully erect as soon as he
was restrained and needed very little encouragement to fill his jar.  The
junior gave Cherine the honor of stimulating their subject's penis and
rubbing his bottom while she worked on massaging his chest.  Lisa could
tell that Cherine was totally absorbed by her task and fascinated as her
hands worked their magic on the restrained young man.  She explored his
shaven pubic area and carefully watched his penis as it pulsated and shot
semen into the waiting receptacle.

   Lisa got Heather's favorite pledge, the "fat guy".  One detail Lisa
found interesting was how much weight he had lost in just two weeks: she
estimated that he might have dropped as much as 15 pounds so far.  Not
surprisingly, his entire body was covered with welts, both old and new,
inflicted by the constant barrage of swats from Heather's riding crop. 
Lisa noticed that his bottom had no new marks on it, because undoubtedly
his tormentor wanted to save it for a nice thorough caning.

   The junior in charge of Lisa and the pledge knew that Lisa had plenty of
experience with arousing men and simply left her to stimulate the guy on
her own.  Lisa worked him from both the front and the back, with
synchronized movements on both his prostate and his penis.  Her goal was to
see how quickly she could make him come, but his body turned out to be
somewhat stubborn.  It took her more than two minutes to find the right
combination of stimulation to force him to climax and fill his jar. 
However, once he started, Lisa's subject continued squirting, surprising
her with the duration and volume of his discharge.  He moaned and his knees
trembled from the physical relief and utter humiliation he was enduring at
the expense of the two women assaulting his body.  Finally he was totally
spent and hung limply on his chains, while Lisa held up his jar for the
benefit of the cameras and audience.

   Two juniors dispatched the final pledge, expertly arousing his body and
forcing him to empty into his jar within just a couple of minutes.  In some
ways what happened to the final member of the pledge group was more
humiliating than what had happened to his predecessors, because the women
showed absolutely no emotion as they extracted the semen from his body. 
They knew where to put their hands, which nerves to touch, and worked him
with about as much emotion as a vet groomer might display while shampooing
a dog.  And yet, they completely cleaned him out, leaving him more spent
and exhausted than any of his companions.

   Once five jars of semen were sitting on display, Heather announced the
next phase of the ongoing punishment, the public caning of the five pledges
and their Pledge Master.  She decided to flog Arnold first, because, as she
put it: "He deserves my undivided attention."

   Arnold approached the table, but protested that he could hold his
position and did not need to be tied down.  Heather ignored him, and coldly
strapped him to the table while calling him a "pathetic fucking failure."
Lisa realized something very interesting; that Heather was not just
teasing. She was genuinely furious with him.

   Lisa pondered: why should the Sergeant-at-Arms be so angry that the
Tri-Alphas lost the scavenger hunt?  That didn't make any sense, unless...
unless...  Heather actually wanted Tracy's pledges to lose.  Of course, had
that happened and the sorority members been forced to attend the "Skins and
Shirts" ball in the nude, Tracy would have taken most of the blame. 
Another thought suddenly occurred to Lisa.  Maybe the reason the penalty
for the losers of the scavenger hunt were so brutal was because Heather had
expected the Four-Betas to lose.  Perhaps she actually wanted the pledges
to suffer and for them to blame the Pledge Mistress, just like she wanted
the other sorority members to blame her for having to attend the dance in
the nude.  Maybe her goal had been to turn everyone, both the pledges and
the sorority members against Tracy.  Certainly losing the competition would
have been a good way to do that, to undermine Tracy's relationships with
the other women of the sorority.

   If Tracy was aware that Heather hoped to undermine her: that would
explain her strange and secretive behavior over the weekend.  It would
account for her desire to sneak the pledges out of the sorority house so
they could rest.  It also would explain the strange argument she had over
the phone with President Alexandra.  Lisa remembered her mentor's words:

   "...  look, I don't give a shit about Heather, I really don't!  Those
pledges are my responsibility, not hers!  Alexandra, you know what?  If her
feelings are hurt, tough shit...  now, either you want my group to win, or
you don't!  Which is it?"

   Lisa shuttered at the implications of such a dispute.  To undermine
Tracy's standing among the other women, apparently Heather was perfectly
willing to jeopardize the well being of the pledges.  That was a very scary
thought, given the number of pledge challenges that still lay ahead.

   While Lisa was mulling over the relationship between Tracy and Heather,
the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms was flexing her cane and menacingly tapping
the Tri-Alpha officer's exposed bottom.  Lisa studied Heather's face, which
continued to reflect genuine anger.  She's pissed, thought Lisa to herself.
She's actually pissed at that poor guy.

   Heather positioned herself, drew back, and laid a fearsome stroke across
the base of both sides of Arnold's bottom.  He closed his eyes and held his
breath, surprised by the force of the blow.  He had thought that surely,
because Heather was punishing a fellow officer, she would go easy on him.
He had thought the punishment was more to humiliate him than actually hurt
him.  He was very mistaken, not yet realizing he was dealing with a woman
who was totally infuriated that his group had lost.

   Heather stood back to admire the rising red welt, and relished the
satisfaction of knowing that she still had 24 to go.  She already knew how
she would proceed: she would start with five lines across the lower part of
both bottom-cheeks, then hit hard with 7 strokes concentrated on each side,
and then finish with strokes laid across his upper bottom and upper thighs.
She would strike him as hard as she could without drawing blood, enjoying
the opportunity to vent her anger and satisfy her own sadistic desires.

   A sinister swoosh and the splat of rattan making contact with
unprotected skin signaled the second stroke against the suffering Pledge
Master.  Again he gasped and suppressed a scream, not just from the pain,
but also from the shock that Heather planned to inflict a very serious
punishment.  Heather twisted back and savagely delivered a third blow,
widening the strip of pure pain across the lower part of Arnold's backside.

   Arnold was not the only one surprised by the severity of Heather's
treatment.  It turned out that the other Tri-Alpha officers were equally
surprised; that they had expected Arnold's punishment to be more about
humiliation than real pain.  Even Alexandra, who normally was very
supportive of her Sergeant-at-Arms, looked on with a nervous expression.

   Arnold was breathing quite loudly and sweat was running down his body
even before the first five strokes were completed.  Heather paused to run
her fingers along the cruel welts as they continued to rise and darken. 
This is really great, she thought to herself.  Now he's gonna get it, full
force, on each side of his incompetent little ass.

   Heather began on Arnold's right side, carefully positioning herself so
the end of the cane would land squarely in the middle of his right
bottom-cheek.  She struck very hard; leaving savage red lines that turned
dark very quickly.  By the 10th stroke Arnold was moaning after the cane
landed, and it was clear that he was not going to make it through the
entire punishment without crying.

   Because it wasn't the first time he had brought problems to the pledge
program, Arnold's fellow officers had thought that "quality time" with
Heather might make him wake up and understand that he was not performing to
the fraternity's expectations.  The only problem with the decision was that
the punishment she was inflicting on him was a bit much.  As they watched
the punishment with mounting concern the Tri-Alpha officers glanced at each
other, fully regretting their decision to allow the Four-Beta
Sergeant-at-Arms to punish their Pledge Master.  However, they did not
intervene because they felt restrained by several Tri-Alpha traditions and
unspoken rules.

   The first rule was that, once a decision was made, everyone involved was
sworn to uphold it.  Decisions had to be carefully considered and made for
good reasons, but once a decision was announced there could not be a bunch
of doubt and second-guessing.

   The second rule stipulated that the fraternity and sorority officers
never questioned or challenged each other in public.  All disputes among
the leadership had to be kept secret so the ordinary members would see the
their leaders as an infallible group who always supported each other.  No
matter what the other officers thought about Heather's flogging, there was
no way they were going to challenge her in such a public setting.  She knew
that, and because of it felt free to flog Arnold to her heart's content.

   The final rule, and the most important one, was that failure always had
consequences, especially in cases where failure could have been avoided. 
Had the contest been relatively close, Arnold's leadership skills would not
have been questioned, but his group's pathetic performance indicated that
he had done nothing to prepare his pledges.  The problem facing him was
that scavenger hunt debacle was not the first time his pledges had gotten
in trouble.  They had done well with house cleaning and the physical
fitness portion of their training, but academics were another issue. 
Already there had been complaints from a professor about two late
assignments, because Arnold had not set aside enough time for the pledges
to study.  There also had been problems with the Tri-Alpha Life Skills
Training and concerns over how much of that material they really were
memorizing.

   Heather paused after her 12th stroke to let everyone contemplate what
she had done so far.  Arnold's bottom had five dark lines laid very close
to each other on both sides at the base of his backside, and an additional
seven strokes concentrated on his right side.  The most recent strokes had
been more severe because their force had been concentrated.  Arnold's
bottom looked rather strange at that moment, because the upper part of his
left bottom cheek still had no marks on it and contrasted with the painful
weals on the right side and the lower part.  His suffering was made quite
clear by his desperate breathing and trembling.  His entire body was
covered in sweat, including his bottom.  Good, thought Heather to herself,
now my target is nice and wet.

   Heather flexed her cane and moved to her victim's left side.  She made
several false starts before landing a cruel blow just above the five
strokes from the beginning of the punishment.  When she landed her second
stroke from that portion, Arnold groaned loudly and his body started
shaking from suppressed sobs.  The disciplinarian didn't bother to try
taunting him; she simply continued striking him at a very leisurely pace.
By the time she got to the seventh stroke, Arnold was crying quite nicely.

   There was a break in the punishment while Heather paused to see if she
wanted to use a different cane for the final six strokes.  She picked up
three canes of varying lengths and thickness and slashed them through the
air in front of her teary victim.  Finally she selected the thinnest cane
of the group, one guaranteed to deliver a very sharp sting.  Satisfied with
her performance, she resumed her position and delivered a vicious stroke to
the unmarked skin of both sides of the very upper part of the Pledge
Master's bottom.  She followed that stroke with a cruel stroke across his
upper thighs.  The final four strokes were administered in the same way:
above-below...  above-below.

