Secrets of the Sisterhood (The Cinderella Society, Episode 1) (10 page)

Mel and I looked at each other.

“What was that about?” I asked.

Mel tapped a staccato rhythm with her pen. “Did you see the news this morning?”

Mom had The Weather Channel on every morning like clockwork, but something told me that wasn’t what Mel meant. “What about?”

“Miss Teen Blue Ridge, Alyssa Pierce. She got stripped of her title last night.” She leaned in closer, lowering her voice. “A video of her smoking marijuana in the woods behind her school was mailed to a local TV station. They immediately called the pageant office for an official comment. The pageant director confirmed it was her and took away her crown.”

Scandalous? No doubt. But it was kind of hard to feel sorry for her. I mean, first of all, smoking pot? I like all my brain cells, thankyouverymuch. And second, a local teen celebrity doing anything wrong in public is a dumb move. Add illegal to dumb and what did she expect?

Still, I didn’t understand why the Miss Teen Blue Ridge drama would warrant serious expressions in the Cindy ranks. “What does that have to do with us?”

But before
with us
was even out of my mouth, I knew the answer. The question wasn’t why she’d been smoking marijuana. It was how the TV station had ended up with a prime-time video of the event.

The Wickeds strike again.

“Who has it in for her?” I asked.

“Lexy and Morgan used to do pageants,” Mel said. “Lexy was runner-up for Miss Teen Blue Ridge and ‘retired’ right after she lost to Alyssa.”

I should’ve known. “Looks like someone’s coming out of retirement.”

I thought about the way Lexy had launched a steaming drink on me when I dared to ignore her. That was painful, but this was a serious step up. How far would she go for revenge?

 
“I hope she doesn’t come after me again,” I shuddered. “My reputation’s already taken a beating. One more swift blow, and I’ll be back to loser status.”

“No Wicked chatter out here,” Gaby said, strolling toward us. “Do you two want to order up a late breakfast? I’ve been going on muffins all morning, and I’m craving a pesto egg sandwich. Snacks and drinks are on the house, but we usually pay Audrey for meals. Any takers?”

My stomach rumbled. I couldn’t get within a hundred feet of the Grind without hunger setting in. This was not going to bode well for my cheer uniform future.

“Sure,” I said. “What’s Wicked chatter?”

Mel and I followed Gaby into the lounge to grab our wallets as she elaborated. “Any kind of general negativity. Swearing, gossiping, putting people down. Including ourselves.” She gave me a pointed look at that last part. “Even Wicked chatter that goes on inside your head.”

Mel looked amused as she handed Gaby a five. “You monitor our thoughts?”

“Haven’t gotten the patent on it yet, but give us time.”
 

Sarah Jane had said the higher up you went in the Cindys, the more independent study you did. The way Gaby joked about the patent gave me the sneaking suspicion she’d love to have a crack at that one. There didn’t seem to be much a Cindy couldn’t do once she had a goal in her sights. Myself excluded, of course.

I pulled up short at my Wicked chatter. That was a habit I’d need some practice to overcome. Good thing the patent was just a joke.

Probably.

Chapter Fourteen

After all the Alphas had arrived and were eagerly seated around the table, Gaby got us rolling.

“Welcome to your first official Alpha class,” she said. “We’ll be covering a lot of ground today, but here’s the main thing you need to know. Alpha training is all about making you stronger. Remember, our goal is to prepare you to go head-to-head with a Wicked and win.”

Gaby passed out an outline of the Alpha program to file in our
CMMs
. “The Wickeds prey on weakness. If they can hone in on your insecurities, they’ll knock you off your game nine times out of ten. That’s where your Image Plan comes in. It’s the foundation of your Alpha work.”

“You mean image as in”—Kat’s eyes twinkled—“
makeovers
?”

“You guys are relentless,” Gaby laughed. “Yes, a makeover’s
part
of it. But think of it as a makeover from the inside out. The Image Plan’s designed to help you get over your insecurities and get comfortable with who you are. If the Wickeds don’t have anything on you that’ll hit a nerve, that puts you in the power position. To win against the Wickeds, you have to keep the power on your side.”

