The Pledge Mistress
Copyright 2006 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/

(warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, public nudity, 
sexual hazing)

Chapter 14 - A day of hard lessons

Monday started just like any other weekday between classes. Tracy entered the 
room with her usual:

"OK, sleeping beauties: UP…UP…UP! Let's go…let's go…let's go!"

As usual, each pledge got a sharp slap on her bottom as she passed Tracy to go 
upstairs for the morning PT.

The pledges began their day with stretching and the normal upper body workout 
with the sophomores. There was the usual cooling off in the pool, a shower, and 
the usual healthy breakfast. They cleaned up from the meal while the sophomores 
left for the university. Heather left as well, after reminding her charges that the 
routine would change somewhat starting the next day because the new Tri-Alpha 
pledges would start coming to the house and take over some of the chores.

At 9:30 a.m. Lisa and her companions knelt in the sitting room for a day-long 
class to be given by President Alexandra. Pledge Mistress Tracy was present as 
well, but only to assist the president with props and the projector.

The first presentation was about the history of the Four-Beta pledging experience. 
Alexandra emphasized that the pledges were part of a long tradition that went 
clear back to 1926, when the sorority decided to distinguish itself from other 
sororities and use a harsh hazing philosophy to make sure the pledges really 
wanted to join. 

Alexandra's slide show contained numerous photos of sorority members and 
pledges taken between 1926 and the present, with an emphasis on the first 
decades of the sorority. Styles had come and gone, but the four new pledges saw a 
lot of themselves in the faces of the young women who had gone before them. 
Seeing the photos gave them a strange sense of personal mortality. Decades 
before, those women in the black and white pictures had been little different from 
the current generation, with the same hopes and fears for the future. However, 
they had long since lived out their lives and passed away. Lisa and her 
companions realized that decades in the future they also would become little more 
than memories in some future slide show presentation for a new generation of 
pledges. Nothing more than a photo. That thought was rather scary.

The pledge program had developed since the 1920's, but its basic purpose had not 
changed much in the ensuing eight decades. From the very beginning Four-Beta 
pledges had to undergo a rigorous personal transformation to be eligible to join 
the sorority. During the 1920's and early 1930's pledges had to bob their hair and 
be struck with the riding crop on the shoulder on the very first day of pledging. 
One detail that made the Lisa and her companions giggle was the original Four-
Beta pledge uniform. Before World War II, the pledge uniform consisted of white 
drop-seat bloomers. The seat of the bloomers was cut out, which meant the 
pledges always ran around the sorority house with their bottoms and the backs of 
their upper thighs completely exposed, but the rest of their bodies covered. 

During the first two decades any junior or senior could discipline a pledge. A 
metal washtub full of willow switches was kept by the back door. If a pledge 
faced discipline she had to go to that tub, retrieve a switch, dry it off, and return to 
her disciplinarian. She had to kneel and hand over the switch, then stand up and 
put her hands on her ankles until the punishment was finished. There were several 
pictures of early pledges dressed in the drop-seat bloomers, and even through the 
grainy black and white images switch marks were clearly visible on the bare 
bottoms of some of the freshmen.

The Four-Beta pledging program underwent several important changes in 1946. 
That was the year that the sorority created the positions of Pledge Mistress and 
Sergeant-at-Arms. From that point forward pledges answered only to those two 
officers, instead of having to answer to any senior member of the sorority. That 
also was the year when housing developers filled in the pond from where the 
seniors were getting their supply of willow switches. With its supply of willow 
switches cut off, the sorority turned to using razor straps to discipline pledges, 
provided by a member whose father was a barber. Tracy held up an old razor strap 
and passed it to the pledges for a closer look. Finally, 1946 was the year the 
sorority replaced the pledge uniform of drop-seat bloomers with open-back 
hospital gowns. The gowns exposed much more of the pledges' bodies than the 
bloomers, because all of the drawstrings except for the one at the very top were 
cut off. From the front pledges were adequately covered, but from the back they 
were completely exposed, especially if they had to lean forward or bend over.

The hospital gowns lasted until 1965. That year the Pledge Mistress punished a 
pledge by strapping her, but then took her punishment a step further by ordering 
her to remove her gown and burn it in the barbecue pit. In an act of solidarity the 
other pledges stripped off their gowns and burnt them as well. The entire group 
then bent over and insisted on taking the same strapping their fellow pledge had 
taken. The Pledge Mistress wore herself out disciplining the entire group and 
refused to replace any of their gowns. As a result of their rebellion, the pledges 
spent the rest of their time in the house that semester in the nude. After a while the 
young women took a strange pride in their exposure, since they were in their 
situation together and confronting the Pledge Mistress as a team. The idea caught 
on and the incoming class of 1966 was the first group to spend the entire semester 
pledging completely in the nude.

