Chapter 12

Parent Alert! Parent Alert!

Irina, Melanie, Todd, and Jack listened to the news being delivered by Brooke after breakfast and before departure for Friday classes. Her friends and fellow Pledges were all together in the Library as well to give support to Brooke as she told Irina and the mentors about the possibility of impending doom.

Brooke's parents had surprised her in an email this morning, informing her that they had decided at the last minute to drive into town this afternoon from St. Albans for the Labor Day weekend for a visit. They indicated that they wanted to see where she was living; and meet her roommate ... or roommates!

"We have had to deal with this a time or two before," Melanie offered in a brusque and no-nonsense business-like tone, before Irina could say anything. Andi looked at Melanie with an interesting expression on her face that Dee picked up on quickly.

Dee had also noticed that the airhead façade that Melanie had been giving off for a couple of weeks had suddenly disappeared. She was suddenly all business, revealing to the Pledges that Melanie had been giving them all what they had expected to see rather than the vision of the real Melanie--a level-headed woman who had herself under pretty good control.

Well, thought Dee, it only makes sense that Sigma Lambda Tau would only use a girl who had herself thoroughly grounded as a mentor--mentress? ha-ha--for the Pledges. An outfit like this would not really saddle them with a ditz to facilitate their early stages of development within the Sigma Lambda Tau Society, given the unique and sensitive nature of its existence.

"Jack, we need to reinstall the doors on the second floor Suites and their bathrooms after lunch today. We will also have the swipe card keys for the doors to give to the Pledges to complete the image.

"We need to pull the king mattresses and store them in the basement, while pulling the twin frames and box springs apart and separating then with an end table. The male Pledges can help the Brothers by bringing up the spare twin mattresses from the basement later this morning. That way, it won't look like roommates are sharing the same bed; same with the linens and pillows.

"Pledges, you will need to do a sweep of the rooms--especially the bathrooms--to ensure that no mixed-gender occupancy evidence remains. Guys and girls, one of the giveaways that sometimes gets overlooked is the hair around the drain in the shower. Be sure to get that up and flushed away.

"All the heavy lifting can be done in about forty-five minutes if everyone pitches in. Then it will only take about a half an hour of detailing and walk-through for final inspection before we declare an all-clear." Melanie was on a roll!

Wow, thought Tylea, this white girl knows her shit! It was very evident to Tylea and the rest as well, that this was not the first time that the Sigma Lambda Tau House had needed to deal with visiting parents or other interested outside eyes.

It did not happen as much with guys going off to college; but parents of a girl going off to college for the first time--in almost every case--wanted to visit her at school at least once. They wanted to see where and how their 'little darling' was living now that she was a 'big girl' and off at college on her own for the first time--with boys--away from any parental safeguards. Parents knew that this was the test of all the upbringing they had lavished on their 'baby girl.'

They had now sent her--or him--out into the world and all of its perils. At this point, all they could do is hope that their child avoided drugs, alcohol, and tobacco--and, of course, sex, the grandest attraction of all for newly-liberated, hormone-driven teenagers. The kids were now armed with all the physical development and the equipment in the right places.

They were primed not only for first use--for some--but for as much continuous use as it was possible to find among those of a similar age and newly-found freedom. And they were now off on their own at college, and away from home for the first time, for most of them--and the freedom to begin the hunt was theirs at last.

While all parents were hopeful--and a few were just blindly obtuse--most were resigned to the fact that sexual contact was bound to happen at this stage in the lives of their children. The latter sets of parents just hoped that their kids would only engage in sex safely--both physically and emotionally.

"You will need to appear to be paired by gender," Melanie's words brought their wandering thoughts back to reality, "with one of the girls in a single room--sorry Catherine, it is probably best if Brooke and Dee are together and it would look terribly un-politically-correct if Tylea were in a single as an obvious minority; she's with Andi on this one, so you are it for the single.

"As for the rest of you, there will be no need to try to portray single-gender hallways. No one really expects that in colleges nowadays. And of course, when we get closer to P-Hour, Rule One will be relaxed for the second floor. You will be required to dress, as if you were in a regular dormitory or a sorority or fraternity house for the rest of the weekend.

"Oh! We will need to find some gym clothes to serve as camouflage for the hallway lockers as well. Now, anything else?" Melanie turned to look at Todd.

