Fliers for the first KMA rush went up the next day, and they had the school talking. Sadly, Hailey wouldn't let Barb decorate them with cows. This rejection earned Hailey a cold shoulder for an hour that morning. However, Barb perked up when they received a video call from their mom.
"I'm so proud of you two!" she said. "Your father says hello. He also told me he sent you some pledging ideas, but I'm unsure what you might do with those. Guy's clubs and girl's clubs are different."
"I like the stuff he sent me, and I could adapt it for a girl's club. It would give us a unique identity," Hailey said.
"Are you going to have them doing push-ups?" Mrs. Conrad asked with a chuckle.
"No, not that. But I liked some of the other activities."
"Fair enough. So, explain this whole Marla situation. I heard she's screwing up my club."
"Marla is a nightmare. She made Keisha so angry she quit. Keisha thinks she's a psychopath."
"I'd call her more of a narcissist," Hailey said, but Barb ignored her.
"Either way, I'm glad you didn't join Phi-O if she's running it," Mrs. Conrad said. "Now tell me about your other members. I know Keisha, but what about the new girls?"
"Oh, Mom! You must meet Felicia. You would adore her. She's super shy, but she's a sweetheart. Then there's Shawna. She is the polar opposite but equally awesome," Barb said.
"Yeah, Hailey told me about Shawna the other day. She sounds fun. Shawna reminds me of a girl I knew in college," Mrs. Conrad said with a faraway look in her eyes and a hint of a grin. "I would like to meet them both. Too bad I can't make it to homecoming this year."
"It would be great if you did!" Hailey said.
"Yeah, you could go to the Phi-O homecoming breakfast and slap Marla across the face," Barb added.
"I might call in a favor to some of my old friends."
"Oh, don't get our hopes up, Mom."
***
Meanwhile, Marla sat at the desk in her room and finished drawing a dress for her fashion design class. She chatted with Chloe as she worked, but Chloe wasn't in the mood to speak. However, Marla hadn't registered Chloe's lack of response.
"I can't believe the nerve of that Conrad girl! Who does she think she is? And don't get me started on Bledsoe. I gave him a piece of my mind, but he thinks it will be good for the girls to have more clubs. I swear that man is an imbecile," Marla said. She didn't understand how aggressively she drew until her colored pencil snapped. Marla threw it down and selected another one before continuing her rant. "At least I convinced him to limit KMA's bids. I doubt they'll get anyone, but I can't have them stealing pledges from us!" As she said this, Marla noticed a mistake in her drawing and shoved it across the desk with a loud grumble. It flew away and fluttered to the ground while Marla placed her head in her hands. "What kind of stupid name is Kappa Mu Alpha?"
It took Marla a few seconds to realize Chloe hadn't spoken in a while, so she looked in her direction. What she saw infuriated her even more. Chloe was sitting on Marla's bed and staring at her phone. She had earbuds in her ears and mouthed the lyrics to some song. Upon seeing this, Marla marched over to the bed so quickly that Chloe didn't see her coming. Marla reached over and yanked the buds from Chloe's ears before throwing them on the floor.
"Marla!" Chloe said, staring at her sister in disbelief.
"What is your problem?" Marla asked.
"I don't have a problem, but apparently, you do!"
"Wrong! Your problem is disrespect, and this will end when you pledge," Marla said as she pointed her finger in Chloe's face. The gesture made Chloe flinch, which drew a smirk from Marla. "I've been sitting here talking to you, but you're ignoring me!"
"You were doing homework, so I listened to music. I wasn't trying to disrespect you!"
"Liar! You put on some music so you didn't have to listen to me," Marla said before leaning down to get in Chloe's face. She was as close as her finger had been. Chloe could feel and smell Marla's breath. "You need to learn humility. Mom and Dad did a poor job, but I'll fix that," Marla whispered. Then she stood up and stomped on one of Chloe's earbuds. It cracked under Marla's shoe.
