Pledges Ch. 07

"For what?" Angela asked.

Luci shrugged as she dabbed at her tears again. "I really don't know. I just know that she doesn't like y'all. In fact, I don't think any of the Mu Lambdas like y'all."

"Okay," Sierra said. "Go on."

"Well, she caught me one day after class. She...she...she told me to seduce Tamryn."

"Excuse me?" Lina said. "What did you just say?"

Luci's next words tumbled out uncontrollably. "I slept with Tamryn while I was still a potential. And I got it on tape!"

"What? A tape?" Tamryn screamed as she leapt to her feet. Then, angrily pacing the floor, she tried to clean it up. "Sorors, you can't tell me you're actually believing her bullshit? She's a fucking reject!" Tamryn cried. "She's just trying to get even with us for rejecting her loser ass!"

"Shut the fuck up, Tamryn!" Sierra boomed. "Just shut up, now!"

"Come on, Sierra!" Tamryn pleaded. "Just listen to what I have to say first!"

"No, you come on, Tamryn!" Sierra shouted. "How dare you jeopardize this Sorority by sleeping with a potential pledge! You know that's against the rules! So the only thing I want right now is for Luci to tell us the truth, so just shut the fuck up! And I'm not gonna tell your ass again!"

Tamryn threw up her hands. "Sierra, don't tell me you actually believe this lying bitch –"

Sierra jumped out of her chair and got right in Tamryn's face until they were a scant inch apart. "Say another word, Tamryn, and I swear to God, I'll shut you up permanently!"

Lina grabbed Sierra's arm. "Whoa! Hold up, Sierra. Just calm down."

Tamryn, visibly shaken, cowered into the corner of the room and wrapped her arms around her midsection.

"Luci, do you have any proof of this?" Miko asked, trying to bring reason back into the conversation. "I mean, like, do you still have the tape?"

Luci shook her head. "No, I don't have the tape. But I do have this."

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out two folded sheets of paper and handed them to Miko. "These are copies of the checks Jade gave me. They say 'tutoring fees' in the memo section, but that's not what they were for. They were my payment for getting the goods on Tamryn."

Lina gasped. "You're telling us that Jade actually paid you to blackmail Tamryn? To blackmail us? Oh my God! She's insane!"

Miko looked at the small pieces of paper. "I guess Jade didn't want to leave an obvious paper trail." Then she passed the papers to Sierra. "But I gotta admit," Miko said, "putting down the words 'tutoring fees' makes it sound very innocent."

"So where is the tape now?" Brandi asked. "Do you have any idea?"

Luci paused and looked at Monica.

"Go on," Monica urged. "Tell them."

"The tape's with Jade," Luci sighed.

She then turned to Sierra. "Remember the day you came to my apartment and told me that I wasn't in? Well, after you left, I went to the Mu Lambda Sorority House and I gave it to her."

"Do you know what she did with it? Brandi asked.

"She tried to put it in her bedroom safe, but she was having trouble getting it open. So I guess it's either in that safe, or it's in their safe in the basement."

"Luci, why did you do this to us?" Candace asked, tears welling up in her eyes. "Because we cut you from the pledge line?"

Luci shook her head. "Well, no." Then she put her head down. "Well, actually, yes. But at first, Jade said she'd get my scholarships revoked if I didn't help her. And she offered to pay me so I wouldn't have to work so many hours to pay for school. So I went ahead and did it. But back then, I wasn't gonna give her the tape. I was just going to destroy it."

"What made you change your mind?" Sierra asked softly.

Luci blushed. "It was after you came over to tell me that I wasn't getting in. As soon as you left, I was so mad and hurt and angry, that I called them and just went over there and gave it to them."

All of a sudden, Luci began to shake. "Oh God! I'm so sorry!" she cried as she burst into sobs; fresh, hot tears spilling down her flushed cheeks.

Sierra motioned for Monica. "Monica, take Luci into the kitchen. Luci, I don't want you to leave just yet. Just get something to eat, fix yourself up, and just wait for us, okay?"

Luci nodded as Monica led her out of the room.

When they left, Sierra got up and paced around the room.

Tamryn took a cautious breath. "Sierra, let me explain."

"Yeah, please, Tamryn! Please explain this one to me," Sierra spat. "Explain to me how you single-handedly tried to destroy our Sorority!" Sierra threw up her hands. "How could you, Tamryn? How could you? Are you that fucking stupid?"

"It was a mistake, Sierra, damn!" Tamryn yelled as she ran her hands through her waist-length hair, now pulled out of the neat ponytail and tousled and tangled. "Luci seduced me! You heard her. She seduced me!"

