The blond haired, blue eyed university freshman rested her back against a tree as she sat on the grass. Taking advantage of a break between classes, she smiled as the shade of the tree kept her upper body cool, while the angle of the sun bathed her long, shapely legs in warm sunshine. The short shorts she was currently wearing exposed those legs from her sandals all the way to the top of her thighs.
The reason for her smile on this lovely Spring day came bubbling up into her thoughts.
"I finally made it into the Sorority! And not just any sorority... the most prestigious one on campus - Alpha Chi Omega!" she almost chortled. "Me, Pearl Higgins, a simple farm girl, now accepted by all these cultured young women as a sister. Admitted to their ranks!" She could hardly believe it. True, she had to endure the hazing rituals, and she'd surprised her new 'sisters' by doing so well. After all, being raised on a farm had taught her to be a hard worker. Consequently, the week where she had to clean all the sisters' rooms she did really well. She was exhausted each day, especially after doing Michelle's room. "I swear," Pearl muttered to herself, "that girl deliberately trashed her room every day just to make more work for me." She smiled, "But I done it... oops... correct my grammar... but I did it -- a whole week of it!"
Two of the other former pledges, now also sisters, came and sat next to her. Seeing their smiles, she looked back on some other ordeals she and the other pledges were made to endure. Like being doused with ice cold water, or taking a notebook and having to collect the names of all the freshman class. Being tied to trees wearing only their underwear - they had a sister watching to make certain no one molested them -- but it was still humiliating. It was also embarrassing when they had to form a long line and play leapfrog across the entire campus with the upperclassmen laughing it them. It was also a little mortifying when they had to attend all their classes in their pajamas for one day. There were more such things, but that was all behind them now.
Pearl sighed and basked -- the day should have been perfect, but it wasn't fully. The only cloud on her horizon was her grades in Sociology, Biology, and History. Pledging had occupied so much of her time that her grades had plummeted. And this had her very worried, whenever she thought about it. Just then, Michelle walked up and must've seen the small frown on Pearl's face. "What's up, honey?" she asked.
"Oh, it's really nothing," Pearl answered shyly.
"I've never seen you frown like that, sister," Michelle said kindly. "Come and take a little walk with me, and let's talk."
Flattered, Pearl took Michelle's hand, and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. The two of them strolled along, arm in arm until they came to a rather private area. Michelle said, "Okay, it's just the two of us. Tell me what's bothering you."
Becoming a member of the sorority, Pearl felt a lot more close to Michelle than she had when they'd first met. Choking emotionally on some of her words, Pearl explained her dilemma about possibly failing in her three subjects. "And if I fail, Michelle, I'll lose my scholarship. And that means I'll have to leave the University and go back to the farm."
"Oh honey -- we can't have that." Michelle looked around to make sure no one was near. "There is a way that you can certainly pass your finals well enough to get good grades in all three subjects."
"Huh? How?" Pearl asked, incredulous.
Michelle began whispering in her ear. Pearl's eyes widened in surprise as Michelle carefully explained how Pearl could secretly hack into a certain database and get copies of all three finals. "Then you just need to look up and memorize the correct answers. You'd still be studying, but it would be a very focused study." She grinned conspiratorially.
This solution went against Pearl's instinct as to what was right -- but she was desperate. It only took her a couple of minutes of arguing with herself before she gave Michelle a hug and whispered, "I think you just saved me. Thank you."
Michelle hugged her back, saying, "That's what sisters are for." She had Pearl scribble down the instructions for how to perform the hacking that she needed to do. They hugged once more, and then had to go back to their various classes.
As soon as Pearl had a chance, she accessed the three finals, dragging copies to her laptop. Then she plowed into her textbooks, looking up the various answers. In a short period of time, she felt very ready for those finals. And sure enough, as she took each one, she deliberately got some of the harder questions wrong, but made sure that she would end up with a better than passing grade. Her scholarship was saved! She felt such a relief that she rushed to Michelle to thank her once again.
"Michelle, I did it! I passed all three courses! I can't thank you enough!" Pearl gushed.
"Oh, so you did get copies of the finals from that database? And those helped you pass?" Michelle verified.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Pearl answered, clapping her hands joyfully. "That did the trick! And from now on, I promise to study hard so I never have to do that again."
"Ah, but the point is -- you did do it, and that means that you left a trace that you did it," Michelle said with a gleam in her eye. "And if I report this, you'll be expelled."
Pearl's hand flew to her mouth in shock. "Please don't do that, Michelle! You're the one that told me to do it! Please -- I'll do anything, just don't turn me in!"