The Cinderella Society (16 page)

“Tuesday?”

I could breathe normally. “Tuesday would be great.”

“Awesome.” He opened my door for me like a gentleman, and I laid out my towel so I wouldn’t wreck SJ’s leather seats. “I’ll pick you up around six?”

I nodded, and he knocked me out with another For Jess Only wink. I feared an addiction to them was not far off.

“See you then, gorgeous.”

He patted the car and sent us on our way with a double-finger swing toward the road before heading back across the lawn. I watched him go, but movement in an upstairs window caught my eye. Lexy stood there looking like her head might spin around in fury.

I stood my ground—sat it, whatever—and stared right back. She held my eyes and pointed at me, then pointed to the ground. I might be protected with SJ at my side, but Lexy had no intention of backing down anytime soon.

The wickedest of the Wickeds was plotting to take me down.

*   *   *

Our latest Alpha class included a recap of the appearance work we’d done so far and a progress powwow for each of us with Gaby and our assigned big Sister. I was keeping up with my assignments and had gotten an enthusiastic thumbs-up for creating a signature style that was genuine and made me feel confident. Definitely a day for the win column.

Best of all, I’d finally found my comfort zone in the world of belonging. That alone was worth the price of admission. Despite the abrupt ending to the pool party and Lexy’s not-so-veiled threat, things had been going surprisingly well on all fronts.

We started clearing our stuff out of Study Hall when Sarah Jane and the other Gammas came out of the Gamma office. Paige led the pack.

“Hang on,” Paige said. “We’ve got a tradition to take care of before you leave.”

More Cindys piled into Study Hall from the lounge, until we were packed around the huge table. Gaby had everyone take a step back, and she hit a button next to her office door.
A buzzing sound followed as the legs under the table folded and the whole thing lowered itself until the top was flush with the rest of the floor. Very James Bond.

Kyra and Gwen unrolled a gorgeous geometric-patterned rug over the tabletop now embedded in the floor, and girls moved chairs into the lounge to give us more room. We spread out in a giant oval. It was the first time all of the Cindys had been in one place at the same time. Girl power pulsed off the walls.

Paige stepped inside the circle. “I’d like to formally welcome our new Alpha members and welcome back all of our returning Sisters. Apologies for my absence since initiation. I just graduated”—a chorus of snaps went up around the room—“and I’m staffing at Worthington Estates this summer.”

More snaps followed. Part of the secrecy thing, I decided. If almost thirty girls started whooping and cheering, there’d be no way for us to stay a secret in The Grind.

“As part of our tradition, we elect a new leader every two years. The incoming leader is always identified during freshman year and trains for her new position during sophomore year. She officially takes office when school starts her junior year.”

I looked around at our Alpha class, all soon-to-be sophomores except for me, the sole junior. Kat had a total go-getter vibe. Mel was thoughtful and sweet, the kind of person you knew you could trust. Chandi was our voice of reason. Not that the other Alphas weren’t awesome, but I was putting my money on one of those three.

“The Cinderella Society is deeply rooted in tradition,” Paige was saying. “But sometimes doing what’s best for the Sisterhood means taking a bold step in a new direction.
We have new challenges to face and more battles to fight than we’ve ever seen in our history. I trust you’ll join me in welcoming and supporting our new leader as we witness a historic event in our Sisterhood.”

Paige nodded at Gaby, who turned out the lights, but I didn’t miss the tiny flicker of a smile Paige shared with Sarah Jane in the split second before the room went dark.

The Wickeds increasing their ranks. A secret smile between Paige and my Big Sister. A historic event … meaning it wasn’t an Alpha being tapped?

Sarah Jane’s going to be our new leader
.

Paige lit a candle, illuminating her face. I felt a rush of pride having Sarah Jane at my side. She was everything a Big Sister should be and more. It was comforting to know the rest of the Cindys recognized how amazing she was too. With Lexy firmly on the side of the Wickeds, it was a huge relief to know our side would have Sarah Jane leading the charge.

Paige stepped back to become part of the circle. The candle started to move, passing from Sister to Sister, as the Cindys quietly began to sing:

Oh, Sister dear, we join thee here
,
To cheer your grand occasion
.
When time has come, our battles won
,
We’ll join you in celebration
.

The candle made its way around the circle. Past Kat, past Mel—

Oh, Sister dear, we join thee here
,
To cheer your grand occasion
.

It came toward us. Pride filled me, knowing I’d be the one to hand it to her. Two away, one away—

When time has come, our battles won
,

Finally, it was in my hand. I turned toward Sarah Jane, my face aglow with happiness as I reached out to present her with the candle.

We’ll join you in celebration
.

SJ beamed at me, her look of pride a mirror of mine, as she leaned forward and blew out the candle.

While it was still between my fingers.

Chapter 11

“HOW CAN I POSSIBLY BE
the new leader?”