Then Tamryn put her hands on her hips, full of defiance and arrogance. "Besides, Sierra, you've made mistakes too," she said, growing visibly angrier. "Actually, Sierra, this is all your fault!"

Sierra's eyes widened in surprise, then closed into slits. "What did you just say?"

"In fact, if it were up to me," Tamryn continued, completely oblivious to Sierra's sharp rise in anger, "Luci wouldn't have ever gotten within ten feet of our House. And she certainly wouldn't have been on my list of potential pledges. So actually, this is your fault, Sierra, 'cause if I had been elected President, instead of you, none of this would have ever happened!"

Sierra's eyes blazing, she lunged for Tamryn, and her hands headed straight for Tamryn's throat. "I'm gonna fuck you up, you miserable bitch!" Sierra shouted.

"Wait!" Miko said, grabbing Sierra's waist. "Not here. Not now."

"Let me go!" Sierra screamed, wriggling in Miko's grasp. "I'm tired of this bitter, evil, angry, hateful bitch!"

Miko turned to Tamryn. "Get out! Now!"

Backing up in surprise, Tamryn suddenly sprinted out the door.

Sierra wrenched herself out of Miko's grip, stumbled over to the desk and slumped into the chair. She put her head in her hands and began to sob.

Angela, Lina and Brandi just sat there, stunned and unable to speak.

"What do we do now? Candace moaned from her seat on the sofa. "What in the hell do we do now?"

~~~

"Oh my God!" Nadia exclaimed in a whisper from right under the heating vent. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah," Mickie said. "Can you believe it?"

"I can," Roxie said. "Tamryn's a bitch. And she's sneaky as hell. She deserves to get in trouble."

Kara felt her temperature rise with a sudden need to defend the woman she'd gotten a heartfelt apology from only days earlier in the student cafeteria. "It's not all Tamryn's fault," she said, letting her attraction to Tamryn rule her heart. "Jade is the one. She's the true mastermind behind all of this."

Mickie shrugged. "Maybe, but Tamryn was out of line."

"What do you think'll happen to her?" Nadia asked.

Roxie shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she'll get expelled from the Sorority."

Kara shook her head. "Tamryn's a legacy. And her mom's a judge! She can't be expelled."

"Yeah, but you heard them," Nadia said. "Sleeping with a potential pledge is against the Sorority rules!"

Roxie nodded. "Personally, I wouldn't mind if Tamryn was kicked out. I just don't like that girl!"

Kara held up her hands. "Wait, y'all. No matter what you think about her, Tamryn's still a Soror. So we all need to be on the same side." She looked at her pledge sisters. "It's about the Sisterhood, remember?"

"You just wanna fuck her," Mickie snickered.

"Yeah," Roxie added. "You think we didn't see it? You two have been making googly-eyes with each other since the very beginning."

"We all saw it," Nadia said quietly.

Kara blushed, but recovered quickly. "How I feel about her doesn't matter. The bottom line is that she's the Sorority Vice-President. And Jade's trying to take her down. We need to do something! We can't let Jade and those Mu Lambdas win!"

Roxie sighed. "Okay. You do have a point. It is about the Sisterhood. And I love all the rest of the girls, so I'd hate for the Sorority to get in trouble because of Tamryn's stupid, senseless mistake."

"Now you've got it," Kara said. She reached for Roxie's hand and squeezed it. "Go ahead and be mad at Tamryn if you want. Lord knows she deserves it. But first, we have to get them out of trouble."

"Why us?" Mickie asked.

"Because," Kara pleaded, "they've taken us under their wing. Out of all the girls they could have picked to join, they picked us. That has to count for something, right?"

Nadia nodded. "They really do care about us. Outside of the pledging bullshit, they've all been really nice to us. They really do seem to want us to succeed."

"Right," Kara said. "Besides, it has to be us to save Rho Sigma Tau. Don't forget that they're Sorors. So they have to be more careful because they have more to lose. Now us? We're just pledges. We'll probably have a lot more leeway to get revenge than they will."

"Revenge?" Mickie frowned. "Revenge against Jade?"

"Not just Jade," Kara said, bolstered with newly-found confidence now that her line sisters were coming around. "We have to get revenge against Mu Lambda as a whole."

Nadia grinned. "You're certainly a sneaky ass," she laughed. "All right, fine. But what do we do?" she asked.

The pledges looked at each other, each hoping that the other had the solution.

Unfortunately, the answer didn't come.

~~~

"Oh God! How are we going to get out of this?"

Sierra lay in her bed, resting on her pillows and tears pooling in her eyes as the gravity of the situation consumed her.

