by Ruby Vincent
“Actually, I am.”
She nodded off to the distance. “I can guarantee it’s not the reasons you’re thinking. Sally Hollenbeck was an incredible person. She stood up when others would have run or hidden away. I like to think that kind of strength is in all of us, that we just need the right circumstances to draw it out.”
Leighton’s gaze snapped to me. “You’ve experienced those circumstances. The news of what went on at Evergreen Academy spread through the country like wildfire. Everyone knows what they did... and what you did. You stood up when others would have run. You proved yourself a Sally before you ever learned of this house.”
I swallowed, forcing my tight throat to unclench. Leighton was correct. Of all the things I thought she’d say, this did not make the list.
“Thank you,” I rasped. “I appreciate that.”
She inclined her head. “I won’t lie to you. There was some pushback due to you having a son. Not because we fault you for being a young mother. We look for sisters who can make the Sallys their priority. Whereas for you, your son will be your first priority.”
“Always.”
“I expect nothing less. I, for one, see this as a good thing.” She pointed over her shoulder. “Half the pledges in there are dreaming of the parties and the gold star on their resumes. They’re not serious, but you are. You’ve learned responsibility, making sacrifices, and putting another’s needs before your own. These traits will get you over the finish line, if that’s what you want. Is it?”
“It is,” I said clearly. “If you know all about me, then you won’t be surprised to hear my life hasn’t been normal. I want the simple college life with my friends and a community of people who are on my side.”
Leaning in, Leighton put her face so close to mine, I tensed. “We are on your side. Sallys are sisters for life. We’ll help you, defend you, and be the ones to back you up while others keep their heads down. That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about, Valentina. If you become one of us, the Sallys will never abandon you.”
I blinked. Leighton didn’t.
She fixed on me with an intensity that stirred mixed feelings. I had endured years of the world being against me and she knew it. Leighton reached inside and pulled out everything I wanted but couldn’t put into words. There was only one thing I could say.
“I will become one of you. This is the house—the community—for me.”
EZRA
“You are expected to know everything in this book by Wednesday. Will that be a problem?”
The other pledges traded looks, uncertainty flashing on their faces like a neon sign. No such emotion crossed my features. A smile hung on my lips as I bobbed my head along with the president. Valentina once called me a mannequin. It stung at the time, but her ability to see through me was what frustrated and captivated me back then. Like a mannequin, people saw what I chose to display and nothing more.
“You’re required to do two brother activities a week,” the president continued. “This counts as one. You can knock out another by coming on our run, hitting the gym with us, signing up for a study team, or something else on the weekly lists we sent out.”
His instructions faded into background noise as I studied him. Nu Alpha Theta’s president, Aiden Connelly.
Son of Jolene and Robert Connelly, owners of a small but popular local restaurant. No story surrounding those two. Aiden himself got in on a football scholarship and drove Somerset to victory three times. He became the president of the Sams in his junior year. Also, no story, except as a local feel-good piece.
“That’s all for now, gentlemen.” My interest in him stopped there, but I could see why others would want to get to know him. His height and muscles said jock. His ability to carry a conversation said charm and intelligence. His light dusting of freckles and the dimple in his cheek said attractive. Aiden Connelly was the hometown hero everyone loved.
“Now eat, chill, and do whatever you want for the rest of the hour,” he finished.
Aiden walked out of the room, followed by his brother, leaving the pledges to their own devices.
An elbow in my side drew me out of my musings.
“Can you believe this?” Miles asked under his breath. “No way anyone can memorize this entire thing in a day.”
Austin leaned around me. “The guys who believe that won’t even try, and they’ll be weeded out in a week. The Sams are the hardest frat to get into for a reason. They’re only taking half of this group, man. Be in the right half.”
“Of course, I will,” Miles amended quickly. “I got this. I didn’t get any homework today, but I know what I’ll be doing tonight.”
I made no move as they talked over my lap. The only problem with being a mannequin man was that I couldn’t tell the hangers-on to fuck off.
But I can get some air.
“Be right back, guys.” I heaved myself up and walked out, moving fast in case one of them got it into their head to follow me.
I darted down the hallway between the stairs and the kitchen. There was nothing back here except for a bathroom, the back door, and the entrance under the stairs that led to the basement.
Ducking under the stairs, I leaned against the basement door and released a breath. Only one day to memorize this shit for the random questions they were going to throw at us was crazy. Plus, they wanted another hour of my time on top of the homework I’d been assigned.
No syllabus day for me. My physics professor gave us two chapters to read and my Cultural and Historical Foundations professor wanted three more on top of that. All of this and Mom asked me to escort her to a banquet this weekend—which meant brushing up on the attendees. Plus, somewhere in there I needed to carve out time for Val.
There was too much on my plate. Why did I join this frat?
You know why. You joined for Val.
Sighing, I let my head fall back against the wood. My eyes fluttered shut as the truth of it sank in.
Everything I told Valentina the day I signed up was true. The Sams had a great rep, this would look good on my resume, and the opportunities for useful connections were endless, but the truth was that none of that mattered.
