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Chapter 6: Recruiting the Knights
INTERIOR HEARST LIBRARY
Veronica looked up from the information desk when Nish walked in. "I'm so glad you could meet me. We have to talk."
"I wanted to talk to you too," Nish replied.
Veronica looked at her expectantly. "You go first."
"The lawyers want to know if you want them to add you to the suit," Nish explained. "I probably should have asked you earlier since, well, since you made it all possible."
"That's okay. I don't want to join the suit," Veronica hesitated. "Actually, I want you to drop it."
"Are you freakin' kidding me?" Nish was appalled that Veronica could betray her and their cause.
"Shhhhh," Veronica cautioned in library mode. "Hear me out."
Nish glared at her rival but sighed, "Go ahead."
"Come sit over here with me." Veronica directed them to a small table in a corner where they wouldn't be overheard by anyone else in the library. "They came to me, Jake Kane and a few others."
Now she had Nish's full attention. Her eyes had widened to practically double in size with the whites clearly visible against her dark skin. "Their lawyers are still claiming that Castle doesn't even exist."
"They want you to drop the suit and in exchange they will make you a member," Veronica repeated the offer that had been extended to her.
Nish protested indignantly, "What makes them think I want to be associated with them?"
"That's what I said," Veronica tried to reassure Nish this that she wasn't selling her out, "but the more I thought about it, I wondered 'Why do we have to do everything the hard way?'"
"I earned everything I have," asserted Nish. Having grown up in Watts, Nish Sweeney was proud of the fact that she clawed her way out of the ghetto and managed to get into a great school like Hearst. Sure, she practically had to beg, borrow and steal to pay her tuition and she was going to be in debt for the rest of her life buried under a ton of student loans but she was confident she could parlay her education into a good job and a better life for her and her mother.
"I'm not saying you didn't. I am saying what if there's an easier way? You said it yourself – it's a bunch of rich powerful men, helping other men get rich and powerful," Veronica elaborated. When Nish didn't immediately say anything, Veronica continued. "You don't know me, but a few years ago I got it into my head that I had to do everything myself – that asking for help from anybody was a sign of weakness."
"So what changed?" Nish softened. "Why now?"
"I learned I was wrong. I was wrong about the Theta Betas and Karen. I was wrong about trying to take the Castle down by myself. A lot of people got hurt because of my arrogance – my dad, my ex - actually both of them - my friend, Wallace."
"Those vapid sorority girls were growing pot, illegally," Nish reminded Veronica.
Veronica countered, "But their hearts were in the right place, they were trying to help their dying friend,"
"Whatever." Nish wasn't convinced. "What does any of this have to do with the Castle?"
"They're offering us membership in their little boys club – a ticket to the fast lane: the money, the connections, and the power. We can stop fighting the system and use it to our advantage," Veronica reasoned. She hadn't really made up her mind about what she wanted to do regarding the Castle but she felt that she owed it to Nish to inform her of the offer.
"So it's a bribe," Nish scoffed. "They are trying to buy us off by letting us join. How do we know they won't just kick us out after we drop the suit? And why us? What about all the other deserving women on campus?"
Veronica hadn't really thought about that. She knew that part of Nish's issue was about equality but she hadn't considered that there were other women who could be helped if they got the Castle to tear down their all male walls. "Well," she began puzzling through this out loud, "They only mentioned you and me by name, and oh, they will reinstate my friend, Wallace, but they didn't say they wouldn't consider other women."
"I'm listening," Nish confirmed.
"What if -" Veronica continued thinking out loud, "what if we make a list of all the qualified women on campus and we make it a condition that they all be accepted?"
Nish was willing to consider this. "I'm not agreeing to anything but I'll send you an e-mail with some names. They are also going to have to go public. I'm not doing anything in the shadows."