Chapter 18 - A weakness in Lisa's character
Bernadette and Cherine returned downstairs fairly late, having spent more time than they anticipated in the pool. At first they were in the pool by themselves, but just as they were about to get out, a large group of women got in, carrying a water-volleyball and a net. They explained that the Four-Betas played water volleyball in competitions against other sororities and they needed to practice. The other women invited the pledges to join them, and a minute later the two freshmen found themselves playing on opposite sides of the impromptu game. It wasn't until an hour later that they were able to excuse themselves, which set back their plans to spend the night catching up on their e-mails in the sorority library.
Lisa and Kathleen were sound asleep when their companions finally made it downstairs. Cherine and Bernadette cleaned up and slipped into the guestroom, which was dimly illuminated by a single nightlight. It was just light enough that the two women could see that the main bed was occupied but the two singles were empty. Cherine was too tired to care about anything other than her own sleep, but Bernadette was curious. She slipped closer to the main bed and caught a faint whiff of orgasm. She couldn't see much in the darkness, but could tell that Lisa and Kathleen were sleeping cuddled up to each other.
Bernadette pondered for a moment what she ought to do. On the one hand she was irritated that Lisa and Kathleen were not making a better effort to hide their relationship. She felt that it was somewhat disrespectful to be openly having sex in an area they had to share with the other pledges. She was certain that if Tracy caught the couple there would be hell to pay, perhaps for the entire pledge group.
Bernadette wondered whether to wake up Lisa and force her to get in a different bed, leave the two lovers in place and let them get in trouble the next morning, or simply get up a bit early and force them out of bed before anyone else saw them. Finally she opted for the latter. She set the alarm clock for 5:30, which would give her enough time to get Lisa and Kathleen out of bed before Tracy showed up. She would do Lisa a favor, in spite of her unease about the relationship and her on-going resentment that Lisa had taken charge of the pledge group.
The next morning Bernadette shook Lisa, who was still sound asleep.
"Get up! Get up before Tracy sees you!"
Lisa struggled to sit up, and covered her sleeping lover with the sheet. She was still somewhat disoriented and wanted to lie back down.
"Get...UP!"
Bernadette pushed on Lisa until she was awake enough to stand. As soon as Lisa was on her feet, Bernadette crawled back in her bed to get a final 20 minutes of sleep.
Meanwhile, Lisa rubbed her eyes and went into the pledge room to use the toilet and brush her teeth. She realized what a huge favor Bernadette had just done for her when she heard Tracy's voice in the guest room:
"OK, sleeping beauties! UP-UP-UP! Let's go...Let's go...Let's go..." followed by the usual hard slap to the bare bottom of each of her three fellow pledges as they exited the room.
Lisa and Kathleen had been only minutes away from being caught in bed together by the Pledge Mistress. It was only because of Bernadette they were not facing her harsh discipline. As the other women entered the pledge room Lisa whispered to Bernadette:
"Thanks. I owe you one."
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Somewhat better rested than they had been 24 hours earlier, the pledges began what would be the first routine day of the summer semester. There would be morning PT, clean-up, and breakfast, followed by morning inspection and the daily trek to the university.
Part of the daily morning inspection included the formal presentation of assignments, a time during which Tracy ordered the pledges to kneel in the sitting room with their homework neatly placed in front to review. There wasn't any written homework yet, but the three freshmen had been assigned some reading for one class that they had to recite. After a few minutes of questioning Tracy determined that her charges were adequately prepared and ordered them to put on their uniforms. Thus, dressed and ready for another day of class, the young women departed the sorority house with their Pledge Mistress.