From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 18: I Thought You Wanted to Dance the Night Away

"Yesss I went. It was kind of weird. In a sense, we're both getting to know each other. You know how that is. Dr. Bradshaw seems cool though. Glad I could finally get a session with her. I scheduled another one for Friday too."

"Oh wow! Look at you..." Keisha is cut off by Nate coming into the room. "Oh, hey Nate!"

Nate walks toward her desk and sits her stuff down. "Hey y'all!"

Simone let's out a dry "hey" as stands up to grab some clothes out of her closet and drawers. She proceeds to put her stuff in a separate bag, then she grabs her school bag. "Aight I'll see y'all later." She walks out and closes the door behind her.

Keisha looks over at Nate. "So y'all still not talking, huh?"

"Nope."

"Well, Nate... you need to figure out how to fix it." She stands up to head out the door. "Oh, and here's a tip... maybe stop using the word 'messy' so much. Bye!"

Friday

Simone and her line sisters have pretty much been living at the PKZ house for the majority of the week. Simone hasn't seen much of her friends outside of class. If she's not busy with class, her PKZ duties, or tennis practice, then she's squeezing in naps any time she can. Over the weekend, PKZ and KEK decided to add a last minute dance performance to the masquerade ball itinerary, and since Simone can dance and actually enjoys doing it, she decided to volunteer herself. She's tired, but it's still a fun stress reliever for her. Plus, it keeps her from having to run errands for her big sisters. With Keisha choreographing and Cam as her main dance partner, rehearsal has been pretty fun. This is probably the most fun she has had since the whole pledging process started. Ate least she's nearing the end though.

As part of the masquerade ball fundraiser, the KEK pledges have been mailing and hand delivering some gifts and notes, purchased by attendees, to other masquerade ball guests over the past 2 weeks. They are finishing up the remainder of their hand deliveries today. On top of that, the pledges have to host some KEK alumni just like the PKZ pledges have to do while the alumni are in town for the ball. Fortunately Simone doesn't have classes on Friday. Her main priorities are tennis workout, dance rehearsal, her second therapy session of the week, and meeting up with her future big sister Charlotte.

First up is Simone's meeting with Charlotte. Charlotte wants to figure out if Simone is PKZ material so she wants to know Simone's interests and goals for the future. Beyond tennis, Simone hadn't thought much about her future or what else she wants career wise. Charlotte has Simone thinking about summer internships, but Simone hasn't even settled on a major yet. She honestly has no idea what option she's truly interested in major wise. She's an athlete but that doesn't necessarily mean she wants to work in the sports field outside of that. Maybe public health could be a good option for her. Communications might be cool too. Settling on a major was already difficult. How could she even decide on an internship?

Simone has been through so much as a teenager and young adult. Her parents made a lot of decisions for her, then when she started making certain decisions for herself she ended up pregnant and married all before graduating high school. Then, she decided to go to Bringston all the way across the country away from her family, son and boyfriend. Once that happened a lot more things happened out of her control. She's been spending this entire semester trying to regain control of her life, but so far all she's been able to make clear decisions about are tennis and going to class/doing school work. Those are things she knows that she's supposed to do. Things that are structured and follow a clear path. Everything else feels like unknown territory that she's always discovering.

It's been terrifying and overwhelming especially when there has sometimes been lack or support and encouragement from those around her. She cares way too much about what people think. Sometimes that gets in the way of figuring out what she really wants. So what does she do? She avoids making decisions about things. But... Charlotte doesn't know any of that. She doesn't know what Simone has really been through or who she is as a person. All she sees is an intelligent girl with an inability to put in the effort to make plans for her future. She can't gather if Simone is PKZ material because of that. Simone understands that PKZ and the chapter at her school specifically are elite. They have high expectations of their pledges and members, but she hadn't realized how high the expectations would be until now. And, Charlotte's expectations and line of questioning are reminiscent of Tina's pre-fall semester.