Curse of the Wickeds (The Cinderella Society, Episode 2)

THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY

Episode #2

Kay Cassidy

THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY has gotten its very own ultimate makeover
(just like Jess)
!

Go behind the scenes with Kay to find out how the original CINDERELLA SOCIETY novel became a full-fledged series:

www.kaywrites.com

For JW:

The world’s first Honorary Charming.

I love you, A+F!

Chapter One

There are seventeen tiny cracks on my bedroom ceiling.

I know this because I had been lying on my bed staring at them for an hour trying to process the insanity that had become my life. I could tell Mom was worried because she kept checking on me and asking if I wanted hot cocoa with marshmallows. I only drink that when I’m really upset.

I told her yes.

Less than two weeks earlier, I’d been Jess Parker, new kid on the block being tormented by Mt. Sterling High’s chief mean girl for winning a spot on the Varsity cheerleading team instead of her. I’d thought my life was miserable. Then Sarah Jane Peterson had swooped in to save me. She’d tucked me under her wing, whisked me off to makeover heaven, and managed to make me feel like I belonged for the first time in my life.

I had even managed to catch the eye of the object of my extensive daydreams. My first official date with Ryan Steele was less than twenty-four hours away. I was on the brink of having it all.

Until the Cindys decided they needed a new leader in their battle against the Wickeds and mistakenly believed, for reasons that were
completely
incomprehensible, that I was the girl for the job.

Heading up a secret society of good populars dedicating to defeating the mean girls of the world—like my archenemy Lexy Steele, Queen of Evil? While simultaneously dating the older brother she idolizes?

Sign me right up for
that
super fun opportunity.

Mom knocked on my door. “I put extra marshmallows in,” she said, holding up the mug.

I offer a tired smile. “Thanks.”

Mom handed me the mug, and I scooted over to make room for her on the bed. She lowered herself slowly onto the edge of the mattress. The twins were only weeks away from arrival. Her belly was growing more monstrous by the day.

“It’s nice to have you home for the evening,” she said, patting my ankle once she was settled. “You’ve been gone so much lately.”

Because of the Cindys and my ultimate life makeover. And working at Mosaic with Nan. And cheerleading practice.
And
trying to keep up my volunteer hours at the Humane Society.

Now I would be gone even more as the new Cindy leader.

“Sorry,” I said, inhaling the sweet chocolate aroma. “It’s been a crazy summer.”

“I know. You’re growing up and changing so fast.”

I wished I could tell her why. We’d never been super close growing up because she’d worked such long hours, but she was pretty cool as moms go. Except when she got all crazy from pregnancy hormones. Then it was every man for himself.

I savored that first indulgent sip and licked marshmallow off my upper lip. “Changing in a good way or bad way?” I asked.

“A good way, I think,” she said. “I can’t believe you’ll be a junior in the fall. Then a senior, and you’ll be off to college.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and I felt that telltale shift in her mood that signaled her hormones were gearing up for a takeover. That did not bode well for my stress level.

“College is still two years away,” I reminded her and shifted the conversation to safer territory.
Must. Keep her. Distracted.
“Do you want to hear about Ryan?”

Mom had always been a die-hard romantic, and I’d barely had a chance to tell her how everything had happened with Ryan.

“Always,” she insisted, hormones shifting back into happy land. Crisis averted.

Mom nudged my shoulder so she could sit up next to me and lean against the headboard for support.

“Here’s to a great first date,” she said, clinking her glass of iced muscle-soothing herbal tea (a custom blend from Nan) with my mug of cocoa bliss. “He’s cute, I assume?”

My worries about the Cindys took a temporary backseat to more pressing concerns. I cradled my hot cocoa and smiled, picturing Hunk Boy’s most definite cuteness.
“Times a thousand,” I confirmed.

“That’s a lot of cute. And he’s nice?”

“Very.”

Mom’s eyes twinkled. “Tell me everything.”

Chapter Two

My comfort moment with Mom was short lived. The next morning at eight o’clock sharp, I was sitting in Paige’s office—technically now my office too—for our first leader meeting.

Paige handed me a folder and motioned toward the door to the Gamma office, the off-limits area for third-level Cindys like Sarah Jane. “You have your own entrance to the Gamma office. As leader, you have full access to all parts of the Club. You won’t have access to all the Gamma systems, but you’ll be able to use most of them.”

She opened the folder and pulled out a chart showing all the Cindys. Not just our Cindys, but
the
Cindys. The whole shebang. Above our group was Paige’s name (with a dotted line to my name as the new leader). Above Paige’s was a whole level of other groups with official-sounding names like the Financial Advisory Board. At the very top of the chart was a single box: Fortissima.

