Chapter 31 -- A Weekend at Burnside’s House

The following week was the sixth week of the Four-Beta pledge program and marked the halfway point of the newcomers’ induction.

Upon returning from the camping trip, the pledges noted a subtle, but very significant shift in the way the other women in the sorority were treating them. There was a lot more conversation between the newcomers and the members-in-full-standing about routine and mundane topics. The sorority began to get to know the pledges as individuals instead of members of "the group of newcomers". For example, Lisa had several conversations with Elaine, because she would be joining the sophomore class upon swearing in. There were some discussions over who would head the freshman class; a position that Elaine had assumed would be taken by Lisa. However, Lisa pointed out that she was not a freshman and that she expected Bernadette to become freshman class leader. She also made sure that Elaine understood that she had no intention of challenging her for the leadership of the sophomores. Because Lisa would be joining the sophomore group and defer to Elaine, it was very unlikely she would hold any leadership position during her first year at the sorority.

There were other discussions about the upcoming fall semester that included participation from the pledges. Increasingly the other women were curious to know their opinions and hear their input about various matters. It was obvious that, although they still were officially pledges and had to address everyone as "ma’am", the other women already took it for granted that all four newcomers would be sworn in as full members in August.

In spite of the satisfaction of having more than half the training program behind them, the sixth week of pledge period was not very pleasant for Lisa and her companions. The group spent many grueling hours in the sorority library studying for several midterms leading up to the July 4^th weekend. Tracy was very stressed about her group’s performance, and spared neither her voice nor her leather paddle in pushing the pledges to perform well. The punishments were always the same; an order to bend over the table, ten fast swats, and an order to sit down and get back to work. By the end of the week the pledges were used to the study routine, including Tracy’s quick spankings. Lisa was on the receiving end of Tracy’s paddle a total of three times that week, but the punishments stopped bothering her. Her bottom stung for a few minutes after she was let up, but as soon as she returned to her seat her mind was back on her studies.

Apart from studying, the sorority’s pledges spent their afternoons cleaning camping equipment, as well as moving furniture and ruined carpeting to make way for the repairs in the dining room. The week’s seminar schedule was changed to accommodate what was going on in the house. The pledges received instruction about siding and wall repairs, painting, basic electrical skills such as changing the wiring in an outlet, how to check for water damage, floor removal, and the fundamentals of plumbing. Lisa and her companions were exhausted, because, in spite of the physical labor and heavy lifting required of them in the evenings, they were not excused from having to do morning PT.

Although she had been told that she was excused from having to do chores that week, Pledge Kathleen worked right alongside the others. She might have been granted a privilege as a result of her race in the forest, but she knew in her situation a privilege meant very little. Whether or not she had earned the chance to relax, her group still needed to get their work done. She was part of the group, which meant that she needed to help out. Monday afternoon she reported to Tracy along with the others to clean camping gear. In theory she was volunteering. In reality, she was doing what her fellow pledges, as well as her Pledge Mistress, expected of her.

Pledge Mistress Tracy spent the final week of June very worried about her next drill with her Army Reserve unit, which was scheduled to take place the weekend after July 4^th. Unless she could somehow get out of attending, going to drill would require her to leave the pledges alone at the sorority house for the entire weekend, which would give Heather plenty of time to make their lives miserable. Tracy knew that her rival was aware of her drill schedule and about the upcoming two days she would not be around to monitor what was going on with the pledges. She noticed that Heather seemed upbeat, undoubtedly waiting for the chance to strike once she was absent. The Pledge Mistress was worried not only about what might happen to Lisa, but also what could happen to Cherine. Undoubtedly Cherine’s flirting with VP Jacob was something Heather resented and would use against her.

I don’t trust her, Tracy thought to herself. I just don’t trust her...

In the end the Pledge Mistress decided that she would have to find a way to skip her next drill. There was no way she could risk leaving the pledges unprotected for 36 hours. Those women depended on her and she just could not do it. So, what were her options? Perhaps she could work at her unit some other weekend, but that still did not solve the problem of the pledges being at Heather’s mercy; it just changed the date it would happen. Working at the unit at night was not a viable option either. Tracy had to make up her drill credits, but how?

She concluded that her only option was to move her group to some other place while she was making up her Reserve time. As she pondered that idea, she remembered the day she took the pledges to Dr. Burnside’s house so they could rest up for the scavenger hunt. She wondered if she could somehow leave them with Ruth Burnside while she made up her drill hours.

On Friday afternoon Tracy decided to talk to the professor after the freshmen had finished with their final class for the day. She left the three younger women in the professor’s outer office, but did not give Lisa permission to get dressed. Instead she asked if she could speak to Burnside alone. Without mentioning anything about putting her pledge uniform on, Burnside told Lisa to join her fellow pledges in the outer office and review some material for class the next day. The door to the inner office closed behind her and was locked; leaving Lisa stranded in the outer room without her clothing. Oh well... The four pledges, three in uniform and the fourth completely naked, sat down on a sofa to study and work on homework assignments.

Tracy laid out the situation to Burnside, describing in detail what was going on between herself and Heather. The professor agreed that Tracy did indeed have a serious concern, but also was worried about being accused of meddling in the internal affairs of the sorority. Having the pledges stay in her house for two days just to keep them away from Heather definitely would be interfering in the internal affairs of the sorority.

The two women seemed to be at an impasse. Tracy was just about to give up when Burnside’s phone rang. It was Dr. Jim Halsey. Tracy overheard bits of conversation about some pending funding cuts for the department, some silence, and then the following, "Of course, Jim. We’re still starting at 7:30... no... no... I’m not sure about who’s hosting yet. I’ve got Mark, but... Lisa? Oh, but of course! How dumb of me! I hadn’t thought about her! Yes... yes... I’ll see if I can get her... in fact, her sorority’s Pledge Mistress is with me right now, so I’ll just let her know... OK... Let me call you back, Jim... I’ll call you right back."

Burnside hung up and looked at Tracy, "What about this weekend? Can you make up your Reserve time this weekend?"

"The weekend of July 4^th? I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be a problem, Dr. Burnside. How come you’re asking?"

Burnside sat back in her chair and tapped her fingertips together. "I... think we’ve just figured out a solution that’s going to solve two separate problems. You need a safe place to put your pledges while you’re making up your drill hours. I need hostesses for my summer party. So, how about having your girls help me out?"

"All of them?"

"Why not? I’m expecting about 200 guests, so certainly I can use four hostesses."

"But, that’s only one night, and for me it’s going to be..."

"Oh, no, not just one night... Trust me, I’ve got plenty for them to do. You give them to me one day... two days... three days... I’ll fill up their time."

Three days... that gave Tracy an idea. Because the 4^th fell on a Monday, there would be a three-day weekend to include the holiday. If Tracy could work at her unit all three days, she could make up her Reserve credits not only for July, but also for one day in August. Meanwhile, the pledges would be completely out of Heather’s reach, because there was no way the Sergeant-at-Arms would dare confront Dr. Burnside.

Tracy was hugely relieved. However, before going any further, she called to make absolutely sure her Reserve unit could use her over the July 4^th weekend. The answer from her captain was yes; he could indeed use her, because the company needed to get several vehicles ready for inspection for the following weekend drill. As long as Tracy didn’t mind performing equipment checks, repairs, and washing vehicles, most definitely she could help out over the July 4^th weekend in lieu of attending drill the following week.

Tracy relayed the news to Burnside, who in turn called President Alexandra. The professor mentioned nothing about the Pledge Mistress’s concerns about Heather. Instead, she flatly stated that she needed Lisa and her companions to stay with her over the next three days. Alexandra hesitated, because she was not thrilled about relinquishing control of the pledges. Finally, she asked if Burnside had informed Tracy about what she wanted.

"Of course I informed your Pledge Mistress, and now I’m informing you. I’m taking the pledges first thing tomorrow morning, and they’ll stay with me Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. There’s some training I want to give them, and there’s also some work I need them to do."

Alexandra still hesitated, trying to figure out how she could deny Burnside’s request. The professor got impatient and snapped, "Look, Alexandra. We have a written agreement concerning this. In my filing cabinet I have a copy of a signed contract that gives me training authority that is comparable to that of your Pledge Mistress. This weekend I intend to exercise that authority and take custody of your pledges. I’ll make sure they’re rested, well-fed, and have time to work out and study. I’ll write up a training plan and provide it to you so it can be entered into the official training record. But I do intend to assert the authority granted to me in our agreement, and I expect your full cooperation."

President Alexandra quickly backed down. The last thing she or the sorority needed was a confrontation with Ruth Burnside. So, with that everything was arranged. Tracy would spend the July 4^th weekend at her Reserve Unit washing trucks, while the pledges would spend three days at Burnside’s house. Whatever Heather might have had in mind was not going to happen.

The following morning Tracy woke up at 5:00 and put on her Army BDU’s. She packed several changes of clothing into her rucksack, checked her boots to make sure they were properly shined, and loaded her gear into the trunk of a car she had borrowed from one of her friends in the unit. As always, she made a very imposing sight dressed in her no-nonsense military outfit.

The Pledge Mistress returned to the basement to wake up the pledges. She ordered them to put on their shoes, load their book bags, and follow her outside to the car. Their pledge uniforms would stay behind in their lockers, because the four young women would not be allowed to wear any clothing during their weekend in Burnside’s house.

The pledges loaded their bags into the trunk of the car before standing at attention, waiting to be allowed to get in. Tracy got behind the wheel, while her group occupied the car’s other seats. Thus a carload of women, one in BDU’s and the others wearing nothing but athletic shoes, left the sorority and made its way across campus.

Within 10 minutes the group had arrived at the professor’s house and the pledges were taking their books out of the trunk. They quickly entered the living room and lined up kneeling on the floor. Tracy stood in front of her group, in much the same way a platoon leader would stand while waiting to be addressed by a company commander. Burnside already was dressed and ready to receive the pledges.

"Pledge Mistress Tracy, I understand, that under the conditions of our agreement, that you are releasing custody of your pledges until you return to my house on the morning of July 5^th?"

"Yes, Dr. Burnside, I am releasing custody of four pledges who, while under your direction, will enjoy the same rights and have the same obligations under the Four-Beta Pledge Training Manual that they would have under an elected officer of the Four-Beta Sorority."

"Very well, Pledge Mistress. I am familiar with the conditions set out for pledge training in the Pledge Manual, and assure you that the training experience they have under my direction will be comparable to the experience they would have under your direction."

With that the two women shook hands and Tracy left. As the professor took her position in front of the group, Lisa could tell that the freshmen were very nervous.

From the start Burnside emphasized that she would punish any performance she felt was unsatisfactory. To emphasize that point she pulled off a sheet that was covering a sinister-looking piece of furniture, her infamous "punishment horse". The "horse" looked like a tall, leather-covered bench with very sturdy legs, restraining straps, and rings to attach cuffs.

"I expect unquestioning obedience from you, even if what I tell you seems unreasonable. With the help of Pledge Lisa, I am going to give you an example of what unquestioning obedience means for your behavior this weekend."

Burnside walked over to the bench and picked up her favorite punishment implement, her Danubian police switch. Lisa’s heart pounded, because she had felt that switch back in February. It was made out of very tightly-woven fine leather; a very cruel implement designed to inflict maximum pain on the human body. Burnside tapped the bench with the switch.

"Pledge Lisa, I want you to position yourself for punishment."

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

Lisa drew a deep breath as she stepped up to the bench and draped herself over the padded surface. She continued to hope that Burnside would not actually strike her, even as the professor positioned herself and tapped her bottom with the switch.

"Pledge Lisa will demonstrate what I expect in terms of total obedience and self-control."

With that Burnside struck Lisa across the base of her bottom, expertly laying a thin red line across both sides. Lisa flinched and tightened her grip on the legs of the punishment horse, but struggled to stay quiet. She was horrified about what was happening, not so much because of the pain or the humiliation, but because she dreaded the prospect of going to class on Tuesday wearing a thong that would expose her welts. However, she was determined to compliantly take whatever punishment was coming to her, because she realized that she needed to let Burnside prove her point and establish her authority over the other pledges.

Burnside struck again, as the three freshmen looked on in horror. Lisa’s legs began trembling, but she was determined to stay in position and stoically accept what was happening to her. Whether her professor chose to hit her five times or fifty times, Lisa’s duty was to lead through example. She took it for granted that she needed suffer so her group-mates understood that the professor had to be treated with absolute deference.

Burnside only struck Lisa a total of five times, pleased that her student aide had accepted an unjustified switching with no complaint or challenge. Although Lisa did not realize it at the time, Burnside rewarded her by not hitting her at full strength and making sure that the resulting welts were not serious enough to still be visible after three days. Lisa was in a lot of pain at the moment and would carry the marks through the weekend, but by Tuesday they would be gone.

Burnside released Lisa and told her to rejoin the other pledges. As Lisa got back on her knees the professor commented, "What you have just witnessed is an example of unquestioning obedience. I punished Pledge Lisa because I wanted to, not because of anything she did wrong. Pledge Lisa understands that she is committed, as an act of obedience to me, to subject herself to whatever command I give her, however cruel or unjust it may be. As pledges, it is not your place to question the fairness of what I choose to do to you. Everyone understand me?"

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

In spite of Burnside’s very rough introduction, the pledges discovered that what she had in mind for them was not very different than a normal day they would have spent with Tracy. The professor laid out a schedule for the next two days that would concentrate on studying, housework, sleep, and exercise. The pledges would split into pairs, work in shifts, and take turns on Burnside’s exercise equipment and sleeping in the guest bedroom. Throughout their time in her house the professor would question them about their coursework. She also would monitor the pledges’ exercising and insist that while working out they put maximum effort into their workouts.

"I will be here to assess your efforts and your progress. I expect top performance out of you. Fail to give that to me, and... well, I think you know what’ll happen."

The professor sent Lisa and Cherine to clean up her yard, while she sat with Bernadette and Kathleen to go over their coursework. Once she was sure the two freshmen were well-versed in their homework and were studying together, she excused herself to take her dog for a walk. She was back within an hour, but without the dog. It turned out that she had taken the animal over to Jim Halsey’s place and left him in the care of her lover. Because the dog was old and needed tranquility, she wanted to get him to a quiet place in anticipation of the huge party she was planning for Monday.

Upon returning, the professor ordered the pledges to change what they were doing. Lisa and Cherine began studying while Bernadette and Kathleen were sent into the yard. Later in the morning Burnside called the pledges into her bedroom one by one so they could run four miles on her treadmill. The professor monitored the pledges as they exercised, watching to determine each woman's endurance and tolerance. She set the machine at the maximum she felt each pledge could withstand, and menacingly tapped her subject’s sweaty bottom with her leather switch if she felt the student was not putting her full effort into the run. Apart from the runs, there were impromptu push-up and sit-up sessions throughout the day that left the young women’s arms and stomachs gelatinous from muscle fatigue.

No stay at Burnside’s house would be complete without a sexual activity. Saturday night was no exception. While Bernadette and Kathleen were released to go to bed, Burnside told Lisa and Cherine to get cleaned up and report to the living room for a practical exercise.

Lisa had expected Burnside planned to give them instruction in erotic punishment, but what she had in mind was very different. She had set up a massage table, complete with oil and lotion. The shocking detail was not the piece of furniture, but who was about to lie on it. Dr. Jim Halsey was standing next to the table, wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Cherine immediately covered herself, only to be sharply reprimanded by Burnside,

"Pledge, you will drop your hands, immediately! I’m giving you just one warning! Don’t you ever try hiding your body in my house again!"

Burnside picked up her switch and Cherine’s hands immediately fell to her sides. As both young women stared at Halsey with frightened expressions, Burnside calmed down and commented, "My understanding is that you have had erotic massage training. Am I correct with that statement?"

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

"Good. My intention is to assess how well you can apply what you have learned by massaging Dr. Halsey. I expect you to put aside your preconceptions about massaging someone considerably older than you. Dr. Halsey is a human being with physical needs just like anyone else. His age and his position in the Economics Department should have no influence on how well you perform this pledge challenge."

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

"Pledge Lisa, please remove Dr. Halsey’s robe."

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

Lisa’s hands trembled as she undid the sash of the robe that hid the body of her senior professor. The experience was very unnerving, because she so used to always seeing him in a business suit. She handed the robe to Cherine before guiding him to the table.

