Laila POV

Pledging was something interesting. To her it was not hard at all, it was just mind games. The big sisters pretended as if they were always in trouble for something, but she knew they were doing their best.

After the first night, they came back all knowing the Founder's names, front and back. They had various definitions of sisterhood ready for them when they asked. They talked in depth about leadership, which they also had down.

Then they went through every year of their existence and recited all the things they were known for.

It was all too easy.

Then they had to have greetings for Jossie, Jameelah, Anika, and Lark.

"Greetings Big Sister Salt n Pepper, Founding Member of the magnificent Mu Alpha Chi, Advisor to the Alpha Chapter, and the Queen of Illinois State University."

"Got that right!" Jossie said, happy with their greeting.

"Greeting Dean Big Sister Level Up," they chanted as they proceeded to move like they were Ciara in her dance video. "Level up, level up! Big Sister Level Up, second to none, dancer and choreographer extraordinaire."

"Greeting President Maximum Overdrive. Never slowing down, always on the go, leading us into MAX. Let's ride, ride, ride with Maximum Overdrive."

"Greetings Big Sister Cool It Now, ooooh watch out!" They went into some old-school New Edition moves. "She did it all by herself, calm under pressure, the last lady standing."

"That was nice," Anika said to them, now reciting the Greek alphabet.

"Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega."

"And all of the Divine Nine plus their year," Anika asked.

She was the captain of the line, so she cued them with a soft stomp to the floor and then they recited it together as they learned it.

"Alpha Phi Alpa Fraternity, black and gold, 1906. Alpha Kapa Alpha Sorority, pink and green, 1908. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, red and white, 1911. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, purple and gold, 1911. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, crimson and cream, 1913. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, blue and white, 1914. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, blue and white, 1920. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, blue and gold, 1922. Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, brown and gold, 1963."

"And do you know why you need to know all of these?" Jossie asked them.

They had not discussed why, they simply learned what was easily out there. She did not know what they wanted to hear.

"Captain, don't be quiet now, give us something," Jossie said.

She had to just go with whatever came off the top of her head. "Because we should know all the organizations on campus."

"Good, but that's not it." Jossie looked at Marketta. "What do you have?"

"Because we should respect the other organizations."

"Good, good. But that's not what I'm looking for." She looked at Amber. "What about you, Twinkle Toes."

It was the nickname they gave Amber, maybe because she was a twin. Well, she hoped that was the only reason.

"To know them, respect them as part of the Divine Nine, and understand why Mu Alpha Chi was founded on some of the same principles as the Divine Nine."

"Yes!" Jossie had a big smile on her face now. "We all were African American students, but we wanted a little more than what the Divine Nine was offering, and no shade to them, but we needed something for us leaders. Do you know how hard it is to start a new organization? A sorority? No one knows who you are. We just knew what we wanted and did the thing."

This was great info, learning from an actual Founder. They were lucky to have that, whereas the other organizations' Founders were dead or old. Jossie was just a few years younger than her mother. She would love to meet the other Founders who were all alive and well.

"We learn their colors so we recognize them when we see them," Anika added. "We learn all the Greek alphabet because we can recognize all Greek organizations when we see them. We give respect to all the Divine Nine, plus other Greek organizations."

"And who is our unofficial brother organization?" Jameelah asked.

She tapped her foot so they could respond with what they practiced. "Epsilon Upsilon, black and white, founded at University of Illinois-Springfield, Double-O Chapter. Double O-3 chapter was chartered here at Illinois State."

The EU's, what her ex was part of. She wondered if they would have to bond with them. She was not looking forward to that at all and wondered how her sister felt about that because her ex was in that fraternity as well. She could try and be civil with him because she was over him.

After her date with Alonzo, he had her attention. All they did was dinner and talked about themselves. He was a graduate student studying computer engineering. He attended Missouri S & T University for undergrad and now was at Illinois State to finish his graduate degree because he was actually from Bloomington.

She told him about her family a bit and what she was studying, but they did not get too deep. She liked that, take things slow.

It was bad enough that she did not have time for a second date with him because pledging took up all her time. If she was not in class or studying for her classes, she was in sessions, or studying for her sessions.

She actually missed Alonzo and thought about seeing him again. He would text her asking her out and she came up with every excuse in the book but the truth.

