7. Level One

***

After about three minutes of waiting, a group of five senior year girls walked into the room. All in their sorority uniforms if I may say.

Short flair white skirts, baby pink short sleeve shirts, badges and matching pink heels. They all had makeup on and looked chic.

The one who seemed to be the leader was a pretty redhead. She stepped forward.

"Good morning, girls." she greeted and we all replied, "I'm impressed at the large number of girls who want to join the Beta Theta. You're all welcome."

"Thank you." was the chorused answer.

The second leader stepped forward. She was a pretty blonde.

"Well girls, y'all are much more than we expected. The Beta Theta sorority consists of ten senior year sisters and ten mid year sisters. And so I guess y'all know what this means. Can anybody tell me?" she asked.

One of the girls raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"It means, you only need ten freshmen to join the sorority."

"Exactly."

There was fidgeting as the girls whispered and panicked among themselves.

I didn't really give a fuck. If I wasn't chosen, it would not surprise me.

The leader continued:

"So, this is what you'll do. But first I forgot to introduce myself. Forgive my bad manners." she giggled, "I'm Blaire Payne. Cute redhead and leader of the Beta Theta sorority."

Everyone clapped and I lazily did same.

The second then spoke.

"And I'm second in charge. Louise Chowder. Lou, for close friends."

And another round of applause. I didn't even understand why.

The other three girls were introduced as important personalities too. They were in charge of naming out the rules, and other stuff. They were some sort of assistants to Blaire and Lou. They were Chelsea, Brandis (AKA Brandy) and Anissa.

After the introduction, lil miss sunshine raised her hand.

"Yes? Any problem?"

"I'm Bella Vander."

Oh so that was the spoiled princess's name?

"Yes, Bella?"

"As you surely noticed, we are twenty five in number. How will you choose ten?"

The leaders looked at themselves. And Lou spoke,

"Write your names on that piece of paper which Chelsea's giving you. Once you all have your names on it, we'll call you one by one for private interviews. We'll rate through your answers and shortly after, we'll read the names of those chosen."

"Oh, okay."

Private interviews. Yeah right. Why did I even come here? From the moment they'd know where I was from, I'd be cancelled from the list.

But that didn't discourage me. I would still wait and attend the interview.

*

The list went round and I was the last to write.

They entered a nearby room. All four while Anissa remained to call each person on the list at a time to enter the room.

Time went by and girls were called in one by one. Bella, left the room with a smile on her face.

"How was it?" miss busy body asked her.

"Great! Oh, for sure I'm taken." she said satisfied, tossing her hair to the side. Then she looked at me and smiled.

"Oh, you're still here?" she asked, amused. "Girl, you should leave. You should already know you won't be taken."

There were giggles. I ignored her.

Soon, Anissa called Miss busy body's name.

"Brianna John."

She stood up and wined her way into the room. I rolled my eyes.

*

After about forty minutes, being the last name on the list, I was finally called up.

"Harlem Rahim."

I stood up. They all stared at me and I heard some whispers. As I walked past Bella, I heard her say:

"Harlem? Eew. What name is that?"

I ignored her again and entered the room.

In that room was a long table and sitting behind the table were the four girls, each with a sheet of paper and a pen.

There was a single chair on the other side and so I went to sit.

"Good morning." I said.

"Good morning. Your name?" Blaire asked.

"Harlem Rahim."

They all looked a little surprised.

"Wow." Blaire giggled.

"Rare name. But that's nice though." Lou added with a smile.

"Thanks."

"So, Harlem, where are you from?" Lou asked.

"Brownsville."

They all looked at each other in surprise.

"You're on scholarship right?" Blaire asked.

"Yes."

They stared at each other once again.

"Uh, okay. How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Do you ever wear make up?" Lou asked, staring at my face in slight surprise.

"No."

They were even more surprised.

"Okay. Why should we accept you?"

I gave my reasons. Simple and clear.

"Okay. Describe yourself in a few words." Brandis stated.

"Down to Earth. Humble. Intelligent. Hard working. I'm not materialistic. Determined and to crown it all up, I'm not rich." I ended with a little smirk.

They stared at me in silent surprise.

"What? Did I shock you? I'm just being honest." I mused a little.

Blaire leaned over and whispered into Lou's ear. Lou whispered back.

Something Inside me told me I'd just destroyed all my chances of joining that sorority.

"That's okay for now, Harlem. You can go wait with the others."

I stood up and left.

*

Five minutes later, all four girls joined us in the gym. Blaire stepped forward with a list.

"Okay, girls. We had time to decide on the a group of the ten freshmen who'd be joining us, and these are the names of those we chose. Lou, read."

Louise took the list and began to read the names. The first girls screamed happily.

Bella was the fifth name. Of course she screamed too. Brianna did same when she was the seventh name.

"Brianna, Kate, Lily and lastly- Harlem."

I looked up, my eyes wide. The other girls stared in surprise too. I'd been taken.

"So for those whose names have been called, go remove your things from your rooms. You are packing into the Beta Theta house. You have thirty minutes for that. And for those who weren't taken, maybe next time."

Blaire ended and they all left.

We stood up to leave too. Bella walked past me.

"I can't believe you were chosen!" she frowned.

"Well you better start believing." I gave her a cold stare and walked away.