   Heather left Arnold to sob for a few minutes before untying him and
allowing him to stagger to his feet.  She ordered him to turn around so her
female audience could study and photograph the welts.  Then she ordered
Arnold to turn his face to the camera so that both his welts and his face
appeared in the pictures.  All five of his pledges also would have to pose
for pictures as part of the over-all punishment.

   Arnold did have one break coming to him that night; he would be spared
the public enema.  Enemas and forced ejaculation, which were considered
much more humiliating than corporal punishment, were reserved only for
pledges.  Heather ordered Arnold to stand against the far wall of the
sitting room, to keep his punished backside on display for the benefit of
the women and Tri-Alpha officers.

   Lisa glanced at the other male pledges.  They were terrified, quite
obviously.  She was not surprised to see that Ken had a furious erection.
What surprised her much more was to see an erection on the "fat guy" as
well.  Heather also noted the erections, and ordered the two pledges to
stand up and face their audience.  She put her arms around their shoulders
and posed for several pictures, cruelly smiling as the men's two penises
pointed directly at the cameras.  When the flashing died down, she grabbed
both penises and firmly held them for a second round of photos.  Finally
she ordered the two pledges to put their hands behind their heads and run
in circles around the room.  The women cheered and guffawed as the two
mortified young men ran their laps while their penises bounced around as
they moved.

   Lisa was not surprised when Heather ordered her favorite victim to
extend himself over the table next.  Nor was she surprised to see the
Sergeant-at-Arms punish him with as much determination and cruelty as she
had punished Arnold.  She used the same pattern on him: five stroke across
both sides of the base of his bottom, then six strokes concentrated on each
side, and finally four strokes with the thin cane on the backs of his upper
thighs.  The "fat guy" did surprise his spectators by not crying.  Heather
had beaten him so much over that last couple of weeks that he was becoming
used to it.

   Heather ordered her victim off the table and to display his welts for
the benefit of the audience.  Like his Pledge Master, he had to pose for
numerous pictures.  Heather then ordered him to get on his elbows and knees
on a thick towel laid out on the floor, his welt-covered bottom spread and
turned towards the audience.  A Four-Beta junior brought a full enema
bottle and hose assembly.  The nozzle already had been lubricated and was
ready to insert.  Heather casually took it and shoved it in, repositioning
it gently to make it go deeper.  As the women applauded and the cameras
flashed, Heather paused to let the utter humiliation of the pledge's
experience sink in.  Finally she opened the clip and the water rushed into
his intestines.  The pledge already knew that he would be required to hold
his position, on his elbows and knees with his bottom spread and pointed
upwards, until the next caning was completed.

   As the first pledge struggled through the throbbing pain in his
backside, the increasing pressure in his stomach, and holding an
uncomfortable and embarrassing position on the floor, Heather got started
with the third victim of the evening.  She punished using the same pattern,
but Lisa noticed her striking considerably less vigorously and finishing
much more quickly.  Heather already had flogged the two males she was most
interested in flogging and had worn herself out.  Given that she still had
three pledges to go, she had to be careful to pace herself and not get
tired out too quickly.  The third pledge made it through his punishment
without sobbing, although sweat and tears were running down his face when
he knelt on the towel to receive his enema.

   Two Four-Beta juniors handcuffed the "fat guy" and took him downstairs
to relieve himself.  Then he would be shaved and, if necessary, have his
bottom waxed for a second time.  Finally he would be brought back upstairs,
issued a Four-Beta T-shirt, and formally begin his six days of punishment
duty.

   Even had they not been facing punishment, at some point that week the
Tri-Alpha pledges would have had to submit to being shaved by the
Four-Betas.  Pledging males were not allowed to have pubic hair until they
completed their initiation, so about once a week they had to be shaved. 
Pledges also had to keep their bottoms completely free of hair, so they had
to be waxed whenever there was any sign of hair growing back.  Upon being
sworn in as full members the pledges would be allowed to re-grow their
public hair if they wanted, although many of the members of the fraternity
preferred to remain clean-shaven.  As for waxing the hair off their
bottoms, the Tri-Alphas had made that a custom for the entire group over
the past several years.  At first only the gay members waxed their bottoms,
but over time the straight members started waxing as well.  Having their
bottoms stripped of hair eventually became a trademark of the fraternity,
and it turned out that most of the Four-Beta women preferred the new style
on their partners.

   *****

   Ken was the fifth person to be disciplined by Heather.  During the
entire time he was waiting to be caned his erection never diminished.  Lisa
glanced at her companions, noting that they were fascinated with his sexual
stamina.  Bernadette in particular seemed to be looking forward to having
access to Ken's body, given that she had been used to frequent sex in high
school and was starting to become frustrated from not having the chance to
relieve herself more often.  Lisa also was looking forward to having a
couple of encounters with Ken, and hoped that she could get Kathleen to
experiment with him as well.  For once Kathleen could be in control of her
sexual contact with a male, and perhaps enjoy herself instead of feeling
victimized.

   For Lisa, the punishment of Ken was rather anti-climatic.  Heather was
clearly tired out by the time she got to him.  Anyhow, he was used to much
worse than a simple caning of 21 strokes.  In fact, he found the experience
enjoyable; the pain just severe enough that it stimulated him sexually.  By
the time he was let up his erection was harder than ever.  The enema was
hardly anything new to him either: it was just another part of the hazing
he took in stride.

   *****

   Already it was quite late when Heather finished punishing the final
member of the pledge group and he was taken downstairs to be cleaned up. 
The pledges were ordered to line up in front of the women while Tracy
explained that they would be placed in servitude under the sorority for the
next six days.  Tracy repeated the only restriction would be that the males
would have time to attend class and sleep.  Apart from that they were to
unconditionally obey any order issued to them, which included sexual
favors. She continued by suggesting that each class take a pledge so there
would be fewer arguments over which sorority members each male pledge had
to obey.  That suggestion was put to a vote and an overwhelming majority of
the women agreed.

   Heather ordered one of the male pledges to stand on a small platform so
the women could look him over and decided which class wanted him the most.
The first man was the best-looking member of the pledge group, so the
seniors laid claim to him.  The juniors and sophomores disputed the second
and third pledges, because both classes were split over which one each
group wanted.  Finally Tracy rolled her eyes and told the juniors to vote
on which of the two pledges they wanted the most.  The sophomores would
have to take the other one.  Arnold went next, claimed by the sorority
officers.  Finally Tracy handed the "fat guy" over to Heather, leaving Ken
for herself and the Four-Beta pledge group.

   As the males knelt, Tracy explained that they would be sleeping on cots
in the pledge room in the basement.  They would use the communal showers
and toilet, and remain on-call to serve the members of their respective
classes.  Meanwhile, the Four-Beta pledges would get a six-day break from
the harshest conditions of their daily lives.  They would be allowed to
wear their pledge uniforms in the house, use the upstairs bathrooms, and
sleep in the beds of the guestroom.  They still were held accountable for
cleaning the house to inspection code on Saturday, but would have some
help. Because he was "their" pledge, Ken would be subordinate to them and
be held responsible for helping them with their chores.

   *****

   A few minutes later the Tri-Alpha officers left the sorority to return
to the fraternity house, minus their pledges and their disgraced Pledge
Master.  The sorority members were dismissed for the night and departed
upstairs with their new servants.  Tracy snapped her fingers to lead her
pledge group and Ken downstairs.  Once the five pledges were kneeling she
announced:

   "OK, Pledge Ken, you know what you're supposed to do?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "What?"

   "I mean...  I'm supposed to do whatever anyone in the pledge group tells
me to do, ma'am."

   "You got it, Pledge.  We'll see how well you understand that.  Remember,
I expect you to ask permission to do anything, and that includes pissing or
getting a drink of water.  If you gotta piss, you gotta ask permission. 
And there's something else.  You don't talk, at all, unless someone talks
to you first.  That's especially true for talking to the other Triple A's.
There's absolutely no talking among you for the next six days.  For each
time I catch you or hear about you talking without permission, you're stay
here will be extended by one day.  That's one day for each violation.  And
that goes for all of you.  Get it?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "Alright.  I gotta study so I'm turning you over to the pledge group. 
At 11:30 they'll need to let you go to sleep, but in the meantime I expect
you to do whatever they tell you."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   With that Tracy went upstairs to take her usual seat in the library.

   Bernadette immediately shouted: "I got him first!"

   Lisa sighed: "OK, you got him first, but each of us is getting our turn.
We're giving you an hour."

   With that Bernadette ordered Ken to put his hands behind his back so she
could cuff him.  He knelt and complied, holding up his arms while the
Four-Beta pledge secured them.  Bernadette then grabbed her captive's penis
and ordered him to stand up.  His reaction to being cuffed, ordered around,
and fondled was immediate: he became quite hard.

   Bernadette turned to Cherine: "You want to come with us?  Make it a
threesome?"

   "Uh...  I...  don't think so...  "

   "Alright, your loss."

   Still gripping his very stiff penis, Bernadette led Ken out of the
pledge room and into the guestroom.  She shut the door, thrilled at having
a completely compliant male at her command for a full hour.  Yes!  This was
it!  This was why she had joined the Four-Betas!

   *****

   As soon as Bernadette closed the door of the guestroom, she stroked
Ken's penis a couple of times and un-cuffed him.  She was desperate for
sex, so the foreplay she might have wanted to try out with him would have
to wait.  She pulled down her shorts and stepped out of them, then jumped
on one of the beds.  She got on her elbows and knees, lewdly exposing
herself.  As soon as she felt the cool air of the room blowing against her
exposed vagina, she was reminded of her exposure and became very wet.

