Lisa returned to the Four-Beta house to find Kathleen and the pledges in the sorority library. Kathleen had finished her lesson for the day, but Lisa was pleased to see that she had improvised by having the pledges look over the sorority’s collection of pictures from its earliest years in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Lisa took charge of the group and ordered them into the yard for an exercise and swimming break. The group had dinner with the few sophomores and juniors who were staying in the sorority house during the break in classes.
While the pledges were eating, Tracy approached Lisa and reminded her about the upcoming volleyball tournament. Using a rather unpleasant tone of voice, she pointed out that several days had gone by since the last practice, "If you want to make fools out of yourselves, go right ahead. If I were you, I’d bust my ass with that ball."
While Lisa and the other members of the volleyball team practiced in the back yard, Tracy took charge of Brittany and Erin and gave them a course about the fundamentals of self-defense. She put them through drills and kept them busy with rigorous exercising until 10:00. By the time the newcomers collapsed on their cots, the volleyball team had finished their practice. The day ended when Jacob came by to take Cherine and Bernadette back to Huntington Hall. Meanwhile, Tracy ordered Lisa and Kathleen to join her in the sorority office to help her write up the training log for the day, "So far, they’ve done extremely well under you and I’m impressed, not only with their performance, but also with yours. You work very well together switching off responsibilities and training. You concept of time management is really good and you’ve covered a lot of stuff in just a few days. I want to push them a bit harder with PT, but apart from that the way you’ve handled them has been exemplary."
Tracy then dismissed Kathleen by telling her to check on the pledges and make sure the volleyball supplies were put away. Once she was alone with Lisa, she directed the sophomore’s attention to a stack of folders containing the records of prospective pledges for the fall semester.
"Rush week is gonna be very busy for all of us, because this year we’ve got a bunch of serious pledge candidates. So far we’ve got 33 freshmen who’ve picked the Four-Beta Sorority as their first choice. Think about it, 33 freshmen. That’s enough to fill a classroom. If we get them all to sign up as pledges, we’ll lose a few through attrition, I’m sure. Even so, I doubt it’d be more than eight or so, if we go with the drop-out averages from the last couple of years. So for the December swearing-in, we might be looking at a total of about 25 new members."
"Wow... and you had your hands full with just four of us."
"It’s always rougher in the fall, for everyone, just ‘cause the groups are so much bigger. That’s why we’ve started doing summer pledging, to try to split up the crush of new members. Also we’re trying to get a few new freshmen on board in August so they can help out in September."
"Like us, from the summer group?"
"Yes. I’ll need all four of you helping out with the fall group. I think we’ve got a good start, because I’ve already got you and Kathleen on board with training. I’ve also got Bernadette. She wanted to be class leader so badly, so now she’s got a chance to put her money where her mouth is. That’s gonna be important, we’ve got to get a training staff set up, before Rush Week. You guys are gonna have to be ready to go as soon as the new group comes in. I mean... like, totally ready to hit the ground running."
Tracy handed several pledge packets to Lisa to look over and continued, "When I become chapter president, I want to implement some changes with pledging. I want more mentors for the fall groups, and I want the entire directorate to be involved in pledge training. I can tell you, with this big group of new pledges we’ve got coming in, we’re gonna have a real crisis on our hands if just two officers are running their training. With 33 pledges, having one Pledge Mistress and one Sergeant-at-Arms as the chain of command just isn’t gonna cut it. It’s the way we’ve always done pledging, but girls are slipping through the cracks, and I want that to stop. We don’t need to have girls slipping through the cracks, and we won’t if we can do a better job with the fall groups and keep everyone motivated."
"So, there’s gonna be more than one Pledge Mistress?"
"No, not exactly. What I want is more members participating so the pledging experience is more tightly-knit and personal. My idea is that the Pledge Mistress will have a staff of assistants, or counselors. Each counselor would be assigned a group of five pledges. I want those groups to be small, I want each group made up of compatible personalities, and I want to make the pledges depend on each other. The Pledge Mistress will have formal progress meetings twice a week with the counselors, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and the chapter president. I want things structured better because I also plan to make the pledging experience more intense and cram in some more training."
"More intense? You think it needs to be more intense?"
"Yes, there’s always stuff we can add. But I think additional training is where we can personalize things a bit. For example, what if we have 20 pledges who know how to dance, but 10 who don’t? My idea is to give the 10 pledges dance lessons, but have the other 20 doing something else so they’re not wasting their time. Who would teach dancing? One of the full members, or better yet, a Tri-Alpha. That would get lots of people directly involved and force them to have a personal interest in the well-being of the pledges, which I think has been lacking. That’s my idea of expanding the pledge program."
Lisa nodded. What Tracy said made sense.
"When we finally hold the election, I’ll need to explain all this before the others vote. It wouldn’t be fair to have everyone vote for me and then dump all this responsibility on the members. I’ll need to let them know if they elect me, my expectation will be that they’re gonna have to do some real work. I plan to let them know up front if they want to relax, then they’d better elect someone else."
Two days later the Tri-Alpha swearing-in ceremony was celebrated. The fraternity members were dressed in suits and the visiting Four-Beta’s were dressed in formal gowns. The male pledges still were naked, but would be allowed to get dressed as soon as they swore in. Lisa, like all of the other women present, was dressed formally. On the rare occasions she wore her gown, she always enjoyed the dramatic change in her appearance. Kathleen also was in the formal gown she had bought earlier in the year for her Senior Prom, but Lisa did not think the dress looked right on her thin, muscular body.
Unlike the ominous cult-like atmosphere of the sorority’s swearing-in ceremony, the fraternity’s swearing-in ceremony was very upbeat and boisterous. There were several rounds of singing, followed by the final round of spankings of the pledge season. The spankings were more in fun and certainly no big deal in comparison with some of the discipline the male pledges had faced over the summer. Each pledge had to choose a member of the Four-Beta Sorority to give him an over-the-lap spanking in front of the cheering audience. Following the spankings there would be a final group picture of the pledges, swearing in, and lastly a formal dinner during which the new members would have to withstand the re-telling of some of the funnier stories from their pledging experiences.
As soon as Lisa found out about the spanking portion of the Tri-Alpha swearing-in ceremony, she wrote a quick note to pass to Ken:
If you want to prove your love to me, you will pick Kathleen
to smack your butt.
Lisa
When Ken unfolded the note and read it, he gave Lisa a bewildered look. She nodded back to him with an expression that clearly stated, "do it."
Of course, Ken obliged. When his turn came to choose which member of the sorority would take him over her lap, he chose Kathleen. The freshman’s eyes went wide with surprise and apprehension. Lisa patted her on the bottom through her dress and whispered into her ear, "Just a little reminder of what you two can expect from me. You’d better spank him good."
Kathleen was very nervous as Ken, who was considerably taller than she was, settled across her lap. However, with the looming threat of Lisa’s disapproval motivating her to "spank him good", Kathleen started administering some very sharp slaps to her subject’s bottom. As his backside turned a deeper shade of pink, Ken’s penis began to stiffen and pressed into Kathleen’s thigh. He was thoroughly embarrassed, but at the same time he was enjoying himself. Being spanked by Kathleen was a totally new experience and one that he found very exciting.
However, the spanking dragged on because Kathleen was very concerned about further displeasing Lisa over Ken. Also, she was strong and had plenty of endurance in her arms from constantly exercising. Before long, the spanking went from pleasurable to quite painful without any sign that she was about to stop. The barrage of slaps continued as Ken winced and became worried about staying quiet.
Every so often Kathleen glanced up at Lisa to make sure that her mistress wanted her to continue. Lisa was very pleased, because she knew that Kathleen was learning to do exactly what she was told to do, even when it involved another person. The decision to stop Ken’s spanking lay not with Ken or Kathleen, but with Lisa. That was what Lisa wanted from her lover.
Finally, when Ken’s bottom was dark red and Kathleen was clearly tiring, Lisa made a "T" with her hands to indicate that her lover had permission to stop. Pledge Master Arnold commented, "Let’s hear a hand for Kathleen!"
As the audience applauded, Ken staggered to his feet, clearly shocked at the rough treatment he had received at the hands of Lisa’s friend. He was not reassured in the least when he looked over at his girlfriend and saw the satisfied expression on her face.
Once the spankings were completed, it was time for the Tri-Alphas to swear in. The five remaining pledges lined up facing the chapter president with their five spanked bottoms turned towards the audience. The Four-Betas took lots of pictures; because it’s not every day one gets the chance to photograph five naked spanked male bottoms lined up in front of a crowd of well-dressed spectators.