"Hey!" Chloe said and rose from the bed. She walked over to Marla and stood before her, but Marla didn't budge. Marla stared into Chloe's eyes with a look Chloe attempted to return equally.
"What are you going to do, Chloe? Hit me? You know that won't end well."
There was a moment where Chloe almost lifted her fist, but she stopped herself. Instead, she released a guttural groan and stormed out of the room. Marla watched her leave with a look of smug satisfaction.
***
Later that day, Keisha and Barb headed toward Barb's dorm when they spotted Hailey. Barb instantly understood something was wrong from the expression on Hailey's face. She either received some bad news or finally noticed Barb had eaten the last of her pizza rolls.
"I take it your meeting with Bledsoe didn't go well," Barb said.
"He limited the number of bids we can give out."
"What? How many?"
"Fifteen."
"That's it!?"
"I don't know if we'll even get that many, but that's not the point. Why would he tell us to grow as quickly as possible and then put a cap on our growth?" Hailey asked.
Barb shrugged before asking, "Did he give a reason?"
"He said it was only fair to the other girls' clubs because we joined the game so late."
This statement made Keisha laugh, but Hailey didn't find it amusing. She turned to Keisha with an annoyed glare. Keisha raised her hand to tell her to calm down.
"I'm laughing because I know that's bullshit. His decision has nothing to do with the other clubs. Bledsoe didn't do it to be fair to them. He did this to be fair to Marla! My friend Ashley works in Bledsoe's office. She said Marla screamed at him for twenty minutes this morning."
"How can she get away with talking to him like that?" Barb asked.
"Because Marla has Bledsoe wrapped around her pinky. Her parents are major donors to the school. All they have to do is threaten to pull or cut their donations, and Bledsoe bends backward for them. If you complain about this, Bledsoe says he can't do anything because he has to put food on his table. Students with rich alumni parents can practically commit murder here," Keisha said with disgust. "I've seen Marla get what she wants with this method."
"Does Mom donate to the school?" Barb asked, which drew an angry stare from Hailey. "It was a joke! Relax!"
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
"This is disappointing. Bledsoe did us a favor, so I almost liked him," Hailey said.
"He's fine when he wants to be. But when push comes to shove, he's a spineless coward," Keisha replied.
"I'm surprised Marla didn't convince him to shut us down."
"Apparently, he won't budge on that, so he grew a fraction of a spine today."
Hailey let out a deep sigh and turned toward the dorm. "It's been a hell of a day. Too bad I can't drown my sorrows in pizza rolls since somebody ate them all!"
"Keisha, how could you!?" Barb asked in shock.
***
Hailey became irritable without her pizza rolls, so Barb was going to head to the fine arts building. They let the students use the art rooms in the evenings. However, she only took two steps out the door before someone approached her.
"Are you Barb?" a girl with auburn hair asked.
"Yes, I am."
"My name is Autumn. I'm one of Felicia's friends."
"She mentioned you before. It's nice to meet you."
"Thanks. Can we talk in private? There's something I need to tell you."
Barb led Autumn to one of the study rooms in the dorm and shut the door. Despite the girl's calm demeanor, Barb felt uneasy. Autumn didn't seem distressed, but she had a look of concern that still unnerved Barb.
"Felicia will probably kill me for telling you this, but you must know. Her mom doesn't want her to be around Shawna, but she doesn't know Shawna is in Felicia's club."
"Oh, no," Barb said and took a seat.
"Yeah, it gets worse. Mrs. Mays pays for Felicia's college, and she's threatened to pull Fel out of school in the past."
"Why doesn't Mrs. Mays want Felicia around Shawna?"
"Mrs. Mays and Shawna had a horrible fight last year. Shawna didn't like how she talked to Felicia and told her off."
"Okay, you need to help me understand the relationship between Felicia and Shawna. Felicia doesn't like to talk about it. And the more I learn, the more confused I become. I thought Shawna scared Felicia."