As Burnside stood writing observations into a Four-Beta notepad, Lisa and Cherine began massaging Halsey’s feet. Cherine followed Lisa’s lead as they worked their way up his thighs, each pledge responsible for one side. Lisa was very careful not to move too quickly, because if she "failed to pay attention to detail" there was no question Burnside would gladly add to the five switch marks already decorating her backside.

Lisa was especially careful to concentrate on thoroughly massaging the professor’s bottom. She made sure Halsey’s buttocks were completely relaxed, but then, partly out of simple curiosity, she began teasing the area in between. She ran her fingertips over his bottom-hole and explored the sensitive area between the older man’s thighs. Lisa nodded to Cherine to work his shoulders while she continued to stimulate his bottom. As soon as she noticed he was starting to get hard, Lisa gently told the professor to lie on his back. She ran her fingers through his graying pubic hair and then moved to exploring his testicles and penis, which displayed surprising vigor for a man his age.

Lisa nodded to Cherine and pointed at her subject’s stomach and pelvis. Cherine was to massage him there while Lisa continued to fondle his penis and explore his scrotum. Finally, his penis began to pulsate, indicating he was close to an orgasm. Lisa pointed at a small towel, which Cherine picked up and spread on the man’s stomach to catch the semen. Less than a minute later he climaxed, groaning with pleasure as he emptied himself on the towel.

By the time her subject ejaculated, Lisa was totally into what she was doing. She decided that she wanted to continue with the massage, hoping that, now he was sexually satisfied, he could be massaged until he fell asleep. Lisa instructed him to lie on his stomach; then she and Cherine began the final part of the session on his feet. As before, they worked their way up to his back and shoulders. Within 15 minutes they had finished and Jim Halsey was asleep on the table.

As the two pledges knelt, Burnside wrote the following in her notes:

July 2, 20:30 hrs - Pledge Lisa and Pledge Cherine demonstrated comprehensive knowledge of Swedish and erotic massage techniques, as well as the ability and willingness to apply their skills in a stressful real-life situation. -Burnside-

The following morning, while Lisa and Cherine were studying, Burnside brought over Mark Gertz to repeat the massage test for Bernadette and Kathleen. It was a rare opportunity for Mark to have something pleasurable done to him while at Burnside’s house. Like Lisa before her, Bernadette needed to masturbate their subject once the main part of the massage was finished. To her surprise, Kathleen was eager to help and Mark had the good fortune to have two women giving him an erotic massage. The two women were surprised by the volume of semen that came out of Mark, not knowing that normally he was allowed to ejaculate only if given permission by his mistress.

Prior to lunch, Burnside had the pledges study and exercise. They worked out one at a time, taking turns on her exercise equipment and treadmill. As the professor again menacingly tapped a riding crop in her hand, one by one the pledges wore themselves out as Burnside pushed them to what she referred to as "total muscle fatigue". For the professor Pledge Kathleen provided the toughest challenge, because she was already so physically fit. She ended up running 8 miles on the treadmill and was able to do a surprising number of pushups and sit-ups.

By the end of Sunday, the pledges were completely caught up with their assignments, studying, and exercise schedule, which meant that on Monday they could concentrate on seminars and getting ready for Burnside’s annual July 4^th S&M party.

July 4^th started with the pledges moving all the furniture and setting up the living room and backyard to accommodate a large party. While the pledges were working, Burnside spent the morning in the kitchen preparing food and laying out cocktail supplies.

Following a late lunch there was a refresher course on erotic punishment, complete with the two young men who had been used as demonstration subjects for the first practical exercise. As the two subjects knelt and the pledges organized the discipline implements they planned to use, Burnside’s doorbell rang. Mark opened it and let in Tri-Alpha Pledge Master Arnold and his five pledges. Like the Four-Beta pledges, the Tri-Alpha newcomers had ridden over from the fraternity wearing nothing but their shoes. Upon entering the entryway and lining up their shoes on the floor, the male pledges knelt opposite the Four-Betas.

It turned out the session was to be much more than just a refresher for the Four-Betas. The sorority women were responsible for selecting a spokesperson who would repeat Burnside’s lecture to the Tri-Alphas, while the other three Four-Betas would take turns conducting the live demonstration with the two subjects. Lisa was the obvious choice to be the spokeswoman, although she would have preferred to be wielding implements and leave the talking to someone else.

Lisa directed her fellow pledges to have one subject stand with his hands cuffed to chains hanging from the ceiling, while the other subject was bent over Burnside’s "punishment horse". The standing subject would be used to demonstrate Burnside’s collection of whips, floggers, crops, and martinets; while the subject on the punishment bench would be used to demonstrate canes, switches, straps, and paddles.

As the pledges and their subjects made their final preparations, Lisa frantically scrambled down the outline of a presentation. Burnside helped her by handing her a list of topics she needed to cover, including safety. Lisa asked the professor for a magic marker, because she planned to go as far as repeating Burnside’s marking "safe" and "unsafe" areas of the body on the subject who was standing.

Within a few minutes everything was ready and it was time for Lisa to give her presentation. She began with Burnside’s principles for the purpose of erotic punishment and methods for establishing dominance, followed by a description of the various implements in the professor’s collection. Finally, like the professor before her, she concluded with a discussion about safety and marked off the parts of the subject’s body considered not suitable for punishment.

As she spoke, Lisa’s self-confidence increased tremendously. Burnside watched her with deep satisfaction, observing that her student aide had a talent for instructional speaking and quickly organizing information into a coherent lecture. The three freshmen, including Bernadette, compliantly followed Lisa’s directions as they took turns striking the subjects with various implements. Lisa made sure that all three of her fellow pledges took turns on both demonstration subjects, and that all implements were used at least once.

The naked kneeling Tri-Alpha pledges stared at Lisa in amazement, somewhat disoriented by the contrast between her calm manner of talking and the floggings taking place behind her. Bernadette, Kathleen, and Cherine took turns holding up implements while Lisa talked about them, and then delivered a blow with savage CRACK that made the spectators flinch. The young women were handling the punishments with grace, expertise, and confidence that came from knowing what they were doing.

Lisa was pleased to notice that all of the men in the room had erections. The two test subjects were very aroused, as were all five members of the Tri-Alpha audience. The sight of four attractive naked women gracefully administering punishments truly was an erotic sight to behold.

The presence of nine pledges, her favorite sub, and his two friends gave Ruth Burnside a total of 12 people to assist her with her party. She never had come anywhere close to that number before; normally she had between two and four students to assist her. The large number of student hosts would lighten the load for everyone and allow the students to take turns serving drinks, working in the kitchen, and relaxing with the guests. At most Burnside could use only six students at any given moment, which meant the other six students would be free to enjoy the party. She decided the group would alternate working one-hour shifts and give everyone plenty of time to enjoy the festivities.

Because the students would have so much free time, Burnside purposely did not allow them to relieve their sexual urges before the party started. She calculated that if they were tensed up sexually, they would be more willing to experiment with their erotic fantasies and perhaps find out more about themselves and what they wanted for their lives.

There were several significant differences between the July 4^th party and the other annual parties given for Halloween and Marti Gras. Because the weather was warm, the guests could go into the back yard and everyone had more room. Also, partygoers tended to wear much less clothing during the summer festivities. Less clothing, warm weather, and more room...well, that made for a totally different atmosphere. The most significant difference was that sexual encounters were permitted during the July party, while the other two events were more costume parties than anything else. Burnside had several tents set up in the back yard for anyone who wanted to indulge in a sex break. The play area in the living room was much larger, because having the yard available reduced the crowding inside the house.

During the summer parties there was an enema station set up in the yard, complete with a platform, timing clocks, and two hospital-style toilet chairs. Throughout the night guests competed to see who could hold their enema the longest, with the prize being the winner could spank or be spanked by anyone at the party he or she wanted. Guests who volunteered to get an enema had to completely strip before climbing up on the platform so they could be seen and photographed. They had to turn their bottoms towards the spectators to receive a liter and a half of water, which was administered by Mark. Following the enema, the guest had to climb down and stand next to one of the seats in full sight of the spectators, above which there was a timer. Once the contestant couldn’t hold the enema any longer and evacuated, there was a temporary shower next to the enema station to clean off. The winner would be announced at midnight and allowed to claim their prize.

Burnside’s practical exercise requiring the Four-Beta pledges to give erotic massages had a specific purpose. There was massage table set up in the back yard opposite the enema station. While the Tri-Alpha pledges worked in the kitchen and serving drinks to the living room guests, the Four-Beta pledges would take turns at the massage table, giving erotic massages in two-woman teams. Every hour they would switch off, and the two women not working could relax and watch (or participate in) other activities at the party.

All of the hosts were required to wear the same uniform, which was another tradition of Burnside’s parties. The hosts put on leather collars, wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs, and black lipstick. Apart from that they were completely naked. Whenever giving massages, the Four-Betas could take off their wrist cuffs, but still had to wear their collars and ankle cuffs.

Burnside explained there was another rule that hosts had to follow and that guests understood. Guests were permitted to touch, pat, and fondle the hosts, but only their backsides, and only with hands or fingers. Touching the hosts in the front was not permitted, and if any host was groped from the front, he or she was to report the incident to Burnside immediately. Their bottoms, however, were fair game, and as long as a guest was doing nothing more than touching a host’s bottom, the host was not say anything or try to turn away.

"My guests know the ground rules and how to stay within the limits I have established. I’ve done this for more than a decade and the people coming here know what to expect. I’ve long since gotten rid of anyone who can’t respect my guidelines."

As the 12 hosts put on their cuffs and lipstick, Burnside changed into a very revealing leather outfit. From the front it looked like a leather swimsuit, but in the back it covered absolutely nothing. A very thin leather string ran up between Burnside’s bottom-cheeks, and was attached to a thin string that encircled her waist. Another thin string held her bra in place. That was it as far as any coverage in the back. Anyone standing any distance at all from the professor would have thought she wasn’t wearing anything, because the leather strings were so thin they were invisible to someone not standing right next to her.

As Lisa contemplated Burnside’s bottom, she felt a sudden urge to give the professor a couple of really good smacks. Then... suddenly... she realized something. If she participated in the enema challenge and won she could spank the professor. Why not? Undoubtedly winning that challenge was a long shot... but why not at least try? Then she could give her boss some payback for that spanking she got in her office a few weeks before and her unwarranted switching Saturday morning. With the enema challenge on her mind, Lisa went to the bathroom and resolved not to eat anything or drink any water. She would keep her body as empty as possible and try to win the right to spank her professor.

Chapter 32 -- A Spanking for Ruth Burnside

While Lisa was in the bathroom, Dr. Halsey arrived. When she came out and saw him, she was totally shocked. He was wearing a black leather vest with matching leather boots, leather wrist-cuffs, and a leather jockstrap. It took all of Lisa’s inner strength not to laugh, because to be honest, Halsey’s 57-year-old body did not make a pretty sight in that get-up.

Other guests started coming in shortly after Halsey’s arrival, wearing a wide variety of outfits. July 4^th themes were popular, including a several partially dressed Uncle Sam’s. There were several erotic Hawaii-style outfits including guys in loincloths and topless hula dancers. There were variations of summer wood nymphs, satyrs, chained slaves, and Roman togas, was well as more ordinary leather and latex fetish outfits. There was a guy in his 30’s who had a really good build who came as an ancient Greek soldier, carrying a fake sword and wearing nothing but a metal helmet and Greek sandals. However, the outfit that was the funniest to Lisa was that of a very fat woman who was wearing nothing but body paint dividing her skin into cuts of meat. Painted across her shoulders was the caption: "Where’s the beef?"

Burnside ordered Lisa to team up with Cherine and Bernadette to team up with Kathleen, mainly to keep Lisa and Kathleen apart so they could concentrate on the party instead of on each other. For the same reason she ordered Ken to work in the kitchen while Lisa was not working the massage station, once again to make sure he and Lisa were not free at the same time.

Using Mark as target practice, Burnside began a live demonstration of her collection of discipline implements at 8:00. Unfortunately, Lisa had to miss seeing Burnside in action, because she and Cherine started their duty on the massage table at the same time. However, Ken, Bernadette, and Kathleen stood together to watch the fearsome professor and her suffering sub.

That night Ken and Kathleen got into a conversation for the very first time. They compared notes on what life was like under Pledge Mistress Tracy versus Pledge Master Arnold, and what differences and similarities there were in their respective pledge programs. They also talked tentatively about Lisa, who Kathleen casually described as "my girlfriend". Ken took a deep breath upon hearing Kathleen talk about Lisa, because he knew that her situation was a lot more complicated than Kathleen was willing to admit. At that moment Kathleen blissfully assumed that what Lisa wanted was a monogamous relationship with her. Apparently she knew nothing about her ongoing dalliances with Ken, nor anything about their efforts to come to terms with each other.

Bernadette, meanwhile, was on the lookout for the opportunity to find a guy to have sex with her. If she could find more than one guy, so much the better. The first target of her attentions was the naked Greek soldier. She flirted with him and began touching his hand. Sure enough, he responded. Very quickly her hand moved to his chest as she cooed, "I guess I’m just a poor little slave girl to a handsome soldier like you. Just a poor little slave girl..."

A few minutes later Bernadette and the Greek soldier were inside one of the tents, in an impromptu sexual encounter between two people who had not even exchanged their names. Upon finishing Bernadette and her lover took off their costume items and jumped into the outdoor shower to soap the sex off each other. Upon finishing she noticed it was almost 9:00, time for her to take over the massage table. She invited her momentary lover to get a massage once she and Kathleen were set up.

Once she was relieved from the massage table, Lisa took a deep breath as she contemplated the enema challenge. Already there was a middle-aged guy on his hands and knees taking an enema from Mark.

Lisa was not surprised to see Mark’s bottom badly marked up from his most recent punishment. However, her interest was not in the condition of Mark but instead of her own ambition to turn the tables on her professor. With Cherine trailing behind, she nervously approached Burnside’s sub and told him she wanted to compete in the enema challenge. He instructed her to get on her elbows and knees, stick her butt out for the benefit of the spectators, and wait for him to finish with her competitor.

A minute later Lisa felt the lubricant being dabbed onto her sphincter, followed by the hard plastic nozzle of the enema working its way inside her intestines. Mark released the clip to open the tube and Lisa slowly felt the pressure build inside her guts. At first the pressure was not too bad, but Lisa knew that once she stood up and the water inside her shifted, she would badly want to relieve herself. There was some clapping from the spectators as the enema bottle finished emptying into her, along with the flashes of several cameras. She felt the nozzle slip out of her anus and Mark dabbing off some of the extra lubricant with a tissue. So far, so good: she had managed to take the full amount from the bag, a requirement to qualify as an official participant in the contest.

Her stomach now swollen with water, Lisa carefully stood up and took her place next to the unoccupied medical seat. When she finally sat down to relieve herself, her audience would see everything, because the hospital seat was little more than an open toilet seat with legs and a large bedpan set on the grass underneath to catch whatever came out of the contestant’s body. Lisa winced as her intestines shifted and showed the first signs of cramping. She took a deep breath and glanced at her competitor.

There was nothing more to do than wait and hope that her intestines could hold out longer than anyone else’s intestines. Waiting... that was the hard part, and, as the minutes dragged by it seemed to get harder and harder as the seconds passed more and more slowly. Lisa had done what she could to get ready to hold her water, but the cramping and increasing pressure made her wince and perspire as she hoped that the guy standing next to her would give out first.

Finally, after 15 very long minutes, Lisa’s competitor suddenly sat down on his toilet seat and grunted. As the splashes from his bedpan filled Lisa’s ears, Mark turned off the guy’s clock. Lisa looked up. The clock read 17 minutes and 23 seconds. Her clock only read 15:14. At least two more minutes to go. Shit! Literally, shit!

Lisa’s intestines began cramping in earnest and sweat rolled down her cheeks as the seconds slowly ticked by. Meanwhile, one of Mark’s friends replaced the bedpan and cleaned the seat for the next contestant. Lisa’s next rival was a middle-aged woman dressed in a Hawaiian hula skirt. The woman glanced at Lisa and at the first contestant’s time as she took off the skirt and got on her knees. She seemed very nervous, and at that moment Lisa could tell that her newest rival would not last very long.

The seconds ticked by: 17:20... 17:21... 17:22... 17:23...