   "There's condoms in that night stand.  Put one on and fuck me.  You'd
better fuck me good, 'cause I'll beat your ass if you don't."

   Ken's masochism and own pent-up sexual desires came out as he struggled
to put on his condom and ran his hand over Bernadette's pale bottom. 
Bernadette's skin had darkened slightly over the past three weeks from
being naked most of the time, but her color was still a lot fairer than
Lisa's deep tan.  Ken found the contrast fascinating, along the different
shape of her petite figure and reddish pubic hair.

   As he entered her and began thrusting, the pain from the recent caning
shot through his body and gave him that extra burst of erotic energy. 
Bernadette perspired and squeaked with pleasure as she pushed her body
backward to get Ken even deeper inside her.  A delicious orgasm swept over
her...  yes...  oh yes...  this was good...  oh yes...

   As he continued thrusting and pumping semen into his condom, various
thoughts and fantasies drifted through the young man's mind.  As first he
simply enjoyed the sight of the attractive young body of his companion, and
the contrast between her pink pledge shirt and pale bottom and thighs. 
However, Ken's confused sexual nature did not allow him to hold that
thought very long.  His mind wandered and eventually he envisioned himself
entering his friend Jason from behind.  Yes...  poor nervous Jason, with
his hands tied and his bottom spread, groaning from the pressure of Ken's
penis tearing into his helpless bottom-hole.  Jason...  his backside
cruelly marked from a severe punishment and his bottom-hole presented as a
final gesture of submission...  yes...  that was the thought that flowed
through Ken's mind.  Jason was his, not Cecilia's, to do with as he
pleased.

   Bernadette was surprised and impressed with the vigor of Ken's orgasm,
not realizing what was going on in her lover's mind at that moment.  It was
clear that Ken was enjoying his orgasm, but not for the reasons she
thought. Ken was not fantasizing about her; he was fantasizing about a male
friend.

   Bernadette was tired out after that first orgasm, but she wanted to make
good use of her hour.  She lied on her back on the bed, put her feet over
the edge, and spread her legs.  She ordered Ken to take off his condom and
wipe himself off.  Then she directed him to "clean me up".

   Ken complied, licking the sticky salty liquid of Bernadette's orgasm off
her vagina.  He had done the same for Lisa plenty of times, but it was
different with Bernadette because she did not shave her pubic hair.  Unlike
the Tri-Alphas, the Four-Betas did not have any shaving requirements for
their pledges.  Lisa was the only member of the pledge group who completely
shaved, so dealing with Bernadette's hair was a new and different
experience.

   Ken spent several minutes trying to figure out what excited Bernadette
as he explored her labia, clitoris, and vaginal opening with his tongue and
lips.  He discovered there were differences between what excited Lisa and
what excited Bernadette.  After about fifteen minutes of enjoying Ken's
oral stimulation, Bernadette's body was ready to climax for a second time.
She groaned with delight and grabbed his hair as he continued his assault
on her eager clitoris.

   Within about 45 minutes Bernadette was sufficiently satisfied to leave
the room and turn Ken over to her companions.  Without bothering to put her
shorts back on she cuffed his hands behind his back and ordered him to go
into the hallway and kneel facing the wall.  Meanwhile, she took advantage
of the bathroom adjacent to the guestroom to take a shower.  She gladly
closed the door, relishing the opportunity to get cleaned up in private.

   *****

   Bernadette exited the bathroom to see Ken still kneeling and her fellow
pledges nowhere in sight.  She figured that Lisa must have gone up to the
library to study and taken the others with her.  Sure enough, Bernadette
found her companions sitting at a table together, taking notes on an
assignment.  Bernadette called Cherine to follow her downstairs.  As Ken
quietly continued to kneel facing the wall, the two young women
contemplated what to do with him.

   "You want to do anything?"

   "I...  I'm not sure.  Probably not."

   Bernadette rolled her eyes.  "Probably not.  Probably not.  If you don't
want to do anything, what'd you join the sorority for?"

   Cherine took a deep breath.  "I've never done anything like that...  you
know...  just some kissing.  I never let anyone go any further.  I mean...
I know the guys didn't like it, but...  I've always wanted the first time
to be...  you know like...  special...  not just with anyone...  "

   "...  and your special guy is Jacob?"

   "...  yeah, kinda...  "

   "...  so you're saving yourself for him?"

   Cherine nodded her head.  Bernadette again glanced at Ken, then back at
her companion.  She had brought Cherine to the basement because she felt
that it was necessary to get her friend to open her mind to the
possibilities of sex and the enjoyment it could bring to a person's life.
She found Cherine's entire "virginity" thing ridiculous, because Bernadette
had been sexually active since she was 15.  To be 18, as good looking as
Cherine, and never to have had sex struck her as extremely odd.  She
perceived Cherine's innocence as more than just odd; she saw it as a
deficiency in her life that needed to be fixed.

   Bernadette realized that arguing with Cherine about her virginity would
be counter-productive, but she hoped to convince her friend that she could
both "save herself" and still enjoy much of what sex had to offer.  Ken
presented the perfect opportunity, because he would not do anything that
Cherine had not told him to do.  Cherine could completely control her
encounter with him and hopefully overcome her shyness.  Anyhow, Bernadette
was convinced that Ken was spent and would be surprised if he were capable
of having an erection within the next hour.

   In the end, Bernadette convinced Cherine that she had to take advantage
of Ken's situation.  As she put it: "you're nuts if you think you're gonna
get through the Four-Beta pledging program all sweet and innocent.  They're
not gonna allow it!  And if you want to be with Jacob, he's gonna expect
you to complete the pledging program.  All of it.  And don't try thinking
he's the picture of purity either, because he's not.  I mean...  he's even
fucked Heather, for God's sake!"

   "I don't care!  I'm not gonna lose my virginity!  I'm not gonna do that!
I don't care what they want, I'm not losing my virginity until I decide...
"

   "You don't have to 'lose your virginity!' There's plenty of other stuff
you can do!"

   "Like what?"

   Bernadette sighed, but she realized she might be close...

   "Can I get you to trust me?"

   "I guess...  "

   "No.  I mean, really trust me?  This is gonna be important.  I wanna
have you do something, but I promise I won't mess up your virginity."

   "What do you want me to do?"

   "It's too complicated to explain.  I'm just asking you to trust me."

   Cherine took a deep breath.  "Alright, I'll trust you."

   "Stand still.  Just try to relax and let things happen.  OK?"

   "I...  Alright...  "

   Bernadette abruptly reached into Cherine's pocket and took out her
blindfold.  She wrapped it around her companion's head and loosely tied it
in place.  Her heart pounding at the thought of being deprived of one of
her senses, Cherine took a deep breath.  She heard the clicking of a key
unlocking Ken's handcuffs, and the faint sound of him getting to his feet.
Then she heard Bernadette's voice:

   "Take her hand."

   Cherine felt Ken's hand gently grasp hers and allowed herself to be
guided into the guestroom.  She felt a gentle pressing on her right
shoulder, presumably to help guide her through the doorway.  She stood
still for a second, and then felt her uniform shirt being un-tucked and
loosened around her waist.  Then she felt the shirt being pulled up over
her stomach.  One pair of invisible hands took her wrists and guided her
arms over her head, while the other pair of hands pulled up her shirt.  She
felt the cool air of the room against her breasts and upper back, then the
cloth move upwards over her face and arms.  Her heart pounding, Cherine was
left wearing nothing but her blindfold and her gym shorts.

   Cherine expected to have her gym shorts pulled down next, but instead
felt a pair of hands massaging her shoulders.  She realized that it was Ken
who was massaging her, because the hands were too large to belong to
Bernadette.  Very gently the hands moved from her shoulders to her upper
back, and then to her arms and hands.  The touching converted her fear to
sexual arousal, and within a few minutes her nipples began to harden.  The
hands moved from her arms to her stomach and breasts.  When Ken began
exploring Cherine's nipples, he barely touched them.  Cherine began wanting
more.  She wanted to be touched.

   The next sensation she felt was her shorts being lowered.  They went
down slowly, allowing her to appreciate the air caressing her bottom as
more and more of it came into view.  The shorts worked their way down her
thighs and fell to her ankles.  Cherine then felt Ken's hands on her
shoulders while Bernadette silently touched her to signal she needed to
lift her feet and step out of her shorts.

   Now Cherine's entire body was exposed.  She felt Ken's fingertips
explore her bared bottom and move up and down her back.  The invisible
hands moved to the fronts of her thighs, up her hips, up her stomach, and
gently brushed past her breasts.  At that moment Bernadette quietly slipped
out of the room and went into the hallway.  She had no further interest in
watching Cherine's sexual encounter with Ken; she simply wanted to make
sure that it happened and that her friend could start getting rid of her
inhibitions.

   As soon as her body reacted to his latest explorations, Ken guided
Cherine onto her stomach on the bed.  He spent a long time massaging her;
first to relax her and then to stimulate her.  He started on her shoulders
and neck, but then moved to her bottom and upper thighs.  He concentrated
on touching the sensitive area around her bottom-hole, waiting for her to
spread her legs and expose herself even more.  Finally Ken's attentions
were rewarded as Cherine opened her legs to allow him to touch her in
between her thighs.

   Cherine's physical desires filled her thoughts when Ken gently took her
shoulders and signaled that he wanted her to roll on her back.  She
complied.  Later she would look back in amazement that the she had flipped
over with no hesitation whatsoever, but at that moment her physical desires
completely controlled her.  Ken massaged her thighs and slowly worked his
way to her vagina.  Cherine was very wet.  She was ready.

   Ken touched Cherine's clitoris with the tip of his tongue, and then
worked his way downward to her vagina and labia.  She gasped and spread her
legs as he explored and tantalized her vulva.  Finally he returned to her
clitoris and tickled it with the tip of his tongue.  She climaxed
immediately, filling the room with high-pitched moans.

