[Read Part One of 'Initiation Night']

So Initiation Night had arrived. How ready were the pledges? We planned a practical joke for the special event and it worked to perfection.

To help with the ruse we got a local alumnus who would play the part of the regional representative. Another key to the situation were the colors red and gray. These are the colors of our fraternity and their meaning is not disclosed until the formal initiation.

We gathered the pledges in the basement and gave a nice speech. It sounded like something you would hear before you were initiated. But just before we spit out the words “you guys are all in” the rep spoke up.

He got mad and started questioning why we are letting them in without them knowing everything. We worked it up into this big drama, and all the brothers and the rep retreated into another room to seemingly argue about it.

We waited a little bit then came back and told the pledges there was a problem. They would all have to be asked about the meaning of the colors, and answer correctly. Even the ones that actually studied were worried because they must have known this was not covered in the manual (yes, we had a pledge manual).

So we led them up, one at a time to another room in the house where the rep asked each of them what the meaning of red and gray were. I can’t remember what the responses were but it was pretty funny watching them completely make shit up. But at least they tried to give an answer and some of them were creative.

They were blindfolded once they came back from questioning, and we had them standing in a big circle. Once everyone was done, we reset everyone and a brother got between every pledge so it was pledge-brother-pledge-brother, etc. We had everyone hold hands too.

No it is not what you think you pervert. The hands part will make sense in the next paragraph.

We said some of them got the question right, some got it wrong. We then told them whoever got them right step forward. The brothers all stepped forward.

Then we said: “those that have stepped forward, you are all in. The rest must go home.” I cannot remember specifically what we said, I will be honest, but that was the gist of it.

Imagine you have pledged a fraternity for eighteen weeks. You have not been allowed to drink beer and were actually watched to be sure you didn’t. You have cleaned each fraternity brother’s apartment at least thirty times. You have been woken up at three am to run around the fraternity house a few times then sent back to bed. You spent the last few days of pledging on the concrete basement floor of the house.

Then on the night you are about to get in some rep you have never seen before claims shenanigans. You take a test that depends on membership yet you know you will not answer it right.

Then when the point of actual initiation comes, you feel the tug of others stepping forward and becoming brothers while all your hard work and effort was for nothing because you didn’t know an answer that you shouldn’t even know yet.

Now imagine the feeling when you hear champagne corks pop and you realize you are in.

They were so happy when they heard this. It was like they won the World Series, everyone was screaming and yelling and pouring beer and champagne all over each other.

All that was needed was Deion Sanders dumping Gatorade on Tim McCarver.