Yes! At least she had defeated the first contestant! She took a deep breath and continued to struggle against the mounting pressure as the seconds continued to slowly pass:

17:30... 17:31... 17:32...

Lisa gritted her teeth as her new rival positioned herself to receive her enema. By now sweat was trickling down her body, but she was determined to stay as long as her new female rival stayed. She realized that if she could outlast her new rival, probably no one could beat her and she would be the night’s winner.

18:23... 18:24... 18:25... Lisa gasped, but she now was a minute over the first contestant’s time record. The newest contestant was not holding up well at all. Lisa calculated she might last another 30 seconds, if she was lucky. Sure enough, less than two minutes into her time Lisa’s second rival gave up and dropped onto her toilet seat. The clock stopped a second time and a second bucket of human discharge was taken out. At nearly 25 minutes, Lisa was still standing. It had become obvious that she was the one to beat for anyone who still hoped to win the enema challenge.

29:55... 29:56... 29:57... 29:58... 29:59... 30:00...

Half an hour. She had made it a full 30 minutes, but now she had to pee as badly as she needed to dump. Finally Lisa couldn’t stand the self-torture anymore. She had made it 30 minutes, but couldn’t go any longer. She barely made it to her toilet seat when her intestines exploded and the soiled water poured into the waiting bedpan. She grunted and expelled a second time, hugely relieved that the pain in her guts finally was subsiding now that the horrible pressure was taken away. She nearly fainted as her spectators loudly applauded and her third rival looked at her final time in dismay.

Lisa was very unsteady as Mark helped her to her feet, "Let’s hear a round of applause for Lisa!"

There was a lot of loud clapping and cheering. She swooned and nearly fainted again, but Mark caught her and guided her to sit in the grass. Lisa finally was coherent enough to look up at her time. Mark had hit her clock’s stop button at 31:03, for a final competition time of thirty-one minutes and three seconds. He commented, "Anyone who can beat that record has guts of steel!"

Still somewhat wobbly on her feet, Lisa had Cherine help her get up so she could shower and clean herself off. She and Cherine would have to be back at the massage table within a few minutes, to relieve Kathleen and Bernadette. Still, Lisa had something to look forward to. If no one managed to hold their enema for more than 31 minutes, at midnight Dr. Ruth Burnside would go over her lap for a nice long public spanking.

While Lisa and Cherine were at the enema contest station, Bernadette and Kathleen gave erotic massages to a total of three guests, all of them men. They had their routine well-established for a 20 minute massage. The first 15 minutes were spent relaxing their subject's muscles, and the final five minutes on giving him an orgasm. There was a stack of clean washcloths to catch semen, and a basket in which used sheets and washcloths were deposited. Bernadette was in charge of the first guy’s orgasm, but to her surprise it was Kathleen who volunteered to bring the second subject to orgasm.

The third guy out of the batch was Bernadette’s Greek soldier, a guy with whom she had enjoyed sex but still had not exchanged names. Given that their shift would end as soon as he was aroused, Bernadette decided that no, he would not get an orgasm from her on the table. An orgasm from him was something for her to enjoy after her shift ended; another round of sex in one of the love-making tents.

Bernadette paid extra attention to her partner, making sure he was full of sexual desire by the time she finished with him. When the moment came for her to "finish the job", instead she whispered in his ear, "I think it’s time for this little slave-girl’s soldier to show her what a warrior he really is."

A second later he was off the table and had disappeared with his masseuse into one of the tents, leaving her bewildered fellow pledge standing alone at the table. A moment later Lisa and Cherine showed up, leaving Kathleen to look for something to do. She worked her way through the crowded back yard to the living room, where she could hear the CRACK!... CRACK!... CRACK!... of an ongoing whipping on the punishment stage. She saw a middle-aged man tied over Burnside’s punishment bench, with the professor and her lover both hard at work flogging him with martinets. Both Burnside and Halsey had taken off their tops and sweat was running down their bodies.

The man on the bench clearly was in a lot of pain, but the flogging continued until his skin developed blisters that risked breaking. Once the punishment was finished, two of Burnside’s friends, one of whom was a professor Kathleen recognized, unbuckled the sub’s restraints, pulled him off the bench, and deposited him on the floor. Kathleen noticed three other party guests waiting to be punished. They were lined up on their knees in front of the platform; all of them were completely stripped.

Burnside’s next punishment subject was the fat woman with the "Where’s the beef?" slogan written across her back. Burnside took a quick look at her and realized that she couldn’t go over the bench, because her weight would make it hard for her to breathe. No problem, because the resourceful professor always had a solution ready for any difficulty. She ordered her newest discipline subject to position her hips against the punishment bench, but extend her arms up to the ceiling. One of Burnside’s friends quickly cuffed the woman’s wrists to chains hanging from the ceiling, while Halsey ordered her to spread her feet so he could cuff her ankles to the legs of the bench. Thus the woman was immobilized and bent over, but no pressure was being placed on her stomach or chest.

The fat woman had the largest breasts Kathleen had ever seen in real life. Her over-sized breasts fascinated both of her disciplinarians as well. Before the punishment began, they fondled the sub’s breasts, slapping and massaging them and cruelly pinching her large nipples. Finally having satisfied themselves with the humiliating preliminary to the punishment, the two professors began flogging their newest volunteer. Burnside decided the punishment would be quite severe and would cover the woman’s entire body in the back with welts. She had a very large area to work on, and began by hitting the woman’s huge buttocks with a wide strap. Before long she was crying, but the punishment continued with blows to the thighs and shoulders with a pair martinets wielded by both professors. Of course the professors were up to the challenge; within a short time all of the victim’s massive body was covered in welts and her skin had gone from pale to vivid pink and red.

Kathleen was deeply moved by what she was watching. What was happening to that woman was by no means something she wanted done to herself, but she found the entire spectacle fascinating and in its own way deeply erotic. At that moment she noticed that Ken was standing nearby, watching the punishment with his penis fully erect. Seeing Lisa’s ex-boyfriend in such a condition put Kathleen into an even stranger mood; she felt an urge to touch his penis, knowing that it was the same penis that had gone into her lover before they had met. Kathleen imagined Lisa, and then imagined herself as Lisa. She knew that Lisa had beaten Ken, just like Burnside and Halsey were beating that fat woman... and then had sex with him. She wanted to know what her lover’s life with him was like. What was it like for Lisa, to make love to that gay guy? She wanted to find out.

Kathleen did something that she never could have imagined doing even a few seconds before. She slid next to Ken and grabbed his penis. He was totally shocked, but so full of sexual energy that he had no desire to make her stop or take her hand away. Kathleen and Ken, both of them Lisa’s lovers, both of them cut off from her at that moment, and both full of desperate unfulfilled sexual desire, had lost touch with their normal thought processes and inhibitions. The moment Kathleen’s hand touched Ken’s penis, their sexual drive took control of both their souls. How little they were thinking straight was obvious by where they went; not to one of the love-making tents, but to Burnside’s guest bedroom, which had been declared off-limits. They pushed the door shut and Kathleen immediately went on her hands and knees. Ken kissed her bottom, not realizing that having her backside touched drove Kathleen’s sexual drive more than anything else he could have done to her. She flexed her backside, silently begging him to kiss and touch her bottom-hole. Ken, used to doing the same thing to Lisa, complied, first by kissing Kathleen and then by inserting his tongue. Kathleen gasped with pleasure and became wet with desire.

A few seconds later Ken put his hands on her hips and guided himself into her. He thrust... and thrust... and thrust... Oh this was good! He had not had the opportunity to enjoy an orgasm for over a week, while Kathleen had not been entered by a guy for over two months. She squealed with delight, her mind not on Lisa, or even on Ken for that matter, but on the simple physical enjoyment of the moment.

What Ken and Kathleen, as well as Bernadette and Lisa, did not realize that what was happening to them was something Burnside had wanted. She purposely left them sexually aroused going into the party with the hope that they would walk away from inhibitions and experience something they would never have dreamt of trying otherwise. With all of her subjects the professor had succeeded. Bernadette’s lack of inhibitions led her to make love to a total stranger, Lisa was the likely winner of the enema challenge, and, driven by lust and desperation, Ken and Kathleen had shared an experience that they never could have shared under normal circumstances. The other Tri-Alpha pledges had comparable experiences as well, making love to various guests during their time off.

Ken and Kathleen separated and caught their breath. Then it hit them what had happened and what they had just done. They stared at each other, not having a clue what they could possibly say.

There was one thing Kathleen realized, however. As much as she hated men, she couldn’t blame Ken for the encounter. It was she who had initiated it. He had done nothing wrong to her; all he did was simply go along with what she wanted. There was another important detail. She had enjoyed having sex with him. For the first time in her life a sexual encounter with a male left her physically satisfied.

Lisa’s two lovers continued to stare at each other until Ken finally suggested, "I... I think you ought to go out... first, you know... and get cleaned up... and I’ll... come out in a minute... you know... once you’re done."

"Yeah... I guess you’re right... and..."

"And we won’t..."

"Say anything... no... definitely not."

Kathleen got up to leave, but she gave Ken a quick smile before leaving the room. He sat waiting to give Lisa’s lover a head start on the shower, but wondered what that smile from her could possibly mean.

As midnight approached, Lisa watched Mark administer several enemas, although most of the people getting them were doing so for fun, not because they hoped to hold their water for a half an hour. There was only one guy who seriously attempted to challenge Lisa’s record. She watched with concern as his clock approached and passed the 30 minutes mark, but he fell short by 40 seconds when he collapsed on the hospital seat and expelled. His final time was 30:21, which left Lisa with the longest record and the ultimate winner of the challenge. At the end of the night she would leave Burnside’s house with the dubious honor of being nicknamed "Pledge Iron Guts".

At midnight there were two events for the entire party. The first was the annual birthday spanking for Jim Halsey, which was to be administered by Burnside. Both professors approached the platform still sweaty from spending the night flogging guests, and neither had bothered to put their tops back on. Burnside’s large breasts, unencumbered by her top, wobbled seductively as she settled on a chair to await her lover.

Lisa now realized why he had worn a leather jockstrap, because he needed to have his bottom uncovered for his annual spanking. However, this year’s spanking would be a bit more severe than normal, because Burnside needed to get even for the double birthday spanking he gave her during the Marti Gras party back in March. She ordered him to stand in front of her and pulled his jockstrap down to his ankles. He had expected her to spank him harder, but instead she would get even by spanking him in the nude.

Burnside went slowly as the crowd counted each loud swat:

"THIRTY SEVEN!"

SLAP!

"THIRTY EIGHT!"

SLAP!

"THIRTY NINE..."

Once Halsey received his 57^th swat and was let up, it was time to announce the winner of the party’s enema challenge. Mark climbed onto the platform and announced that Lisa Campbell had managed to hold her enema longer than anyone else, a full 31 minutes. As the crowd cheered and the cameras flashed, the exhibitionistic Lisa smiled, slapped her stomach, and flashed a thumbs-up to her audience.

Once the cheering died down, Mark asked her, "Whose lucky bottom’s gonna get you’re full attention tonight?"

Lisa smiled and dramatically gestured towards her mentor, "Our wonderful hostess and professor, Dr. Ruth Burnside! I think... after spending the night making everyone else’s butt red, maybe she should get some, too! What do you guys think, huh? I nice red butt for Dr. Burnside?"

A cheer went up from the crowd, but Lisa noticed a hint of doubt in the professor’s face. Certainly being spanked by her student would be embarrassing for her, but that was just too bad. Given the rules of the contest, Lisa was fully within her rights as the winner to demand the right to spank the professor. Of course, Burnside had not counted on her student winning. Who would have guessed the girl had stronger guts than anyone else? Who would have guessed that she had enough nerve to claim spanking her as the prize? Oh, well... if you can’t pay, then don’t play...

Unfortunately for Burnside, she had set plenty of precedents for what Lisa was about to do next. The young woman sat down as the professor approached and waited the order to go over her lap. However, Lisa reached up, took hold of the thin leather waistband of Burnside’s thong, and pulled the skimpy article of clothing to her ankles. Ruth Burnside, like everyone else at her party that night, would take her spanking in the nude. The cheering got louder as the professor quietly stepped out of her thong and Lisa tossed it to Dr. Halsey. It would be up to him to determine when she would get it back. That wasn’t likely to be any time soon, given that he had not been given permission to get dressed either.

Burnside stoically went over Lisa’s lap, her bare stomach making contact with the girl’s equally bare legs. She shifted forward to make sure her bottom was properly turned up and her breasts were hanging freely. She put her hands on the floor and held her position quietly, indicating that she would be perfectly cooperative until the spanking was finished.

Having so thoroughly turned the tables on Burnside, Lisa couldn’t resist rubbing her mentor’s bottom. The professor’s legs were spread widely enough that the student, if she wanted, could have slipped her fingers into her vagina and tormented her sexually. Lisa resisted that temptation, but her fingertips did venture into the sensitive area around the professor’s sphincter. She was astounded at being able to so intimately touch her fearsome mentor, and that the professor was so submissive. She was having fun with this dare, but knew that she needed to be careful about taking it too far. After-all, paybacks are hell. Once the spanking ended, her role and Burnside’s role would return to normal and tonight’s incident would not have any lasting impact on their relationship as boss and employee. Undoubtedly Lisa was destined to be on the receiving end of any future spanking.

In spite of her resolve not to go too far humiliating the professor, Lisa did fully intend to give her a respectable spanking. The session would be long, it would be hard, and it would leave some decent color on the professor’s body that hopefully would last through the end of the party. Although Lisa did not have any illusions about getting Burnside to cry, she hoped the punishment would ensure that the professor understood that she had taken her lessons about erotic discipline very seriously and that she had become a competent disciplinarian.

Lisa began spanking slowly at first, intermixing caresses with hard slaps. Finally she established a rhythm, landing painful swats about five seconds apart on alternate sides of her mentor’s firm bottom. As she expected, Burnside remained perfectly cooperative, holding herself in position and not clenching her buttocks.

All of the party guests had gathered to watch Burnside’s spanking, but the room was dead silent except for the ongoing barrage of hard smacks and the occasional flash of a camera. Not only was their fearsome leader getting spanked; she was getting spanked by someone half her age. Lisa relished the unique circumstances of her situation; the one, and probably the only chance she or any other undergraduate would ever have to spank Dr. Ruth Burnside.

SLAP... SLAP... SLAP... SLAP...

The spanking continued unabated as the older woman continued to lie quietly across her student’s lap. Hours of working out with the Four-Beta Sorority paid off for Lisa as the spanking continued and her arm showed little sign of tiring. Maybe she could get Burnside to cry after all. That would be cool!

Fifteen minutes into the spanking it seemed that Burnside’s resistance was starting to wear down. She sighed from seemed to be discomfort and her legs were moving around a little, a sign that her stoicism was being tested. Lisa slapped considerably harder, with the vague hope that she could indeed defeat her professor’s resolve. However, as the student picked up the pace and the severity of the swats, suddenly the smell of sexual arousal hit her nose. Burnside’s resistance had indeed broken down, but what had broken down was not her threshold for pain. It turned out that Lisa had managed to overcome her professor’s threshold for sexual stimulus. So, now Lisa knew Burnside’s secret. The professor, if punished long enough in the right way, was erotically stimulated by a good spanking.

Lisa could have pressed her advantage to humiliate the professor and let everyone else know what she had just found out. Fortunately, she was too smart to fall into that temptation. Instead she realized that she needed to wind down the spanking as quickly as possible and allow Burnside to make a graceful exit from the room. The world saw the professor as a dominatrix, not as a closet masochist. Lisa knew that any hint of being aroused by pain would affect Burnside’s reputation among her sex partners, which was something that she desperately wanted to avoid. The personal ties between Lisa and Burnside were too strong for Lisa to have any desire to expose her mentor’s secret.

Lisa shook her arm, pretending to be too tired to continue. Even so, she had delivered a respectable spanking that impressed most of the spectators in the room. As the audience applauded, Burnside got off Lisa’s lap and showed her red bottom to the spectators. She took Lisa’s hand and the two naked women stood up and bowed together. With that Burnside and Halsey quickly exited the room, presumably so he could take care of the woman’s physical needs. Lisa again bowed to the cheering audience and left the platform, hoping that no one had figured out the real reason she decided to end the spanking.

The party began winding down after Burnside and Halsey came back out, both dressed in their complete leather outfits. Both of their bottoms were still quite red from their respective punishments.

