Back to Chapter 33
Chapter 34 � Pledge Brittany
The following week marked a subtle, but significant change in the
relationship between Lisa and Kathleen. What went on between them had to
be conducted out of sight of Tracy and the other pledges, but the two
lovers understood that Lisa now was in charge of Kathleen�s life.
Kathleen�s eagerness to please Lisa and make up for the incident at
Burnside�s party forced her to ask permission before doing anything. In
subtle ways Lisa let her lover know that asking permission to do even
the most routine things was what she would expect for the future. As for
sex, that would be on Lisa�s terms, although both lovers understood that
Lisa had an obligation to satisfy Kathleen�s needs as much as Kathleen
had an obligation to obey Lisa.
Another part of the understanding between the two women was Kathleen�s
eventual punishment. It was very unlikely that Lisa would have the
opportunity to punish Kathleen prior to swearing in, but that delay did
not mean the punishment wasn�t going to happen or that its severity
would be reduced. Every so often Lisa dropped a reminder about the
upcoming chastisement, or patted Kathleen�s bottom to let her know that
she had not forgotten.
At that point Lisa still did not know that her lover had cheated with
Ken. Had she known that detail, she would have realized that she was
very close to her fulfilling her fantasy about the two most important
people in her life. What she did notice, when she caught fleeting
glimpses of him, was that Ken�s behavior was somewhat nervous and that
he seemed uneasy about something. As soon as she had a chance to be
alone with him, she would have to find out what was bothering him.
However, as the summer semester began drawing to a close and the
pressure of finals intensified, Lisa knew that her chances to talk to
Ken alone were greatly diminished.
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The week after the �Skins and Shirts Ball� was even less pleasant than
the week that preceded the dance. The pressure was on to study, prepare
for the pre-swearing in PT test, and memorize the rules, history, and
traditions of the Four-Beta Sorority. Before swearing in, the pledges
would have to formally present their grades to President Alexandra to
prove they were competent students. Once they had proven themselves
academically, the pledges face two final challenges. They had to perform
PT to military standards and they had to be interviewed by the Four-Beta
officers about their knowledge of the sorority itself. Following the
interviews, the officers would prepare a report about each pledge for
presentation to the membership for a formal vote of admittance, which
would be held at the Friday meeting on August 12. Formal swearing in
would be the following day, at a ceremony held at midnight.
There was another duty awaiting the pledges: volleyball. At the
beginning of every fall semester the sororities held volleyball
tournaments against each other, the rule being that only freshmen and
sophomores were allowed to play. The previous year the Four-Beta�s had
come in second out of 23 participating sororities, but unfortunately all
of last year's players now were juniors and ineligible to play. As for
Elaine�s group, there were only two players who could hold up in a
volleyball court and not make total fools out of themselves. Other
sophomores had athletic talent, but it was not playing volleyball.
Tracy took her pledges out to the back yard to have them practice and
see if any might make suitable volleyball players. It turned out that
all of them had some experience playing volleyball and that each pledge
had different talent. Bernadette was very good at serving, while Lisa�s
height made her a natural for spiking the ball over the net. Kathleen
was quick on her feet and good at making saves and passing the ball to
other players. Cherine was the most versatile of the pledges, able to
play any position competently. As soon as she saw her group in action,
Tracy realized that, when the pledges were combined with the two
sophomores, the sorority already had the core players for that fall
semester�s team. Hopefully the fall pledge group would provide some
alternates, and the Four-Betas could come close to matching the previous
group led by Shannon.
So�every night volleyball practice was added to the endless list of
duties and responsibilities the pledges had to fulfill. The days and
nights were full and the pledges were exhausted, but everyone, with the
exception of a single sorority officer, took it for granted that four
new members would swear in at the end of the summer semester.
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Heather understood that the chapter presidency, which only a few weeks
before had seemed assured to be hers, was gone. If she did not have the
support of Elaine and Shannon, she would not be able to count on the
votes of very many of the sophomores and juniors. She realized that if
her position continued to deteriorate, it was quite likely that several
seniors would vote against her as well. As for simply staying in her
current position as Sergeant-at-Arms; no, that was unacceptable.
Heather�s soul filled with anger and hatred over what she felt was a
betrayal of everyone in the sorority. The presidency was rightfully
hers. How dare all those stupid bitches turn against her, after all the
time she put into making the sorority such a great place? And just who
was it that was taking away what rightfully belonged to her? That
miserable butch soldier-girl, with her nasty attitude� And why?