   As soon as Bernadette heard Cherine's moans die down, she opened the
door and silently signaled to Ken that she wanted him to exit the room. 
She told him to go to the pledge shower and clean himself up.  Once Ken was
out of the room, Bernadette turned off the light and shut the door to let
her friend recover in private.

   Cherine was left in the room alone, exhausted, spent, and completely
disoriented.  She pulled off her blindfold, only to stare up at the dark
ceiling.  Her physical exhaustion, her inability at that moment to feel any
stress, and the silence of her surroundings made her wonder if what had
just happened to her was even real.  Not being able to see what was going
on had given her orgasm dream-like sensation that was heightened by the
fact that she now was alone in a quiet dark room.

   She had no desire, and no need to get up.  She pulled the covers over
herself and allowed the sweet exhaustion to sweep over her body.  For
several minutes she enjoyed the feeling of tired bliss, before slowly
drifting off into a very deep sleep.



   Chapter 24 - Pledge Ken's illusion

   After he was cleaned up, Ken knelt in the pledge room to await further
orders.  Bernadette went upstairs to fetch Lisa, figuring that probably she
would want to go next.  However, given that it already was close to 10:00
p.m.  Lisa decided that it was time to put Ken to bed and enjoy a good
night's sleep in the guest room.  As much as she wanted to enjoy Ken and
encourage Kathleen to enjoy him, Lisa figured that a good night's sleep was
more important and that her time with Ken could wait until Tuesday night.

   Lisa approached Tracy, knelt, and requested permission to release Ken
and go to sleep.  However, Tracy had other plans:

   "You four are going to sleep, but he's not.  Have Pledge Ken go to my
room, because I'm gonna want to use him before he goes to bed."

   "Use him...  " Tracy's saying it like he's an appliance, thought Lisa to
herself.  She felt bad for Ken, but knew better than to argue.  She replied
"yes, ma'am" and went downstairs to fetch her ex-boyfriend.  Lisa escorted
Ken to Tracy, and knelt alongside him.

   "You are dismissed, Pledge Lisa.  Pledge Ken, you will accompany me to
my room."

   "Yes, Pledge Mistress Tracy."

   Ken followed Tracy up to her room, not sure what awaited him.  He
suspected he was about to suffer the same sadistic treatment that his
companion undoubtedly was enduring from Heather, but fortunately what Tracy
wanted from him was very straightforward.  She ordered him to unfold a
massage table and cover it with a sheet.  Meanwhile she stripped off her
clothes and jumped on top.

   "How much do you know about giving massages, Pledge?"

   "I...  I did some with Pledge Lisa...  "

   "OK, then you're doing me.  Concentrate on the souls of my feet, my
calves, my butt, and my neck.  I'm gonna want you to give me an orgasm
later on, but the first thing I want you to do is relax me."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   As Ken massaged Tracy, occasionally she gave him instructions to press
harder or change the direction of his strokes.  He expected her to tell him
when she wanted him to move from one part of her body to the next, which
she did.  He spent over 30 minutes on the backs of her legs alone, and
another 20 minutes on her bottom.  He was surprised by how thoroughly she
wanted her bottom massaged, first by having her muscles pressed hard, and
then by having her skin stroked and caressed.  Finally he worked his way up
her back to her neck and shoulders, spending another 15 minutes on that
section of her body.

   When Tracy flipped on her back, her attractive body was exposed to Ken
in its entirety.  She wanted him to massage her thighs, arms, and breasts,
but she also was curious to see if touching her would arouse him.  She
ordered him to pay extra attention to her breasts and lightly touch her
nipples until they were erect.  Finally she ordered him to explore and
massage her vulva.  She slowly became wet as she became aroused, but then
surprised him by flipping over on her stomach again.

   Tracy wanted additional attention to her bottom.  At first what she
requested was more deep tissue massage, but then she instructed him to
begin slapping both sides of her bottom in rapid succession using both
hands.  Ken started gently at first, but Tracy told him to slowly increase
the force of his slaps and keep increasing until she told him to stop.

   SLAP-SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP

   Ken nervously landed rapid blows as the shade of pink in the Pledge
Mistress's bottom turned darker and darker from the ongoing barrage of
quick smacks.  He continued for what seemed a very long time, slowly
increasing the force of the rapid swats.  Tracy took a deep breath and held
onto the massage table as the barrage continued.

   SLAP-SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP

   Tracy's bottom became red, but she held her position and continued to
lie quietly on the table.  It was obvious that she was enjoying the sharp
stinging from Ken's efforts and wanted the slapping to continue.  Her
bottom began to swell as her skin took on a deep shade of pink and Ken's
hands became tired, but still there was no sign from her that she wanted
him to stop.

   Tracy never felt the need to submit herself for physical discipline or
face reprimand, and under no circumstances would have allowed a partner to
strike her in anger or with an implement.  However, while she was hazed as
a pledge she discovered that she enjoyed the physical sensation of a
stinging bottom.  What she sought was a nice even burning, spread over her
backside as it slowly intensified and approached the line between pleasure
and pain.  She wanted the stinging prolonged as much as possible at a very
specific intensity, which was why she liked her partner to start gently and
slowly build up to what she desired.  Ken had found that ideal level of
stinging, and for a very long time Tracy was content to lie quietly and
enjoy what was happening to her.

   SLAP-SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP- SLAP

   "Ohhh...  Ohhh...  "

   Tracy's body broke out in perspiration as she arched her backside,
exposing it even more to the ongoing barrage of slaps.  She reached
underneath to massage her clitoris.  Finally she was stimulated enough to
want...

   The Pledge Mistress suddenly rolled off the massage table and got on her
elbows and knees, spreading her very red bottom-cheeks and placing herself
on lewd display.  For the third time that evening, Ken was confronted with
the sight of a woman's naked backside, but the emotional turmoil he felt
was much greater than what he had felt when satisfying Bernadette and
Cherine.  He was deeply afraid of the intimidating sorority officer, and he
found that fear extremely erotic.  What made his situation even more erotic
was the contrast between her dominating personality and the sight of her
spanked bottom and submissive posture.  Fear mixed with sexual arousal as
he quickly became hard.  He gently touched Tracy's wet vagina to stimulate
her even more, then grabbed her thighs and pushed in.

   Ken thrust vigorously as confused fantasies swept through his mind.  He
was excited by the thought of spanking and entering his fierce companion,
but also the ongoing physical sensation from his own caning continued to
stimulate him as well.  His fantasies wandered to Jason, then to Lisa, then
to himself, and finally back to Tracy.  When he climaxed, his sexual
fantasies were right where they started, focused on the person with whom he
was making love at the moment.

   The normal tension in Tracy's personality subsided somewhat as she
climaxed.  Her muscles were relaxed from the massage, her bottom stimulated
from the slapping, and her sexual drive temporarily satiated by the
pledge's vigorous thrusts.  She led Ken into the sorority officers'
bathroom and into the shower.  She instructed him to turn on the water and
soap her body, making sure that she was completely clean.  She placed her
hands against the wall as she spread her legs and ordered him to soap and
clean her still-reddish bottom and sweaty vulva.  She toweled off and
ordered him to clean up and return with her to her room.

   Tracy quickly put on a pair of shorts and a Four-Beta T-shirt while Ken
knelt.  Once she was seated in an armchair, she returned to her role as
Ken's superior.

   "Pledge, do you understand why you're here?  In my room with me?"

   "I...  to satisfy your physical needs, ma'am?"

   "That's part of it, but there's more.  First of all we need to get
something straight.  What we just did, you will keep to yourself.  The
sorority has an agreement with the Triple-A's that if an officer of the
sorority requests a favor from a fraternity underclassman, that
underclassman is not allowed to talk about it.  If you ever tell anyone
about the details of our encounter, you face expulsion from the fraternity.
Do you understand that?

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "OK, now let's move on to you.  I'd have to admit that Lisa was right
about your sexual performance.  You're pretty good.  You certainly
satisfied me.  Once you get going, it's hard to imagine all those hang-ups
you're dealing with."

   "Uh...  thank you, ma'am."

   "Now, here's a question for you, Pledge.  When you were inside me, what
were you thinking about?"

   "To be honest, my mind kinda wandered...  "

   "Wandered in what way?"

   "I...  you know...  like...  fantasize about different people...  and...
"

   "Did you fantasize about Pledge Lisa?"

   "Yes, ma'am.  For a little bit...  "

   "What about me?"

   "Yes, ma'am.  I was thinking about you too."

   "What about Jason Schmidt?"

   "Him too, ma'am."

   "What about any other guys besides Jason?  I mean, right now?"

   Ken paused for a moment.  He realized he hadn't fantasized about anyone
else.

   "No, ma'am.  It was just Jason."

   "Another question.  Do you find yourself fantasizing about Lisa and
Jason at the same time?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "Has that ever happened to you before in your life, where you'd
fantasize about a guy and a girl at the same time?"

   "Uh...  it happened to me in high school, ma'am.  Same thing, really.  I
was dating this girl, but there was a guy on my tennis team (I played
tennis in high school), who used to wear a jockstrap whenever he played or
practiced.  He was the only guy on the team who wore one.  And every day
he'd strip down, change into that jockstrap, and then go weigh himself and
get a drink of water at the fountain.  And I really wanted to touch, you
know, his bare ass.  But I never did.  I never really got the chance.  But
I thought about him all the time."

   "Was he in a relationship with someone else?"

   "Yes, ma'am.  He was dating a cheerleader.  That's why I never said
anything."

   "OK, now tell me about Jason Schmidt.  What was it about him that you
liked so much?"

