Chapter 6: A Night at the Tri-Alpha House

As soon as the ceremony ended and the 80 fraternity and sorority members left the room, Tracy ordered her group to kneel so she could take off their blindfolds and handcuffs. The pledges returned the restraints to the black bag. Tracy then ordered the pledges to get some cleaning supplies and to clean up the ceremonial room, to include dusting, vacuuming, washing all the windows, and putting away the benches and podiums.

Tracy then handed a key to the minivan to Bernadette and told her to put the bag on the front seat of the vehicle, lock it up, and come back inside. When she realized that putting the bag in the minivan meant going outside naked, Bernadette made an unfortunate mistake. She had the audacity to question Tracy’s order.

“But, ma’am, I can’t go outside! I don’t have anything on!”

Tracy’s face changed color and her lips tightened. Lisa cringed, because she knew what was coming.

Sure enough, Tracy exploded. She ferociously poked the offender in the chest several times as she shouted:

“When I give you an order, YOU WILL OBEY THAT ORDER! That’s what you do, Pledge! You obey the orders I give you! Just who the hell do you think you are, arguing with me? Just who the FUCK do you think you are, PLEDGE?”

Bernadette, who had not previously seen Tracy in drill-sergeant mode, shook with absolute terror.

“You put that bag, in that car, NOW!”

Without saying another word, Bernadette struggled to put on her shower shoes and raced out the door with the bag. She ran out to the vehicle, deposited the bag on the front seat, and ran back to the house, trying to ignore the whistles of the fraternity guys across the street. She was mortified at being on such public display to a bunch of strangers, but now she had a much worse problem, dealing with Tracy’s explosive temper. She ran back to join her companions, who were standing together in a line.

“ALL FOUR OF YOU, FRONT-LEANING REST POSITION, NOW!!!”

Lisa and Cherine instinctively dropped to the floor. Bernadette and Kathleen took a second longer, a second too long. Tracy ordered them back up and to “try it again”. The women rose and fell several times before having to do two sets of 10 four-count pushups. By the time Tracy finished with the second set the pledges were beyond exhausted and their bodies were trembling from muscle fatigue.

“Stand up, all of you!”

The four pledges scrambled to get to their feet and snap to attention. Bernadette continued to tremble from fear.

“I was gonna take you back to the Four-Beta House so you could get some sleep, but because you’ve been insubordinate, I’ve decided that’s not gonna happen for a while! Obviously you guys are gonna need some discipline! I’m gonna put you to work! You’ll be starting by cleaning up this room, but that’s just the beginning! You’re also gonna be cleaning the kitchen, the laundry room and every bathroom in this house! Pledge Lisa, you’re in charge!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Tracy suddenly walked out of the sitting room, only to return a minute later with a leather paddle and a small regulation book.

“I’m gonna make sure you pledges do your jobs right! This... “ she held up the guide book, “ ... is the regulation manual for Tri-Alpha pledges for building clean-up! Lot’s of stuff in here, little nit-picky details, you’ll need to worry about! And I’m gonna give you good reason to worry! I’m inspecting tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m., and for each violation of these regulations, Pledge Lisa gets two swats on the butt.” If I find 50 violations, guess what? That’s 100 swats and one very sore Pledge Lisa!”

The pledges recoiled from the unfairness of Tracy’s threat. Why Lisa? She didn’t do anything...

Tracy grabbed Bernadette by the wrist and led her to one of the benches.

“Put your hands on the bench, little Miss Combative!”

Bernadette did as she was told, bending over and exposing her trembling white bottom.

“Take a good look, Pledges! Let me give you a demo of what I’m talking about!”

POP! ... POP! ... POP! ... POP! ... POP! ... POP!...

Tracy landed 10 hard swats on Bernadette’s bare backside, quickly changing the color from white to solid pink. Tears ran down Bernadette’s cheeks.

With that Tracy left and the pledges set to work cleaning the sitting room. Lisa picked up the manual and organized the others to sweep the carpet and clean the windows while she dusted. Cherine and Kathleen gave Bernadette very hostile looks, while she looked away and started to cry. Upon noticing her companions turning on poor Bernadette, Lisa ordered the group to stop for a minute.

“Look you three. We need to get something straight here. You can’t go blaming each other, because that’s exactly what Tracy’s looking for. She’s testing us, to see if we’re gonna turn on each other. You want to screw this up, then you go right ahead and blame each other.”

Bernadette began crying in earnest. Lisa ignored her and continued.

“A couple of things to remember. If you’re stupid enough to think we were gonna get any sleep tonight, all I can say is that I feel real sorry for you!. Didn’t you see that she was carrying an overnight bag when we came over here? What’s that tell you?”