Because�because of that bi-sexual California slut Lisa Campbell�that
kiss-up who didn�t even have the decency to pledge as a freshman.
No�that Californian had to wait, so she could come in as Pledge
Know-it-all. Oh yes, the slut princess of the Economics Department�
Throughout the middle of July, Heather�s bitterness, resentment, and
hatred intensified against Tracy and Lisa. She began to obsess about the
pledge even more than her rival, thinking that it was Lisa who had made
Tracy so popular. What to do? How could she get even? She took it for
granted she no longer could win the Four-Beta presidency, but at least
she wanted to get revenge against Lisa for ruining her life.
Then Heather�s thoughts took another turn. Tracy wouldn�t be where she
was without Pledge Lisa. What would happen if she somehow could get rid
of Lisa? Perhaps, if Tracy�s star pledge were eliminated, her popularity
would collapse and Heather would remain the top contender for the
sorority presidency. From that initial idea, Heather�s thoughts began to
move in a very unfortunate direction�
Get rid of Lisa�get rid of Lisa�get rid of Lisa�
Tracy and Heather carefully watched each other throughout the first
weeks of July. Each knew what the other was thinking: that Heather was
looking for an opportunity to strike at Tracy, while Tracy fully
anticipated that something was going to happen and would have to
counter. The nature of the fight and the two women�s personalities gave
Heather had one advantage over her rival. Tracy never struck first in a
fight. She waited for her opponent to do something, and then countered.
Her reluctance to initiate any confrontations gave Heather the luxury of
waiting for an opportunity�
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On Wednesday night of the third week in July, the familiar pattern of
the final weeks of pledging was disrupted in a big way. Very late that
evening Tracy led her pledge group from the campus library back to the
sorority, weighted down as usual, with library books. As they passed the
small park near the sorority, Tracy�s keen senses alerted her that
something was wrong. She decided to investigate, ordering her group to
wait for her on the sidewalk.
The Pledge Mistress disappeared into the darkness. Then the pledges
heard a cough and what sounded like gagging.
�Wake up! Wake up! Please�you�ve got to wake up!�
Tracy�s words were followed by more gagging and another cough. The
pledges immediately ran into the park, only to be confronted by very
grim sight. The Pledge Mistress was sitting on the ground holding
another young woman. Both were covered in vomit. The other woman�s face
was partially obscured by torn duct tape, which also covered her wrists
and ankles. The woman�s feet and hands still were bound, because Tracy
had not yet had the opportunity to take off anything other than the tape
covering her companion�s mouth and eyes.
�Cherine, get the tape off her hands! Kathleen, you get my phone out of
my backpack and call 911! Alcohol poisoning and asphyxiation! Very
shallow breathing�victim semi-conscious! Bernadette, go out to the
sidewalk and watch for cops! If you see one, flag him down!�
As Kathleen nervously pulled out Tracy�s phone and dialed 911 with
trembling hands, Cherine and Lisa began tearing at the duct tape wrapped
around the other woman�s ankles and wrists. They were amazed at how much
tape had been used to bind their companion and at how long it took to
get it off. Tracy continued to concentrate on the woman�s face, trying
to make sure she was breathing and that her air passage was not blocked.
It was quite probable that she had inhaled some vomit into her lungs,
but there wasn�t much Tracy could do about that. The Pledge Mistress and
Lisa held the semi-conscious woman upright as vomit and mucus continued
dribbling out of her nose and mouth.
Bernadette came back within a couple of minutes with two cops running
behind her. Immediately they took over, one of them grabbing Tracy�s arm
and rudely pushing her out of the way. An ambulance pulled up to the
entrance of the park, and Bernadette ran back out to flag down the
medics.
As for directly helping the victim, the Four-Betas were finished.
However, their involvement in the case was far from over. The police
ordered the women to get into squad cars to go downtown for questioning.
What started out as a simple good deed turned into an all-night odyssey.
The police separated Tracy from the rest of her group and interrogated
her about what happened. The cop clearly was very angry, shouting at her
that the emergency was the fourth sorority-related alcohol-poisoning
incident that week. She held up her hands:
�Officer! She�s not my pledge! I don�t know who she is! We just found
her, all tied up!�
With that Tracy recited what happened, a story confirmed by the separate
interview of each member of the Four-Beta group. It became obvious that
the women were telling the truth, partly because of their uniforms, and
partly because their health and appearance were nothing like the
condition of the young woman in the emergency room.