Even before the guests started leaving the professor ordered the Four-Beta women to take down the massage station and sex tents while Mark and his two friends cleaned up the enema area and the Tri-Alphas started on cleaning the kitchen. As the clean up in the backyard progressed, Burnside and Halsey stood at the front door saying goodbye to their guests. Everyone’s invitation had stated the party would end precisely at 1:30, given that July 5^th was a regular workday and everyone had to get at least a couple of hours of sleep.

Clean-up from the party was finished in record time, given that a total of 14 people were available to straighten the house. From 1:30 to 2:15 the professors, the pledges, and Mark and his two friends cleaned the living room, put back all the furniture, packed up the fetish supplies, and put away all the dishes. The Tri-Alphas left with Pledge Master Arnold at 2:15. Mark and his two friends departed a few minutes later, leaving the professors and the Four-Beta pledges alone. Burnside threw down sleeping bags for the group and instructed them to go to sleep in the living room.

Burnside decided that, even if Tracy showed up in the middle of the night, she wanted everyone to sleep until 7:00. She left a note on her front door telling the Pledge Mistress to use the bed in the guest room and not to wake anyone up. At 7:00 Burnside would release custody of the pledges back to the sorority and turn over her training notes. Everything would be "by the book".

By 2:30 the pledges were asleep, except for Lisa. She couldn’t sleep in a hot sleeping bag after having slept completely uncovered for a month and a half. At first she thought about sleeping on the sofa, but then decided to go outside and lie down on one of Burnside’s lawn chairs. For a long time she stared into the clear sky, enjoying the silent night after hours of tumult from the party. It felt good, just to lie in the quiet darkness, not to have to do anything for a few minutes. Yes, tomorrow she would be tired, but now she was content to relax.

Lisa’s thoughts turned to Kathleen. Something about her behavior that night had not been quite right, especially towards the end. As they cleaned up, Lisa had noticed that Kathleen was very nervous (much more so than normal) and overly eager to please her. Lisa’s lover was completely incapable of hiding her emotions, so it was obvious that something strange was going on. As soon as she was alone with Kathleen, she would have to find out what had made her so uneasy, although she suspected that she already knew. Kathleen must have done something at the party that she felt guilty about. That "something" must have been a sexual encounter with another guest. What else could it possibly be?

The thought of Kathleen giving into temptation did not really bother Lisa. Instead, it relieved her to see that her lover was not as narrowly focused as she had feared. Also, if Kathleen had indeed been unfaithful, Lisa easily could turn the incident to her own advantage. Infidelity would give her perfect justification to punish her lover and finish the process of establishing her dominance. The goal of having poor Kathleen on her knees, begging to be punished and pardoned, tearfully seeking to find redemption through pain and submission, now was much closer to actually happening. Kathleen would confess her sin, take her punishment, find forgiveness and fulfillment, and fully surrender her body and soul to Lisa.

Lisa saw another outcome from whatever it was that Kathleen had done that night. Knowing that her lover was not perfectly loyal freed her from any guilt about pursuing her own love interests with men. Kathleen could not hold loyalty over Lisa’s head if she was guilty of infidelity herself. The only real question concerning Lisa was whether Kathleen had cheated with a man or with another woman. That too, would make a difference, because she viewed cheating with another woman as much more problematic for the relationship than cheating with a man.

Lisa spent a very long time masturbating under the stars, as her mind wandered from planning Kathleen’s upcoming punishment to all of the other strange and erotic experiences she had enjoyed that weekend. Of course, the event that stuck out above all else was the spanking of Ruth Burnside. Lisa’s mind went over that experience in loving detail; remembering everything from the pressure of Burnside’s bare stomach on her thighs, to the feeling of the firm sweaty skin of her bottom on the palm of Lisa’s hand, to the sound of the loud slaps echoing through the silent living room. Above everything else was that whiff of sexual arousal. There was no denying what that whiff meant, because she knew from her own experience...

Lisa climaxed at the thought of knowing something so intimate about her mentor. She climaxed... and then promptly fell asleep.

Three hours later, as the birds sung in the early summer morning sunlight, Pledge Lisa was startled awake by Tracy’s voice, "OK, Sleeping Beauty! UP-UP-UP! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!"

As she struggled to her feet, a sharp slap to her bottom signaled the beginning of Lisa's seventh week as a Four-Beta pledge.

Chapter 33 -- Kathleen's Hard Lesson

After breakfast, Burnside officially transferred custody of the pledges back to Pledge Mistress Tracy. Along with the pledges she handed over a diskette describing the women’s training schedule and her own observations about the pledges’ health, study habits, openness for sexual adventure, and what they did during the three days they spent at her house.

Tracy passed out the pledges’ uniforms that she had brought with her from the sorority house and ordered her group to get ready to depart for the university. Each pledge had to get on her knees and thank Ruth Burnside for letting her stay at the house before going out the front door. Tracy drove the freshmen to campus, while Lisa went with Burnside and Halsey.

Burnside said nothing about what had happened the night before, but Lisa did notice a subtle difference in her behavior. For the first time Lisa had held power over her professor, which somewhat changed how the two women would relate to each other. The professor would not say anything openly, but Lisa could tell that she was very grateful for her student’s quick and tactful response to what had happened when she was over the younger woman’s lap. Lisa had been astute and observant enough to understand the professor was sexually aroused, and gracious enough to let her escape before anyone else in the room realized what was going on.

The problem for Burnside was that Lisa’s knowledge about her vulnerability gave the girl some power in their relationship. Allowing Lisa to have any influence on what happened in their interaction with each other was not what Burnside had wanted. She had hoped to exert absolute authority over Lisa similar to what she held over Mark, but felt that she no longer could do that if Lisa knew her secret. There would have to be an unspoken agreement of trust between the professor and the student, an uneasy partnership that would tie the two women’s fates together over the next several years. Lisa was not Mark, and Burnside would have to treat her very differently.

The professor’ personality made it very hard for her to express emotions that conveyed vulnerability. She did not feel comfortable talking to Lisa about what had happened, but at the same time trusted that her student would not tell anyone what she had discovered. Fortunately, the way she handled the spanking the previous night demonstrated that Lisa could keep a secret. It also was obvious that Lisa cared about Burnside’s reputation in the fetish community. Yes, she had wanted to turn the tables on Burnside by putting her over her lap, but what mattered was that she knew when to stop. Burnside also realized that Lisa Campbell was a person with whom she could have a personal relationship that would start out as mentoring, but over several years could develop into a real friendship.

That morning, after Lisa had stripped and was standing with her legs spread and her hands behind her head, Burnside went over her plans for that week. Then she surprised Lisa with some news about a couple of Four-Beta juniors who were taking one of her summer classes, "Seems there’s a bit of a problem with their midterms. It looks like they tried, but they’re just not getting the material. They’ll get the bad news in class, but I figured you’d want to know about it first, in case the sorority has anything to say to you about it. If they don’t shape up real fast, I can tell you they won’t be passing."

While Lisa continued to work in Burnside’s office in the afternoon, Pledge Mistress Tracy and Junior class leader Shannon entered her office with the two unhappy juniors. Burnside repeated what she had told Lisa, that unless the two students could score at least 90 percent on the final exam there was no way the professor could let them pass the class. The two sorority women turned white, because getting 90 percent on one of Burnside’s tests was very difficult. The professor snapped, "Well, I hope you don’t expect me to pass you if you don’t perform, because I won’t. It’s a numbers game around here, and right now your numbers don’t add up. The final is in four weeks, so I’d suggest you use that time wisely and learn the course material, instead of just looking at me with those sad eyes."

Tracy and her pledges walked back to the sorority with Shannon and the two juniors. The situation for the sorority was dire, because both juniors already had taken Burnside’s class and had flunked out. If they flunked a second time, they would go on academic probation, which in turn would be a huge embarrassment for the entire sorority and for President Alexandra in particular. As Tracy always quoted from the military "shit rolls downhill", because Alexandra in turn, would blame Shannon for not making sure her two class members had properly studied. If Alexandra was pissed at Shannon, she had the authority to blackball her from participating in any future sorority elections.

As they walked across Old Campus, Shannon began questioning Lisa about what she knew about Burnside’s classes and the course material. It turned out that the pledge’s knowledge was quite comprehensive, which gave the three juniors an idea. Why couldn’t Lisa tutor the juniors and get them ready to pass the final? In fact, what was to prevent her from setting up a study group to help everyone taking economics classes? Lisa knew the material, so what right did she have to not share her knowledge with the rest of the sorority?

Tracy drew a deep breath, not at all happy about the turn of events. Lisa was still a pledge, and under the pledge program rules she was not authorized to lead anything, let alone a study group. Furthermore, she had not completed her Four-Beta training, nor passed all of her pledge challenges. Now, on top of everything else she had to accomplish over the next month, she was being tapped to run a study group for two women who were in trouble due to their own stupidity. Tracy was very irritated with Shannon, because the junior class leader was pushing her problem off on a pledge instead of trying to take care of it herself. If it wasn’t Pledge Lisa’s fault those two juniors were failing, why was she the one who had to fix their situation?

Lisa’s obligations only became even more complicated when the pledges dined with the sophomores. The conversation focused on her position as Burnside’s student aide and the fact that she had tutored dorm residents in Huntington Hall during the spring semester. Already a rumor had spread among the younger women that Pledge Lisa was going to tutor everyone taking Burnside’s classes. That was great! One of the sophomores became especially interested in Lisa’s knowledge about the material presented in Burnside’s Theory of Economics course, because the previous year she had flunked out and was eager to get help from the sorority’s new pledge. She was not yet on the verge of failing, but was determined to get a better grade on the final than she got on the midterm. Suddenly Lisa was faced with several excited sophomores beseeching her with questions about economics.

Finally Lisa held up her hands, "Look ma’am, I can’t do anything for you unless it’s cleared through Pledge Mistress Tracy! She’s got the final word on this, not me. If she asks me to help you, then yes, I’ll do what I can. But, she’s got to approve any study group!"

Her companions quickly volunteered to talk to Tracy, but again Lisa held up her hands.

"I need to ask about this, not you. I’m under her orders right now, so I’ll talk to her."

Following dinner Lisa found Tracy, who, as usual, was sitting in the sorority library with her textbooks. She knelt and explained what the sophomores wanted from her, which added to the expectations Shannon had for her two failing class members.

Tracy was tempted to tell both Shannon and the sophomores to forget about exploiting her pledge, but the truth was the tutoring frenzy had taken on a life of its own and backing out no longer was possible. Besides, Lisa did not have any objections to tutoring her fellow sorority members. However, she would have to set some restrictions. She knew from experience that unless she controlled the study sessions, the arrangement very quickly would degenerate into her being on-call to provide assistance at the convenience of the other Four-Beta members. Even though she was just a pledge, Lisa needed to establish her own rules and remain in control of any tutoring arrangements in which she was providing help to others.

There was one other condition Lisa wanted, "Ma’am, since I’m a pledge and I can’t wear anything in the house, then can I make my study group strip down too? I mean... I think it’s important because if I’m naked and they’re not, I’m worried they’re not gonna take me seriously."

Tracy thought for a moment, and finally nodded. "I don’t have a problem with that. I agree that if you’re gonna lead a study group you ought to be in charge, and I see your point on the clothing issue. I guess that’ll also separate who’s really interested in your tutoring and who just wants to get her questions answered and not work. All right, when I make the announcement about the study group I’ll explain there’s gonna be a nudity requirement and that you’re the one running the show. If there’s any other conditions you want, let me know, and I’ll add those to my announcement."

A few minutes later the members of the Four-Beta Sorority gathered in the sitting room for an emergency meeting called by Shannon. The junior class leader ceded the podium to the Pledge Mistress, who ordered Pledge Lisa to stand up and join her. Tracy announced that Lisa had taken and passed Ruth Burnside’s dreaded "Theory of Economics" course and was proctoring the same class during the summer semester. Therefore, she would set up a study group that would meet for an hour each week on Tuesday nights and Thursday nights, and spend part of each Sunday night reviewing assignments and answering questions. The Pledge Mistress added that because Lisa was a pledge and prohibited from wearing any clothing in the sorority house, anyone joining her study group would have to obey the rules of the pledge uniform by attending the sessions in the nude. During the meetings Lisa’s subservient status as a pledge would be suspended and she would be completely in charge of anyone seeking her help.

Lisa was very nervous as she stood beside the Pledge Mistress and listened to the formal announcement about the study group. Then she noticed something that made her much more nervous, the look on the face of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Heather was not pleased at all by what was going on and was watching the Pledge Mistress with a very disapproving expression. Obviously there was going to be a problem between Heather and Tracy over the study group idea.

Lisa spent a busy week as she pursued her numerous academic responsibilities. Besides dealing with her own classes, she proctored Ruth Burnside’s exams, helped grade papers, and assisted her mentor in her office in many other ways. Time became a very scarce resource in the professor’s office as the stress of coursework overrode the developing personal relationship between Burnside and Lisa. The pressure was on to cram as much material as possible into the few weeks of classes that remained.

No sooner did Lisa get back to the sorority and have dinner than came her second round of academic responsibilities. Tuesday and Thursday nights she led a total of seven naked sorority members at a table in the sitting room, going over assignments and making sure her companions understood the basic formulas and theories presented by Burnside. The problems of Lisa’s study group varied, but it seemed that the women who were good in math and understood the formulas couldn’t apply them to theory, while the women who could grasp the theory couldn’t deal with the math.

Lisa competently addressed her group’s concerns and felt real satisfaction as the material and its application began to make sense to her companions. As they began to get caught up and feel more confident about learning, Lisa’s study group members began accepting her leadership and often totally forgot that she still was just a pledge. Already the study group saw Lisa as one of their equals and a person with huge leadership potential for the sorority.

While Lisa was working with her study group, Tracy was with the three freshmen, exhorting them to study, forcing them to constantly exercise, and leading them in house chores. Because Lisa was tied up with her study group, Tracy took her place working around the house. She led by example, frenetically cleaning and challenging her charges to keep up.

Pledge Mistress Tracy’s behavior became more and more of an enigma for the other members of the sorority. By the middle of July she had become little more than a pledge herself, spending all of her time with the newcomers and ignoring the other seniors. Her behavior confirmed her odd reputation in the sorority and her status as an outsider. However, her actions were ensuring that the current group of pledges was completely ready to join the sorority. On top of everything else was Pledge Lisa Campbell’s study group, which held out hope to several sophomores and juniors that they could avoid failing Burnside’s classes and keep themselves and the sorority out of trouble.

By the middle of July, both Elaine, the leader of the sophomores, and Shannon, the leader of the juniors, had decided that they would support Tracy for the presidency of the sorority. Elaine and Shannon agreed that if Tracy were elected chapter president, she would be a nice change from Alexandra, who was a good public speaker, but somewhat self-centered and not a very dynamic or imaginative leader. They both decided that, unless there were any changes between July and the August election, they would formally back Tracy for chapter president and vote to keep Heather in her current position of Sergeant-at-Arms. Neither much cared for Tracy as a person, but it was obvious that she was driven and her harsh no-nonsense attitude was what was needed to "get things done". Above everything else, Tracy was much more concerned about the well-being of the people around her than herself. She was totally fair and even-handed in her dealings with other people, and willing to make sacrifices for other women in the sorority.

The second Saturday of July was a filled with an event that, for 24 hours, took everyone’s mind off academics. It was time for the summer semester’s "Skins and Shirts Ball", when all members of Tri-Alpha Fraternity would fulfill the previous month’s forfeit by attending the dance in the nude.

Throughout the afternoon the sorority’s women cheerfully got ready for the formal dance as they prepared their hair and makeup and made sure their most elegant gowns and dresses were properly cleaned and pressed. Part of the fun would be the extreme contrast between the formally dressed women and the naked men. The more the women could make that contrast obvious, the better.

While the other women were getting ready, there was a furious debate among the sorority officers concerning what to do about the pledges. Tracy argued that they should be allowed to dress up, given that it was the pledges that had won the scavenger hunt. Sergeant-at-Arms Heather argued the opposite; that because they were still pledges, the newcomers should attend the dance in the nude, regardless of what had happened during the hunt. Finally, disgusted with the conflict, Alexandra issued her decision. The pledges simply would wear their pledge uniforms: no formal dresses, but no total nudity either. As for Pledge Lisa, she would wear her thong, since that was what she was wearing on campus.