Alexandra expressed her clear admiration for the 1965 pledge group, holding 
them up as an example of how pledges should behave. They refused to let a 
member of their group be singled out for special punishment, but rather than 
argue with the Pledge Mistress, they chose to stand with their classmate and strip 
off their own gowns. What they did was in one way an act of defiance, but on the 
other hand they had rebelled within the rules laid out for them as pledges. Their 
group mate had to suffer, and they insisted on suffering with her.

The chapter president ended her observation with a picture of the infamous 1965 
group, a black and white photo of 14 determined-looking young women, all 
standing completely naked as they waited to be sworn-in as full members of the 
sorority.

Alexandra moved on to the final change in the pledge program, one brought about 
by the sexual revolution of the late 1960's. Medical education traditionally had 
been part of the sorority's training program, and sexual education eventually 
became an extension of medical education. Sexual health always had received 
priority as an orientation topic, but in 1970 the Four-Beta Sorority decided to 
expand the medical lessons into an aggressive and comprehensive program of 
sexual instruction.

The first goal of the program was to completely separate the concept of sex from 
substance use and popular culture. Rather than encourage its members to either 
abstain or plunge blindly into the culture of "sex, drugs, and rock & roll", the 
sorority insisted they "get all the facts" before starting any sexual relationship. 
"Getting all the facts" meant having an accurate idea of what sex really was, how 
to safely practice it, how to maximize orgasms, and how to avoid pregnancy and 
venereal disease. Above everything else was the goal of keeping sex in proper 
perspective in a woman's life. By 1975 the Four-Beta sexual education program 
had gone way beyond just memorizing facts out of books, by encouraging the 
pledges to experience real orgasms under the supervision of their instructors. Over 
time variants such as oral sex and erotic discipline were added. The Tri-Alpha 
Fraternity developed their sexual education program at the same time as the Four-
Betas, and in 1982 the sorority and fraternity formally merged their two programs 
into one.

"Everyone keeps calling us 'the sex bitches', but that's only because we want you 
to know what's really going on with sex. Knowledge is power, and to be honest I 
think that's what scares the other sororities. It scares the fraternities even more, 
because the only guys who can handle us are the Tri-Alphas."

----------

From the development of the pledge program Alexandra moved to discussing 
significant events in the history of the Four-Betas. She discussed the participation 
of the sorority's first members in the suffragette movement, the official founding 
of the Chicago chapter in 1925, and the early members' service at soup kitchens 
during the Great Depression. She continued with the biography of a member who 
became a nurse during World War II and was killed during the London blitzkrieg, 
and finished off with a list of women who had graduated and gone on to hold 
political office or lead universities. Lisa recognized some of the names and was 
quite impressed.

Alexandra backed up in time to display a picture of the 1947 pledge group. It was 
a group photo of 18 young women in hospital gowns, but there was something 
very significant about the picture. There was a Japanese freshman standing with 
the others. Just two years after the end of World War II, the sorority accepted a 
Japanese student as a member. Five years later, in 1952, two sisters, Pearl and 
Violet Baker, joined the sorority as its first black members. 

"The Baker girls joined us more than 10 years before any of the other sororities 
even thought about integrating. What was really great, however, was the way it 
happened. At the end of the summer they simply showed up at the front door and 
asked if they could join. The sorority wasn't trying to make any social statement; 
they simply took in the Baker girls like they'd take in anyone else. Now you gotta 
remember, this was 1952 that we're talking about. Having the Baker sisters 
pledge with us caused a real stink among the other sororities. We got boycotted 
by everyone except the Tri-Alphas, and I think that whole experience tested us 
and really helped set us apart. We're different from the others. We've always 
been different." 

Alexandra put up a group portrait of the 1952 pledges standing in their hospital 
gowns. Standing among the group were Pearl and Violet with very nervous but 
determined expressions. Another picture, taken in 1956, showed Pearl and Violet 
standing in formal gowns among the graduating seniors.

----------

The pledges took a break to stretch and eat lunch before re-joining Alexandra and 
Tracy in the sitting room. The next presentation was titled:

In case you are wondering: why are you naked and why are we being so rough on 
you?

