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 16 - Six Tri-Alpha pledges Led by their pledge mistress, the four pledges carried their overloaded backpacks off campus in the stifling afternoon heat. All five women were covered with sweat once they finally got to the Four-Beta Sorority house, which meant they would have to put their uniforms in the wash and change into clean ones. The women stripped off their clothing in the laundry room, and Tracy suggested a few minutes in the pool. The pledges eagerly took her up on that unexpected break. Tracy jumped in the water with her group, every bit as naked as the women under her control. She remained in charge, however, by instructing the pledges to follow her doing stretches and specific exercises instead of just lounging around. She ordered the pledges to swim several laps and then to get out, towel off, and head downstairs to shower. ---------- A week had gone by since Lisa and the others first submitted themselves to Tracy and Heather, which for Lisa was enough time to begin forming an opinion about both women. It was obvious that Tracy took her orders from Heather, since the Pledge Mistress was a position under the direction of the Sergeant-at-Arms. While Heather was in charge of discipline for the entire sorority, Tracy's only authority was over the pledges. Lisa knew that her three companions hated Tracy and were totally afraid of her. Certainly Cherine felt justified in hating Tracy given what had happened to her the night before, while Kathleen was still traumatized over the strapping she had received for her behavior during the medical exam. Lisa had felt Tracy's strap and withstood her yelling as well, but she also had been privileged to see a very different side of her Pledge Mistress. It turned out Tracy was an intensely difficult but very caring woman, one who was willing to take personal risks if she felt it was necessary to help another person. She had placed trust in Pledge Lisa and momentarily treated her as an equal, which created a secret bond between the two women. Among the four pledges, Lisa was the only one who understood Tracy was playing a role, that the mean-spirited Pledge Mistress was an act she had to perform to make sure her group conformed to the needs of the sorority. As for her treatment of Lisa, Tracy's attitude was "you and I have to perform our duties as Pledge Mistress and Pledge for the next three months. That's the way things have to be between us until you swear in. However, it's not how I really see you." Once the pledging period ended, Tracy would change back to normal and become much more approachable. Lisa was certain that once she was sworn in, she and Tracy were likely to become close friends. Heather seemed totally different from Tracy. It appeared to Lisa that, of the two Four-Beta officers, Tracy was by far the more serious in her personality. Heather did not seem to take nearly as much personal interest in the pledges as did Tracy, and Lisa did not much care for her. If Tracy secretly sympathized with the pledges, Lisa suspected that Heather really didn't. Because Lisa was not in close contact with Heather, she did not fully understand the Sergeant-at-Arm's responsibilities within the sorority and did not have an accurate reading of her personality. Heather's position required her to handle disciplinary matters throughout the entire sorority and make sure that a group of 70 young women co-existed with as little friction as possible. She arbitrated disputes among members, set up the duty roster, and prevented cliques from forming and trying to take over the sorority. She handled medical emergencies, members' academic problems, and disputes between the Four-Betas and its rival sororities. The long list of duties kept her very busy, but that wasn't a problem because she so much enjoyed being in control of others' lives. Heather's duties also included handling an important part of the relationship between the Four-Beta Sorority and the Tri-Alpha Fraternity. The Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms not only oversaw discipline and conflict resolution within the sorority, but also was in charge of hazing and punishing the male pledges for the fraternity. The fraternity members generally felt uncomfortable inflicting corporal punishment on each other, so they found their solution in using a female disciplinarian. Heather fully enjoyed performing that additional role and having such absolute control over a group of freshmen males. Heather's position placed her in contact with the Triple A's much more than any of the other Four-Beta officers apart from the sorority's social director. One benefit of that constant interaction with her male counterparts was her very active sexual life. She enjoyed having sex and had taken advantage of her frequent trips to the Tri-Alpha house to experiment with nearly all of the fraternity's upper classmen. She sought to avoid any close relationships, because at that point in her life she was not ready to commit to anyone. For a while Tri-Alpha Vice-President Jacob had pursued her hoping for a more serious relationship, but Heather only saw him as a casual sexual partner, not a potential boyfriend. That was the reason, when she noticed Jacob's attraction to Cherine, she did everything possible to