Chapter 6

On Tuesday, Catherine had trouble concentrating in her classes. Try as she might, she found her mind wandering partway through all of her classes. Her notes, normally neat distillations of that day’s lessons, instead seemed to derail halfway down the page where she doodled flowers or repeating geometric patterns.

Her Communications homework was no easier to stay focused on. It was unfinished going into her Rush activities, which meant she’d have both her homework and her physics review to worry about afterwards, not just the latter like she hoped.

Day two of Rush week was Philanthropy day. Light refreshments were provided, and the PNMs did a small craft project for charity at each of the sororities they were invited back to. It was supposed to highlight the principles that the sororities stood for, but Catherine knew that for this version of Nu Epsilon Rho the philanthropy work was just lip service. All that mattered to Nu Epsilon Rho after her wish was status and appearance.

Even so, they didn’t skimp out on the craft that night. The PNMs were building stuffed bears for a children’s hospital in the area. There were pictures from previous years showing girls from Nu Epsilon Rho delivering gifts to sick kids.

Catherine had maneuvered things so that she shared a table with Sarah. There were also four other girls Catherine hadn’t spoken to on the first night. The four had instantly taken a liking to each other, and were chatting about a popular boy band, but Sarah seemed unwilling or unable to join in on the conversation. Catherine tried to get her to open up.

“So, Sarah, what’s your major again?”

“Uh, I’m a chemistry major. I’m on the pre-med track.” Sarah said.

“Oh, cool. What made you want to do that?”

“Well, I took AP chem in high school and I loved it. That’s actually why I decided to go here even though it was out of state for me - it’s supposed to have one of the best chemistry departments in the country.” Sarah said.

Catherine saw a lot of herself in Sarah. It was a fuzzy memory now, but she had taken a lot of AP courses in high school. However, she overheard a snippet of conversation from the other girls at the table. They had shifted topics to the latest piece of celebrity gossip, and Catherine couldn’t help but want to join in.

She said a rushed apology to Sarah. “That’s super interesting. Could you please hold that thought?”

Catherine spent far longer than she intended to talking to the other four girls. By the time she looked at the clock, she realized there were only about 10 minutes left in the party. Unfortunately, Sarah had been unable to find another conversation partner for the duration. She tried to compensate by spending the remaining time talking exclusively with her, but she kept glancing at the other girls and catching parts of their conversation. Catherine admired Sarah, but it was taking all of her self control not to drop their conversation again.

Things wrapped up with the PNMs dropping their finished bears in a donation box, and moving on to their next Rush party for the night. When the actives convened for a vote, Catherine begrudgingly recommended the four other girls at her table just as highly as she recommended Sarah. They were fun to talk with if nothing else.

Wednesday brought yet more complications for Catherine. Her attention problems from the previous day seemed to be there to stay, but she also found herself slipping into a valley girl accent with far more frequency than before. If she focused, she could get a few sentences to sound normal, but her focus was shot to hell and she would quickly revert back.

None of the reminders that she had set up on Saturday seemed to do much for her. She had spent so many days drilling physics it was hard to forget that part of her past, and yet she found herself dreading having to study it again tonight. Couldn’t she just be done with it? Friday felt so far away.

Day three of Rush week was Skit night. The sororities performed some short skits and gave the PNMs their first proper tours of the sorority houses. Catherine had only done Rush once before, and she had always dreaded this night. Yet tonight she found herself having a blast.

Their skit was based on Grease, and featured the Pink Ladies trying to decide what sorority to join and ultimately deciding on Nu Epsilon Rho. They had a few songs with altered lyrics about how great Nu Ep girls were. Overall, Catherine loved dressing up in pink 60’s fashion, and she thought it would be cool to show pictures to Prof. Baker to see what she thought. She eventually checked up on Sarah.

“So, what did you, like, think?”

“I-it was fun, I guess.” Sarah said.

Sai came over, and asked them both to say cheese. They posed and Sai took the picture and moved on. Catherine continued to chat with Sarah, though she lost her train of thought several times and she hoped Sarah wouldn’t look down on her for peppering her speech with “like”s so frequently.

When it came time to vote, Sai announced her plan.

“I bet you’re wondering why I, like, took pictures tonight. Well, for those of you with personal ‘projects’, I thought I’d give you a little help. I’m going to print those pictures up and have them framed. It’s your job to really sell them on the idea that they’re going to become Nu Ep girls. You know, waterworks, reminisce about this week, whatever you need to do to make them think they actually have a chance.”

Catherine couldn’t believe the depths that Sai was going to. She didn’t want any part of this plan, but she knew none of it would matter if she actually got Sarah in. There would be no heartbreak from leading her on, just happiness at getting a new group of sisters.