While the women of the Four-Beta Sorority waited to answer questions and
fill out witness declarations, the medics took the poisoning victim to
the emergency room where she had her stomach pumped, her lungs cleaned
out, and a breathing tube with oxygen inserted into her mouth. She
needed to be re-hydrated and get some rest, but soon it became apparent
that she narrowly had escaped any lasting damage to her health.
Actually, she narrowly escaped dying asphyxiated by her own vomit.
----------
Oddly enough, in spite of her condition, the patient remembered some of
the details of her rescue, something about a tall, dark-haired woman
pulling the tape off her mouth. She wanted to see her rescuer, partly to
thank her, and partly to piece together what happened. She refused to go
back to sleep until the hospital contacted the police station to find
that dark-haired woman. Finally, at 3:00 a.m. the night nurse relented
and placed a call to see if Tracy still was with the police.
Upon getting the phone call, Tracy gave up on the idea that she might
get any sleep that night, so she called a taxi and ordered her pledges
to return to the sorority. She knew that she was letting them out of her
sight for the first time in over a month. However, she did not see how
she could avoid going to the hospital and the pledges absolutely had to
get some sleep. The pledges, who by that time were accustomed to
trailing behind Tracy without interruption, were uneasy about being
separated from their mentor, but the need for sleep overrode any other
concerns. They were quite glad to be headed back to the sorority.
An officer took Tracy to the hospital and led her to the young woman she
had rescued. She was pale and disheveled, but certainly looked much
better than she looked when Tracy first saw her in the park. Tracy
introduced herself and calmly asked her companion her name. The woman in
the bed introduced herself as Brittany. Upon learning her name, the
Four-Beta Pledge Mistress asked Brittany how much she remembered about
what happened in the park.
�I�I remember you�and choking�and�how dark it was�I guess that�s about
it.�
�You don�t remember how you got there?�
�Yeah, I kinda do, but it�s a secret. We�re not allowed to talk about
it.�
�Well, Brittany, I think, since me and my pledge group gave up our night
helping you out, you�re gonna have to talk about it, whether you�re
allowed to or not. You owe me an explanation. You asked to see me, and
I�m here. Now that I�m here, I want to know what the fuck you were
doing, drunk and tied up by yourself in a park at 10:30 at night.�
None of Brittany�s story surprised Tracy. She was pledging an
un-chartered sorority that was one of the Four-Beta Sorority�s bitterest
rivals. Brittany�s sorority was everything the Four-Beta�s were not, a
smaller, cliquish, rather disorganized group living in a totally trashed
house with a social life that mostly revolved around drinking parties
and an associated fraternity.
Brittany had undergone two hellish months of various hazing rituals that
focused around constant drinking, performing oral sex on fraternity
members, and random humiliations. For some reason, tying their pledges
with duct tape and leaving them in isolated spots seemed to be a
favorite activity of the members of the rival sorority. The park
incident was not the first time Brittany had been duct-taped while drunk
and left alone for several hours. The previous week she had been
duct-taped and left sitting in a pond, and when she finally was pulled
out she had several leeches attached to her body.
Tracy�s training as a psychologist and Brittany�s need to talk to
someone about her unpleasant life resulted in a very long conversation.
Tracy was interested in helping the younger woman and realized that she
deeply regretted signing on as a pledge with her sorority. There wasn�t
anything Brittany could do, however, because once a freshman committed
to pledging, she was prohibited from leaving. The sorority members
stated quite plainly that anyone who attempted to leave their pledge
program would be beaten up upon leaving the house, and then harassed
until she left the university.
As she continued to talk, Brittany realized how much she hated her
sorority and the life she had gotten herself into. She was tired of
being drunk or hung-over all the time, tired of dealing with drunken
fraternity guys, and very worried about the fact she was failing her
summer classes.
�I don�t know why I even did this. I�ve had it. I can�t take it
anymore�I just�can�t take it anymore��
There was another concern that Brittany had, a worry that loomed ever
larger as her mind cleared of alcohol and she sobered up. Because she
had to be rescued by a stranger, undoubtedly she would be beaten up for
inadvertently divulging information about her sorority�s hazing
practices. She became increasingly scared at what was going to happen
once her sorority sisters found out what happened and came to the
hospital to pick her up.
