CHAPTER ONE - "SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS!"
Bree Dawson says she was in the backseat of a speeding car with a blindfold over her eyes. Her hands were tied behind her back and her jeans were pulled down to her knees, making hard for her to move her legs. Music was blasting as the vehicle swerved from side to side, slamming her against the windows. She could hear the other two girls in the front seats laughing and singing along with Miley Cyrus as the speakers blasted.
It was Bree's first night pledging to Alpha Pi Omega, a small sorority house at the University of Santa Barbara, California. She'd spent one semester as a freshman before deciding to join in, hoping to expand her circle of friends.
Now, she was drunk, scared and disoriented, fearfully wondering what she had gotten herself into this time.
Bree had no misconceptions of what the so called "Greek life" was when she started her first semester and she was fairly warned that Alpha Pi Omega was specially known for their terrible and crazy hazing. Still, she was sure about her decision to do it.
Bree says that the first feelings of regret got "really real" soon after fraternity sisters began berating her and her fellow pledges even before the initiation process had started. She knew she had long months of hazing and humiliation ahead of her, but she could've never been prepared for what was stored for her and her fellow pledges that night.
It all started with a sort of "clichΓ©": Tequila shots. Bree remember hearing one of the pledges begging to be allowed not to drink. "I never had a beer in my life" she pleaded. The sisters would only laugh and tell her to "drink up" and "shut-up".
"Don't be a baby!" one said. The pledge looked down to the floor and kept silent.
Marilyn McCurdy, one of the founders of the sorority and their pledge mom (and the one who would be driving Bree later that night to the middle of the woods) stood up on top of a chair.
"OKAY, you fucking dummies! Take your shoes off!"
Early that morning they were all told to wear any kind of closed footwear - shoes, heels, flats, sneakers, toms, converts - and no socks. It was a common haze in male fraternities. Not so much in sororities. But, Alpha Pi Omega was different. The founders liked to say they had "the edge."
As the pledges removed their footwear the other sisters would walk pass them making humiliating observations. "This girl's shoes smell like blue-cheese!" one would say. "Jesus! Her flats smell worse than my brother's running shoes!" One sister actually made one of the pledges smell her own converts and tell all of them what they smelled like. Her embarrassing remarks were received with more degrading comments and crazy laughter.
"Hold those stinkers in front of you! It's time for some shots!"
And while all the other sisters shouted "Shots! Shots! Shots!" one of them passed by each one of the pledges and poured a healthy shot of Tequila inside their shoes. Bree looked at her old, sweaty flats, one she'd worn since high school, and sighed.
"This is SO gross..." she whispered. One of the girls next to her was holding her old sneakers and could not hide the look of shock on her face. "I can't believe they're making us do this..." she whimpered.
Each girl had to drink five shots from their shoes. A few puked. Others chocked and gagged. Bree thought all shots tasted like dirt and rubber and vinegar. The sisters all chanted verbal abuses and made the younger ones have extra shots for vomiting on the floor. After this first part of the initiation, which the sisters called "foreplay", the pledges were forced to put on their shoes back on, being told they were to repeat this process in two hours.
Bree remember how gross her flats felt back on her now dirty feet, sticking to her sweaty soles every time she walked.
A tall Latina girl announced it was "Marbles" time and was received with enthusiastic cheers by the sisters. Most of the pledges were lost and confused. Bree wasn't. She'd heard about this haze before.
"Shit!" she sighed. One of the other pledges, a girl called Sabrina Peterchild, looked at Bree and lipped the words: "No. Fucking. Way." She also knew what was coming.