Thoroughly disgusted with Tamryn's actions, she'd dismissed the pledges and went up to her suite, alone. She'd also spent the last hour filling out the forms for Tamryn's permanent dismissal from the Sorority. Once she'd finished, she went to bed, trying to get a bit of peace.

"We could lose everything," Sierra moaned as she pulled her pillow from underneath her head and put it over her face. She let the tears fall freely as she sobbed uncontrollably.

Then her doorbell rang.

Irritated at the interruption, she tossed the pillow aside, grabbed some tissue and padded barefoot to her living room. She checked her reflection in the mirror next to the door, and tried to pull herself together. She dabbed her eyes with the tissue, then took a deep breath.

She opened the door and her breath caught at the lovely sight in front of her.

Standing in the doorway was Lina.

"Can I come in?" Lina asked quietly.

Sierra exhaled. "Sure."

Sierra watched Lina's lithe frame glide into the room. She took a seat on Sierra's couch, and crossed her long, lean legs.

"I see that you're just as upset as I am," Lina said, reflecting of Sierra's outburst.

Sierra eyed Lina's soft, luscious, cinnamon-colored skin. "Yeah. I'm pretty upset."

Lina patted the space next to her on the couch. "Come, Sierra. Sit."

Sierra took a tentative step toward Lina. It'd been so long since they were on friendly terms, that she was suddenly nervous about being so close to Lina.

"Come on," Lina smiled. "I won't bite. Well, only if you want me to," she grinned.

Glad for the absence of tension between them, Sierra relaxed and took a seat next to her best friend.

"I've missed you," Sierra said, resting her head on Lina's shoulder. "So much."

"I've missed you too," Lina whispered, sliding her arm around Sierra's waist and pulling her close.

The two friends shared each other's warmth as they sat together. Wanting to say so much, but not being able to, they just sat quietly next to each other, exchanging soft and gentle touches.

Then Lina nudged Sierra. "Turn around," Lina said.

Sierra smiled, knowing exactly what was coming next. She shifted on the couch as she turned her back to Lina. In the next moment, Sierra groaned when she felt Lina's soft fingers massaging her shoulders.

"Ohhhh," Sierra moaned. "I've missed this too."

"You're tense," Lina remarked as she worked the kinks out of Sierra's taut muscles. "As usual."

They sat silently for several moments, with Sierra enjoying Lina's touch, and Lina enjoying their renewed closeness.

Then Lina cleared her throat. "So...how do you want to handle this?" she asked gently.

"Just keep rubbing," Sierra groaned, arching her back.

"No, silly," Lina chuckled. "How do you want to handle the situation with Tamryn?"

Sierra took a deep breath. "Well, I've already drawn up her dismissal papers, so –"

Lina frowned and stopped rubbing. "Dismissal papers?"

"Yeah. Tamryn has to go."

Lina blanched. "Okay, Sierra. I know you're pissed, but do you really think you can make that decision by yourself?"

Sierra turned her head. "Well, I'm the President of the Chapter. What else am I supposed to do?"

Lina yanked her hands off of Sierra's skin. "You're supposed to talk to the rest of us first. You know you can't make that kind of decision unless we all agree to it."

Sierra couldn't stop her next words from coming out of her mouth. "According to the Sorority Handbook, as President, I do have the right to make executive decisions. Executive decisions that don't need Sorority approval."

Lina jumped up. "So, yet again, the big, bad Sierra doesn't need any help! Wants to do this all by herself, right?"

Sierra stared at her in disbelief. "Tamryn was in the wrong! Her actions could get our whole Sorority expelled from campus. Not to mention, the Alumni Chapter could shut us down over this! Hell, Nationals could shut us down over this! Therefore, Tamryn deserves to be punished!"

"Maybe so, but that isn't your call. Or at least not your call alone! Plus, dismissal's a bit harsh, isn't it? What about just giving her a censure? Why not just sit her down from her Vice-President duties for a couple of months. That should be punishment enough. Remember, she is our Soror, whether you like it or not."

Sierra stood and threw up her hands. "And what do I tell Jana, the Alumni President? That Tamryn fucked a potential, but since we love her so much, we just gave her a slap on the wrist?"

Lina rubbed her temples. "I just think dismissal's a bit much, Sierra. Besides, the real culprit is Jade. That's the bitch who was out of order. That's the bitch who needs to be put in her place."

Sierra put her hands on her hips. "Maybe so. But we'll deal with her later. Right now, Tamryn's our responsibility. We have to preserve the integrity of our Sorority. Especially in front of the new pledges! What are they going to think if we don't discipline Tamryn harshly? I'll tell you: They'll think that they can get away with murder!"

"But you're gonna just kick Tamryn out? Just like that? And without even giving her a chance to make up for it? Or at least giving her a chance to explain or even apologize?"

