Chapter 1

Catherine had hoped that college would mark the end of being looked down on for being geeky and plain, but she had had no such luck. Guys still seemed to gravitate to the girls with impressive bodies and less impressive minds, and ignore smart, passionate girls like her in spite of her best efforts. Her IQ scared a lot of potential mates off, and her beanpole of a body lacked any of the womanly curves that might have had guys flocking. The one solace she had was her sisters in Nu Epsilon Rho.

Catherine had been nervous about joining a sorority, since years of Hollywood and television had painted a picture of sororities that didn’t interest her in the least. However, Nu Epsilon Rho had been a pleasant surprise. All of the girls in it were geeks like her. They all preferred reading books and studying to putting on make-up and partying. Everyone’s GPA was 3.75 or above, and nobody’s looks were more than a 4 out of 10. Catherine’s life was almost bearable thanks to Nu Epsilon Rho, but the whole world couldn’t be like her cozy, supportive community. Some days Catherine was brutality reminded of that fact. Days like today.

It was the first day of Junior year, and Catherine had been roped into staffing the table for Nu Epsiolon Rho at the Student Involvement fair. Her partner in crime was Sai Akiyama, a spectacled Asian girl who was about 30 pounds overweight. Catherine and Sai were both majoring in physics, and were close friends. Several hours in the sun trying to attract new recruits might almost have been fun, except for the table directly to the right of them.

That table was for Beta Iota Mu. If Nu Epsilon Rho was a pleasant defiance of Hollywood stereotypes, Beta Iota Mu was the perfect embodiment of them. The two girls manning the table looked like the had just walked off a runway. Both were blonde, and had toned, athletic bodies that betrayed the fact that they were probably involved in cheerleading or volleyball. They wore big fake smiles, and enthusuastically greeted any girl who came to their table to sign up for their mailing list or take a brochure. However, Catherine noticed that whenever an unattractive girl would provide her contact information, they’d put it in a different pile from the rest. On any other day, Catherine would have let it slide, but today she felt pushed to act.

When they put yet another girl’s contact information into the reject pile, Catherine walked up to the table and confronted the girl on the right, whose nametag said “Jennifer.”

Crossing her arms, she tried to make herself look more confident than she felt. “Why are you sorting some of the girls into a different pile?”

Jennifer looked Catherine over, sizing her up. Her eyes lingered on Catherine’s drab shirt and baggy pants, before she responded. “Why do you, like, care?”

“Because, it seems like you’re sorting them based on attractiveness, and ... and that’s not okay!”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Look, I totally understand your, like, sympathy for your own kind, but some people are Beta Iota Mu material and some aren’t.” The last words were almost sneered towards Catherine. “Besides, we’re still going to let them rush. They won’t get in of course, but they’ll at least have the illusion they could have been one of us. Most of them will probably end up in loser sororities like yours, along with all the other socially handicapable.”

Catherine was furious at this point. She was about to start yelling, completely oblivious to the Student Involvement Fair going on around them, but she felt Sai trying to drag her away.

Sai was normally shy in the face of confrontation, but she did manage to get out a, “L-let it go, Catherine...”

Catherine managed to control her anger a bit more than before. “I’m tired of letting it go, Sai! I’m tired of girls like that getting everything, and girls like us getting nothing.”