"Oh, shit," I said.
"Who is it?" Carrie called out to the door.
"It's me, Juliet," a voice came from the other side of the door.
Carrie looked slightly annoyed. "Just a minute," she said. She
looked at me and whispered, "Toss me that robe," as she pointed to a
light blue garment that was in a heap next to my chair. I obliged her
and she quickly put on the robe to cover herself. "Don't worry," she
said. "I'll get rid of her."
"You don't have to," I whispered back.
She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll see what she wants," she said. She
walked to the door and opened it. "Hey, what's up?" Carrie asked the
girl in the hallway.
Juliet could see me sitting inside the room and said, "Oh, if you're
busy, I can come back."
Carrie looked at me and waited for me to say something. "No, it's OK
if you come in," I said.
"You sure?" Juliet asked Carrie.
"Yea, we weren't doing anything important," said Carrie. "Just
hanging out." Carrie stood to one side and allowed Juliet to enter
the room. "So what's up?"
Juliet appeared to be a year or two younger than Carrie. She carried
herself in a bit of an awkward, timid way. She walked into the room
appearing nervous as her hands fidgeted in front of her. She was a
couple of inches shorter than Carrie and didn't appear to have nearly
as good a figure. Her breasts were smaller and she wasn't very curvy,
though the clothes she wore were loose and kind of frumpy, so it was
hard to tell for sure. She had unremarkable light brown hair that
stopped just past the top of her shoulders. Her face was pleasant
enough, but she would not stand out in a crowd.
"I'm getting a lot of pressure from Hayley and Brianna," Juliet said.
"About the vote?" Carrie asked her. Juliet nodded slightly. She
looked ashamed. "Oh, Juliet, did you promise to vote for Roxanne?"
"No!" Juliet shot back. "Well...no, not exactly. I told them I
probably would."
Carrie sighed loudly. "What did they do this time?" she asked.
"Threaten to kick you out again?"
Juliet shook her head. "No," she said, "this time they 'promised'
they would. They said Roxanne would find a way to kick me out if I
don't vote for her, no matter if she wins or not." Juliet wiped at
her eye. "I'm so confused. I just want to be accepted, but I didn't
think it would be like this." She sat down on the bed. She appeared
quite distraught.
Carrie said to me, "As you might have guessed, Roxanne is running
against me for head of the house. Hayley and Brianna are her ever
loyal minions. Poor Juliet here is a freshman and she's a legacy."
"Legacy?" I asked.
"Her mother was in this sorority, so she was admitted strictly because
of that," Carrie explained. "A lot of girls in this house are, but
some have lines that go back a long time. Juliet's line starts at her
mother, so she's been getting picked on for that. Now we have all
this."
"How close is this vote?" I asked. "And is it really that important?"
"Right now it looks like there's one or two votes to swing it either
way," Carrie said. "And it's more important than you'd think. The
head of the house essentially dictates policy over admittance for
prospects and how the house is generally run, like a queen, really."
"Hmm," I said. “Sounds like this is given more importance than it
needs.”
“That’s the way it is,” Carrie said with defeat in her voice.
“Juliet, I sense you’d like to vote for Carrie, right?” She nodded.
“Do I also sense that you’re in this sorority just because your mother
wants you to be?”
“Hey!” Carrie protested.
“It’s a valid question,” I responded. I turned back to Juliet. “Is
that the truth?”
“Y-yes,” she stammered. She looked ashamed. “Who are you, anyway,
since you seem to know so much?”
“My name is Joe. Carrie and I are…friends,” I answered. Juliet
looked at me in disbelief. “OK, we just met today,” I admitted.
“Oh,” she said. “I thought you might have been…you know, ‘more than
friends.’”
Carrie chuckled at that suggestion. I had to do the same. “No, we
met by pure chance, really,” I explained. Carrie had a worried look
on her face. I assumed she didn’t want me to say too much, but I
wanted to push ahead. “Juliet, what do you want out of life? And I
don’t mean what are your career goals or life goals, but what do you
want?”
“Oh, gosh,” she said. “I want to be my own person. I don’t want to
worry about being what someone else wants me to be. I’d like to be
more assertive.” A look of relief spread over her face. “Wow,” she
said.
“Feels good to say all of that, doesn’t it?” I asked.
“Yea,” she answered, as she still appeared somewhat amazed she was
able to say all of that.
“You’re in this sorority because your mother wants you to be, aren’t
you?” I asked. She nodded in agreement. “Do you really want to be
here?”
She paused for a few seconds as she appeared to search for the answer.
“Yes, I do,” she said. “I know that most of the girls are nice and
look out for each other. I want to earn it, though.”
I looked at Carrie. "Should we?" I asked.
"I think so," Carrie responded.
Juliet looked confused. "'Should we' what?" she asked.