The Greeks

If there was one thing that Erin hated most about college, it was when her classes ran late. She was of the opinion that if a professor could not cover the topic of feudalism in the allotted three and a half hours of class, then perhaps they shouldn’t be teaching at all. The grumbling in her stomach had grown too hard to ignore, and she found herself staring at the clock as her professor continued on a tangent about the papacy.

Brushing a strand of hair back into her phone tail, she fished her keys out of her purse as she hurried across campus. It was still sweltering hot in Athens, Georgia. It was mid-august and the summer head had not yet left the brick buildings at University of Georgia. Thankfully, Erin lived on campus in one of the dorm buildings sectioned off for the athletic student community.

Living in East Campus Village was one of the better things about being on a scholarship for cheerleading Erin was on the Co-Ed cheerleading team as well as the All-Girl competition team. Though the scholarship didn’t pay for the dorm, it allowed her to live with Noelle, who was for all purposes Erin’s captain, best friend and big.

Looking at her watch, Erin was sure she could catch Noelle at home. The roommates’ schedules didn’t always match up, but on Mondays between classes, Erin was usually lucky enough to catch her roommate at home on the couch eating a grilled cheese. If Noelle wasn’t hung over or writing insane case studies for her PR classes, she usually was up for making Erin lunch.

Erin waved as she passed a group of girls in Zeta Tau Alpha. She recognized many of them, and would have stopped to talk to them had she not been so hungry. Being a part of a sorority meant that Erin more often than not saw a lot of people she knew on campus. Most of the time she made it a point to be polite, especially if she was wearing her Kappa Alpha Tau letters.

The red brick building looked almost gold in the sunlight as Erin hurried to Busbee Hall. She entered the building. The black and white marble floors echoed as students walked around the lobby. She smiled to several different athletes and other students as she climbed the stairs to the left of the entrance way.

On the second floor, Erin found her door and stuck her key in, unlocking it. The dorm was freezing compared to the heat outside and she was instantly thankful both she and Noelle kept the room and nearly subzero. They had been known to freeze the air conditioning once or twice, much to the annoyance of the maintenance crew.

It didn’t really look like a dorm to Erin. Noelle had managed to get one of the newer rooms where the reigns weren’t as tight on the decorating, and Erin was once again reminded she was thankful that her big was not only a cheer captain, but part of a family who were huge boosters for the school.

The floors were hard, wood floors that were clean and polished. The living area was tiny and to the immediate right of the door. A small pink couch with throw pillows and a black coffee table took up most of the living room. Across from the couch was a massive flat screen that stood on a black entertainment shelf with gaming consoles underneath.

Erin loved her dorm. It felt chic and like it wasn’t just a room in a school dormitory. She always felt like she was coming home, mostly due to how many personal touches they had put into the dormitory. Sure, they probably weren’t supposed to hang as many pictures as they did, and technically they needed to put the correct couch back (they had put it in storage because it was gross) but all together, it was an amazing place to live.

As she suspected, Noelle was on the couch wrapped in a UGA blanket with a plate of grilled cheese sitting on her lap. Her short, brown hair was somewhat pulled up in a mess bun, and she had a glass of lemonade next to her foot on the coffee table. She was watching Jaws on the TV, waving her hand absently when Erin came in.

“Hey Little Bit,” Noelle said, reaching for her glass of lemonade. Erin dropped her back on the kitchen counter, watching Noelle take a few swipes and miss before finding her cup. “There’s a grilled cheese for you in the microwave to keep it warm.”

“Score.” Erin walked over to the microwave in the small but open kitchen. A window let in natural light and a view of the quad between buildings. “Thanks, Biggie.” Erin took a bite. “Did you go to class this morning?”

Noelle nodded her head and hit the pause button before taking a bite of her own grilled cheese. Erin had to admit that Noelle was eerily good at make them taste better than usual. She always used olive oil instead of butter, and was adament on using gourmet mozerella and garlic salt to make them taste better. Erin didn’t mind.

“Got out early, though. Something about Professor Nulman having a meeting.” Noelle rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure she’s screwing what’s that kids name with the bulldog tattoo in Sigma Chi.”

“Hartman?”

“That’s the guy.” Erin made a face, having a hard time seeing sophomore Ryan Hartman sleeping with a teacher. He was a kind, quiet boy, not the kind you typically found in a fraternity like Sigma Chi. “Sophomore, right? Like you?”

Erin nodded. “He went to the Bikers and Babes social with Sydney Ryder, the president of my pledge class.”