After swearing in was completed, there was a break to allow the five new Tri-Alphas to clean up and put on their suits, while the rest of the fraternity set up for dinner in the back yard. The new members, looking very strange now that they were dressed for the first time since the end of May, sat together next to the chapter president while some of the funnier moments of pledging were re-lived. Once the "roast" was over, it was time to eat.
The guys now were full members of the fraternity. Three of them would celebrate by having sex with various members of the sorority. The gay guy quickly paired off with his former Pledge Master and the couple disappeared into the fraternity house.
As for Ken, he knew better than to accept the advances of anyone other than Lisa. She approached him and was about to claim him for the evening when Tracy walked up. It was clear that she was in the mood to "borrow" him for the evening. Lisa decided to accommodate her friend and teach Ken a lesson, "You do exactly what she tells you."
With that she walked off. As Tracy took Ken upstairs, he realized the significance of what had just happened. Lisa considered him her property, free to use or lend out to others as she saw fit.
The following Sunday was set aside for volleyball practice. Lisa thought of an idea that made her smack herself in the forehead for not thinking of it earlier. Why not have her team members practice with the juniors from last year’s team? She approached Shannon, who readily volunteered the players who had not gone home for the break. Lisa also decided to have Brittany and Erin participate in the practices, partly to see if either of them played well, and partly to force them to spend the entire day exercising. It turned out that Brittany was a good player. Erin was not as good as Brittany, but Lisa felt that she could play well enough to serve as an alternate.
The annual Sorority Sports League volleyball tournament was a campus tradition that went back to the 1960’s. Little had changed over four decades, because the sororities still used the traditional 15-point scoring system and played according to pre-1999 rules. The event was held during the second week of September, which was the week prior to Rush Week. The games took place over a very intense five-day period, starting with elimination matches running from Wednesday until Friday. Matches held on Saturday narrowed the finalists down to four. Two games were played Saturday night to determine the first, second, third, and fourth-ranked teams. On Sunday there were two final matches. The third and fourth-ranked teams played in the morning to determine who got the third place trophy, and the two winning teams played Sunday evening to determine who got the fall championship trophy.
When compared to the university football or basketball games, the Sorority Sports League volleyball tournament was not a big deal to most of the university. However, it was important to the sororities because it gave the winners bragging rights for the next year. More importantly, the chapter president of the winning sorority automatically presided over the Presidents’ Association for all of the campus’ sororities. The games also allowed the sororities to compete for name recognition and make a final push to recruit new pledges for the fall semester. While the games were going on, the participating sororities had tables set up to allow their members to talk to prospective pledges. Obviously, the longer a sorority stayed in the tournament, the more opportunity its members had to set run a recruitment table and interact with spectators.
The Four-Betas customarily did well during the Sorority Sports League tournaments, always making it at least as far as the Saturday elimination games. During most years they were among the final four teams playing on Sunday. The previous year they made it to the final championship, only to lose in a very close, hard-fought match and get second place. Tracy did not expect Lisa’s group to make it as far as second place, but she hoped the Four-Beta delegation could stay in at least through Saturday.
Of course, as required by their sorority’s rules, the players practicing in the back yard of the Four-Beta house were naked. It turned out that would have significance, because during the afternoon two representatives from the Sorority Sports League committee putting together the volleyball tournaments showed up at the Four-Beta house. They entered with notepads and sign-up sheets to make sure the chapter had put together a team capable of participating in the September matches. They asked to step into the back yard and see the players in action. Of course what they expected was what they saw, a group of naked Four-Beta’s practicing with the juniors from last year’s group.
Innocently, one of the representatives asked Elaine, "So, is this how they always practice for the games? Not wearing anything except their shoes?"
Elaine pointed at a sign that read: No clothing permitted in pool area.
"It’s sorority rules. We don’t allow clothing in the back yard."
"So, you’d consider being naked their practice uniform?"
"I guess you could say that. It’s Four-Beta tradition. We always work out in the nude whenever we can. You didn’t know that?"
"Oh, we were just curious."
Suddenly Elaine became worried. No, they were not "just curious". Those committee members were up to no good. As soon as they left, Elaine immediately found Tracy and relayed what had just happened. Tracy agreed that something was not quite right about the visit.
"They’re gonna hit us with something. I’d better warn Alexandra."
Alexandra’s response worried Tracy even more, "I just got an e-mail from the Sorority Sports League. They’re planning on holding a meeting tonight to vote on some rule changes for the volleyball tournaments. The e-mail said that the chapter presidents of all the participating sororities have to show up. I don’t know why they’d want to change the rules now, because we’ve been doing this the exact same way since 1965."
"They’ve got something up their sleeves. Just be ready."
A few hours later Alexandra and Tracy had their answer. By a vote of 17 to 1, the chapter presidents approved the following rule changes:
The uniform worn by all teams participating in the tournament must be the same uniform utilized during routine practice sessions. Committee members will visit each participating sorority to verify the practice uniform. Under no circumstances may a team participate in the tournament wearing any clothing other than what is worn by players during practice sessions and verified by committee representatives.
To show solidarity with their teams, the elected officers of each sorority will be required to wear the same uniform as their participating players for the duration of the tournament, to include opening and closing festivities.
Of course, the only practical solution was for the Four-Beta Sorority to forfeit. There was no way the team could play wearing their "practice uniform", because that rule change would require the Four-Beta players to play in a university-wide tournament in the nude. The attending officers also would have to be naked in public throughout the entire event. No, that was too much. The Four-Beta Sorority didn’t have any choice. The rule change made them ineligible to play.
When Tracy broke the news to Lisa, she expected the matter to end at that point. Instead, Lisa vehemently objected, "No! We’re playing! If they want us to play in the nude, that’s fine with me, but we’re playing, and I’m planning to win!"
"But I don’t see how..."
"Don’t you get it? That’s what they want, for us to give up and forfeit! I refuse to forfeit! I’ll win, or lose, or play bare-assed in front of the whole fucking university, but I won’t forfeit!"
"Lisa, you can’t play a volleyball tournament in the nude!"
"Why not? If that’s the uniform they’re telling us we have to wear, then what’s wrong with it? We’re simply complying with tournament rules!"
"Lisa, please! Try to be reasonable about this!"
"I am being reasonable! I’m the one upholding Four-Beta tradition! Aren’t we supposed to be the ones willing to try anything? The ones who are different from everyone else? The sorority that’s not afraid to break with the norms of our society? Aren’t we the ones who step out in front and set new precedents? Why should something as simple as a volleyball tournament be any different?"
Tracy realized that Lisa was right. The Four-Beta Sorority never backed down from a challenge. To forfeit would be to turn away from eighty years of tradition. The Four-Beta’s never forfeited, no matter what.
While Lisa broke the news to her team, Tracy went back upstairs to talk to Alexandra, "Have you e-mailed the committee yet?"
"No. I was just about to."
"Let ‘em know we’re in."
"What?"
"Our team captain insisted that we’re still playing. And yes, we will abide by the new uniform rules. That includes the officers."
"Are you crazy?"
"I’m crazy enough to be a Four-Beta, so I guess I am. Anyhow, we’ve got a tradition to uphold, so let the Sorority Sports League know that we’re still on the roster."
The strength of Lisa’s character and her ability to lead others became evident throughout the following week. She became almost maniacal about the volleyball tournament. Her new fixation in life was that not only would the Four-Beta Sorority participate under the new uniform rules, but also that they had to win.
Most certainly seeing a team of naked women holding the championship trophy would bring a lot of press coverage to the entire affair. Calling the bluff of the other sororities also would force a lot of people to ask why the Four-Beta Sorority was required to play in the nude, while everyone else wore uniforms. Lisa rightly assumed that once the press got past her team’s bizarre participation in the games, the fact that they persisted on playing despite the extremely unfair treatment they were receiving ultimately would win them widespread admiration.
For the first time in her life, Lisa’s strong character influenced the thinking of an entire group instead of just one or two other people. Her obsession became the obsession of her teammates. From the very beginning she had Kathleen following her, but that was to be expected because Kathleen was willing to do anything Lisa told her to do. Also, from the very beginning she had Brittany and Erin, who knew that the Four-Beta Sorority’s members were suffering because the two defectors were living under their protection. They would be playing against their old enemies and would have to perform well out of pride, honor and the need to prove themselves. Lisa managed to motivate them further by requesting permission to allow her pledges to sleep in the guest room during run-up to the tournament instead of sleeping exposed on their uncomfortable cots.
