Authors: Stephanie Perry Moore

Got It Going On (11 page)

BOOK: Got It Going On

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My sorors chanted the moves they made. “Stepping to the left and stepping to the right, stepping up, stepping back and side to side. We are swinging our hips from the left to the right. Beta women are out of sight.”

And I fell in line naturally, ready to repeat the pattern. We were grooving, and all girls with other letters and no letters wanted ours. Yes, BGP was more than about partying, but throwing down was surely one of the perks to membership. It was a privilege to represent.

“Y'all know the rules. So don't be no fool!” Torian yelled out as she called the next chant. “Nobody cuts the line, this is Beta time! Get back, everybody, here we come, here we come! Get back, everybody, BGP is number one!”

The next part of her step was where we made the line tighter and dared anyone to break it. We weaved in and out of the crowd, and people were chanting and cheering for us.

Cheryl came from nowhere and started spinning round and round. Her eyes were red, and she looked like she hadn't combed her hair in days. She was mouthing the word
Al.
I wanted to scream out, “Girl, don't be looking for that nut Al Dutch. Be done with that.” One of our sorors pulled her in line with her.

However, we couldn't keep the line moving. Meagan came over, broke up the line, and said to Cheryl, “I know you, of all people, don't have the nerve to look for my man. I done told y'all Betasâ”

“I'm not in the mood, girl,” Cheryl said.

“Don't let anybody cut the line! This is our pride line! Move it up there! Keep it tight, keep it tight!” Torian yelled from the back.

“I'm not here to dance,” Cheryl said to us. “I need to findâ”

Before she could say anything, Meagan shoved her like she had me earlier. She pulled Cheryl's hair. Sam pulled Meagan off Cheryl.

“She's crazy,” I whispered in Cheryl's ear when I helped her off the floor.

“She need not mess with me now,” Cheryl said, obviously dealing with something heavy.

“I'll show you crazy. What do I have to lose now, thanks to one of you malicious Betas. Come on, y'all!” Meagan said, motioning for some of the other dancers to break our line.

When they were successful, Cheryl went ballistic. She took the girl by the collar and threw her to the ground. This was getting out of hand.

Meagan kept screaming, “Leave me alone! Get off me! I already have to go to the doctor, thanks to you. Stop!”

And Cheryl kept saying, “No, you're big and bad! You think you all that! What you going to do?”

Then Cheryl punched Meagan with a left hook and then a right one. Cheryl hit her again until there was blood all in Meagan's grill.

POINTLESS

E
veryone was telling Cheryl to get off Meagan, but our words went in one ear and out the other. With now more than forty Betas on the sceneâand the fact that most of my line wore turquoise jackets decorated with our line name, 37
DEGREES BELOW
, and the Greek letters BGP in purpleâit could've been any of our sisters infusing the pain. Not one Beta could tell who was fighting.

Alyx walked over to Cheryl to stop her. I went over, too. The two of us tugged and tugged until we pulled Cheryl off Meagan. As soon as we were successful, about ten of us dashed to the ladies' bathroom.

Samantha guarded the door, and Alyx let her have it. “Are you crazy? What were you thinking, Cheryl?”

“I'm sorry. Torian shouted not to let anybody break the line, and I guess for a moment I just snapped. She kept pushing me, and I needed to find out if this was true, and she just pushed me the wrong way. This is a lot that has been dumped on me. I just ... I don't know,” Cheryl said in one breath, not making much sense to any of us.

“Find out if what is true, Cheryl? So, you would risk possibly losing your letters over some girl who got in your face? Grow up, Cheryl. We have to deal with bad news from time to time. That is no reason to try to kill someone.”

Cheryl seemed still in a daze. Her eyes were roaming, and it was very apparent she still needed to find Al Dutch. She then started calling his name.

Of course at that point I really hated that I hadn't let them all know what Al Dutch had done to me because since I'd kept quiet, he'd been through many more women, victimizing them in so many ways. We were all so damaged. It just seemed like there was no way we could ever be repaired. Cheryl's typical actions weren't of the tough girl I was used to dealing with. Al had done something to her. I just knew it.

“You gotta get cleaned up!” Sam yelled. “One of the girls says someone called the police, and they are on their way.”

