The Pledge Mistress
Copyright 2006 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/

(warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, public nudity, 
sexual hazing)

Chapter 21 - Tracy's strategy

After the pledges had slept only four hours, Tracy stormed into the pledge room 
with her usual:

“OK, sleeping beauties! UP-UP-UP! Let’s go…let’s go…let’s go!”

Lisa was so tired that she had largely forgotten the sympathy she had expressed 
towards the Pledge Mistress only a few hours before. However, with a groan she 
got out of her cot and immediately felt the sharp sting of a hard slap on her 
unprotected backside. What made matters worse was a cold look from Bernadette 
that clearly stated: 

OK, Lisa, so you still feel the same way about this bitch that you did last night?

Because the pledges had upper-body PT with the sophomores, they only had to 
put on their shoes and socks. It was apparent that Tracy would be leading the 
exercise group, because she was dressed in the same manner as the pledges, 
completely naked except her shoes and socks.

As soon as they had used the toilet and brushed their teeth, the sleepy pledges 
knelt in a row as their mentor strutted back and forth just like an officer from one 
of those old World War II movies. They were too tired to see the humor in their 
situation, their sharp-tempered Pledge Mistress moving about as though she were 
a naked drill sergeant. Momentarily the group would have to go upstairs for 
morning PT, but Tracy wanted to lay out what was happening during the rest of 
the day.

“We’ve got house clean-up today. The whole house, and guess what? The Triple-
A’s aren’t bringing their pledges over like they were supposed to, so it’s just us. 
When I say ‘us’, I’m including myself, because we just can’t be spending the 
whole day doing the house. I still want to get you guys over to the library to study 
after lunch, so we need to have the cleaning done before noon. After PT we got a 
very busy morning ahead of us.”

After PT, showering, and breakfast, President Alexandra rounded up the 
sophomores and juniors for a mandatory sorority trip to the library. The trip 
served two purposes: first to force everyone to study for at least several hours that 
weekend, and second, to clear the house so the pledges could clean it more easily. 
The seniors were not required to go to the library, but they were expected either to 
leave the house or completely stay out of the common areas.

After she cleaned up, Tracy returned downstairs carrying a clipboard and wearing 
nothing but pair of work shoes. That surprised the pledges, because she was 
among the more conservative members of the sorority and normally undressed 
only for PT and swimming. However, because she was to participate in the house 
cleaning, she felt that it was necessary to comply with the rule about the pledge 
uniform, i.e. that while in the house pledges could not wear any clothing.

The Pledge Mistress made it very clear that the only concern on her mind at that 
moment was doing the clean-up as quickly as possible. She was not interested in 
having any of the pledges show initiative or memorize anything out of the 
cleaning manual. Instead she organized the clean-up herself, ordering Lisa and 
Cherine to clean the bathrooms and sweep upstairs while taking Bernadette and 
Kathleen outside to do yard work. Tracy immediately pulled out a lawn mower 
from the tool shed, checked the gas, and began jerking on the cord to get it 
started. When she noticed the two freshmen staring at her, she snapped:

“Get started on that hedge, unless you want to push this mower around instead of 
having me do it!”

Lisa looked out a bathroom window to see Tracy behind the mower while 
Bernadette and Kathleen were working on one of the hedges. She began to 
wonder if the clean-up had been something the Pledge Mistress had not 
anticipated, something thrust upon her at the last minute. Were that true, was it 
possible it was Heather who had ordered Tracy to clean up the house? Was it 
possible that the promised help from the male pledges had been canceled because 
Heather had told the fraternity not to bring the guys over?

Bernadette’s hostility towards Tracy was tempered by seeing her at work in the 
yard. Tracy took all of the most difficult jobs for herself, because she was the one 
who edged after mowing and then dealt with chlorinating the pool. As the two 
freshmen finished their trimming, Tracy came by with a bag and rake to clean up, 
while ordering the two younger women to get started on the kitchen. Bernadette 
noticed Tracy sweating as she worked, a detail that motivated her to work harder 
once she went inside.