encourage them to flirt with each other. Cherine's presence in the pledge group had just resolved a potentially uncomfortable situation for Heather. ---------- Following a quick shower, Tracy ordered the pledges to pull out fresh uniforms and put them on. "The Triple A pledges are upstairs in the sitting room. The juniors will be doing their medical exams...well, on four of them, at any rate. The other two are going to get examined by President Alexandra's attendants. You four will get to watch." Tracy led her group into the sitting room where three medical examination tables and three treadmills were set up. The sorority's 18 juniors were all business, dressed in white doctors' jackets and carrying clipboards. The six officers of the fraternity were present, along with the six officers of the sorority. Also present were Alexandra's two attendants, dressed, as usual, in shorts and t-shirts. The pledge mistress ordered her group to kneel near the entrance, opposite the six Tri-Alpha pledges. The women's eyes immediately became glued to their male counterparts, because the six kneeling young men were naked, handcuffed, and had very nervous expressions on their faces. What struck Lisa was how different the male pledges looked from each other. In most fraternities, freshmen pledges all looked more or less the same: tall, athletic, loud, arrogant white males. The six naked Tri-Alpha aspirants were a very mixed group. There were two black guys, three white guys, and another guy who looked either Middle Eastern or Hispanic. The Tri-Alphas were not interested in selecting pledges based on their physical appearance. They were interested in getting members who were intelligent, shared a willingness to try new adventures in life, and above all, follow a philosophy about how to approach the world. The Tri-Alpha pledges also were of varying heights and physiques, because physical fitness was not a prerequisite for beginning pledge training. Three of the men, including Ken, were in good shape, but the other three definitely needed to spend some quality time in the gym. The pledges did not have to be physically fit on the first day (although being fit certainly helped make their lives easier at the very beginning). Tri-Alpha pledges were expected to get in shape during the pledging period, because exercising was one way the fraternity weeded out unsuitable aspirants. The ones who could not handle the physical fitness training normally ended up among those quitting. Like its sister sorority, the Tri-Alpha Fraternity's pledging process had specific goals, which included sexual education, physical fitness, academic performance, and willingness to explore new experiences. There was plenty of harsh military- style physical training, sexual education classes with hands-on practice, and classes for acquiring life skills such as understanding how bank accounts and credit cards worked. There also was plenty of physical discipline, sexual hazing, and corporal punishment which, if anything, was even harsher than the regimen of the sorority. Above everything else, the fraternity wanted to use the pledging process to identify prospective members willing to put forth a real effort to earn full membership. To become a pledge for the Tri-Alpha Fraternity was not very difficult, but to get through the pledging program was difficult indeed. The attrition rate for a typical pledge group was nearly a third, somewhat higher than the attrition rate for the sorority. The fraternity took in large pledge groups, knowing that by the end of the pledging period each group would be reduced to a more manageable size. There were no repercussions against a pledge who decided to quit, but the fraternity did expect that anyone who left his pledge group to keep quiet about the internal workings of the Tri-Alphas. That expectation was not hard to enforce, because if any ex-pledge did choose to speak up, he could expect to have embarrassing pictures of himself circulating on the Internet within days. ---------- There was another factor that traditionally contributed to the Tri-Alpha attrition rate, their treatment at the hands of the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms. Lisa and her companions watched in awe as Heather went into action. Because Pledge Mistress Tracy handled most of the routine hazing, training, and discipline matters for the sorority pledges, the young women had not seen the full effect of Heather as a disciplinarian. She had been somewhat restrained around the female pledges, with a couple of exceptions. Now it was Heather's turn to focus on hazing a group of freshmen. It turned out that she was much more vicious than Tracy, but she had saved herself for the guys. Lisa and her companions were about to learn that what Tracy had subjected to them so far had been far less severe than the hazing Heather was about to inflict on the males. The Four-Beta officer began by pacing back and forth waving a riding crop in their faces. She gave each young man a cruel swat on the upper back and then ordered them to kneel with their legs spread, fully exposing their penises and testicles. She used the tip of the crop to play with the men's sexual organs and massage their penises, while one of the Four-Beta juniors took pictures. As she moved the crop around their genitals, she