Tracy was furious at Heather, but knew better than to argue in front of Alexandra. She felt bad for the pledges, but at least they did not have to attend the ball in the nude. To register her disgust, however, she returned to her room and pulled out her own pledge uniform. If her pledges had to wear their uniforms to the dance, then she would wear hers as well.

The ball itself was held in the Alumni Center on Old Campus. The Alumni Center was an old mansion, the original residence of the university president. A large fancy room used for conferences and social events complete with bathrooms and a restaurant-style kitchen took up the entire first floor, while the upstairs bedrooms had been converted to offices and meeting rooms. A rich benefactor of the university who was a Tri-Alpha alumnus had paid for the renovations and the building’s upkeep, with the understanding that the Tri-Alpha fraternity could use the Alumni Center for its formal social events.

The evening started at 8:00 p.m. when three air-conditioned buses arrived at the sorority to pick up the women. Although the Alumni Center was only a short walk from the Four-Beta house, walking there in formal gowns in the hot weather was not practical. The women were the honored guests and thus would ride to the ball in comfort.

When Lisa got on the bus, she was surprised to see that the driver was naked. He was a junior in the fraternity and the bus ride was considered part of the formal event, hence his lack of covering. Lisa later learned that the fraternity members already had ridden over to the Alumni Center in the same buses, leaving their clothing behind at the Tri-Alpha house. According to tradition, the losing side of the "Skins and Shirts Ball" had to travel to the dance naked and be completely cut off from any clothing until the dance was over.

Once the sorority members got off the buses, they filed into the Alumni Center by class, the seniors going first. The only exception was Tracy, who, as Pledge Mistress, had to go in with the pledges so she could formally introduce them. Following the seniors, Shannon and Elaine led their respective groups into the building, followed by Tracy’s group. As they entered the main room, the pledges faced the officers of the fraternity, all of whom were completely naked.

Tracy formally introduced her pledges one by one. As dictated by tradition, each fraternity officer stepped forward to kiss the hand of each pledge. Although the fraternity officer already had interacted with the pledges and had seen plenty of them over the summer, the greeting was an important part of tradition, an official recognition of the pledges by the most important members of the fraternity.

The men and women paired off by class. Each Tri-Alpha presented a corsage to his female counterpart, and then posed for an official dance photo. The photographer was the same student who had taken the official pledge ID pictures back in May, Lisa’s friend Suzanne Foster.

The Tri-Alpha and Four-Beta pledges were not paired with each other, but instead with officers. Of course, Tri-Alpha VP Jacob took Cherine for himself, and Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms Heather picked the poor guy she had been tormenting throughout the summer. Tracy paired off with Ken, Lisa got Pledge Master Arnold, and Kathleen got the Tri-Alpha president.

Bernadette was paired off with the Tri-Alpha Sergeant-at-Arms and looked longingly at her partner’s stocky muscular figure. She knew that having sex with him was out of the question because of the prohibition against sex between Four-Beta pledges and Tri-Alpha members.

Lisa noticed the hungry look in her fellow pledge’s eyes and could tell the night was going to be a real torment for Bernadette, being surrounded by all that naked male flesh and not be able to enjoy any of it. All those male organs on display, nearly a hundred of them...

It was at that moment that Bernadette set a goal for herself. She wanted to make love to every man in the fraternity. Her eyes were feasting on all those penises: long-short... circumcised-not circumcised... light-dark... All those penises... all those variations of male organs... and she wanted to see what each one felt like inside her.

Apart from the novelty of having all the males spend the night in the nude, the "Skins and Shirts Ball" was not very different from any other formal fraternity-sorority dance event. The evening started with a seven-course meal that included three choices of entrees. The food was extremely good and the pledges totally stuffed themselves. Once the dinner was finished, there was a bathroom break for the sorority women while the fraternity members cleared the room, and finally two hours of slow dancing to music given by live musicians. Throughout the night Suzanne ran about the room taking volumes of pictures, both posed and un-posed. Also, Lisa noticed several couples taking breaks to go upstairs. As always, sex was encouraged for everyone apart from the pledges.

Lisa took advantage of her time alone with Pledge Master Arnold to find out as much as she could about the Tri-Alpha pledge program, partly so she could find out more about what Ken was doing and what he had gone through so far. She never asked Arnold anything specific about Ken, but she knew that at least she could get a general idea about what he was doing. Arnold turned out to be quite chatty, inadvertently giving up a lot of personal information about all five of his pledges. It also turned out that he was gay and had been quite interested in Ken. His voice reflected real disappointment as he reflected about Ken’s situation, "You know... he had a lot of fantasies... came in with a lot of homoerotic thoughts on his mind... But, I guess one thing that he figured out after he started pledging was that his fantasies and his sexuality were two different things. That’s a real shame, ‘cause I think he’s really cute."

Lisa got Arnold to talk about the Tri-Alpha sexual training program for pledges and then to talk about what he thought of each of his charges. She was not particularly interested in the others, but she was desperate to get more information about Ken. Arnold opened up, confiding quite a bit about his pledge’s most inner thoughts to his former girlfriend. Among other things, he confirmed Lisa’s suspicion that Ken had enjoyed being her sub, but that she had made a serious mistake in the way she had treated him. Although she constantly savagely punished him, she had considered the punishments as nothing more than sexual play. Lisa had not attempted to take control of Ken’s life outside of their sexual adventures. She considered him her friend and her equal, and it turned out that was not what he really wanted.

She realized that Arnold’s observations matched what she had suspected about her former boyfriend. Ken needed to surrender himself to a loving mistress, someone who could control him and punish him when necessary, but who would mostly concentrate on running his life and making him feel protected. In other words, what Ken needed was the exact same thing Kathleen needed. The problem was that he could not figure out how to express that need to her. Lisa wondered if his sexual experimentation with the fraternity and his fantasies about Jason Schmidt actually were a subconscious plea for help and understanding.

The following evening President Alexandra presented one of the strangest seminars of the summer, called "Dildos, vibrators, and the joys of inanimate penetration". With an air of total seriousness, the chapter president demonstrated and talked about various sex toys, how they were used, and how they needed to be sterilized and maintained. The presentation was accompanied by a PowerPoint slide show with very graphic photos and diagrams. However, the slide show was nothing in comparison with what followed, live demonstrations from two members of the sorority.

When the slide show finished, the chapter president’s two male attendants entered the room. Both were completely naked. The two young men set up a massage table as Alexandra ordered the nervous, blushing pledges to stand. An equally naked Four-Beta junior entered the room, hopped up on the table, and immediately got on her elbows and knees. With the assistance of one of the males, she inserted a vibrator up her bottom and turned it on. The woman massaged herself from the front with a second vibrator as Alexandra’s other attendant rubbed her shoulders. Within seconds her consciousness shut out everything else in the room as she immersed herself in extreme sexual pleasure.

As the junior gasped from a series of orgasms and the males quietly watched, Alexandra calmly explained the technique the demonstrator was using to stimulate herself. She glanced at Kathleen as she commented, "What you are now watching is a masturbation technique that focuses on anal stimulation. Those of us whose center of pleasure is concentrated in their bottoms will get the most enjoyment out of what you are watching now. You will notice that stimulation of the clitoris is part of the experience, but the main focus in on penetration and stimulation of the sphincter."

Kathleen’s face turned quite red, but she continued to watch the demonstrator with intense interest.

Once the first demonstrator came down off her orgasmic high, Alexandra’s attendants helped her off the massage table and escorted her out of the room. The two young men came back in with another naked junior, who lay on her back on the table. The attendants covered her body with massage oil before handing her a large dildo and a smaller vibrator. The young woman pushed in the dildo and used the vibrator to stimulate herself. Alexandra continued, "This technique focuses mostly on the vagina, although our demonstrator will also use the rest of her body to enhance the orgasmic experience. You will notice that she knows her body very well and knows where to place her hands for maximum effect. Keep that in mind, ladies. Your experience will be different from what you are seeing here, because all of you have different bodies. The better you know where the pleasure centers on your body are located, the better you will be at achieving total orgasm, even if you happen to be without a partner."

The sight of a second naked young woman enjoying an orgasm had its effect on the two attendants. By the time the demonstrator was finished both of them had erections. Lisa noticed Bernadette looking longingly at Alexandra’s two males and remembered that she had not had the chance to make love to anyone for nearly a week.

"OK, now it’s time for your practical exercise. We are opening four rooms for you, the guest room and three bedrooms upstairs. Each of you must select two items from the collection you see on the table, use them to achieve orgasm, and write an essay on your experience. This practical exercise will test not only your ability to give pleasure to your own body, but also to follow directions and express a personal experience in writing. Do you understand?"

"Yes, President Alexandra."

"I expect a two-page essay on your experience. Two pages? That’s right, ladies, two pages. There’s plenty you can write about in those two pages. You should include what sexual fantasies enhance your orgasmic experience, how using sex toys differs from using just your fingers, and what other experiences in masturbation you’ve had. There’s plenty to write about, so I don’t want any of you telling me you can’t think of what to say."

Alexandra excused herself at that point, taking her two attendants with her. The pledges looked at each other, deeply irritated by the unfairness of the situation. Alexandra gets two guys completely to herself, and here we are having to make do with a bunch of stupid plastic toys.

Lisa was surprised to see Kathleen approach the table first and quickly select two vibrators and a large dildo. Of all the women in the pledge group, it was Kathleen who had the most experience masturbating. She had a very active sex drive, but it had been frustrated throughout her life because most of her real-life encounters had resulted in hurtful, disappointing, or humiliating experiences. Masturbating was something safe that she knew how to do quite well. As much as she would have preferred to make love to Lisa, she knew that Tracy would not allow it and she would just have to make do with toys.

The other three women approached the table much more reluctantly. Bernadette was outright hostile to the idea of masturbating or using a vibrator. For her the only way to have an orgasm was with a male lover. I don’t need plastic, because a man’s real dick is the only thing I want going inside me. She let out a sigh as she picked out a penis-shaped dildo and walked away from the table.

Lisa was as reluctant to pick up a dildo or vibrator as was Bernadette, but for somewhat different reasons. Lisa was used to masturbating whenever she did not have a partner, but preferred to use her fingers instead of foreign objects. She happily anticipated taking advantage of a room to herself to relieve her sexual tension, but then would fill her two pages writing about her preference to use her fingers instead of sex toys.

Cherine blushed as she approached the table, never having seen sex toys up close before, let alone pick them up. This was a chance for her to experiment with something new. She selected a vibrator and a massager and tried to hide the fact she very much was looking forward to trying them out. Ordinarily she would not have dared let anyone see her touching sex items, but the fact she had been ordered to do so took away most of her inhibitions.

A few minutes later Lisa was alone in a bedroom lent to her by one of the seniors. She had been directed to lay a sheet over the top of the bed and not touch anything else in the room. Upon finishing her orgasm she would exit and close the door, take the sheet downstairs, and report to the sorority library to write her essay.

Lisa looked at the two vibrators she had selected, rolled her eyes, and set them on the senior’s nightstand. She lay on the bed and turned out the light, quite happy to have a few uninterrupted minutes to herself in a silent dark room. For a few minutes she simply lay quietly and allowed her thoughts to clear so she could enjoy herself. She began moving her fingertips up and down her stomach and thighs as the first part of her assignment in self-pleasure.

For a while Lisa’s mind tried to find a topic; a personal experience or a fantasy, that would arouse her enough to work pursue a sexual climax. She tried to focus on Kathleen, but for whatever reason thinking about Kathleen did not excite her at that moment. Her thoughts moved to Ken, but that didn’t work either. Finally she allowed her thoughts to wander to her experience in Burnside’s class a couple of weeks before, when she was ordered to stand with her back to 150 classmates so they could study her bare bottom and satisfy their curiosity about her thong. The experience may have been humiliating, but to Lisa it also was extremely erotic. She wished that she could have been forced to stand in front of the class totally naked, or better yet, naked with her legs spread and her hands behind her head, just like she had to be when inside Burnside’s office. Or better yet, naked with her hands behind her head and her legs spread in the middle of the courtyard of the Student Memorial Center. Yes, right in the middle of the SMC on registration day, when the entire university converged in that one spot and would see her. Everyone would take pictures with her and everyone, male and female, would satisfy their curiosity by touching her and exploring her uncovered body with their hands... thousands of hands seeking her body and exploring...

Lisa massaged the inner part of her thighs and teased her vulva as her mind continued wandering through the erotic labyrinth of her fantasy world. Her thoughts suddenly shifted from her fantasy of extreme exhibitionism to Ruth Burnside and Jim Halsey. Lisa had become their naked servant, officially collared and having signed a contract handing over her life to the two professors. Her purpose was to bring them pleasure and cater to their needs. When she knelt to show her submission, she knelt in the style of a Danubian criminal, with her head on the ground, her knees spread, and her back arched so that her vulva and bottom-hole were totally exposed and properly displayed. Her bottom and thighs were covered with whip-marks, because constant punishment was an important component of her daily life. Her purpose in life was to serve, and to suffer...

Lisa sat up with fright as she suddenly came to her senses. That second fantasy terrified her because it was so vivid, and yet also was quite plausible. It already was the life Mark Gertz led with Professor Burnside, a grueling painful existence on ongoing humiliations... was that really what Lisa envisioned for herself? Couldn’t she do better? Wasn’t she worth much more than that?

She lay back down and began massaging her sweaty body. She had to start from scratch because the sudden scare had canceled her impending climax. She cleared her mind and began letting the physical sensations of her own caresses fill her consciousness. Now she was ready to fantasize about her own life: about Kathleen, and also about Ken.

She pictured them kneeling together, both of them completely naked. Lisa had become the mistress, the object of total devotion and affection from her two servants. She was seated while Ken massaged and licked her right foot and Kathleen massaged and licked her left foot. Together they looked up at her, silently asking her for permission to start massaging her legs. Kathleen and Ken gradually moved up Lisa’s body together. Their movements were perfectly synchronized because she had taken the time to properly train them. Each was responsible for half of her body; Ken for the right side and Kathleen for the left.

By now Lisa’s two servants had worked their way up to her breasts. In unison they kissed and licked their mistress’s areolas and nipples as she gasped and came closer to orgasm. They kissed her bottom and took turns stimulating her vulva...

Finally it was time for Lisa and her two servants to give each other extreme pleasure. Ken lay on the floor on his back as Lisa lowered herself over his very erect penis. Kathleen positioned herself over his face, because he needed to satisfy her needs as well. As Ken’s penis pumped semen into Lisa’s vagina and as his tongue worked its way around Kathleen’s vulva, Lisa took the girl’s face in her hands and kissed her. Lisa’s tongue explored Kathleen’s lips while Ken’s tongue explored the lips of her vulva. They climaxed together, three lovers and three synchronized orgasms. It was a perfect lovers’ triangle, but one of love and pleasure, not one of hurt and envy.

Sweat trickled down Lisa’s body as she finally climaxed. Ken and Kathleen... Ken and Kathleen...

She came to her senses and sat up in the dark waiting for her heart rate to go down and breathing to return to normal.

Ken and Kathleen... two lives dedicated to her... two lovers to satisfy her body... two souls under her protection...

Now Lisa Campbell knew what she wanted. She did not want be forced to choose between Ken and Kathleen. She wanted them both.

Lisa also understood that both of her lovers needed her. It was her destiny to create a meaningful life for them, a life in which they could fulfill their purpose to serve and obey her.

As she exited the room and returned her unused sex toys to the sorority’s sitting room, Lisa remembered Kathleen’s little adventure at Burnside’s party the previous weekend. She had been so busy with the tutoring crisis that she had forgotten about her lover’s infidelity, but she still wanted to address it. She doubted the adventure would affect how she felt about Kathleen, but it did give her a welcome opportunity to inflict real punishment and move much closer to establishing complete control over the young woman’s life.

Lisa had noticed that her lover was very nervous on Tuesday, but as the week progressed she seemed to calm down. As the days went by and nothing was mentioned about the party, she began to hope that perhaps Lisa would not discover that she had sex with Ken. For the first, and the only time, she attempted to keep something that she had done hidden from her partner.

