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But I had my doubts. If we pledged different houses, wouldn't we be competitors?

Chapter Four

    Zach
    Seth, Dillon, Paul, and I got up early to make Sunday breakfast for the girls. Betty, the cook, had weekends off. She left casseroles for us to stick in the oven for Saturday, and Sunday dinners and breakfast food for us to fix on Sunday. On Saturday we set out cereal and stuff to make toast and let the girls fend for themselves. On Sunday, we each had a specialty. Mine was scrambled eggs with cheese. Seth was a mean pancake flipper. Dillon was a potato man and Paul was a terrible cook. We usually made him man the toaster.
    This was a big day, bid day, and the house hummed with anticipation. The girls had planned a special beach event at the river for their new pledges. The four of us houseboys had to help Kelly and the recruitment committee pack the picnic.
    But before I helped Kelly and the rest of the officers haul the pledges' new pledge T-shirts to the SUB and then load the girls' cars with picnic supplies, I had to call my mom. A task that was right up there with scrubbing the toilets on Sunday morning after the girls had had a rough night of partying and drinking.
    I went to my room for privacy and called, hoping Mom didn't chew me out for waking her.
    "Zach." When she picked up, her voice had that irritated tone that she held in reserve for me alone. Like she barely tolerated me and didn't have the time to deal with my problems. Like I was the problem of her life.
    "Sorry to bother you, Mom." I was always apologizing to her. In the background, I heard my spoiled twin half brothers roughhousing and screaming at each other as they played a video game.
    Mom yelled at the boys to calm down, but her tone was hardly reprimanding. More like amused and thrilled with them. When she turned her attention back to me, her tone hardened. "What do you want?"
    "I need you to forward my last paycheck from the summer. I can't pay my credit card bill without it."
    "Zach, what have I told you about overspending? Cut down on the partying. Pare back on the social life so you can afford to pay for your responsibilities. Anyway, I thought you had direct deposit?"
    Pare back? Like shit! What social life? If I cut down any more, I'd starve. The bitch didn't pay for a thing, but she had the nerve to rag on me about how I spent my money.  
    Without my job at the house and my scholarships that covered most of my tuition, I couldn't afford to go to college. Neither she nor Dad contributed a dime toward my education. Though both of them were rolling in dough. A half-assed decent mother would have sued my dad for child support and college expenses. Out of revenge, if nothing else.
    My bitchy mom hadn't cared enough to fight for me. She claimed Dad had suffered enough. I thought she took perverse pleasure in seeing me struggle. She wanted me punished and in purgatory forever for what I'd done to our family.
    I tried to hold my anger and frustration in check. "I did. They screwed up after I quit and cut a check for my last paycheck instead of depositing it. They should have sent the check to the house. Can you look through my mail and make sure it's there?"
    She let out an exasperated huff, like I had just asked her for the world's biggest favor. " Hang on."
    I heard her heavy footsteps. She called out to the boys again. Then I heard her riffling through paperwork. "Found it."
    "Will you put it in the mail tomorrow? I need it, badly."
    "I have a busy day tomorrow, Zachary. Mondays are always bad. The twins have practice and work is an absolute zoo."
    "Mom, please? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
    The heavy sigh again. "Okay. I'll try ."
    "Thanks, Mom."
    She grunted.
    "I have to run." I didn't want to talk to her a minute longer than I had to and waste her precious time. The feeling was mutual. "It's bid day and I have a ton of work to do."
    "Work, Zach? Or screwing one of the girls." Her tone was full of disgust and embarrassment. "I can't