As Tracy scrubbed down the garden furniture, the pledges finished up the kitchen 
under Lisa’s direction. Tracy took out a ladder and yelled at Kathleen to hold it 
while she hosed the windows. Lisa snapped at her two remaining companions to 
“keep moving”. Bernadette glanced out the window at the frantic Pledge Mistress.

“What’s going on with her? Why’s she gone off the deep end with this clean-up?”

“We weren’t supposed to be doing this, that’s why. The Triple-A’s were supposed 
to have their pledges come over, and guess what? They’re not here, and that’s 
messed up her plans for us. She wanted to take us to the library this morning so 
we could look around, and she’s still trying to make sure we can get over there 
today. That’s why she’s gone off the deep end, as you say it! Now, you move 
your ass so we can get out of here!”

Incredibly, after only three hours, the training group had the entire house cleaned 
to inspection standards. While the freshmen showered, Tracy and Lisa conducted 
the walk-through and corrected a few minor deficiencies. Tracy signed the 
cleaning log and ordered Lisa to get her companions dressed into their uniforms 
and ready to “move out!”

Lisa noticed Tracy seemed to calm down considerably once the group was safely 
in the library. The freshmen had expected to be told to study, but Tracy passed out 
lists of books she wanted them to find and bring to her. The books covered every 
topic imaginable and came from every single shelf in the building. As soon as the 
pledges presented the books to her, Tracy ordered her charges to return to where 
they got the items and reshelf them. At first the exercise seemed extremely stupid, 
but the pledges later realized that Tracy wanted them to memorize how the 
library’s entire collection was organized. For example, if they needed to find a 
book about pig farming, they would know that the agronomy books were located 
on the third floor on shelves 3-H through 3-J.

Already it was late afternoon when the women left the library. The next stop was 
the Student Memorial Center. The pledges had some juice and fruit salad before 
being ordered to explore the building. They had a very good piece of fortune 
when they came across an alumnus guide leading a group of parents through the 
center. The pledges joined the group and received a guided tour, complete with 
trivia and explanations about the building and its history.

The final stop was the University Fitness Center. The five women signed in and 
toured the weight rooms, squash courts, and aerobics rooms. Tracy actually 
ordered her group to do a round of exercises on all the machines, passed out fresh 
T-shirts and towels, and directed the pledges to go into the women’s locker room 
and shower. All the while Lisa noticed her looking around, as though worried 
about who might be watching what she was doing.

Just before the sun began to set, Tracy led her group through Old Campus to let 
her pledges see the same area during the day that they had seen the previous night. 
As dusk settled and the university got darker, the women continued walking 
around to see how the area compared during daylight and when it was dark. They 
finished around midnight. When they finally left campus to return to the sorority 
house, Lisa and her companions had memorized in detail the area set aside for the 
scavenger hunt the following night.

The group walked along the detour that by-passed Pageant Street and Fraternity 
Row. As they approached the park where they had changed the previous night, 
Tracy frantically whispered:

“Behind the bushes! Quick!”

The five women hid just in time to hear Heather’s voice coming up the sidewalk, 
accompanied by the sound of a man’s voice crying and the crack-crack-crack of a 
leather riding crop hitting bare skin.

“Come-on, you fucking little wimp!”

Crack!

“Ohh…hoo…please…”

Crack!

“Don’t you ‘please’ me, you pathetic little shit! Now, keep running! The next 
time you stop without my permission, it’d better because you’re having a fucking 
heart attack!”

Crack! Crack!

“Ow!”

“Here! In the park! Let’s give your legs a rest and have you do some push-ups!”

While Tracy and her group held their breaths and watched from the darkness, 
Heather forced the fattest member of the Tri-Alpha pledge group to struggle 
through several sets of pushups. He seemed already knocked out from his 
exertions, his sweaty naked body trembling from fright and fatigue as she 
continued to savagely flog him with the riding crop. Lisa noticed one interesting 
detail about the pledge: that he was somewhat thinner than he had been the 
previous week.