The two women sat down next to each other to write out their essays and turned them in to Tracy. Then, Lisa told the unsuspecting girl to follow her to the pool area. As soon as she saw that no one else was outside, she abruptly grabbed Kathleen’s arms and pulled her face-to-face. She stared hard into the younger woman’s shocked eyes as she held her tight, "I know all about what you did at Dr. Burnside’s party, Kathleen. Do you really think I wasn’t gonna find out? Did you really think you could keep something like that a secret from me?"

Kathleen’s face went white and she began trembling from shock and fright. She automatically looked away, but Lisa shook her. "You look at me! Don’t you dare look anywhere except straight into my eyes!"

Kathleen’s body began shaking in earnest as she struggled to force herself to look into her lover’s eyes. Lisa tightened her grip on the unhappy girl’s thin arms and stared hard into her terrified face, "The only reason I didn’t talk to you earlier is because I was hoping you’d have the decency to come clean on your own! I just wanted to give you a couple of days to think about ‘fessing up, but I guess you weren’t gonna tell me, were you?"

"Uh... I..."

"What do you think I am, an idiot? Did you really think you could pull that shit on me and get away with it? Did you really think that?"

"I... I..."

Lisa shook Kathleen again and snarled,"Answer me!"

Instead of Kathleen’s trembling voice, Lisa heard the splatter of liquid hitting the pavement. Then she felt a warm wetness gathering around her feet as the smell of urine hit her nose. Kathleen was so scared that she had lost control of her bladder.

Lisa let her go.

"You clean that up. And while you’re cleaning up, you can think about what your punishment ought to be. Think real hard about how you’re gonna make it up to me."

With that Lisa left Kathleen on the patio. She deliberately stepped into a puddle of pool water to clean off her feet. Without looking back to see what her lover was doing, she unceremoniously went back into the house.

Lisa had taken to heart Ruth Burnside’s lessons in establishing total dominance over her lover by using her own emotions against her. Only through submission and pain could Kathleen find forgiveness and redemption. The sad girl faced cruel punishment, but whatever punishment she was destined to endure she would have to choose for herself. She would be a willing participant in her own subjugation as she begged for the right to be punished and the privilege of surrendering her body.

Lisa still did not have a clue about what Kathleen actually did Monday night or who she had been with. For the moment that detail did not really matter, because her only goal was to use the incident to her advantage to exert absolute control over her lover’s life. Not knowing a particular detail was not a major concern, because she figured that she would find out soon enough.

Of course, Lisa had carefully worded what she said to make Kathleen believe that she knew exactly what had happened, even though quite the opposite was true. That was another of Burnside’s lessons; a dominatrix should always try to give her subs the impression of infallibility.

Kathleen trembled and cried as she selected a mop and cleaning bucket from the supply room. She cleaned up her mess, wrung out the mop, and continued to shake as she went into the storeroom where the discipline supplies were kept. She shuddered as she felt various cruel discipline implements in her hands. Heavy flexible straps, floggers, switches, canes, paddles of varying weights and thickness, all had their advantages and drawbacks. She had to think about what position would be best for Lisa: should she be cuffed to the ceiling so she could be whipped, or should she be bent over? How long would Lisa want to punish her? Should she subject herself to other indignities such as an enema?

Kathleen was totally terrified, but at the same time she was relieved that her secret was out and that Lisa did not show any sign that she wanted to break up over what had happened. With no second thought Kathleen accepted that her lover had the right to discipline her by whipping her. She owed Lisa that much, presenting her body for a truly cruel punishment that would test her tolerance for pain and her resolve to remain part of her lover’s life. She would have to show herself no mercy as she selected the implements to be used on her.

Kathleen figured that Lisa would want to have a lengthy punishment session and use an implement with which she could strike many times. In Kathleen’s mind, that eliminated using any hard items such as wooden paddles or canes. She figured that she should be punished standing up, with her entire body exposed to whatever Lisa wanted to do to her. She narrowed the selection further to items that could be used to whip a standing subject repeatedly and that could be used not only on her bottom, but also on her back and her thighs. Finally she narrowed the selection to a flogger and a small two-tailed whip. The whip did not look like one of the more severe discipline items owned by the sorority, but she knew from experience that it stung horribly.

Kathleen understood that the whipping was only a small part of what Lisa expected from her. She would have to atone in other ways as well, by demonstrating that she was her loyal servant.

Lisa had to spend the rest of Sunday evening with her study group, so it was not until much later that Kathleen had the chance to be alone with her for a few minutes. The girl approached trembling and cringing with her eyes full of tears, as frightened and miserable as a person could be. When she saw her terrified, fidgety lover, she knew that she was completely under her control. Everything in Kathleen’s behavior indicated that she was willing to surrender her entire life to Lisa.

She’s mine... she’s mine and I have to watch over her, thought Lisa to herself.

Had Kathleen been able to exercise any control over her emotions, she would have known that the best way she could have tried to maintain some independence in her relationship with Lisa would have been to stay away from her for a few days and let time put the unpleasant encounter with her lover into perspective. However, Kathleen was not capable of leaving things unsettled for any period of time. Her need to have all of her personal issues resolved immediately made her extremely vulnerable. Now, in her desperation to seek Lisa’s forgiveness, she was willing to do anything... literally anything.

The punishment that would formalize their arrangement would have to wait until they had a few hours to be completely alone, Being a sorority pledge complicated any overt efforts for Kathleen to demonstrate submission to Lisa, because the only displays of submission a pledge was allowed were to the sorority officers. If Kathleen were seen kneeling to Lisa during the pledge-training period, chances were the Pledge Mistress would throw a fit and punish them both. The delay did not mean that Kathleen’s punishment wouldn’t happen, however. Eventually she would be chastised, because punishment was the only way she could set things right with Lisa.

Lisa took Kathleen’s hand and returned to the pool area, which, fortunately still was completely deserted. In the darkness they made their way to the sorority’s gazebo. Lisa hugged her lover in a gesture of caring and redemption. Kathleen suddenly broke down crying, but Lisa knew what she needed to say to comfort her. "I still love you. Even though I’ll have to punish you, I still love you. You understand that, right?"

Kathleen sobbed and nodded her head. For a long time she pressed her teary face into her mistress’s chest and held on to her, very tightly. Finally it was time for Lisa to make a small request, one that would be the first out of many that Kathleen would perform as her servant.

"Come on, let’s go down to the pool area."

Lisa lay down on one of the chaise lounges, "Go ahead and get on your knees. I’ll let you rub my feet."

Kathleen complied and spent a long time massaging her mistress’s feet. She massaged until her hands were tired and her knees ached from pressing down on the hard pavement, but she could not have been happier. Lisa loved her. In spite of everything she had done and the scary punishment that she had yet to endure, Lisa still loved her.

Chapter 34 -- Pledge Brittany

The following week marked a subtle, but significant change in the relationship between Lisa and Kathleen. What went on between them had to be conducted out of sight of Tracy and the other pledges, but the two lovers understood that Lisa now was in charge of Kathleen’s life. Kathleen’s eagerness to please Lisa and make up for the incident at Burnside’s party forced her to ask permission before doing anything. In subtle ways Lisa let her lover know that asking permission to do even the most routine things was what she would expect for the future.

Kathleen could not kneel before Lisa during the pledging period, nor would she be allowed to do so in public sight in the sorority once the pledges were sworn in. However, in private it was understood that she would kneel to show her respect for Lisa. As for sex, that would be on Lisa’s terms, although both lovers understood that Lisa had an obligation to satisfy Kathleen’s needs as much as Kathleen had an obligation to obey Lisa.

Another part of the understanding between the two women was Kathleen’s eventual punishment. It was very unlikely that Lisa would have the opportunity to punish Kathleen prior to swearing in, but that delay did not mean the punishment wasn’t going to happen or that its severity would be reduced. Every so often Lisa dropped a reminder about the upcoming chastisement, or patted Kathleen’s bottom to let her know that she had not forgotten.

At that point Lisa still did not know that her lover had cheated with Ken. Had she known that detail, she would have realized that she was very close to her fulfilling her fantasy about the two most important people in her life. What she did notice, when she caught fleeting glimpses of him, was that Ken’s behavior was somewhat nervous and that he seemed uneasy about something. As soon as she had a chance to be alone with him, she would have to find out what was bothering him. However, as the summer semester began drawing to a close and the pressure of finals intensified, Lisa knew that her chances to talk to Ken alone were greatly diminished.

The week after the "Skins and Shirts Ball" was even less pleasant than the week that preceded the dance. The pressure was on to study, prepare for the pre-swearing in PT test, and memorize the rules, history, and traditions of the Four-Beta Sorority. Before swearing in, the pledges would have to formally present their grades to President Alexandra to prove they were competent students. Once they had proven themselves academically, the pledges face two final challenges. They had to perform PT to military standards and they had to be interviewed by the Four-Beta officers about their knowledge of the sorority itself. Following the interviews, the officers would prepare a report about each pledge for presentation to the membership for a formal vote of admittance, which would be held at the Friday meeting on August 12. Formal swearing in would be the following day, at a ceremony held at midnight.

There was another duty awaiting the pledges: volleyball. At the beginning of every fall semester the sororities held volleyball tournaments against each other, the rule being that only freshmen and sophomores were allowed to play. The previous year the Four-Beta’s had come in second out of 23 participating sororities, but unfortunately all of last year's players now were juniors and ineligible to play. As for Elaine’s group, there were only two players who could hold up in a volleyball court and not make total fools out of themselves. Other sophomores had athletic talent, but it was not playing volleyball.

Tracy took her pledges out to the back yard to have them practice and see if any might make suitable volleyball players. It turned out that all of them had some experience playing volleyball and that each pledge had different talent. Bernadette was very good at serving, while Lisa’s height made her a natural for spiking the ball over the net. Kathleen was quick on her feet and good at making saves and passing the ball to other players. Cherine was the most versatile of the pledges, able to play any position competently. As soon as she saw her group in action, Tracy realized that, when the pledges were combined with the two sophomores, the sorority already had the core players for that fall semester’s team. Hopefully the fall pledge group would provide some alternates, and the Four-Betas could come close to matching the previous group led by Shannon.

So... every night volleyball practice was added to the endless list of duties and responsibilities the pledges had to fulfill. The days and nights were full and the pledges were exhausted, but everyone, with the exception of a single sorority officer, took it for granted that four new members would swear in at the end of the summer semester.

Heather understood that the chapter presidency, which only a few weeks before had seemed assured to be hers, was gone. If she did not have the support of Elaine and Shannon, she would not be able to count on the votes of very many of the sophomores and juniors. She realized that if her position continued to deteriorate, it was quite likely that several seniors would vote against her as well. As for simply staying in her current position as Sergeant-at-Arms; no, that was unacceptable.

Heather’s soul filled with anger and hatred over what she felt was a betrayal of everyone in the sorority. The presidency was rightfully hers. How dare all those stupid bitches turn against her, after all the time she put into making the sorority such a great place? And just who was it that was taking away what rightfully belonged to her? That miserable butch soldier-girl, with her nasty attitude... And why? Because... because of that bi-sexual California slut Lisa Campbell... that kiss-up who didn’t even have the decency to pledge as a freshman. No... that Californian had to wait, so she could come in as Pledge Know-it-all. Oh yes, the slut princess of the Economics Department...

Throughout the middle of July, Heather’s bitterness, resentment, and hatred intensified against Tracy and Lisa. She began to obsess about the pledge even more than her rival, thinking that it was Lisa who had made Tracy so popular. What to do? How could she get even? She took it for granted she no longer could win the Four-Beta presidency, but at least she wanted to get revenge against Lisa for ruining her life.

Then Heather’s thoughts took another turn. Tracy wouldn’t be where she was without Pledge Lisa. What would happen if she somehow could get rid of Lisa? Perhaps, if Tracy’s star pledge were eliminated, her popularity would collapse and Heather would remain the top contender for the sorority presidency. From that initial idea, Heather’s thoughts began to move in a very unfortunate direction...

Get rid of Lisa... get rid of Lisa... get rid of Lisa...

Tracy and Heather carefully watched each other throughout the first weeks of July. Each knew what the other was thinking: that Heather was looking for an opportunity to strike at Tracy, while Tracy fully anticipated that something was going to happen and would have to counter. The nature of the fight and the two women’s personalities gave Heather had one advantage over her rival. Tracy never struck first in a fight. She waited for her opponent to do something, and then countered. Her reluctance to initiate any confrontations gave Heather the luxury of waiting for an opportunity...

On Wednesday night of the third week in July, the familiar pattern of the final weeks of pledging was disrupted in a big way. Very late that evening Tracy led her pledge group from the campus library back to the sorority, weighted down as usual, with library books. As they passed the small park near the sorority, Tracy’s keen senses alerted her that something was wrong. She decided to investigate, ordering her group to wait for her on the sidewalk.

The Pledge Mistress disappeared into the darkness. Then the pledges heard a cough and what sounded like gagging.

"Wake up! Wake up! Please... you’ve got to wake up!"

Tracy’s words were followed by more gagging and another cough. The pledges immediately ran into the park, only to be confronted by very grim sight. The Pledge Mistress was sitting on the ground holding another young woman. Both were covered in vomit. The other woman’s face was partially obscured by torn duct tape, which also covered her wrists and ankles. The woman’s feet and hands still were bound, because Tracy had not yet had the opportunity to take off anything other than the tape covering her companion’s mouth and eyes.

"Cherine, get the tape off her hands! Kathleen, you get my phone out of my backpack and call 911! Alcohol poisoning and asphyxiation! Very shallow breathing... victim semi-conscious! Bernadette, go out to the sidewalk and watch for cops! If you see one, flag him down!"

As Kathleen nervously pulled out Tracy’s phone and dialed 911 with trembling hands, Cherine and Lisa began tearing at the duct tape wrapped around the other woman’s ankles and wrists. They were amazed at how much tape had been used to bind their companion and at how long it took to get it off. Tracy continued to concentrate on the woman’s face, trying to make sure she was breathing and that her air passage was not blocked. It was quite probable that she had inhaled some vomit into her lungs, but there wasn’t much Tracy could do about that. The Pledge Mistress and Lisa held the semi-conscious woman upright as vomit and mucus continued dribbling out of her nose and mouth.

Bernadette came back within a couple of minutes with two cops running behind her. Immediately they took over, one of them grabbing Tracy’s arm and rudely pushing her out of the way. An ambulance pulled up to the entrance of the park, and Bernadette ran back out to flag down the medics.

As for directly helping the victim, the Four-Betas were finished. However, their involvement in the case was far from over. The police ordered the women to get into squad cars to go downtown for questioning.

What started out as a simple good deed turned into an all-night odyssey. The police separated Tracy from the rest of her group and interrogated her about what happened. The cop clearly was very angry, shouting at her that the emergency was the fourth sorority-related alcohol-poisoning incident that week. She held up her hands, "Officer! She’s not my pledge! I don’t know who she is! We just found her, all tied up!"

With that Tracy recited what happened, a story confirmed by the separate interview of each member of the Four-Beta group. It became obvious that the women were telling the truth, partly because of their uniforms, and partly because their health and appearance were nothing like the condition of the young woman in the emergency room.

While the women of the Four-Beta Sorority waited to answer questions and fill out witness declarations, the medics took the poisoning victim to the emergency room where she had her stomach pumped, her lungs cleaned out, and a breathing tube with oxygen inserted into her mouth. She needed to be re-hydrated and get some rest, but soon it became apparent that she narrowly had escaped any lasting damage to her health. Actually, she narrowly escaped dying asphyxiated by her own vomit.

Oddly enough, in spite of her condition, the patient remembered some of the details of her rescue, something about a tall, dark-haired woman pulling the tape off her mouth. She wanted to see her rescuer, partly to thank her, and partly to piece together what happened. She refused to go back to sleep until the hospital contacted the police station to find that dark-haired woman. Finally, at 3:00 a.m. the night nurse relented and placed a call to see if Tracy still was with the police.

Upon getting the phone call, Tracy gave up on the idea that she might get any sleep that night, so she called a taxi and ordered her pledges to return to the sorority. She knew that she was letting them out of her sight for the first time in over a month. However, she did not see how she could avoid going to the hospital and the pledges absolutely had to get some sleep. The pledges, who by that time were accustomed to trailing behind Tracy without interruption, were uneasy about being separated from their mentor, but the need for sleep overrode any other concerns. They were quite glad to be headed back to the sorority.