"Only because her mom made her afraid! It didn't use to be that way. Last year, Felicia and Shawna were almost inseparable. Then the fight happened, and Mrs. Mays got into Felicia's head. Things only changed when Fel went home for the summer. They had a huge argument. Mrs. Mays told Fel she couldn't hang out with Shawna anymore. Shawna doesn't scare Felicia. Her mother does!"
"Oh, god. And I just put Felicia in the worst position imaginable. I wish she would have told me," Barb said, burying her face in her hands. "This might end badly. What am I going to do?"
"Whatever you do, don't let Mrs. Mays win. Don't let her ruin a beautiful thing. I wish you could have seen the two of them together last year," Autumn said, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Me too."
***
An hour later, Barb sat before Felicia, who bowed her head and eyes toward the floor. She had not focused on Barb since Barb told her about Autumn's conversation.
"Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have put you in this situation if you had," Barb said.
"To be fair, I didn't know you would ask Shawna to be the Sergeant at Arms."
"Okay, good point," Barb said. She felt terrible for not thinking about that before speaking. "I'm sorry, Felicia. I messed up."
"No, you didn't. I'm glad I'm part of KMA, and I'm glad Shawna is too. It's just that I'm..." Felicia said, but she couldn't finish the sentence.
"Scared?" Barb asked, and Felicia nodded. "I understand, but what can we do? I need you and Shawna, but I don't want your mom to pull you out of school."
"Maybe she won't find out."
"You can't keep that from her forever. Does she come to visit often?"
"No, she's pretty busy. But she likes to surprise me, especially on my birthday. Mom knows I hate surprises, but she does it anyway. That's what happened last year. She showed up on my birthday and got into that fight with Shawna."
"I'll leave the decision up to you. What do you want to do, Fel?"
"I'm staying where I am, and I'm not quitting. We'll take the chance," Felicia said, and she locked eyes with Barb when she said it.
"Good for you. I'll do everything I can to prevent your mom from finding out. After all, I got you into this mess. Now let me walk you back to your dorm," Barb said after hugging Felicia.
They walked out the front door of Barb's dorm and made it almost a block before Barb heard a loud rumbling sound. It was a car engine, but someone was revving it to show off.
"Who is doing that?" Barb asked, but she noticed a massive smile on Felicia's face. Fel pointed behind Barb with a laugh as a black '67 Mustang pulled up beside them. They looked through the window to see Shawna's grinning face. "Shawna!? Is this your car?" Barb asked.
"This is my baby. I call her Chelsea!" she said as she patted the car's roof. "Get in, Squeaks! We're going shopping! I gotta get supplies for the rush, and you're riding shotgun!"
Felicia turned to look at Barb, and Barb was happy to see the smile was still on Fel's face. "I'm not mad at you for getting me into this. I'm glad you did it. Thank you," Felicia said and opened the passenger door of Shawna's car.
"Buckle up, Fel. It's the law, and you have to obey me now because I'm your mistress," Shawna said as Felicia sat down.
"Please don't say that," Felicia said, burying her face in her hand. Shawna laughed and put the car into drive.
***
When the rush day finally came, the officers met to decorate one of the conference rooms in the campus center. Barb and Hailey arrived before the others. The sight of the new KMA logo greeted everybody when they entered.
"Whoa! That's looks great, Barb," Keisha said. Barb placed the image at the back of the room where people could see it. She had created what looked like a family crest. It included a white shield with a gold outline. Horizontal navy blue bars stretched across the middle of the shield, a silhouette of a golden swan appeared in front of the bars, and lions flanked the crest. Then, Barb added a crown on top and a banner below. The banner read KMA. This logo sat on a navy blue flag with KMA in gold letters at the bottom.
"Thanks. I painted this, but I'm having a professional one embroidered."
"Why did you choose a swan?" Felicia asked.
"Because Hailey wouldn't let me put a cow on it!" Barb said and peered over her shoulder. Hailey shook her head and grumbled under her breath. "I got her to compromise on the drinks, though," Barb added, gesturing at a table with milk pitchers.