Heather forced her unhappy companion to exercise until he was barely able to 
move. As he lay on his back gasping for air, the Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms 
astounded her hidden audience by pulling off her running shorts and squatting to 
piss in the grass, right in front of prostrate victim. In the darkness the pledges 
could tell that he was watching her with alarm. Apparently he knew what was 
coming next and what would be expected of him momentarily.

“OK, fat-bitch, you know the drill. Get on your knees. Clean me up and make me 
come!”

Heather placed her shorts on the ground under her bottom and lay back in the 
grass with her legs spread. The male pledge obediently moved between her thighs 
and began licking, first to properly clean the sweat and urine off her vulva, and 
then to give her an orgasm. She came very quickly. It was obvious the orgasm 
was no big deal to her; that its main purpose was to establish her dominance over 
him as opposed to giving her real pleasure. She climaxed, casually put on her 
shorts, and stood up. She savagely struck him across the thigh.

“OK, blubber-boy! UP! Let’s see about running some more of that fat off of you!”

She slammed the riding crop against his bare bottom a couple of times as they 
exited the park. Lisa heard Cherine comment:

“Jesus H…he isn’t that fat…”

Tracy drew a deep breath, partly out of relief that her group had not been caught 
by the Sergeant-at-Arms, but mostly from the distress that her pledges had seen 
something she wished they had not seen.

Once the Pledge Mistress was sure that Heather and her victim were out of ear-
shot, she shouted:

“OK, Let’s move out! Quick step, move!”

As the pledges began running, Tracy’s voice barked out:

“Pledge Bernadette!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Call cadence!”

Following Bernadette’s lead, the women started clapping and chanting:

“Left…right…left-right-left!”

“Left…right…left-right-left!”

“Runnin’ that midnight Four-Beta left!”

“Runnin’ that midnight Four-Beta left…”

----------

The pledges returned to their cots and collapsed from exhaustion. They were not 
at all reassured by what had happened to them that day, nor by the knowledge that 
apparently Tracy did not fully trust the other officers of the sorority.

Bernadette in particular was very uneasy over what she had seen. She now 
suspected what Lisa already knew: that there was a rivalry or on-going fight 
between Tracy and Heather and that the Sergeant-at-Arms was not supportive of 
the Pledge Mistress. Bernadette’s dislike of Tracy had led her to wonder how she 
could side with Heather and perhaps ingratiate herself at the expense of Lisa and 
Tracy. Her hatred of the Pledge Mistress had led her to assume that anyone 
plotting against Tracy could count on her support, that “the enemy of my enemy 
is my friend”. However, watching Heather’s treatment of that male pledge in the 
park frightened Bernadette and made her question whether Tracy was really as 
bad as she had assumed.

Bernadette glanced at Lisa. She disliked Lisa almost as much as she disliked 
Tracy. She continued to resent Lisa’s role as the “leader” of the pledge group and 
her apparently close relationship with the Pledge Mistress. On top of everything 
else she resented Lisa’s sexual relationship with Kathleen. Not only did she think 
the relationship was inappropriate, but the very idea of being intimate with 
another woman totally grossed her out. And especially with Kathleen…Yuck! 
Why would anyone normal even want someone like that around, let alone…get 
intimate with her…Gross! Totally gross! 

Bernadette was not at all thrilled about having to pledge alongside Kathleen, who 
she found very weird and gave her the creeps. She took a deep breath as she 
contemplated her dislike of the skinny girl sleeping next to her. Bernadette had 
known a couple of girls like Kathleen in high-school, whose fidgety gestures, 
shifty eyes, nervous way of talking, ignorance of fashion, and interest in things 
not normal for high school students made them total social rejects. Were it up to 
Bernadette, no one in the Four-Beta pledge program would have been nice to 
Kathleen. Instead, the group would have cold-shouldered her and let her know 
that she was not welcome in the sorority. The only reason she had not dared to 
express her dislike of her strange companion was because she had been afraid of 
Lisa and Tracy coming down on her.

