Anne admired her older sister Hannah. It always seemed that everything always went perfectly for her. She was smart, athletic, popular and pretty when she was in high school. Anne wasn't very good in school, wasn't athletic, wasn't all that popular and was kind of mousey. Not unattractive but short, thin and easy to overlook. Her sister Hannah went away to college in another state and joined a sorority and became the president. She graduated from college two years ago and was now in medical school. Anne visited her at when she was in college. She dreamed of following in her sister's footsteps. She barely got into her sister's college out of high school, but it was not only her first choice but her only choice. If she had not been accepted she would have taken a gap year to get her qualification up. That was how much it meant to her.
Her first day at her new school she visited her sister's old sorority. She was a little surprised that she did not get a particularly warm welcome. But she continued to go around and attend every event. She let them know clearly that she wanted to become a sister. She was also surprised that she was not embraced as a legacy, which she had always heard was a big advantage for being offered a bid to join.
Her sister was very busy in med school, so Anne could not speak with her often. On one conversation she excitedly told Hannah that she was pledging her old sorority. Hannah was silent for a bit. Hannah then said "I really don't think that you should have anything to do with that place. I thought that it was great when I joined, but when I became president I made a lot of changes that did not sit well with some of the alumnae and in particular with some of the legacy sisters."
Anne asked what she was talking about. Hannah replied "We had been wasting money on stupid stuff and I made us cut back. I instituted a public service requirement because we should not have been all about ourselves. And I made the pledging process much tamer by eliminating hazing. The hazing part was change that created the most friction. We had done things to embarrass pledges and I just didn't think it was right. They said that it made us bond together, but I think it was just mean. The flack I caught was unbelievable. I strongly recommend that you stay away. I know that they have brought back hazing and you don't want to go through that. And they might take out their anger towards me on you. Take my advice for once. Look, I've got to go. My study partner just showed up and we need to go over some things for a test. Just listen to me for once. Bye."
Anne was deflated. She had spent six years dreaming about joining this sorority. She went to bed but couldn't get to sleep. She just kept thinking about missing out on being a sister in that sorority.
After a few days of contemplation, she decided to go for it anyway. She could make them like her. She could be part of the sorority. She would do everything she could to win them over, focusing on the legacies that might be still upset with her sister Hannah. She was willing to suffer a little embarrassment in order to join. It even made sense to her that the shared experience would bring the girls closer together as a real sisterhood. She wasn't going to mention anything to her sister Hannah.
Anne kept going to events and entered the formal pledge program. She really worked hard. She was at every event early. She stayed later to help clean up. Nothing was more important to her than becoming accepted. She was told that only about two-thirds of the pledges will be invited to join.
One afternoon, she got a knock on her dorm door. It was three sisters from the sorority. She recognized them as three of the legacies in the senior class. One had been extremely friendly to her and she did not know the other two as well. She thought that this was a good thing and would probably be an important test for her to be evaluated.
Irma, the girl who had been friendly with her said "Anne, as you know, it is crunch time in the pledging process. It's time for us to make some very difficult decisions. All of the pledges will be given challenges. Let me say that nothing bad will happen to you, but you will have to make choices. If you demonstrate your trust in us, we will probably offer you a bid. If you show that you do not trust us, you are not the sort of sister that we want in our house. Do you understand?"
Anne replied "Of course. I trust you all and really, really want to be a sister."
Irma continued "OK, take off all of your clothes and put these things on." She handed Anne a long t-shirt with the name of the school on it and a pair of flip-flops.
Anne asked, "Even my underwear?"
Irma responded "What did I say? I said take off ALL of your clothes. Why wouldn't ALL include your underwear? Don't you trust us?"
Anne didn't respond but quickly stripped naked and pulled on the t-shirt. She was glad that is fell almost to her knees and was not white or see through. She was not really that uncomfortable in it because of the length. She didn't always need to wear a bra anyway. She also put on the flip flops.
The four of them left her room, went down the elevator and to a car, which was parked with its blinkers on outside the dorm. Anne was nervous and did not really pay attention to where they were going but knew that at some point they crossed the river that ran along the university. Eventually they stopped, and Irma told her to get out. They were at a bus stop, and Anne, Irma and another girl waited apparently for a bus and the third girl waited in the car.
When a bus came the three girls got on. Anne hesitated because she did not have the fare for the bus, but Irma put in a bus token for her. There were only two other people on the bus, two older women who sat near the front. Irma, Anne and the other girl went to the back. They told Anne to sit in the last seat on the left side of the bus and the other two girls sat in the seat directly in front.
Irma said to Anne "Do you trust your sisters?"
Anna answered "Of course. You know that I do."