Lisa paused to let that sink in and continued: “Pledges never get any sleep on the first night. That’s part of the hazing. They do the same thing to every group. I can tell you, for a fact, if it hadn’t been Bernadette, it would’ve been something else.”

Bernadette was still crying, but Lisa could tell she about to calm down and that the crisis was passing. Cherine had a question.

“Lisa, what do we gotta do, to keep you from getting paddled? I mean ... it’s not fair that...”

“It’s not fair, but I’m gonna get paddled, no matter what you guys do. That’s between me and Tracy. Just do what you can and skip the guilt trips. None of us is getting any sleep, so we might as well try our best to clean this place up.”

When the women finished cleaning the sitting room, they proceeded to the kitchen. Their hearts sank when they saw what a mess it was. Normally the Tri-Alpha sophomores were responsible for cleaning the kitchen whenever no pledges were available, but, as of that night, pledges were available and the guys could take the night off. They left untouched a day’s worth of dirty dishes and cooking utensils for a fraternity of 40 members and their 40 female guests. The condition of the kitchen confirmed Lisa’s theory that Tracy never had any intention of taking the pledges back to the Four-Beta house that night. She knew the kitchen had been left that way on purpose; because normally there was no way the Tri-Alphas would tolerate such a mess on their property.

Lisa relayed her observation to the others and then ordered her companions to empty the two dishwashers and pack them with as many plates and glasses as they would hold. While the dishwashers were running she took out several bags of trash. She ordered Cherine and Bernadette to start scrubbing pots and Kathleen to clean the two stovetops.

It took several trips to clear out all the trash from the kitchen. Lisa’s treks to the dumpster took her outside where she could see the pool area. Tracy, Heather, and a couple other Four-Betas were playing water volleyball against several Tri-Alphas. Everyone in the pool was naked, since swimsuits were prohibited in the pool areas of both the sorority and the fraternity. It was strange to see Heather and Tracy, who behaved in such a fearsome manner towards the pledges, relaxing and splashing in the water just like any of the other women of the sorority.

Lisa returned to the kitchen, consulted the manual, and ordered her companions to organize the first batch of clean dishes to put away. As the others put the dishes back on their shelves, Lisa loaded a second batch into the dishwashers, packing them in as tightly as possible. Now they were making some progress, with half the dishes put away and the other half in the dishwashers. There were still plenty of pots and pans to scrub, but it now seemed there no longer was enough work in the kitchen to keep all four women busy.

Lisa suddenly had an idea. It was a bit risky, but as she looked at the exhausted faces of her companions, figured the risk was worth taking. She remembered seeing a small side room near the Pledge Shower that was empty except for a small bed. She decided to tell Kathleen and Cherine to go in there, close the door, and get two hours of sleep. Meanwhile Lisa and Bernadette would finish up in the kitchen. By that time the kitchen would be done and the four women could start on the bathrooms.

There was absolutely no argument from the two pledges. They crawled into the bed and promptly went to sleep. Lisa and Bernadette chatted as they finished cleaning the pots. Lisa was able to tell Bernadette the story of her first punishment at the hands of Tracy, the screaming fit over her simple request to make sure she understood Tracy’s command to get undressed.

“They’ve had their system set up like this for years. A lot of it they get from the military. That’s why what Tracy’s doing doesn’t really bother me, because she’s just doing her job. I’d bet that to get her position she went off and got trained somewhere.”

“But, I still don’t get it. Why are they doing this to us? And how come they’re trying to get us to fight with each other?”

“The military stuff and the discipline is to get us into shape and make sure we really want to join. They’re using the unfair punishments to test us to see how good we are at sticking up for each other and working together. I’d bet that if we start fighting, they’ll kick us out.”

Lisa knew that something else that was being tested, herself. Somehow, during the first few minutes they interacted, Tracy had picked up on Lisa’s potential for leadership. Tracy was testing Lisa much more than she was testing the others, because she realized that Lisa had a talent for organizing other people and was willing to make personal sacrifices for those under her command. That was the reason she had placed Lisa in charge of the cleanup. How well the cleanup went and how well the pledges were getting along with each other the next morning was the Four-Betas’ first big test of her leadership skills.

Within just three hours, the sitting room was completely clean and the kitchen getting close to being clean. Bernadette’s mood had improved dramatically and she no longer felt guilty or frightened. Cherine and Kathleen would have a couple of hours of sleep, a luxury denied to Lisa and Bernadette, so hopefully their mood would be better as well. Anyhow, no longer could they say anything against Bernadette, because they had enjoyed two hours of sleep while she and Lisa had continued working.