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

“They don’t. They just cast a wide net and catch whomever they can. The more the merrier.”

Paige ran her finger around the condensation ring on the table. “The worst part is that their information system follows their targets beyond school. Have a Reggie who does your dirty work in high school and is heading off to college? She doesn’t get away just by leaving town. Everything is filtered back through Athena. The Wickeds at the college will be there to greet her the minute she arrives, taking over where the high school Wickeds left off. No chance for the Reggie to build a support system to help her.”

My stomach churned. How could a Reggie ever win? Once you were targeted, it was a lifetime sentence. No one deserved a life like that.

“Wickeds are everywhere, and their intelligence about Reggies at every stage of the game far surpasses anything we have. That’s why our battle matters.” Paige grimaced at the look of horror on my face. “It’s ugly, I know. But you have to understand what’s at stake to do your job effectively. The more Reggies who stay out of their web now, the more Reggies who’ll stay free beyond graduation. That’s your goal as leader.”

I picked up my can to take a drink, but set it back down. I wasn’t sure my stomach was up to it, even for sweet, bubbly goodness.

“What matters most to you as leader is the here and now,” Paige said. “Priority number one is to figure out how our Cindys can head off whatever Lexy and the Wickeds have up their sleeves. Keeping the Wickeds contained is hard enough, but throw in the recruitment surge and it’s a whole new ball game. Your first job is to figure out how you plan to deal with the surge.”

“You’ll help me with that, right?” I’d barely gotten my feet under me as a brand-new Cindy. Without Paige’s help, the Cindys were doomed from the word
GO
.

“I’ll try. Here’s what we know so far. The second communication spike between Athena and the Wickeds happened right before the recruitment surge launched. They’ve doubled their recruitment class, so we’re assuming it’s part of a phased-in surge. Double their incoming class every year, and pretty soon they’ve got fifty-six Wickeds to our twenty-eight Cindys.”

Twenty-eight Wickeds targeting the Reggies was bad enough. But thirty-five today . . . forty-two a year from now . . . fifty-six when they hit full capacity? That was all kinds of badness waiting to happen.

“Now, here’s what we don’t know. First, the communication is spiking again, but we don’t know what it’s leading up to. Second, we don’t know why the surge is going on in the first place. Why now? How does it factor into their bigger agenda? Third, we know there’s got to be a specific use for those new members. We just don’t know what yet. And fourth—here’s the biggie—we don’t know how to fend off twice as many Wickeds without increasing our own ranks.”

It didn’t take a math wiz to figure out there were way more things we
didn’t
know than things we did.

“If things had stayed on the track they’ve been on,” Paige said, “you’d be in good shape. But with the recruitment surge . . .”

“My job just got a lot harder.”

“Unfortunately, yeah. By sheer volume, they’re going to have the advantage. Your plan has to blow that out of the water before they get a stronghold.” She gave me a bittersweet smile. “I don’t blame you if you’re feeling overwhelmed. I’d have freaked if I was being sworn in, without a year of preparation, just as the Wickeds were launching their surge.”

Not exactly words of comfort.

“One last thing.” Paige handed me a long, slim box. “This is yours. You’ll get your leader charm during the induction ceremony.”

I lifted the top and stared.
JESS PARKER
, indelibly etched in brass. A nameplate of my own to put outside the door when I was manning the leader office.

This wasn’t a dream. For better or worse, this was my new reality. I hoped the better part would show up soon.

I put the lid back on the box and stood to go. “When will you be in the office again?”

“I tucked a copy of my schedule in your folder. Take a couple days to let everything sink in. You need to come to terms with the job before you can dive in and make sense of it as leader. When you’re ready to talk plan, let me know.”

I nodded and turned to leave, my head throbbing.

“Jess?”

I looked back at Paige.

“Being new works to your advantage. You’re not bogged down by seeing things the way they’ve always been. A lot of the next two years is going to be running on instinct. You’re absolutely strong enough to take on the Wickeds and win. You just have to trust yourself.”

I could only pray she was right.

Chapter Three

Our second unofficial cheer practice of the summer was grueling. It was only nine a.m., and the heat from the asphalt track was scorching. I finally felt like I was on the verge of proving to my teammates that I did, in fact, belong on the team and wasn’t some lucky duck who got in because Lexy supposedly hurt her ankle the day of tryouts. That’s the excuse she’d given everyone about why she’d gotten beat, even though it was clear as day to
me
that her “injury” was questionable at best.

But she’d planted that seed, and the question had lingered among my teammates.
If Lexy had been up to full potential, would Jess still have gotten the spot?

To which I wanted to yell, “Yes! Because she wasn’t really
hurt
!”

Which I did not yell, of course, because yelling rarely helps your case.

Sarah Jane and I had talked about Lexy’s rumor in the lead-up to our first unofficial practice a few days earlier and decided the best way to deal with it was to face it head on. As co-captain, SJ had been up-front with the team at that first practice about the fact that everyone had heard the rumor and we needed to get it out in the open so it didn’t divide us.

For my part, I’d given my little spiel about how I’d never thought anyone here was a diva and I was really looking forward to getting to know everyone at camp. I’d even said it without laying the blame for the rumor firmly where it belonged. On Lexy’s waiflike shoulders.

I didn’t expect to win everyone over with a two-minute speech, no matter how heartfelt, so I was more than a little surprised when everything seemed hunky-dory after that. They’d been so quick to assume the worst without knowing anything about me. But all it took was one person they trusted to vouch for me, and all was forgiven.

Social politics. Ridiculous, but I’ll take the win.

Just to prove my worth, I’d been trying to fit in extra practice time on the cheer SJ and Kyra had taught us at our first practice. Today was my day to shine. To show them I was all about being a team player and prove I had the skills to justify my spot. No more sharing the spotlight with Miss Nasty in people’s minds.

