The Cinderella Society (17 page)

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

“So you’ve got the basics,” she said. “ISIS leads our efforts, and ATHENA leads the Wickeds. ATHENA’s goal is to dominate in every 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 Yoo-hoo, 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. 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 young,
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 older.” 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?”

“That’s just it. They don’t. The Wickeds’ goal is to cast a wide net and catch whoever 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 simply 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 that could 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 primary focus as leader.”

I picked up my bottle to take a drink but set it back down. I wasn’t sure my stomach was up to it, even for chocolaty 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 an Alpha. Without the help of an insider like Paige, 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?

“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. 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’d been on,” she 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 this sink in. You need to come to terms with all this on your own 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.

*   *   *

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?
they wondered.

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 cocaptain, 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 didn’t even know anything about Beaumont’s cheerleaders—they competed in a different division at nationals than my old team—and I’d never thought anyone here was a diva anyway. And I’d said it all without laying the blame 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.

Ridiculous, but I’ll take it
.

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 Nichele and Lexy 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. Rule #1 when it came to dealing with Lexy:
Be prepared
.

“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 August, so Coach Trent wasn’t allowed to be present at our unofficial summer practices. SJ was the girl in charge, taking her job seriously as she led us in stretches. Cassie had stopped by to give us a pep talk at our first practice 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 natural.

I definitely had my work cut out for me if I expected to defeat her 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
.

*   *   *

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 thingie. 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 for 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 went straight 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.”

“Doesn’t she come into Celestial Gifts?” SJ asked.

“Sometimes.”

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