made very sarcastic and cruel comments. If a pledge got hard, she made fun of him. If he didn't get hard, she still made fun of him. CRACK!!! "Ow!" Heather had struck the fattest member of the group quite hard on the inner thigh, very close to his testicles. "You want to know why I did that pledge? Huh? You wanna know?" "I…I yes…ma'am…why…" "Because I felt like it, that's why! And if I feel like doing something, why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't I do whatever the fuck I want?" CRACK!!! "Uh…uh…oh…fuck that hurts…" CRACK!!! "Don't you fucking swear around me, pledge! Where's your fucking manners?" CRACK!!! "Didn't your mom tell you never to fucking swear in front of a fucking lady?" CRACK!!! "Don't you have any fucking respect for me?" CRACK!!! "AUGH! Uh…uh…uh…sorry…" CRACK!!! "Sorry WHAT, Pledge? Sorry WHAT?" CRACK!!! "Ooo…hoo…Ow!" "Sorry WHAT, Pledge? You'd better fucking answer me, 'cause I'll rip the skin right off your legs if you don't…" CRACK!!! "S…sorry…Sergeant-at-Arms…" CRACK!!! "MA'AM, you little prick! MA'AM! You address me as ma'am! Didn't you read your pledge manual?" "I…I…" "That's it! I've had it with this loser! Attendants!" "Yes Sergeant-at-Arms Heather!" "Take this pledge and hold him down on a table! I want to show these little bastards what happens to irresponsible little pledges who don't memorize the pledge manual! I'm gonna show him what a nice thick strap is gonna feel like on that chubby little bottom of his." "Yes, Sergeant-at-Arms Heather!" President Alexandra's two male attendants immediately grabbed the pledge's arms and pulled him over one of the medical examination tables. Heather grabbed the same strap she had used on Lisa the night before and lined up to punish the pledge. The pledge was one of the three who needed to work out, so his bottom was soft. Heather noted out loud that it looked like a baby's bottom. To the pledge's horror, one of the Four-Beta juniors brought in a camera on a tripod and set it up. Once she made sure she was ready to get some pictures, she gave Heather a thumbs-up to begin the strapping. With that the Sergeant-at-Arms laid into her victim, using her full body to strike as hard as possible. CRACK!!!…CRACK!!!…CRACK!!!… While the high-speed camera snapped in rapid succession, the Sergeant-at-Arms struck very hard, landing a total of fifteen swats. Lisa later learned the purpose of the sudden punishment. The junior with the camera was trying to get at least one good shot of the instant the strap made contact with the pledge's bottom. The sorority women were fascinated with taking photos of male bottoms being struck by various implements, catching that split-second the bottom is distorted and flattens out under the impact of thick leather or wood. They loved seeing the flesh displaced, almost like splashing water. For that reason, they most enjoyed photos of male pledges with large, soft bottoms, ones that really gave a good splash effect when struck. The pledge cried towards the end, while the others looked on in horror. Unfortunately for Heather's victim, there was more humiliation to come. Lisa realized the entire hazing event had been carefully thought out, because it was obvious the Four Betas were prepared with Heather's props. The next ordeal was an enema. Two juniors came into the room carrying a large towel and a full enema bag. The bag was fuller than the one the Tri-Alphas had used on Kathleen, because its purpose was not to loosen the pledge's bowels, but instead to elicit responses to some embarrassing questions. Lisa later learned another detail about enemas given to male pledges. Unlike the enemas given to Four-Beta pledges, those given to Tri-Alpha pledges were pure water. There were no herbs to relax the subject or make the experience more enjoyable. Once the towel was laid out, the two women grabbed the still-crying freshman and forced him on his elbows and knees. They made sure his badly marked bottom was turned upwards and his anus fully visible to everyone in the room. While the camera continued to click, Heather put on medical gloves and lubricated a fingertip. She massaged the pledge's sphincter, poked her finger inside, and finally pulled it out to make room for the enema tube. While one of the juniors held the bag, Heather inserted the nozzle and opened the clip. The bag slowly emptied as the pledge's stomach swelled. Once all the water was safely in his intestines, Heather closed the clip and pulled out the tube. "You will hold this until I say you can go potty. If you spill so much as one drop of water, we're starting all over. Now stand up!" The pledge's face reflected the extreme discomfort from the sudden change of posture and the shifting of water inside his intestines. He now was ready to be interrogated. "Pledge, I got a question for you, and you'd better answer honestly if you want to go potty. You ready?" "Uh…yes, ma'am…please…" "How often do you masturbate?" "I…uh…about once a day…" "So you don't have a girlfriend?" "Uh, no…not now…not since…uh…March…" "Did you masturbate when you had your girlfriend?" "Uh…yeah." "That's yes MA'AM, pledge. You're gonna pay for that as soon as we're done." "Yes, ma'am." "Well, why would you masturbate if you had a girlfriend?" "She…uh…was kinda religious…and…uh…she didn't want to…you know…" "Have