Todd was gazing at Melanie with a look of amazement combined with admiration. "No, Melanie, I think you have hit on all the major points." Looking around toward Irina, he asked, "What about the Friday Night Forage event? Do you see any problems with going ahead with that, Irina?"

"No," answered Irina, as her ice blue eyes locked in on the far wall as she thought about the situation. "From what Brooke tells me, her parents will arrive here to see the house during the middle of this afternoon and then retire to their hotel for the evening after a long drive. The next time they will want to see Brooke will be..." she looked to Brooke for confirmation, "tomorrow mid-morning?" Brooke nodded in affirmation.

"They will also be coming to the social in the afternoon," said Brooke. "I guess it's," sigh, "probably a good thing that I don't have a date for that. Otherwise, they would have me fixed in their minds as being halfway to the altar. At least that's how my mom would probably envision it. Neither of them liked JJ last year back home, and they would be pleased at ANY guy I liked to replace him." She half-grinned at this. She looked at Dee for a moment, receiving a smile and a nod.

"This looks like a very nice and spacious arrangement, Sweetie," commented Brendan Cavanaugh. He beamed as he stood with his wife at the entrance to his daughter's suite.

"I'm glad you approve, Daddy," replied Brooke. She smiled brightly to disguise the dread she was feeling inside. She was just SURE that her parents were going to see through the subterfuge at any moment. "We both like it. Of course, it helps that I have a neat freak for a roommate," she added, as she turned toward Dee. Dee stood quietly by 'her' separate twin bed after rising. She had been sitting on the bed at the entry of Brooke's mom and dad.

"Mom, Daddy, I'd like for you to meet my roommate, Deirdre Rivers--Dee," Brooke swept her arm toward Dee as she spoke. "Dee; please allow me to introduce my parents, Brendan and Melissa Cavanaugh." Brooke kicked herself figuratively in her head for making everything sound so damned formal.

Dee smiled and said softly, "I'm so very pleased to meet the both of y'all. Brooke speaks very highly of the two of you."

Melissa Cavanaugh smiled at the greeting and Dee's obvious Southern accent and then snorted. Before anyone could react, she said with a laugh in her voice, "Honey, it's nice of you to say so, but no college girl ever did that, at least none that I'VE ever been associated with--so long ago now, it seems. None of us EVER spoke highly of our own parents; especially among my Tri-Delt sorority sisters at UVM.

"After all, parents are supposed to figure prominently in all the late-night sorority or dorm room horror stories of 'restrictive-this' and 'you-can't-do-that.' And God knows just how many potential or existing boyfriends that parents have scared off with our supposedly," finger quotes in the air, "puritanical outlook on sex."

Everyone smiled or chuckled politely at Melissa Cavanaugh's attempt at lightening the conversation. Brooke still felt a touch of dread as she fixed a smile on her face. After all, she could tell that Brendan Cavanaugh's smile was strained and obviously put-on.

Brooke had always thought her dad had seemed to be the one with the more conservative outlook on things than her mom had, especially when it came to anything close to dealing with sex, or even with girls in general. He had always seemed to be uncomfortable around Brooke and her girlfriends back in high school and had avoided her bedroom at home. Now, with her brother, Tim, on the other hand, Daddy was always more than comfortable with being around him and his friends.

"So, Dee," Brooke's father began haltingly, "Your accent does not sound very much like it originated anywhere around the Green Mountains. What part of the South do you call home?"

"Oh, I grew up in Kentucky and North Carolina. My late daddy was from Georgia before he went into the Army. And Momma was North Carolina born and bred. She moved up here and has remarried recently. She seems to have settled in for the long haul. So, until I graduate, I guess I can truly call Vermont home," she said with an open and authentic smile. Dee was feeling comfortable with these folks, even if Brooke appeared to be nervous.

The Cavanaughs were both smiling politely, although Brendan's smile seemed to be a bit condescending. Dee began imagining that he was picturing her with bare feet walking along some stereotypical southern dirt road toward a rural cabin with chickens in the yard, or something, and maybe carrying a baby. She chastised herself immediately for casting her OWN stereotypical thinking about Yankees in general onto the Cavanaugh family without giving them much of a chance, and after so short of a time--only a few minutes--since they had met.

