Page 7

Greek Row

Moscow, Idaho

I ’m Xana, pronounced ‘Xanax’ without the - x ” is how the petite brunette introduced herself to the Pi Phis on the first day, and everyone laughed.

Her name is Xana Kernodle, and she’s as irrepressible as Tigger in the Winnie-the-Pooh books.

Always smiling when I’m with my Xan, Maddie captions a pair of Instagram posts of the two of them together on September 11.

Maddie tells Kaylee she is impressed with Xana because, despite her freshman status, she is not afraid of anyone or anything.

Xana isn’t much used to rules. She grew up in Post Falls, Idaho, pretty much without her mother, Cara, who had been battling drug addiction much of her life and gave up custody of Xana and her sister, Jazzmin, in 2006.

Xana adores her dad, Jeff, but he traveled frequently for work, so Xana and Jazzy were often left on their own.

Along with her best friend, Emily Alandt, a pretty, feisty blonde from Boise and a fellow new Pi Phi, Xana regularly busts out of the house at night and on the weekends, even though they’ve both been told to stay inside—and stay sober.

One evening, Maddie introduces Xana and Emily to a group of Sigma Chi brothers—and she’s surprised and amused to discover the two new girls had already met them. On an illicit night out!

“That was pretty cool, actually,” Maddie says to Kaylee the next morning.

The two are tiring of the enforced restrictions in this life they had once wanted so badly.

“At APhi, I have a worse deal than you do,” Kaylee tells Maddie, who is sympathetic.

Under the stress of the COVID restrictions, Kaylee explains, the bitchiness for which the house is infamous is coming to the fore. APhi is turning into a nightmare version of Mean Girls.

“I hear you,” says Maddie. “We didn’t sign up for this.”

They begin to discuss their options for living off campus.

Kaylee finds an apartment in the Whites. Maddie’s got her eye on a house right next to it—1122 King Road—where some older Pi Phis, like Sophia, her Big, and Ashlin, her best friend in the house, are planning to move.

The house sticks up on the hill like a finger. It’s got a deck in the back, so it will make a fantastic party space.

Even better, Maddie tells Kaylee, it signifies freedom.

“It’s gonna be great,” she says.