sex?" "Yes, ma'am. She didn't wanna have sex." "Well, did you tell her you masturbated?" "No ma'am…I couldn't tell her that…" "That's terrible! You kept a secret from your girlfriend! If you were so dishonest, no wonder she left you." "I…it was embarrassing…" "Well, duh…" Heather gently massaged the pledge's swollen stomach, adding to his distress. "Now another question. When you masturbate, what do you normally think about?" "I…I got…you know…some magazines…" "What kind of magazines, Pledge? Please be more specific." The pledge named a couple of well-known men's magazines, ones that were known for using models with breast implants. "So you like looking a models with fake tits? You're telling me that looking at silicone bags makes you want to stroke yourself? Is that what you're telling me?" "I…ma'am…I didn't…think about it like that…you know…" "Yeah, you did! You like looking at bags of silicone! For you that's sexy!" Heather then did something that shocked all the pledges in the room, male and female. She took out a box from one the exam tables and held up a silicone breast implant. She massaged the device and waved it in front of the pledge's face. "Hmm…isn't this sexy? Doesn't this bag of silicone just want to make you spew right now? Come-on, let's see you get hard!" Heather continued to fondle the implant only inches in front of the pledge's face. "Come on…I'm waiting!" Of course nothing happened to the pledge's penis. Instead, his face was becoming more and more stressed from the increasing pressure in his intestines. The other officers looked on with concern, because it was obvious the pledge couldn't hold the enema much longer. If he released, there would be a horrible mess to clean up. Fortunately Heather realized the impending disaster just in time, and ordered the attendants to take the suffering freshman to the nearest toilet. He expelled with several very loud splashes while the Four-Beta junior with the camera documented his ongoing humiliation. When he finished, the attendants unlocked the pledge's handcuffs and ordered him to wipe himself off and flush the toilet. They re-cuffed him and took him downstairs to the pledge shower, where more humiliation was waiting. The Four- Beta sophomores were gathered in the basement, where they converged on the victim and chained him in the shower. Once he was covered with soap, they shaved off all his pubic hair. They did not shave the hair on the guy's ass. The hair on his bottom would have to be removed as well, but in a more permanent manner. That would have to be waxed off. The women ordered the guy on his hands and knees and to turn his now clean backside facing upwards. Meanwhile, they heated and applied the wax to the surface of the freshman's already suffering bottom. "You know, Pledge, waxing hurts a lot more after you've been punished, 'cause your skin's a lot more sensitive. But that's OK, 'cause we're gonna get rid of all that nasty hair and give you a nice smooth ass." RIP!!! "Agh!" RIP!!! "OW!" RIP!!! ---------- Heather repeated the same treatment on the other three heterosexual freshmen. She started by cruelly marking the insides of their thighs with the riding crop, and then strapped their exposed bottoms for the benefit of the high-speed camera. The strapping was followed by an enema, an interrogation about the pledge's masturbation habits, and finally a desperate trip to the toilet adjacent to the sitting room. Following the ordeal in the sitting room, each pledge then was taken downstairs to be showered, shaved, and have his bottom waxed. While Heather and her photographer remained occupied upstairs, the sophomores in the basement kept busy with clean-up and waxing duty. Finally the four straight pledges, cleaned up but minus their pubic hair and their dignity, returned to their kneeling positions in the sitting room. The attention now shifted to Ken, who had declared himself bisexual, and the final pledge, who had declared himself openly gay. The humiliating treatment for them was the same as it had been for the straight pledges, except their ordeal was handled by President Alexandra's two male attendants. The strapping that followed was no big deal for Lisa's boyfriend, given the whippings he had endured during his time with her over the past five months. He got the standard 15 strokes and the Four-Beta photographer took several good shots of his bottom as the strap made contact. Lisa could have predicted what happened next. When Ken stood up he had a full erection. A surge of sexual desire and frustration swept through her upon seeing that hard-on. Just two weeks before that hard-on would have been for her to enjoy. Now, more than likely, it would end up being emptied into a jar or stuck up some guy's ass. Lisa drew a deep breath when it was Ken's turn to receive his enema and be interrogated. As he turned his bottom up and the tube slid in, Lisa felt a pang of nostalgia. The last enema he had endured had been the one that she had given him following a paddling she had administered to him during finals week of the spring semester. She had been totally turned on by the sight of that tube sliding between his very red bottom-cheeks, one of his final gestures of total sexual submission as her sub and her lover. It hurt her to think, even at that moment, her relationship