The Cinderella Society (32 page)

“The ISIS you saw upstairs is our public face,” Nan explained. “The real heart of ISIS is here in our private headquarters. From research and development to international relations, it all happens here. When we’re ready to take a mission public, we pass it along to ISIS, Inc. or The ISIS Foundation, and they roll it out for us. It allows our real work to remain behind the scenes.”

Nan led me through the gilded reception area (complete with a glass atrium ceiling streaming in sunlight—or faux sunlight, courtesy of full-spectrum sun bulbs), mingling along the way. By the time we went through the double glass doors at the far end, my hand was ready to fall off from all the welcoming handshakes.

The hallway beyond the double doors was much quieter than the entry had been. It was also mind-blowing. Nan strolled along next to me, giving me plenty of time to take it all in. Portraits of some of the women in the lobby graced elegant burgundy silk–covered walls, and a row of glass cases
housed everything from gold medals to Academy Awards.

“It’s an incredible thrill to be recognized in the Hall of Honor,” Nan explained as I stopped in front of Brooke’s Oscar. Right next to it was a picture of Brooke with a dozen or so girls in ragtag clothes, everyone smiling like it was the best day of their lives. “Brooke is being honored this month for her accomplishments as an actress and for the foundation she created to empower girls in need.”

I didn’t get it. “All of this.” I gestured around me. “What does it have to do with me? How do those women know my name?”

“They’re Sisters, Jessica, not just women. And they know your name because you’re on the Watch List. You have been ever since you proved your leadership potential in community service.”

“Which was …?”

“About three years ago. You’ve been on the Legacy Scroll since before then, of course, as all legacies are at birth. But the Watch List is for legacies with extraordinary potential.”

I had no response for that—who would?—so I trailed her down another long hallway. If Nan was a Cindy, wouldn’t Mom have to be one too? And if Mom was a Cindy, why hadn’t her name come up in the database search?

And why had no one ever said anything to me about this stuff before
now?

I wanted to ask all of that and a million things more, but I didn’t know where to start. My brain struggled to stay focused.

We stopped at the end of the next hall, in front of a solid steel door that required another scan of Nan’s locket and, I’m not even kidding, a full hand scan. I thought I’d died and gone to
CSI
heaven.

Nan held the door open to a room that was the polar opposite of the elegance and sophistication that led up to it. The octagon-shaped space was sleek and streamlined, with gleaming floors and chrome and glass fixtures. Definitely not what I would’ve expected deep inside Cindy headquarters.

“This is the Gallery of Discovery.” Nan’s voice was library quiet and church reverent. “You remember our creed?”

“To celebrate our strength, embrace our future, and be extraordinary.”

“Very good. This room is the embodiment of those ideals. Our Society was founded on the principle of empowering women. To reestablish a balance of power around the world that had been missing for centuries.”

“Time for women to rule the world, huh?”

Nan’s face was grave. “Never joke about that, Jessica. You must be very clear: the Sisterhood works to
restore balance
, not to shift power from one extreme to the other. The Society has long been at war with those who desire power for the sole purpose of dominating others.”

I gazed at ancient-looking books and scrolls displayed in stark contrast to their high-tech living quarters. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

“How do you think the Sisterhood achieves its mission?”

No idea
. “Hard work and dedication?” That sounded like the Cindy way.

“Each Sister plays a role in bringing the mission to life by following the creed.” She gestured toward a round glass case, where a very old book seemed suspended in midair. “The ISIS Manifesto was created by the founding Sisters to guide us in protecting those who have no voice. Centuries later, it’s still as relevant as it was back then. It’s why The Cinderella Society exists.”

Which reminded me. “Not to be disrespectful, but why would they name a girl-power organization like ours The Cinderella Society? I understand the fairy-godmother thing with the makeovers, but wasn’t Cinderella pretty passive? She let people walk all over her and only got what she wanted because someone else made it happen for her.” Truth was, I’d always had issues with the Cinderella comparison where we were concerned. “Doesn’t that go against the whole empowerment thing?”

