Mean Sisters: A sassy, hilariously funny murder mystery. Lindsay Emory

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       CHAPTER FIVE

      The next morning was bright and clear as I made my way across the Sutton College campus. It was easily one of the prettiest college campuses I’d ever been to and in the last six years as Sisterhood Mentor, I’d been lucky enough to visit nearly forty institutions of higher learning across North America.

      Brick buildings were built in the colonial style and wide tree-shaded pathways snaked through campus, in curves, rather than the straight-lined sidewalks found at most other campuses. During my undergraduate years, students would joke that the campus planners had been drunk when the sidewalks were built, but I preferred to think that they just liked taking their time when getting to their destination. Kind of like I do.

      Even though I had a meeting scheduled for nine, I took a bit of extra time strolling on campus. Each building had a special place in my heart, each bend in the path was another precious memory to relive. There, at the Harrison-Peterson Cafeteria, was where I saw Kirby Jones cheating on me over a spaghetti lunch with an Epsilon Eta Chi sorority sister. And there, at the War Memorial fountain, was where my cute exchange student boyfriend Felipe told me he was married and had three kids back in Chile. And the ivy arbor next to the psychology building was where I found my ex-boyfriend macking down on a Beta Gamma Chi. College days were the best.

      My destination this morning was the Commons, or the student centre, specifically the basement offices of the Panhellenic Council. Panhellenic is a nationwide quasi-governing organization of the national sororities, kind of like the United Nations. Similar to the United Nations, joining Panhellenic is political and voluntary and rule-making is toothless. The bite of the Panhellenic is more often found at the campus level and Sutton College was no exception.

      In fact, almost fifteen years earlier, there had been a big kerfuffle between the Epsilon Eta Chis and the rest of the sororities when the Epsilon Eta Chi chapter had, unbeknownst to anyone, invited all the women hoping to join a sorority to a kegger at a private house. The Panhellenic Advisor had taken Epsilon Eta Chi’s side and then it was discovered that she had been an Epsilon Eta Chi! The drama and fallout was sufficient for a Bravo reality show. From then on, the Panhellenic Advisor at Sutton College has to keep her sorority membership a secret in order to remain impartial.

      It was a really good rule, overall, and I wished other campuses had adopted it. It would do a world of good avoiding the wrath of Epsilon Eta Chis and their ilk. I sat across from the current Panhellenic Advisor, a skinny, perky woman with long, enviably straight blond hair and a knack for eye makeup. I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger. I nonchalantly put the circle over my heart. This was the part that was hard to hide in public. It’s just not a gesture that people do very often. The Panhellenic Advisor did the same over her heart.

      We smiled at each other with big, goofy grins, the kind you get when happiness is too hard to keep bottled up.

      ‘BIG!’ I yelled, getting up from my chair.

      ‘Little!’ Amanda yelled back. That’s right, the Sutton College Panhellenic Advisor was not only a beautiful, smart Delta Beta, but she was my one and only big sister.

      Now Amanda’s office showed some imagination in decor. Deputy Hatfield could take some lessons from her. The rug really tied her office together. You never would have guessed her office was underground. Every inch of the space showed true Panhellenic spirit, with pictures and postcards and posters all depicting the most fun times of sorority life. It was like I’d died and gone to heaven.

      ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ She said after we’d hugged each other’s breath out.

      ‘When they told me I was coming back to Sutton, I could hardly stand not calling you,’ I admitted. ‘I wanted it to be a surprise.’

      ‘Total surprise! Last I heard, you were in Atlanta.’

      ‘For just a few days,’ I said. ‘Before that it was Jacksonville, then Austin, then Portland …’

      ‘So glamorous.’

      I nodded, thinking of life out of a rolling suitcase, doing laundry every few weeks and sleeping on spare beds. My life was great but definitely not glamorous. ‘How’s your family?’ I asked.

      Amanda tossed back her perfectly straight hair. ‘Fine, I’m sure. Mother is headed to Brazil this week with her new husband.’

      ‘Really …’ Amanda’s mother changed husbands like some women change their handbags.

      ‘My sisters are both pregnant. For the third time. Each.’ Amanda added.

      ‘So exciting! Do you just love being Aunt Amanda?’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ Amanda said flatly. ‘Have you heard anything new about the old gang?’

      I told her how I’d run into various pledge sisters and friends around the country. It was one of the perks of my job. I was still the social butterfly of our Deb chapter, always meeting СКАЧАТЬ