Page 7 of Love Legacy

In the kitchen, we have our usual caterers set up a spread of the members’ favorite foods, as well as large pitchers of our signature sparkling pink punch made of pink lemonade, grapefruit juice, and Sprite, with muddled strawberries and raspberries. The spread includes veggie burger and turkey burger sliders, mini mushroom and spinach quiches, veggie sushi rolls, cheese pizza, ham and cheese sandwiches, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and mini fruit tarts. Is it standardrecruitment refreshments? Definitely not, but it gives just a bit of insight into who we are as people, and year after year, everyone says they love Meet The Sisterhood Day.

I grab a plastic champagne flute, filling it with punch. I take a sip as I connect my phone to the house Wi-Fi, tapping into the smart home network. I start my Rush Week playlist and shuffle it, the sound of “Bad Girls” by M.I.A playing low through the speakers installed around the house. My phone pings, a text from our Recruitment Chair, Raven, indicating that she was on her way with the group of PNMs interested in our sorority.

Since we do things differently than the rest of the sororities, and because we’re not a national organization, we aren’t involved with the Panhellenic Council’s recruitment process. We have our recruitment events earlier in the day, so if anyone wants to participate in formal rush, they have the chance to do so. But we do stick around for those who are solely interested in Kappa Theta Alpha so that they can continue to spend time with the sisters. We usually have about a quarter of the PNMs stay.

Maeve comes into the kitchen, wearing a short, soft pink wrap dress in our sorority’s colors. “Nervous for your first Rush as president?”

I grimace. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“So, that is a yes?” She laughs, grabbing a veggie burger slider off the table and taking a bite.

Her roommate, Aleka, enters the kitchen as well. “Hey, save some snacks for the PNMs,” she says, steering Maeve away from the table and handing me my name tag. I pin it to my top, grateful she remembered them. I knew I was forgetting something last night while we were prepping.

“Sorry we’re a little late, we had to drop Naomi off at Rush registration first.”

“So you convinced her to rush?” I ask, a little surprised, given the background that Gabby shared with me this morning.

Maeve nods. “We did. I don’t expect her to stay with the other orgs past day one though.”

“Well, you guys vouched for her, so assuming she connects with the rest of the sisters, I don’t see an issue with offering her membership if she’s not interested in one of the traditional orgs.”

“We have guests!” Raven calls out from the other room, the low chatter of the other women carrying through the house. I touch up my lip gloss in the hallway mirror, taking a few calming deep breaths. Gabby comes up behind me, patting me on the back. “Show time, Madame President.”

I playfully roll my eyes. “Come on, let’s meet the PNMs.”

We head into the entryway of the house, looking at the group of about forty women standing in front of us. “Hi, everyone! Welcome to Kappa Theta Alpha. I know you’re going to speak with a lot of women and sororities this week, so we’re going to try to keep this brief and save more of the information about the organization for later in the week.

My name’s Sage Carpenter and I am President of this chapter of Kappa Theta Alpha sorority. This is Maeve, our Vice President; Stephanie, our Secretary; Gabriella, but we call her Gabby, our Treasurer; and then last but not least, you all know Raven, our Recruitment Chair and Panhellenic Council delegate.

KTA is a smaller sorority. Our chapter here at Pinebrook has maybe thirty active members at any given time, and we have five thousand active members and alumni nationwide. Pinebrook is the home of KTA, it’s where we were founded thirty years ago, but we have fifteen other chapters scattered around the northeast and midwest and two chapters in California. All of this to say, we do things a little differently around here. We try to foster a welcoming and inclusive sisterhood, and part of that is keeping our membership small.

If you guys choose to stick around, you’ll see what we’re about. There are some snacks and drinks in the kitchen if you’re interested, with vegan, vegetarian, and allergen-friendly options. The sisters will be walking around to mingle with you all, and if you have any questions, just look for any of the executive board members. We all have pink name tags, the rest of the sisters have yellow. Enjoy!”

I step back, heading toward the stairs. I like watching over the upper floor railing during Rush. It gives me a bird’s eye view of the interactions between sisters and PNMs and allows me to make my own observations about the PNM's compatibilities before I meet them myself and talk with the other sisters. Maeve joins me upstairs, watching the PNMs with me.

I scan the room, making mental notes of PNMs I want to talk to, and that’s when I seeher. She was practically radiating as she spoke with Raven. Her dark brown curls are voluminous, forming a halo, framing her face. She wore a bright yellow, off-the-shoulder sundress, showing off her ample cleavage and highlighting her curvaceous body. From this angle, I can’t see too much of the lower half of her body, but as she moves through the room with Raven, I can tell there are thick thighs and thick legs hidden under the skirt of that dress. I watch her converse with Raven and another one of our sisters, Kelly. This woman lights up as she talks, her laugh carrying through the room over the rest of the sound of conversation.

“Maeve, I am no better than a man.”

“What makes you say that?” She chuckles, looking at me. I point toward the woman I was ogling. “That one? Total smoke show. Like she’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Maeve’s chuckling turns into a full-blown laugh. “Oh man, are you serious? Sage, that’s my roommate.”

“Wait, your roommate? As in…”

“The super religious one that just transferred here? Yep, that’s Naomi.”

“Damn,” I say, disappointed. I probably shouldn’t be hitting on PNMs anyway, especially ones that are considering joining my organization. It’s definitely an ethical grey area, and Maeve just made my moral dilemma a lot easier for me.

“We should head down there. It’s not polite for the president to ignore the PNMs.” She grabs my arm, pulling me toward the staircase. We head down to the ground floor, mixing in with the crowd. I bounce from person to person, joining the small groups that have congregated. I mainly stay quiet, listening to the PNMs talk about themselves. A couple are eager to learn about the sorority, so I answer their questions, fill them in on our organization’s history, and tell my story of how and why I joined.

After an hour or so of mingling, Raven calls for everyone’s attention. “Alright, time’s up! If you’re still open to rushing the other sororities, please come with me. Otherwise, you’re welcome to continue mingling with the sisters of Kappa Theta Alpha and you can leave at any time,” she calls out before heading out of the house. Most of the women follow her out, but a smaller group of seven women hang back, continuing to mingle with the sisters, including my newest obsession, Naomi.

I linger in the kitchen, snacking on some of the remaining appetizers, including the miniature version of my favorite veggie burger from Happy Sprout. “Man, I love these sliders,” I mumble around a mouth full of food.

“I didn’t get to try the sliders before, but I did love the pizza.”

I jump a little, startled by the noise behind me.

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