I wanted a win. Needed a win.
Craved
a win.

Especially if it meant Lexy was the loser. Lexy and all her Wicked minions.

Gaby slid aside the bulletin board to expose the whiteboard again. Yesterday’s commandments were still printed in bold capital letters.

She pointed to
PROTECT THE REGGIES
. “We’ll cover more about this part of the mission later. For right now, our focus is on this,” she said, drawing a giant red circle around
PROTECT YOURSELF
.
 

“If you want to beat the Wickeds, you’ve got to keep them from getting inside your head. You already know the Wickeds prey on weakness, but the tricky thing is that they know exactly where to look for it. They go straight for the three areas most likely to let them take advantage.”

Gaby picked up a purple marker from the tray and wrote an equation on the board.

IMAGE = APPEARANCE + PERSONALITY + REPUTATION

“Those are the three things most girls are insecure about: appearance, personality, and reputation. Otherwise known as: how they look, how they act, and what other people think of them. The Wickeds go after that with a vengeance. If you’ve got insecurities in any of those areas, consider yourself a target. It’s just a matter of time before they use them against you. They’ll twist those three pieces into something ugly:
you don’t look right, you don’t act right, and people think you’re a loser
.”

I cringed at the memory. Gaby was right. Lexy had hit my sore spots right on the money. If she was able to tune into them for everyone, that was a pretty powerful bag of tricks.

“The only way to beat the Wickeds at their game is to get comfortable with what makes you
you
. Not what you think should be you. The Wickeds can smell a phony a mile away. You have to be confident about who you are no matter what lies they throw at you. Their lies only change your reality if you let them.”

I wondered how long it would take me to stop letting Lexy’s lies win. My success in that arena was not exactly stellar.

Gaby eased up a bit at our grim faces. “You don’t need to stress,” she promised. “The upside is that once you nail those three things, you’ve taken away most of the Wickeds’ power over you. And you
will
nail all three pieces. It’s our job to make sure you do.”

She passed around a purple sheet with logos and slogans on it. “The easiest way to remember who you are when facing down a Wicked is to have it imprinted on your brain. It needs to be running through your head like a mantra if there’s a Wicked within spitting distance. Companies use a ‘brand’—a short and sweet reminder of what makes them unique—to make sure their message is always on point. You’re going to do the same thing.”

My brain jumped to attention. I love all things business-y and marketing. I keep trying to convince Nan to hire me as Mosaic’s publicist.

Gaby pointed to the first logo and slogan on our sheet. “One of the most famous slogans is Nike’s
Just do it
. What’s the first word that pops into your mind when you hear ‘Just do it’?”

“Determination,” I called out, just as Mel chimed in with “Perseverance.” Kat suggested
strong
, and Nalani offered up
successful
.

Gaby wrote them on the board as we called them out.

“So Nike might represent”—she circled the four words—“determination, perseverance, strength, and success. That’s what a brand looks like. It’s not something they’re going to put on a T-shirt and advertise to the world. That’s what their slogan is for:
Just do it
. But having a quick short-hand of what they’re about—their brand—is what guides them.”

Gaby broke us up into groups to go through the rest of the slogans and see if we could come up with what their brand might be. Chandi and I were assigned State Farm’s “Like a good neighbor” slogan. After a little brainstorming, we settled on the words
dependable
,
friendly
, and
everywhere
.

Our big Sisters had begun to gather just beyond the doorway to the lounge. I prayed that was a sign our makeovers weren’t far off. I was ready to take back my power in a big way.

Gaby had Sarah Jane pass around our first Image Plan packet for our binders, but we weren’t allowed to open it yet
. So. Much. Anticipation.

“Your Image Plan uses that same idea of brands,” Gaby explained. “By the time your Image Plan is done, you’ll have a brand for each part of your Image equation: an Appearance brand, a Personality brand, and a Reputation brand. It’s the quickest, easiest way to remind yourself who you really are whenever your self-esteem needs a boost.”