“Joining a Society like ours can be overwhelming,” she explained. “The Cinderella Society name was adopted to help us quickly and easily transition girls into the Sisterhood using a metaphor they could understand. Cindys, Wickeds … these are concepts girls can relate to.”

I guess I could see that. I already knew the Cindys were all about symbolism.

“As for it being beneath us, I would disagree. Sometimes it works to our advantage that people underestimate us. It allows us to exist largely off the radar of the people who would wish to undermine our efforts. Only two other organizations in the world know ISIS exists, and one of them is currently mounting an offensive against us, the likes of which we haven’t seen for generations. What you saw in the lobby wasn’t a social affair. Meg has called for a summit on how to address the surge. You and your Sisters in Mt. Sterling will be on the front lines of that battle.”

“Every Cindy will, right?”

“Not everyone, no. ATHENA appears to be testing the surge with a few select chapters for now.”

“But you’re thinking they’re doing this as a trial run before they roll it out worldwide?”

“That’s the concern. It would be a significant stretch for
their resources, one they wouldn’t be pursuing unless it was part of a much larger plan of attack. The women you saw when we arrived are here to formulate a plan to counteract a full-scale recruitment surge if our suspicions are correct.”

Thousands of extra Lexys banding together under one evil purpose couldn’t be good. “So your war with them is ramping up?”

“Our
war, Jessica. You’re the leader of a surge location.”

Which was something I needed to talk to her about.

“Look, Nan, I understand that you want me to be in the Society. But the reality is, I’m a mess. My Power Plan is a disaster, my just-barely-a-boyfriend dumped me because I don’t even know who I am anymore, and I blackmailed a Wicked to complete a mission”—Did she know about the mission?—“after Paige specifically told me to leave it alone. No way do I belong leading a group of supergirls.”

Nan folded her arms. “Did you or did you not embrace an outsider who was hurting so you could understand why the Wickeds were tormenting her?”

Okay, she definitely knew about the mission. “Yes, but I still don’t know what the deal is with the secret vault under the school.”

“That’s classified. Did you then protect that girl from being publicly humiliated when she chose not to give in to the blackmail?”

“By blackmailing them in return, yeah. A proud moment for Cindys everywhere.”

Nan ignored my sarcasm. “A poor choice, to be sure, but one that can be fixed in time.”

Since we were talking about poor choices, I figured I might as well air all the dirty laundry. She had to understand the magnitude of my mess to know why I wasn’t the right
Cindy for the job. “I also accessed some of the confidential legacy files in Paige’s office.”

At Nan’s frown, I added, “I was trying to find out something about Lexy that could help me get through to her. I never meant to use it as blackmail, even if I’d found anything. Which I didn’t.”

“What you
intended
to do with the information is neither here nor there. The fact that you accessed the files is inexcusable. No Cindy is permitted to ignore protocol to further her own agenda.”

Nan sighed. For the first time since we’d arrived, she looked at me like the Nan I knew: with love. “Sometimes being a leader means doing the hard thing, Jessica. When everyone else has tunnel vision, you have to be willing to stand up for what you believe in and do what’s right, even if it makes you unpopular. I may not agree with your methods, but I’m proud of you for making a difficult choice and following through on it to help someone who truly needed it.”

But that was as much love as I was getting. Nan slipped back into business mode. “Do you know why a newly initiated member would be chosen for a mission after only being in the Society for a few weeks?”

Because they were hard up for suckers? “I’m guessing you’re gonna enlighten me.”

“Indeed I will, Miss Smarty-Pants. It’s because we’ve been waiting for you. Watching you develop and waiting for the right time to bring you into the fold so you could take your proper place. There’s a reason you were selected to become the first leader in the history of the Mt. Sterling chapter to be named as an incoming junior. I don’t think you understand the significance of that historic event.”

So Nan had been watching me develop while we were
traveling the country. What if Mom hadn’t gotten pregnant and moved us here? Would there have been a Cindy chapter at my next school? Because if there wasn’t, I never would’ve become a Cindy, much less been on the receiving end of a historic event. “See, here’s what I don’t get. If Mom—”

“Your mother has nothing to do with this, Jessica. Your legacy is complicated and not something I’m at liberty to discuss right now.”