   Ken thought for a moment.  Why did he like Jason so much?  To start,
Jason was very pleasant to look at, with his young face and attractive
runner's body, which usually was on display.  Ken was used to seeing Jason
running around naked, because he only got dressed if he had to leave the
male wing of his dorm's floor.  Whenever Ken went into Jason's room or ran
into him in the bathroom, he was sure to find him completely undressed.  He
had seen Jason uncovered in public plenty of times as well, modeling for
art classes, speaking at nudist promotional events, and above all, during
his very public performance winning the previous fall's Tri-Alpha nude 10-K
run.

   During his first year in college, Ken spent as much of his time as he
could with Jason.  What fascinated him was Jason's determination to be
naked whenever possible.  Jason was more than just a nudist; he was
something of an exhibitionist and loved being naked around other people. 
At first Ken simply enjoyed looking at his friend's body, but as time went
on, he became very attracted to him.  Ken usually took off his clothes in
Jason's presence, not because he was a nudist, but because eventually he
hoped to seduce him.

   The problem for Ken was that Jason was totally oblivious.  Jason Schmidt
was not the brightest person he had ever known and had a very passive
personality.  Had they been alone, Ken believed that he would have easily
seduced Jason, but unfortunately Cecilia Sanchez got to him first.  Cecilia
needed a boyfriend she could control, and found that in Jason.  Within days
of meeting him, she zeroed in on him and completely took over his life. 
Ken had no hope of fulfilling his hidden desire, because Jason's entire
existence revolved around keeping his sharp-tempered girlfriend happy. 
Apart from that, it seemed that Cecilia rarely let him out of her sight and
carefully watched anyone around him.

   Ken ended up with Lisa for the same reason that Lisa ended up with Ken,
by default.  The couple discovered that Ken's sexual drive was released if
he was afraid or subjected to physical pain.  Lisa knew how to make him
afraid, and in doing so got really great orgasms out of him.  The orgasms
were so satisfying they were addictive, but at the same time Ken's desire
for Jason only increased.  By the end of the spring semester, he still was
making love to Lisa, but fantasizing about making love to Jason.

   Tracy interrupted him:

   "In other words, what happened between you and Jason Schmidt is a repeat
of what happened to you in high school.  You see a sexy guy without his
clothes, and you want him, but you can't have him.  Right?"

   A repeat of his experience in high school.  Ken hadn't thought about it
like that, but he realized the Pledge Mistress was right.  His experience
with Jason mirrored what had happened two years earlier with his teammate
in the school's locker room.

   "So, in other words, you've never actually done anything with guys, just
fantasized about it?"

   "Yes, ma'am.  Just fantasy...  so far, at any rate."

   "Another question.  Are you attracted to any of the guys in the
fraternity right now?"

   "No ma'am.  The only guy I really want is Jason.  I'm just hoping he'll
come back, and maybe...  "

   Tracy's mouth fell open and she rolled her eyes.

   "Hoping he'll come back?  What are you talking about?  There's no way
Jason's coming back!  Haven't you been following the news?  Don't you know
what he's done?"

   "Uh...  no, ma'am.  Pledge Master Arnold hasn't given us any time for
stuff like checking the news."

   Tracy let out a disgusted sigh and stood up to grab a news magazine
sitting on her desk.  She handed it to Ken.  The cover featured the
televised image of a well-dressed middle-aged man with very short hair,
under the title:

   America's black eye

   Ken did not recognize the man in the picture until he read the caption:

   Danubian Prime Minister Vladim Dukov

   Ken opened the magazine and thumbed to an article featuring a photograph
of Jason Schmidt speaking into a microphone.  Ken read:

   Damning evidence: a corporate son seeks atonement for his father's sins
- Surprise prosecution witness sinks Mega-Town's hopes of acquittal - MTA
suffers a humiliating defeat as coup conspirators are convicted in Danubian
court - "It can't get much worse than this.  It's going to completely shut
us down over there."

   Ken skimmed the article, which answered his question why Jason and
Cecilia had left the United States in such a rush in the middle of May.

   According to the article, Jason had traveled to Danube City to testify
about sensitive information he had snuck out of his father's house in
Wisconsin while staying there over Spring Break.  The purloined items
detailed a coup planned against the Danubian government sponsored by a
group of investors and executives from Mega-Town Associates.  Apparently it
was Jason who first alerted Prime Minister Vladim Dukov about the coup, and
it was only because of his information the scheme failed.

   The Danubian military moved against the coup plotters on April 21, only
48 hours before the takeover was scheduled to take place.  There was no
doubt the coup plot was a very serious effort to take over the country,
because the Danubians captured hundreds of mercenaries and local
collaborators, three CEO's from the corporation itself, piles of stashed
weapons, and worst of all, volumes of documentation and military maps.  The
Danubians were quick to scan all the documents and dump them on the
Internet, to ensure the world knew in detail what the U.S.  conglomerate
wanted to do to their country.  The arrests, the capture of all those
sensitive documents and their release to the public, and the trials of the
conspirators took place so quickly that the company did not have time to
effectively counter the disaster.

   Jason Schmidt's testimony in the trial was crucial because he was the
person who connected the evidence captured in Upper Danubia to the original
conspiracy in the U.S.  He openly testified that he was the one who first
warned the Danubian government and thus was the person who ultimately
prevented the coup.

   Jason Schmidt might have won the hearts of the Danubians and anyone else
who disliked Mega-Town's business practices, but he had just made plenty of
very influential enemies on Wall Street.  He single-handedly disrupted a
plan worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and was responsible for
additional financial losses resulting from the scandal's fallout.  One
financial analyst estimated that Jason's actions might have cost U.S. 
corporate investors as much as 20 billion dollars.

   "I hope that kid realizes what he's done to the American investment
community, because he's dead meat.  If I were him, I wouldn't be getting
much sleep right now."

   Tracy took back the magazine.

   "I think you'd better forget about Jason Schmidt.  You'd better forget
you ever knew him.  I can guarantee you won't be seeing him anytime soon,
so how about moving on?"

   For a long time Ken knelt quietly, not sure how to respond.  Tracy could
tell that he was deeply saddened by the news she had just given him. 
Finally, impatient at his prolonged silence, she continued:

   "Pledge, I got a question for you.  I'm wondering if you were ever
really in love with Jason Schmidt.  I mean the real Jason...  the one who
testified in Danube City and is dating Cecilia Sanchez.  Maybe that wasn't
the Jason you fell in love with.  Maybe the Jason you fell in love with is
nothing more than an illusion, an idealized fantasy that you created for
your own psychological needs."

   "I...  I don't know...  "

   "That's fine.  You don't know.  But at least you're willing to admit
that's a possibility?"

   "I 'spose it could be, ma'am.  Maybe I didn't know him as well as I
thought...  "

   "Well, that's something for you to sleep on." Tracy glanced at her
clock. "It's 11:15.  Almost lights-out."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "PLEDGE, STAND-UP!"

   With that Ken was released, and his first day at the sorority house came
to an end.

   *****

   While the female pledges slept in the comfortable beds of the guest
room, the male pledges and their disgraced Pledge Master slept on the open
cots of the Four-Beta pledge room.

   The feeling in the room was a combination of fatigue, resignation, and
relief.  What probably was the worst day out of the week had come and gone.
The males knew that what the women could do to them was restricted by the
fact the group had to progress with their studies, which meant that they
had to have enough rest to be alert in their classes.  It was true they
would fall behind somewhat in their homework and term papers, but would be
expected to catch up once their internment ended and they returned to the
fraternity.

   With the exception of the pledge under the control of Heather, the young
men had a very good chance of avoiding any further physical punishment,
apart from the constant "hurry up" smacks they got on their bottoms.  All
they had to do was obey the whims of their mistresses, which was something
they already were conditioned to do at the fraternity.  For the most part
their duties included constantly giving full body massages, rubdowns with
soap in the shower, foot rubs, and oral sex.  Some of the women liked
having their toes, breasts, or bottoms kissed and licked, but the rule was
that if a sorority member wanted attention to any part of her body; her
body had to be thoroughly washed before she approached the pledge.  Mostly
what the women wanted was to have the males comfort them and attend to
their various physical needs.

   A few of the Four-Betas also wanted to use the male pledges for regular
sex.  The women who wanted intercourse were the ones with hidden sexual
needs like Tracy, were between relationships, or simply wanted a casual
orgasm to relax.  The pledges soon learned that the women who wanted normal
sex were in the minority, given that most of them were in relationships
either with members of the fraternity or other members in the sorority. 
Thus the pledges were able to accommodate their mistresses, because
obviously a single male would not have been capable of having a dozen
orgasms every night for six days.  Typically the Triple A's needed to
service two or three women over a 24-hour period, something all of them
were capable of doing.

   Although he was under only five women, Ken expected to be kept very
busy. Bernadette planned to have sex with him at least once each day and
also have him massage and perform oral sex on Cherine.  Lisa would want sex
from him as well, and try to get Kathleen to experiment with him.  That
meant at least two orgasms per night, and possibly three.

   As for the Pledge Mistress, Ken suspicion she would want nightly rounds
of sex turned out to be unfounded.  Tracy was satisfied with her
experience, but she had no desire to climax every night.  Tracy figured she
would use Ken one more time, perhaps during the weekend.  Apart from that
her attitude was to let her pledges have him.

   *****

   Ken had trouble getting to sleep, in spite of being horribly fatigued.
His evening's experience did nothing to set his mind at ease, because his
thoughts raced between two women, Lisa and Tracy, and his increasingly
vague and confusing thoughts about Jason Schmidt.

   Precisely because Jason was so completely out of reach, Ken wanted him
more than ever.  However, Tracy's blunt and stinging words continued to
echo in his mind:

   "I think you'd better forget about Jason Schmidt.  You'd better forget
you ever knew him.  I can guarantee you won't be seeing him anytime soon,
so how about moving on?"

   How about moving on?  Yes, he had to move on.  He could either try to
hold onto an increasingly distant fantasy, or he could move on.  Those were
his choices.