Alexandra answered that question with her next words:

"The reason you are naked right now is the same reason we dressed pledges in 
bottomless bloomers in 1926. The outfit may be different, but its purpose is the 
same. We believe you need to give us a gesture of humility as pledges. The right 
to wear clothing again, just like membership, is something you have to earn. We 
won't be giving you anything, you have to earn it. Just like me, Pledge Mistress 
Tracy, and every other member of this house, you'll have to earn everything you 
get. You will suffer, you will be scared and pissed-off, you will be tired, and your 
body will be subjected to both real pain and real pleasure. You have to be tested 
in order to make you a person worthy of respect. When we push you, challenge 
you, or punish you, that's what we're after, making you someone worthy to join 
us. We expect you to obey us, but we also want to transform you. If you make that 
transformation, four years from now one of you will be standing where I am right 
now."

So, why pledge in the nude? The president explained that the practice of naked 
pledging was a crash-course in killing any modesty or personal inhibitions. The 
Four-Beta pledge program considered eliminating modesty from prospective 
members top priority, because modesty was a holdover from a time during which 
religion suppressed women's aspirations. 

The pledge program of the sorority and its associated fraternity openly confronted 
religious reasoning concerning modesty. Most religions argue that the body and 
its needs and desires are evil and impediments to spiritual development. The Tri-
Alphas and the Four-Betas argued exactly the opposite; that unless a person first 
satisfied the needs of "the temple of the body", there was no point in seeking 
spiritual development. Every person's soul was given a body, and it was the duty 
of the soul to take care of that body before taking care of itself. The argument was 
that if the body was denied the care and sexual pleasure it needed and deserved, 
the soul became damaged. The damaged soul sought to satiate itself with material 
wealth and possessions, but acquiring those possessions never resulted in 
happiness because the basic needs of the body were still being denied.

Therefore, in order to free herself from the repressive past, a member of the 
sorority had to openly reject modesty. If a woman could be open and comfortable 
with her body, it would be much easier to reject all other efforts by society to 
suppress her intellect. The sorority considered constantly being naked a necessary 
first step in radical re-education away from a sexually repressed culture that 
drowned a person's true needs with materialism. 

Pledges completing the program always finished very different than when they 
started. They returned to wearing normal clothes in public simply because that 
was what society demanded of them, but in private and among each other there 
was very little distinction between being dressed and being naked. Lisa noticed 
that total lack of inhibitions the first day she was in the sorority, a complete 
casualness about what each person in the house chose to wear or not wear. There 
were several sorority members who were a lot like her, who never bothered to put 
anything on unless they had to go out. If there were guests in the house, that made 
no difference to them. They could calmly sit down in the nude and have a 
conversation just as easily as they could have a conversation if they were dressed. 

That detail of sorority life very much appealed to Lisa. She knew that once she 
became a full member she would be one of those residents who casually went 
about her daily routine without ever bothering to get dressed. If Kathleen 
remained her lover she would expect the same from her. Whenever in the house 
she would expect Kathleen to set aside any remaining modesty and remain 
undressed out of principle.

----------

The pledges ate dinner with the sophomores. Following dinner Tracy took them 
back to the sitting room and ordered them to set up for a formal presentation to be 
given in the evening. The setup included President Alexandra's speaking podium 
and 40 folding chairs set up in rows. Another row of six chairs was set up behind 
the speaker's podium, where the officers of the Tri-Alpha fraternity would be 
sitting. Finally Tracy ordered the pledges to clean up and brush their teeth, then 
return upstairs for a formal presentation.

The sorority members filed in and took their seats in the chairs. The seniors sat in 
the front, followed by juniors and the sophomores in the back. The pledges knelt 
on the floor in front of the seniors. Sitting in a chair during a formal event, just 
like wearing clothing, was a privilege they would enjoy only after being sworn in 
as full members.

The doorbell rang and one of the juniors let in the six officers from the Tri-Alpha 
Fraternity. The men handed a list to the Four-Beta president and took their seats. 
Lisa noticed Vice-President Jacob and Pledge Cherine flirting with each other as 
they exchanged looks.

Alexandra began by briefly reciting the tradition of the sorority and fraternity 
participating in each other's pledging responsibilities and in hazing new members. 
As of the next day the Tri-Alphas would be swearing in six prospective new 
members. Tracy dimmed the lights and turned on a projector while Alexandra 
named the six new male pledges and showed their pictures to the audience. She 
gave brief biographies of the six young men, their interests, and finally some 
information about their sexual orientation and sexual fantasies.

