by Dexx Peay
“Yeah, yes, yes sir, uh-huh,” we all blurted out.
Airin laughed. “This is going to be a long hard process for you guys I can see. Try yes Big Brother Airin.”
“Yes Big Brother Airin,” we all called in unison.
“Good. My name, is Airin Armstrong. I am the President of Xi Beta Kappa, the best and brightest fraternity on campus. You have all been chosen based on academics, leadership capabilities, and charisma. My panel and myself voted and you eleven were the top choices. During this process you will be tested both mentally and physically. Whatever we ask, you do. When we say speak, talk, and most importantly you can tell no one what you are doing. Understood?”
“Yes Big Brother Airin.”
“Take a look around your circle. These are your brothers. You are to get to know and love each other. We are about brotherhood here. If you all fail to bond with each other, you will fail to become a member of Xi Beta Kappa. Get to know the lives, the future, the present and the past of your brothers.”
They all walked to the candles and started blowing them all out until it was completely dark. I heard the door open and no light shown in.
“As a matter of fact, you guys can start now.”
The door closed and locked.
The room was pitch black and silent.
I think the guys were still afraid to speak.
I decided to break the silence.
“So how come I was the only one drugged?” I said.
A few chuckled then silence took back over.
“Because Airin doesn’t like you,” Airez said.
“So why did he pick me?”
“Who is to say he picked you? He’s the President, but the President doesn’t have the final say. That’s why he has a panel, so the President can’t have complete control over pledges. You just got majority votes.”
“How do you know that?” Someone said.
“Because Airin is my real big brother,” he sighed. “My name is Airez Armstrong. I’m from here and I am a sophomore. I’m an aerospace engineering major and I’m nineteen years old. Who are you?”
“My name is Jacob Bear,” the other pledge responded. “I’m from D.C., twenty and I’m a psych major.”
I decided to go next.
“My name is Dylan Perry, I’m eighteen, from Poughkeepsie, a chemical engineering major, and I’m a sophomore.”
“You’re a young sophomore,” another voice called out.
“I have a birthday coming up in a few days. Who are you?”
“My name is Noel Wilson. I nineteen-years-old. Sophomore. My major is accounting and I’m from Atlanta, Georgia.”
“What are you doing for your birthday this year?” Airez sneered.
“Fuck you,” I snapped back.
“You would love that,” Airez taunted.
“Damn guys, chill,” Jacob said.
“Ugh! This is going to be a long process,” Airez whined.
“You guys know each other?” another pledge asked.
“Un-fortune-net-lee…” Airez said sarcastically.
“Yeah, well I’m not too thrilled about getting to know you either,” I snapped back.
“I guess it’s my turn then,” the voice said. “My name is Evan Adams. I’m twenty-one and a senior. Hopefully I’ll be graduating in the spring. My major is political science and I’m from D.C. as well.
We all went around and continued to introduce ourselves. We tried to match voices to names since we couldn’t see each other. I had all the names down-pact. Aside from myself and Airez, there was: Thomas Wright, Chad Minihan, Jacob Bear, Ricardo Ruiz, Drake Whal, Anthony Brewton, Noel Wilson, Evan Adams, and Jonathan Simpson. There were a wide range of majors ranging from History to Aerospace Engineering. We had sophomores, juniors, and seniors. All the guys seemed pretty smart and I had the feeling we were going to mesh well.
We spent the night talking about random things. Girlfriends, parents, and the reasons why we wanted Xi Beta Kappa were the main topics of discussion. The hours passed and the sun started to rise. None of us were sleepy but we were all pretty hungry. The door opened.
Airin and just one of the brothers returned.
“Hey pledges,” Airin teased turning on the lights.
“Hello Big Brother Airin.”
The guy was holding a small bin. He placed it in the center of the circle. He left the room and came back with another bin. They both went around and started to remove the tape that held our hands behind the chairs.
No one got up.
“Go ahead pledges, get up and stretch,” Airin said.
We all got up and stretched, then sat back down.
“I didn’t introduce to you yet your pledge master for the year. This is Timothy Grissom, he’s my right hand man.”
“Morning pledges! My name is Timothy Grissom like Airin said. I am the pledge master for the year. Normally I would be more involved with the process but I landed an internship this year, and I’m also trying to graduate in the spring, so I have a huge workload. Airin will be handling the process and I’ll be overseeing everything. I’ll come around whenever possible. You guys can see me if you have any issues regarding the process, school, or personal matters.”
He opened one of the bins, pulled out some binders and passed them around to us.
“Inside the binders, you will find a welcome letter on the first page. The next page is a contact sheet. It has the numbers of the entire executive board for Xi Beta Kappa for the school year. You need to save all these numbers in your cell phones. Answer our calls whenever we call you. The next page is a general information sheet. Name, dorm, number, allergies, things like that.” He started to pass out pens. “Fill them out and hand them to us when you’re done.”