From that core of three teammates, Lisa expanded her influence over the other players. Bernadette was the next to fall behind Lisa’s fixation, motivated by her desire to gain respect as freshman class president. Cherine quickly followed, partly out of a desire to impress Jacob, but also because she wanted to keep up with Bernadette. With all five freshmen solidly behind her, Lisa managed to extend her enthusiasm to the team’s sophomores, who were not about to be outdone by freshmen and pledges.
Lisa consulted with the previous year’s players to determine which of her team members would play during the first matches, which ones would play later, and the arrangement of her team members on the court. As the team practiced, their captain worked out the final roster for her players. For offensive play, she selected herself and the tallest sophomore, as well as Brittany, as the attackers/blockers. Brittany was not tall, but could jump and was good at spiking the ball. The lead defensive player would be Kathleen, who could move very quickly, perform "digs" better than anyone else, and was not afraid to dive when necessary. Lisa would have made her into the team’s "libero", but the sororities had not yet adopted recent rule changes establishing that position in the game. Cherine and Bernadette would assist Kathleen as "setters", moving the ball from Kathleen’s defensive hits to the offensive players. Erin and three sophomores would be alternates.
The group was coming together, promising a respectable performance. Tracy still did not think Lisa’s team was likely to win the first place trophy, but looking at them she did expect the Four-Betas to at least make it through Saturday.
By the end of August the entire sorority was involved in volleyball training. Several juniors returned early from summer break to help prepare Lisa’s team. The team captain quickly gained the respect of the previous year’s players by carefully listening to her predecessors’ experiences and asking them to observe the current group’s performance and make recommendations. The juniors and seniors took over the household chores to free up additional practice time. The fall elections, which had been planned for the week after Labor Day, also were postponed to not distract from the volleyball tournament. Tracy, instead of becoming Chapter President, would remain in her current post as Pledge Mistress and spend her time processing the applications and interviews of the incoming freshmen.
While they were practicing, Lisa and her teammates shared a secret among themselves that no one outside their circle, not even Tracy, knew about. The team agreed that if observers from other sororities ever came by to watch them practice, the members would deliberately play badly.
"I don’t want anyone from the outside to know how we play. Let them think we really suck. That way we can surprise them when we’re actually on the court."
Classes started the day after Labor Day. Lisa returned to Burnside’s office wearing nothing but her light summer dress and tennis shoes. Once she was in Burnside’s office and the door was shut, she took off her dress and noticed a hook on the wall next to her desk. Obviously her professor had not forgotten about her student’s desire to continue working naked.
Anticipating a hectic fall semester, Lisa had enrolled in only three classes, just enough to keep her registered as a full-time student. When Burnside found out about the light schedule, she was not pleased. However, Lisa held her ground, explaining that she’d rather do well in a few classes than be overwhelmed by the combination of coursework, her duties as a student aide, and her duties to the sorority.
"I’m more worried about my GPA, Dr. Burnside. If my GPA falls, then I’m screwed. You told me that yourself. The classes I can always take next semester. If I mess up my GPA, that I won’t be able to fix."
Lisa managed to silence her professor with that argument. It was true that if Lisa’s grade-point average fell, the lower score would affect her standing with the department very quickly.
During the first week of the regular semester, there was a responsibility that kept Tracy, Shannon, Lisa, and Bernadette very busy as soon as classes were over for the day and they returned to the sorority. They had to interview pledge prospects and go over pledge packets. It made sense that Bernadette would be involved in the interviews because she was freshman class leader, but Lisa wondered about the presence of herself and Shannon. She did not know that Tracy already was thinking ahead and that assembled at the table were the members of the future chain of command for the pledge training staff.
Tracy passed out sheets of questions to each of her three companions and encouraged them to fully participate in the panel interviews. As for the prospects, Tracy made them fully aware of the harsh conditions they would have to endure as pledges. As the freshmen stared at her with frightened expressions, she added, "Every responsibility our training staff will impose on you is written down in the Pledge Manual. Read that manual, and you won’t get hit with any surprises. Everything we make our pledges do is for a reason, especially the unpleasant stuff. I’m not going to hide what you’re going up against, because I think you deserve the information you need to make an informed decision about whether or not you want to share our journey in life. I have no desire to begin your time with us by lying to you."
Folding her hands and tilting her head slightly, Tracy always concluded with the following, "So you think about it carefully. It’s an important decision and you need to take your time making it. Before you sign a contract, with us or with any other sorority, make sure you visit other chapters and ask them about their pledge programs. Then ask them how rough they are to their pledges. Some of our rivals will tell you up front what’ll happen once you sign your contract, and those are the sororities you should consider. However, most of our rivals won’t give you a straight story. If you get an evasive answer, or hear ‘it’s not so bad’, I’d immediately get the fuck out and move on to a different house, if I were you. Why would you want to spend your time with a bunch of women who, from the very beginning, aren’t going to be honest with you?"
The Monday evening before the tournament, two members of the Sorority Sports League passed by the Four-Beta house to check the final list of players for the Lisa’s team. When Tracy took them into the back yard, she was dismayed by how badly her group was playing. Bernadette missed a totally easy shot, Kathleen bounced the ball out of bounds, and then Brittany served right into the net. The two visitors smiled sarcastically as they looked over the list of players and noted Tracy’s pained expression.
When the committee members left, Tracy stormed into the back yard to yell at Lisa, only to notice the team suddenly was playing much better. Then she figured out what her players had just done. The committee members were totally fooled, but then, so was she.
Brilliant. Way to go. Absolutely brilliant deception. Looks like the others are in for a bit of a surprise...
There were a total of 18 sororities participating in the games in a series of matches starting Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. On the first day Lisa’s team would play matches against three other teams, followed by more matches on Thursday and Friday. The eight teams with the highest totals of wins would play for the final elimination on Saturday, leaving the four best teams to play on Sunday. It would be a grueling five days, to say the least, especially for the teams making past the elimination matches.
Lisa did not know what to expect as far as clothing was concerned, but decided to assemble her group in the sitting room wearing nothing but tennis shoes. Tracy entered the room with an armful of bathrobes marked with the Four-Beta logo, and passed one to each player. She was wearing one of the robes herself, as was Shannon, who was trailing behind her with another armful of robes.
As the volleyball team put on their robes, they heard a loud male cheer outside, which was answered by the cheering of women from inside the sorority house. Then came the chant:
"FOUR-B!"
"TRIPLE-A!"
"FOUR-B!"
"TRIPLE-A!"
"FOUR-B!"
"TRIPLE-A!"
When the team members looked out the windows, they saw the entire Tri-Alpha Fraternity standing in the driveway in bathrobes. Then they noticed that the women crowding the stairs and hallway also were all dressed in bathrobes. The sorority women filed outside and quickly joined their male counterparts in the street. As Tracy led the volleyball team outside the crowd erupted into cheering.
Standing on the entryway step of the sorority house, President Alexandra raised her hand to silence her audience. Then she read, "The Directorates of the Four-Beta Sorority and the Tri-Alpha Fraternity have made the following change in their respective members’ handbooks. The change reads:
When attending any athletic event in which members of the Tri-Alpha Fraternity or the Four-Beta Sorority are participating, the standard of dress will be set by the highest-ranking officer present. Clothing worn by rank-and-file members will match the clothing worn by the aforementioned officer."
Alexandra stripped off her robe and waved it in the air. She was not wearing anything underneath. The rest of the sorority followed her, briefly exposing their bodies to the hot early September sunshine. Then the fraternity president joined Alexandra, and stripped off his robe to wave in the air. Ninety fraternity members followed suit. Once everyone had their robes back on, Alexandra shouted, "OK, Ladies and Gentlemen! Let’s go watch some volleyball!"
The members of the fraternity and sorority lined up on formation and began marching towards the university. More than 170 university students, all dressed in white bathrobes marked with their respective logos, clapped and sang in unison as they made their way past Old Campus towards the university’s basketball stadium.
The area outside the basketball stadium already was crowded with players from the 17 other volleyball teams, the members of the university’s other sororities and fraternities, and various other students interested in watching the volleyball tournament. Word that the Four-Betas would be forced to play in the nude already had spread among the other sororities. This was going to be interesting, thought all those women to themselves. Would the "sex bitches" actually have the nerve to show up?