Tracy sat back, mulling over her companion�s problems. How stupid, she
thought to herself, how stupid. They practically killed this poor girl
and now all that�s gonna happen is she�s gonna get beat up. That�s total
bullshit.
The matter could have ended at that point, Tracy leaving the hospital
and Brittany to her fate. However, simply leaving someone if they wanted
assistance was not in Tracy�s nature. She wanted to help, because it was
obvious that the freshman needed to extricate herself from her situation
but couldn�t do it on her own.
There was a second consideration on Tracy�s mind. As Pledge Mistress, it
was her duty to be constantly looking for potential new members for the
sorority. If Brittany was unhappy with her current sorority, what was to
prevent her from joining the Four-Beta�s? She would have to wait until
September to begin formally pledging, but in the meantime she could live
at the sorority house, recuperate her health, and try to salvage her
grades. Her current sorority would be livid over having one of their
pledges defect to a rival sorority and undoubtedly try to strike at her,
but so what? To get at Brittany they would have to get into a sorority
house guarded by 80 women in excellent physical shape who had taken
endless hours of personal defense training.
�You know, at the Four-Beta house we do things totally differently.�
�Yeah, I know. They told us all about you.�
�Well, did they tell you that at the Four-Beta house we don�t drink? We
don�t let our members get drunk, and there�s no way we�d let a pledge
touch alcohol. We don�t even allow alcohol on our property. During the
semester, if we catch anyone drinking, they get put on probation. We
catch �em drinking again, and they get kicked out. We catch anyone with
drugs, they�re gone immediately. We don�t want any of that shit in our
lives.�
�Yeah, they all make fun of you because of it.�
��and you think the way you do things is better?�
�No. I mean, I thought the drinking would be fun, but it�s not. I feel
like shit, all the time I feel like shit, and I�m sick of it.�
�We don�t let our members feel like shit. We exercise and eat right so
we don�t feel like shit. Life�s too short to live feeling like shit.�
Brittany said nothing, but her blank teary stare clearly expressed what
was on her mind. She knew that she had pledged the wrong sorority. Tracy
continued:
�Academics is another thing we don�t slack on. My sorority�s grade point
average is 3.7. We bust our asses making sure we get good grades,
because that�s why we�re here at the university, to go to class. You
can�t put down how many keg parties you�ve been to on a resume, so we
don�t waste our time with that shit.�
Brittany sat silent. Then she noticed a tiny detail that would change
the course of her life. Adhesive from the duct tape still was stuck to
her wrist. She wanted it off and began picking at it. Tracy commented:
�Having duct tape stuck on your wrists is your choice. You could make
this the last time you ever have to pick duct tape off yourself, because
we don�t do that to our pledges.�
�But�I can�t quit.�
�Why not?�
�Because�I��
Suddenly Tracy�s words �you could make this the last time you ever have
to pick duct tape off yourself, because we don�t do that to our pledges�
registered in Brittany�s mind. She looked up.
�Brittany, I�m issuing an invitation for you to come with me to the
Four-Beta house, because it doesn�t bother me in the least to grab a
pledge from another sorority. You�re not happy where you are right now,
so I�m giving you a chance to get out.�
��you mean, like�join the Four-Beta�s?�
�What I mean is initiating the process of becoming a Four-Beta pledge.
Your formal training wouldn�t start until September. Before that,
there�s a lot of shit in your life you�ve gotta fix, starting with your
classes. If you come with me, I can tell you exactly what you�re gonna
be doing tonight. You�re gonna sit your ass down in the Four-Beta
library and start getting caught up with your coursework. We can�t let
you pledge if your grades are fucked up.�
The thought of spending a night quietly studying, not drinking or being
subjected to beer bongs, not having to suck some guy�s dick, not having
to be tied up and dumped somewhere, not being insulted or kicked, sealed
Brittany�s decision to leave the hospital with the no-nonsense woman who
had saved her life.
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President Alexandra showed up at the hospital a few minutes later
driving a Tri-Alpha minivan. With her she had an extra T-shirt and
shorts for her fellow officer, knowing that Tracy�s clothing was
completely soiled from her encounter with the woman she rescued. Instead
of putting the clothing on herself, she directed Brittany to get dressed
and put her own reeking clothes into a hospital bag. She quickly
explained to Alexandra that Brittany would accompany them back to the
sorority. When she heard Brittany�s story, Alexandra quickly agreed to
take the in wayward pledge as a guest and prospective member.
