Apparently, There’s a Spoon Thing

I was walking past the student center today when I saw about twelve girls standing in a line wearing matching pink shirts.

Introduction week has started, so there are groups everywhere, but this one caught my attention because every girl was holding a plastic spoon.

I slowed down a little.

Not enough to look like I was watching them. Probably enough to look like I was watching them.

One of the girls at the front suddenly yelled, “Spoon check!”

All twelve of them immediately held their spoons above their heads.

Then they put them down again.

I stood there for a second.

A guy walked past me eating a sandwich and didn’t even look at them, which somehow made me feel like I was the weird one.

Ryan was waiting near the stairs, so when I got to him I said, “Why do those girls have spoons?”

He looked over. “Sorority pledges.”

“Yeah, I got that part.”

“Then what are you asking?”

“The spoon part.”

“Oh.” He watched them for a second. “No idea.”

One of the girls dropped hers.

The others immediately went, “Ooooooh.”

She picked it up and looked genuinely embarrassed.

“What happens if you drop it?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Then you’re not helping much.”

“I identified them as sorority pledges.”

“I already knew they were sorority pledges.”

“Then why did you ask me?”

I didn’t have a good answer to that.

The girls started walking toward the library, still carrying the spoons. One of them noticed us looking and said something to the girl next to her. They both laughed.

I looked away.

Ryan looked at me. “You know looking away that fast makes it more obvious, right?”

“I wasn’t looking at them.”

“You just asked me six questions about their spoons.”

“That was academic curiosity.”

“Sure.”

We kept walking.

About ten seconds later somebody behind us yelled, “Spoon check!”

I turned around automatically.

Ryan started laughing.

I still don’t know what the spoons were for.