Then on the night of the Black Student Union meeting, he showed up at the meeting. She was happy to see him there, but now nervous.

She leaned over and whispered to her sister while they sat at the head table. "Alonzo is here."

"Sweet! His fine self," her sister said, a little too loud for her. "And Rick too."

Did Alonzo hear? She looked his way and he was busy talking to some guys from his fraternity. They were doing the introduction of all the Greek organizations tonight. Which made her a little uncomfortable because now she was on line. The MAX ladies were there and three out of four of the executive team were on line, and the other was on line for something else.

Poor Jade, she wondered if they were giving her hell about her twin sister pledging something else like they were giving it to Amber.

In a hushed tone, Amber blurted out, "Oh my gosh!" Then elbowed her in the side.

"What?" she said, leaning her head down to her, in anticipation of something she could not say out loud. "What!"

"That girl over there...I think she's on line with Jade."

She had no idea what girl, or how would she know she was on line, but she looked around to see what girl she was talking about. She had no clue.

Laila looked around at Jade, sitting very stoic in her chair, with no wig or weave, and minimal makeup. Dressed in all black, but there was a single green rubber band around her wrist. She looked in the general vicinity Amber looked and saw several girls dressed in all black, but that was no indication. They were not required to wear any certain color while on line, in sessions, or out in the open.

Then she saw the green rubberband on all of their wrists. Yes, now she saw what Amber saw.

All of the Alpha Kappa Alpha pledges were there. That made her think. Where all the pledges of all the Divine Nine there?

A glance around the room and she spotted the Omega Psi Phi pledges. They all wore different fitted baseball caps and turned to the back.

The Alpha pledges had shaved heads, a dead giveaway.

Epsilon Upsilon were bold with their guys. Five guys were sitting together with white shirts on but with black jackets on. It was like they were not even trying to hide it.

She was so glad they were not that easily spotted. They did all have to wear something signifying they were on line, but it was orange socks, and they all wore long pants and no one could see their socks under the table.

The meeting was long but went well. It was always a packed house on Greek night. After the meeting, she gathered her things and was ready to go. They did not have a session tonight, which meant they all had to study together until at least midnight coming up with songs and ditties off new information.

They were all walking out together when Alonzo came over to her

"Hey, wait, can I holla at you?"

She looked at Amber and Marketta. How was she going to get out of this? The MAX ladies were still there, talking with Brian, Jordan, and Manny. Would it look bad if she was talking to Alonzo? She was unclear about the rules.

"Go ahead sis, we good. See you in the room," Marketta said, hurrying off, probably happy Rick did not stop her.

She stepped all the way out of the room so the MAX ladies would not see her. "Hey, what's up."

"I thought we had a good time when we went out to dinner, but now it's like you're ghosting me."

"I'm not. I explained to you why I can't go out again. So maybe another time when I'm not-"

"When you're not on line?" he said with a grin and a knowing look.

How the hell did he know? She did not tell him.

"Hey, I understand," he said. "Big sisters take up all your time, huh?"

"I did not say..."

"You're pledging MAX." He pointed down to her feet. "I noticed you and your line sisters' socks clear across the room. Dope. I don't know much about them, so maybe you can teach me. I mean, I don't want to interfere with your process or anything, so your secret is safe with me. In fact, you need a hideout, call me up."

"It's not like that," she said. "But thanks. I need to get going."

"Let me walk you to your dorm."

"No, you don't have to."

"I want to. I get to spend time with you."

As soon as they made it to the exit of the Student Union, Manny and Jordan caught up with them and were exiting as well. She did an inward groan.

"What's up, LayLay," Manny said to her, moving a little too close to her liking. What would Alonzo think?

"Manny... Jordan, thanks for coming to the meeting tonight," she said, pretending they were just regular members of BSU.

"Yeah, and see you tomorrow night," Manny said as they headed out.

What was he talking about? See him tomorrow night for what?

"Was that your ex?" Alonzo asked.

"How could you tell?"

"Because looks like he wants you back for one. He's in your brother fraternity for two and it looks like you have set with them tomorrow. Good luck with that." He took her hand. "I ain't mad at some competition."

She smiled at him. There was no competition.

A/N: Things are getting interesting for Laila. Hopefully this Alonzo doesn't have any...secrets.

🤣🤣🤣 Now you know me better than that, of course there's something. 😆