When we were on campus, we were supposed to avoid the brothers-and if it couldn't be helped, we weren't allowed to make eye contact. After I finished my last class at noon that Monday, I was starving. I'd managed to get some drinks of water out of fountains on campus when I was certain no brother was anywhere around. As I trudged back to the house, a car pulled up to the curb. Inside were three brothers, including Rory Armagh. "Hey, Jeff, get in the car." Rory opened the back door. A bit hesitantly, I climbed in, and once I'd shut the door they drove off and headed for the Carl's Jr. about five blocks away from the house. "What do you want to eat?" Rory asked as we idled in the drive through.

"Nothing," I replied.

David Jensen, a senior who was driving the car, started laughing. "This isn't a trap, Jeff. Nobody really expects you to starve yourself till Thursday morning. Didn't your big brother tell you? Brothers and little sisters will feed youyou just can't get caught or turned in by anyone. And we're not going to turn you in."

I took a deep breath. "Western bacon cheeseburger, large order of fries, and large Coke." My stomach growled at the thought of food. Once we got our order, they pulled over into a parking spot and I scarfed it all down in record time. Rory patted me on the leg as they drove back to the house, letting me out exactly where they picked me up. "It's all a game, Jeff," Rory whispered before I got out of the car, "just remember that. And before you know it, it's all over and you're a brother."

I got out of the car and stood there for a moment, watching them as they drove off. Why didn't Blair explain any of this to me? I wondered. Ever since the incident with Marc Kearney, we'd seemed so much closer. Every time we were together, Blair would tell me how much he loved me. So why didn't he explain to me how I was going to survive Hell Week? Maybe he's punishing you for fucking Marc Kearney.

I didn't like that thought.

But knowing I was going to get fed and given something to drink from time to time made the asshole behavior of the brothers while I was in the house somewhat easier to take. The irony was that I actually wound up eating more during Hell Week than I would have if I'd been eating normally. You could never tell a brother or a little sister that you weren't hungry-stupid ass Ted made that mistake, and the brother got him to admit he'd been fed by a little sister half an hour earlier, and the brother ratted him out. That cost us all five minutes holding the wall and one hundred pushups.

Needless to say, this didn't increase Ted's popularity with his pledge brothers.

Monday night we were taught a lesson.

At one in the morning, we were sent to the chapter room and told to strip naked to wait for the whistle. "What do you suppose they are going to do to us?" Ted asked in a whimper.

"Maybe we're going to all take it up the ass," Eric said nastily, and a couple of the rest of us laughed.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Ted shot back.

Eric's face turned red, and there was no telling what would have happened next. Fortunately, there was a knock on the chapter room door, and then Marc opened it. "No laughter in the chapter room," he said severely. "When you're in here, you should be quiet and thinking about what you can bring to the Brotherhood if you get initiated."

We all looked down.

"Pledge Amundsen, come with me."

Tommy Amundsen, the sophomore from Mission Viejo, who'd once told me his ambition was to one day be White House Chief of Staff, looked like nothing more than a terrified country mouse going to his doom. We sat there in silence, straining to hear what was going on out in the Great Room. We couldn't hear a thing, other than Marc knocking on the door before sticking his head in and taking the next pledge in alphabetical order.

When it was my turn, I swallowed and stood up. I made my face neutral, void of expression, and held my head high as I walked out there behind Marc. The brothers were standing in a circle, each holding a candle. Marc led me to the center of the circle. "Brotherhood of Beta Kappa, I present to you Jeffrey Morgan, a candidate to join your circle." He intoned, and then took a candle and joined the circle.

"Candidate Morgan, why do you seek to join the Brotherhood?" someone whose voice I couldn't recognize asked from behind me.

I cleared my throat. "Because I believe in what the Brotherhood stands for."

There were murmured sounds of approval.

"Candidate Morgan, what do you have to offer to the Brotherhood?" This question was unmistakably from Jerry Pollard, who was directly in front of me.

"My lifelong devotion and commitment to the preservation of the Brotherhood's ideals," I replied, trying to keep my voice from shaking. Worldpeace flashed through my mind and I struggled to repress a nervous giggle. Somehow, standing naked in front of the brothers, I didn't think laughing was appropriate.

"Candidate Morgan, what would you be willing to do to prove to the Brotherhood that you want to become a part of us?" There was no mistaking that voice. It was Blair.

"Anything, sir." I raised my chin defiantly.

Again, murmurs of approval.

"All right, Prospective Brother Morgan, please follow me," Marc said, and led me to the kitchen where my fellow pledges were all standing. "And be quiet in here!" Marc said, before closing the door behind him.

"Man, I had no idea what to say in there," Chris whispered to me. "But you did okay, I made an ass out of myself."

"Well," Eric said on the other side of me, "no matter how bad any of us might blow it, no one will blow it quite as bad as Ted is going to."

Sure enough, it wasn't long before we heard the Brotherhood hooting and hissing. The group of us in the kitchen let out a collective groan. "Maybe they'll throw him out," Eric said hopefully.

"We should be so lucky," Tommy Amundsen said venomously.

A few moments later, the kitchen door opened and a redfaced Ted came in. Marc's face was thunderous. "Maybe," he spat out, "you should talk to your pledge brothers about what Beta Kappa means to them, maggot, and maybe later we'll give you another chance."

The door slammed shut behind him.

"What the fuck did you say?" Chris hissed, grabbing Ted by the arm.

"Let go of me!" Ted whined, pulling his arm away. "I answered them honestly, like we were supposed to." He stepped away from us. "I didn't suck up to them the way you all did, obviously."

I took a breath and counted to three. In that moment, all I wanted to do was smack him across the face. I've never hated anyone in my life as much as I hated Ted Norris in that moment. I would have cheerfully strangled him to death right then and there, and my pledge brothers would have cheered me on.

Instead, we all just shook our heads and looked away from him.

After Rob Ross, our final pledge brother, was led in, the Brotherhood left us in the kitchen for what seemed like hours. We could hear them talking out there, and occasionally there would be a chorus of finger snaps. The clock on the wall read one-fifteen when Marc finally came back into the kitchen.

"Prospectives, eleven of you answered the Brotherhood's questions to our satisfaction," he said in that solemn voice he'd been using to address us since Sunday night. "However, one of you did not. As I explained to you on the first night of your journey, you are a unit. If one of you fails, all of you fail. Therefore, the Brotherhood has collectively decided as one that your class has failed your test this evening." He held up his hand for silence as all of us began talking, swearing, or muttering. "However, rather than depledging your entire class and having you start over next semester, the Brotherhood has decided that if one of you agrees to take punishment for the entire class' failure, this will be an appropriate show of unity, and you may all continue."