An officer took Tracy to the hospital and led her to the young woman she had rescued. She was pale and disheveled, but certainly looked much better than she looked when Tracy first saw her in the park. Tracy introduced herself and calmly asked her companion her name. The woman in the bed introduced herself as Brittany. Upon learning her name, the Four-Beta Pledge Mistress asked Brittany how much she remembered about what happened in the park.

"I... I remember you... and choking... and... how dark it was... I guess that’s about it."

"You don’t remember how you got there?"

"Yeah, I kinda do, but it’s a secret. We’re not allowed to talk about it."

"Well, Brittany, I think, since me and my pledge group gave up our night helping you out, you’re gonna have to talk about it, whether you’re allowed to or not. You owe me an explanation. You asked to see me, and I’m here. Now that I’m here, I want to know what the fuck you were doing, drunk and tied up by yourself in a park at 10:30 at night."

None of Brittany’s story surprised Tracy. She was pledging an un-chartered sorority that was one of the Four-Beta Sorority’s bitterest rivals. Brittany’s sorority was everything the Four-Beta’s were not, a smaller, cliquish, rather disorganized group living in a totally trashed house with a social life that mostly revolved around drinking parties and an associated fraternity.

Brittany had undergone two hellish months of various hazing rituals that focused around constant drinking, performing oral sex on fraternity members, and random humiliations. For some reason, tying their pledges with duct tape and leaving them in isolated spots seemed to be a favorite activity of the members of the rival sorority. The park incident was not the first time Brittany had been duct-taped while drunk and left alone for several hours. The previous week she had been duct-taped and left sitting in a pond, and when she finally was pulled out she had several leeches attached to her body.

Tracy’s training as a psychologist and Brittany’s need to talk to someone about her unpleasant life resulted in a very long conversation. Tracy was interested in helping the younger woman and realized that she deeply regretted signing on as a pledge with her sorority. There wasn’t anything Brittany could do, however, because once a freshman committed to pledging, she was prohibited from leaving. The sorority members stated quite plainly that anyone who attempted to leave their pledge program would be beaten up upon leaving the house, and then harassed until she left the university.

As she continued to talk, Brittany realized how much she hated her sorority and the life she had gotten herself into. She was tired of being drunk or hung-over all the time, tired of dealing with drunken fraternity guys, and very worried about the fact she was failing her summer classes.

"I don’t know why I even did this. I’ve had it. I can’t take it anymore... I just... can’t take it anymore..."

There was another concern that Brittany had, a worry that loomed ever larger as her mind cleared of alcohol and she sobered up. Because she had to be rescued by a stranger, undoubtedly she would be beaten up for inadvertently divulging information about her sorority’s hazing practices. She became increasingly scared at what was going to happen once her sorority sisters found out what happened and came to the hospital to pick her up.

Tracy sat back, mulling over her companion’s problems. How stupid, she thought to herself, how stupid. They practically killed this poor girl and now all that’s gonna happen is she’s gonna get beat up. That’s total bullshit.

The matter could have ended at that point, Tracy leaving the hospital and Brittany to her fate. However, simply leaving someone if they wanted assistance was not in Tracy’s nature. She wanted to help, because it was obvious that the freshman needed to extricate herself from her situation but couldn’t do it on her own.

There was a second consideration on Tracy’s mind. As Pledge Mistress, it was her duty to be constantly looking for potential new members for the sorority. If Brittany was unhappy with her current sorority, what was to prevent her from joining the Four-Beta’s? She would have to wait until September to begin formally pledging, but in the meantime she could live at the sorority house, recuperate her health, and try to salvage her grades. Her current sorority would be livid over having one of their pledges defect to a rival sorority and undoubtedly try to strike at her, but so what? To get at Brittany they would have to get into a sorority house guarded by 70 women in excellent physical shape who had taken endless hours of personal defense training.

"You know, at the Four-Beta house we do things totally differently."

"Yeah, I know. They told us all about you."

"Well, did they tell you that at the Four-Beta house we don’t drink? We don’t let our members get drunk, and there’s no way we’d let a pledge touch alcohol. We don’t even allow alcohol on our property. During the semester, if we catch anyone drinking, they get put on probation. We catch ‘em drinking again, and they get kicked out. We catch anyone with drugs, they’re gone immediately. We don’t want any of that shit in our lives."

"Yeah, they all make fun of you because of it."

"And you think the way you do things is better?"

"No. I mean, I thought the drinking would be fun, but it’s not. I feel like shit, all the time I feel like shit, and I’m sick of it."

"We don’t let our members feel like shit. We exercise and eat right so we don’t feel like shit. Life’s too short to live feeling like shit."

Brittany said nothing, but her blank teary stare clearly expressed what was on her mind. She knew that she had pledged the wrong sorority. Tracy continued, "Academics is another thing we don’t slack on. My sorority’s grade point average is 3.7. We bust our asses making sure we get good grades, because that’s why we’re here at the university, to go to class. You can’t put down how many keg parties you’ve been to on a resume, so we don’t waste our time with that shit."

Brittany sat silent. Then she noticed a tiny detail that would change the course of her life. Adhesive from the duct tape still was stuck to her wrist. She wanted it off and began picking at it. Tracy commented, "Having duct tape stuck on your wrists is your choice. You could make this the last time you ever have to pick duct tape off yourself, because we don’t do that to our pledges."

"But... I can’t quit."

"Why not?"

"Because... I..."

Suddenly Tracy’s words "you could make this the last time you ever have to pick duct tape off yourself, because we don’t do that to our pledges" registered in Brittany’s mind. She looked up.

"Brittany, I’m issuing an invitation for you to come with me to the Four-Beta house, because it doesn’t bother me in the least to grab a pledge from another sorority. You’re not happy where you are right now, so I’m giving you a chance to get out."

"You mean, like... join the Four-Beta’s?"

"What I mean is initiating the process of becoming a Four-Beta pledge. Your formal training wouldn’t start until September. Before that, there’s a lot of shit in your life you’ve gotta fix, starting with your classes. If you come with me, I can tell you exactly what you’re gonna be doing tonight. You’re gonna sit your ass down in the Four-Beta library and start getting caught up with your coursework. We can’t let you pledge if your grades are fucked up."

The thought of spending a night quietly studying, not drinking or being subjected to beer bongs, not having to suck some guy’s dick, not having to be tied up and dumped somewhere, not being insulted or kicked...

The thought of a having peaceful productive evening sealed Brittany’s decision to leave the hospital with the no-nonsense woman who had saved her life.

President Alexandra showed up at the hospital a few minutes later driving a Tri-Alpha minivan. She carried an extra T-shirt and shorts for her fellow officer, knowing that Tracy’s clothing was completely soiled from her encounter with the woman she rescued. Instead of putting the clothing on herself, she directed Brittany to get dressed and put her own reeking clothes into a hospital bag. She quickly explained to Alexandra that Brittany would accompany them back to the sorority. When she heard Brittany’s story, Alexandra quickly agreed to take the in wayward pledge as a guest and prospective member.

Just as the sun came up and the three women were leaving the hospital, a security guard ran up to the group and told them that Tracy had to go back to the police station to resubmit her declaration. She took a deep breath and objected, "But I already gave a declaration. Why do I have to go back?"

"They can’t find it, and they’re planning send some officers over to talk to that sorority about the drinking violations. They need your statement because they might be writing up some arrest warrants."

"Look. I got class. I got my own pledges to deal with. I’d be happy to come back later..."

"You gotta go, now. I’m told to get you and that’s what I’m here for. You don’t have no choice."

Both Brittany and Tracy were very worried about the turn in events that would force them to separate. Instead of going to back to campus with Tracy, she had to go with someone she had just met and tell her story all over again. Tracy was worried about something far more serious. If she didn’t make it back to campus soon, Heather would be left in charge of the pledge group.

To her credit, Alexandra quickly sympathized with Brittany. She was easy to talk to and her diplomatic way of expressing herself contrasted with Tracy’s bluntness and military vocabulary. Brittany had to retell her story, but soon it became obvious that Alexandra was just as determined to extricate her from her drunken sorority as was Tracy.

As she rode back to the university with Brittany, the Four-Beta president made a series of calls from her cell phone. The first calls were to the professors of the two classes that Tracy had to miss that morning. She simply told a portion of the truth, that her Pledge Mistress had to help a patient suffering from alcohol poisoning. After the calls to the professors came a call to the Four-Beta chapter vice-president to prepare an orientation packet for a prospective pledge. When the president hung up she turned to her companion, "You’ll need to formally interview the sorority officers once we get back to the Four-Beta House and start reading the orientation package. However, I want you to just take a quick look at it, because we’re more worried about your finals. You’ll have plenty of time to deal with orientation at the end of August."

As she sat listening to Alexandra’s words, Brittany realized the seriousness of what she was doing. Her new mentor was not kidding in the least: she really was about to change sororities.

Alexandra asked Brittany the names of her professors and called each to make an appointment for the afternoon. By the time she hung up, the two women already were on campus. While they waited to talk to the first of the freshman’s three instructors, Alexandra got on a computer to access her campus account and pulled up a letter, on formal Four-Beta letterhead, which Brittany would have to sign as an official resignation from her sorority. She pulled up a second letter that Brittany would sign to authorize any Four-Beta officer to go to her former sorority and retrieve her personal property. The two women would take both letters to the university’s student center to have them notarized. That night, while Brittany was studying, her Pledge Mistress or Sergeant-at-Arms would go over to the rival sorority to get her things. Undoubtedly there would be a nasty confrontation and possibly a physical fight, but Tracy would be presenting legal documents and the weight of the law would be on her side. If need be, she could return with a cop.

There was one final call Alexandra made on behalf of Brittany, a call to her parents. The president dialed and handed the phone to her companion, "I expect you to let them know what happened and why you’re getting out of your sorority. They’ll find out anyway, when their insurance gets billed, so I think the explanation about the ER charges ought to come from you. When you’re done, you can put me on, if you want."

"President Alexandra, please! I can’t..."

"It’s ringing. When they pick up, you’d better start talking."

Brittany discovered that Alexandra’s demand that she talk to her parents immediately actually was the best thing she could have done. She didn’t have time to think up any stories or soften what had happened to her the night before. Within 15 minutes Brittany’s parents learned more about how she had spent her summer semester than they had found out during the prior two months of listening to her brief, evasive conversations. Needless to say, they were quite horrified.

Finally Brittany’s mother asked to speak to the Four-Beta chapter president. Brittany handed over the phone and listened to Alexandra’s side of the conversation, "Yes, ma’am... I’m the Four-Beta chapter president... No, ma’am I wasn’t there, it was my Pledge Mistress who picked her up... No, ma’am, we’ll let her stay at the house, but she’s not exactly going to be a pledge... Well, the reason for that is her grades. She’ll need to pass her summer classes to be eligible to formally pledge, which is what we’re going to check on in a few minutes... I’ll see if she’s got any hope of passing her classes; that’s what’ll decide whether or not we can let her pledge... I understand that, ma’am, but academic performance is a prerequisite for joining the Four-Betas, and we’re inflexible about that... No ma’am, we don’t drink... Well, that’s them. We’re different because we don’t allow alcohol... No ma’am, none at all. We don’t allow it... Yes ma’am, we do haze our pledges, but not in the way your daughter was being hazed. Most of what they do involves exercising and studying... Not really, it’s not that big of a secret. Our prospective members get an orientation packet that explains what we expect from them... I guess the best way to describe it is that it’s kinda like Basic Training in the military, especially with the Pledge Mistress we have right now. She’s been in the Army and... Once again, ma’am, I’m not sure. It depends on whether or not she can pass her classes... Yes ma’am, if she stays with us we’ll do what we can to help her pass. We’ve got some pretty good tutors and she’s still got three weeks, but a lot of it’ll depend on what I hear from her professors in a few minutes..."

An hour later Alexandra and Brittany had their answer. Although she was failing all three classes, there was hope she could pass two of them just by doing very well on the final. The third professor was a man who had spoken with the Four-Beta president several times in the past and liked her. He was willing to allow Brittany to re-submit a poorly-written term paper, which, combined with a high score in her final could conceivably give her enough to get "C-".

"There’s your answer. If you work hard enough over the next three weeks you can salvage your semester."

Alexandra took Brittany to the Four-Beta house and ordered a sophomore to give her lunch in the kitchen. As the visitor peeked out the window she had a bit of a shock; all of the women in the pool area were completely naked. Wow! So that part of Four-Beta life isn’t an urban legend after-all, thought Brittany to herself. They really do run around with nothing on.

After lunch Alexandra turned Brittany over to her sophomore class leader. Elaine took her companion to the basement, issued her a toothbrush, a towel, a pair of Four-Beta pledge shorts, and an unmarked T-shirt. She ordered Brittany to clean up.

The final step was the formal interview with President Alexandra, her vice president, and the sorority’s social director. Alexandra’s calm, serious manner of talking helped put Brittany at ease and gave her hope that her time with the Four-Beta sorority would be more productive than her time with her former sorority. The interview ended with Brittany signing "an intent to pledge" statement, which gave her provisional status and the right to stay in the house as a guest over the next three weeks. Because she was not yet officially a pledge, she did not have to strip or kneel when talking to members. However, she had to have an escort at all times and was not permitted to use any of the amenities such as the pool. For the next three weeks, the only purpose in her life would be to get caught up in her classes. She would have to study as though her life depended on passing her classes, which in fact, it did.

"OK, Brittany, it’s library time! I’ll pair you up with one of our members who’s taken your expository writing class, and you can get started on that one first. You’ll have to ask her permission to do anything, and that includes going to the bathroom or getting a drink of water. When Pledge Mistress Tracy gets back, she’ll be the one in charge of your day-to-day life."

While Brittany was settling in, Tracy spent several anxious hours at the police station. She had to wait to give her statement, then was interviewed at length about what happened the night before, then told to wait again.

After lunch, a cop from the university police department interviewed her yet again. Upon finding out that Brittany was staying at the Four-Beta house, he asked Tracy if she thought she could get the freshman to give a second declaration to the university police. Finally, Tracy found out why both police departments were so interested in talking to her,

"We’ve been trying to get that sorority for the past four years, ever since the death of the Thompson girl. If we can get you and Brittany to testify, we’ve finally got what we need to nail ‘em. I say that, because in the past they’ve always intimidated their witnesses."

Tracy smiled, "Well, Officer; they won’t be intimidating me. And they won’t be able to get at Brittany, ‘cause our pledges are always escorted. I’ll help you nail ‘em."

"So, she’s going to be joining your sorority?"

"I guess she’s gonna have to."

Finally, at 3:00 in the afternoon Tracy left the police station. She was desperate to get back to the Four-Beta house, very worried about what might happen between Heather and Lisa. Shannon picked her up in a Tri-Alpha minivan. Tracy ordered the junior to get into the passenger seat and got behind the wheel. She needed to return to the Four-Beta house quickly, and felt that Shannon was too cautious a driver.

"We’ve gotta get back, before Lisa gets out of class. She’s gonna be fucked if we don’t."

The trip out of downtown was quite slow, because already rush-hour traffic was clogging the roads that led out to the university. As the Pledge Mistress crossed several suburbs and approached her destination, the roads cleared, but then the Four-Beta officers realized they had a much more serious problem to contend with. They were being followed by three carloads of young women. Tracy recognized some of the group as officers from Brittany’s sorority.

"Call Alexandra. We’ve got company."

"What are we gonna do?"

"Just tell her where we are. Be quick about it. We’re too far from the Four-Beta house for anyone to help us. Let her know what’s happening and that we’ll give her another call when we’re done."

Shannon nervously dialed, knowing that, as soon as she hung up, Tracy planned to pull to a stop and confront the women following them. Great. That’s what we need, she thought to herself, a fight against a dozen drunks. However, Shannon knew that the Pledge Mistress was not one to back away from battle, especially if it involved protecting the life of another person.

While Shannon was on the phone, one of the cars following them raced past the Tri-Alpha van. A beer bottle narrowly missed Tracy head, instead slamming against the window behind her and smashing it. The other driver quickly pulled in front of the van and jammed her brakes as hard as she could, but Tracy anticipated that and hit her own brakes as hard as possible. The van screeched, but narrowly avoided hitting the car in front. Instead, Tracy and Shannon got rear-ended by the carload of women still behind them. They were struck quite hard, the force of the impact shattering the van’s back window. The airbags in the car ramming the Four-Betas deployed, stunning its occupants.