The older couple walked around the spacious suite, commenting on how nice and roomy it appeared to be compared to dorm or sorority house rooms they remembered from their college days at UVM--Brendan had rushed, pledged, and later lived in the house of the ATO fraternity. Both parents strolled into the bathroom to look around for a minute before returning to stand in the main room near the doorway. Both were still smiling, seemingly proud of their 'little girl' now that she was off at college and living on her own--even if she was now living as part of an unofficial mixed-gender society or club.

"I would have thought you girls would have decorated the place more to give it a home-like feel, or to sort of, oh, put your own stamp of identity on the place," commented Melissa Cavanaugh. Her smile had been replaced by a look of studied contemplation as she said this. Dee saw that the older woman was casting her attention down toward the carpeted floor, rather than looking either at her or Brooke. Suddenly, Melissa's expression changed to one of amused understanding about something and she raised her eyebrows.

The older woman glanced up pointedly at Dee for a moment and then looked straight into Brooke's eyes as she said to her husband, "Well, Brendan, why don't we go get checked into the hotel for tonight and leave these two to their, umm, Friday night activities? I'm sure that we will get a chance to talk to Brooke more tomorrow, especially at the social they are throwing here. Right, Honey?"

"Sure, Mom; I would come over to eat with the two of you tonight, but Dee and I had made plans to go out with some other folks and I sort of feel obligated to go..." Brooke's voiced sort of trailed off. She knew that it sounded lame. Her father did not seem to pick up on it, but her mother sure seemed to be looking at her intently. What was THAT all about?

"Oh, don't worry yourself, Sweetie," Melissa responded, still looking intently at her daughter and raising one eyebrow in an unspoken message--I know you are up to something, the look said silently. "Your father and I need to get some rest after a long week and after the drive down here. We'll have plenty of time tomorrow and Sunday, and even part of Monday. It IS Labor Day weekend, after all."

Brendan stepped over to shake Dee's hand and then moved to give Brooke a hug and a kiss on the cheek. As he stepped back, Brooke leaned in and gave her mother a hug and a kiss, which was reciprocated.

"Thanks, Mom," Brooke said with a smile, "And I'll see you both at brunch at your hotel in the morning and at the social here tomorrow afternoon." She just could not put a finger on what was causing her to suspect that her mother knew more than she was letting on.

"It was very nice to meet y'all," said Dee brightly as they turned.

"And it was very nice meeting Brooke's girlfriend--I mean, roommate--as well, Dear," replied Melissa Cavanaugh with what appeared to Dee to be a knowing smile. The couple turned away as Brendan offered his hand to his wife. She took it and they strolled past the lockers near the stairs. The two girls watched them go and Brooke saw Melissa give the lockers a hard stare as she passed, before they turned the corner and descended the stairway.

"Well," Brooke said as she heaved a sigh, "that seemed to go okay."

Dee sat down on the bed and said, "Maybe. Your momma looked like she had something on her mind after she had taken a look at the bathroom and came back out here. We may have pulled it off, but I don't know.

"I mean, many are the times I thought I had pulled the wool over my momma's eyes; only to find out later that she had seen right through all my shenanigans almost right as they were happening. It's hard to get anything past the 'Mommy Radar, ' you know. They have all been there and done that for themselves when they were younger."

"Well," Brooke said with a laugh as she flopped backwards onto 'her' bed, "we can only hope that she does not suspect the real story behind all of this. I'd be pulled out of here in nothing flat and sent off to an all-girls' school like Saint Mary's in Indiana if that happened."

At around five-thirty Friday evening, Dee thought to herself, if I did not feel slutty before, I REALLY feel that way now!

Dee shivered a little from her exposure and shifted from one foot to the other a bit uncomfortably as she listened to the instructions being delivered by Jack and Melanie for their last event of Slut Week--the Friday Night Forage. The Pledges were standing together by the pool out back of the Sigma Lambda Tau House in their tiny, almost non-existent bathing suits as their two elder member mentors gave them the details.

The girls wore only the very revealing Wicked Temptations micro bikinis that they had purchased the week before at the Sweet Nothings boutique. The guys only wore their Speedo swimsuits and carried small backpacks. They all wore running shoes or cross-trainers.