with Ken was not what she thought it had been, that already he had turned in his pledge questionnaire with his confession about his attraction to other men. As she watched her ex-boyfriend struggle to endure the strapping and enema of his first episode of hazing, Lisa knew that, in spite of everything, she would miss him and the relationship he had given her. With him she had been able to do whatever she wanted. She had enjoyed five months of complete sexual satisfaction and had become used to having every sexual desire fulfilled. With her new lover Lisa knew she would have to restrain herself, because Kathleen would never be able to handle the rough treatment she had inflicted on her former boyfriend. Ken's forced confession focused not on his masturbation habits, but instead on the details of his secret crush on Jason Schmidt. Lisa had to listen to Ken explain that, even while he was dating and having sex with her, his hidden sexual fantasies really revolved around Jason. Ken confessed that his feelings towards his friend were not sado-masochistic, but more a desire to touch him, share massages and cuddling, and eventually exchange oral sex. He might have wanted to spank Jason, but only a soft erotic spanking, not one for punishment. Apparently Ken's feelings towards Jason had intensified towards the end of the spring semester. He had been unable to act on them partly because of his relationship with Lisa, but mostly because Jason was fiercely guarded by his girlfriend Cecilia. Had it not been for Cecilia, it was very likely that Ken would have tried to seduce him. At the prompting of his interrogator, Ken's confession turned to his feelings towards Lisa. He still cared for her and very much enjoyed the sexual stimuli her punishments always elicited from him. What he wished, however, was that he didn't always have to be severely beaten to be aroused. He knew, for example, that had he been able to seduce Jason and take a dominant role in their love- making, he could have had an orgasm without having to have it beaten out of him. Kathleen cast a sympathetic glance over at Lisa, whose pained expression clearly indicated she was not enjoying having to listen to the topic. Of everyone in the room, Kathleen understood what Lisa must have been feeling at that moment better than anyone else. She had endured more than her share of betrayals, some of which were far more mean-spirited than anything Lisa had ever experienced. Kathleen knew. She had been there, many times over. She resolved to do what she could to comfort her lover once the males were out of the house and the women had a few minutes to themselves. By the time Ken was escorted to the toilet, he had confessed more of his most secret thoughts than any other member in the pledge group. Lisa's anger and feeling of betrayal was tempered by the knowledge that there was no way her boyfriend could have put all of what he had just said into words had he tried to tell her directly. What got the truth out of him were the enema and his desperate desire to use the toilet. As Ken staggered to the bathroom, the fraternity officers appeared satisfied with what had just happened and the results of his interrogation. Ken's dilemma now was out in the open and he could begin to deal with it honestly. Ken was escorted downstairs to be showered, shaved, and waxed. The showering and shaving would be conducted by males, but waxing, even of gay pledges, remained the responsibility of the Four-Beta sophomores. The women stood aside while the attendants took off their clothes and stepped into the shower with the pledge. Ken remained erect throughout most of the shower and shaving. Of course, the event was documented in detail by a Four-Beta camera. As soon as Ken was rinsed and dried off, the waxing crew forced him to go on his elbows and knees. A couple of minutes later his bottom was stripped of all hair and he went back into the shower for a final rinse-off. ---------- As soon as all six of the male pledges were clean and had returned to their kneeling positions in the sitting room, the medical exam began. The Four-Beta juniors split up into teams, each team picking one of the female pledges to assist. The check-ups progressed systematically and very quickly, starting with questions about each patient's medical history. The physical part of the exam started at the head. The patient was checked for skin ailments, eye problems, hearing problems, nose and throat problems, and finally dental problems. Pulse, heartbeat, and breathing came next, before each patient lay on his back for an abdominal exam. The women momentarily ignored the freshly-shaved public area and concentrated on the condition of the pledges' legs and feet. The women checked each pledge's posture, body mass, and the flexibility of his joints. Of course, no exam would be complete without a rectal temperature measurement. There was a thorough examination of each subject's penis and testicles, and last but not least, the rectal exam and prostate check. The honor of conducting that part of the exam fell upon the female pledges. The young women felt very strange as they slipped their index finger in between their subjects' reddish bottom-cheeks, which still bore the markings of their recent strappings and hair removal. The pledges needed to provide