The sight of 170 Tri-Alphas and Four-Betas, cheerfully singing and clapping as they marched towards the stadium, answered that question. Yes, the Four-Betas would play, and yes, they would play naked. As for humiliating them, perhaps that wasn’t going to be as easy as everyone had thought, because they had the solidarity of the entire membership of their sorority and the associated fraternity. Nor would just the team and the Four-Beta officers be naked. Nudity was to be the uniform of the team, therefore it would be the uniform of the team’s supporters.
The other sororities’ efforts to jeer and taunt the Four-Beta team turned out not to be very effective, because the team members were marching into the basketball arena as part of a much larger group. The Tri-Alphas jeered back, matching their rivals insult for insult. The rivalry became very bitter, but the show of support from their friends strengthened the resolve of Lisa and her companions to play as well as possible.
The sorority and fraternity members filed into their assigned seating areas. Everyone’s eyes were on the Four-Betas and Tri-Alphas. What were they wearing under their robes? Would they really watch their team play in the nude? That question was answered when Four-Beta President Alexandra took off her robe, folded it, and set it on her seat as a cushion. Her companions followed suit, exposing themselves to thousands of other spectators in a powerful show of support for their team. They cheered and waved to their rivals, not embarrassed in the least about their very public display.
At first the other people in the stadium were shocked, but soon the arena erupted into a strange din of cheering, whistling, cat-calls, and booing. The members of the audience who cheered the loudest were students that were not associated with any of the fraternities or sororities. The story behind why the Four-Betas were playing in the nude quickly was spreading through the audience, along with the fact the team counted on the full support of the other members. The enthusiastic support of their friends impressed many of the spectators, but what mattered even more was the fact the Four-Beta team had the guts to show up and play, no matter what. They clearly were the outsiders, and thus became the favorites of many in the audience.
The 17 other sorority presidents were dismayed that their effort to humiliate the Four-Beta Sorority was not going according to plan, but they couldn’t dwell on that. They had to start the opening ceremony on time, so at 9:00 they dimmed the lights several times to force the boisterous crowd to quiet down.
The president of the Sorority Sports League stepped into the middle of the arena and announced the beginning of the volleyball tournament. She then ordered the presidents of the 18 participating sororities to bring their teams to the floor for presentation and to sing the U.S. National Anthem.
When the Four-Beta Sorority was called, the naked chapter president stood up and led her equally naked team down the bleacher stairs to the main floor. There was a strange combination of genuine cheering, sarcastic cheering, and outright booing as the Four-Beta team took their places among the other teams. The booing did not faze the Four-Beta team. That was what they expected. What did surprise them was the large number of people in the audience cheering for them. These were girls with guts, who were facing up to a challenge that no other sorority possibly could have handled. Already they were winning the admiration of many of the spectators. Even more important was the show of support by their friends. Precisely because such a large group in the audience was naked, the team representing them no longer seemed like such freaks.
The Sorority Sports League president turned off her microphone and snarled at President Alexandra, "Tell your members to get dressed, right now! The rule change is just for your team, not for spectators!"
Alexandra handed her rival a printout of the rule that had just been adopted by the Four-Beta Sorority and the Tri-Alpha Fraternity, When attending any athletic event in which members of the Tri-Alpha Fraternity or the Four-Beta Sorority are participating, the standard of dress will be set by the highest-ranking officer present. Clothing worn by rank-and-file members will match the clothing worn by the aforementioned officer.
"This is our rule. It’s written in our rulebook, for our members. If you want to debate this, let’s do it! Right now, in front of all these spectators! Turn on your microphone and let’s debate it!"
When Alexandra reached for the microphone, the Sorority Sports League president jerked it away, "Tell your members to get dressed, or I’m calling the fucking cops!"
"Do it! Call the cops! You can explain to them why we’re forced to field a team that’s naked! This was your decision! We’re just complying with your rules and showing support for our team! If you don’t like it, call the fucking cops, and then you and me get to debate this on six-o-clock news!"
Alexandra’s rival hesitated. The last thing she wanted was for the running dispute between her and the Four-Betas to receive any more public airing. If she and Alexandra showed up together on TV, she knew that the Four-Beta president’s public speaking skills and calm public demeanor would make anyone debating her look like an idiot.
"Fine, have it your way, you fuckin’ bare-assed slut!"
Alexandra took a deep breath to calm down slightly. She was ready to pounce on her rival, but knew better. She had just won the first confrontation of the volleyball tournament. Why spoil that? The continuing show of solidarity from her sorority’s members for her team was what really mattered. The Four-Betas and Tri-Alphas were in this together, a fact that later would be noticed by the sports reporters covering the tournament.
Lisa noticed the confrontation between her chapter president and the sports league president. She could tell the two seniors were exchanging unpleasant words, but she had a more immediate concern on her mind: sizing up the opposing teams. The majority of the rival women wore uniforms consisting of matching T-shirts and shorts. No one wore knee-pads or numbered jerseys, which to Lisa was one clear indication that the games were not really taken very seriously. The Four-Betas were denied knee-pads by the condition of the rule changes, but the others were not wearing them by choice.
Lisa was more worried about doing well during the games than the fact that she was standing naked with her teammates in front of an audience of 6,000 students. She had been very stressed about having had so little time to put her team together, but could tell that most of her competitors were not much better off. It was possible they had more time to practice, but for the majority of the sororities, that extra time didn’t mean much. All except three of the rival teams clearly were lacking in physical conditioning. Once they started playing, Lisa would have to assess whether or not the opposing players on any given team had playing experience or were specialized.
Lisa began enjoying the feeling of the cool air-conditioned breeze blowing against her bare skin and the fact that her body was exposed to so many spectators. Yes, she might have been nervous about playing, but what she was going through at the moment was an exhibitionist’s dream.
Once all 18 teams had been introduced and were on the floor standing in formation, everyone stood quietly while the U.S. National Anthem was played. Now that truly was a strange sensation, to have to salute the U.S. flag in the nude. Lisa could tell that being naked in public during the National Anthem somewhat unnerved a couple of her teammates. She would have to use the warm-up drills to give them a chance to calm down before starting them in the first game.
The Sorority Sports League president announced that the first match would start at 9:30. A cheer went up when the audience heard that one of the two starting teams would be the Four-Betas. So that was it, the crowd would get to watch a team of women playing serious volleyball in the nude.
Apart from the very vocal support of their sorority and the Triple-A’s, the Four-Beta team had another stroke of luck working in their favor that year. The referees were members of the regular university varsity women’s volleyball team and in no way were directly associated with the Sorority Sports League. No one knew it at the time, but the Four-Betas counted with the secret sympathy of several referees. That sympathy would be tremendously helpful, because the referees not only scored the games, but also wrote up the game schedules. Having outsiders score the games had been crucial to preventing fights between rival sororities over the fairness of the games, and now would work against the effort to humiliate Lisa’s team.
In fact, the referees were irritated that the sorority league had not adopted recent NCAA rule changes and were not taking the basic precaution of forcing their players to wear kneepads. Now, on top of everything else, the other sororities were forcing one of their participating teams to play in the nude. The Four-Betas would be assured of even-handed treatment and the other sororities knew that cheating was not a realistic option. If they won against the Four-Betas, they would have to win honestly.
There was another detail that began to worry the other teams. The Four-Betas were physically fit and well prepared to play. Lisa led her team through several warm-up drills to keep her players motivated and to get their minds off the Pledge of Allegiance. It was obvious the 4-B's were thinking more about getting through the first day than the fact they were naked.
The very first game, played against Brittany and Erin's old sorority, was a blow-out. Supposedly the game was going to be a revenge match for the Four-Betas' most bitter rivals, but it seemed that their talent for volleyball was comparable to their talent for street brawling. The final scores were 15-2, 15-0, and 15-3. Brittany and Erin looked on with deep satisfaction as their former sorority sisters cried from the humiliating defeat and the crowd loudly cheered for the naked "sex-bitches".
As much as the two defectors wanted to taunt their former tormentors, they held their tongues. As Lisa said prior to the game, "I want you to remember that a good Four-Beta lets her actions speak for her. The only taunting I want for the other teams is gonna be from looking at their scores and wondering what went wrong."
As the day progressed, the performance of the next team was not much better, 15-6, 15-8, and 15-4. The final team was one of the teams that most concerned Lisa, and they played a grueling and exciting set of matches, with the final scores logged as 15-13, 12-15, and 15-13. The Four-Betas ended the day with a hard-fought victory against a rival that had been favored to win. By Wednesday night it already was obvious the Four-Betas would be among the eight teams participating in the Saturday play-offs.
