Chapter 29: Citizens’ Complaints

The following day Tracy and her four pledges left the sorority in time to make their 8:00 classes. The three freshmen stepped outside in their normal outfits, but Lisa, true to her word, stoically walked down the sidewalk with her bottom totally uncovered as she dealt with a barrage of stares and whistles. It was a very strange sensation to feel the hot morning sun shining on her exposed bottom as the group made their way to the university. Stranger still was the knowledge that her backside probably would never be covered at all, under any circumstances, until August.

Lisa was not surprised that Burnside already knew about the thong arrangement and had approved. Burnside had been one reason Lisa had decided to go along with the change of uniform, because either the professor would count the thong as another test of her character or would flatly prohibit her from wearing it in her classes and thus the matter would be settled. Lisa calculated that the decision already had been made for her to continue wearing her thong.

As Lisa showed up to her office, Burnside had some reservations about allowing the girl’s hazing challenge to go any further because she liked to project a cold professional image in her classes. Her flamboyant, skimpily-clad assistant certainly detracted from the intimidating atmosphere the professor wanted for her students. However, in the end the professor decided not to say anything about her student’s nudity. Lisa was a Four-Beta, and the sorority had a reputation of forcing its pledges to be naked in public as much as possible and do many other strange things. Burnside would be able to fall back on the fact that Lisa simply was following orders from her sorority. If anyone challenged her about Lisa’s attire in her class, she could shrug her shoulders and say the issue was between her student aide and the Four-Beta officers.

The truth was that Burnside was much more supportive of the idea of forcing Lisa to pursue her fantasy of being naked in public than she would have let on to her colleagues. She believed that anyone with an active sexual imagination should be obligated to pursue their desires. Lisa would wear her thong, and it would be up to her to provide any needed explanation.

As Lisa followed Burnside across the courtyard to the main lecture building, every student and faculty member stared at the student’s exposed bottom. Lisa caused an even bigger sensation in the auditorium, to the point that Burnside realized she needed to address her assistant’s strange predicament. She tapped the microphone to get her audience to quiet down.

“You all have noticed that my student aide, Lisa Campbell, is wearing clothing that we normally would not consider appropriate for class. Lisa, please turn around and show everyone what I’m talking about.”

Her heart pounding and her face flushed with embarrassment, Lisa stood next to the podium and turned her back to the class. There were a few claps and whistles, but Burnside raised her hand.

“Lisa, please remain with your back to the class until I finish, so everyone can satisfy their curiosity and we can get this behind us.”

There was some laughter at Burnside’s unintended pun. Realizing the humor in what she had just said, the professor gave her class a rare smile.

“Lisa is pledging the Four-Beta Sorority, and it was an officer from her sorority who directed her to wear what she has on. What’s she’s doing is a pledge challenge, and that’s all it is. There’s something else. Lisa remains my aide and you will treat her with respect. Whatever the situation is with her sorority, that has no bearing on her responsibilities to the department. Enough said on that. Now that you’ve satisfied your curiosity about Lisa, I expect what she’s wearing to cause no further disruption in this class.”

Burnside directed Lisa to take her usual seat in the first row, immediately beneath the speaker’s podium. The class settled down immediately. It was obvious that the novelty of Lisa’s thong already was wearing off.

Burnside taught Lisa an important lesson that day, one that she repeated in her other classes. The professor dealt with uncomfortable situations by addressing them immediately and directly. Rather than try to ignore the girl’s bizarre predicament, Burnside drew attention to it and resolved the matter with a truthful and logical explanation. Lisa was wearing a thong because of a sorority pledge challenge. It was that simple: no big deal. With their curiosity satisfied, Burnside’s students could direct their attention back to their purpose for being in the class, to learn economic theory and memorize how to use various mathematical formulas.

Lisa realized something else. Because the scandal of her thong already was dying down, it was very likely that she was committed to wearing it on campus for the rest of the summer. In fact, already people in the Economics Department were referring to her as “the girl in the thong” instead of “Burnside’s student aide”. Within days Lisa’s thong became her identity.

Upon returning to the sorority in the afternoon, Tracy was careful to note the expression on Heather’s face to gage what, if anything, she might have in mind for the two women’s intensifying rivalry. Because the Pledge Mistress was training as a psychologist, small expressions and nuances of behavior that another person might miss could provide her with valuable insight about what someone else was thinking. Sure enough, Heather’s face reflected not anger, but instead the secret satisfaction a person gets when they are about to carry out a plot against a rival.

OK, so she’s got something in mind, but what could it be?

