Chapter 1 - Intro

"Where silence sits to listen to the stars; 

In the deep glade where dwells the brooding dove, 

The painted valley, and the scented air, 

She heard far echoes of the voice of Love, 

And found his footsteps' traces everywhere. 

"But nevermore they met! since doubts and fears,--”

--T. K. Harvey

Maxine's POV (1)

"I can't believe our Halloween sucked that bad," I griped to Alba as I spotted a halloween mask on the pavement while we were walking back to our dorm from the dining hall. I pulled my sweater tighter around me as a cold gust of wind blew dead leaves across our path.

She shrugged. "Yeah. As great as scary movies and alcohol are, it's really not fair our boyfriends cant even spend Halloween with us." It felt sad that we were still reflecting on how awful our Halloween was when it was nearly a full week since it came and went.

Living on campus, at Olympus University, in a small nowhere town in Illinois made planning things very difficult. Parties were frequent but only for the Greek system it seemed like. Both mine and Alba's boyfriends are in fraternities and are often preoccupied with greek events that we, the non-greeks, are excluded from.

The days were getting shorter with fall semester in full swing but it was still light out and I was able to pull the dorm entrance open without using a key. This year, campus security hooked up an automatic lock system on all dormitory doors due to safety issues in the past few years. The system was designed to calculate the time of sunset each day and go into lock mode at that time. Already, it was acting as a constant reminder that the days were getting shorter and winter was fast approaching.

Black and white flyers hung crookedly on the interior walls as we made our way to the elevators. I heard a slicing sound behind me as Alba ripped one from its staples. "What does it say?" I asked, pushing a button to beckon the elevator to our level.

"It's a frat party," she told me, staring down at the flyer. "Lambda Chi Alpha. That's Noah's frat. Join AXA for a blast from the past. Why wouldn't he mention this to me?"

"He probably doesn't plan on going," I shrugged. The elevator dinged it's arrival and the doors opened slowly.

Alba followed me onto the elevator, still staring at the flyer. "These things are mandatory, Max. There's no way that he can skip it."

"I wonder if Sigma Chi's having a party. If they are, Gage hasn't told me either. I hate Greek rules! They have all these dumb parties that us, normal people, can't attend. You have to be a sorority girl or a frat boy. So stupid," I struggled to hide how much I actually cared. Sororities were never something that interested me but dating a guy in a frat kind of changed things. Something about exclusion has the power to make people want it even more.

"It's not too late to sign up for rush," Alba reminded me. "Rush starts this week and you're initiated in December."

"We're juniors," I shook my head. "We just turned 21! Most girl’s who are rushing are 18. Bad idea."

The elevator doors opened on the 8th floor and we stepped out into the lobby. "I've seen the sorority houses. It beats another year in this inconvenient dorm, being so far on campus and stuff." She said it quietly as we passed our RA's room. We had already been in trouble a number of times this year for alcohol in the dorm. "It's not like we have to be all serious about it. Let's just pick one so we can get the hell out of here. I know that I'm sick of being worried about Noah partying with slutty sorority girls. You can't tell me you never wish you could be there to see what it's like."

I stared at the bland white walls of the long narrow hallway as we approached our room. "Yes, I do think about it," I admitted. We stopped outside of a light brown door that had Alba and Maxine scribbled on orange paper leaves. The leaves clung lifeless to our wooden door. I felt more like a kindergartener than a junior in college. "Ok," I gave in. "We can check it out. There's supposed to be a presentation in the union tomorrow night. I'll sit through it, but no promises."

"Yay!" Alba squealed in excitement as I unlocked our dorm room. The inside of our room was about as boring as the outside. Alba's side had a lot of pink and orange while my side had more blues and purples. I sighed and flopped down on my bed.

"I'm calling Noah to yell at him for not telling me about the party. Whether I'm invited or not, he should still tell me about it,” Alba plopped on her unmade bed and pulled out her phone.