We all filled them out. The form had one question that asked whether or not we had a car. I just knew I wasn’t going to see my car for the whole process. I checked yes. When we all finished, they went around and collected them.
“Next in the book is the history section. The history is broken down into three parts: Fraternity history, chapter history, along with E-board history and profile. Learn it all. The last portion of the book are the rules. While you are a pledge, there are rules you must follow. For instance, no eating in the café with anyone who is not a pledge. You don’t want to break a rule. Learn them all. You are all responsible for each other. So if Ricardo doesn’t know the rules, Noel you are just as guilty even if you know them all.”
The look on everyone’s face turned to uncertainty. We all stared at one another. Big Brother Timothy opened the next bin.
“Inside you will find your phones, wallets and whatever else we collected from when we kidnapped you guys,” Airin looked at me and laughed.
We all got up and retrieved our things.
“Yeah, too bad your phones were all locked,” Big Brother Timothy joked.
“Pledges, before you leave we need you guys to fix our living room back,” Airin demanded.
He showed us where all the furniture was. We fixed it back and then we were kicked out the house. We all stood outside, then walked to the sidewalk.
“Where does everyone stay?” Evan asked.
“I stay in Goddard,” Chad chimed in.
“I’m at the Palladium” Ricardo followed.
“Me too,” Anthony and Thomas replied.
“I’m at Goddard as well,” Jacob said.
“Cool. I stay at the Senior House,” Evan replied.
The rest of the guys roomed between University Hall and Second Street. Noel and I both lived in Greenwich. We all paired by dorms, exchanged numbers, and split up. Noel and I started talking as soon as we took off.
“Where did you say you’re from?” He asked.
“Poughkeepsie, it’s about two hours away upstate,” I said. “How is Atlanta? I’ve never been.”
“Good memory. Atlanta is cool. I wanted to live in a bigger city after high school. My dad works in the film industry, not an actor or anybody famous, but
he does a lot of film production. I lived in L.A. for a huge chunk of my life. We moved to Atlanta when I was twelve. My dad suggested New York to me.”
“I was born and raised in Poughkeepsie. Never lived anywhere else. My dad’s from Poughkeepsie and my mom is from Florida. She’s a doctor and my dad is a professor at the local college.”
“Nice. A doctor and a professor, quite the family.”
I almost felt like I was lying. Wasn’t exactly sure where I was born. Maybe here in the City since Marcus was born here too.
Noel was a smidge darker than Marcus, and a little taller and I. His walk was confident with such perfect posture. His fade was flawless; tapered at the sides and sliced at the corner. There was this random dark mark on the left side of his neck. Just assumed it was a birthmark.
We made it to Greenwich around seven. The sun was out and our stomachs were growling.
“Breakfast?” Noel looked at me and shrugged.
We made a detour to the coffee shop and ordered some food, but avoided the coffee, then took a seat outside.
“So what are you expecting this process to be like?” He asked taking a bite out of his breakfast sandwich.
“I don’t think it will be that bad for you guys,” I said.
“What you mean by that?” I looked up and his sandwich was gone.
“Geesh man where did your food go?” We both laughed. “Airez was my roommate last year. We didn’t really see eye-to-eye and same thing goes for his brother.”
“Yeah I don’t know if the other guys felt it, but I sensed the tension in the air between you two. Now you guys get to be brothers for life,” he laughed. “How is your current roommate situation?”
“Aw man, it’s way better. My roommate now is my best friend Marc. We’ve known each other since we were kids, he’s awesome man.”
“Haha that’s great. I lucked out and had a pretty chill roommate last year. We just made the choice to stay roommates as long as we can. So what floor you on?”
“I stay on the fourth. You?”
“Sixth.”
We both finished up, threw our trash away and headed back to the dorm. He took the elevator and I took the stairs. Once I got inside, Marcus was sitting on the couch in nothing but his basketball shorts. He looked up when the door opened.
His eyes got big.
“Dylan! Where have you been? I called your parents because I thought something happened to you. Are you okay?” He ranted.
“I’m fine Marc.”
“The door was half-way opened when I got home and your phone was going straight to voicemail. I thought Qihar had gotten to you. I spent half my night flying around this city looking for you man,” he went on.
“Marc, I’m fine. Something came up and I left in a hurry. I thought I shut and locked the door, but I guess I didn’t. I am fine though. Why are you up so early?”
“Dylan man, I’ve been reading more in the journals. I found one my Dad wrote when he was in his teenage years. Something stood out that reminded me of you.”
“What is it?”
“Dad wrote about how he had these…severe migraines. He said he always had them but they got bad when he first started to use his powers, just like you Dill. But here is the kicker.” He eyed me and smiled. “Dad used to blackout sometimes after using large amounts of power.”
“Whoa…” I gasped.
I couldn’t believe it.
More proof that Marcus and I shared the same father.
“Yeah I know. He also talks about a guy named Julius. He was my Dad’s best friend who also has the power over lightning. Julius would take care of Dad whenever he blacked out. They fought Qihar together. Who does this sound like Dylan?”
