Tap & Gown Read Online Free

never,” said Angel. “The way my father tells it, usually the knights are able to weed that element out before Tap Night. It’s rare for Rose & Grave to get an answer on Tap Night that isn’t
    ‘Accept.’”
    I wondered how the society managed that while simultaneously keeping their identity and purpose a secret and would have interrupted again to ask, but Soze was getting a distinctly impatient look on his face. If his theses were in that much trouble, maybe he shouldn’t have spent the last two weeks gallivanting around Spain with my roommate.
    “But with the kind of year we’ve had,” he went on, “I can’t make any guarantees. I think we should have at least two alternates.”
    “Who chooses the alternates?” asked Juno.
    Soze took a deep breath. “That’s Rule Number One. We all choose all the taps. Every decision made from here on out must be a unanimous choice. Who we tap, why we tap them, and most of all, how we go about it.”
    Robed heads nodded all around the Inner Temple. Of course. The whole point of this society was to create a sense of unity and camaraderie among its members. Why wouldn’t we all have to agree on this, our most important task? But how could fourteen such different individuals ever agree on not one, but fifteen people to tap?
    “So in the interest of ease and consistency, I move that we follow the pattern set by last year’s club, which builds upon the traditions of the order. The tap list should be composed of persons who most match the demographics of each of the current knights.”
    “Including gender?” Thorndike asked.
    “Yes.”
    “I oppose.”
    Soze rubbed his temples.
    “Uncle Tony recognizes the opposition of the Knight Thorndike,” I said.
    She stood. “Such a motion would forever lock the male-to-female ratio of the society into uneven terms.”
    “So what else is new?” asked Kismet. “We’ve already locked it into uneven terms on the basis of race and sexuality, if we’re honestly required to ‘tap our own demographic’ It’s a completely stupid system.”
    “The alternative,” argued Juno, “is to see people of your own mind-set become unrepresented in this Page 14

    group.”
    “So now you’re in favor of affirmative action?” asked Lucky.
    “I’m in favor of protecting what’s mine,” Juno replied.
    “I think it all works out,” said Angel. “Can anyone here argue that we haven’t tapped the right people for this club?”
    Everyone got very quiet, and I studied the gavel in my hand. If they were going to name names, it would almost certainly be mine. I was never supposed to be a member of Rose & Grave. I hadn’t attended their parties and events. Instead, I was a last-minute substitute when my big sib, Malcolm, got into a fight with the girl he was supposed to tap.
    “It’s easy for you to make that point, Angel,” said Thorndike. “Rich, white, East Coast legacies are in no danger of losing slots in this society. You’ve already got one of each gender in this club.” She pointed at Puck. “Do you want this club to be permanently two-fifths women?”
    “What would be fair to you, Thorndike?” Soze asked. “Seven of fifteen?”
    “How about eight?” asked Lil’ Demon. “That would match more with the actual demographics of Eli.”
    “I think the number of women we have is just fine now,” said Graverobber.
    “No,” said Thorndike with a sneer. “You think we’ve got too many.”
    “That too.”
    “My problem isn’t with the numbers,” said Bond. “It’s with the restrictions. I can easily make an argument that the proper replacements for ourselves are not necessarily of the same gender, just as they were not last year. Every woman in this room was tapped by a man who thought that, in all other respects but gender, she would carry on his legacy within the Order.” He shrugged. “Why don’t we do it like that? Tap according to merit, and worry about the gender and other demographic breakdowns as a