Bernadette sat up in the darkness, as her assumptions about life, what constituted 
a worthwhile friend, and how she should deal with the people around her abruptly 
shifted under her. Suddenly she felt awful, because in a flash she understood that 
her hostility towards Kathleen was totally unjustified. Why did she dislike her 
fellow pledge so much? Yes, the girl was kind of creepy, but had she ever done 
anything bad to anyone else in the pledge group? It was obvious she had feelings, 
and that she had already endured more than her share of unpleasantness in life. It 
was obvious that she had endured a hellish time in school, at the hands of girls 
just like Bernadette. She always had taken it for granted that people like Kathleen 
deserved whatever ostracism and insults were inflicted on them because they were 
so creepy, but was that really true?

Bernadette’s thoughts drifted to her own recent years in high school, and then 
back to the present. She realized that how she had behaved in school was not 
something she should be proud of, and anyhow, her time in high school no longer 
had any relevance. As much as she hated to admit it, she was in a new 
environment and starting her social life from scratch. She now was an adult and in 
college. Her old peer group had scattered and her life had changed. She would 
have to learn how to relate to others differently if she hoped to move ahead. 
Really, who was Bernadette to judge someone like Kathleen? Or even to judge 
Lisa, for that matter?

Bernadette felt that her need to change was especially true regarding her 
perception of Lisa. Whatever her personal faults, it was obvious that Lisa was 
trustworthy, not particularly selfish, and that her primary interest was getting 
herself and the others through the pledging process. Bernadette’s thoughts drifted 
back to that first night at the Tri-Alpha house, when Lisa had jumped to her 
defense when the others were blaming her for making the group get punished. 
From the first night Lisa had pointed out something that later proved correct, that 
the pledges’ willingness to stay together and stand up for each other would be 
constantly tested. Lisa had been right about that, and since that first night had 
been right about many other things.

What if Lisa was right about Tracy; that of all the sorority officers, the Pledge 
Mistress really was the only one who was concerned about the pledges? The truth 
was that Bernadette knew what to expect from Lisa and Tracy, but did not have a 
clue about Heather’s personality or how trustworthy she really was. What she did 
know, from having seen it with her own eyes, was that Heather was capable of 
being quite vicious. She wondered: would I really want someone like that as my 
friend?

Finally Bernadette lay back down with a better understanding of her immediate 
future and how she had to change her perceptions about her social life. She did 
not think she would ever feel any warmth towards Lisa and Kathleen. However, 
she knew that even if she could not force herself to like them, she needed to treat 
them with the respect. She might dislike the Pledge Mistress even more than Lisa, 
but now understood that she could not possibly do herself or anyone else any 
good by taking sides against her. She had to accept Tracy’s leadership if she 
hoped to stay in the sorority and be a successful member.

Bernadette finally went to sleep. She did not yet realize, during those few restless 
moments she took a hard look at herself; that she had matured considerably.

----------

Pledge Mistress Tracy had two concerns on her mind for that Sunday. First, the 
pledges had to spend a good portion of the day studying, given that they had not 
spent any time studying on Saturday. Second, they would have to get some sleep 
during the day so they could be alert during the scavenger hunt. She decided that 
it would be best to have the pledges spend the day outside the Four-Beta house 
and began to wonder where she could find a quiet location where they could study 
and sleep.

There were only two locations she could think of that would meet the group’s 
needs. For studying the pledges could go to Burnside’s office in the Economics 
Building. That was fine, but what about sleep? There was a place that at first 
glance looked promising, Lisa’s dorm room in Huntington Hall. Although Lisa 
was not allowed to stay there during the pledge training, she still had her stuff 
there and in theory access to the room. Would it not be possible to grab some 
sleeping bags and have the pledges crash there?

Tracy then thought of a better option: Ruth Burnside’s house. Burnside’s house 
would be about as secret a location as she would be able to find; a quiet and 
controlled environment where the pledges could sleep uninterrupted until 
nightfall. Tracy then would take them back to the sorority house, producing her 
group well-rested and ready for action. She decided to e-mail Burnside and see if 
the professor was amenable to the idea of putting up the pledges in her house 
Sunday afternoon.