“Us…” I whispered.
“Right!” He placed his arm around me.
I froze.
I was trying to process everything. Where was Julius when Dad died? I couldn’t let history repeat itself.
“Promise me Marc that we’ll always have each other’s back?”
“Wh-what? What you mean Dylan?”
“We can’t let anything happen to each other Marc. This can’t be our destiny. We have to live full lives, get married, have kids and watch them grow.”
“I promise bro, nothing is going to happen to us.”
Imani was right about one thing, Qihar has a mission to take over this planet and it’s up to our generation to put a stop to it. I got up and pulled myself together.
“I had a long night bro, think I’m gonna sleep this day away.”
I went into my room and passed out.
The next day at school was the busiest day of my life. I woke up before the sun to take coffee to Big Brother Airin. Big Brother Timothy needed a ride to his internship and I had class at nine. During and after classes, I was reading up on the rules of Xi Beta Kappa. I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody who was not a member or who was not in the circle. I was a little late reading up on that rule because I walked to class with Marcus this morning.
Every Monday and Wednesday the circle had to meet for study hall. Big brother Timothy said that we had to keep our grades up and he was determined to make sure we had time to study. Marcus, Hudson, and Hachi were all constantly calling and texting me. I’d forgotten that I had a training session scheduled that I was missing because I was in study hall.
I was ready to pull my hair out. My phone hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d been up. I still had both my parents calling me because Marcus freaked them out. I wanted to turn it off but we weren’t allowed.
After the hour long study hall was over, I rushed to my car. They circle was wondering why I was leaving in a hurry. I couldn’t tell. We were only allowed to walk from the hours of 7:00am-5:00pm. It was after five so I was allowed to drive.
I got to the warehouse and they were in the middle of hand-to-hand combat. Hachi was leading the training. They stopped and looked at me when I walked in. They didn’t look too happy. We all froze and looked at each other at the same time.
“Where you been?” Marcus snapped.
He stomped towards me. I knew he was angry.
“You committed to training, and why haven’t you been answering your phone? We’ve all been calling you and not to mention your parents have been blowing up my phone. Why haven’t you called them yet?”
“Marc, I didn’t come here to argue let’s just start training.”
“We’ve been training for almost an hour now. Will you be ready the next time some Qihar try and kill you? You’re always running off, not letting anyone know. You could be dead somewhere and we’d never know!”
I walked around him. “Okay Marc, whatever.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?”
I started to walk toward Hudson and Hachi until he gripped my arm. I jerked my arm back. He wouldn’t let go. I tried again and still, nothing.
“Marc let me go, you’re overreacting. I’m tired, I’m not here to argue.”
“No!”
“Marc, this is Dylan and I’m telling you I’m. Not. Playing. I’m tired.”
He jerked my arm again when I tried to walk off. I slowly turned my head towards him and sent him flying backward.
“Oh this is about to get good,” Hudson said. Hachi started to walk towards us. “Leave them alone sis.”
Marcus caught himself in the air before he crashed into anything. I cracked my knuckles. Sam, Hudson, and Hachi all moved to a safe location.
“Are you serious Dylan?” he roared.
“You started it Marc.”
His arms lit on fire, his eye color matched. He threw a fireball and launched it at me. I waved my hand and sent it flying to the right of me. He quickly threw another one. I put both hands in front of me and it froze it place before it hit me. He threw another one. I moved the other hand and froze that one in place also.
“Can you handle another one?” Marcus said.
I was struggling to hold them in place. He launched a third. I couldn’t hold it. I lost c
ontrol and fell back after the explosion. I got up after crashing into a pile of junk.
“Marc! Are you really trying to kill me? What the hell is wrong with you man?”
He landed, walked over and tried to help me up without saying anything. I snatched my body away from him. The other guys didn’t have a clue what was going on, and to be honest, neither did I. I had no idea what his problem was.
“Don’t bother.”
My glared could’ve sizzled him dead.
His eyes said sorry but it didn’t justify his actions.
“I’ll see you guys later. I know where I’m not wanted.” I dusted myself off.
“Dil—” Hachi hesitated.
I walked to my car and drove back to my room.
I was exhausted.
I laid on my bed and sent a text to both my parents letting them know I was fine. I stared up at the white ceiling and started to drift off when my phone rang. Wanted to throw it up against the wall.
But I couldn’t.
It was Evan.
He said that Airin called him and wanted the circle to meet up because they had something important to tell us. Evan said we could meet at his place. I grabbed my keys — again — a coke out the fridge, my bag and headed back out.
I got to Evan’s room. Everyone was there except Anthony, Jacob, and Airez. Evan had a single room, which made sense why we met here. Evan was a neat freak, maybe even a bit OCD. Everything sparkled. The bed, the two posters on the wall, the pillows, everything was evenly spaced with not a speck of dirt in sight. I was afraid to sit it was so neat. The last of the guys walked in.