Meaning whenever Lexy was flying her broomstick nearby.

“Just take one thing at a time,” Gaby said. “Right now, you’re going to focus on your Appearance brand. The visual you.”

The visual me. Could it be—?

I glanced up from my packet, hoping beyond hope. Praying beyond all prayer.

Gaby grinned. “Anyone in the mood for a makeover?”

Chapter Fifteen

A cheer went up around the room.
Salons and shopping sprees, here we come!

Gaby motioned for us to settle down. “Let me ask you a question,” she said. “How many of you have something you wish you could change about how you look?”

Every Alpha’s hand went up. Even Mel’s, and she was a pageant winner.

“Look around,” Gaby instructed us. “Research says ninety-two percent of girls wish they could change something about the way they look. The Wickeds know that too. That’s why the first thing we’re going to focus on is your Appearance brand.”

She let us tear open our Image Plan packets to take out the first section. It felt like Christmas in June.

“Just don’t confuse creating an Appearance brand with becoming a fashion diva,” Gaby cautioned. “Or feel like you need to spend a ton of money on a new look.”

My freckled baby face and I nodded like we believed her.

“Your Appearance brand is what we call your ‘signature style’. Your big Sisters will walk you through what signature style is in more detail, but before I turn you over to them, I want you to remember two things.”

The room was still buzzing about our impending makeovers, so Gaby waited until she had our full attention.

“
Two things,
” she repeated, clearing her throat for emphasis. “First, beauty is not cookie-cutter.”

I looked around the table at my Alpha sisters. Cookie-cutter was definitely not the first word that came to mind. Chandi had moved here from India a few years earlier, and Nalani was Hawaiian but lived in Japan until she was nine. Kat looked like a young Gabrielle Union. You could dress the seven of us in the exact same outfit, and it wouldn’t matter. We’d look as different as snowflakes under a microscope.

No cookie-cutter. CHECK.

“Second, there’s no such thing as perfect,” Gaby continued. “Focus on making the most of what you’ve been given and making peace with what you can’t change. Easier said than done—trust me,
I know
—but it’s a critical part of your Image Plan. Genuine confidence equals power.”

To drive her point home, each of our big Sisters stepped forward and told the Alphas one thing she would change about herself if she could. Even Gaby shared one. Gaby thought her nose was too wide (her glasses balanced it nicely), Cherie wished she had more curves (her breezy clothes made it barely noticeable), Kyra felt like she carried too much weight around her hips (her baby-doll tops hid it well). The list went on and on.

The funny thing was, I’d always just thought of them as pretty. But when you stopped and looked hard at the ‘flaws’ they pointed out, I guess you could kind of see what they meant.

That was the thing, though. You didn’t see flaws. You saw the whole package: attractive and polished. They weren’t trying to live up to some generic kind of pretty. They each had their own style that fit them like a glove. They looked . . . I don’t know how to describe it. Comfortable in their own skin, I guess. Like Gaby said. I was starting to see what she meant about it breeding confidence. I mean, they’d just shined a spotlight on their physical flaws.
On purpose
.

I couldn’t imagine a time I’d ever stand up in a room full of people and willingly point out my physical flaws. Even if they
were
my Sisters and didn’t care about my flaws and blah blah. If my makeover gave me even a smidge of our big Sisters’ confidence, it would be a win of mythical proportions.

Gaby held up the packet of papers Sarah Jane had passed around and waved it at us.

“These first assignments will help you lay the groundwork for your signature style and for your entire Image Plan,” Gaby said as our big Sisters came around the table to join us. “Take your time with them, be true to who you are, and you’ll do great. You’re going to hear that a lot:
be true to who you are
and
get comfortable in your own skin
. You’ll be saying it in your sleep after a while. But if you try to pretend to be something that’s not you, you won’t have that soul-deep confidence you’ll need when it’s Wicked time.”