I’d obviously struck a nerve. Given the tension between her and Mom, it wasn’t surprising. But I wasn’t about to let it go without some kind of explanation.

“As you progress, there will be many things you’ll want to know before it’s time,” Nan said. “The vault and your lineage being only two of those things.”

“She’s my
mom
, Nan. I deserve to know why you and I are Cindys and she’s not. What happened to our legacy?”

“It’s not my story to tell,” she said, then shook her head. “But your mother won’t be much help either.” Nan seemed to choose her words carefully. “Every Cindy has a choice to make. You have to want the Sisterhood as much as it wants you.”

“Mom
rejected
the Sisterhood?”

“It’s not that simple. As I said before, it’s a complicated situation and not something I can go into now. When the time is right for you to have the answers, you’ll find them. But you won’t find them from your mother.”

Nan’s double-talk was making my head spin. I needed concrete answers. “Any chance you can enlighten me about the vault then?”

“I can confirm that a vault does exist beneath the land where your high school now resides. For years, it protected some of the most sacred possessions of the Sisterhood, placed there in the days when your campus was the center
of ISIS activity. When Paige shared your discovery with our leadership, they quickly made arrangements to bring the remaining artifacts here.” Nan pursed her lips. “If they’ve given Lexy a mission that involves the vault, it’s not an arbitrary request. There’s a specific reason they’re after it now, and a reason they’ve chosen to involve Lexy in particular.”

Nan ruffled my hair like Mom always did. “The intelligence you gathered allowed ISIS to protect a critical part of our mission. If the Wickeds had accessed the vault without our knowledge, it would have been a serious compromise to our security.”

At least I’d done one thing right. One out of two hundred forty-seven wasn’t bad.

“Right now, your fellow Cindys need you to get back on track with your preparations. You have a lot ahead of you in the next few months, and you need to be up to any challenge you may be faced with. They need to know they can count on their leader.”

“Their …” I’d thought she meant get back on track with my CMM. “Oh, no. No way, Nan. Those girls can run circles around me. I’m the last person who should be spearheading a battle against Lexy and the Wickeds during a surge.”

“That’s not what I meant, Jessica.”

Whew
. “Good, because that’s totally not—”

“School leaders are chosen by their peers and board members. Guardians are chosen by destiny and groomed by an elite task force within ISIS. That’s why Sarah Jane brought you here. If you’re to successfully battle the Wickeds, you need to step into your full legacy.”

The butterflies swooned.

“You’re not simply your Cindy’s leader, dear. You’re a leader of your generation.”

*   *   *

Sarah Jane must have anticipated my complete disbelief when I saw her again outside Artemis Hall. She immediately ordered two chocolate chip shakes from the Student Union (extra whipped cream for me) and guided me back toward our bench without saying a word. We sat and drank them in silence, the air feeling much heavier now than it had before.

Poor Sarah Jane. No wonder she’d been stressed out by my crash-and-burn. They’d charged her with mentoring a break-with-tradition leader who was selected a year late and—oh, by the way—also happened to be a Guardian-in-Training. It was one thing to screw up my own life. It was fifty times worse to take Sarah Jane down with me. I wanted a do-over.

I didn’t know what they’d been thinking back at ISIS, but there had to have been a mistake. Even if Nan had insisted the entire task force was not delusional and no, they didn’t need a recount.

The icy condensation from the cup dripped onto my bare legs, the equivalent of pinching me back into reality. “So,” I croaked. “What happens now?”

“Now,” Sarah Jane said simply, “we work.”

Chapter 21

WITH MOM’S PERMISSION
—I didn’t even have to bribe her this time—I threw some necessities into a bag for an emergency intervention at Sarah Jane’s. She’d gotten special permission to remove our
CMM
s from the Club and take them to her house, under strict guidelines that they be returned to safety within twenty-four hours. Those ISIS ladies didn’t mess around.