Wednesday night Lisa reviewed the day's performance with her players in the Four-Beta sitting room. The team members were in very high spirits and were actually proud to be the only naked team playing in the tournament. They had showered and as a show of solidarity had decided that none of them would get dressed until the sorority tournament was over. The players were looking forward to the following two days, obviously expecting to win and hopefully match the performance of the previous year's team.
Lisa tempered their enthusiasm, "Right now I'm not worried about Sunday, or even Saturday for that matter. Today we won because the other teams weren't ready for us. Now they will be ready, and they're gonna throw everything they have at us just to keep us out of the play-offs. We've got three teams we're going up against tomorrow and we've got to win those matches game by game, point by point, dig by dig, spike by spike. Now, I want to hear from each of you what you think you need to do to improve your performance. Then we need to talk strategy and tweak our line-up."
When the Four-Beta's returned with their enthusiastic escort to the basketball stadium on Thursday, the atmosphere of the entire arena had changed. Word had spread across campus that a naked team was playing in the sorority tournament and had won against all three opponents the previous day. That was something worth seeing. In classrooms throughout the university the male population was nowhere to be seen, because the men were crowded into the basketball stadium to watch the amazing spectacle of naked volleyball players.
The president of the Sorority Sports League realized she did have a chance to pressure the Four-Beta team, by broadcasting live shots of them on the arena’s huge monitors overlooking the audience. There was no reason the monitors could not feature close-up shots of the Four-Betas' breasts, bottoms, and faces to make sure all those guys had a really good look at them. In fact, why not put up the name of each Four-Beta player while her body was being exhibited on the big screens? That would be a nice surprise for the sex-bitches, to look up and see themselves on full display on those big screens.
The plot would have worked, had a member of Campus Security not been bantering with the guys controlling the cameras and monitors. Sergeant Polk knew what was about to happen with those monitors and quietly slipped over to his naked fellow Reservist to warn her. Tracy thought about her options, which included warning her team and hoping they still could play, or trying to prevent the broadcasting. She asked Polk, "Can you do anything about the monitors?"
"I might. I know the wiring feeding out of the fuse-box is not up to code and we got badly dinged in the last inspection. The inspector was telling me that if some of those cables touched each other where they don't have insulation, it'd blow out the entire video system."
"Can you make it happen?"
Polk thought for a moment. If he were caught messing with the wires it would cost him his job and probably his security clearance, but something more important was at stake. He realized that he respected and deeply cared for Tracy, his sergeant and fellow Reservist. He felt guilty about ogling her body over the summer and somehow wanted to make it up to her. Now he had a chance to restore his honor, even if the need to do so existed only in his own thoughts.
"I'll see what I can do. No promises, but I'll give it a shot."
Tracy gave Polk a rare smile, a genuine show of gratitude.
"Thanks... for everything."
"Sure, Tracy. I just wanted... to... uh..." He took a deep sigh, unable to go any further. "Wish me luck."
Polk quietly descended past the bleachers to the fuse-box room. He unlocked the door and to his relief noticed that the fuse-box that fed into the monitors had not been upgraded. He pondered how to attack the power feeding the video system and not make it look like it had been tampered with. First he thought about taking out the cameras, but realized that was not a good option because they had an alternate power supply and might not be disabled for more than a few minutes. Then he realized that he could short out the monitors and leave the rest of the system intact. All he had to do was use a sharp edge to strip the insulation from three wires, and then touch them together. To do that he needed a sharp object that would not conduct electricity. He needed either a piece of plastic or broken piece of glass. He looked around the room and noticed several fast food bags sitting in the trash. One of them had a plastic knife. Hoping that would work, Polk wiped off the knife and carefully scraped the first of the three wires...
The monitors showed images of the U.S. flag while the National Anthem was being played. Meanwhile, the Sorority Sports League directors focused the cameras towards the Four-Beta side of the volleyball court and ordered the cameramen to test for close-up shots of the naked team members. Another sorority director was typing the names of the Four-Beta team members into the video display system so that each shot of a bare bottom, stressed face, or set of breasts would be accompanied by the owner's name. If that didn't unnerve the sex bitches and make them miss their serves, digs, and spikes, nothing would.
Sweat dripped down Polk's face as he finally cut down to the copper of his first wire. The dull plastic knife was woefully inadequate for the job, but the wires were live and he dared not cut into them with a piece of metal. He sighed as he started on the second wire, totally stressed that someone might come into the room and catch him. This was taking too long. Then he thought of something. He reached into the trash and pulled out two glass soda bottles. He cracked one against the other and broke the glass. Yes! When he pulled apart the broken bottle there was a long piece with a nice sharp point! He dug it into the second wire and neatly carved out a notch, leaving the underlying metal bare. Two down, one to go. Another quick dig, another notch, another bare wire.
OK... let's see if I got the right ones...
Polk touched the wires together. There was a loud electric SNAP and a blue flash that made the security officer jump, even though he was expecting it. He touched the third wire to the first two, and was rewarded with another electronic CRACK. The circuit-breaker in the fuse-box went off, and already the room smelt of burnt electronics. Polk threw the knife and broken bottle back into the trash and carried out the bag, locking the room on his way out. He glanced up at a security camera, but knew it was turned off. That had been another ding in the inspection that had not yet been fixed.
As the Four-Betas positioned themselves to begin the first match of the day, several cameras focused on their bodies. Everything was ready...
...and then the monitors went blank! A few seconds later, the screens went completely dark! What the fuck?
Tracy watched the frantic conversations in the control room as the Sorority Sports League representatives and technicians tried to figure out what was going on. Why weren't those fucking monitors working? Then she saw Polk, her fellow Reservist and now her friend, standing at the opposite end of the arena with his hands in his pockets, curiously looking up at the blank screens.
How strange that they should just go out like that... Oh well, at least they didn't go out during an important basketball game... maybe it was just as well it was during the pre-season so their power supply could be properly fixed...
Lisa and her companions never knew about the drama in the fuse box room or that they narrowly missed having their exposed bodies broadcast on those big overhead screens with their names. The effort to unnerve them during the second day of the tournament ended in failure. As the university's electricians pulled apart the burnt wiring in the fuse box room, the Lisa and her companions scored 15-8, 15-13, and 15-11; then 15-13, 15-12, and 15-14; and finally 15-6, 15-3, and 15-0 to bring the team's wins to 6-0.
The monitors were still incapacitated on Friday. On the third day of regular game-play, the Four-Betas went up against tougher teams and played longer, closer matches. By the end of Friday the cumulative score was eight wins and one loss. Lisa's group would enter the play-offs Saturday with the second highest ranking of the 18 participating sororities.
By Saturday morning the crowds were cheering for the Four-Betas. There was no question the "sex-bitches" were proving themselves in competition and had overcome tremendous obstacles. Their nonchalant attitude about playing in the nude in such a public setting fascinated the multitude of spectators and drew long lines of potential pledges and curiosity seekers to the Four-Beta Sorority information table. Sorority flyers and business cards had to be re-stocked several times, especially on Saturday when the number of information tables was reduced from 18 to 8.
The weekend edition of the campus newspaper put out a sympathetic article about the Four-Beta Sorority that showed the players from the back in a couple of photos, but mostly focused on an interview with the out-going chapter president. Alexandra noted that her sorority's emphasis on physical fitness was an important factor in her team's solid performance during the tournament. When asked about the rule change that forced her sophomores and freshmen to play naked, she responded, "The Sorority Sports League made a rule change about the uniforms. Obviously we didn't agree with it, but our team decided to play, no matter what. Our philosophy is to never back down from a challenge. If the Sorority Sports League wanted to challenge us with making that rule change, the only thing I can say is that I hope we met that challenge and, as we like to say it, 'bore honest witness' as athletes and competitors."
By Saturday, the Four-Betas were the clear favorites of the audience. The crowd became more mixed as women, alumni, and professors joined the male students that had come in on Thursday and Friday. Everyone’s curiosity about watching the naked volleyball team had been satisfied and now most of the audience was there to cheer for the Four-Betas and watch them win.
