Sorority Sister by Diane Hoh

Author:Diane Hoh [Hoh, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-4806-5
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween
Published: 2012-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

THE POLICE RETURNED TO Omega house the following day with disturbing news. There had been no trace of insecticide or any other kind of poison in the spaghetti taken from the house. They would like, they said, to be given some of the dishes used in serving the food.

Too late. The plates and the silverware had all gone through the dishwasher, which rendered them useless to the police.

To further complicate matters, the doctor at the hospital had changed his initial diagnosis. The girls were recovering too quickly, he said, for botulism. Probably simple food poisoning, although it couldn’t have been the spaghetti, then. Wouldn’t have worked on them that fast. Had to have been something they ate for lunch, instead.

Mildred’s relief at this news was visible. None of the girls had eaten lunch at Omega house. She was blameless, after all.

But the girls affected had not all eaten lunch at the same place, which further confused the police. Different restaurants, cafes, and dining halls were involved, yet apparently only the girls from Omega house had fallen victim.

“Wish we had those plates,” one officer said regretfully as they turned to leave the sorority house. “Can’t be sure of anything now.”

They were no more confused than Maxie. She had been so sure that the phony exterminator had done something to the spaghetti. If not, what was he doing in the house?

The worst consequence was that now the university definitely wouldn’t spring for more security.

The police did agree with her that the bricks in the fountain wall had been tampered with. But they didn’t seem to be taking it nearly as seriously as she did. They seemed to regard it as a “prank” gone bad. Shaking their heads and making comments about the stupidity of initiation rituals, the police officers left, telling the housemother to call them if anything else came up.

Maxie left for class thoroughly dispirited. Although her ill sorority sisters would be coming home that afternoon, the help that she had hoped for hadn’t arrived, after all. No one, not even the police, knew what was going on. They didn’t even seem to believe that anything was going on.

But she was sure. Positive. The loosened bricks hadn’t been a prank, and neither had the stolen things so mysteriously returned, or the disgusting ants in the pantry. And whatever it was that had sent her sisters to the hospital, it had to have come from the phony exterminator. Nothing else made sense.

Oh, who am I kidding? she thought as she hurried along campus, too preoccupied to notice the tiniest of buds sprouting on the crab apple trees or the tips of snow crocuses pushing their heads up through the cold, hard ground. None of this makes sense!

It was almost April. But to Maxie, the day seemed like the darkest day of the winter.

Her sisters came home, pale and drained, and went promptly to bed. Maxie did what she could to make them more comfortable.

Jenna called. “I heard your compadres were sprung. Must be a really cheery atmosphere over there right about now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.