   Was there anyone in the fraternity who might replace Jason in Ken's
desires?  Would it be possible for Ken to explore that side of himself with
another guy?  Ken thought about it and came up with a surprising answer,
no. He had to confront a very strange truth, that at least at that point in
his life, he was not really attracted to other men apart from Jason.  Over
the past couple of weeks he had been touched, bathed, and masturbated by
other men, but had not found the experience to be nearly as pleasurable as
he had anticipated.  There was a practical exercise coming up the following
week that would encourage the pledges to explore anal sex, but Ken realized
he really was not looking forward to having to deal with entering another
man or having another man enter him.  As for kissing another guy, that was
not something he really wanted to do, except for Jason.

   Out of his confusion, Ken realized that his desire to explore intimacy
with other guys was limited to Jason Schmidt.  He badly wanted to hug
Jason, massage Jason, kiss Jason, and seduce Jason.  But Ken's lust for
Jason did not extend to lust for other guys.  Any desire he felt when
looking at any other man's naked body was not really desire directed
towards the guy he was looking at, but the fantasy of Jason morphed into
his thoughts.

   Ken's mental wanderings moved to the women who surrounded him at the
moment.  He dismissed Bernadette and Cherine, because they did not appeal
to him in the least.  However, much to his surprise, he found the Four-Beta
Pledge Mistress very desirable.  Her dominating personality and know-it-all
attitude, coupled with her surprisingly submissive style of lovemaking,
totally fascinated him.  To Ken, Tracy was even more fascinating than Lisa,
because of the contradiction between her behavior in public and her secret
sexual tastes.  Another part of Tracy that fascinated Ken was the
seriousness of her personality.  There was not a hint of playfulness in
Tracy, not a hint of anything "extra" in her character.  Her life consisted
of her studies, her position in the sorority, physical fitness, and her
military obligations.

   Tracy's treatment of Ken fit her overall character and her disdain for
"extras" in her life.  The sexual encounter and the way it took place
indicated that she did not have time to dedicate to a regular boyfriend. 
She had sexual cravings, but only satisfied them if she could do so without
incurring any obligations to her partner.  It was obvious that she wanted
to spend time with Ken for one purpose, to satisfy a physical need.  There
was no hint of any relationship once that need was satisfied.

   However, as unadorned as Tracy's own emotional life might be, she took a
professional interest in trying to make people understand their own life
circumstances and recognize self-defeating attitudes and their resulting
behavior.  Once she was finished satisfying herself with Ken, she wanted
nothing more to do with him socially, but still took an interest in his
confused sexual identity.  She did not judge him for his treatment of Lisa
and desire for Jason, but she did want to ensure he realized that Jason had
no relevance in his life.  She also wanted to make sure he began the
process of understanding what was his sexual identity and how to make his
desires a positive part of his existence instead of a negative one.

   *****

   As he lay awake, now irritated by the snoring of one of his group mates,
Ken realized that his sexuality did not fall into any particular category.
He certainly was not gay, because he felt attraction towards Lisa, and now
Tracy.  He was not really bi-sexual, because he did not feel a general
attraction for other guys.  His sexual craving for other men was limited to
three people so far; his tennis teammate, Jason, and another classmate in
high school who happened to look a lot like...  Jason, and...  also...  his
teammate.

   Suddenly Ken realized he had made a connection between his love
interests and now understood why his attraction to other guys was very
limited.  To trigger his desire, a guy had to have a very special
combination of personality traits, appearance, and life circumstances.  All
three of the guys he liked were thin and athletic, had passive
personalities, were uninhibited about exposing their bodies, and above all,
"straight".  All three of those guys had girlfriends at the time Ken became
interested in them.  In all three circumstances he fantasized about
seducing his target and taking him away from his girlfriend.  Ken now
realized that if a guy did not have that combination of life circumstances,
he would not be interested in him.  The problem was that the fantasies were
inherently self-defeating, because the guys he wanted were precisely the
ones he knew he never could have.  With Jason, Ken was pursuing the
impossible, and that was precisely what made Jason so desirable.  Ken
wanted Jason because he knew that he couldn't have him.

   As his thoughts dwelled on various girls he had liked (and dated), Ken
realized that it also took a precise combination of characteristics to make
him interested in a woman.  She had to be very tall, athletic, studious,
serious, and not silly or rowdy.  Above all, she had to be intimidating. 
He had to fear her and respect her to be attracted.  That explained a lot.
For example, it explained why Ken felt no interest in Bernadette and
Cherine, even though most men would find them very attractive.  According
to his tastes, they were too short.  Apart from that, Bernadette's rowdy
playfulness and Cherine's shyness were big turn-offs.  Those two freshmen
were not serious and intimidating like Lisa and Tracy.  It also explained
why Ken found Tracy somewhat more desirable than Lisa.  Tracy matched Ken's
ideal woman in her purest form, because her no-nonsense character was even
more extreme than that of Lisa.

   There was one significant difference between Ken's desires for potential
male and female partners.  His relationship with Lisa and his encounter
with Tracy made him realize that his sexual taste in females could be
satisfied.  The combination of what he wanted in a male made the fantasy
completely unattainable.  It also explained why Ken failed to appreciate
his relationship with Lisa as he dwelled on his fantasy with Ken.  Lisa was
part of his daily routine, while Jason was distant enough to allow Ken to
idealize him.

   Because he had enjoyed a sexual encounter with her, in one way Ken
already had fulfilled part of his fantasy with the Four-Beta Pledge
Mistress.  However, she had asked him to make love to her precisely because
she wanted sex, not any type of commitment.  From the outset Ken understood
that, as a partner, Tracy was every bit as unattainable as Jason.  Still,
image of her stern face, lovely body, and spanked bottom was burned into
his mind and his fantasies.  He fervently hoped that he could make love to
Tracy at least one more time before his internment ended.

   That was progress for him, because for the first time in several months
Ken's thoughts were not focused on Jason Schmidt.



   Chapter 25 - Bernadette's new clique

   Tuesday morning began with the usual morning PT.  The male pledges and
their Pledge Master were assigned to Heather and faced a truly grueling
hour of harsh exercising, complete with constant swats with her riding
crop. The morning promised not to be much easier for the Lisa and her
companions, because that was the first day President Alexandra wanted the
pledges to exercise running up and down the stairs of the stadium.  The
pledges would be expected to keep up with the sophomores and no longer
would be allowed to stretch on the football field during the stair runs.

   The women made their usual trek to the stadium, but the pledges were in
for a surprise.  The sorority had a tradition to motivate the freshmen to
move as fast as the sophomores when conducting stair training.  Once they
were standing at the base of the bleachers the pledges noticed the
sophomores glancing at them with knowing smirks.  Then they found out why.

   Alexandra addressed the group:

   "Pledges, now you get to prove yourselves on the stairs!  Strip off your
uniforms, except your shoes and socks.  Fold your clothes neatly and resume
the position of attention!"

   As shocking as the order was, by now the pledges were conditioned to
quickly obey.  Within 15 seconds their uniforms were off their bodies and
within another 15 seconds the clothes were neatly folded on the ground. 
The owners stood at attention with the early morning sunlight shining on
their bare bodies, nervously waiting for their next order.

   "You'll have to earn your clothes back, Pledges!  I'm not giving you
anything; you'll have to earn it!  You will keep up with your future
sorority sisters, or you'll stay like you are for the run back!  It's your
choice: keep up, or run bare until you do!  Do you understand?"

   "Yes, ma'am!"

   With that the sophomores and their four naked companions began the
grueling trek up the cement stairs of the stadium.  From the first day they
ran to the stadium they had known the moment was coming for them to start
stair training.  However, the pledges had not expected to be doing it so
soon or face the prospect of running back to the sorority naked if they
could not keep up.

   The sophomores casually moved up flight after flight of the cement
slope, their legs conditioned by having done the same training for a year.

   At first it seemed that the pledges would be able to keep up.  All four
newcomers made it to the top with the sophomores during the first climb,
and stayed with them as the group ran across one section of bleachers and
began their descent.  The women ran across another row of bleachers turned
onto the second set of stairs to began their second ascent.

   The pledges would have been all right had the entire group been as fit
as Kathleen.  The skinny girl had no problem keeping up, because she was an
experienced runner and her thin legs were conditioned for hard workouts. 
Adrenaline was not a problem either, because she was always tensed up with
stress and knew how to use that to her advantage.  As her legs started to
tire, she focused her thoughts on things that upset her or made her angry,
which gave her the energy she needed to keep going.  As they neared the top
of the second flight of stairs, it was obvious Kathleen would make it to
the end of the run.

   The illusion of keeping up soon faded for Bernadette and Cherine.  Their
legs were throbbing even before they made it to the top of the first flight
of stairs.  They enjoyed a brief respite as they descended, but their
hearts filled with despair as they began the arduous trek up the second
flight.  The stairs stretched upwards to the sky, going higher and higher.
The end was in sight, but so what?  After that horrible climb, there would
be another, and another...  six climbs altogether.  No.  They would not
make it.

   Despair swept over Lisa as she ran behind the two freshmen.  She knew
that with difficulty she could have kept up with Kathleen and the
sophomores, but decided to stay behind with the two slower members of the
pledge group.  She was irritated that Kathleen was not staying with the
others, but realized that her lover was used to running in competitions and
not to keeping pace with the slowest member of her group.  She couldn't
blame Kathleen, because having known and run with Jason she understood that
the competitive instinct is embedded in a good runner.

   Cherine was not able to run as fast as the sophomores, but she was fit
enough to complete the six flights.  Her pace would be slow, but with
difficulty she would finish.  The problem was not so much Cherine as it was
Bernadette.