semen samples. A fraternity member brought in six plastic cups, each with a pledge's name written on it. Once the cups were passed out the teams went to work, massaging their subjects' penises and prostates. One by one the young men groaned as they surrendered their semen to the waiting cups. The Four-Beta junior with the camera was quick to document the moment each male pledge climaxed and his specimen was collected. The Tri- Alpha officer collected the specimens and took them out to a waiting car. It turned out the specimens were being collected for real analysis and would be delivered to a nearby clinic. Following the general physical the six young men had to run a mile on the treadmills to get their heart rates up. The female pledges giggled as three of the naked fraternity aspirants started running. They ran as hard as they could, motivated by the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms and her ever-present riding crop. The fattest member of the male pledge group got plenty of attention and lots of motivational strokes from Heather. When he finished, his body was saturated in sweat and his face almost purple from exhaustion. Heather had a disconcerting suggestion: "You know Pledge, what we ought to do? You and me can spend some quality time running tonight. I can pace you, and I'll make sure you get a real good workout. It'll be just you and me, running in the cool summer nighttime. Of course, you'll be running bare-assed, just like you are now, because I wouldn't want you to get overheated. Doesn't that sound like fun?" "I...uh...yes ma'am...I guess." "Fantastic! We got a deal! I'll come get you at midnight, and we'll go running together! Just ask your Pledge Master for permission, and he'll have you ready." The color in the pledge's face changed from purplish-red to white. Heather touched the freshman's arm. "Come-on sweetie, don't be shy. Just go over and ask your Pledge Master..." Holy Shit! She's serious about this, thought the pledge to himself. Very reluctantly he went over to the Tri-Alpha Pledge Master and knelt. The fraternity officer struggled to keep a straight face as he told the pledge what an honor it was to get to exercise alone with the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms, and of course he had the fraternity's permission. "I'll make sure you're stretched out and ready to go at midnight. You're one lucky dude, and I'm jealous! I'd love to go running with Sergeant-at-Arms Heather, but she's never invited me." ---------- The Four-Betas offered a light dinner to the Tri-Alpha pledges and fraternity officers. Heather quietly let out the word to the sorority's sophomores and pledges that there was to be absolutely no clean-up from dinner, because the Triple-A pledges would be responsible for straightening the Four-Beta house following the formal induction ceremony. Following the meal and a quick bathroom break, Tracy and her Tri-Alpha counterpart directed the male pledges to go outside and off-load the fraternity's speaker's podium from a pickup truck parked in the sorority's driveway. It was still light outside, and the six naked males had to endure the enthusiastic cheering and whistling from neighboring sorority houses as they struggled to get the podium off the truck and through the front door without banging or damaging it. They carried the podium into the sitting room and set it up next to the Four-Beta speaker's podium. The sorority's sophomores checked the room's lighting while the male pledges went back outside to off-load several long benches. As soon as the male pledges finished setting up the ceremonial room, Heather ordered them to wash their hands and kneel facing the podiums. Tracy dimmed the lights, set President Alexandra's bell on her podium, and ordered her pledges to kneel in front of the podiums, facing the males. Repeating the protocol from exactly one week before, the Tri-Alpha president, dressed in a tuxedo, and the Four-Beta president, wearing a formal evening dress, entered the room together and took their positions at the podiums. The Four-Beta president rang her hand-bell and the other well-dressed fraternity and sorority members filed into the room. As before, the men and women quickly separated by sex and by class. The Tri-Beta president again rang her hand-bell. There was both old business and new business that needed to be addressed before the Tri-Alphas could present their pledges: "Pledge Mistress Tracy!" "Yes, President Alexandra!" "Please present your pledge group and give us and update on their progress!" "Yes, President Alexandra!" She turned to the four kneeling women: "PLEDGES! STAND UP!" Lisa's group scrambled to their feet, turned to face the podium, and stood at attention. Tracy recited the training activities and challenges completed over the past week. She surprised the three freshmen by saying her group had adapted admirably to pledge life and she was very pleased with their performance so far. The sorority president then asked each member of the pledge group if she wanted to continue pledging. Each young woman responded affirmatively. With that the pledges were ordered to turn away from the podium and resume their kneeling position facing the males. Now that old business was finished, it was time to move on to new business and the main event of