Lisa’s teammates were at the top of their game on Saturday as they won against three rivals. The Sorority Sports League made yet another mistake by putting their best team up against the Four-Betas, hoping to eliminate them from the Sunday finals. Lisa was at her finest during that game, receiving the ball from her teammates and repeatedly spiking it into the opponents’ court. On the opposing side there was a player just as tall and just as good as Lisa, so the game developed into a grueling stand-off with constant turn-overs and very close scores. In the end, however, Kathleen’s quick saves gave the Four-Betas more serves and more opportunities to score. The final results, against the best sorority team in the league, were 15-13, 15-12, and 15-13.
The naked crowd of Four-Betas and Tri-Alphas in the audience erupted in cheering. That final game assured the Four-Betas of a spot in the sorority championship match the following afternoon. Already Lisa’s team had made it as far as the previous year’s team, and the opponents with the best chance of beating them now were relegated to playing in the morning for the third place trophy.
When Sunday came, Lisa woke up totally at peace with herself. She knew that her team was going to win the sorority championship. She didn’t think or hope, she knew. Her players would go into that arena totally sure of themselves, and go up against opponents who were competent players, but under tremendous pressure from the other 17 sororities to humiliate the odious "sex bitches". In a way Lisa almost felt sorry for the opposing team, because the Four-Betas already had proven themselves by defeating the team most likely to win the tournament. Lisa was determined to win, and knew that her team would win, but at the same time she did not feel pressured.
Lisa was determined that her companions would enter the arena with the same peace of mind she was enjoying. That wouldn’t be a problem, because they had all morning to get ready. Lisa decided there would be no volleyball practice, but instead a morning of yoga, swimming in the pool, stretching, more swimming, and finally some rest. Once they were in the arena the Four-Beta team would do warm-up drills, but that would be their only practice directly related to volleyball. They would play with their minds alert and their bodies toned and yet relaxed.
The rest of the sorority left the house that Sunday so the team could enjoy their morning in peace. When they came back, the other sorority members got into their bathrobes and for the fifth time accompanied their team to the basketball arena singing and clapping as they paraded down the street. For the fifth and final time the women and their Tri-Alpha friends sat on their robes and loudly cheered their team as the Four-Beta women proudly filed down the stairs to face their opponents. Lisa and her companions no longer felt any shame at having to face their athletic experience in the nude. They were quite proud of themselves and what they were about to accomplish. When the national anthem was played, the uneasiness of the first day was totally gone.
Lisa looked at the faces of the opposing team. They were angry, nervous, and tired. They did not seem to be happy to have made it to the final game at all. Instead the only thing on their minds was to get even with "the sex bitches" on the behalf of everyone they had betrayed. They felt the weight of the pressure of 17 sororities on their shoulders. They absolutely had to win.
In contrast with their opponents, all the Four-Betas had to do was play well.
The final championship game score surprised everyone except Lisa. When compared to the exciting match the previous evening, the championship was anti-climatic, with final scores of 15-11, 15-10, and 15-7. While their opponents played with so much anger that they constantly made mistakes, Lisa seemed to be everywhere on the net with her constant "spikes" and "aces". Towards the end her opponents argued with each other and the team’s cohesion broke down. There was no doubt about it; the Four-Betas clearly were the best-prepared and most determined players of the day.
There was a final irony that truly pained the president of the Sorority Sports League. Just as the Four-Betas were serving for game point on the final match, the university electricians managed to fix the wiring for the monitors. The screens came back on in time to show Lisa score the final "ace" of the championship.
Still wearing their "game uniforms", the Four-Beta team accepted the first-place trophy for the tournament. Brittany and Erin got the honor of holding it for the official victory photo, as a permanent reminder of their defection that would forever taunt the members of their former sorority.
Once the celebrations from the victory died down and the Four-Beta members returned to the sorority house, President Alexandra called an emergency meeting in the sitting room. She flatly announced the fall election was way overdue and that it was urgent to have the sorority’s new leadership elected and in place for Rush Week.
"Unfortunately we’ll have to make the transition at the same time we’re having Rush, but I’ve got to step down. I’m not taking classes this fall, and if I’m no longer enrolled I’m not qualified to be in the directorate. So tomorrow night we’re holding our fall elections, and we’ll swear in the new officers on Saturday. Please consult with your class leaders so we can agree on nominations."
Lisa felt bad for Alexandra, because her presidency was ending without the scandal over the former Sergeant-at-Arms being completely resolved. While it may have been true that President Alexandra was not the best leader the sorority ever had, it also was clear that she was a decent person and that she did care about what happened to the members. Lisa knew that in the end she would be forgotten, that her mixed record and a few lapses of judgment would relegate her service to obscurity within a few years. Once the sophomores graduated, no one in the sorority would even remember her.
Tracy would be very different as president. She had a very aggressive plan that if implemented, would make the Four-Beta Sorority a very serious organization and expand its membership. She wanted being a Four-Beta to be a life-changing experience for everyone who joined and ultimately expand the sorority’s influence within the university community. Unlike her predecessor, Tracy would be remembered long after she graduated and moved on with her career. The changes she planned to make would have a permanent impact on how the Four-Betas conducted their lives and saw themselves as a group.
Lisa was hoping to go to bed and spend some time with Kathleen but, as usual, Tracy pulled her aside and asked her to accompany her into the sorority office. Tracy wanted to "talk shop" with Lisa before releasing her for the evening. Her immediate concern was not the election, but Rush Week. The sorority would be full of prospective pledges throughout the next six days and the members would have to host a series of parties. The sophomores had the biggest stake in the outcome of Rush Week, because they would be living with the incoming group for the next three years.
"You’re gonna have to get together with Elaine and do some real mixing with those freshmen. This is really gonna be your show. Also, make sure the members of your pledge group and Brittany and Erin are out there, getting to know those girls. And another thing -- we’re definitely not the right sorority for everyone. If you don’t think we’re a good fit for someone or they’re not a good fit for us, make sure they know that and make sure you explain why. But at the same time, never be overly insistent about pushing someone out the door. If you don’t think they’re a good fit, and you try to discourage them, but they seem to insist, send them my way so I can make a final determination. Don’t forget, I have no problem taking in the Bernadettes and Kathleens of this world. If they really want to join, and I feel it’s for the right reasons, I’ll give ‘em a contract."
Tracy sat back and tilted her head slightly, which was a gesture she always used when she had something important to announce to her listener, "That gets us to the next thing I need to settle. I’ve been talking to the other seniors, and also to Shannon and Elaine, and we’ve pretty much decided who’s gonna get the nominations for the next chapter directorate. The new officers will all be seniors, except Shannon, who’s my first choice for the next Sergeant-at-Arms. There’s only one spot still open, and that’s Pledge Mistress. There’s a reason why Pledge Mistress is always the hardest position to fill, and that’s because most members don’t want it. It’s the least glamorous spot in the directorate, and yet by far the one with the most responsibility and the one with the most work. Most of the members are here to have fun, and being Pledge Mistress is not very much fun. However, this year we do have a member who’d make a good Pledge Mistress."
"So who is it?"
"You."
"Me?"
"You’re the most logical choice. What I’d like to do is nominate you to be this year’s Pledge Mistress and take the word ‘Acting’ off your title."
"But... I just joined... wouldn’t the others have a problem with..."
Tracy smiled and shook her head.
"No. Trust me, the others won’t have a problem with it. With as much work as that position is... and the worst part of it is having to put up with me day in and day out... No. They’re not lining up to be Pledge Mistress. That job takes a certain personality type, and right now, you’re the member in the sorority who’s got what’s needed to do the job. It doesn’t matter that you just joined."
"Well... I guess if the others are OK with it... I’d be honored..."
"And I’ll be honored to be working with you in the fall. Even before I started talking to the seniors, you were my first pick to replace me. The others are expecting it. They already have a nickname for you. They’re calling you ‘Tracy Junior’."
Lisa laughed.
"I ‘spose there’s worse things they could call me."
"Anyhow, I know you’ve got Kathleen as your assistant. Actually, she’s very good with the stuff you’ve assigned to her, you know, the rules and history instruction. I suppose she’s not ready to take over a group?"
"No. Her strong point is her teaching. She’s not a leader. I couldn’t picture her bossing anyone around."
"Alright, then we’ll keep her focused on instructing and not assign her a group. How do you feel about Bernadette and Cherine?"
"I think Bernadette would make a good counselor, but you’re gonna have to be careful about who goes in her group. You’d want outgoing girls with her, but not ones with really strong personalities. I wouldn’t put anyone in her group who might challenge her, because I don’t think she’d handle that well. Cherine would be a good counselor with quieter pledges, the shy ones."