“What’s Fortissima?”

Paige tucked her ankles underneath her. “You know the Cindys have been in Mt. Sterling for over a hundred years.”

A statement, not a question. I nodded, remembering the
WELCOME TO THE SISTERHOOD
section of my
Cinderella Makeover Manual
.

“Well, the Cindys have been around a lot longer than that. The Cinderella Society is actually the recruiting arm of Fortissima. Imagine the Cindys but a hundred times more powerful and secretive. That’s Fortissima. It’s Latin for
powerful, strong, courageous woman
.”

Zoikes. Definitely Cindy material.

“Name just about any positive, powerful woman you can think of—athletes, actresses, senators, talk show hosts, teachers, doctors, scientists—and odds are she’s probably a Cindy. There are thousands of Cindys making an impact on the world. Hundreds of thousands even. Not just here, but worldwide. Cindys are everywhere.”

I thought about the framed pictures on the study hall walls. Not just celebrity role models. High-powered Cindys one and all.

“Come with me,” Paige led me into the Gamma’s office through our private connecting entrance. “Welcome to Gamma Central,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Better known as the War Room.”

Compared to the feel-good study hall and lounge areas, the War Room was high-tech and all business. Monitors and keyboards lined one wall with a large flat-screen TV and video console in another corner. Sarah Jane sat at one of the keyboards, typing with earbuds in, and Gwen was leaning back in a chair reading some kind of report filled with graphs.

Gwen looked up from her reading. “Welcome to the next level, Jess.” She handed Paige the report. “The weekly just came in. It shows another spike.”

Paige shook her head, flipping through the first few pages while she spoke. “The weekly is the communication summary from Fortissima that monitors the activity level between high school Wickeds and their mother organization, Athena.”

Athena. “The Greek goddess of war?”
Nice.

“The Wickeds aren’t big on subtlety.”

“They don’t call themselves the Wickeds though, right?” I asked. “That’s just our shorthand for them?”

“Right. Inside the ranks, they call themselves the
Delectae
. It’s Latin for
Chosen Ones
.” Paige handed the report back to Gwen. “We’ve been tracking a trend showing an increase in communication between the Wickeds and Athena. There was a spike in early spring, which we assume was when the Wickeds got their recruitment-surge instructions, and again the week leading up to initiation. If it’s spiking again, odds are something new is in the works.”

Sarah Jane pulled out an earbud. “The system upgrade’s been delayed two weeks. I’ll update the master calendar. And it sounds like Albuquerque may have a breakthrough on the codes.”

“Sarah Jane is our intelligence liaison,” Paige explained. “She listens in on the twice-weekly conference call from Fortissima and passes along any information we might need. They’re upgrading our computer systems to give us digital access to the entire Fortissima archives, so SJ’s taking care of anything they need from our end. The Albuquerque Wickeds have been using some sort of code to communicate to the Reggies they’re targeting. Sounds like their Cindys have a shot at cracking it.”
 

Fire lit Gwen’s eyes. “That would be huge, especially if they can crack it without the Wickeds knowing. Breaking the secrecy barrier is a huge step in winning the war against the Wickeds.”

Back in the leader office, Paige grabbed a soda for each of us from her mini-fridge.

“So you’ve got the basics,” she said. “Fortissima leads our efforts, and Athena leads the Wickeds’. Athena’s goal is to dominate in any way they can. That means sliding into influential positions in government, the media, anything that gives them power over other people so they can push their own agenda.”

She cracked open the cap to her root beer, then did the same for mine when I showed no signs of doing it myself. My limbs felt heavy.

“That same fight plays out every day on the high school battlefield. We’re fighting to create a level playing field for the Reggies, while the Wickeds are fighting to dominate them. What our Wickeds are doing to our Reggies? That’s happening from Maine to California. From the U.S. to Singapore. In different ways, but always with the same intent: to control through fear and manipulation. Why do you think the Wickeds bully the Reggies?”

My head hurt to think, and my comfort zone had jettisoned to somewhere in the vicinity of Mars, but I tried to sound coherent. “To get them to do their dirty work?”

“In a general sense, sure. But their primary goal is to teach the Reggies to be subservient to people stronger than them. The more ingrained it is in them when they’re our age, the easier they are to manipulate when they’re older.”

“So find them young, train them early, and take advantage of them when they’re adults.” It was a sick plan, but I could see the logic behind it. If you wanted to grow your power, you needed to keep feeding the pipeline with people who would let you. “But how does Athena know which people they’ll need to target when they’re older?”