Scandal Read Online Free PDF

of my dresser. Had this dorm even been here back then?
    Probably not. In 1915, Easton Academy had been an all boys’ school. The Billings School for Girls had been established just up the road, and the two facilities had been kind of like sister/brother schools, one grooming boys to be captains of industry, leaders of the free world, and artists, musicians, or authors; the other grooming girls to be their wives. Back in the 1970s, Easton had absorbed the Billings students and Billings had been shut down. As far as I knew, Billings House had been named by the Easton administration as their nod to the old girls’ school.
    In 1915, Billings School for Girls had been a functioning academy for the daughters of the elite. But what was the Billings Literary Society? Who had left this precious book for me and why?
    Instantly I thought of Susan Llewellyn, the Billings alumni I knew better than any other—and also one of the coolest women on earth. Suzel had helped us out last semester when we’d been banned from leaving the campus for the Legacy—the most exclusive party of the year—by showing us a secret tunnel that led from campus to the outside world. Obviously whoever put this book in my room had to be a Billings alum. Was Suzel trying to pass on this bit of the Billings legacy now that it appeared the house was gone for good?
    I quickly turned the page and was greeted by the words Requirements for Admission into the Society.
    The list included qualities such as “intelligence,” “progressive thinking,” “eloquence,” “industry,” and “loyalty.” Apparently the members talked about literature as well as current events, poetry, science, religion, and all kinds of things. But above all, they were friends. Loyal, steadfast, and true.
    “Oh my God,” I whispered as I finished paging through the first half of the book and realized with a jolt exactly what the Billings Literary Society was: a progressive, secret club for hardworking, forward-thinking women, disguised as a literary group.
    My thoughts instantly turned to Ivy. She’d looked so wistful when she’d mentioned that she’d never found a true group of friends at Easton. Ivy would love the language, the camaraderie, the very idea of swearing loyalty to a group of girls who wanted nothing more than to be themselves—to learn what they wanted to learn rather than what their teachers decided they should.
    The whole thing was so incredibly cool.
    I took a deep breath and kept reading. The book outlined three specific group tasks that each girl would have to participate in and pass in order to qualify for membership in the sisterhood. The first would prove the prospective member’s intelligence by requiring her to answer five questions on the history of Billings within a finite space of time. The book described holding a candle at an angle over the potential sister’s hand and making her answer before the hot wax dripped over her skin.
    Kind of fishy, but these ancient secret organizations were into that kind of stuff, right?
    The second task tested her loyalty by playing a game in which the potentials were rewarded for saying positive things about one another, and penalized for saying anything negative. The third task involved “working together to beautify or improve some particular aspect of our school.” During each of these tasks, the potentials would be observed by their “pledge mistress” and evaluated for membership based on their performance.
    I smiled to myself. I’d never been involved in vetting Easton students for invitations into Billings House, but from what I’d heard and experienced, getting in had been more of a matter of proving your ability to take a dare than proving your work ethic.
    I turned the page and found an entire section on initiation, complete with intricate drawings of white robes, black and white candles, and formations delineating where each member and initiate should stand during the ceremony. My heart gave a