"Alright, then we’ve got a Pledge Mistress, an assistant/instructor, and two group counselors. I’ll talk to Shannon and Elaine about nominating the others. Now the next thing I want to think about is what the training staff is gonna wear. I’m thinking of assigning uniforms to the training staff, the same as the pledge outfits, except the shirts would read ‘counselor’ or ‘Pledge Mistress’."
Lisa took a deep breath. Tracy noticed her disappointed expression.
"You’re not thrilled about having to wear a uniform, are you?"
"Not really. I mean, I already told Brittany and Erin that I wasn’t gonna be wearing anything because I’m a nudist and..."
"So, that lifestyle’s really that important to you?"
"Yes."
"So, what you’re telling me is that you’d prefer to perform your duties as Pledge Mistress in the nude?"
"Yes."
"Well, here’s a thought. What if I propose that the uniform for the Pledge Mistress ought to be the same as the pledges? In other words, when the pledges are naked, the Pledge Mistress must be naked too?"
"That’s sort of what I wanted..."
"Alright, I’ll just write that into your work plan. But what it means is that whenever the pledges are attending sorority functions or meetings, you’d have to be there in the nude along with them."
"That’s fine. That’s what I want."
Lisa watched as Tracy made some notes. Then she decided to change the topic, "Tracy, I was kinda curious. If you want me to be Pledge Mistress, what’s the deal gonna be about discipline?"
"That’ll mostly stay the same under you as it was under me. I believe that physical punishment is an important part of what we do in the Four-Beta pledge-training program. As Pledge Mistress I expect you to be as strict with your group as I was with you. The only change I want is more accountability. Anytime a pledge needs to be disciplined, the Pledge Mistress, or in some cases her group counselor, will administer the punishment. Both the Pledge Mistress and the counselor would have to be present whenever a punishment is administered, along with another chapter officer and at least one other witness, preferably other pledges from her group. I also want to formalize punishments, such as having an official reading of the pledge’s offense, always conducting punishments in one place, and always have them administered the same way."
Tracy looked at Lisa to get her reaction. When Lisa nodded Tracy continued, "What I’d also like to do is put down in writing the rules, procedures, and severity of punishments, so everyone knows, from the very beginning, what to expect. On the other hand, I’d leave some discretion for leniency to the Pledge Mistress, but would make sure that she explains in the training log why any given punishment is less severe than what’s stipulated in the Pledge Manual. For example, your decision to split the punishment you had to give Brittany and Erin because your assistant brought out the wrong strap made perfect sense. I want to make sure the Pledge Mistress has that type of on-the-spot discretion. But anyhow, I want everything related to punishments put into the training log, so that each incident of discipline is documented and subject to review by the sorority officers at the end of each week."
"That makes sense."
"By the way, make sure the punishment you administered to Brittany and Erin is fully documented in the training log. Might as well get started on that now."
"Alright."
Lisa added a paragraph about the strapping to the training log while Tracy looked through several pledge packets. When Lisa finished her entry, Tracy’s next question totally shocked her.
"Lisa, I need to ask you a personal question, because how you answer will make a difference in a decision I have to make for myself."
Lisa looked up, waiting for the question, "What’s your relationship with Ken right now?"
"I... well you know I was over at the Tri-Alpha house today..."
"Having sex with him?"
Lisa gave Tracy a very irritated look.
"Yes, Tracy, I had sex with him. Why do you need to know that?"
Tracy took a deep breath. "I need to know that because... I have my reasons. But if you’re getting back together with Ken, where does that leave Kathleen?"
"It’s kinda complicated... but I’m not leaving her, if that’s what you’re worried about."
"But you still want him as well?"
"Yeah, the truth is, I want him too. But there’s a lot more to it... right now I can’t explain it, but what I feel for both of them..."
The two women sat quietly for a minute, each of them becoming more uncomfortable with the silence.
"You will remember that I told you not to judge Ken, not to make assumptions about him. You remember that, right?"
"Yes. I remember that."
"And now you’ve decided that you want him back, even though you’re rooming with Kathleen?"
"Yes."
"And he wants you?"
"Yes."
"And... do Ken and Kathleen... know about each other?"
Lisa stayed silent for a minute, but suddenly blurted out, "Yeah, they know about each other alright! They even fucked each other at Burnside’s party and tried to keep it a secret from me! That pissed me off and..."
Tracy immediately pounced on Lisa’s hypocrisy over the encounter between her two lovers. As Lisa defended herself, she was forced to explain that what she really wanted was to have both Ken and Kathleen as submissive partners. Then she backtracked and tried to justify what she wanted, "But it’s not what you think... really it isn’t! I care about both of them and the fact is they both need me. The problem is I really don’t know how much longer I can balance them in my life, because... in the end you’ll be right about... because I’m really worried I’m gonna badly hurt one of them... and that’s the last thing I want to do..."
"Well, here’s my next question. How would you feel if Ken was staying here, with us in the sorority house, and you were in charge of him?"
"Well, sure... that’d be great, but how could that happen?"
"Remember in a few days I’ll be chapter president?"
"Well, yeah..."
"And you’ll remember there’s a tradition that, every year, the Four-Beta chapter president gets to pick two Tri-Alphas as her personal attendants. Those two members are officially on loan to us from the fraternity. They have to stay at the sorority instead of the fraternity, and they’re under orders from the Four-Beta directorate. What I’m driving at is that with your permission I’d like to pick Ken to be one of my attendants."
"But... are you and him..."
"No. We’re not. That’s the reason I want him on board, because I don’t want an attendant I’m emotionally involved with. The truth is, I have nothing to offer him. I can’t give him a relationship, or my time, or my love. Ken understands what I need from him, but I have absolutely nothing I can give back to him in return. That would have to come from you. Love, time, emotional support, training, discipline... all that would have to come from you."
Lisa realized that she was about to get as close to living out her fantasy as she could without owning a large house in which she could lock up her two lovers. Also, she was somewhat flattered that Tracy was asking her permission to take Ken as one of her attendants; because that was something she was not required to do at all.
In the end Lisa gave the future chapter president consent for Ken to move into the sorority house. He would serve as Tracy’s personal attendant, just like the two guys that currently were serving under President Alexandra.
There would be one important change however, a condition that Lisa insisted upon. Ken would not be issued the white attendant’s uniform. Instead, like the new Pledge Mistress, her assistant, and the pledges themselves, Tracy’s attendant would be required to be naked whenever performing his duties. At no time would Ken be allowed to cover himself when he was in the Four-Beta House.
So now it was official. Ken was destined to be part of Lisa’s future, every bit as much as Kathleen was destined to be part of Lisa’s future.
Lisa returned to her room, hugged Kathleen, and put her over her lap to take her temperature. As she contemplated her lover’s thin bottom and waited for the temperature to register, Lisa realized that if she still wanted to whip Kathleen for her indiscretion over July 4th, that night would be her best opportunity to carry out the punishment. During Rush Week neither she nor Kathleen would be running around the sorority house naked, so the welts would stay hidden under her lover’s clothing. By the end of Rush Week the marks would be gone and the punishment would remain a private matter. That was important to Lisa, because she was as determined to protect Kathleen’s dignity in public as she was in forcing her to be totally submissive in private.
Lisa pulled out the thermometer, read the temperature, wiped it off, and put it back in its case. Then she tapped her lover’s shoulder to let her know she needed to stand up. Lisa embraced Kathleen, gently kissed her mouth, and with a sad voice announced, "Sweetie, I’m afraid I still gotta punish you for what you did to me on July 4th. You understand that, right?"
Kathleen’s expression changed to fear and she began trembling, "Yes Lisa, I understand that."
"Then I think tonight’s the best night to get that taken care of. I don’t want your behavior coming between us anymore, so right now you’re gonna have to get your whipping. Then we can forget about it. Hmm?"
Lisa positioned her fingertips under her frightened lover’s chin, forcing her to look up.
"I... yes Lisa..."
"Now you be a good girl and get me that two-pronged strap you were thinking about having me use. Also, get me a couple of three-foot chains and two wrist cuffs."
Lisa handed Kathleen a pillowcase and stuffed a towel into it.
"Use this to wrap everything up and stuff it in here. If anyone sees you, just say you’re doing laundry."