I was pacing in Paige’s office.
Our
office. Or at least mine for the sharing until Paige handed over the reins for good. “I thought you were talking about Sarah Jane.”

Sarah Jane looked confused. “Why would you … Oh, you saw that? No, the new leader never knows until the candle’s blown out. It’s usually done by her Big Sister, but not always.”

I flopped down on the chair opposite Sarah Jane. “This can’t be right.”

As soon as Sarah Jane had blown out the candle and the lights had come up, I’d been surrounded. Girls rushed forward to hug me; other girls snapped like crazy. The entire time, my mind heard only two words.

“Why me?”

Paige leaned back in her chair. “Why not you?”

It wasn’t like I was a complete waste. I’d taken the lead on tons of volunteer things before. But this was a totally different deal. If they were going to break tradition and only give the new leader a couple of months to prepare—instead of a whole year like normal—it should be for someone who
was already a Cindy rock star. Someone like, just to be crazy,
Sarah Jane
.

“Look, Jess, I know we’ve caught you off guard. It threw us for a loop too.” Paige held up a hand to flag off my obvious question. “Not because we don’t think you’ll be great, but because we’ve never been in this situation before. Our incoming leader’s mom got an ambassadorship in Europe, so she had to move mid-year. The Powers That Be told us to hold off naming a new incoming until the new Alphas were selected. And then you arrived on the scene, the Wickeds’ recruitment surge came into play … and everything sort of happened at once.”

Questions swirled in my mind. What did a leader do? How much time before I had to officially take over? My senses went on alert, and I knew I had to voice the question I dreaded most. “Who’s the leader of the Wickeds?”

Sarah Jane shifted in her seat. She looked at Paige. Paige looked at me. They confirmed my suspicions before Paige’s lips ever moved.

“We think Lexy’s the incoming.”

Sarah Jane started talking before I could object. “Don’t worry about Lexy. Focus on
your
job not hers.” She gave my hand a squeeze. Like that helped. “You’re a natural leader. You wouldn’t have been chosen if you weren’t the right person for the job.”

“There’s no way I can be the right person. No one here even knows me yet. I’m a year late in my training in the first place—”

“Because you didn’t move here until a few months ago,” SJ clarified. “We brought you on as soon as we could.”

“What difference does it make? I’m still a year behind where a leader should be.” But that wasn’t the worst of it.
“How can I lead the Cindys when I can’t even protect myself against Lexy? You have to know she targets me too.”

“That’s what makes you so valuable as the leader,” Sarah Jane explained. “It’s not just theory for you. You know what it feels like to be a target. We suspect they knew we had our eye on you from the minute you got here; that’s why Lexy didn’t waste any time in targeting you.”

“How could you know you wanted me when you didn’t even
know
me?”

Paige gave me her
Cindys know all
smile. “It’ll all make sense in the end, Jess. Once you adjust—and I know it’s a lot to adjust to—you’ll understand why you need to be the one. I’ll help you as much as I can. I’m staffing at camp this summer, but I’ll be available by cell or e-mail if I’m not here, and we’ll meet as often as we can. I won’t let you fail, okay? I promise.”

Paige handed me a folder as Sarah Jane excused herself. She keyed open the adjoining door to the Gamma office and slipped through, closing it gently behind her.

Paige motioned toward the door. “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 mine as the new leader), with Cassie above Paige as our regional liaison. No wonder Cassie was around so much.

Above Cassie was a whole level of other groups, like the Financial Advisory Board (which I assumed was responsible for Audrey’s “lucrative deal”). At the very top of the chart was a single box: ISIS.

“What’s ISIS?”

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 history section of my CMM.

“Well, the Cindys have been around a lot longer than that. The Cinderella Society is the recruiting arm of ISIS, an even more secret society of the most powerful women in the world. ISIS was founded in Boston in 1790 after women discovered that all the hard work they’d done during the war to keep homes and families and businesses running was being ignored by the Constitution. So they took their cause underground and created ISIS to forward the agenda of those who had no voice.”

“What does ISIS stand for?”

“It’s not an acronym. Isis was one of the most powerful ancient goddesses, honored for being ultrafeminine
and
super strong.”

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 hundreds of thousands of Cindys making an impact on the world.”

I thought about the framed pictures on the Study Hall walls. Those weren’t just celebrity role models; those were high-powered Cindys one and all. My head started to spin.

“Come with me,” Paige said, leading me into the Gamma’s office through our private entrance. “Welcome to Gamma Central,” she said. “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 plasma screen and video console in one corner. Sarah Jane sat at one of the keyboards, typing with her 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, and it shows another spike.”

Paige shook her head, flipping through the first few pages while she spoke. “The weekly is the communication summary from ISIS 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 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 the 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 ISIS and passes along any information we might need. They’re upgrading our computer systems to give us digital access to the entire ISIS 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.”