Lisa felt a pang of emotion when Ken's picture was displayed. It was very strange 
to hear her boyfriend's biography given in Alexandra's matter-of-fact tone along 
with the others. She held her breath when Alexandra approached the topic of his 
sexual orientation, grateful that Tracy had warned her about what was coming. 
Sure enough, Alexandra stated that Ken had described himself as bi-sexual. He 
had indicated that he wanted to experiment having sexual contact with other men, 
given that he already had experimented with women. Among his expectations for 
joining the Tri-Alphas was to finally determine his orientation. He needed to 
settle in his own mind once and for all whether he should focus on gay 
relationships or straight relationships.

Alexandra added: "Due to Pledge Ken's sexual situation, his medical examination 
will be conducted by male examiners. If he needs to be masturbated, my guess is 
that will be by males as well. I ask, however, that you respect Pledge Ken in the 
same way you would respect any other pledge. Ken has a journey in life to fulfill 
just like the rest of us, and given the struggle in his own mind, that journey will be 
more difficult than what most of us have to deal with."

Alexandra did not mention anything about Ken being Lisa's ex-boyfriend, for 
which she was grateful. Lisa wondered how she should deal with him once she 
saw him in the sorority house. Her thoughts ranged from tormenting him as much 
as possible, to ignoring him completely, to making him watch her flirt with 
Kathleen. As tempting as the idea of making him watch her flirt with Kathleen, 
Lisa realized that would be a very bad idea. Tracy had told her that under no 
circumstances should she make any type of public spectacle out of the 
relationship, but also Lisa realized that to use Kathleen to make Ken jealous 
would be a betrayal of her trust. So, that left her with the options of constantly 
beating the crap out of Ken or ignoring him entirely. 

Finally she decided to ignore Ken as long as he didn't say anything to her. The 
moment he did try to talk to her, Lisa would teach him the real meaning of the 
word "hazing", and do what she could to totally humiliate him.

----------

When the meeting ended and the Tri-Alpha officers left, Tracy ordered the 
pledges to fold up the chairs and put the sitting room back in order. Lisa noticed 
that Cherine seemed to be in a particularly bad mood, probably from having Jacob 
so close to her without being able to talk to him or interact with him. Cherine's 
bad mood became more evident when Lisa told her to move some of the folding 
chairs and she let out a disgusted sigh. Tracy came back into the room just as 
Cherine banged several of the chairs together as she tried to pick them up. Instead 
of taking two chairs at a time and making several trips, Cherine tried to pick up all 
eight of the chairs in the row at once. Of course she was not capable of carrying 
that many, so the chairs fell back to the floor with a loud crash. Tracy became 
clearly irritated.

"Pledge, what hell are you doing?"

Cherine, instead of answering Tracy's question, rolled her eyes and reached down 
to pick up the chairs.

The pledge mistress was on her in an instant, directing the full force of her wrath 
on the unfortunate freshman. She stuck her face in Cherine's face and snarled:

"Look here, PLEDGE! You do NOT roll your eyes around me!"

She jabbed her finger hard into Cherine's chest.

"You do NOT roll your eyes around any officer! That is nothing but total 
disrespect, and I resent it!"

Again Cherine suffered another sharp poke to the chest.

"I…I…"

"And you do NOT talk out of turn, Pledge! You know what you just did? You just 
pissed me off!" 

She turned to the other three pledges:

"All of you, front-leaning rest position! Now!"

The four young women scrambled to comply.

"In cadence, EXERCISE! ONE…TWO…THREE…"

"One!"

"ONE…TWO…THREE…"

"Two!"

"ONE…TWO…THREE…"

Heather poked her head in the doorway to see what was going on. She and Tracy 
exchanged nods and Heather briefly disappeared as the pledges continued doing 
pushups. Lisa glanced at the doorway with apprehension. Sure enough, Heather 
returned to the room carrying two leather straps and a set of handcuffs. She gave 
the handcuffs and one strap to Tracy, but kept the second strap for herself.

"Pledge Cherine! STAND UP!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Tracy lost no time ordering Cherine to put her hands out in front to cuff them. She 
grabbed the trembling freshman by the wrist and led her to a table that Heather 
had pulled out into the center of the room. Cherine bent over the table and 
grabbed the far end with her hands. Tracy tapped the insides of her thighs to force 
them apart.