As the pledges received their Thursday night Four-Beta training seminar, Tracy had a few moments to think through the following day and ponder where something might go wrong. She dismissed various possibilities, including classes and anything that could happen between Lisa and Ruth Burnside. What about chores? No, it seemed the pledges were doing just fine on chores. What about ... PT?

At 4:15 the next morning the group was scheduled for what Tracy hoped would be the last of Bernadette’s training runs. With luck she would test out the following week. If everything went well, the Friday morning run would be the last of the naked treks to the stadium and the last time she would have to deal with Polk’s leering presence and...

Suddenly Tracy realized what Heather was plotting. While it was true that Polk’s assistance made the run across the university relatively safe, to get to campus Tracy’s group had to run past several blocks of residences and cross a four-lane boulevard. Those blocks were patrolled not by Campus Security, but by the City Police. Heather knew the route that Tracy and her group took each morning and where they had to cross to get onto campus. As soon as the group left the Four-Beta house, all that was needed to land Tracy and the four pledges in jail would be a couple of “citizens’ complaints” about streakers.

So that was it! Tracy realized that it was quite likely Heather, and possibly a couple of her friends, would call the cops on her and the pledges when they did their pre-dawn naked run to the stadium! A very easy way to take down the entire group!

Tracy was taken aback by the ruthlessness of Heather’s plan. Were the five women to be caught streaking, for her it would be a personal disaster, because it would put an arrest on her record and probably ruin her chances of getting into the Army’s Officer Candidate School. It also would put arrests on the records of the four pledges, complicate their lives, and most certainly turn them against her.

Tracy’s attitude towards her rival changed as her dislike intensified into anger. Up until that moment the Pledge Mistress had viewed Heather’s efforts to undermine her as a minor nuisance and the result of personal immaturity. No, this was not just a nuisance; it was much more serious. It was obvious that Sergeant-at-Arms was perfectly willing to risk the good name of the sorority and mess up not only her life, but also the lives of four innocent pledges.

Tracy’s thoughts about the Four-Beta presidency changed along with her opinion of Heather. Up until that moment the Four-Beta chapter presidency had been something she had not really wanted. Now she was determined to win. Instead of reluctantly allowing herself to be drafted, she would actively campaign to take over the sorority and make sure Heather was kept out of next year’s directorate. She would become chapter president, and put Heather in her place once and for all.

OK, Heather ... you want to play hard-ball with me? You got it. Hard-ball it is.

Tracy’s immediate problem was avoiding being arrested Friday morning. The only solution she could think of was to not do the pre-dawn streak at all. Instead, she and the others would go out with President Alexandra on the normal morning run, and Bernadette would have to pass the stair challenge. This was it for Bernadette. She had to pass because Tracy no longer could risk taking the pledge group out for practice runs. The next time they went out streaking, they faced being turned in to the police and taken to the city jail. There wouldn’t be any arrest, because there would be no next time.

While the other pledges were studying, Tracy called Bernadette into her room and broke the news. She told the freshman a portion of the truth; that she suspected that it was likely the city cops would catch the group if they went streaking Friday morning. Because Tracy felt that it was best to keep the pledges out of her growing conflict with Sergeant-at-Arms as long as possible, she gave Bernadette the impression that Polk had given her inside information from the police department, instead of laying any blame on Heather.

Bernadette took a deep breath:

“I ... I don’t know if I can do it, ma’am. I mean ... I thought I was gonna have another day.”

“I thought so too, Pledge, but it’s not gonna happen that way. Tomorrow’s the day you gotta pass. This is gonna be it. Whether you can or cannot do it, you’re just gonna have to.”

Tracy knew better than to send Bernadette to bed to “get plenty of sleep”. It was clear that, instead of sleeping, the pledge would spend the night wide-awake from anxiety and would be totally exhausted the next morning. Tracy instructed her to do some stretching exercises and focus on her breathing to get her to relax. That was followed up by a half-hour in the pool for all of the pledges, and then yet more stretching for the entire group. The relaxation exercises worked; within a few minutes of lights-out Bernadette was asleep.

Because Tracy had not said anything to President Alexandra about having Bernadette test that morning, the other officers assumed that Friday morning the Pledge Mistress and her pledge group would go out for yet another naked escapade to the stadium. Tracy felt that Alexandra was trustworthy and had no bad intentions towards the pledges, but still, she remained Heather’s friend. If the chapter president knew that Tracy planned to have Bernadette test that morning, it was likely that Heather hear about the change through casual conversation.