Kathleen took the pillowcase downstairs and went into the small room where the punishment supplies were kept. She selected a two-pronged strap, chains and wrist cuffs. She would have taken simple metal ones, but she knew that Lisa instead wanted her to select leather cuffs that were padded. The reason for that was very simple: Lisa did not want any cuff-marks on her lover’s wrists as evidence that she had been restrained. As instructed, she wrapped the items in the towel and went back upstairs.
While Kathleen was gone, Lisa had undressed and cleared the space where the disciplinarian and her subject would be standing during the whipping. She unloaded the towel and stuffed it at the foot of the door to muffle any sound that might come from the room. She wrapped Kathleen’s wrists in the cuffs and ordered her to stand quietly with her eyes shut until given further orders. Lisa then suspended the chains from the hooks (she was tall enough to not need to stand on a chair) and finally lifted Kathleen’s arms and clipped her wrists to the chains. Kathleen thus was immobilized. She was trembling, but kept her eyes shut pending permission to open them again.
Lisa then sat down to admire her lover before punishing her. She truly did make a lovely sight, her thin, trembling body waiting for punishment. Once Lisa satisfied herself studying her subject, she stood up and sensuously ran her hands over her lover’s body. Softly she spoke into her ear, "I love you, and it hurts me to have to do this to you. You understand I don’t like having to hurt you like this, don’t you?"
"I... Yes Lisa, I know that."
"Please don’t ever make me have to do this to you again. If you behave from now on, you could make this the last time I ever have to punish you."
"I... I’ll try, Lisa...please... I don’t want you to be mad at me."
Lisa traced her fingertip around her lover’s trembling mouth. "That’s completely up to you. Totally up to you. Your choices in life are what’ll decide whether or not I have to discipline you. You know the rules, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to follow them."
Lisa put her hands on Kathleen’s hips to position her for the flogging. She would have to remain standing with her feet spread slightly and pointed inward, her back arched with her bottom properly positioned to receive the blows. When Lisa was ready to punish the fronts of her lover’s thighs, Kathleen would have to stand straight. Lisa gave her a very strong incentive to stay in position and not do anything to lessen the impact of the strap: she gently touched the implement to her lover’s vulva. If Kathleen dared break position, Lisa would strike her between the legs.
Lisa strongly believed that any punishment needed to have various rituals before the blows started. One of those rituals was to draw lines on her lover’s arms and legs with a magic marker. Lisa wanted to separate the parts of her lover’s body that would be covered by clothing from the areas that would be exposed. She would have to stay within the limits of those lines. Of course, Lisa was perfectly capable of staying with those areas anyway, but the feel of the magic marker on her body heightened Kathleen’s anxiety and pre-punishment tension.
The next part of the ritual came when Lisa caressed Kathleen’s body with the strap. As the thin prongs explored the young woman’s exposed skin, she began to perspire and tremble with fright. Finally Lisa stopped, gave her lover one last kiss on the mouth, and positioned herself to deliver the first blow. She tapped the strap against her lover’s trembling bottom, swung her arm back, and delivered a cruel blow across both sides.
"Aiee... uh... uh..."
The implement did not make a loud CRACK like the noise made by a broad strap, but it left two cruel reddish lines across Kathleen’s backside. Lisa waited for the pain to fully register in the younger woman’s mind before delivering the second blow. She would go very slowly, following Burnside’s lesson to allow the passage of time to help wear down her victim and thus minimize the number of blows needed to make her cry.
The whipping started on Kathleen’s bottom, but Lisa also planned to punish her shoulders and upper thighs to avoid concentrating the punishment too much on just one part of her lover’s body. The strap left very cruel marks because so much force was concentrated in those two thin prongs of leather. The implement was not what Lisa would have chosen to punish her lover, but because it was what Kathleen had picked out, it was what Lisa would have to use. It did have one huge advantage, and that was it did not make loud noises upon impact like a normal strap or paddle. That certainly was important for Lisa’s desire to keep the punishment a private matter in the crowded sorority house.
It was clear that Kathleen was suffering, although she was doing her best to "be a good girl" and not make too much noise by crying. After just four strokes tears were running down her cheeks. By the time Lisa had covered her bottom and backs of her thighs with cruel reddish welts, her lover’s body was shaking with suppressed sobs.
Lisa took a break from the punishment, but touched the strap to Kathleen’s shoulders to let her know that part of her body would be punished next. A strange mix of emotions swept through her as she studied her suffering companion. She felt that Kathleen made a truly beautiful sight with her body restrained and her bottom covered with vicious red marks. At the same time Lisa empathized with the poor girl. Precisely because she was so helpless at that moment, there was a part of Lisa that wanted to reassure her and protect her. She knew that moment would indeed come: that as soon as she was released Kathleen would need to be held and comforted.
However, before her lover could be released, Lisa would have to finish the whipping. The purpose of the evening’s session was real punishment with the goal of inflicting real pain. Lisa was chastising Kathleen to put fear into her, fear of the consequences of ever crossing her again. Lisa loved her companion and had no desire to continuously beat her. However, she was determined to use the evening’s traumatic session as part of her life-long goal of establishing ownership over the girl’s soul. Even if Lisa never had to whip her again, threat of punishment, based on the memory of what was going on in that room, would always be a part of Kathleen’s life.
The freshman held up fairly well while her bottom was being flogged, but she cried pitifully when Lisa started punishing her upper back. She broke position and tried to twist to avoid a stroke, which forced Lisa to bring the strap up between her legs. Once that blow was delivered, she quickly covered Kathleen’s mouth to muffle her scream. Tears and sweat were pouring down the poor girl’s face, and Lisa had not even started flogging the fronts of her legs.
Lisa paused to allow her lover to partially recover from the blows delivered so far. Her bottom was a swollen mass of red lines. Her upper back was marked as well, but only with six sets of double welts. Lisa decided that was enough and it was time to finish up on her thin thighs.
"OK, now you know I was serious about hitting you between the legs. I don’t want to have to do that to you again, but I will whenever you break position. Do you understand me?"
Kathleen, between her sobs and trembling, forced herself to nod.
"Stand up straight, so I can finish up. I know it’s gonna hurt, but if you behave, we’ll be done in just a little bit."
Because Kathleen already had broken, Lisa did not see any need in prolonging the final portion of her punishment. She quickly laid 20 strokes on the upper part of her lover’s thighs, 10 on each side. While Lisa waited for the pain from the final portion of the punishment to mount, Kathleen continued to cry as she hung suspended by her cuffs. Lisa wanted to release her and hold her, but decided to wait until her lover’s sobs died down a bit.
Finally Lisa decided it was time to unclip her lover’s cuffs and let her down. She sat down on her bed and held the sad girl in her arms, comforting her like a crying child. The punishment had ended and the moment had come for Lisa to reassure her charge that everything was forgiven and that she still loved her.
Kathleen fell asleep within a few minutes, exhausted by the trauma of her punishment and comforted by Lisa’s embrace. Lisa was relieved, because the punishment that had waited for two months finally was over. Her lover had been taught her lesson. More importantly, she had accepted the life Lisa was preparing for her and was ready for the next phase in the relationship.
The following day Lisa woke up, showered, and then woke up her roommate. She ordered Kathleen to stand up so she could study the results of the previous day’s punishment. Kathleen’s body still was badly marked up, but Lisa calculated that by Thursday the marks would be gone.
It was obvious that Kathleen did not resent the whipping. Quite to the contrary she was relieved it was over and eager to demonstrate to Lisa that she very willing to do what she was ordered to do. Lisa thought about her goal of getting her lover to start kneeling, but still wanted to encourage Kathleen to make that decision on her own. What Lisa needed to do was create situations in which Kathleen was kneeling, and then, through positive re-enforcement, express her approval. Kathleen’s eagerness to please would do the rest.
Lisa lent her lover a bathrobe (because Kathleen no longer owned a bathrobe) and told her to shower. She told the truth about wanting to keep the punishment a private matter, adding that the rules for Kathleen’s clothing would change for a few days until her body no longer had any marks from the punishment.
When Kathleen came back and hung up the robe, Lisa sat in the room’s armchair and ordered her to present her homework.
"Here, come around to the side and get down so we can look this over together."
Sure enough, when she came around to the side of the chair, Kathleen got on her knees to better see her homework. As they went over the assignment, Lisa began stroking her lover’s hair and shoulders.
The two women had just established their first routine activity during which Kathleen would always kneel and receive a reward. Whenever they went over homework, Lisa would sit in the armchair and Kathleen would kneel next to her, enjoying the privilege of having her head and shoulders caressed while her mistress advised her about her studies.