Sorority Sisters (Book series)

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Sorority Sisters was a eight title book series that was written by Marjorie W. Sharmat between 1986 and 1987. They were published by Laurel Leaf Press. This series focused on two very different sororities in a fictitious high school in Arizona. In contrast to most teen romance series, (which were common at that time) this series was written with somewhat of a sense of humor.

[edit] Series overview

At Palm Canyon High School located in Palm Canyon, Arizona, most girls aspired to be members of Chi Kappa, the most prestigious sorority at the school. One of their many rules was that they kept membership strictly at ten members.

The main membership of this club included Tulip and Daisy Baron, identical twins (whom to quote Daisy, had parents who "wanted a flower garden, but got us instead." {Book 5, Nobody Knows How Scared I Am}) who had pronounced differences; Carrie Reis, a cheerleader who had a tendency to cheat on her assignments; Rona Dunne, the somewhat standoffish president; Selena Vonder, a screeching witchy and conniving girl who only got into Chi Kappa because of a blackmail threat she instigated; Melanie Deborah Kane, a constant survivor, who was rather nice, unlike most of her sorority sisters; Allie Grendler, the so-called "conscience" of the sorority, although her actions often spoke otherwise; and Tracy McVane, the school's newspaper editor, who dressed in her own style and had multi-colored hair, due to a legal agreement with her parents.

A brainy girl named Elissa Hanes aspired to join, as did her best friend, Kim Adler. However, Kim got in, as did snobby newcomer Crystal Jameson, a boy stealer, fulfilling the ten member cap; Elissa was denied due to her chubbiness although equally brainy Tracy voted for her, because, in her own words, she said that "She (Elissa) was smart and I could use some company in that area". (Quote from Book #3 I Think I'm Falling in Love)

Elissa wasn't daunted. After Kim discovered that Chi Kappa (and many of their members in particular) weren't truly honorable, and alleged "conscience" Allie Grendler bragged about how much money from a charity event that Chi Kappa would have; she furiously quit the sorority in public at their annual Thanksgiving dance.

What angered Kim most was that Allie claimed that a hefty amount of money was made for charity and she snidely told Elissa that how much the amount was wasn't her business, since she wasn't a member of Chi Kappa and was viciously called an outsider (this also didn't sit well with the rest of the students). (This scene occured in the first book, For Members Only) Furious, Kim called Allie's bluff and stuck up for her best friend. "I'm a member of this sorority and I am asking, HOW HEFTY, ALLIE?!" The student body took up the chant, "How hefty, Allie?" while the angry and embarrassed Allie glared at Kim, "How Dare you?!" Then, Kim looked at her point blank, and said, "I dare! I dare! I QUIT Chi Kappa Sorority!"

A few days later, in the second book, Snobs Beware, Kim, along with Elissa created their own sorority called the PACK (PACK was an acronym meaning People Against Chi Kappa). Membership was open for anyone who wanted to join, and unlike the ten member cap that Chi Kappa had, they saw ten members as a way of making their group solid. At first, the group wasn't taken seriously, and they had to advertise for members, but people eventually saw the PACK as an up and coming group that could topple the power base that Chi Kappa had used and abused for so long. (Kim's place was taken over by a freshman named Fiona Richardson)

Of the Chi Kappa members, only Daisy Baron, Melanie Deborah Kane and Tracy McVane saw the PACK as another group and that the two could peacefully co-exist. Incidentally, Tracy resigned from Chi Kappa after she was disgusted with the sorority's devious and conniving tactics, notably Carrie Reis's conniving about getting on a television show. (Carrie used Tracy's legal agreement with her parents about her hair and clothes and plagiarized it to a situation with her car.) Daisy and Melanie Deborah had also considered bolting Chi Kappa to join the PACK, but they decided not to, because they wanted to show that despite the conniving antics of their members, most notably, Selena, Allie, Carrie, and Tulip, there were some nice people in Chi Kappa; even Rona wasn't as conniving as some of her sorority sisters.

The PACK's membership included Elissa, the de facto President; Kim; Tracy; Fritzi Tass, the school's homecoming queen, (whom the Chi Kappas unsuccessfully tried to lure away from the PACK); seniors Bridget Jawinski and Marlene Garcia; and freshmen Stephanie Ortiz and Holly Wood. Although this group equaled eight, they aimed for ten members to become solidified, making it a real group.

Although Chi Kappa called their table, Buckingham Palace (believing that they were the royalty of Palm Canyon High); the PACK girls just called their table the PACK Table.

At first, the Chi Kappas wanted to eliminate the PACK as competition, because they saw them as mocking the idea of their sorority; however in the last book, I'm Going to Get your Boyfriend, Rona and Elissa, the presidents of the two competing sororities, parted amicably as friends, because deep inside, they were more alike than they realized. As it turned out, Elissa's mother was dating her sorority sister, Bridget's father, and were becoming a family.

Also, the mystery of the blackmailing was solved. It was discovered that Rona herself had been blackmailed by the nasty Selena. When Rona discovered this by her family's British housekeeper, Rachel, Rona furiously called Selena a "wretched foul-mouthed fuchsia-fingernailed....!" (It was never described what she was going to call Selena) After her tirade, she predicted that her conniving sorority sister would be in New York, where "she will have an excruciatingly uphill battle!"

This discovery completely changed Rona and allowed herself to be more friendly and honest. (Not that she was conniving herself, anyway) So much so, that as she graduated from Palm Canyon High School, she waved to Elissa, whom she (or her sorority sisters) had snubbed from Chi Kappa, and spurred her to create the PACK.

The characters of whom the stories were about, (most of the stories covered two books; there were eight in all) were the narrators and related the story in the first-person. The narrators shifted between members of the two sororities; although the PACK had more narrators (The PACK had five narrators to Chi Kappa's three). The series style also had a defined sense of humor, which was woven throughout the stories, most notably through Elissa, who would often give horrible but funny puns.

Narrators for and titles of the books were:

• Book 1: For Members Only. Kim Adler (Co-founder of the PACK who, in anger, quit Chi Kappa in public)
• Book 2: Snobs Beware. Elissa Leeds (Kim's best friend, and co-founder of the PACK)
• Book 3: I Think I'm Falling in Love. Tracy McVane (Newspaper editor who quit Chi Kappa in disgust.)
• Book 4: Fighting Over Me. Fritzi Tass (A loyal PACK member, who becomes Tracy's best friend)
• Book 5: Nobody knows How Scared I am. Daisy Baron (One half of a set of twins who are in Chi Kappa)
• Book 6: Here Comes Mr. Right. Melanie Deborah Kane (Chi Kappa's resident Survivor)
• Book 7: Getting Closer. Bridget Jawinski (A member of the PACK who is in Palm Canyon's Senior class)
• Book 8: I'm Going to Get Your Boyfriend. Rona Dunne (Chi Kappa's president.)

Palm Canyon was supposedly located somewhere around Tucson, because some of the characters could and did import dates from that area.