"Yeah, Gage has never told me about his frat stuff. Even before we started dating, he's always been so secretive. It's weird, but I've tried not to worry about it." I flipped my laptop open and started my pandora radio. Jordin Sparks “Battlefield” was the first song to come on. Before Gage, this song felt so close to home but now that I was happy with him, the song didn't feel as meaningful and I could only hope it never would again.

"Well we'll learn all about it soon enough!"

Albas POV (2)

Maxine shuffled a few feet behind me as we walked to the union, known to the greek students as Greek Hall. I tried to keep a calm, steady pace but my excitement was getting the better of me. When we walked in, it felt like everyone turned to stare. Just looking at these girls, I felt old. Maybe Max was right and rushing was primarily for freshman.

Or maybe I'm just over thinking things. We're all students and close enough in age it shouldn't matter. Noah gets so annoyed when I over think things, like last night when I called him about the frat party and insisted he was going to tell me about it. I don’t know how but he has this way of calming me down with the fewest words. I’ve never dated a guy who could do that.

Max and I took a seat near the back in case we needed to make an emergency exit. The speaker turned on a PowerPoint presentation but it was hard to pay any attention to what she was saying. The group of girls in front of us were probably freshman’s and I overheard them talking about the upcoming frat party.

“It’s gonna be the best party,” a skinny girl with shiny jet black hair excitedly whispered.

“The guys are so hot, we’re totally hooking up there,” a orange-tan blonde joked.

“Without a doubt! That’s the point of the Halloween Party here!” a small framed girl chirped in and giggled. I shot Maxine a panicked look.

“Don’t worry about Noah…” she assured me.

“There will be no bullying tolerated in our sororities,” the speaker boomed into the microphone. Maxine chuckled.

“Quite the introduction,” I whispered to Max.

“My name is Julia Walsh, I am a representative of panhellenic. Soroities are diverse groups and offer lifelong bonds of friendship and sisterhood. OU offers three sororities on campus as well as three fraternities. Each sorority is paired with a fraternity and are expected to act as escorts and/or a helping hand to their matched houses. Not that this should influence how your choose, but last year the Lambda Chi Alphas paired with the Delta Zetas, the Zeta Beta Taus paired with the Alpha Phi's, and the Sigma Chi's paired with the Sigma Kappas.” Julia paused and took a sip of water from a glass sitting on her podium. I glanced over and was thankful to see Max more attentive that I expected her to be.

“In making your selections, ladies, please be aware that each house has a GPA to maintain and an image to uphold. Motives should primarily be educational or philanthropical. DO NOT join merely to get invited to the mixers and get access to the guys, although, of course those are perks to joining.” The speaker grinned and nodded at her audience. “Once you choose, you are to attend a mandatory meeting with your house and begin rushing. If you make it through rush, initiation is in December. Good luck, future sisters,” Julia smiled and retreated from the stage.

Seeing the presentation was coming to a finish, I nudged Max and we took off before the crowd got ahead.

“So what do you think? They mentioned a lot of perks to being in a sorority… not many down sides!” I pressured her.

“The only perks I heard were parties and guys,” she laughed.

“Come on! We'll be so much closer to things on this side of campus. Not to mention Gage and Noah will be in the dorms around us! No more walking for 20 minutes to get to an 8am class. No more meeting halfway to meet the guys for lunch. It'll be great. ”

“Well, did you have a specific house in mind?” Max eyed me suspiciously and led the way across campus back to our dorm.

“Well, I mean,” I tried not to answer how she knew I would, “any house I suppose would be fine.”

“Delta Zeta?” She grinned.

“Yeah, that's the one that was paired with the Lambda Chi's last year, right?” I asked, as if a light bulb hadn't gone off in my head when the speaker, Julia, mentioned it.

Yeah, I think that was the one,” she chuckled. “Delta Zeta it is then.” Max glanced down at a folded paper in her hand. “DZ meeting is tomorrow night.”