Chapter 8 - Pledge Kathleen's punishment
Lisa was just starting to drift back to sleep when the light in the room was turned on. An ear-piercing whistle from Tracy startled the pledges awake:
"OK, sleeping beauties! Up-up-up!"
The four women struggled to get out of bed and stand at attention.
"Good morning, ma'am!"
"Good morning, Pledges, and a lovely morning it is! We got a lot of stuff going on today, so we might as well hit the ground running! I want these beds made and no evidence left that any of you was in here last night! You got five minutes! Then I want you to dump your bladders, brush your teeth, put your shoes on, and form up in the pledge room!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Obviously Tracy had returned to her normal nasty self. However, a good night's sleep had put the pledges in a much better mood. At least they were ready to face whatever she was going to throw at them that day.
There were two sinks and one toilet, so the pledges took turns brushing their teeth and peeing. They knew better than to shower, because Tracy had not mentioned anything about showering. Less than 10 minutes after being woken up the women were standing in line.
"OK, today's upper-body PT day! Everybody upstairs into the pool area! Move out!"
The pledges filed past Tracy, who landed a hard slap on the bare bottom of each as they went by. Lisa led her companions to the back yard, where the members of the sophomore class already were in formation. Like the pledges, the only clothing the sophomores were wearing was athletic shoes and socks. Standing in front of the group was an equally naked Heather. The Sergeant-at-Arms welcomed the four pledges and announced from that point forward they would be exercising with the sophomore class.
Because Tracy was a senior, she left the sophomores to change into the Four-Beta track uniform and go running with the other seniors and juniors. While the younger group exercised in the yard, the older group would do lengthy stretches and jog a standard three-mile loop around the university. The Four-Beta members alternated upper-body and lower-body workouts: on the days the sophomores and freshmen did pushups and sit-ups the seniors and juniors went running, and vice-versa.
Group exercise was mandatory for all Four-Beta members. The rule about attending physical training was one of the most inflexible mandates of the sorority, because the women knew that by nature people tend to be lazy and not as likely to exercise on their own as they are in a group. Part of Four-Beta daily life was rigorous physical activity, which fit into the over-all philosophy of caring for one's own body.
The women only wore uniforms when going out to run because they had to. In the sorority's back yard (or in the basement gym during the winter) the exercise uniform consisted of nothing except shoes and socks. There was nothing sexy about what the women were doing, not a hint of eroticism during the group PT. Instead what the Four-Betas were pursuing was an effort to re-kindle the old spirit of Gymnos. The sorority argued that it was better to exercise in the nude because clothing inhibits the natural process of sweating and free movement. The idea of complete nudity extended to deodorant, make-up, and perfume. The women were not allowed to put anything on their bodies that might inhibit their natural bodily processes, especially perspiration. Another goal of the nude exercising was to re-enforce the idea that a person should never feel uncomfortable with her own body or with seeing the bodies of other people.
Lisa and Kathleen were relatively fit, so they did not struggle nearly as much as Bernadette and Cherine. Still, considering that the other women in the group had been performing the same exercises for over a year, the four pledges felt quite ashamed of their comparatively feeble efforts. Heather yelled at the newcomers, but let them know that for a while there would be some leniency as long as the pledges showed steady improvement.
Following the group workout the pledges got cleaned up and returned upstairs for breakfast. They ate on the porch with the sophomores, once again a very healthy morning meal of fruit, whole-wheat English muffins, and small bowls of granola.
Although she had sat down with them only twice, Lisa could tell that the women of the Four-Beta Sorority were very serious about any topic they wanted to discuss. Their concerns were academics, current events and politics, fitness, women's issues, personal relationships, and sex, in that order. They did not discuss fashion, music, sports, or popular entertainment.
The sophomores engaged the pledges in conversation, talking at length about the university and various classes. After a while the topic shifted to university politics and then to current affairs. One of the Four-Beta sophomores mentioned a massive ongoing financial and political scandal that had been the top business news story for the past month. The scandal involved a botched attempt by Mega-Town Associates, the dominant corporation in the United States, to seize control of the government of an obscure European country called Upper Danubia.
Lisa was very tempted to add her thoughts concerning the Danubian coup plot, because she happened to know much more about it than any of the other women at the table. However, she decided to hold her tongue, because her friends Cecilia Sanchez and Jason Schmidt, along with another friend of Lisa's ex-boyfriend Mike, had been directly involved in disrupting the attack by warning the Danubian government. Apparently Lisa's friends had placed themselves in personal danger, because they suddenly and secretly left the U.S. and she had not heard from them since. She did not know what to make of their sudden departure, and felt uneasy bringing something so serious up among a group of women she was trying to get to know.
The discussion moved to the merits of Mega-Town Associates in general, and about whether it was good or not that a single company had so much power. Most of the women did not like Mega-Town, but one sophomore defended them, saying: "At least they don't kid around. The only reason everyone's so afraid of them is because if they want something, they go after it and they get it. I wish the American government could be like that." Most of the others, Lisa included, vehemently disagreed.