The Wall of Shame

In the movie, The Lion in Winter, Katharine Hepburn’s character says “We are the origins of war: not history’s forces, nor the time, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing...We breed wars.” When I first came to Purchase I had no idea that I would ever be drawn into any sort of battle. But, we are human and we breed wars and C-Side was no exception. And the origin of this war was the Wall of Shame. 

It was perhaps two weeks into school when I was walking down the hall only to see a sign taped to the boy’s bathroom door. In big, black letters it said 
WALL OF SHAME 
and below it was a picture of my friend David looking extremely disgruntled. I was obviously confused and curious about this new addition to the floor’s decor but I have found in situations such as this that it is often safer not to ask. So I decided to let it go, not knowing that very soon I wouldn’t really have a choice in the matter. 

The next day I was just leaving my room to head to the music building when I froze. Every guy on my floor was crowded around the door to the boy’s bathroom laughing and talking excitedly. I was just about to go over and ask what was going on, when the door of the room across from me flew open and my neighbor Chris Bill came sprinting out waving a camera in the air, almost running me over.

“Chris, what-?” I tried to ask, now completely bewildered. 

“Can’t talk now, Tori!” he called back before hurrying over to the group just as the door to the bathroom opened. I couldn’t see who it was, but whoever they were, they were greeted by a flash in the face from Chris Bill’s camera and a lot of shouting and laughter from the other guys. After hesitating for a moment, I decided I probably didn’t want to know and left it at that. 

The Wall of Shame remained on the bathroom door for a few weeks, the picture of the shamed changing every so often without any obvious pattern or reason. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked my friend David what it was all about. 

“Well,” he said slowly, “You see, Chris made up this rule called ‘2 on 2’.” He looked at me pointedly as though that should explain everything, but I simply stared at him nonplussed. 

“2 on 2,” I repeated. “What does that mean?”

What it meant was that due to a desire for general freshness in the 3rd floor boys bathroom, they had come to a consensus that all (ahem, how to put this delicately?) “2s” will be taken care of on Floor 2. Any who did not comply with this new decree and were caught would have their picture taken and put on the Wall of Shame to discourage such behavior. Overall, the reasoning was a bit odd and a tad disgusting, but not quite as weird as I thought it would be. But, unfortunately, things were about to get much weirder because the boys on Floor 2 had caught onto what was happening and they were not happy. 

Stay tuned ;)