DISCLAIMER: The following tale is completely fictitious. If there is a real sorority named Gamma Lambda Kappa, it is not to be confused with the one described here.
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I stood in awe at the large yet somehow cozy sorority house that I had just entered. Before me was a curved staircase leading up to a short railed hallway with a single door that I presumed led to the bedrooms and bathrooms. To my immediate left was a lounge containing a large couch with four matching chairs and a coffee table, all in front of a huge bay window. Meanwhile, to my immediate right, on the other hand, was an open door to the study, which I knew from a previous tour to contain two couches, three chairs, four laptop-ready desks/workstations, and three bookcases.
Down the hall from that and around a corner was a spacious kitchen with a lovely checkerboard linoleum floor. Back on the left, a more informal and private living room with a flat-screen TV and gaming station could be accessed through a door on the far side of the lounge. Finally, through a door directly underneath the second-floor landing was a huge dining room, with four tables for six people each and another bay window even larger than the one in the lounge! All the furnishings were made of deep mahogany with burgundy upholstery, and the walls were mostly forest green.
I vaguely heard my four fellow pledges began chatting quietly amongst themselves in contented anticipation of their induction, and I snapped out of my reverie just in time to greet the unofficial welcoming committee of incumbent sisters as they emerged from the door to the dining room. At their helm was the chapter president, Melanie, a busty Nordic-looking beauty with dusty blonde hair and sky blue eyes. "Hi, guys! I am so glad to finally welcome you to Gamma Lambda Kappa!" she announced as the other members gathered around her and her three companions. "As I hope you all know by now, we're a rather young sorority specifically for intellectual overachievers! As you can see we're a relatively small sorority, with only a couple dozen members, but that's actually on purpose! We believe a roster of 24 current students is in the Goldilocks zone, if you will. Not so small that we barely legitimize our existence, but not too large to inhibit close bonding between sisters. Bonding is very important to all of us, and we hope that you'll form as many lifelong friends as possible here!"
She went on about the quota for new members and how they were chosen, but I was too busy catching the eye of one particular legacy member, my best friend since childhood Wendy, and waving enthusiastically at her. She waved back just as eagerly, and we mouthed a few queries, responses, and even jokes before my attention was drawn back to Melanie for a moment. "So, make yourselves at home and start getting to know each other, and the official induction lunch will be served shortly!" said the tall blonde.
The crowd dispersed into smaller mingling groups spread out among the lounge and entryway, but Wendy and I all but immediately ran into each other's arms. "This is gonna be great, Josie!" my freckled and bespectacled bestie declared.
"I know!" I concurred. "Thanks for pulling the strings to get me in here, Little Miss Legacy!" This was only our second semester at the university, but Wendy had gotten invited to join the sorority straight out of high school because her mom was an alumna, which disrupted our plans to live in a dorm together. Fortunately, a few slots in the membership quota opened up at the end of our first semester, and Wendy had managed to convince the officers to extend an invitation to me (after I'd been properly vetted, of course).
She scoffed. "Girl, I had to! Gamma Lambda Kappa's great and all, but I wasn't about to spend my college years living away from my best friend, at least not if I could help it!"
I laughed and nodded in agreement, about to retort when a lovely Latina approached us in a lavender spaghetti-strap top and faded jeans. "Is this her, Wendy?" she asked with an eager smile.
"Oh, yes, Raquel, this is Josie!" said Wendy. "Josie, this is Raquel, the first friend I ever made here!"
"Great to finally meet you!" said Raquel. "I've heard so much about you! Did you really get one of your teachers fired for trying to teach intelligent design in biology?"
I laughed at how immediately she'd asked the question and nodded, sending a teasing glare at Wendy. "Why am I not surprised Wendy told you about that?"
"Hey, it's my favorite story. Get over it," my redhead bestie retorted.
Raquel chuckled briefly before her eyes fell on someone in the crowd. "Ooh, let me introduce you to my sister! She's new here too. Dani, get over here!"
I smiled as one of my fellow pledges, a pretty Asian girl in a black tank top and dark blue jeans, stepped towards us from where she had just finished some brief small talk with one of the current members. I couldn't help but look curious for a moment at the difference in ethnicity, but I shrugged it off and was the first to shake her hand as she reached us. "Hi, I'm Dani," she introduced herself with a friendly smirk.
As we chatted, I quickly found out that Dani was, in fact, adopted. It was a heartwarming story, really. She'd tragically lost both of her parents in a car accident that she alone had survived at the age of seven, but luckily, she and Raquel had already been close friends since they were both four, to the point that Raquel's parents had come to treat Dani as one of their own. Despite obviously regretting the circumstances leading up to it, they immediately volunteered to adopt her and make it official, and the new family had never looked back since.
"I'm proud to call her my sister," Raquel said, prompting moved smiles from me and Wendy, "and the confused looks we get because of the whole ethnic thing are actually sort of a running gag in our lives!" We all chuckled. "Speaking of which, what beautiful genetic cocktail are you, if you don't mind my asking?"
I laughed nervously. "Thanks, but I'm not much of a cocktail, actually. I'm an American Indian with maybe a smattering of white somewhere deep in the family tree."