[Chapter 7]
After a lengthy briefing on my responsibilities as Psi Sigma Nu's Vice president, a meeting with our president, Caroline Richardson was scheduled for the Monday after my installation. With a set schedule for my duties emailed to me, and my class schedule rearranged, I returned home to my apartment to see I'd also received an email from Alex. She'd taken place in the trial solely to guarantee acceptance into the sorority, but had promised her mom that she'd do her best to make it as far as she could, all without knowing what the trial actually involved. Astounding.
While the facemask and braces certainly scared her, she was willing to give them a chance, since her teeth weren't perfect. She wanted to get together Saturday before the installation so she wouldn't have to go alone, even offering to pay for lunch. I certainly wasn't used to going out for lunch with other people, let alone being the one asked to go out, so I was a little off guard and didn't quite know how to respond. I'd sat with my hands hovering above my keyboard for at least a minute or two before deciding to consult Mom.
She laughed at me.
She asks me what kind of impression I get from her.
"Well meaning." I can say with confidence.
Well aware I'm not the social butterfly she was, Mom provides step-by-step instructions on how to respond to Alex in both a friendly and appreciative way, encouraging me to take advantage of a great opportunity to make a meaningful friend. She knows this is new territory for me, and suggests I plan ahead to make things less stressful, like where we'll meet, what route we'll take to get to the Orthodontic Sciences building, where we'll go to eat, etc. She also warns me to be ready for small parts of the my plan to change, such as where we stop to eat if the destination I plan for is closed or too crowded. My solution is to have backup plans.
My reply is successfully sent and received.
Saturday arrives and after exiting the parking garage a few block from the Ortho Sci building, I find Alex at a bench near the University's quad. She's sporting a pink shirt covered in small strawberry designs stitched into the fabric with blue jeans. I feel out of place in my usual fitted skirt and sweater. A modest and professional look, it's worked well enough in most outdoor situations. I've thought about trying other styles, even experimenting with more vibrant colors. I realize the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Alex. After exchanging greetings, I compliment her ensemble and ask about how she constructs her outfits, seeing how she made it look so easy.
Her eyes were alight as she began talking my ear off about color science and ways to express mood through color and fit the whole way to the Ortho Sci building. Once there, it was a quarter to 9:00, the time I needed to be in the installation theatre, so we took the time to explore while we waited for the doors to open for us. The building was very different from the Union and it's historic auditorium, instead a modern greyish white exterior, with slanted outer walls that supported a litany of dark wooden panels held together by sheets of metal and screws creating a wide awning. The front of the building was majorly glass, facing the sunrise to let in light for a majority of the school day. Large winding paths of concrete stretch to packs of metal tables and chairs integrated to the landscaping, with a decorative slab of wood and cement commemorating the donors who funded the building, as well as the University's architecture students that designed it.
As 9:00 draws near, more of the remaining 10 girls from the trial assemble at various tables, meeting in some of the same friends groups formed at the event. Some are likely to be here for longer than others. Dr. Ashley informed me that I'd be starting my installation before the other girls, since I had the most work to be done, while others who'd only require a few appliances were set to begin after a majority had finished theirs.
Alex nudges me as a group of women with blue polos beneath jackets open the doors to the building, allowing us to seat ourselves at the various tables in our same groups, only this time inside the building. All but two of the polos retreat further into the building, as a short stack of papers is organized by the remaining two before my name is called. Before I can go, Alex asks me to wait for her if I get out before she does, and wishes me luck.
After checking in, I'm led to the installation theatre at 9:03. It resembles a large lecture hall, well lit with ample lighting and a row of orthodontic chairs well equipped with a menagerie of tools for installation and maintenance. There are large screens on the back wall above the chairs, with camera feeds showing each of the empty chairs. I'm placed in the first chair at the left. Looking behind me I can see myself seated looking backwards, allowing me to find the camera dangling from the posable light fixture above me. The purpose for this intimate set up becomes clear as groups of regular students start to funnel into the room, each choosing scattered seats before pulling out laptops and various colors of notebooks, as if preparing to take notes. I should've expected this.
The spectacle begins with President Caroline practically startling me from behind, revealing she'll be responsible for my installation. After she's joined by an assistant in a blue polo, she starts by lowering the back of the chair to the quintessential position, before clipping a bib around my neck over my chest. She instructs me to open for her assistant to install lip separators. She then takes her time cleaning and polishing the surfaces of my teeth one by one, all the while her assistant fiddles with a large tray connected to the side of the chair with a blue rag drooping less than an inch over the edges. The smell of chemicals draws my attention back to Caroline as she continues the long process of prepping my teeth for the appliances. All the while I can see my fellow trial participants making their way past my chair to the rest on the row, all of them glancing between myself and the massive screens above me as they pass.
