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Chapter 6: The First Day of Pledging:
The Sisters catch the pledges off guard.
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Sierra sat in her bedroom, reclining in her chair, her legs propped up on top of her desk. She had her phone cradled between her ear and her shoulder, waiting for the other party to pick up. As she waited, she held out her hands and admired her fresh manicure.
"My nails look hot," she said as she waited on hold. Her glossy pink nail polish gleamed in the warm mid-November sunlight that streamed through her window.
Then she carefully smoothed her hair back. "Oooh, damn," she whispered. "The hair's kinda rough, girl. I need a fresh perm to-day."
Suddenly a woman's voice came on the line.
"Sierra? Hi. This is Natalie Sherwood, Director of Undergraduate Membership. Thanks for holding. You're calling about your initiates?"
"Yes. How are you Ms. Sherwood?" Sierra said, quickly pulling her feet off the desk. Unfortunately, her right foot knocked over her pencil holder in the process.
"Crash!"
A handful of her pens and pencils flew everywhere.
Shit, Sierra thought as she got down on the floor to collect the pens and pencils that had scattered. "I can sure be a clumsy ass," she murmured while on her knees, still trying to hang on to the receiver.
"Sierra? Excuse me? Is everything ok?"
"No, no I'm fine." Sierra tossed the instruments on the desk and pulled herself up off the floor. "I'm fine," she said as she again settled back in her chair and pulled herself together.
Sierra took a deep breath. "Yes," she began, "I just wanted to check with the Rho Sigma Tau National Office to see if you've made a final decision on our candidates. We've done our pre-pledge process and we've already had our interviews. We've narrowed it down to four girls for the intake process and we submitted all of their paperwork and their payments a couple of weeks ago. Now, did you need anything else? Did we forget anything, Ms. Sherwood?"
Natalie's voice was warm and inviting. "First, call me Natalie."
Sierra smiled. "Thanks, Natalie."
"Now, Sierra, I have your paperwork in front of me. In fact, I was just about to call you. Let's go ahead and discuss a few things."
The two women spoke candidly for over forty minutes, reviewing each pledge's credentials very carefully. Finally, they completed the intake discussion and the conversation began to wind down.
"Ok Sierra. I think I have all the info I need. We've already done the preliminary review, so I'll take this new information to the National Membership Board and we'll make a final decision shortly. In fact, you should hear back from us in just a matter of days. Probably just before Thanksgiving. In the meantime, go ahead and finalize your pledge program with your Dean of Pledges. That way, when I call you with the approvals, you'll be ready to go."
"Thanks a lot, Natalie. I appreciate it."
"No problem, Sierra. Oh, by the way: Now that we have the updated paperwork and we're looking it over, you should go on and schedule the pre-pledge dinner. It should take place in the next week or so."
Sierra snapped her fingers. "I almost forgot about that! Thanks for reminding me."
"Yes. While we're doing the final review of the documents you've sent, the pre-pledge dinner will give you one last chance to formally evaluate the girls before they make it on line. But make it very casual. Give them a chance to get comfortable, then look at how they interact with you and with each other. And as far as the setup? You know how it works: just the four candidates, then you, your chapter Vice President and the chapter Dean of Pledges. And you know it has to be off-campus and not in the House."
Sierra smiled at the thought of working with Lina. They'd been so distant lately and she desperately wanted to reconnect with her best friend. "Thank you so much, Natalie. I'll get right on it. Anyway, you've been a big help. And if you need anything else, please just call."
"Great. I have your number here on your paperwork. 555-555-8069?
"Yep. That's it."
"Ok, Sierra. Thanks again. It was a pleasure talking to you. Talk to you soon."
Sierra hung up and smiled. The day was turning out to be great as everything was coming along nicely. "Now," she said, "I need to start planning for the first day of pledging."
She picked up the phone again and dialed quickly.
A soft, feminine voice answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Candace. It's Sierra. Listen, can you and Brandi come up to my room in about thirty minutes? I want to get started on the pledge program. Since you're our secretary and Brandi does the budget, I'll need you both. And we also need Tamryn. And, of course, we need Lina too. As Dean of Pledges, her input is the most important."
"Ok, Sierra, but Lina's gone."
Sierra paused. "Gone?"
"Yeah. She just came down to my room and dropped off her pledge accessory list, her pledge calendar and her pledge activity list. She'd written them by hand, so she wanted me to type them up, put them on letterhead and give them to you when I was done."
"Oh." Sierra frowned. Lina didn't say anything about being done with her pledge paperwork. Nor had Lina asked her input on the pledging process. As Natalie just said, it was customary for the President and the Dean of Pledges to be closely involved in how the pledges were initiated.
Sierra's head began to throb. To ease the pain, she gently rubbed her forehead. "How long ago did she leave those documents for you?"
"About half an hour ago. I'm almost done with them."
"Well, where did she go?"
"I'm not sure. She just said she needed some time alone. Want me to call her?"
"No," Sierra sighed. "I'll call her myself. In the meantime, finish typing up those lists and get them to me ASAP."
"Will do."
"And we'll just all meet later after I've reviewed her work, ok?"
"Sure. Fine."
"Oh, Candace? Natalie from our National Office just gave us the ok to schedule the pre-pledge dinner. So make it for next Thursday and let the four girls know. Also let Lina and Tamryn know. And go ahead and make reservations at the same restaurant as last year, ok? And please let them know that we want the royal treatment, ok?"