“The police!” Alyx yelled. “Oh, my gosh. We're gonna lose our chapter.”

Those of us who were in the bathroom got scared. Well, everyone but Cheryl. She was still wigged out. Everything I thought could go wrong had happened, and more. Bottom line: there was no excuse for us having a campus event without the presence of a collegiate adviser. But we had, something had gone wrong, and now the campus police were on their way to find us.

“Guys, we gotta clear all these people out of here,” Alyx said. “If we go out there now with this blood still on Cheryl, they're gonna know a Beta did this.”

“We stand as one,” Loni said; I hadn't even realized she was in the room with us. She walked over to Cheryl and said, “You better hope this girl doesn't have to go to the hospital. We were telling you to get off her! Okayâso what if Torian told you to respect the line. You gotta know when to face reality and admit defeat. You lost either way. Are you happy? Stop looking so crazy. Cheryl? Cheryl?”

Cheryl did not respond, and I was so worried Al had done something to her. I knew that after my night with Al, I had been so vulnerable and beside myself. What if what we had seen from Cheryl was just the beginning? Someone needed to get her to a hospital before she did herself more harm.

“Come on outta there! Everybody come out now!” Malloy yelled from outside the door. “The cops are here.”

Sam was trying to wipe the blood from Cheryl, who was so stiff and cold, it was as though she didn't even care if she got in trouble.

“I just can't let her take the fall for this, you guys. She didn't know what she was doing. She snapped, okay?” Sam said, crying. “Something is very wrong with her. Am I the only one who sees that?”

Sam wasn't the only one who knew Cheryl was tripping, so I grabbed another wet rag and helped get the blood off. This all just seemed so surreal. Was I helping someone get rid of the evidence of a crime, or was I being a good sister? What would God say was right? I was so confused. When we all walked outside, the police said an ambulance was on the way to get Meagan. She was unable to talk and unable to tell them who had brutally battered her face.

One stern, pale city officer looked ready to take us all in and asked us, “Who did this?”

The campus police behind him wanted one of us to speak up. One campus cop didn't look like he wanted the real police on the scene. Seemed the faster we spoke up and answered the real cop's questions, the quicker he'd be off Western Smith's property. However, none of us said a word.

“Any time the ambulance is called, the city police get dispatched in,” the campus cop said to us, “so somebody better get your adviser to the scene quick. We've been looking all over for her. One person said she was in the bathroom. One person said she was in the parking lot waiting for the cops. Why do we keep getting the runaround here? I know you ladies aren't doing anything illegal, particularly when your chapter is on probation.”

Everyone looked around, not knowing what to do. We had no adviser there. I walked over to a corner and called Dr. Garnes. I was sure she would understand that we needed her badly. She had to come up here and help us. Though they had kicked her out, they were now at her mercy. If only she would pick up the phone.

Finally, after a ton of rings, she answered. I was talking fast, so she asked me to slow down. I needed her to quickly understand what I had to say and hurry to the scene.

I was extremely dumbfounded when she said, “I'm sorry, Cassidy, but you girls are on a collision course, and this was bound to happen. How are y'all ever gonna learn if I keep covering up everything? I'm sorry. I am not your adviser. Good night, I'll pray for y'all.”

She hung up the phone, and I wondered why I had even called her in the first place. That had been a waste of time. Walking back over to my sorors, I knew we were in big trouble.

Perturbed, I took my phone and threw it across the room. Sam caught it. She and Isha rushed over to me.

Sam handed me the phone and said, “Cass, what are you doing, girl? Don't you realize there are cops all around? Are you trying to hit somebody in the eye and get taken in for that?”

“I'm just frustrated, annoyed, and irritated right about now.”

“We should've listened to you,” Isha said. “We never should have thrown a party. We just got in the sorority, and now it's gone.”

Isha was so emotional, Sam was so nervous, and I was so angry. There was not one thing any of us could do to stop what was going on around us. The police were interviewing everybody for criminal evidence. The campus police were taking everyone's statements to find information that could possibly kick us off campus.

“I just can't believe she would do us like that. I thought she really cared,” I finally said to my two girls. “Coming up here to stand in as our adviser would not have killed her.”