“Oh!” Noelle nodded, recognizing the name now. “Sydney Ryder all night long, the pretty redhead. Got it. Yikes, he should have stayed with Ryder, Professor Nulman has coffee breath.”

It was not uncommon to hear a lot of wild gossip. Erin heard it from every which direction that existed. Every sorority and fraternity had multi-faceted sources of drama and gossip. Then there was the athlete stories she heard from her teammates, and the standard rumors on campus about teachers, followed by each individual class.

College was like a intricate hive filled with bees that talked about who did what and who all day long. Sometimes it was absolutely fascinating to hear everyone’s stories, but sometimes Erin would rather sit at home in her bed with tea and her sketchpad.

Drawing had always been something that came naturally to her. Erin could draw and paint better than most other things she could do, and she found that from a young age, she loved it. When she first started attending University of Georgia, she was worried that perhaps no one else would appreciate her love for art.

Erin had been so wrong.

In Kappa Alpha Tau, Erin had not only found that people loved her art, but they wanted to make use of it. She had designed several different banners and campaigns for her own sorority and other fraternities alike, and whenever it came down to decorating or designing new shirts for events, Erin was more often than not nominated as the creative head.

Erin’s sorority gave her passion a purpose, and she thanked her stars for her sisters every day.

Halfway through eating her sandwich, there was a loud knock on their dorm door. Erin herself wasn’t expecting anyone, but Noelle got up from the couch and opened the door, letting in her brother who was laughing loudly on the phone about something as the door shut behind him.

Jonathan Toews had always made Erin flustered. She didn’t fall in love with him or become enthralled by him like every other girl with eyes in their head, but he was a bright personality that always threw her a curve ball. It also didn’t help that like his sister, he was stunning to look at.

Both of the Toews siblings had dark brown hair, tanned skin and light brown eyes that where of the pretty variation. Where Jonathan was tall, Noelle was of slight height, but both were nimble and had athletic builds.

“Did you make me a grilled cheese?” Jonathan asked his sister the second he was off the phone. Noelle snorted in response, hitting play on her movie. He turned to Erin who grinned and waved. “Williams! How are you?”

“In the time span from when you asked me this morning at the gym? I’m still fine, Jon.”

He rolled his eyes and went over to their pantry. He was constantly coming over and eating all of his sister’s food, much to her chagrin. He lived on Greek Row, which meant that the girl’s dorm was a much closer food source than his own Sigma Alpha Beta house. “Who knows, your day could have been ruined in the time since I saw you.”

“Thank you for the concern.”

As a senior and president of his fraternity, Jonathan had taken it upon himself to be a sort of adoptive brother for Erin. She of course, had her own brother who lived on campus as well. Elijah was the president of Delta Alpha Beta, and he was plenty protective over her.

Dealing with essentially two known senior boys on campus made Erin nearly untouchable in the eyes of most. It was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing when the drunk frat boys left her alone at parties so she could have peace, and a curse when nervous new pledges were terrified to talk to her.

Taking out a bag of Noelle’s chips, Jonathan stuck a bunch in his mouth. “You have art this afternoon, right?”

Erin could barely hear him over the crunching of the chips, but she managed to nod her head. “Are you writing down my schedule now?”

“Nope. You’re going to have an interesting class today.”

“Interesting as in cool lesson plan or interesting as in you are somehow going to have the Betas disrupt my life?”

He sat on the couch. “Not telling you, that wouldn’t be half as fun.”

Finishing her grilled cheese, Erin put her plate in the sink, only half-listening as Noelle questioned her older brother if he had talked to their parents. It was a constant and old argument. Jonathan hated talking to his parents and enjoyed doing things to piss them off, while Noelle more often than not was trying to be the bridge between the two.

Putting all of her things away in her room and listening to music is what Erin used to pass the time. Her room was small and cozy. Her bed was done in all white with one pillow in a black and white giraffe pattern. She strung fairy lights along the wall where her bed was and hung pictures to make it look like a clean, classy aesthetic. On the wall opposite of Erin’s bed, she had all of her canvases and letters that either Noelle or other sisters had given her as gifts. One of them was a painting that Noelle had done. It was in pearl white lettering on a sea foam green background- KAT’s colors- and it read their sorority’s motto: Love fiercely, live kindly.

Half an hour into being home, Noelle stuck her head into Erin’s room to inform her that she was leaving for class. Jonathan left with her, shouting his goodbye from the doorway. Erin was then left alone, the dorm much quieter without the two siblings bickering about sports, parents or food items.

It was just another day in Erin’s mostly normal, routine life.