My future was guaranteed, so I didn’t need a polished resume. Making connections wasn’t a problem when people freely approached me looking to get close to Mom. There was nothing the Sams had that I needed. No, I was here because Valentina was right next door and this was something we could do together.
She and Jaxson had their music. They’d blast it in his room and dance around the carpet. Val loved learning about computers from Maverick. And she and Ryder could stay up until sunrise talking about everything.
Val and I danced, talked, and learned from each other, but we didn’t have anything that was just ours.
I groaned. Maybe we can share my massive insecure streak. What the hell am I doing here? I’m piling all this shit on my plate to spend more time with a girl I live with and see every day. I should call it now before the hazing starts.
“Ezra?”
My eyes snapped open.
“Where did you go, man?”
I bit back a curse. Why couldn’t these guys leave me alone?
The sound of heavy footfalls got louder and closer. I could tell it was the whole pack.
Thinking fast, I yanked open the basement door and slipped inside. I closed it without a creak just as one of them appeared in the sliver of the doorjamb.
Turning around, I surveyed my hiding place. I was atop a landing. A steep wooden staircase led down to a concrete floor. I saw nothing else, though dim light floated up the stairs and reached as far as the fifth step.
Through the wood, I heard my name tossed around the hallway. If dropping out means shaking those guys loose, then my mind is made up. I’ll wait here until they give up.
“...no choice...”
A voice drifted up the stairs and whispered in my ear. I wasn’t alone.
“They had to take Teagan.”
“Now?�
��
“Yes. Now.”
I frowned. Who is that? What are they talking about?
Inching closer, I bent over the edge of the landing and strained to hear. I recognized one of those voices.
“How do we explain it? What do we tell people?” he hissed.
I didn’t know that voice, but I sensed his anxiety like it was my own.
“She was Sawyer’s girlfriend. We can’t pretend like she didn’t exist!”
“Keep your fucking voice down.”
The command jolted it loose. That was the president of the Sams.
“You don’t need to worry,” Aiden continued. “They’ll tell us what to say. They always do. Besides, Sawyer will be gone soon enough.”
Gone? Who is Sawyer? Who is they? And why does the name Teagan sound familiar?
Silently, I placed my foot on the step, and then the next. I needed to get closer.
A heavy fist pounded on the door.
“Ezra?” Austin shouted. “Are you in there?”
I bit my lip hard, penning in a flood of curses.
“Who the hell is that?” Aiden snapped. “Caleb, go tell the pledges the basement is off-limits this week. We can’t let them see that.”
Let us see what?
“Yes, Aiden.”
Footsteps sounded in the small space, approaching the staircase—and me—fast.
Moving faster than I ever had in my life, I ripped open the door and threw myself over the threshold. Austin jumped back, nearly tumbling into Luca and taking them both out.
I grabbed the handle, pretended to close it, and then flung it open again just as Caleb appeared.
“Whoa,” I breathed. “What’s down here?”
Caleb waved. “Hey, guys. Sorry, but the basement is off-limits.” He came up and closed the door behind him. “The board for keeping track of pledge points is down there and we can’t have you see it.”
“No problem,” I said. “Let’s go, guys.”
The boys gave me matching confused looks, but thankfully, they didn’t say anything. We went back to the living room and they descended on the food, all right with their world.
I accepted the soda Austin shoved on me with an automatic thank you. I might as well buckle in. I wasn’t going anywhere.
VALENTINA
“This place is like my second home,” Helena said. “College is hard. Being away from your family is hard. Adjusting to hardcore studying, partying, and this adulting thing is hard.”
Sofia and I chuckled.
The three of us had claimed a spot on the couch with half the loaf of banana bread. Helena was one of the junior sisters, and she’d been cracking us up for the last hour.
“But it’s easier when you have people to do it with you,” she finished.
Sofia’s arms encircled my neck. “I agree. Ready for hardcore partying, studying, and adulting, Val?”
“I guess I’d better be.”
Helena patted my knee. “I’ve got to go. My friends and I are meeting up in the student union. It was great to talk to you guys.”
We waved her goodbye.
Sofia got up and took her spot. “So...?”
I raised my brows. “What?”
“What did Leighton want to talk to you about?”
“Oh, that. She just wanted to assure me I got a bid on my own merit. The Sallys like me for me. Not for my boyfriends or best friend. It was cool of her to pull me aside.”
She shook me. “You see? I told you.”
“In between your reality checks.”
“Yes, but I still said it first.”
Someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I twisted around and found Blair standing over me.
“I’m leaving.”
I made a face. “Okay?”
Blair’s lips twisted with impatience. “We were going to talk, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” I got to my feet. “Be right back, Sofia.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” she asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
Blair was already walking off. I pushed through the girls mingling and sharing snacks to follow her out onto the porch. Blair sat on the deck chair I was in only an hour before.
“Here’s the thing,” she announced before I took a seat. “I didn’t believe you or that Palmer girl and her friends would even get in.”
