America 1982-Chapter 97 - 15: The Quiet of the Night (Third Update)
"It’s more than three hours until dawn, what are they doing?" Charles walked into the pitch-black room with the lights off and asked Ted, the new recruit supervisor who stood by the window staring in the direction of the backyard.
Ted, with his arms crossed, was looking at the brightly lit backyard, "Tommy had advised the others to behave and not to touch the food, so only four newbies fell for it. But the remaining five didn’t take pleasure in their misfortune. They noticed the tools and clothes we left behind and connected the water hose. Under Tommy’s leadership, they cleaned up those who were duped a bit and even changed them into clean clothes."
"So, it means that only four newbies are dressed in women’s clothes?" Charles walked over to stand next to Ted and looked down with him.
At that moment, the backyard was calm, with four guys dressed in high school girls’ uniforms, covered with felt blankets, asleep at the table, while the other five were on the lawn, chatting and doing exercises like push-ups and high-knee drills, sweating a bit to fight off sleepiness and the cold.
Ted took out a cigarette, lit it, and said to Charles, "These bastards aren’t doing too bad. When we first arrived, we didn’t think about helping our brothers; we had to be drilled for a long time to understand what our fellow recruits meant."
"I only know that we prepared nine sets of women’s clothes, and now five are wasted?" Charles looked at Ted, "Besides mutual assistance, we also need to teach them that a thick skin is one of the important survival tactics in this society."
Ted exhaled a puff of smoke and left the window to walk towards the desk, saying as he walked, "Of course, let’s start. I’ll make them realize how treacherous people can be."
He then dialed a number and said, "Eric, these bastards didn’t fall for it. Send in the chicks to light their fire! Focus on Tommy Hawk! If that bastard doesn’t sleep, the others won’t be able to either."
At this point, it was three in the morning in the backyard, and the awake Tommy, Jason, and the other five were starting to feel drowsy, staring blankly at each other, having exhausted all the jokes they could remember, some even repeated twice.
"Only three hours until it gets light." Tommy stood up, went to the cold water faucet to splash his face with cold water once more, then said to his companions, "We five can definitely make it until dawn."
But as soon as he finished speaking, footsteps were heard outside. On Greek Road, two figures walked timidly towards the brightly lit backyard, asking, "Is anyone there? Was someone just talking? Help us, please!"
Hearing the women’s cries for help, Tommy and Jason, along with the others, straightened up and looked in the direction of the voices. They saw two blonde chicks standing outside the fence in just their underwear, without even shoes, sticky with maple syrup all over, hugging themselves and looking pitifully at Tommy and the others, pleading, "Help us, we’re freezing to death, our treasure hunt failed, and we got drenched in syrup."
"Fraternity initiations for the girls are this extreme?" Jason said in shock upon seeing the two girls’ bedraggled yet still sexy appearance.
He immediately opened the fence gate, letting the two girls come inside. The arrival of two pretty girls almost completely dispelled the men’s drowsiness. Everyone gathered around the girls trying to rinse off the syrup with cold water, offering any help they could.
"We just happen to have some extra girls’ uniforms. We don’t need them, and we’re sure we can make it until dawn, so you can wear them," one newbie offered, finding two sets of high school girls’ uniforms and placing them next to the girls.
One of the girls gratefully said to the newbie, "You’re so thoughtful, thank you so much. Our initiation was a disaster, a total nightmare."
Tommy, seeing his companion take out two sets of uniforms for the girls, felt something was off but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Dawn was near, and with the girls present, it was even less likely that they would fall asleep again. The opposite sex is the best stimulant; as long as they stayed awake, the veterans would have no chance to prank them.
Once it was light, they could leave with poise. By then it would be the recruits’ victory since the Fraternity would never take up their class time with these extracurricular activities.
The two girls went to the cold water faucet and started to wash off the syrup from their bodies, observed by all. Their graceful figures and pretty faces made several of the newbies swallow hard. After rinsing the syrup from their bodies and hair, one of the girls smiled sweetly:
"Guys, would you mind turning around? We need to change clothes."
The five men, including Tommy, lined up and turned their backs like gentlemen. However, Jason silently raised three fingers, signaling to his companions the number three, and at the same time, they all turned for a sneak peek.
The faces of Tommy and the other three showed a knowing expression, giving Jason an OK sign. Jason slowly folded his fingers, and when he had retracted all three fingers, he quickly turned his head to sneak a peek at the changing girls. Expecting the other four to do the same, he was surprised that Tommy and the others remained with their backs to the girls. As Jason turned, they shouted loudly:
"Jason, you’re rotten! Peeping like that! Didn’t your mother teach you to be a gentleman?"
