Disclaimer: I do not own Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or any of its characters.

"When humans participate in ceremony, they enter a sacred space. Everything outside of that space shrivels in importance. Time takes on a different dimension. Emotions flow more freely. The bodies of participants become filled with the energy of life, and this energy reaches out and blesses the creation around them. All is made new; everything becomes sacred."

-Sun Bear

Chapter Two

"Hey sweetheart," Vanessa heard her mother say as she approached her. Vanessa turned around and smiled at her mom.
"So, tell me about these pants mom," Vanessa urged.

"I thought you would never ask," Carmen blurted out, "I have been waiting all day to tell you just how great this pair of pants is."

She began to talk and start unraveling a story with many years behind it.


"Okay girls," Carmen said, ceremoniously as the eight girls gathered around their famous spot in Gilda's. The pants sat in the middle of their circle, with mother sitting by daughter, and the rules of the pants in Carmen's hands, "we are here this one time and this one time only to give you the pants, the rules of the pants, and how the pants should be used. At the end of this summer, and in any summer after you choose to wear these pants we will not be here. Understood?"

The four girls nodded, not one of them being able to speak for fear of laughing at their very serious mothers. It was the next night from the time the girls had found the pants had fit them all. Each mother had told their daughter about the Sisterhood that they were now being initiated into and what it had met to them personally. They had each been touched by their mother's trusting them to join in the group and were trying to be supportive of all the eccentric behavior of their mothers.

The following morning, Bailey was leaving for summer camp in Delaware for teenagers that were sixteen to nineteen. Later that afternoon, Lainey would be leaving to fly back to West Virginia to spend one last summer in the town she grew up in before starting a new life in Bethesda. Sarah and Vanessa would both be staying in town, Sarah to make new friends and Vanessa to just hang out.

"These pants will hopefully bring the four of you closer together," Tibby said, a serious look on her face, "we don't expect the four of you to become like sisters like we have, but the four of you being good friends would be nice. Since you are going to school together in the fall."

"Each girl gets the pants for a week before sending on to the next one," Bridget picked up, "and to change it up, you will pass them back the opposite way, so, we have decided that Lainey should get the pants first since she is going the furthest away. Followed by Bailey, then Sarah, and finally Vanessa. Now, like I said earlier, when you pass them back around it will go Vanessa, then Sarah, then Bailey and finally back to Lainey."

"At the end of the summer," Lena continued, "you will be back to document the pants as according to our rules. We, like Carmen said, however will not be here because this is a time for you guys to share what your summer has given you without needing to make it PG for your moms."

"This isn't going to require blood sacrifice or anything is it?" Sarah asked, uncomfortably.

The other three girls laughed before noticing there mothers weren't joining in, "This seriously isn't going to require blood sacrifice is it?"

"No," the four moms replied together, smiles on their faces.

The women then sat down the rules of pants for all to read:

Rules of the Sisterhood:
1.You must never wash the pants.
2. You must never double cuff the pants. It's tacky.
3. You must never say the word "phat" while wearing the pants. You must also never think to yourself "I am fat" while wearing the pants.
4. You must never let a boy take off the pants (although you may take them off yourself in his presence).
5. You must not pick your nose while wearing the pants. You may, however, scratch casually at your nostril while really kind of picking.
6. You must follow the procedures for documenting your time in the pants.
7. You must write your sisters throughout the summer, no matter how much fun you are having without them.
8. You may only possess the pants for the specified length of time before passing them on to one of your sisters. Failure to comply will result in a severe spanking upon our reunion.
9. You must not wear the pants with a tucked-in shirt and belt. See rule #2.
10. Remember: Pants love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

"Are you serious?" Bailey asked, amusement evident in her voice, "Where you guys on something when you wrote these rules?"

"I think she's more like you than we give her credit for," Bridget dryly told Tibby, who just laughed.

"So, wait, what happens if we decide that this whole sisterhood thing is a waste of our time and don't continue it past this summer?" Sarah questioned. While not really having major issues with the other daughters, they just didn't click and Sarah didn't really see how a pair of pants, albeit a pair of pants that fit all four girls amazingly well, was going to make that happen. Of course, they had already been magic enough for each girl to be complimented by the others in the pants.

"We send it to another thrift store," Carmen shrugged, "We decided when the foru of you were born that we would keep the pants for you guys, but if you guys don't want them, then we'll send them on to make their way somewhere else in the world."

"Do you really think a pair of pants can change our lives that much?" Lainey skeptically continued the questioning.

"Who knows," Tibby answered, "if you believe in the pants, believe in us, believe in your future, and hopefully eventually believe in each other, maybe they will."

"I'm in," Vanessa enthusiastically said.

"Yeah," Sarah said, less enthusiastically, "if it all doesn't work out, at least I'll get to wear an awesome pair of pants."

"We're not going to have to draw blood in this secret ceremony are we?" Bailey asked, fear evident in her voice. The laughter the adults met that with caused the girl to feel a tiny bit stupid for a second, before continuing, "I guess I'll do it."

"Hey, I get the pants first," Lainey recalled, "No way am I turning that down."

"Of course you wouldn't," Bridget teased her daughter, "we would like to welcome you all to the family. The family of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."