“Yeah. We knew that.”
She flashed a look and I made a show of buttoning my lip.
“Like I was saying,” she continued, “I didn’t think you’d get in when I said all of that stuff. But now that you’re here, we should try to be friends.”
What? I can’t have heard that correctly.
“Excuse me?”
She pointed over her shoulder. “The sisters have to live in that house together and they don’t want pledges who can’t get along with the other girls. They’ll cut us rather than deal with three and a half years of drama. I will become a Sally. I’m not letting a silly tiff about nothing get in the way.”
Blair stuck out her hand. “If you’re willing to forget about it, so am I.”
I shook with no hesitation.
“I’m more than willing. I want to be friends with everyone. Drama is the last thing my life needs.”
“Good.” Blair dropped my hand. “Some of the pledges and I are going to have lunch at the Palm Court once a week. Join us.”
“I’ll try.”
She strode off without another word.
I should go too. It’s almost dinnertime and Adam will be missing me.
I went inside, said goodbye to Sofia and the girls, and then got in my car to go home.
Adam rushed into my arms the moment I set foot in the living room. From the trays of food and movie streaming on the big screen, he didn’t get a chance to miss me that much.
Maverick rose from his seat and kissed me.
“How did it go today?” I asked.
“My classes or Adam’s?”
“Both.”
“Adam got a sticker for the picture he drew of his house, and I have three chapters to read and a short essay due Wednesday.”
“Got any time to cuddle up with me before you get to work?”
He kissed me softly. “I always have time for you.”
Adam, Maverick, and I were just sitting down when I heard the front door open. Ezra appeared moments later in the entrance.
“Ezra,” I said. “Come sit. Tell us how it went with the Sams.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Val, can you come with me to our bedroom, please?”
My smile dimmed. What’s that look on his face?
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
I kissed Adam and passed him over to Maverick. I met Ezra in the hall, taking him in properly. My always-perfect Ezra was less than today. His hair was windswept and sticking up. A look I found cute on him, but that he’d never let slide in public. The biggest giveaway was his untucked shirt.
“Ezra, what’s wrong?”
“In our room,” he said simply. He took my hand and led me up.
My anxiety heightened with our ascent. Had something happened to his family? Did something happen to mine? Why wouldn’t he talk about it in front of Maverick and Adam?
By the time we reached our bedroom, my skin prickled with a thousand needles. I couldn’t take any more bad news. Our lives were supposed to be starting over.
Ezra shut the door and I burst.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “I haven’t heard from Ryder or Jaxson. Are they okay? Is it your mom? What is—”
“Whoa,” he cried. “Slow down, Val. It’s nothing like that. No one is hurt.”
I let out an audible sigh of relief.
“Well... that I know of.”
Stiffening, I said, “What is that supposed to mean?”
Ezra grabbed my shoulders and steered me to the bed. He sat us both down.
“I overheard something strange in the Sam house today. At first,
I brushed it off, but as I kept thinking about it, I got the feeling something was wrong.” He squeezed my shoulders. “Do you remember the girl from the Sally booth? Wasn’t her name Teagan?”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Why?”
“At least three guys were in the basement, taking about a Teagan. One of them was the president.”
Basement? President?
“The president, Aiden—” He tossed his head. “I can’t be sure, but it sounded like he said they had to take her. They had to take Teagan.”
“Take Teagan?” I repeated. “Who is ‘they’? Take her where?”
“I don’t know. You tell me, Val. You were in the Sally house. Did you speak to Teagan?”
“No, but... I tried.” Fragments of my conversation with the president came back to me. “I wanted to talk to her during rush. Leighton said she didn’t know who I was talking about and there was no sister named Teagan.”
Ezra’s brows snapped together. “Val, that’s not true.”
“Why? She could have been a volunteer just helping out for the day.”
Ezra shook his head, even harder that time. “Val, when she spoke about the Sallys she used the word 'we.' We want you. We’ll be lucky to have you. Why would she have said that if she was just a volunteer?”
“Because she— She could have—” My explanations sputtered to a stop. “That is weird, isn’t it?”
“It gets weirder. One of the guys was really nervous about it. He kept saying ‘What do we tell people?’ and ‘We can’t pretend she doesn’t exist.’”
“Pretend she doesn’t exist?”
He nodded, face grave. “Then of all the things to reply, Aiden goes with they will tell them what to say.”
“They will tell them what to say?”
I was repeating things like a dimwit. I knew I was doing it and that I should stop, but my brain wasn’t supplying another response. What was Ezra telling me right now?
“Val, it gets even worse,” he said. “The nervous guy brought up her boyfriend and Aiden brushed it off saying he would be gone too.”
“He would be gone—” Stop repeating everything! “What does that mean?” I cried. “Why would he say something like that?”
He threw out his hands. “That’s what I kept asking myself. The conversation was strange any way you look at it. I couldn’t think of any reasonable explanation for it, so I asked one of the brothers if they knew a Sawyer and he pointed down the flipping hall.”