   Bernadette, in spite of her appearance, simply was not in very good
shape because she had not been used to exercising before entering college.
On top of not exercising, she had smoked since she was fourteen.  She was
smart enough to realize that she needed to quit, which was one of her
reasons for pledging the Four-Beta Sorority in the summer instead of the
fall.  Among the other things she wanted to accomplish, she was hoping that
pledging would deny her the opportunity to smoke and force her to quit. 
She was right about quitting, but her lungs still were recovering from four
years of inhaling smoke and nicotine.  By the time she had reached the top
of the third flight of stairs, she was gasping for breath and tears were
rolling down her cheeks.  She knew that she wasn't going to make it.

   "I...  I...  uh...  I...  run...  go...  I...  can't...  "

   Lisa snapped: "Then I'm not either!" She turned to her other companion:
"Cherine, go!  Catch up with Kathleen!"

   "But...  "

   "That's an order!  Catch up!"

   Cherine said nothing more, but slowly began moving further and further
ahead of Bernadette and Lisa.  By the time they were only halfway up the
fourth flight of stairs, Cherine already was at the top and running down
the next flight to try to catch up with the main group.  Meanwhile,
Bernadette's face had changed color and she was clearly suffering.

   "You go...  too!  I can't...  "

   "Just do the best you can!

   "I can't...  "

   "Just do your best!  Try!  It's our first time!  Thursday you'll do
better!"

   Bernadette started to cry.  "I can't!"

   "Well, I'm not leaving you, so you don't have any choice!  Now do what
you can!  That's all I'm asking!  Just do what you can!"

   Bernadette started crying in earnest as she began the painful journey up
the fifth flight of stairs.  Lisa glanced at the sixth flight to see the
sophomores and Kathleen finishing, and at the bottom to see Cherine trying
to catch up.  Bernadette made the laborious climb up the stairs, barely
able to walk up the steps, let alone run.  Sweat was pouring down her body
as she sobbed and gasped for air.  Finally the two women made it to the
top. Lisa was relieved.  Five flights done, one to go.

   As the two women made their way down the steps to start their sixth
ascent, Cherine finished and joined the group on the football field.  Then
Lisa and Bernadette heard the whistles and cheers of a group of football
players as they came out of the locker room for an early run.  Oh, great.
On top of everything else, Lisa and Bernadette now had an audience.

   The two stressed pledges tried to ignore the barrage of whistles and
cat-calls as Bernadette struggled up the final flight of stairs.  That
final climb was one of the hardest things she had ever done in her life,
but Lisa's uncompromising presence and the real fear she felt from all
those guys watching her forced her to continue.  Finally she made it to the
top.  As the noise and lewd comments from the football players continued to
assault their ears, the two pledges descended the final flight and sadly
approached the waiting sophomores.

   Bernadette was heartbroken.  She was totally humiliated and for the
first time in her life, truly hated herself.  She had failed, out done by
Kathleen, of all people.  She saw herself as a loser, and because of that
she would need to quit the pledge group.  She had no right to hold her
companions back.  She would have to quit.

   Through her gasping and crying, Bernadette heard President Alexandra's
voice:

   "Pledge Kathleen and Pledge Cherine!"

   "Yes, ma'am!"

   "Put your uniforms back on!  You've passed the stadium run!"

   Kathleen and Cherine looked at each other, then at Lisa and Bernadette.
It was Cherine who spoke up:

   "Ma'am, I request permission to speak!"

   "What is it?"

   "Aren't we 'sposed to do this as a group?  I mean, I thought that if one
of us doesn't pass, none of us gets our uniforms back."

   "No.  I'm not doing it that way.  You two passed; Pledge Bernadette and
Pledge Lisa did not.  They're going back bare-assed, but you're not."

   Cherine and Kathleen again exchanged glances.  Kathleen spoke next.

   "Ma'am, it says in a bunch of places in the Pledge Manual that we gotta
do everything as a group.  That we're not supposed to have some of us in
uniform and the others not."

   "Well, I'm gonna cut you some slack.  You're saying you don't want it?"

   Kathleen swallowed and took a deep breath.

   "No, ma'am.  We don't want it."

   "Pledge Cherine?"

   "Not 'till we all pass, ma'am."

   "OK, if that's the way you want to be, then you can just be the happy
naked foursome." President Alexandra turned to one of the sophomores:
"Kate!"

   "Yes, President Alexandra!"

   "Bag up their stuff and take it back to the house!  Looks like our four
pledges will be doing some streaking this morning!"

   "Yes President Alexandra!"

   As Kate shoved the four uniforms into a cloth bag, Bernadette continued
to cry.  However, she no longer was crying over her failure to do the run.
Instead she was overcome at the thought that her fellow pledges, two of
whom she disliked, once again had come to her defense.  She felt very
guilty, because she knew that she would not have done the same for any of
the others, with the possible exception of Cherine.  Had Lisa or Kathleen
been in her shoes, Bernadette gladly would have put her uniform back on and
let them go back naked alone.  Had it been Lisa who had fallen behind on
the stairs, there was no way Bernadette would have dropped back to
encourage her.

   The football players continued whistling as the Four-Beta women formed
up to make the run back to the sorority house.  Because it already was
daylight, there was a very real risk the pledges faced arrest if the police
or Campus Security saw them.  The solution was for the pledges to line up
single file and for the sophomores to line up on the outside of the
pledges, which greatly reduced their exposure.  The whistling and cat-calls
from the football players continued as the women exited the stadium, even
though the pledges now were mostly hidden by the sophomores.

   The women jogged at a leisurely pace along a back street that paralleled
the university.  They crossed Old Campus and finally the wide street that
separated the university from the nearby residences.  As they made their
way back to the Four-Beta house, the group received plenty of curious
glances from the early morning commuters who were out and about.  Their
witnesses thought, but could not be sure, that the four women running in
the center of the group weren't wearing anything.

   *****

   The pledges showered and then ate quietly with the sophomores.  The
sophomores seemed in very high spirits, but the pledges were nervous about
having to repeat the stadium exercise on Thursday.  They understood that,
until all of them could manage the stairs, they would be forced to run in
the nude.

   The Four-Beta pledges, accompanied by their Tri-Alpha counterparts, put
on their uniforms and were escorted to their classes.  In spite of
everything that was happening to them, they were students first and pledges
second, and their mentors expected top academic performance.  Whatever
difficulties they had back at the sorority house had to stay there, because
the pledges were expected to pay attention to what was going on in their
classes and pass their subjects on the first try.

   As usual, Lisa was deposited in Ruth Burnside's office and greeted her
professor in her normal stance, naked with her legs spread and her hands
behind her head.  As the student aide stood in position, Burnside talked to
her at length about the summer classes and her studies.  Dr.  Halsey and
one of his TA's came into the office and joined the conversation.  The TA,
a young guy who was fairly good-looking, spent the entire time with his
eyes glued to Lisa's attractive figure.  Lisa tried to ignore him and
conversed with the two professors, talking with them as though she were
dressed and sitting down.

   *****

   As the day went by and Bernadette had the chance to reflect on her
traumatic experience on the stadium stairs, she realized something truly
frightening about herself.  She had considered herself the best member of
the pledge group: the most outgoing, the most confident, and the most
attractive.  Perhaps that was true, but of the four pledges she also was by
far the most egotistical, self-centered, and short-sighted.  The tiredness
in her chest and her ruined lungs were a legacy of her short-sightedness, a
physical ailment she had inflicted upon herself that would take months to
fix.  Because of her stupidity, she now was burdened with a weakness that
was making the other three pledges suffer.  And yet, they still supported
her.  They still wanted her to succeed, even though she had done nothing to
merit their help.  Even that creepy Kathleen, even she stuck up for me. 
Even she's a better person than I am, thought Bernadette to herself.

   That night Bernadette decided not to use Ken, or pursue her goal of
getting Cherine to loosen up with her inhibitions.  She had concluded that
it would be better for her not to continue pledging the Four-Beta Sorority.
Among other problems, she dreaded the prospect of another run on the
stadium stairs Thursday morning.  The thought of pain tearing through her
damaged lungs was not her main concern, but rather the humiliation of being
the weakest member of the pledge group.

   She had always thought of herself as superior to most other women her
age, largely because of her popularity in school.  However, she had not
really been challenged when it came to exercising before joining the
sorority.  With upper body she did all right, but running had been very
hard, even before the stair training.  Now she had become an impediment to
the others, and could not face being in that awkward situation.  It was
just too humiliating.  She would have to quit, for the good of everyone.

   After dinner Pledge Bernadette found Tracy at her usual spot in the
sorority library.  She knelt, and flatly told the Pledge Mistress that she
needed to quit the pledging program and leave the sorority.  Tracy was not
particularly surprised, because she knew that Bernadette had two issues in
her life that were likely to manifest themselves during the pledging
process.  Tracy was aware that Bernadette smoked and that her fitness would
be a problem as the aerobic portion of the physical training intensified.
That was no surprise, because she had seen the same thing when going though
Basic Training in the Army.  The smokers always had a lot of trouble during
the runs at the beginning.

   Bernadette's other problem was her self-confidence and tendency to
harshly judge everyone around her.  Her self-confidence came not from what
she had accomplished in her life, but from the illusion of being part of
the "in" crowd at her high school.  She was destined to suffer an identity
crisis, because the world in which she lived vanished the moment her
graduation ceremony ended.  Precisely because she had been so happy in high
school (often at the expense of her less popular classmates) finding that
level of happiness in the future would be difficult.  In some ways
Bernadette faced a harder life than any of her three fellow pledges,
because the other three had not enjoyed their time in high school.  They
would miss that part of their lives much less, and could look forward to a
happier future.

   Upon hearing Bernadette announce that she wanted to quit the pledging
program, Tracy's demeanor changed completely.  She told Bernadette to get
off her knees and sit in a chair, using a normal tone of voice.  Then she
stood up, grabbed a sign with the words "Private conference" written on it,
and hung it on the door to the library.

