Week 3 (of 16 weeks) Begins... I Failed the Pledge Test
Sunday around the house was typical football Sunday. Things were calming down as everyone, brothers and pledges, had settled into routines of the fraternity as well as into the rigors of papers & exams in our classes. Despite all the pledge activities, there still was an emphasis on our education. Alpha Delta held one of the highest GPAs on campus.
Sunday night pledge meeting brought some interesting news. If we did not already have non-refundable plans for fall break in 3 weeks, we would be either staying on campus or taken by a brother. As I was planning on staying on campus anyway, I was to spend the weekend with Logan and Keith (my roommate) would be there as well. Logan and Steven (Keith's 1 year older brother) went to the same high school and were pledge brothers together last year. They also lived in the city next to the college. I was hoping that after the first couple of weeks of pledging, it might be a weekend off.
Along with the instructions for Fall break, we got a dose of "you guys suck! You guys can't do shit right! Etc. Etc. Etc. At the end of the chapter and fraternity history lesson was a short quiz from the previous week's lesson. Of the 21 pledges, 5 failed the quiz; including me. The 3 brothers on the pledge committee (Tim, Travis, and Brent for reminders) walked out of the room shaking their head and mumbling something about "being sorry."
Thursday brought another sorority dinner, this time with ZTA. No word on the punishment for failing the quiz either and so far, everything had been normal with several of us always at the house (per instructions). As we arrived at the house from classes during the middle of the day, the 5 of us that had failed had notes in the apartment. They simply read "GET NAKED."
So Jerry, Darren, Nikko, Jake and I took off our pledge clothes and jockstraps and went to work with the others on preparing the dining area, greeting the ZTA sisters and parking their cars and serving dinner. Nikko's Italian cock garnered much attention from the ladies. He was easily 6" long soft, thick and uncut as most males of European decent were.
Normally, we stood along the wall and waited to be summoned or took the opportunity to refill a glass before getting summoned and possibly in trouble. Tonight, the 5 of us stood ready at the end of each table. With each sip of water, tea or soda, we were summoned to refill the glass. Cutlery was often dropped on the floor requiring us to walk, not run, and retrieve a replacement piece. Our punishment was clear as we were the only pledges doing anything during dinner.
At the conclusion of dinner, the 5 of us were directed to the sand volleyball court on the side of the house. We lined up shoulder to shoulder and most of the sorority sisters pulled out their phones and started taking pictures, videos and snapchats. It was suggested we play a quick game of volleyball as post-dinner entertainment. As a 6th player was required for an even 3 on 3, a group of sisters selected Christian. "Maggot Christian; strip and join the team of Darren and Nikko. Jerry, Brandon and Jake are on the other team. Ya'll serve first" as Brent tossed Jerry the ball. We played about 15 minutes or so, not enough for an official game but long enough for a few hundred pictures and videos to be taken of us; long enough for us to dive naked for balls and get a generally good coating of sand all over us.
The mixer part of the evening consisted of a small pre-game at the house and then the main event taking place at a bar. Over 21 only at the bar so following our quick game of volleyball, we cleared the dining area and readied for the pre-game. Christian was allowed to put his jock back on but the 5 of us were to remain naked.
The pre-game was pretty weak, probably b/c of the actual mixer taking place at the bar. Only about 20 brothers and 30 sisters stayed and were involved in the pre-game social. It was small enough that most of the pledges were able to retreat to the apartment or back to campus to do school work. Some others milled around watching Thursday night football and trying to get signatures. The 5 of us were, of course, required to stay with the social completely butt naked and until the end.
Lesson learned, don't fail another fraternity quiz.
Friday morning had a note on the apartment door "Departing the house at 5pm. Don't be late." We all spent Friday texting one another trying to guess what was in store. Right on the hour, two passenger vans pulled up in the driveway. I swear, they had to sit just down the road with a timer and alarm...
We got inside and off we went. We were driven out of town and to a reservoir lake about 30 minutes away. The two vans pulled up to camping and marina area. We were told to exit the vans and grab the few bags in the back and take down to the marina. There was a boat waiting in one of the slips with Tim and Michael in it.
We all gathered around and listened to Tim tell us about this show on TV called Naked & Afraid. Two people are taken to remote areas and dropped off naked and had to survive for 3 weeks on their own. "This weekend, we are doing a condensed version. You will be taken to an island on the lake and will remove your clothes, leaving them in the boat. In the bags you will find a few necessities to help you through the weekend. We will return for you in 48 hours. During your time on the island, it is your opportunity to bond as a group, to share experiences and to begin building your piece of the Alpha Delta brotherhood. In addition to the supplies, you will find some exercises to assist with your bonding."
"First group, get aboard" said Michael. With that, 7 of us jumped aboard. The boat left the slip and disappeared out of the cove and into the open lake. About 20 minutes later, they returned and took the next group and then finally the final 7 of us were naked and on the island.
We all were gathered at the drop off point. The island was large enough for us to retreat to the interior area and not be seen by any boaters. Hopefully, none would make land and pay us a visit. We made our way to the interior and found 21 sleeping bags all rolled up. There was a small hand saw, two fishing poles and a cooler with dozens of bottles of water. Guess we weren't lucky enough to get beer. The small bags we were given contained a fire starter, a crude map (which really had no meaningful information – just an outlay of the island), a couple of notepads and a few pens. We were given a separate folder that contained several team building exercises...hence the pens and notepads.
"Guess they aren't total dicks" said Terry. "We aren't totally screwed."
Most of the time so far had been consumed with bitching about our situation and the fact we were naked or nearly naked so much of the time and the huge amount of people seeing us. I could tell not everyone in the group would see the end of the 16 weeks. I suppose this is what made Alpha Delta the top on campus. I had heard of `weeder' courses – ones that were required for a major and were overly difficult. They were designed to filter out only the best & brightest. Our 16 week pledgeship (twice what was permitted by the school and the national organization) was exactly that – a weeder course.
"I too heard what you did Brandon about the campus seeing/knowing we were Alpha Delt pledges. I didn't think it would be so literal" proclaimed Jonathon. Most of us agreed.
"The good news is I have a bunch of bitches ready to jump me" said Nick. Several more nodded in agreement as Bob said "my phone is blown up with texts and snap requests."
It wasn't until late into Saturday that we finally began to get to the bonding activities and start opening up. I learned some stuff about myself and plenty about my pledge brothers. The exercises allowed us a forum to open up on this remote isolated piece of land.
Sunday afternoon found the arrival of the boat and a return to the mainland. Loaded into the vans and taken back to campus. We got dropped off with instructions to be back at the house in coat & tie by 8pm.
Back at the house, we were allowed to enter at 8pm. The house was dark with the windows covered with black paper. Candles provided light around the main room. In the center was a stool, a candle and twenty-one small marbles – twenty solid white and one solid black. The pledge class was short one person. We were missing Ronnie.
As Morgan continued to speak, we learned Ronnie had dropped out. He texted the pledge masters when he got back to his dorm. Ronnie was the black ball on the stool.
The ceremony continued in a serious and somewhat somber fashion as we had no idea what was really going on. This was the big brother ceremony. Each pledge was paired with a brother, a big brother. One that was there to provide familial brotherness - protector, friend, confidant, guide, and occasionally, bully just to remind us of where we were in the pecking order.
Following the ceremony, each pair retreated to someplace to continue to reflect on the weekend and what being an Alpha Delta brother meant.