Sierra shook her head. "I can't believe that you just want her to get off scott-free!"

"That's not what I said, Sierra, and you know it! You're just twisting my words around!"

Unfortunately, Sierra's anger got the best of her. "Anyway, the dismissal papers are already filled out!" she shouted. "I'll go ahead and have a meeting, but remember: I'm the President and what I say goes!"

Lina sucked her teeth and glared at Sierra. Then she marched to the door. "We'll see about that," she tossed as she stormed out and slammed the door.

~~~

"All right, ladies. I'm calling this meeting to order."

Jade stood in front of the small group of Mu Lambda Sorors. Gathered in their Sorority House, they were crowded in their tiny front room.

Jade held up her hand. "For the record, this is Jade Cross, President of the Mu Lambda Sorority, the Epsilon Chapter here at Lincoln University." She put her hand down and looked down at her notes.

Then she began. "Okay, today's meeting will be short. I wanted to remind everyone of this weekend's sorority retreat. Today's Tuesday, so we have a few days left to get the rest of the preparations completed by Friday. I changed a few things, so I put the revised itinerary underneath each of your doors earlier this afternoon."

"Wait. What time are we leaving again?" Mya interrupted.

Jade rolled her eyes. "Didn't you check the itinerary?"

"I don't have it in front of me," Mya said, gritting her teeth at Jade's rudeness. "So tell me again."

Jade sighed. "We're leaving this Friday evening. Because we have a few activities that night, we need to be at the campsite by 9pm. Since it'll take us about thirty minutes to get there, we need to leave here no later than 8:30."

"And we're there through Sunday night, right?" Samantha asked. Samantha Nelson was a tall, lanky senior.

"Right," Jade said.

Then she glared at the group. "However, if you ladies would bother to check your itineraries, you'd see that all of the information you need is all right there! Right on that sheet of paper."

Jade gathered her notes. "Anyway, make sure you read all of the pages, since I've changed some of your assignments and responsibilities. We'll have another meeting tomorrow after you've had a chance to review it."

The Sorors nodded in agreement.

Jade looked around. "Now. Are there any other questions?"

The room was silent.

"Good," Jade said. "Meeting adjourned."

~~~

"All righty now. Please look directly into the lens, give us your name and your relationship to the Sorority."

A bronze-colored woman in her mid-thirties, seated on a rich, soft, mahogany leather sofa, defiantly raised her eyebrows at the request. Then she sat back, crossed her shapely legs and smoothed down her jet-black, severely angled bob. "Excuse me?" she said sharply.

Due to the shocking events from the day before, Angela found that she was not in the mood for the woman's sharp, smart-aleck response. Angela shot a glance at the young, honey-brown beauty standing next to her who was busy adjusting the tall light fixture.

Angela found that though she was glad to have today's interview to serve as a distraction from the Sorority drama, she needed help setting her equipment up. As such, she recruited Yasmine, one of the sophomore Sorors in the house, to help her complete this interview.

"Um..." Angela said to the regal, but icy woman on the couch, "I'm ready to film your interview. Please look directly into the lens, give us your name and your relationship to the Sorority."

The bronze goddess rolled her eyes. "Well, the two of you were taking so long to adjust your equipment, I wasn't sure if you were ready or not." She shifted on the couch and gave Angela a steely stare. "Now, what am I supposed to do again?"

The honey-brown young woman next to Angela piped in with a distinct Cuban accent. "I'm sorry Angela was taking so long, but it's my fault. I'm serving as her assistant today and I'm new to filming. She took longer than usual because she was explaining to me what needed to be done."

The bronze woman nodded, and pursed her full, caramel-glossed lips. "Fine. So now that you've told me your life story, what's your name again?"

"Um...it's Yasmine," the honey-brown beauty said in her thick Cuban accent. "Yasmine Dominguez."

"And who are you again?"

Yasmine blinked, her big, brown eyes sparkling. "I'm a sophomore member of Rho Sigma Tau, the Lincoln University undergrad chapter. The same chapter as Angela," she said proudly. "And I'm pre-med."

"That's a good major," the woman replied. Then she frowned as she peered at the young girl more closely. "I haven't really seen you before, have I?" the woman asked.

Angela piped in. "Yasmine's pre-med, so we keep her studying a lot. She really doesn't go out much. We're trying to keep her grades up and all."

"And I notice that you have an accent," the woman remarked, ignoring Angela completely. "What's your nationality?"

"I'm African-American and Cuban," Yasmine said quietly as she ran her hands through her thick, wavy dark-brown hair. Then she nervously tucked the loose strands behind her ears.