Burnside shocked Tracy by responding immediately. It already was 1:00 in the 
morning, but the insomniac professor was still on her computer catching up on her 
professional correspondence. Her answer relieved Tracy: that she could take the 
pledges over and keep them at the house all day. The only problem was that 
Burnside had to leave at 5:00 in the morning to go on a day-long boating trip on 
Lake Michigan with Halsey and some of their mutual friends. The pledges were 
welcome to stay at the house, but Tracy either needed to pick up a key or bring 
them over before 5:00. Tracy opted for the latter. She would have the pledges at 
Burnside’s house at 4:45.

Tracy decided to make the pledges walk over to the professor’s house, which 
meant getting them up at 3:30 a.m. She decided to do something else to 
psychologically prepare them for the scavenger hunt; they would have to walk 
from the sorority to Burnside’s house in the nude. Tracy figured there would be 
very little danger walking the four-mile route, given that the bars already had 
closed and it was extremely unlikely they would run into anyone walking in the 
dark at 4:00 in the morning. Upon getting to Burnside’s house she would order 
the group to go to sleep and then return to the sorority house to pick up their 
clothes and textbooks.

At 3:30 a.m. the light in the basement went on and the pledges heard Tracy’s 
dreaded:

“OK, sleeping beauties! UP-UP-UP! Let’s go…let’s go…let’s go!”

The incoherent pledges staggered out of their cots, staring at the Pledge Mistress 
in disbelief. It was 3:30 in the morning!

“OK, lovely ladies! Dump your bladders and get your shoes on! NOW!”

The pledges knew better than to question the Pledge Mistress, in spite of the fact 
they were almost delirious with fatigue. They came very close to crying as they 
took turns on the toilet and struggled to put on their shoes. They trudged up the 
stairs and moved towards the door, too tired to even care that they were about to 
go out on the street wearing only their shoes.

Tracy led them along the dark streets that passed the small park and bypassed 
Fraternity Row. As the cool night air caressed their bodies, the pledges woke up 
somewhat and realized what a lovely night, or early morning, it was. The streets 
were totally silent and devoid of cars, the parties had ended, and Pageant Street 
had long since cleared of drunken students.

The women dashed across the main street to get onto Old Campus and quietly 
walked along the dark sidewalks towards the Student Memorial Center. At first 
the pledges assumed that Tracy was taking them for a “dressed” rehearsal of the 
scavenger hunt, but then she ordered Lisa to find that hidden path that led to 
Huntington Hall. Bewildered, Lisa obliged and the women disappeared into the 
bushes.

As they neared and passed the library, the pledges realized that Tracy was taking 
them outside the Old Campus area and leading them towards the dorms. They 
wondered if this was another test or hazing ritual, now that they had walked for 
over a half an hour and already were nearly two miles away from the sorority and 
their clothes. Tracy showed no sign of turning around as the lights of the dorm 
area shined between the trees. She had a question:

“When you guys came through here on the three-mile streak, where did you 
cross?”

“Over there, about half-way between the two stoplights, past the duck pond.”

“OK, let’s try to get across so no one will see you.”

“Uh…we’re leaving campus, ma’am?”

“Yes. We’re leaving campus! Now stop arguing and move your ass!” Tracy 
punctuated her statement with a hard slap to Lisa’s exposed bottom.

The four pledges dashed across the deserted street, followed by their Pledge 
Mistress. They became very nervous, because they still did not know why they 
were being taken on the naked walk and assumed they would have to return to the 
sorority the same way they had come. There would be no way, even now, that 
they could get back before it started getting light outside. That would be nice, to 
be seen running naked along Pageant Street by the early church-going crowd.

The pledges’ anxiety increased as Tracy led them along the quiet suburban streets 
towards the park where she and Heather had dropped them off for the streaking 
adventure. Their nervousness really increased when they passed the park and 
drifted even further from the university. If they went much further, daylight would 
catch their exposed bodies, not on campus, but in a residential neighborhood and 
literally miles from their clothes!

