The Secret Society of Frat Boys (Teasers)

Chapter 2: Let's Break Tradition

Jason
May 2018

    In my hands I hold the fate of my future. Pretty and crisp as can be, tightly sealed with prestige wax. The cursive bold initials of ‘UNM’ shouted at me from the middle of the envelope.

‘Open me’

‘Don’t open me’

I didn’t open that letter for a week. Alone it sat on my desk haunting my dreams and thoughts day and night. If I was to be denied from attending UNM, I would not only let my father down, but my whole family down. Ever since my great grandfather, Elliot Strada Monore, migrated from Ireland, after the first world war, he attended UNM. The rest of the men in my family had attended UNM; my grandfather and my father. Of course being the single child and a boy of my family, that meant I ‘have to’ attend UNM.

When I was younger I was inspired by many great poets like Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and J.R.R Tolkien, to become a poet. According to my father, being a poet isn’t a ‘reliable career’ and ‘my mind wanders too far from reality’. Although like a great poet said “not all those who wander are lost”.

My father is a branch manager of one of the highest topend banks in New York, Bell Boys. Funny how a name like ‘bell boys’ could mean something else than the crummy low wage title it’s supposed to be.      

UNM gave him a Co-Op opportunity in his second year at Bell Boys bank. Usually most universities wouldn’t have given students co-op opportunities until their last year. My father says it was because of his grades or something like that. I don’t remember too much of what my father says half the time, he’s always busy with work and commuting back and forth between Massachutes and New York.  

To please my father and myself, I had applied to a business journalism course. Not exactly what I was looking for, but at least it pleases someone.  

I walked into my house after one of our last football practices of the season to find my mother surprised me at the door. She was a powerful woman, she exuded confidence and knowledge. My father and her were college sweethearts. While my father studied business management, my mother excelled in criminal law. She could sniff out a guilty man in church and have him on his knees seeking forgiveness from the lord.    

As she leaned against the hallway entrance, I could see the UNM admission letter sticking out from her crossed arms.

I internally cringe that I had actually forgot to hide it. Eventually she would have found it, but better later than sooner. She uncrossed her arms and waved it like a million dollar winning lottery ticket.

“So when did you get this?” she smirked and teased.

I only stood there mouth gaping like a fish unable to come up with any accuse. I dropped my practice bag as she started to break the perfect red waxy seal. My feet could only take me a couple of inches per step as I was too afraid to rush my destiny within the envelope. With fragile hands, my mother unfolded the withering letter and scanned the words on the page like an eagle searching for a mouse in tall grass.    

What really surprised me next was how fast my mother's hands went from gentle to fierce claws ripping up my letter. I guess that she wasn’t very pleased with the response. She hastily went to the kitchen to fetch her jacket and car keys then grab me as well. The pair of us left the house to hop into her grey Audi A7 and travel west.

I didn’t really know where we were going, but I knew where I wasn’t going to school in the future. All I could think about is the disappointment that would show on my father’s face when he found out that I wasn't attending UNM. I can’t be the first one, of all years and the future generations, why mine? I wanted to know why they didn’t except me. Why I wasn't good enough for their snobby standards. I took all the business credentials and two extra university Englishes to get accepted. I could feel the disappointment boiling in my stomach while the confusion and failure clouded my brain.