Friday night I pulled into the parking lot of the house at six-thirty. I had a late Biology lab every Friday afternoon, which saved me from the pledge duty of being at the house early to help set up parties. The fraternity's motto was Alma mater first, and Beta Kappa for alma mater-in other words, school comes first-so no one other than Ted Norris ever complained about me not being able to help out before the parties. It was pretty obvious that my pledge brothers were getting just as exasperated over Ted as I already was. I didn't think he was going to make it through the semester. When he wasn't around, all of us complained and bitched about him. Chris tried talking to him once about his attitude, and got told to fuck off for his trouble. The brothers picked on him mercilessly, and the assignments he got in his black book were much more difficult than the ones the rest of us got-in fact, the vast majority of mine were Bag me sometime! I'll pay for the beer. Sometimes I felt sorry for Ted; but then he would do or say something that would remind me just exactly why I didn't like him in the first place.

As I walked up to the house, my jaw dropped. The Friday night theme was Mai Tai Wun On, which apparently was a long-standing house tradition. When the brothers talked about how they turned the house into a Polynesian paradise for this annual party, I rolled my eyes inwardly. I mean, really, how convincing could any decoration be? And the Behind the Mask party on Wednesday night had been pretty fucking lame after all. But now, I couldn't believe my eyes. I just stared in wonder. The entire backyard was covered by a blue tarp, wrapped around railroad ties, which made up a lagoon. Tiki torches lined the sidewalk. A waterfall off the roof splashed into the lagoon, and inside the lagoon itself several fountains shot streams of water up into the air. Flower petals floated in the water, as well as tea candles floating in salad bowls wrapped in tin foil. That side of the house was completely covered in palm fronds. The front door stood open, and inside I could see a huge papier- mache tiki god with a mai tai fountain inside his mouth. I was completely blown away. How had they managed to do this so quickly? In just one day?

I felt very proud to be a Beta Kappa pledge. We were sooo the coolest house on campus.

I walked in the front door, and the first thing I heard was Ted's nasal voice, "About fucking time you got here, Morgan."

"Shut up, Ted," Chris Moore snapped. He was struggling to tap a keg. "Good to see you, Jeff. I've got your shirt."

Every year, the house specially made T-shirts for the party. This year's design was a dark blue shirt with the Beta Kappa letters transposed over a scene of a girl in a bikini coming out of a tropical lagoon-I think it was actually an image ripped off from a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. I pulled off my shirt and folded it, putting it inside my backpack. Chris tossed me my party T-shirt, which I pulled on over my head. It was tight and hugged my upper body like a glove. "What needs to be done?"

"Everything's done already, as usual," Ted sneered. "As always, you just showed up in time for the party."

"You know, Ted, maybe if you focused on what you need to do instead of what everyone else is doing, you wouldn't forget your lessons on Hearth," Chris snapped before I had a chance to say anything. What I wanted to do was punch Ted in the mouth, and I could feel my face flush. Instead, I counted to ten.

The previous Monday, every single time Ted had been called on, he hadn't been able to recite any lesson requested of him, to the murmurs of a disgusted Brotherhood. He even fucked up the Greek alphabet, which was the easiest of all the lessons thus far. I could even say the damned thing backwards.

Ted flushed. "Yeah, well, fuck you, Moore." He snapped and stormed off.

"I didn't think he would ever go away," Chris said, rolling his eyes.

I laughed. "How can he not realize how abrasive he is?"

"It's beyond me. Unless he's an even bigger asshole than we think, and likes being one, I don't know" Chris shrugged. "I mean, I feel bad for him sometimes, but you know if he doesn't get his shit together we're all going to wind up suffering for it." He sighed. "You know, they keep telling us our class is only as strong as our weakest link-and he is definitely that."

"Word up." I changed the subject. "Where's Eric?"

"Oh, he had to run to the store for more mai tai mix. Can you believe how cool this place looks? This is fucking incredible."

"I know. I still can't believe it." I looked into the Great Room. All the walls were covered with palm fronds, and candles burned everywhere. The deejay was setting up his station by the carpeted area. "This party is going to be so awesome."

"You have no idea, little bro," Blair said from behind me. "Are you finished with the kegs, Pledge Moore?"

"Yes sir, Brother Blanchard sir." Chris straightened up with a big grin.

"Then I request the presence of you two pledges in my room." I turned around and started laughing. Blair was wearing the Mai Tai Wun On T-shirt, but had painted his face like a Polynesian headhunter, complete with a bone through his nose which I hoped was a clip-on, and was wearing a grass skirt underneath rather than pants. "What are you laughing at, little bro? I told you this party was a big deal." He waved. "Follow me, pledges."

Once we were inside his room, he locked the door and placed the obligatory towel across the bottom of the door. He walked over to his desk and got out the dragon. "I've heard through the brother grapevine, Chris, that you are a stoner. Did I hear correctly?"

"Sir, oh, yes, definitely sir." Chris grinned.

I plopped down on the bed. All the pledges-except Ted, of course-smoked pot. We got stoned at all of our pledge meetings. Ted, I thought as I waited for my turn with the dragon, just doesn't fit in at all with the rest of us. As far as I could tell, all the brothers, with a few exceptions, smoked pot too. For about the hundredth time since our first pledge meeting, I wondered why Ted had bothered pledging a fraternity-and why this one in particular.

After the dragon had gone around a few times, I could hear the sound of voices outside as people started arriving for the party. Blair coughed. "I'm going to get us all a mai tai-you boys stay here, okay?"

"I can go." Chris said, blowing out a stream of smoke.

"No, I'll go. I want to hang out with you two for a while, and if you go out there someone might put you to work." Blair grabbed his keys and went out the door.

"He's so cool," Chris said, taking another hit. "You're so lucky he's your big brother."

"I think so, too." I took the dragon away from him.

"Man, I am stoned." He grinned at me. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure man." I was pretty stoned myself. "You're my pledge brother. You can tell me anything."

"Man"-he leaned close to me and whispered-"it was so hot watching you and Eric wrestle last Saturday, even though it didn't last very long." He laughed. "Pretty smart of you to go for his stomach the way you did. Do you like to wrestle?"

"What?"

"Do you like to wrestle? I think it's sexy as hell-Eric loves doing it too. He was bummed he was too wasted to make a real match out of it, you know" He put a hand on my leg. "You've got an awesome body, guy. Eric wants to wrestle with you again. And so do I."

"Are you serious?" I felt myself starting to get hard. I remembered what it was like wrestling around with Kevin in high school, the feel of his muscles against mine, his legs wrapped around my head-and then I suppressed a laugh. I hadn't thought about Kevin since meeting Blair.