Just as the sun came up and the three women were leaving the hospital, a
security guard ran up to the group and told them that Tracy had to go
back to the police station to resubmit her declaration. She took a deep
breath and objected:
�But I already gave a declaration. Why do I have to go back?�
�They can�t find it, and they�re planning send some officers over to
talk to that sorority about the drinking violations. They need your
statement because they might be writing up some arrest warrants.�
�Look. I got class. I got my own pledges to deal with. I�d be happy to
come back later��
�You gotta go, now. I�m told to get you and that�s what I�m here for.
You don�t have no choice.�
Both Brittany and Tracy were very worried about the turn in events that
would force them to separate. Instead of going to back to campus with
Tracy, she had to go with someone she had just met and tell her story
all over again. Tracy was worried about something far more serious. If
she didn�t make it back to campus soon, Heather would be left in charge
of the pledge group.
To her credit, Alexandra quickly sympathized with Brittany. She was easy
to talk to and her diplomatic way of expressing herself contrasted with
Tracy�s bluntness and military vocabulary. Brittany had to retell her
story, but soon it became obvious that Alexandra was just as determined
to extricate her from her drunken sorority as was Tracy.
As she rode back to the university with Brittany, the Four-Beta
president made a series of calls from her cell phone. The first calls
were to the professors of the two classes that Tracy had to miss that
morning. She simply told a portion of the truth, that her Pledge
Mistress had to help a patient suffering from alcohol poisoning. After
the calls to the professors came a call to the Four-Beta chapter
vice-president to prepare an orientation packet for a prospective
pledge. When the president hung up she turned to her companion:
�You�ll need to formally interview the sorority officers once we get
back to the Four-Beta House and start reading the orientation package.
However, I want you to just take a quick look at it, because we�re more
worried about your finals. You�ll have plenty of time to deal with
orientation at the end of August.�
As she sat listening to Alexandra�s words, Brittany realized the
seriousness of what she was doing. Her new mentor was not kidding in the
least: she really was about to change sororities.
Alexandra asked Brittany the names of her professors and called each to
make an appointment for the afternoon. By the time she hung up, the two
women already were on campus. While they waited to talk to the first of
the freshman�s three instructors, Alexandra got on a computer to access
her campus account and pulled up a letter, on formal Four-Beta
letterhead, which Brittany would have to sign as an official resignation
from her sorority. She pulled up a second letter that Brittany would
sign to authorize any Four-Beta officer to go to her former sorority and
retrieve her personal property. The two women would take both letters to
the university�s student center to have them notarized. That weekend,
while Brittany continued to study, her Pledge Mistress or
Sergeant-at-Arms would go over to the rival sorority to get her things.
Undoubtedly there would be a nasty confrontation and possibly a physical
fight, but Tracy would be presenting legal documents and the weight of
the law would be on her side. If need be, she could return with a cop.
There was one final call Alexandra made on behalf of Brittany, a call to
her parents. The president dialed and handed the phone to her companion:
�I expect you to let them know what happened and why you�re getting out
of your sorority. They�ll find out anyway, when their insurance gets
billed, so I think the explanation about the ER charges ought to come
from you. When you�re done, you can put me on, if you want.�
�President Alexandra, please! I can�t��
�It�s ringing. When they pick up, you�d better start talking.�
Brittany discovered that Alexandra�s demand that she talk to her parents
immediately actually was the best thing she could have done. She didn�t
have time to think up any stories or soften what had happened to her the
night before. Within 15 minutes Brittany�s parents learned more about
how she had spent her summer semester than they had found out during the
prior two months of listening to her brief, evasive conversations.
Needless to say, they were quite horrified.
