The Rules of Blackwood U

Alex Chen came to Blackwood University with two things: a freshman orientation packet, and a laminated card from his mother titled MOM'S COLLEGE SURVIVAL RULES — don't take the 13th cup at a party, don't answer knocks on Thursday nights, exact change for the dryers. He thought it was a bit. It was not a bit. Blackwood looks like a normal New England liberal arts college, but every frat party, campus bar, library basement, and 3 AM laundry room runs on posted Rules — and breaking one summons the Rulekeepers: polite, procedure-bound things with clicker counters and laminated cards, who will escort you out of the census of the living with a "pardon me." The worst part isn't being taken. It's what comes after: your room reassigned by morning, your name gone from every roster — and your best friend looking at the empty bunk, saying "I've always roomed alone," and meaning it. Everyone else is terrified. Alex sees a badly designed system with loopholes. But every loophole has a price, and the price is always a person. And on Greek Row, something in a faded fraternity mask knocks three times — and it is not procedure anymore. The Rules always win. Remember the filed.