Lead me on
Shauna Shipman did not rush sororities.
Sororities were for girls who wore pearl earrings without irony, who posted birthday collages on Instagram with captions like couldn’t do life without this one, who had childhood best friends named Sloane or Campbell and meant it. They were for girls who were effortlessly likable, who could exist in a space without making it feel crowded.
Shauna, in contrast, had spent the last eighteen years perfecting the art of being deeply unimpressed. She was not a joiner. She did not do sisterhood. And yet, here she was, in the too-bright foyer of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house, standing in front of a recruitment chair who looked like she’d been sculpted by the gods of sorority rush week themselves.
Jackie fucking Taylor.
Except she wasn’t Jackie fucking Taylor—not yet. She was just Jackie, sophomore, recruitment chair, and the most absurdly put-together person Shauna had ever seen in real life.
She was tiny, first of all—like one of those girls who could sit cross-legged on a dorm chair without looking uncomfortable. Her hair was the kind of blonde that had probably never seen an awkward phase, curled in soft waves that framed the world’s friendliest face. She was wearing a perfectly coordinated blue-and-white sundress, a delicate gold necklace, and a recruitment nametag with a handwritten Jackie T. that looked straight out of a Pinterest board titled Greek Life Goals.
And she was smiling at Shauna like she actually wanted her here.
Shauna, for her part, had spent exactly one week in college before deciding to ‘accidentally’ sign up for rush. It had started as a joke—something Tai had dared her to do while drunk off shitty tequila.
Then, the email arrived. Then, the schedule. And then, well.
Here she was.
“Shauna, right?” Jackie said, her voice sweet, like she was genuinely thrilled to be talking to her. “I’m Jackie! Welcome to Kappa!”
The way she said it—like Shauna had won something—made Shauna bite back a smirk.
“Wow,” Shauna said, taking the glass of cucumber water someone shoved into her hand. “You sound very excited about that.”
Jackie laughed, and it was this pure, effortless sound, like she was actually enjoying herself and not just playing her part in some weird, hyper-feminine performance art piece.
“I am!” she said. “It’s always fun to meet new people.”
God. She was so sweet. It was almost concerning.
Before Shauna could respond, she heard a whisper—too loud, definitely not subtle—from another girl nearby.
“Wait, didn’t she sign up, like, last-minute?”
“Oh, yeah,” her friend replied, in the tone of someone reporting that a stray dog had wandered into the house. “I think someone dared her. Or maybe she lost a bet.”
Shauna rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to turn around and give them something real to whisper about.
Jackie, however, either didn’t hear it or was simply too well-trained in recruitment etiquette to acknowledge it. Instead, she just smiled even brighter and gestured toward the main room, where a charcuterie board sat like a still life painting.
“Come on,” she said, touching Shauna’s arm lightly like they were already best friends. “I’d love to get to know you!”
The thing was, Jackie said it like she meant it.
Shauna smirked, following her in.
“Oh, please do.”