Chapter 6: Pledge Night

On Thursday night I taped my old phone inside the lining of my jean jacket.

Trudy held the tape.

"The wild heiress prepares for battle. She has no plan. She has a phone from 2021."

"It records."

"So does my grandma's answering machine."

At ten o'clock, twelve of us new members stood in a line in the Delta Phi basement.

They took our real phones in a plastic bin.

Then they tied black bandanas over our eyes.

Somebody was already crying a little.

We were walked out a back door and loaded into cars, and I counted turns until I lost track.

When they pulled the bandanas off, we were standing on a dark dock.

The lake east of campus.

I could see the lights of the new boathouse going up across the water, all scaffolding and plastic sheeting.

It was cold enough for my breath to show.

Brielle stood at the end of the dock in a white puffer coat with a flashlight under her chin.

Eight older sisters stood behind her holding candles.

"Delta Phi is a family," Brielle said. "Family tells the truth. So tonight, each of you is going to earn your place."

She swung the flashlight to the first girl in line, a freshman with braces.

"In," she said, and pointed at the black water. "All the way under. Then you come up and tell us your secret."

The girl looked at the lake.

Then at the sisters.

Then she took off her shoes and stepped off the dock.

Three more girls went in after her.

She came up gasping and shrieking from the cold.

The sisters cheered.

Then Brielle's flashlight landed on me.

"Not you," she said. "You don't get to go in. You get something special."

She handed me an index card.

Her handwriting, big and round.

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