"Tilt your butt up so we can all see it! Now…here's a question for you! How'd 
you like your three friends to get it too? Would you like that?"

"No ma'am!"

"Then you will not move until I'm done! You move, and all four of you are 
getting it!"

Tracy put her face next to Cherine's and rolled her eyes.

"How do you like that, Pledge? You like it when I roll my eyes?"

"No, ma'am. I don't like it."

While Tracy was positioning Cherine on the table, Heather was busy tormenting 
the three pledges still in the front-leaning rest position on the floor. She tapped the 
strap she was holding in the palm of her hand.

"You three better get your backs straight! I didn't say anything about you 
relaxing!"

Lisa tried to straighten up, but it was too late…

CRACK!

A painful smack exploded across her unprotected backside.

"I told you to straighten up, Pledge!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

CRACK!

Lisa struggled to stay quiet as the burning from the two strokes mounted in her 
bottom.

"OK, you three, in cadence, EXERCISE! ONE…TWO…THREE…"

"One!"

"ONE…TWO…THREE…"

"Two!"

"ONE…TWO…THREE…"

It wasn't long before the strength gave out in the three pledges' arms and they 
could barely support their weight. Their bodies trembled and their arms shook as 
they tried to continue doing push-ups. As their arms weakened they knew better 
than to allow themselves to collapse on the floor. Their only alternative was to 
relieve the pressure on their arms by pushing their bottoms into the air. However, 
every time one of the pledges pushed her backside up, the response from Heather 
was a painful smack. The pledge cried out and tried to straighten herself out as 
best she could. Heather admonished them:

"Anyone who drops to the floor will be getting the full treatment along with 
Pledge Cherine. Get it?" 

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Now keep your backs straight!"

CRACK!

Bernadette let out a yelp as the thick leather marked the pale skin of her trembling 
bottom. She straightened up as best she could as Heather menacingly tapped the 
strap in her hand.

While Heather tired out Lisa, Kathleen, and Bernadette doing push-ups, Tracy 
patiently waited next to Cherine. She tormented the frightened pledge by gently 
rubbing the strap on her bare bottom to raise her anxiety. Finally she was ready to 
start punishing the young freshman extended over the table. She positioned 
herself, tapped Cherine's dark bottom one final time, and twisted back…

CRACK!!!

Lisa flinched in sympathy, in spite of the burning from Heather's two swats and 
the physical discomfort from trying to stay in the front-leaning rest position.

CRACK!!!

Tracy paused between the second and third swat to gently rub the burning skin of 
her trembling victim with her free hand. She tapped Cherine's bottom with the 
leather and twisted back a third time:

CRACK!!!

Tears began running down the pledge's cheeks after just three swats, but she 
struggled to stay quiet. She bit her lip and pressed her forehead against the 
tabletop as she waited for the fourth stroke…

CRACK!!!

Again Tracy paused to pass her hand over Cherine's dark bottom. Already her 
skin was swollen and hot to the touch, after just four swats. Good, thought Tracy 
to herself. Looks like my little lesson in manners is starting to sink in. Tracy 
repositioned herself, tapped the freshman with the strap, and struck hard a fifth 
time.

CRACK!!!

Tracy continued to wait between swats and casually rub Cherine's bottom. 
Following Ruth Burnside's advice, she punished her charge at a very leisurely 
pace, letting the passage of time and the painful anticipation wear down her 
victim's resistance. As she remained bent over in agony, Cherine actually wished 
Tracy would hit her and get closer to finishing her torment. Instead the Pledge 
Mistress casually patted and rubbed her bottom and walked around admiring her 
attractive figure.

The waiting was very hard not only on Cherine, but also on her three companions 
who remained in stuck the front-leaning rest position. They desperately struggled 
to keep their backs straight and avoid additional swats from Heather. Kathleen 
took a stroke when she moved her bottom up, and then Bernadette took a couple 
of strokes. 

Staying in the front-leaning rest was hardest on Lisa, however. Her tall body was 
not suited to hold that position for an extended time. Her arms shook and her back 
ached as the minutes slowly went by and Cherine's punishment seemed no closer 
to ending. She dared not let her knees touch the floor, so every so often she had to 
push her bottom up to relieve the stress on her lower back. Every time she pushed 
up her bottom, Heather gave it a vicious swat with the strap. Every time Lisa 
straightened her body, her lower back started throbbing. 