   Tracy surprised the freshman by speaking to her like a psychologist,
giving up her normal military manner of talking.  She addressed Bernadette
by her name, instead of calling her "Pledge".  The change was a total shock
to Bernadette, who had always taken it for granted that Tracy's behavior
was an outgrowth of her personality and not simply a performance required
by her position as Pledge Mistress.

   "Leaving the pledging program is your choice, Bernadette.  The only
thing I'm gonna ask of you is that we talk for a little bit, to make sure
you're leaving for the right reasons.  The main thing I'd want is to make
sure you don't take off, and then, a week or two from now, regret doing
it."

   "I...  I don't know ma'am...  I just don't think it's gonna work for
me."

   "Maybe 'what's not working for you' is that you're scared right now? 
New situation, taking orders, dealing with people you wouldn't have hung
out with in high school?"

   "That's part of it."

   "Part of it.  And what's the other part?"

   "That run on the stairs.  I can't do it.  I tried, but I can't do that
run."

   "Why do you think you can't do the run?"

   "Everything gave out on the third flight of steps.  My heart, my legs,
that pain in my side...  I mean I just couldn't move...  and it really
hurt...  and I couldn't...  "

   "Well from what I heard, you did go the full distance, it's just that
you were a bit slow."

   "Pledge Lisa came back and told me to keep moving."

   "So Lisa cared enough to do that for you."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "Then what happened?"

   Berndette sat silent as tears began rolling down her cheeks.  Finally
she managed to speak.

   "We all had to jog back to the Four-Beta house naked."

   "President Alexandra ordered all of you to streak back?"

   "She made me and Pledge Lisa...  'cause we didn't make the run... 
and... I mean...  and it was my fault, 'cause Lisa didn't do it, 'cause of
me."

   "What about the others?"

   "They wouldn't get dressed 'cause of me.  They refused."

   "They refused to get dressed?"

   "They...  wouldn't get dressed 'cause they kept saying that's what it
says in the Pledge Handbook...  that we gotta do things together as a
group."

   "So, in other words, you had all three of your fellow pledges sticking
up for you.  You got in trouble and they helped you.  Did I get that
right?"

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "And, so...  right now...  you don't see how lucky you are, to have
friends who'll do all that for you?"

   Bernadette sat silent again, trying to figure out how to say what she
needed to say.  Finally she blurted out:

   "The problem is they shouldn't have done it!  Not for me!  I don't know
why they did it 'cause I don't even like 'em!  I mean...  I like Cherine,
but that's it!  I don't like Lisa and Kathleen, but they don't know it...
and they think I'm their friend...  and I'm not their friend!  And I... 
they shouldn't have done it, 'cause there's no way I would've done it for
them!"

   "OK, so...  why do your feelings towards Lisa and Kathleen make you want
to quit the Four-Betas?"

   Bernadette thought about it.  Her real problem was that she felt
horribly guilty about her inward disdain for two women who had been so
supportive, but didn't know how to express that thought, even to herself.
Finally she settled on a partial explanation:

   "I just don't want to be the one to hold the others back.  And I'm sick
of being humiliated.  I'm sick of being the one that everyone's looking at
and saying 'she's the loser, she's the one who's fucking everything up! 
It's her fault!' I just don't wanna be the fuck-up of the group."

   Tracy sat back in her chair, glad that she now had an opening to begin
convincing Bernadette not to quit the sorority:

   "You're not the fuck-up of the group!  Nobody's saying that about you!
You're doing just fine!"

   "But I couldn't do that stair run!  And they all had to go back naked
because of me!"

   Tracy smiled slightly.

   "You couldn't do the stair run on the first try!  Oh, how tragic! 
Couldn't do something on the very first try, so now you're just gonna give
up!  Over a stair run!  Come-on now, don't you think you're worth more than
a stair run?"

   "But they're gonna do it again on Thursday, and I can't do it!  I can't
run like that!"

   "So you're scared."

   "Yeah...  I mean yes, ma'am, I'm scared."

   "Good, 'cause that's a big part of the pledge program, overcoming your
fears.  You've found something you're afraid of and now you need to figure
out how you're gonna overcome it.  Will you finish Thursday's stair run? 
Probably not, and you and the others will have to jog back naked, just like
you did today.  That's what's gonna happen, and so be ready for it.  But
maybe you'll get a bit closer to beating it, making it up the fourth flight
of steps before you give out, for example.  If you keep at it, every day
you'll get a bit closer, and at some point you will manage to run non-stop
and keep up with the sophomores.  And next year, you'll be running up and
down those stairs every time you go out and not think anything of it. 
That's the weakness you need to overcome, and it's your choice whether
you'll overcome it or not.  But let me tell you something, if you give up
on that stair run and quit the sorority, that failure will only be the
first out of many others you'll face in your life.  This is it, Bernadette,
either you can succeed, or you can give up and fail.  You're the one who
has to make that choice."

   Tracy paused to let her words sink in; then pursued Bernadette's other
issue, her feelings about her fellow pledges.

   "As for what Lisa, Kathleen, and Cherine did for you today, the reason
they did it is because they are your friends.  Like it or not, those three
women are your friends.  You four are a clique, and you are part of that
group.  When the outside world looks at you, they don't say: 'Oh, there's
Bernadette!  She's with those other girls, but she's different!  She's
better than them!' It doesn't work like that!  You are part of this
sorority, part of the freshman class, and those three women are gonna stick
up for you because that's what we do here!  And when each of the others has
a problem, which they will, you'll need to be there for them!  That's what
this is all about!  That's why we're doing this to you and putting you
through all this hazing, to force you to be part of something much bigger
than yourself.  We expect you to succeed as a group.  You're part of that
group, no better and no worse than Lisa, Cherine, or Kathleen."

   "And you really don't think I oughta quit?"

   "I'd prefer that you don't quit.  I'd like to see you to stay in and
finish, because I think you'd be a valuable member of the Four-Beta
community.  Whether you 'oughta' quit is something only you can decide, but
you've heard my opinion on the matter.  This is gonna be an important
decision for you, because I think there's a lot more riding on it than just
whether or not you'll become a Four-Beta."

   Again Bernadette sat silently, as she struggled with what would be one
of the most significant decisions of her life.  She realized that Tracy was
right.  If she gave up now, the fear of failure would take control of her
and become a self-fulfilling prophesy.  She had to conquer those stairs. 
Maybe she would fail, but at least she had not yet given up.  There was
still hope she could do it.

   Finally Bernadette got off the chair and back onto her knees.

   "I...  I guess I wanna continue, ma'am.  I'm sorry...  "

   "No apologies, Pledge Bernadette, no apologies.  Remember, a good
Four-Beta lets her actions speak for her."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   "PLEGDE, STAND-UP!"

   Bernadette jumped to her feet and was dismissed.

   Thursday morning loomed ever larger in her mind, but she knew what she
had to do.  Simply try to do her best, accept the support of her fellow
pledges, and most importantly, accept them as her friends.

   *****

   As the following day progressed, Lisa noticed that Bernadette's
treatment of the other members of her group had changed.

   The biggest difference was that Bernadette began talking to Kathleen,
after having ignored her for three weeks.  Their conversation focused
mostly on serious topics such as coursework, computer and programming (of
which Kathleen knew quite a bit) and gossip about various members of the
sorority.  The two women did not share many interests in fashion or popular
culture, but they were able to talk about various places they had visited
as children, such as Disney World and Six Flags Over Texas.

   There was one topic where Kathleen's knowledge helped Bernadette
considerably: running.  Kathleen had watched Bernadette struggle up the
final two flights of stairs and even from a distance saw things that she
was doing wrong.  Kathleen gave her companion advice on breathing that
would allow her to take maximum advantage of her limited lung capacity. 
Also, she explained her technique for boosting adrenaline.

   "If you're really pissed-off, it'll help you run.  I mean, I think about
stuff when I'm running, and I get so mad I'm not even thinking about how
far I have to go.  And then, sometimes, I can even get to the finish line
and not even realize it.  Get mad before you start running.  Get real mad
and it'll help you."

   Bernadette's behavior around Lisa changed as well, although not as
dramatically as her treatment of Kathleen.  She did not try to force
herself to be overly friendly, but her aloof and confrontational attitude
diminished considerably.  Lisa figured that it was because of her
humiliating experience on the stairs that Bernadette had become more
cooperative, not realizing that there was much more to it than just her
companion's physical fitness.  For the first time Bernadette understood
that she was not any better than Lisa, and certainly not any more
knowledgeable.  Because Lisa already had been in college for a year, there
were plenty of things she knew that Bernadette did not.  The freshman
realized that she could either go through the trouble of learning
everything the hard way, or rely on Lisa's insight and experience to make
her own life easier.

   Of all the women in the sorority, Bernadette knew that she would be
closest to Cherine.  Bernadette realized that she always looked forward to
spending time with Cherine, because their likes and personalities were
compatible.  They shared tastes in the same movies and TV shows, and
especially interest in the same music.  They enjoyed having any chance to
hang out, talk about lighter topics other than academics or
sorority-related problems, and make jokes about popular culture that went
over the heads of Lisa and Kathleen.  The two women worked well together
with their chores and homework assignments, and took advantage of any
opportunity in their busy schedules to find each other and chat.  After
only three weeks, Bernadette realized that she had just made her first
close friend in college.

   As her perception of her companions changed, the words that most stuck
in Bernadette's mind were from Tracy:

   "Like it or not, those three women are your friends.  You four are a
clique, and you are part of that group."

   Had Tracy used any other word than "clique", what she said would not
have had the same impact on Bernadette's thinking.  How strange, to be in a
clique with three other women so totally different from the girls she had
been hanging out with only two months before!  How much her life had
changed, in just 60 days!  She wondered if, by the end of the summer, she
would change so much that her high school friends wouldn't even recognize
her.