the night, the presentation of the Tri-Alpha Fraternity's six new pledges. The chapter president bellowed out: "Sergeant-at-Arms Patrick!" "Yes, President!" "We understand that you have brought us six persons who wish to share our journey through life!" "Yes, President!" "Very well, Sergeant-at-Arms! You will present them to us!" "Yes, President!" The presentation ceremony was a repeat of the one performed for the Four-Beta pledges the previous week, beginning with a tap on the shoulder from a riding crop. Each naked pledge stood quietly facing the women and men in the room, giving everyone enough time to study his exposed body. One difference between the Four-Beta presentation and the Tri-Alpha presentation was the condition of the men's bodies. Already they were marked up with welts on their inner thighs and bottoms. Lisa and her companions had been spared the humiliation of being punished before their public presentation, but apparently with the guys the custom was different. They had to show up with their bodies already marked up as proof they really wanted to be pledges and commit themselves to the fraternity. On the other hand, there was no formal marking of the male pledges with a welt on the shoulder from three strokes of the riding crop. The injury to the shoulder was a custom unique to the sorority. The fraternity had nothing comparable. A pang of nostalgia swept through Lisa when Ken stood up with his marked body and faced the podium. She realized just how hard it would be for her to see him several times each week, knowing that he now was out of her reach. Sure, she could still punish him during hazing events if she wanted, but what good would that do her? For Lisa punishing Ken and sex always went together. She had no desire to punish him if she could not enjoy having sex with him afterwards. It was at that moment that she resolved one issue in her mind. She decided that she would not touch Ken during the pledging period. Whenever he had to be punished, she would delegate that task to another member of her group. President Alexandra and her male counterpart gave speeches similar to the welcoming message given to the female pledges the previous week. Following the speeches, each male pledge was asked if he wanted to continue with his "journey", and each responded affirmatively. Lisa detected a note of hesitation in the voice of the fattest member of the group, given that the Four-Beta Sergeant-at- Arms had singled him out for particularly rough treatment. Lisa wondered if he would be the first out of the group to quit. The males accepted their blindfolds and handcuffs, which had to be put on to allow the fraternity members to formally vote for them to continue pledging. As was true for the Four-Betas, the Tri-Alphas vote was a formality. Not all of the Triple-A pledges were likely to finish the pledging process, but it would be up to the pledges themselves, not the fraternity members, to decide whether or not to continue the effort to join the fraternity. ---------- Once the ceremony ended, the six males had to pose for several group shots. The first were of the men by themselves, standing next to each other facing the camera and facing away from the camera. That was followed by several group-shots with the Four-Beta pledges, the naked bodies of the men contrasting with the shorts and t-shirts of the women. The final Tri-Alpha pledge portrait was a rather humiliating one, at least for the straight members of the group. Heather ordered the men to line up and turn sideways, with the openly gay pledge in the front and Ken in the back. The four straight pledges were sandwiched in between. She then instructed each pledge to grab the hips of the man in front of him and press against his body. She used her riding crop to make sure each pledge was in very intimate contact with the pledge in front of him. Finally she ordered the men to turn their faces the camera to allow the embarrassing position to be documented on film. ---------- The pledges carried the benches and Tri-Alpha speaker's podium back to the waiting pick-up truck after the ceremony ended and the upperclassmen dispersed. Meanwhile, Tracy passed out inspection manuals to the members of her pledge group. "We're testing both you and the Triple-A's tonight. They're gonna clean up the house and you're gonna supervise them. How well they clean this place is a reflection of your ability to direct them according to what's in the manual. You all know what needs to be done, and I'm sure you could do just fine cleaning this place up yourselves. Well, let's find out how well you can get someone else to get this house in compliance with what's in the manual. I don't consider this just a clean-up. I consider it an important test of your ability to organize, give instructions, and lead. The fraternity considers this a test of their ability to follow instructions and cooperate with each other. In other words, you need to take this very seriously. You all understand?" "Yes, ma'am." "There's discipline implements in the small room near the back door. Each of you is welcome to go back there and grab something, if you think you'll need it." "Yes, ma'am." "OK ladies. Inspection tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. for all common areas. Have a pleasant evening." "Yes, ma'am."