Introduction: The Cheaters
It was the kind of Monday morning that freshmen tend to dread. Midterms loomed, and the air in Hargrove Hall was thick with anxiety and the smell of energy drinks. Over a hundred freshmen hunched over their desks grinding away on their exams in the huge lecture hall. Four boys sat near each other fidgeting more than most. There was Nate, tall and lean with a perpetually worried brow; Milo, shorter and twitchy, always cracking jokes to mask his nerves; Julian, the quiet artist with a knack for improvisation; and Owen, the one with a stubborn streak and innate skepticism.
The eighteen year-old boys had hatched a scheme the night before—the kind of desperate plan born from too little studying and too much youthful bravado. With a few answers discreetly scribbled onto the inside covers of their battered notebooks and a subtle system of coughs and taps carefully rehearsed, they believed they could outwit the proctors. Perhaps it was the sort of thing that might have worked in high school, when teachers were more overloaded and distracted.
But this wasn’t high school, and the volunteer exam monitors—three sharp-eyed seniors—moved with seasoned vigilance, canvassing the rows with an intensity that left little room for error. Unbeknownst to the boys, all three were members of the Gamma Delta sorority. One of the sisters, perched at the aisle, had already noticed the suspicious glances and muted signals exchanged between the four friends but continued to watch, her gaze coolly appraising. The boys didn’t know it yet, but they were being observed with focused scrutiny.
An hour into the test, as some students were finishing and turning in their papers, Nate took advantage of the students moving around him and tried to signal to Milo. Instead, he met the intense gaze of Madison, Gamma Delta’s president, who raised an eyebrow and jotted down their names. The trap had been set. She and her sorority sisters had been tracking their antics for nearly half an hour, trading glances and silent nods as they pieced together the boys’ strategy.
Madison had watched them with a mixture of amusement and calculation. She found the four somewhat endearing in their futile mischief. Gamma Delta was known for promoting and developing very strong-willed and decisive women. Perhaps, she mused, these boys were ideal candidates for a very different kind of lesson—one that would leave a lasting impression and also provide some entertaining distraction for her sorority sisters as well. In her mind, the wheels were already turning. With a chuckle, she recalled some similar things Gamma Delta had done before.
As the exam wrapped up, the four boys slunk outside, their hearts pounding with dread. Their anxiety deepened when, instead of being summoned to the dean’s office, they received instructions to report to the Gamma Delta sorority house. The stately Victorian building, adorned with pastel curtains and gleaming trophies visible through the windows, stood in stark contrast to the sterile halls of the administration office. The boys exchanged nervous glances, their relief at dodging official discipline quickly giving way to an ominous curiosity about what awaited them.
Topic: The Little Sisters of Gamma Delta (Read 172 times)
