GREEK BOOKSTORE

Excerpt from CHAPTER 6:

Willie and his Line Brothers nervously stood in front of the massive Frat House door. They knocked on the door two minutes earlier than they were supposed to.

"Who is it?" The Dean asked. The door opened before an answer was given.

"Go upstairs! Hurry, quick go upstairs!"

All of the Line Brothers hustled franticlly up the steep flight of stairs. They grouped together as if they were in a football huddle as they settled in a small room upstairs. The Line Brothers remained silent for about five minutes before speaking amongst themselves. The Frat Brothers nor the Dean was around so Willie mumbled words of encouragement, "It will be okay, don't worry we will be okay."

The mumble in Willie's voice could have been mistaken for a tremble that's produced by fear, yet his Line Brothers appeared to accept his words with much gratitude.

Out of the blue, "Didn't I tell you stupid Punk Bitches not to talk when you are over here! Didn't I tell your sorry asses that?" The Dean exploded on the pledges for whispering, he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Willie looked at the Dean just before getting ready to make a comment.

"Don't look at me in the eyes boy! I mean it, don't you ever look at me in the eyes!" The Dean spoke seriously and angrily while he shouted. He bent directly down and spoke to the Line Brothers' huddle. "If you are weak you need to leave now, if you can't take the heat get the FUCK out because we are getting ready to hype this SHIT up!"

Suddenly, the other Frat Brothers entered and began grabbing and isolating the Line Brothers taking them to different places within the Frat House. Willie was taken to a nearby restroom while two Frat Brothers spoke calmly but very quickly to him.

"You can leave now you know, you don't have to go through this. Go intake. You won't get any respect but you can definitely go intake."

The Frat Brothers were giving all of the pledges the opportunity to go intake while making it plain and clear that whomever decided to go that route would not get any respect. All of the Line Brothers that were getting ready to pledge knew there was a major difference in pledging underground than going intake. So it was an option, but not really an option. Campus consensus was such that you must pledge underground in order to be "real", everyone that did not initiate "old school" would be recognized nationally or to the administration but would be an outcast among Fraternity Brothers at Central West State University and Local Chapters at other colleges. The pledges knew this to be true because there was a current Frat Brother that went intake on the last Line and the Fraternity always spoke extremely bad about him and excluded him from all events and activities. With that in mind, Willie and his Line Brothers discussed what good it would do to be in a Frat and you could not participate and even worse your own Frat would blackball you. The pledges while being hyped and geeked on emotions emphatically said no to intake and agreed to go the "real way" you know old school.

The Frat Brothers sent the Line Brothers back to the small room and sorted them in line from shortest to tallest. All of the Frat Brothers left except for the Dean. The Dean stood in front of the line while all of the Line Brothers looked down to the ground as to assure not to look the Dean in his eyes. Then the Dean left giving one final instruction before he announced the Spring Line of 1992.

"It's very irritating when one of the new pledges have red on. You know that is the Lambda's colors and it just drives the Frat Brothers crazy when a pledge has that color on. So, unless you want to be a Lambda I would suggest you check yourself and your Line Brothers to ensure that none of you have any type of red on," then the Dean leaves.

The Line Brothers checked everywhere. Scrambling and sorting through each others clothes, it would seem easy to look for red since all were dressed exactly alike with white T-shirts and black sweats, but there it was a spot of red on the tag of their Fruit of the Loom T-shirts. Quickly, they began to rip all of the tags from their shirts; it would seem like an incredible task as a couple of the Line Brothers were out of breath afterwards.

The Line Brothers stood in line ready for them to be called downstairs. It was a night that the Pledge Brothers anticipated receiving much book information about the Fraternity since it was the first night.

Lonnie was called the Lead since he was at the beginning of the line, Noble was second, Nick was third, Timothy was fourth, Lee was fifth, Ray D was sixth and Willie was seventh at the end and was better known as the Tail.

The Frat Brothers were down stairs listening to rambunctious music and drinking, as they believed they were getting really prepared for the Spring Line. The new pledges had a meeting with maniacs and didn't know it.

The Dean yelled as his voice echoed up the stairs, "The Spring Line of 1992 has arrived, the Frat Brothers would like to greet you with open arms. You may now enter."