Soon, the girls appeared. The number of attendees raised their spirits despite Bledsoe's bid cap. Unfortunately, many of them seemed disinterested. Others only stayed for a few minutes. However, Hailey's mood changed when Kennedy and Hana showed up.
"You didn't have to come. We already have both of you down for bids," Hailey said.
"Oh, I know, but we wanted to meet some of our potential fellow pledges," Kennedy said. "How many seem interested?"
"Sadly, few. Most only came out of curiosity."
"Oh, Hail, stop. You're being pessimistic," Keisha said and waved her hand. Then she broke out in a smile and waved at someone who entered the room. "Claudia!" Keisha said. They turned to see a girl with a braided ponytail return Keisha's wave. "I invited her because Phi-O did her dirty. She will definitely pledge us," Keisha said. While she said this, Claudia joined their small circle.
"Claudia Fernandez," she said as she shook their hands. "Just letting you know I'm not really into all the sappy sisterhood stuff. I'm here to stick it to Marla and those Phi-O bitches. They didn't want me, so screw 'em."
"Oh, that's lovely," Barb said before exchanging a quick look with Shawna.
"Yeah, Keish told me what KMA meant, and I realized this was the place for me," Claudia said as she perused the room. When she spotted the drink table, she did a double take. "Is that milk?" She chuckled before turning to Kennedy. "Oh, hey. Is this your sponsor?"
"Um, no. I'm going to pledge. I'm Kennedy."
"Oh, my bad. That's cool. I respect that. Never too late, right?"
"If you're looking for our sponsor, that's Mrs. Harwin over there," Hailey said, pointing at Cynthia.
"Hey, doesn't she work at the library?" Claudia asked.
"Yes, she does."
"Guess you guys won't have to worry about late fees."
As Claudia continued to speak, Hana noticed someone enter the room. She said, "Whoa! Who is that?" Hana pointed at a girl with light brown hair. The girl glanced around with wide-eyed wonder and a bright smile.
"That's Tamara Hill. She was the lead in last year's homecoming musical," Keisha said.
"She probably won't end up going with us. Will she?" Hana asked, sounding disappointed.
"What's that supposed to mean, Han?" Barb asked, looking hurt.
"She's popular, so she'll probably go with one of the bigger clubs."
"So you think she's too popular for us losers?"
"I didn't say that, Barb."
"Will you two stop?" Hailey asked in annoyance. Her hands were on her hips, which reminded Barb of their mother. Hailey seemed ready to say more, but something caught everyone's attention.
"Ow! Gosh darn it! That table jumped out and hit me!" Tamara said after tripping on a table in her way. "You guys didn't see that, right?" she asked when she looked at the group.
"I didn't see anything," Hailey said.
"Not a thing," Barb added.
"I saw it!"
"Shawna!" Hailey said and glared at her.
"Tamara Hill," she said and extended her hand. She still had a red face from the near fall.
"I know. You were great in last year's musical," Keisha said.
"Oh, thanks."
"Are you in this year's production?"
"Yeah, I might not make it to every pledging event, but I still want to try."
"We'll find a way to make it work," Hailey assured her.
"I didn't see you at any other rushes," Claudia said.
"I didn't go to them because I wasn't keen on pledging until I heard about you guys."
"Did she just say keen?" Claudia asked under her breath.
"Also, I wasn't going with Phi-O. That Marla girl works as a costume designer for the theatre department. She's awful."
"Can we just hand her a bid right now?" Barb whispered to Hailey. Hailey laughed, shrugged her shoulders, and nodded her head.
Meanwhile, Tamara started a conversation with Claudia, but Claudia stopped listening. It wasn't because Tamara bored her. Claudia's attention had shifted to something far more interesting. She leaned over and peeked around Tamara's shoulder with an open-mouthed stare. After a moment, Claudia muttered under her breath. "Oh, shit." Upon hearing this, everyone looked toward the door, and their mouths fell open.
Chloe Knox was standing in the doorway.
"Hey, am I too late for the rush?" Chloe asked.