Prologue
There are hierarchies of students at Belmont University, and one of the most important is determined by dorm assignments.
First, you have the students who live off campus. They have to apply for dorm privileges. Their names are put on a waiting list, and they’re assigned to housing in order of the number of points they have in the system. These students have to pay rent and utilities, and they have to go through the whole application process all over again every year. These students are considered by the other groups of students to be the second-class citizens of the Belmont universe.
Next, you have the students who are lucky enough to be living in the dorms. These students can be broken down into a variety of subgroups, each of which is treated differently depending upon a variety of circumstances. The students who live in the dorms can, for the most part, be counted upon to do the same kind of stupid stuff that the students who don’t have dorm privileges do, but the dorm students will, with few exceptions, consider themselves to be better than the off-campus students. This is simply a matter of location.
For instance, there is a small percentage of the dorm students who don’t have cars. Some have them but have decided that the money is better spent on something else. These students are given no special consideration because they are considered by the dorm community to be losers. However, there are also students who choose not to drive. These students are a little more acceptable but still are not allowed to move very far up the social scale. They are a little more respected because they have sacrificed convenience in favor of the environment, but they are also considered to be a little strange since the vast majority of the dorm students are people who would rather die than be seen walking any distance.
The next subgroup of dorm students is, of course, the athletes. They are a breed unto themselves, and the dorm rules, both written and unwritten, seem to change according to the size and popularity of the team. For example, the football players were allowed to throw beer parties on a regular basis, whereas the water polo team, with the exception of the captain and the goalie, was not allowed to have more than three guests, male or female, per student at any time. They all live in a co-ed dorm called “Lions Den,” but they are not, in fact, lions, and the administration has found it best to keep a firm hand.
Then there are the students who live in a Victorian mansion called “The Legacy House” at the edge of campus towards the woods. This is an elite group of students who come from prestigious families and are all in the Legacy Program. This is a program wherein the children of alumni are given the opportunity to live in this house, which is equipped with a computer center, a private dining room, and a library, as well as a common room equipped with a big-screen TV, video game consoles, a wet bar, a billiard table, a large fireplace, a dart board, a Ping-Pong table, and a hot tub. The students in this house are known around campus as the “Legacies.” They are considered to be the aristocracy of the campus.
And finally, you have the freshmen, the sophomores, the juniors, and the seniors, who are separated by their grades and by their housing. Freshmen are looked upon with contempt by the upperclassmen, since, as everyone knows, freshman girls are sluts and the boys are pussies. This is a scientifically proven fact, and anyone who says otherwise is lying, even if he or she is a freshman. However, the freshman girls are not the worst of the lot. That distinction is reserved for the new students, who live in the freshman dorms. They are, to a man, woman, or indeterminate, a pathetic bunch, and are known, around campus, as “dickheads,” or, as one student referred to them, “fresh meat.” The nickname is a reference to their virginity and a comparison to livestock. It is not meant as a compliment. These new students, the vast majority of them, have no idea what they’re doing and are so naive as to make a kitten look like a hardened criminal. They have not yet learned that knowledge is power and fear is respect. They will have to learn, and quickly, if they want to survive their four years at Belmont. Otherwise, they will spend the next four years being laughed at, bullied, and used. It is a cruel initiation process, and they have no say in the matter. However, it is, at the same time, a necessary one, because without it, they will never be able to become full members of the campus.