Already the assault by Brittany’s sorority was not going according to plan.

Tracy put the minivan in park and turned off the ignition. Both women jumped out, knowing that it was vital for them not to get separated. Three sets of car doors opened and a dozen women charged the Four-Betas. Tracy calmly commented to Shannon,

"OK, it’s show-time. Let ‘em go first. I don’t want to give ‘em a chance to say we assaulted them."

At first it seemed that the odds were totally against Tracy and Shannon, given that there were only two of them against 12 assailants. However both of the Four-Betas were in top physical shape and had taken hours of personal defense training. On top of her Four-Beta training, Tracy had taken several courses from the Army in hand-to-hand combat and was a brown belt in karate. Their opponents’ unexercised bodies were trashed by several years of hard drinking and partying. None of them had any hope of matching either of the Four-Betas one-on-one. On top of that, two members of the group were stunned from being hit in the face by airbags. The fight was much more evenly matched than the assailants realized.

The rival Pledge Mistress started by swinging a tequila bottle at Tracy, which she neatly blocked. The bottle flew out of her opponent’s hand and shattered on the street. Two other women moved on Shannon, only to have the wind knocked out of them by fast punches to the solar plexus. Tracy’s foot landed hard into the stomach of another assailant, doubling her in pain and sending her staggering against the side of the minivan. She fell to the ground and vomited, clearly out of the fight. The largest woman from the rival group grabbed Tracy from behind, but the Pledge Mistress dropped, leaving her opponent’s face exposed to a fierce punch from Shannon. Shannon’s fist rammed hard into her opponent’s nose, breaking it and forcing her to loosen her grip on Tracy. Tracy finished her off with a savage blow with her elbow to the stomach. Another assailant managed to land a punch on Shannon’s mouth and cut her lip, but she countered with a much more effective blow to the stomach that incapacitated her. Tracy then landed a beautifully executed karate kick into the chin of yet another assailant, sending her staggering backwards onto the pavement.

The members of the rival sorority realized that they were not winning the melee. However, they kept at it, motivated by hatred, adrenaline, and alcohol. Within a few seconds two more of the assailants had the wind knocked out of them and another was stunned from a cruel blow from Tracy’s foot to the side of her head. As for the Four-Beta’s, Tracy had taken several blows to the face that would leave bruises, but nothing that diminished her ability to swing her fists and feet. Shannon’s lip was bleeding, but that was her only injury.

The wail of a siren and flashing lights put a quick end to the street fight. A cop jumped out of his car, pulled his gun, and screamed at everyone to "freeze" and get on the ground. The women gasped for breath as several additional squad cars pulled up. Moments later all 14 combatants were sitting on the pavement in handcuffs, awaiting transportation to a nearby police station.

Chapter 35 -- Heather's window of opportunity

While Tracy was absent dealing with the affairs of the newest resident of the Four-Beta house, Lisa found out the hard way what it was like not to be under her protection. Sergeant-at-Arms Heather perceived a small window of opportunity to force Lisa to quit the sorority, and had every intention of pursuing it. Lisa was going to get out of class early that day, which would give the Sergeant-at-Arms some time to try to break her.

That morning, as Heather and the pledges neared the Economics Building, the Sergeant-at-Arms had something ominous to say, "Pledge, I have some real problems with your performance. We can deal with it this afternoon, when I pick you up. I’ll have you to myself for a while, so that’ll give you something to look forward to."

"Yes, ma’am."

At 3:00 p.m. the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms returned to retrieve Lisa. As she went to her knees, Lisa remembered Heather’s promise of "dealing with" the problems she had the day before due to her fatigue. A quick glimpse of Heather’s face indicated that no, she had nor forgotten what she had said earlier in the day.

The first detail that worried Lisa was what Heather was wearing. Heather normally dressed in cargo pants and Four-Beta blouses whenever on campus, but that afternoon she was wearing a light T-shirt, old jogging shorts, and a pair of beach sandals. She carried neither a purse nor a backpack. Instead, she was carrying an umbrella. Lisa realized that she had dressed with the expectation of getting wet. Lisa’s concern mounted when Heather told her to leave her backpack and books in Burnside’s office.

Lisa reluctantly followed Heather out of the Economics Building and onto a sidewalk leading to the old part of campus. Without saying a word, the Sergeant-at-Arms abruptly walked into a grassy area that was used for impromptu rugby games, and thus very muddy.

Heather suddenly screamed at Lisa to get into the front-leaning-rest position. Lisa quickly complied, realizing with horror that the sorority officer’s shouting had just drawn the attention of several dozen students who happened to be walking around the area. As a growing audience of young people stood watching, Heather’s voice snarled:

"ONE... TWO... THREE..."

"One!"

"ONE... TWO... THREE..."

"Two!"

"ONE... TWO... THREE..."

"Three!"

"ONE... TWO... THREE..."

When Lisa became too tired to continue doing pushups, Heather ordered her on her back to do sit-ups, apparently not in the least concerned that it was quite obvious that Lisa’s thong had pushed to one side, leaving her crotch partially exposed every time she sat up. Lisa struggled to do the exercises and tried to ignore the guys staring at her with incredulous, aroused expressions. There were yet more push-ups and then more sit-ups, and finally a horrible exercise called "the dying cockroach" which required Lisa to lie on her back, put her feet in the air, and move her legs as though she were pedaling an invisible bicycle.

When Lisa’s body gave out the unhappy session ended, but now her uniform was filthy and covered with grass stains. Her skin was saturated with sweat and her body stunk because she had not been allowed to use deodorant. In front of the spectators, Heather got in her face and snarled, "You’re a disgrace, Pledge! An absolute fucking disgrace! What’s this shit with your uniform? You call yourself a Four-Beta looking like that? Come-on, Pledge, let’s get some answers! What gives you the fucking right to disgrace your uniform with this filth?"

Heather punctuated her last sentence with several vicious pokes to Lisa’s chest.

"I was exercising, ma’am! That’s why I got dirty, ma’am!"

"So we have a little piggie who likes to roll in the dirt, don’t we? OK, little piggie who likes to roll in the dirt, how about some low-crawling?"

Lisa looked at Heather in horror. Low-crawling?

"Come-on little piggie, LOW-CRAWL! NOW!"

Lisa, still dismayed at how quickly Heather’s fury had escalated, did as she was told. In the hot afternoon sun she lay down on the wet ground and began dragging herself towards the sidewalk. Before she had gone very far her entire front was covered with mud and grass stains that would be almost impossible to get out. Her hair clips came undone and grass blades worked their way into her hair. More grass worked its way into her shirt and under her thong. Her white tennis shoes were covered with mud, along with her hands and knees.

"Not low enough, Pledge! Not low enough! You’d better show me some real low crawling, just like that butch Tracy would do in the Army! Imagine you got people shooting at you from the tree line! Come-on soldier, let’s see some REAL low-crawling!"

"REAL low-crawling" actually meant dragging herself on the ground. The minutes dragged by as Lisa worked her way towards the sidewalk. The entire perspective of her world changed, given that she was at eye level with the grass and her spectators seemed to tower in the distance.

Suddenly she heard a hiss and noticed everyone quickly moving away towards the sidewalk. Heather calmly opened her umbrella. The automatic sprinklers were coming on. In a voice mocking Tracy’s manner of talking she shouted, "Keep moving, Pledge! You know the deal! It’s just mind over matter! If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!"

Within seconds Lisa’s clothing was soaked and clung tightly to her skin. Her shirt was getting pulled out of shape and she had difficulty keeping her thong up. Her movement became even more difficult because she had to grab her thong with one hand to keep it from coming off completely. Heather, in spite her umbrella, was soaked as well, but at least she was not covered in mud.

"On your back, Pledge!" As Lisa rolled on her back, Heather suddenly folded her umbrella and threw it to her. Again mocking Tracy’s voice she shouted: "Here’s your weapon, soldier! Both hands on the weapon!"

Lisa’s shoulders ground into the mud, now that she no longer could use her arms to support herself. The water from the sprinklers hit her in the face and went up her nose, making her cough. Worst of all, she felt her thong working its way down her hips. She let go of the umbrella to pull it up, only to have Heather get in her face and scream, "DO NOT LET GO OF YOUR WEAPON, SOLDIER! DO NOT LET GO OF YOUR WEAPON!"

Lisa gritted her teeth and thought to herself: OK, fine, you nasty bitch! If my thong comes off and we get arrested, it’s your fault!

As she moved through the mud and the water continued hitting her in the face, the soggy ground grabbed Lisa’s thong and pulled it down her thighs. There were a few whistles from the spectators, but Lisa ignored them. She kicked off the garment and continued moving. Heather yelled at Lisa to roll on her stomach and keep moving. Lisa was now bottomless, but she was so completely covered in mud that it was hard to tell what she was or was not wearing. Heather grabbed the thong off the ground and followed her as the sprinklers continued to saturate both of them.

Finally Lisa made it to the sidewalk and Heather ordered her to "recover". She handed over the thong and with difficulty Lisa managed to pull it up over her muddy legs. She knelt, assuming the "position of submission and respect", although at that moment she hated Heather more than she had ever hated anyone in her life. Heather calmly stripped off her shirt (she was wearing a sports-bra underneath), wrung it out over Lisa’s head, and put it back on. She kicked the mud out of her sandals and ordered Lisa to stand up and continue following her back to the sorority.

Lisa’s body shook from muscle fatigue and the horrible stress and embarrassment she had endured over the last hour. However, there was more humiliation coming, because Heather casually led her pledge along the crowded sidewalks past several blocks of businesses. Tears welled up in Lisa’s eyes as hundreds of people stared at her. Heather’s wet clothing drew some attention as well, but not nearly as much as her mud-covered companion. The worst part of the walk was having to hold up her thong with one hand, because the elastic waistband was stretched and ruined.

Heather then did something that shocked Lisa, because it was a clear violation of Four-Beta pledge policy and indicated that she was not thinking straight. She took her pledge to a fraternity, but it was not the Tri-Alpha house. Instead it was one of the university’s worst drinking fraternities, one that had survived scandal after scandal involving under-aged drinking, drug use, and date rapes. She ordered Lisa to lie facedown on the ground and ripped off her thong. The young woman was left lying in the front yard, bottomless and covered in mud.

A moment later the entire group came out led by Heather and some disheveled guy who seemed to be in charge of the others. Heather and the fraternity leader were carrying paddles. Most of the others were carrying beer bottles. The Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms bent down and whispered into Lisa’s ear, "Welcome to Hell Week, Pledge. We didn’t mention this, ‘cause it’s our little pledging secret. Surprise!"

Lisa was terrified, but tried to assess what was going on. It was obvious that Heather was lying. No one from the Four-Beta House even knew any of these guys, which probably was why the Sergeant-at-Arms had brought her over here. Had she taken a pledge in Lisa’s condition to the Tri-Alpha Fraternity, there was no question a Triple-A immediately would have called the Four-Beta House to find out what was going on.

Before Lisa had time to react, four guys grabbed her to tie her hands and feet. She screamed, but Heather slipped a burlap sack over her head and tied it shut. The guys then picked her up and carried her to the back yard. She heard Heather’s voice, "OK, little piggie, time to get slaughtered."

With that Lisa heard the snip of a pair of scissors and felt her Four-Beta pledge uniform shirt being torn from her body. Panic swept through her as she suddenly wondered if she was about to be killed. Rough hands pulled her off the ground and bent her over a picnic table. She felt a couple of ropes go over her back and secure her to the surface. She was immobilized, bent over, exposed, and horribly vulnerable.

"Wash her off."

For several minutes a high-powered jet of water painfully worked its way over the pledge’s body, clearing the mud and leaving her tanned skin and shapely figure totally exposed. The water saturated the burlap sack, making it difficult to breathe. The fear of suffocation drove her to near panic, overriding her fear of what Heather was about to do to her.

For the first time in her life Lisa was totally helpless. Those guys could do anything they wanted and she already took it for granted that she was about to be gang-raped. She would be gang-raped, and probably suffer a bunch of other horrible indignities as well. There no longer was anything she could do to prevent that. Her only hope was to try to survive the ordeal, somehow escape, and get even at some point in the future.

As Lisa tried to control her panic and resist the urge to scream, she heard Heather’s voice,

"You’ve had this coming for a long time, Pledge. Now I’m gonna get you, and there’s nothing your butch soldier-girl can do about it. And you wanna know why?"

Lisa said nothing. Heather grabbed one of her fingers and viciously twisted it backwards until she screamed.

"You wanna know why? Because she’s sitting in jail right now. That’s why soldier-girl’s not gonna help you. She’s sitting in jail. Now doesn’t that suck?"

With that Heather released Lisa’s finger and landed a vicious kick at her vulnerable backside.

Again panic welled up inside Lisa as a sinister metallic taste formed in her dry throat. Now she no longer doubted that Heather was about to have her killed. No, this was not a simple afternoon of hazing torment. This was it, the end of her life. Lisa knew that even had she wanted to, Heather could not go back. It was too late, because already she had violated several of the Four-Beta Sorority’s most fundamental rules. The guys couldn’t go back either. Already they were guilty of kidnapping and assault. Within a few minutes rape would be added to their list of crimes. Lisa knew, once they were done with her, they would have to silence her.

Again Lisa heard Heather’s voice, "You’ve had this coming all summer, bitch. Now I’m gonna fuck you up."

Lisa felt the sharp blow of a paddle against her bottom and the cheering of several drunk guys. There was a pause...

"You want to take a shot?"

There was another pause and Lisa felt a second crack against her bottom. For the next several minutes the guys took turns with the paddle as Heather screamed, "Hit her harder, you fucking wimp! Come-on...let her have it!"

At best Lisa could hope to live just a few more very painful hours. She would be paddled, then raped, then humiliated, and finally put out of her misery. The group had not yet made a formal decision to kill her, but that was only a matter of time. If she got away she’d talk, so the only logical way to silence her would be by making her disappear.

At that point, only a miracle would save Lisa Campbell. Egged on by testosterone, drugs, alcohol, and a woman whose thoughts were distorted by hatred and jealousy, the shared psychology of the group would escalate until its captive was reduced to a battered corpse that needed to be dumped somewhere. Only later would anyone have time to reflect on what had happened, when it was too late.

It turned out that Lisa was very lucky that day, because she got her miracle.

Her reprieve came from a fraternity sophomore called Josh Hardin. Josh was a psychology major and was taking a seminar from Tracy. He had seen Lisa several times with his TA, so she was not just an anonymous face to him. Also, just the week before he had read an assigned article about the role of group psychology in mass murder that was still fresh in his thoughts. Finally, he had just returned from class and had not yet started drinking. With no alcohol in his brain, he was able to think straight the one time in his life when it really mattered.

Josh was not the stereotype of a hero, but that afternoon he had a chance to go against his instincts and avoid following his group into its moral abyss. He knew that what was going on in his fraternity's back yard matched Tracy's article word for word. He wanted no part in what was happening to Lisa Campbell and decided to put a stop to it. He took a deep breath, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and called the police. In doing so he knew he was ending his association with his fraternity, but at least he would not be going to jail like the others.

About 15 minutes after the tormenting of Lisa began; the house’s battered back door flew open.

"POLICE! EVERYBODY FREEZE! NOW!"

"WE SAID FREEZE! PUT THOSE BOTTLES DOWN!"

"GET ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND!"

"DON’T DO IT, HOTSHOT! DON’T FUCKIN’ DO IT! PUT IT DOWN, NOW!"

"GET ON THE GROUND!"

Heather got on the ground along with the others.

A cop pulled the burlap bag off Lisa’s head and began struggling to loosen the ropes restraining her hands. She exchanged glances with Josh, the only member of the fraternity not lying on the ground in handcuffs. She recognized him, and realized that he must have been the one who called the police.

It wasn’t until she had her mug shot taken that Heather fully comprehended what she had just done to herself.

Heather still saw life from a very self-centered perspective and only in terms of how things affected her social standing and ambitions. However, even from her selfish world-view she could understand that her obsession with the Four-Beta presidency had ruined her life. The promise of power had her under its spell. The spell, now that its damage was done, was lifting from her soul, leaving her with nothing but horrified emptiness and a lifetime of regret.

With that thought Heather, soon to be the ousted and disgraced former Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms, stared into the police camera with glassy eyes.