Except that Miss Nasty was
there
.

Sarah Jane had been as surprised as I was because neither she nor Kyra had gotten Coach Trent’s e-mail before practice about wanting our Varsity team alternates, Lexy and Nichele, to come. Coach had invited them to make sure they learned the routine early in case we needed them to fill in later on.

Which I understood. Truly. Competitive cheerleading can be pretty grueling on your body, and you never knew when an injury could sideline you. I had the separated shoulder-dislocated kneecap-concussion battle wounds to prove it.

But still, a little notice would’ve been nice. When it came to dealing with Lexy,
be prepared
was a mandatory motto.

“Okay, Lexy and Nichele are here to learn the routine so they’re ready in case we need them. We’re so glad you’re here!” SJ could make anyone feel appreciated. Even when they didn’t deserve it.

“We’re glad to help,” Lexy said in an irritatingly sweet voice. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you be awesome this year. Right, Nichele?”

As alternates went, Nichele was way preferable to Lexy. Not only was she super nice, but she was an amazing flyer. Tiny and totally fearless in the air. I wasn’t huge, but because I was really strong for my size, I’d always been a base. Flyers astounded me, especially when they were as good as Nichele. But she didn’t have a consistent back handspring-back tuck, so she’d been relegated to second alternate.

Apparently, I was the only one on the track who saw through Lexy’s fakeitude, because everyone else was nodding cheerfully. Too cheerfully for my taste. But since I had to assume none of them had death wishes—nor did I—being agreeable was probably the wise choice, all things considered.

League rules stated that teams couldn’t officially practice until a certain date in the summer, so Coach Trent wasn’t allowed to be present at our unofficial summer workouts. SJ was the girl in charge, taking her job seriously as she led us in stretches. Cassie Steele had stopped by our first practice to give us a pep talk and teach us some college-level drills we could use in our warm-up. Sarah Jane led us through the drills this time, followed by two laps around the track. After that, it was nonstop cheering until eleven. We did digs, lunges, and jumps until my quads were burning and my hamstrings were screaming for a break. Not that I’d admit it. Not for all the Golden Oreos in the world.

We stopped several times to work out the kinks of the new routine. Despite the fact that Lexy was only an alternate, I was surprised by how often my teammates deferred to her judgment. It was almost eerie the way people handed over their power to her even when she was clearly not in the power position. Sarah Jane and Kyra didn’t, of course, nor did I. Thanks to our Cindy support system. But most of our teammates did. All the while acting as though it were perfectly normal.

I definitely had my work cut out for me if I expected to defeat Lexy and the Wickeds in two short years.

I shook off my leader role and focused on the task at hand. At eleven, we stopped counting through the stunts and focused on nailing them. Lexy and Nichele were extra spotters—which totally helped, especially since Lexy didn’t spot
my
group—and we finally called it a day after wrapping the triple-based heel stretches. SJ adopted the same three-five rule we’d had on my competition team in Seattle: stick it three times in a row for five seconds each and you’re done. It only took
my
stunt group six attempts to get a triple whammy.

Take that, Miss Nasty.

Chapter Four

We were throwing our cheer gear back into our bags and making plans for lunch when the construction trucks rolled in. Kids from the other sports fields gathered around the main entrance to school but were pushed back as workers roped off the area. The news filtered back from the front lines: water main break.

Why don’t these things ever happen during school when they’d be useful?

The water company trucks were joined by a flatbed truck with an excavator thingy. It looked like a massive undertaking—and not very interesting unless you were a construction truck fanatic—so we headed toward SJ’s car. We were halfway across the parking lot when a bunch of dark-windowed sedans came streaming in. A woman who looked like Jennifer Aniston in thirty years stepped out of a Mercedes with a crisp white folder in her hand and went straight to the guy in charge.

After a heated exchange, the guy threw his hard hat on the ground and snatched the two-way from his belt. While he yelled into it, Grandma Aniston gave a slight nod to the other cars in the procession, and immediately, seven other women exited the vehicles and strode into the school. The only ones I recognized were Principal Zimmer, Vice Principal Starr, and Coach Trent. Not that I’d have stopped to say hi or anything.

Between the trucks and the sedans, we were blocked in. SJ and I gave up and went over to hang out on the bleachers, guzzling water like we lived in the Sahara.
 

Half a bottle later, we saw Paige heading across the field. We waved her down, and she joined us next to the announcer’s hut, which offered a tiny bit of shade and the perfect view to keep an eye on the parking lot.

“What do you know about Heather Clark?” Paige asked me after we’d caught up on Sisterhood stuff.

Where had that come from? “She’s nice.”

“Did you figure out what the deal is with Lexy targeting her?”

“How did you . . . ?” I looked at SJ, remembering she’d been at the ball game too. “Sarah Jane saw the same thing I did. That’s all I know.”

“She comes into Mosaic when you’re working, right?” SJ asked.

“Sometimes.”

SJ looked at Paige, and Paige gave her a
go ahead, then
gesture.
 

“We need you to do a little digging,” SJ said. “On the down low.”

That piqued my interest. “What kind of digging?”

“We need to find out what’s up between Lexy and Heather.”

“Why?”

“Heather’s one of the people we’ve identified as being a key target of the Wickeds,” Paige said. “We haven’t been able to crack the others, so we need you to try to get through to Heather.”

Cracking people? What were we, the Mafia? “Did you put them under a lightbulb and toothpick their eyelids open?”

Paige did not look amused.

“This is serious, Jess. The Wickeds doubling their bid class
and
stepping up pressure on the Reggies? Something’s up, and we need to know what.
You
need to know what, so you can figure out how to stop it.”