Finally Brittany�s mother asked to speak to the Four-Beta chapter
president. Brittany handed over the phone and listened to Alexandra�s
side of the conversation:
�Yes, ma�am�I�m the Four-Beta chapter president�No, ma�am I wasn�t
there, it was my Pledge Mistress who picked her up�No, ma�am, we�ll let
her stay at the house, but she�s not exactly going to be a pledge�Well,
the reason for that is her grades. She�ll need to pass her summer
classes to be eligible to formally pledge, which is what we�re going to
check on in a few minutes�I�ll see if she�s got any hope of passing her
classes; that�s what�ll decide whether or not we can let her pledge�I
understand that, ma�am, but academic performance is a prerequisite for
joining the Four-Betas, and we�re inflexible about that�No ma�am, we
don�t drink�Well, that�s them. We�re different because we don�t allow
alcohol�No ma�am, none at all. We don�t allow it�Yes ma�am, we do haze
our pledges, but not in the way your daughter was being hazed. Most of
what they do involves exercising and studying�Not really, it�s not that
big of a secret. Our prospective members get an orientation packet that
explains what we expect from them�I guess the best way to describe it is
that it�s kinda like Basic Training in the military, especially with the
Pledge Mistress we have right now. She�s been in the Army and�Once
again, ma�am, I�m not sure. It depends on whether or not she can pass
her classes�Yes ma�am, if she stays with us we�ll do what we can to help
her pass. We�ve got some pretty good tutors and she�s still got three
weeks, but a lot of it�ll depend on what I hear from her professors in a
few minutes��
An hour later Alexandra and Brittany had their answer. Although she was
failing all three classes, there was hope she could pass two of them
just by doing very well on the final. The third professor was a man who
had spoken with the Four-Beta president several times in the past and
liked her. He was willing to allow Brittany to re-submit a
poorly-written term paper, which, combined with a high score in her
final could conceivably give her enough to get �C-�.
�There�s your answer. If you work hard enough over the next three weeks
you can salvage your semester.�
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Alexandra took Brittany to the Four-Beta house and ordered a sophomore
to give her lunch in the kitchen. As the visitor peeked out the window
she had a bit of a shock; all of the women in the pool area were
completely naked. Wow! So that part of Four-Beta life isn�t an urban
legend after-all, thought Brittany to herself. They really do run around
with nothing on.
After lunch Alexandra turned Brittany over to her sophomore class
leader. Elaine took her companion to the basement, issued her a
toothbrush, a towel, a pair of Four-Beta pledge shorts, and an unmarked
T-shirt. She ordered Brittany to clean up.
The final step was the formal interview with President Alexandra, her
vice president, and the sorority�s social director. Alexandra�s calm,
serious manner of talking helped put Brittany at ease and gave her hope
that her time with the Four-Beta sorority would be more productive than
her time with her former sorority. The interview ended with Brittany
signing �an intent to pledge� statement, which gave her provisional
status and the right to stay in the house as a guest over the next three
weeks. Because she was not yet officially a pledge, she did not have to
strip or kneel when talking to members. However, she had to have an
escort at all times and was not permitted to use any of the amenities
such as the pool. For the next three weeks, the only purpose in her life
would be to get caught up in her classes. She would have to study as
though her life depended on passing her classes, which in fact, it did.
�OK, Brittany, it�s library time! I�ll pair you up with one of our
members who�s taken your expository writing class, and you can get
started on that one first. You�ll have to ask her permission to do
anything, and that includes going to the bathroom or getting a drink of
water. When Pledge Mistress Tracy gets back, she�ll be the one in charge
of your day-to-day life.�
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While Brittany was settling in, Tracy spent several anxious hours at the
police station. She had to wait to give her statement, then was
interviewed at length about what happened the night before, then told to
wait again.
After lunch, a cop from the university police department interviewed her
yet again. Upon finding out that Brittany was staying at the Four-Beta
house, he asked Tracy if she thought she could get the freshman to give
a second declaration to the university police. Finally, Tracy found out
why both police departments were so interested in talking to her:
�We�ve been trying to get that sorority for the past four years, ever
since the death of the Thompson girl. If we can get you and Brittany to
testify, we�ve finally got what we need to nail �em. I say that, because
in the past they�ve always intimidated their witnesses.�
Tracy smiled:
�Well, Officer; they won�t be intimidating me. And they won�t be able to
get at Brittany, �cause our pledges are always escorted. I�ll help you
nail �em.�
�So, she�s going to be joining your sorority?�
�I guess she�s gonna have to.�
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Finally, at 3:00 in the afternoon Tracy left the police station. She was
desperate to get back to the Four-Beta house, very worried about what
might happen between Heather and Lisa. Shannon picked her up in a
Tri-Alpha minivan. Tracy ordered the junior to get into the passenger
seat and got behind the wheel. She needed to return to the Four-Beta
house quickly, and felt that Shannon was too cautious a driver.
