Chapter Twenty - Rory
The main dining hall has been transformed. Tera and I tried to get a look at the dining hall last year for Pledge Night, but we were foiled by last year’s president and quickly admonished and whisked away. But I did get a glimpse of the light sparkling off the chandeliers, and tonight, as I walk through the doors, that’s the first thing I notice.
Tera holds my hand now. Like she’s nervous and needs support. We both look up at the same time to marvel at the dancing patterns of light flickering off the crystal hanging from the ceiling.
“Wow,” Tera whispers.
“Keep up,” Mia snaps, moving forward through the crowd of lingering men and women.
Tera shoots me a look that says she might slap Mia before the night is over, and we try not to giggle as we obey.
All the girls are dressed in silver gowns. Some plain, some elaborate, some in between. But all of them surely have a price tag like mine did. The men are all wearing black on black tuxes with silver ties and silver pocket squares. It’s not a sight I’m used to.
“I feel very out of place,” Tera whispers. “Is that weird?”
“No,” I whisper back. “I feel the same.”
“Do I belong here, Rory?”
I almost stop following Mia, that’s how much her question stuns me. “What? Of course you do. If anyone belongs here, it’s you, right?”
“But…” Tera says, her eyes darting around to see if anyone is paying much attention to us. Not really, I realize. All eyes are on Mia and Kallie, who are walking towards a platform at the head of the room, where all our dates are waiting with a blonde woman I don’t recognize. “But what is this?”
I look at Tera. Like… really look at her. “Don’t you know?”
She shakes her head. And now I see that she’s not nervous, she’s… scared. “Do you?” she asks.
I nod. “I think so. But we can’t talk about it now. Not here. Later, OK?” I squeeze her hand just as we finally make it to the platform steps. We’re to be on stage with Kallie, I deduce. Since we’re part of the officer hierarchy. “Just smile and have a good time. This night isn’t the night we need to worry about.”
She shoots me another nervous glance as we climb the steps to the stage, and then her pairing is there—Brian something—taking her hand and leading her away. She lets go of me, reluctantly, and I have a wave of nausea.
Just keep cool, Princess.
It’s Five’s voice in my head.
“You’re OK.”
I look up and see Frank staring down at me. “What?” I ask, still feeling slightly sick.
“You’re fine, Aurora,” Frank says. “Just take my hand, follow me, and do as you’re told.”
I scrunch up my face at that remark. And the way he calls me Aurora. I hate being called Aurora and anyone who knows me understands that. The Bombshell in me wants to come out. The white-trash biker-bitch farm girl is about to give him a piece of my mind when Kallie whisper-yells, “Aurora, we’re waiting for you.”
That’s when I look out at the crowd. Thirty-eight men and women, all dressed up like this is some kind of backwards silver-anniversary party. And they are all staring at me.
So I smile at Frank Fulbright and let him lead. But I roll my eyes—and in the process of doing that, I lock eyes with the blonde woman standing next to Kallie, which makes her frown.
She’s not wearing silver, she’s wearing white. And she has no man next to her. And even though she’s young—not much older than me, I’d guess—she looks stern. Like a jaded older woman.
“Thank you for joining us, Aurora.”
Did she just seethe my name?
“Thank you all for joining us,” she says, looking at the crowd now. “You’re all here for the same reason. To pledge your loyalty to Palladium House.”
There’s nervous chatter from down on the floor as the girls smile and giggle and the men look smug.
“From this night forward you are one of us.” She lets the word us linger. Like a hiss. Like she’s a snake. Medusa, maybe.
Don’t look at her.
So I don’t. I look at the crowd. And that’s when all the things I thought I knew turn into self-delusional lies. How the hell did I get here? How the hell was I so oblivious for the past three years?
Five would say something like… Because you’re sweet, Rory. And trusting. A princess.
Naive is more like it.
“Please form two lines facing your pairing,” the blonde woman says. “Men on this side and woman on the other.” She turns to us and nods, indicating we should do the same, only we’re to stay up here on stage. Tera scrunches in close to me, Mia is on her left, and Kallie is on the other side of Mia. Frank is across from me, smiling like he’s about to win the lottery.
Hmm. Maybe he is. Not that I’m anything special, especially since he’s practically blue-blood royalty in this country. But in the real world, Frank Fulbright knows he’s not my type. And yet… here I am. Pairing with him.
“Rory,” Tera whispers as the blonde woman continues to talk. I desperately want to concentrate on what she’s saying because this is it, right? The secret. Why we’re all here. What’s coming next… but Tera whispers again, “Rory.” More insistent this time. “Look at what they’re holding in their hands.”
I look down at Frank’s hand to see a ring. With a diamond big enough to sparkle in the dramatic lighting from above. And when I look at the other men up on the platform with us, they’re all holding rings too.
“We really are getting married, aren’t we?” Tera’s voice is shaky. And when she reaches for my hand again, she’s ice cold and trembling.
“No,” I whisper back, turning my head so Frank can’t read my lips. “Don’t be—”
“Tonight,” the blonde woman says, interrupting me, “you will pledge your loyalty to Palladium by pledging your life to your pairing.”
Everyone realizes what’s happening in that moment. Because all the girls begin to squeal as all the men drop down on one knee.
I look at Tera. She’s squeezing my hand so hard, it hurts. Just smile, I mouth. She nods, paints one on, and then I force myself to follow my own advice.
I am not marrying Frank Fulbright. No. Fucking. Way.
But this can’t be a wedding. Next week—Eat Meet—that’s the wedding, I realize. This is just the engagement.
“Gentlemen,” the blonde woman says. “Commence your pledges.”
The room erupt with speech. Coordinated speech. Memorized speech. The question.
“Will you, Aurora Shrike,” Frank says, and every man in the room says it with him, substituting the name of their pairing for mine, “pair with me in the name of Palladium House?”
That’s it. One simple question. Not ‘will you marry me,’ which is a relief, even though they’re asking the same thing. ‘Will you pair with me?”
And every woman looks at the diamond rings being held out to them from the men at their feet, and gasps.
Even me. Even Tera. Even Mia. Because none of us knew this was coming.
Kallie’s voice rings out in the momentary silence of the cathedral-sized room. A resounding, “Yes.”
And we all repeat the same answer.
Even me. Even Tera.
Because what choice do we have in this moment? Make a scene? Why would we do that? We’re standing in the most elite eating club at Princeton University, facing the most elite men, with the most promising futures, and we are being asked to join them in their quest for greatness.
So this is how it’s done? This is how American royalty is made.
I feel very stupid as Frank slips that engagement ring on my finger. I feel very naive, and small, and silly. Because all my life I thought people married for love.
But they don’t. They marry for status. For power. And money.
The room erupts in cheers as the men stand and pull us towards them.
The music starts and we are dancing. His hand has mine. The other is wrapped around my waist, gripping it tightly, trying to possess me as we twirl.
I say nothing. Just smile as the room spins and spins and spins.
There’s no way in hell I will spend the rest of my life as Mrs. Frank Fulbright.
I’d rather die.