"Jason! You actually suggested we drug these two poor girls?"
"Jason White! You really are a scoundrel!"
With the perfect reminder from his four fellow recruits, Jason successfully made eye contact with the two warned girls.
He saw what he wanted to see, such as the perfect figures of two girls, but he also saw some things he did not wish to see, such as the disgusted looks from the two girls.
"You bastards!" Jason quickly turned his head back and angrily cursed at Tommy and the others, "When did you decide to team up and play me?"
One of the companions laughed, "Just now, Tommy used a secret hand signal from the freshman handbook to tell us not to turn around."
"Tommy, those secret hand signals in the manual aren’t for you to use against your closest fraternity brother and roommate." Jason turned his head and glared at Tommy, "So, all the hand gestures you’ve been making all night, what messages did they convey?"
Another companion spoke up, "Nothing much, just subtly telling us that he sent a press release to ’Stanford University Entrepreneurship News,’ saying you went to work as a gigolo last night to raise funds for your startup."
"F*ck you, Tommy Hawk! You’re about to lose a brother for good!" Jason stared at Tommy.
Tommy looked at Jason and said sincerely, "Don’t worry, Jason, it was just a joke, I swear to God I didn’t write any press release."
"Thanks, I knew you wouldn’t do that, brother, I’m willing to trust you this time." Jason breathed a sigh of relief.
The next second, Tommy continued, "I just called the Entrepreneurship News and told them about your experience; they decided to give you a chief editor-level interview, which is much more serious than a press release."
"From now on, every night we both spend in the dorm, you’d better keep your eyes wide open and not give me any chances, Tommy!"
"Guys, we are freezing to death, I see dry wood piled up over there, so could one of you help us light a fire? We want to dry our hair," said the girls who had changed clothes, asking from behind.
"No problem!" At the beauty’s request, instantly two rookies hurriedly ran to gather the wood.
Tommy, a bit worried, said to the companions who went to gather wood for a fire, "But besides using various tools, the veterans did not allow us to eat, sleep, or start fires."
"We can’t light a fire or we’ll end up incontinent like those four guys?" A companion said to Tommy, "You’re too nervous! It’s just a fire; we’ll hold on until dawn and then we can leave this place."
Tommy thought about it, indeed it was just a fire, and with beauties around, these guys should stay energized, looking for various opportunities to show off to the girls, hoping his own nervousness was unfounded.
Urged by the girls, the rookies cast Tommy’s worries to the back of their minds, and the fire was quickly lit in the backyard. A few of them chatted and warmed themselves by the fire with the two beauties.
However, the two beauties didn’t seem very talkative, just hugging their arms and looking at the fire in silence, which made the already sleepy five guys feel even heavier eyelids in front of the warm fire.
At this time, a girl, sleepy, asked Tommy who was sitting next to her, "Can I lean on your shoulder and sleep for a while?"
"Of course," Tommy replied subconsciously.
The girl rested her head on Tommy’s shoulder and soon fell asleep; the other girl couldn’t resist the sleepiness either and laid down on the soft grass, her head resting on another guy’s thigh as she drifted off.
Only after the girl lay on his shoulder did Tommy realize that he shouldn’t have agreed to her request because when someone beside you is sound asleep, the desire to sleep almost doubles, and although the girl said she would only rest her head on his shoulder, after five minutes, she almost wished to curl her entire upper body into Tommy’s embrace.
Moreover, to avoid waking the girl, everyone stopped chatting, and soon enough, the rookies began to nod off before eventually falling asleep in front of the fire.
"Jason, hold on! You are now the only man who can stay awake! After all, you successfully earned the disgust of two girls!" Tommy whispered to Jason, who was dozing off across the fire, "Go wash your face with cold water! Then sit far away from the fire and stand guard! If you feel sleepy, you must come back and wake me first, we must ensure someone is awake, or they will appear."
Seeing Jason get up, wash his face with cold water at the tap, then walk to the farthest empty spot, Tommy finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then dropped his head, ready to take the chance to nap.
But what Tommy did not expect was that in such a quiet environment, Jason only lasted ten minutes before slumping over the table and falling into a deep sleep; Tommy had intended just to nap but ended up sleeping soundly himself.
Before dawn arrived, the backyard finally welcomed the night’s tranquility.
"Everybody’s down," Ted said, after seeing the guard Jason White also close his eyes. He turned around to his companions and continued,
"Go add some wood to their fire, cover them with blankets, let them sleep comfortably until 8:55 AM, leaving them five minutes to run to the classroom. I’m really looking forward to seeing what choices they’ll make after lacking two sets of women’s clothes."