Finally Lisa decided to sacrifice her bottom to save her lower back. She pushed 
up and felt yet another painful swat, but did not bother to go back down. Heather 
struck hard several more times. Finally Lisa couldn't stand the swats anymore and 
straightened herself. Instantly her back started throbbing. Tears started running 
down her cheeks, not just from the increasing physical pain, but from the fact her 
suffering seemed no closer to ending.

Cherine remained as quiet as possible as she withstood Tracy's slow-paced 
punishment. At that moment she totally hated the Pledge Mistress. All she did 
was roll her eyes, and just for that she was being so viciously treated? For that 
simple gesture her companions were being so cruelly treated? And yet, she was 
determined to finish what she started. She would deal with her punishment as 
bravely as possible and ignore what was happening to the others. Unless she was 
willing to quit the pledging program (which she wasn't) there wasn't anything she 
could do for her companions, just like there wasn't anything they could do for her. 
Her only choice was to endure her ordeal in silence and hope to get through it.

CRACK!!!…CRACK!!!…CRACK!!!…

Tracy delivered a total of 25 swats. Nearly 20 minutes had gone by before she 
finally set the strap on the table. During that entire time Cherine managed not to 
make any noise or move. When Tracy told her to "recover" she stood up with 
difficulty and the tears were running down her face. However, she had taken her 
punishment very well. Her stoicism impressed the Pledge Mistress.

As soon as Cherine struggled to push herself off the table and Tracy unlocked her 
handcuffs, Heather ordered her three subjects to "recover" as well. Bernadette and 
Kathleen seemed not much the worse for their experience. However, Lisa was in 
bad shape, with her back aching and her bottom covered with painful welts. The 
pledge's expression indicated she had come very close to being broken. Heather 
realized that she had found Lisa's weak point; apparently she couldn't handle 
pressure on her lower back.

The two officers ordered the pledges to stand at attention. Tears continued to run 
down the faces of Lisa and Cherine while Tracy gave them a long lecture about 
the need to always show respect. 

Even after so cruelly punishing Cherine and nearly breaking Lisa, Tracy was still 
incensed over the eye-rolling incident. The pledges realized that eye-rolling was a 
pet peeve of the Pledge Mistress, a trivial gesture that really set off her temper. 
She poked Cherine in the chest and snarled:

"Don't you EVER roll your eyes at me again, Pledge! If you ever pull that shit on 
me a second time, I will cane you! If you think the strap hurt, wait 'till you feel 
the cane! GET IT?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Upon being released the pledges resumed cleaning the sitting room. Cherine 
sullenly picked up the chairs to put away. She carried them out of the room two at 
a time and was very careful not to bang them.

----------

The pledges were quiet as they went downstairs for the night, each one full of 
doubts about whether or not she should continue with her effort to join the 
sorority. Finally Lisa spoke up:

"I guess we should've seen this coming. I mean, they kept warning us it was 
gonna be rough."

None of the others said anything. Lisa took a deep breath and continued:

"A couple of things to remember. We…we can't hold any of this against Tracy. 
Or Heather. They're just doing their jobs. They…they've been doing the same 
thing since 1926."

Cherine snapped:

"She's a fucking bitch! She's just a worthless, psychotic, mean-spirited…"

"She isn't! I know I sound crazy telling you this, but I know for a fact she's not! 
She…I mean...I can't believe I'm saying this…but...she actually does care about 
us. It's just that…she's gotta follow the rules."

Tears began running down Cherine's face again. Lisa tried to reassure her.

"And don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. None of this is your fault. This is...I 
guess...what they're doing...it's sort of like Basic Training. They're gonna fuck 
with us no matter what. We could be a group of perfect goddesses and they'd still 
fuck with us. It's just the way it is."

Cherine nodded. Lisa exchanged glances with the others. The crisis was passing, 
but that was mostly because the pledges were getting too tired to think about 
anything else besides sleeping.

"Come on. Let's get some rest. Tomorrow the Triple A's are bringing over their 
new guys and it's us who'll get to mess with them."

----------

Once she was sure the others were asleep, Lisa afforded herself a small luxury. 
She broke down and for a long time quietly lay crying in her cot. She was 
convinced she couldn't let the others see her break down, because she felt her 
companions looked up to her and to see her cry would disillusion them. They 
were asleep, so now Lisa could express her real emotions, even if only to herself.

She had to be strong for the others, but she wondered: could she be strong enough 
for her own needs? Could she really make it through an entire summer of this 
pledging crap? Three months of not letting her doubts and weaknesses show to 
the others? Could she really do it?