Finally, after more than an hour of walking, the pledges noticed they were on the 
street where Dr. Ruth Burnside lived. They sighed with relief upon realizing that 
the purpose of their walk had been to travel one-way to the professor’s residence, 
not to make a round trip to the sorority. They saw Dr. Halsey’s car parked out 
front and the two professors loading life jackets and other boating supplies into 
the trunk. The pledges sank to their knees in the driveway while Tracy greeted 
their hostess and her lover. A minute later the professors got into the car, while 
the four naked women gratefully filed into the house. Lisa glanced at the sky 
before going through the door. Already it was just beginning to get light towards 
the east.

The pledges took off their shoes and knelt in Burnside’s living room. Tracy 
finally explained the purpose of the strange outing.

“We’ll be staying in this house until 7:00 p.m. tonight, and then we gotta head 
over to the Tri-Alpha house. Between now and 7:00 tonight I expect you to be 
doing one of two things: sleep or study. When you don’t want to sleep, I want you 
to study. When you’re too tired to study, I want you to sleep. That’s it. No music, 
no TV, no Internet. Sleep and study. When the sun comes out you can grab a 
towel and use the yard, but if I see you out there in the sun, you’d better either be 
asleep or with one of your books. Get it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“OK, shower up in the guest bathroom and get to bed. As soon as you’re up, what 
are you gonna do?”

“Study, ma’am.”

----------

Cherine and Bernadette collapsed in Burnside’s bed as soon as they had cleaned 
themselves up. The bed was king-sized and there was plenty of room for two 
women who were not intimate with each other to sleep comfortably. 

Lisa and Kathleen took the much smaller bed in the guest room. That bed was 
only a double, but given that they were planning to cuddle, its size was adequate. 
As soon as they were cleaned up from the walk and had dried off, Lisa and her 
lover locked the door to the guest room and crawled into the small bed. Kathleen 
nestled her body against Lisa and promptly fell asleep. 

Lisa heard the front door open and close, and footsteps going down the sidewalk 
to the street. Undoubtedly that was the sound of Tracy leaving to go back to the 
Four-Beta house. In the silence of her professor’s guest room, she relaxed for a 
few minutes as the sky lightened outside. She was dead tired, but it would take 
her a few minutes to actually fall asleep. 

Still, Lisa was content at the prospect that she and the others could sleep as long 
as they wanted, a luxury sure to be denied to them had they stayed behind in the 
sorority house. Tracy really had thought ahead, wanting to make sure her group 
not only was familiar with Old Campus, but also well-rested and alert for what 
was likely to be a very stressful night.

Lisa stroked her lover’s hair for a few minutes and finally fell asleep herself. For 
once she felt that she did not have to worry about anything. Hopefully Tracy had 
everything under control.

----------

Lisa did not wake up until 3:00 in the afternoon. She looked at the clock in 
disbelief, realizing that she and Kathleen had slept more than nine hours. She 
eased herself away from her lover, not wanting to wake her up before she had a 
chance to leave the room. She knew that Kathleen would be desperate to make 
love to her as soon as they got up, but decided that with Tracy in the house and 
the other pledges already awake that having sex with Kathleen probably was not a 
good idea.

Lisa stepped into the hallway, trying to shake out the unpleasant tingling from her 
left arm that had “gone to sleep”. She was surprised to see Tracy asleep on the 
living room sofa in her gym shorts and T-shirt. It occurred to Lisa that, however 
little sleep the pledges had enjoyed over the past several days, their Pledge 
Mistress had even less. Lisa found her backpack near the front door and slung it 
over her shoulder. She found Bernadette and Cherine already sitting out on 
Burnside’s patio, each of them quietly studying in a lawn chair. Each of them had 
a large glass of orange juice, which reminded Lisa that she was hungry. Lisa went 
to the kitchen, filled a glass for herself, and took a bagel to snack on. With that 
she joined the others and began reading for the classes she had the next day.

The final member of the group to wake up was Kathleen. She didn’t get up until 
4:30, having slept nearly 11 hours. She was sorely disappointed that Lisa was not 
still in bed with her, but otherwise felt refreshed and better than she had felt in 
days. Yes, adequate sleep really can make a difference. She picked up her 
backpack and joined the others on the patio in the late afternoon heat.

