Family Ties

Monday night was the night I found out who my big sister was. Yvonne and I had sat around after classes making predictions on who would be mine and hers. “WHAT IF WE END UP BEING TWINS?” we fantasized. We compared out goodie baskets, dissected every note. After we’d exhausted all our ideas of who our big sisters would be, I asked about her weekend with Rich’s parents.

“We went to that Shakespeare theater thing they have in Montgomery. And it was really awesome. Apparently Rich’s parents go a lot. They’re from there, so I guess it’s like the thing to do. Then, they made mentioned of their Thanksgiving at the beach, and how maybe I could attend. They kind of did it in passing, but I would be lying if I didn’t freak out.” She paused. “How was Oxford?”

I hadn’t exactly told anybody about weird ambush turned reconciliation, mainly because I was just so excited to be with Mark. “Well, funny thing...”

She grinned. “Mark’s plan worked! I knew it would!!!” She squealed.

“You knew?”

“We all knew. No one had the heart to tell him about Kenny, we thought it might kind of cloud his ability or want. So we told him we thought it would work. Is his dad home yet?”

I sighed. “No, they keep yo-yoing about it. I think the main concern is that once they release him he’ll start to do too much again. They’ve bounced around putting him in an outpatient rehab center. His strength isn’t really there, so they think it’ll be good to get him some therapy and stuff. I’m no expert, but I think going home would help. He has to be sick of that hospital bed.”

After that, it was time to get dinner before the big/little reveal. Our whole pledge class had agreed to eat together before the ceremony/celebration in the café. Yvonne and I saw Gwen and sat down next to her. She kind of shot us a side eye. I wondered what her deal had been lately. Sure, we hadn’t seen her as much. But she hadn’t made much of an effort either.

Gwen shot me a smile. “I’m glad to hear Mark’s father’s doing well. Leslie mentioned it the other night at the Theta house.”

I nodded. “He’s just ready to get out of that hospital bed, I think. How’s things with you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever! Let’s all have a girl’s night soon, OK?” I was trying to keep the peace. Yvonne nodded emphatically at my idea.

“I would like that.” Well, at least we were making strides where Gwen was concerned. She’d made other friends in our pledge class, but I didn’t want her to think we’d ditched her. We hadn’t. I just thought she didn’t care to hang out with us much.

After we all inhaled our dinner, we made our march to the sorority house. We were asked to stand outside and wait to be asked in. When the ritual chair came out, she gave us each a number, “Each number corresponds to a piece of a string inside. Follow your string path to find clues, and eventually your BIG!” she wailed, and screams from all of us erupted.

I got number 17. I went and found the notecard stating 17. I picked up my piece of string when I was told to, and began to follow it. It was wrapped about chairs, paintings, the Tv, inside the refrigerator. Literally, this stuff lead us on a long journey. I kept bumping into other girls and getting caught on other pieces of string. After about ten minutes, slowly but surely we began finding our bigs. The first girl to find hers screamed with joy. I wasn’t really focused on her excitement, I wanted to find mine!

Finally, I was in the home stretch. I had only about 15 inches between me and my big box, which would reveal my big. I unwrapped the life-sized package, wrapped in really ugly Dora the Explorer paper. I tore it open, and I could see her head, peaking out the top when I exposed the box. This only made me unwrap faster. Finally, I tore through the box, and inside was Leslie!!! Waiting with another basket of treats, and t-shirt that read “Leslie’s Little.” She had on a shirt that said “Kathleen & Hannah’s Big!” Hannah was a girl a year older than me. I knew Leslie was her big, so I didn’t suspect she’d take on another. I hugged Leslie as soon as I could get all the wrapping paper removed. Then, Hannah came out, she had just gotten her little—Yvonne! Leslie’s big, Nina came up and we all hugged, laughed and took lots of pictures. Nina finally says, “Let’s get in the stack!” On the stairs, Nina stood on the highest step, below her, Leslie, below Leslie, Hannah and I stood side by side and below Hannah, Yvonne. This was the sorority stack.

After we took our pictures, Nina announced that it was Flirty Family tradition (the name of our family was the Flirty Family, apparently Nina and her big were both big flirts around campus, and the name stuck- a lot of families had similar, goofy names) that we go out for ice cream. We went to the Mountain Brook Creamery and had clown cones, as is tradition-according to Leslie.

I got back to my room, new basket in tow, to find Candace in our room for the first time in days. I just assumed we’d been missing each other. She was packing a suitcase. I put my basket down. “What’s up? Where you going?” I asked.

“My parents and I decided that it’s best for me to go home for the rest of the semester.” Her voice broke, and she began to cry. “I spoke to the RA, she said that you can have the room to yourself or find a new roommate. That’s up to you.”

“Candace, what’s wrong?” She was sobbing now.

“I made an F...” She hiccupped. “It was a really hard test. And, and my parents found out about Jarrett. We’ve still been sneaking around. They blame him. And I need, I need to go home.”

Bless her heart. Not only was Jarrett breaking her heart, but her parents were being total buttheads. She was actually taking really difficult classes. Advanced Chem, which is usually for sophomores, French Literature, and English composition. They were all time consuming, and usually not for first semester students. For the first time since she told me the whole Jarrett thing, I really felt sorry for her. Her parents were those hover-craft kind. Who just couldn’t let their daughter be average or above average, she had to be a damn genius. And it clearly took a toll.