Finally, the soror's president begins installing my first appliance. Her assistant carefully hands her what appears to be a tongue cage with connecting pistons hooked to metal bands for each jaw, but it looks different from the one I was presented during the trial.
Caroline notices my look and explains the appliance.
"Oh! Check this out! Since you were failed two variants of tongue-taming appliances, we had our lab design a compromise that achieved the diverging functions of both appliances, while not sacrificing their common purpose. Pretty clever right?"
I had little chance to respond as she went right to inserting adhesives to all 12 of the metal rings before fitting each of them over the three back teeth of each side of my jaws. Right as she finished fitting the last ring her assistant handed her a sleek curved wand with an orange screen that was inserted to my mouth, producing a blue light to dry the resin. Once that was complete she stated I could let my tongue rest, noticing I'd kept it squarely in the back of my mouth. Upon trying to relax it I realize it's totally incased in the small cage. As I try to feel around it, the pistons flex with the cage so that it moves with my tongue, completely trapping it. There's no way around this thing.
I spot Alex walking by my chair as she waves to me with an encouraging smile on her way to her chair.
Caroline then begins with actual brackets. To no ones surprise, I can tell these are noticeably larger than the regular ones more commonly used this day and age. At least they weren't more metal bands. Once she hits each bracket with the same blue light, instead of arch wires, her assistant produces the neon green adaptive bite blocks I'd failed during the trial, and connected to them were a set of hot pink lip bumpers. No doubt another set of appliances combined to save space and manage to take up even more. I notice a set of thin edgewise archwires integrated between the bite blocks and the lip bumpers. Caroline explains that the bite blocks will be installed directly to my brackets and metal bands along with the lip bumpers. As she takes her time, I slowly feel my cheeks becoming even more full as she fastens each section to its respective position. She used a small set of pliers to twist and clip each part into its indented space. By now my mouth feels completely alien. Everything feels tight and restricted.
By now at least four girls have passed my chair walking back towards the exit, most of them now wearing very visible appliances trying to avoid eye contact with the crowd of students spectating our installations.
"We're almost done! Since you failed a set of closing elastics, we'll use those around your final year to complete your bite, so last thing for you today is your headgear!"
Here it comes.
After removing the lip spreaders, her assistant carefully hands her a set of facebows with strange mechanisms at the ends of the inner and outer bows. Caroline explains these to be the locking mechanisms that'll keep my headgear locked to my braces for the next 8 years at Winterville. She then points out a row of vertically placed metallic trays designed to keep my hands from fiddling with any of my appliances, the spaces between them only small enough for a special toothbrush provided by her assistant. She takes her time yet again sliding each bow into its intended buccal tube, before taking her small pliers and clamping each end at two points creating audible clicks. She then gently wiggles my facebows with her hands to ensure they're snuggly in place. Her assistant then presents a messy set of neon green and hot pink headgear straps to match my adaptive bite blocks and lip bumpers. Caroline has her assistant fix my hair up in high pigtails like horns to fit through the square opening of my headgear straps. Once each strap is properly attached, she clamps each section with a different set of pliers, locking them in place as well, before tightening them each to snuggly hug the back of my head and neck. I feel the arms of my glasses held even closer to the sides of my head. After presenting me with a key to unlock the straps for whenever I need to shower or fix my hair, she warns me to not attempt to fiddle with any part of my braces, since the headgear's additive is an effective compliance appliance with a flawless success rate.
With that I'm presented a orthodontic care kit and a small goodie bag as the back of my chair is raised. After laying back for so long it takes a me a second to find my footing after standing up too fast.
"I can't wait to see you Monday! Have a great rest of your weekend!"
With my lips held miles apart from each other by the ridiculous amount of hardware now cemented into my mouth, I find no trouble managing a smile for her as I start up the stairs towards the lecture hall's exit. I glance back to see Alex one giant screen away from mine, still in her chair, face as red as the strawberries on her shirt with her hands meekly together. While I think lunch might not go as Alex planned, I decide it's only right to wait for her to installation to finish.
Making my way up the stairs past cadres of murmuring students, some daring enough to take pictures, I feel a glob of drool pooling past my cheeks and meeting at my bottom lip before attempting to slink down my chin. With no napkins on hand I can only suck back the saliva loudly, turning even more heads. If keeping drool in my mouth is this much of an issue, talking's no doubt going to be a whole different ball game, and with my responsibilities as Vice president in full swing come Monday, I'm expecting I'll have quite a lisp to get accustomed to. I calmly adjust my glasses and exit the room to wait in the building's lobby. I find my seat next to one of the groups of fellow trial participants, each of whom smile and wave sympathetically with their own appliances, all paling in comparison to the severity of my own. I look to my right out the tall walls of glass to see students walking in different directions, some glued to cell phones, others stepping in beat to music in their headphones, even some professors making their way among them. Above the biology building across from Ortho Sci, I spot a clock tower showing 12:40.