At 6:30 Tracy woke up and told her group to clean up the house and get ready to 
“move out!” As the pledges made the beds and cleaned the kitchen, Tracy turned 
on her cell phone and called the sorority. Lisa overheard her part of the 
conversation:

“…yes, of course I’m with the pledges…yes, they’ve studied…look, I understand 
that…OK, let’s get something straight here, Alexandra…No…No…No, my job 
was to get them ready for the scavenger hunt, that’s what you told me. You told 
me yourself that I’m responsible if they lose. Those were your words, and to me 
that means it was up to me to decide how to get them ready…yes, they’re 
ready….I understand that, but you didn’t say anything about me keeping them at 
the house…you did not specify that, Alexandra…I took them off-campus so they 
could rest, that’s why…Yes, they’re rested, and I’m just about to bring ‘em 
back…Look, I don’t give a shit about Heather, I really don’t! Those pledges are 
my responsibility, not hers! Alexandra, you know what? If her feelings are hurt, 
tough shit…now, either you want my group to win, or you don’t! Which is it?”

----------

Tracy and the pledges made their way back to the sorority house on foot, a trek of 
nearly four miles in the heat of an early summer evening. They calmly crossed the 
street back onto campus and passed the dorm parking lots. The five women 
contemplated dozens of cars blissfully occupying spaces without parking permits; 
vehicles that would be on their way to a towing company’s impound lot later that 
night. 

The massive parking enforcement operation was a ritual that took place Sunday 
night of the second week of every semester. It was Campus Security’s hard lesson 
to the arrogant freshmen who cheerfully assumed that university parking 
regulations did not apply to them. Later that night the lot would be full of tow 
trucks and the exits would be blocked to prevent frantic dorm residents from 
getting their vehicles off campus before they could be towed. A few days later 
most of the cars would be back in the lots, but this time properly adorned with 
parking permits.

The event would be a perfect time to conduct a naked scavenger hunt, because the 
attention of the entire university would be focused on the dorm area. As word of 
the operation spread, frantic students who had not bothered to purchase permits 
would be rushing back to the dorm lots, while the more compliant students who 
already had bought permits would be standing around watching the fun. The 
police would be on hand in force to make sure no one interfered with the tow 
trucks, so it was certain that Old Campus would be completely deserted.

The group was left the university just as the sun was setting. Tracy stopped to 
give the pledges one final set of instructions:

“Alright, you’ve got a rough night ahead of you, but I’m sure you’re a lot more 
ready to do this than the Triple-A’s. This’ll be it for me, because I’m gonna be 
spending the night with their Pledge Master, running around Old Campus and 
making sure all of the scavenger hunt items are where they’re supposed to be. I’ve 
done what I can to get you ready and the rest of it’s up to you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

What I’m telling you now will be explained by President Alexandra when you’re 
ready to move out, but you might as well hear it from me first, in case you have 
questions. There are going to be two kinds of items you’re looking for. One’s 
gonna be a list of things you’ll need to take pictures of with a digital camera, 
items that are part of the university and cannot be picked up. That’s where I 
expect you to beat the Triple-A’s, ‘cause you know where everything is. You 
understand that part?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The other list is of stuff you need to find and bring back to the judges, who’ll be 
set up at a table behind the Alumni Clubhouse. Your list is gonna be different 
from what the Triple-A’s have. I haven’t seen either list yet, but I do know there’s 
gonna be stuff on there like library books and flyers out of the Student Center. 
You might be bringing back something weird, like a toilet seat or a typewriter, but 
I don’t know that for sure. A word of warning: once you bring your items back to 
the judges, do not leave until you’re absolutely sure they’ve been logged. Get it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I would recommend that two of you carry items you’ve already picked up, while 
the other two retrieve new stuff, and to take your findings to the judges several at 
a time to save trips. Now, one more word of warning. No matter how rushed you 
think you are, do NOT separate! Stay within sight of each other, always, even if 
you’re inside a building! Stay together and work together! I cannot emphasize 
enough what I just said. No matter what, you’ve got to stick together! Get it?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“So, who do you think’s gonna win?”

“We are, ma’am!”
 