“What, you tried to call Dr. Garnes?” Isha asked.

Hitting my phone against my leg, I said, “Yeah, and she's not coming.”

“Well, can you blame her?” Sam agreed.

“Yeah, I blame her. We need her badly, and she won't bail us out,” I said.

“That's because we kicked her out,” Sam said, rubbing my shoulders so I could calm down.

“Wait, I didn't want her gone. I was on her side. I'd been mad at everybody else because of it, and Dr. Garnes knew that.”

“She probably thinks you're a fool to be with us,” Isha said.

“I think I'm a fool to be with y'all, too, but Sam insisted I come,” I said.

“To keep us out of trouble,” Sam said.

Isha said, “Why couldn't one of you stop Cheryl from hitting that girl? Y'all were right beside each other in line.”

“When has anybody been able to stop Cheryl? You should know that better than any of us,” Sam said. “Plus, for real, she is acting different.”

“She's right about that,” Isha said as I finally looked down at my phone.

There were cracks all over the dial screen from my throw. Just what I deserved. I mean, absolutely nothing was going right. Certainly, I didn't expect to have a tantrum and not have consequences.

“So what are we going to tell the police when they come over here? What are we going to say? Are we going to say who did this, or are we supposed to stand and be silent? I'm asking because I wanna tell on Cheryl. Alpha chapter is more important than any individual, right?” Isha asked. “Cheryl is our girl and all, but, guys, we can't lose our chapter.”

“You can't tell,” Sam quickly responded. “You just said itâCheryl is our girl, and she needs our silence. Where is she anyway?”

The two of them argued their points back and forth, and I was stuck. I could see both sides, and I could see no matter how much I tried to do the right thing, the wrong thing always happened, and people always disappointed me.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” a familiar yet unwanted voice said from behind me.

Sam and Isha stopped fussing. I should've known the voice belonged to the last person in this whole schoolâno, this whole stateâno, on this planetâI wanted to see or hear from. I didn't want to turn around. Maybe if I ignored the irritating sound of Al Dutch's voice, he would go away.

“This ... this is important,” he said, kinda stuttering and uncool.

Yeah, his girlfriend was going to the hospital, and I regretted that. But had this been the first time she'd been physically assaulted? Maybe he'd done it before and we could pin this whole thing on him. At the end of the day, it was partly his fault that Cheryl had freaked out in the first place. And he'd better leave me alone because he didn't want me to get started on that. All she had to do was say he raped her, and I'd be right there testifying he had done it to me as well.

Instead of answering him, I tried walking away, but he grabbed my arm, and I screamed, “Let go!”

The cops were staring in our direction. The jerk quickly let my arm go. I didn't want him to touch me. I cringed.

“Can't you see she doesn't want to talk to you?” Sam said. “You've caused too much damage to my friends.”

“I need to speak to her now, all right?” he said, placing his hand in Sam's face.

While Sam and Isha held him up, I walked away. I couldn't talk to him. There were no words he could say that I wanted to hear. I would rather listen to the police give us bad news about our chapter than stand there and listen to his bull. So that's what I didâwalked over to the police.

“I would hate to have to arrest all these girls,” the white officer said boldy to our black campus cop.

“Well, I don't know what to tell you,” the campus police said, having our backs. “You have no evidence. These girls are being tight-lipped and not giving up any information.”

“Well, she didn't get busted up by herself,” the man with the prune face said, trying to scare us.

“Well, the method you're using isn't working. We're gonna head back over to my station and try to figure this out.”

The city cop said, “And just let the girls go free?”

“We can handle this internally. Campus business. The ambulance has notified us, and the girl is breathing and doing fine. When she decides to talk and tell us who did this, you can come and get somebody, but right now you gotta let this go, sir.”

“I'll be back,” the city policeman said, frustrated as he walked out of the gym.

“Y'all need to talk, and y'all know you had no business having no party without no adviser. This is just dumb! Y'all know my wife is a Beta, so I'll do what I can, but a brother ain't losing his job. I don't think nobody can save you from this one,” the campus officer yelled to us.

We all just looked around at each other. Cheryl was nowhere to be found. We were standing up for her, and she had abandoned us. This was horrible. What was up with her?