�We�ve gotta get back, before Lisa gets out of class. She�s gonna be
fucked if we don�t.�
The trip out of downtown was quite slow, because already rush-hour
traffic was clogging the roads that led out to the university. As the
Pledge Mistress crossed several suburbs and approached her destination,
the roads cleared, but then the Four-Beta officers realized they had a
much more serious problem to contend with. They were being followed by
three carloads of young women. Tracy recognized some of the group as
officers from Brittany�s sorority.
�Call Alexandra. We�ve got company.�
�What are we gonna do?�
�Just tell her where we are. Be quick about it. We�re too far from the
Four-Beta house for anyone to help us. Let her know what�s happening and
that we�ll give her another call when we�re done.�
Shannon nervously dialed, knowing that, as soon as she hung up, Tracy
planned to pull to a stop and confront the women following them. Great.
That�s what we need, she thought to herself, a fight against a dozen
drunks. However, Shannon knew that the Pledge Mistress was not one to
back away from battle, especially if it involved protecting the life of
another person.
While Shannon was on the phone, one of the cars following them raced
past the Tri-Alpha van. A beer bottle narrowly missed Tracy head,
instead slamming against the window behind her and smashing it. The
other driver quickly pulled in front of the van and jammed her breaks as
hard as she could, but Tracy anticipated that and hit her own breaks as
hard as possible. The van screeched, but narrowly avoided hitting the
car in front. Instead, Tracy and Shannon got rear-ended by the carload
of women still behind them. They were struck quite hard, the force of
the impact shattering the van�s back window. The airbags in the car
ramming the Four-Betas deployed, stunning its occupants. Already the
assault by Brittany�s sorority was not going according to plan.
Tracy put the minivan in park and turned off the ignition. She calmly
commented to Shannon:
�OK, it�s show-time!�
Both women jumped out, knowing that it was vital for them not to get
separated. Three sets of car doors opened and a dozen women charged the
Four-Betas.
At first it seemed that the odds were totally against Tracy and Shannon,
given that there were only two of them against 12 assailants. However
both of the Four-Betas were in top physical shape and had taken hours of
personal defense training. On top of her Four-Beta training, Tracy had
taken several courses from the Army in hand-to-hand combat and was a
brown belt in karate. Their opponents� unexercised bodies were trashed
by several years of hard drinking and partying. None of them had any
hope of matching either of the Four-Betas one-on-one. On top of that,
two members of the group were stunned from being hit in the face by
airbags. The fight was much more evenly matched than the assailants
realized.
The rival Pledge Mistress started by swinging a tequila bottle at Tracy,
which she neatly blocked. The bottle flew out of her opponent�s hand and
shattered on the street. Two other women moved on Shannon, only to have
the wind knocked out of them by fast punches to the solar plexus.
Tracy�s foot landed hard into the stomach of another assailant, doubling
her in pain and sending her staggering against the side of the minivan.
She fell to the ground and vomited, clearly out of the fight. The
largest woman from the rival group grabbed Tracy from behind, but the
Pledge Mistress dropped, leaving her opponent�s face exposed to a fierce
punch from Shannon. Shannon�s fist rammed hard into her opponent�s nose,
breaking it and forcing her to loosen her grip on Tracy. Tracy finished
her off with a savage blow with her elbow to the stomach. Another
assailant managed to land a punch on Shannon�s mouth and cut her lip,
but she countered with a much more effective blow to the stomach that
incapacitated her. Tracy then landed a beautifully executed karate kick
into the chin of yet another assailant, sending her staggering backwards
onto the pavement.
The members of the rival sorority realized that they were not winning
the melee. However, they kept at it, motivated by hatred, adrenaline,
and alcohol. Within a few seconds two more of the assailants had the
wind knocked out of them and another was stunned from a cruel blow from
Tracy�s foot to the side of her head. As for the Four-Betas, Tracy had
taken several blows to the face that would leave bruises, but nothing
that diminished her ability to swing her fists and feet. Shannon�s lip
was bleeding, but that was her only injury.
The wail of a siren put a quick end to the street fight. A cop jumped
out of his car, pulled his gun, and screamed at everyone to �freeze� and
get on the ground. The women gasped for breath as several additional
squad cars pulled up. Moments later all 14 combatants were sitting on
the pavement in handcuffs, awaiting transportation to a nearby police
station.
The Pledge Mistress - Chapter 35
