Secret Society Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

the student handbook? Why had the paranoid corner of my brain hog-tied and gagged the rational part?

    Okay, Amy, think. Think. I checked my watch, and amended my mantra. Think quicker. I had ten minutes before the boys in black arrived.

    Should I accept? Should I accept, even if I suspected this was nothing but a mean prank—because what if this was Rose & Grave? And if this invitation was what it appeared to be, what would membership in the society mean to me?

    I was still considering this nine and a half minutes later, when there was a knock on my door. I froze, clutching the envelope tightly in my hands and staring at the door as if it were the only thing standing between me and Armageddon.

    There was another knock.

    Lydia cracked her bedroom door, stuck her head out, and glanced from the entrance to me and back again. ―Gonna get that?‖

    ―I‘m deciding.‖

    ―Oh, is that what you‘re doing?‖ She quirked an eyebrow at me. ― ‘Cause you don‘t look particularly decisive.‖

    Another knock, this one very insistent. Lydia rolled her eyes, crossed to the door, and opened it wide…and in they came, brushing right past a bemused Lydia and surrounding me.

    I couldn‘t tell how many there were—at least, not before they swept me up in their arms and hustled me out the door, their black cloaks flapping in their wake. It was every bit as exciting as I‘d always hoped it would be. But the trip ended abruptly about ten seconds later when we entered another dark room (they really go in for dark rooms) somewhere in my building. They deposited me right-side up and backed off.

    After a second, I caught my breath. The room was lit by a single black taper candle, behind which I could see a man with his black hood pulled low over his eyes. I obviously hadn‘t been eating my carrots, because I couldn‘t see anything beyond the glow of the candle. There was an odd smell in the air, something familiar but unidentifiable, and definitely incongruous with the sight before me.

    ―Amy Maureen Haskel?‖

    ―Yes,‖ I said in a rather breathless voice.

    ―Rose & Grave: Accept or reject.‖

    Here it was. No more time. And I had no idea what to think.

    And then, Brandon‘s words came back to me: Promise me, just once in your life, just for kicks, don"t overthink.

    I opened my mouth. ―Accept.‖

    As soon as I spoke the words, the light was extinguished, and judging by the bustle that followed, they weren‘t waiting around to relight it. Someone leaned in and hissed in my ear,
    ―Remember well, but keep silent, concerning what you have heard here.‖

    By the time I stumbled to the wall and felt cool tile beneath my fingers, everyone was gone. I flipped on the light. I was standing in a bathroom, alone, with nothing but condom dispensers and mildewy grout to keep me company. So that was the smell. And it wasn‘t even my entryway.

    Um, hello? Weren‘t they supposed to spirit me off to their stone tomb and introduce me to a life beyond my wildest dreams? I frowned, opened the bathroom door, and stepped outside.

    About half a dozen students milled around the hall, watching me. One of those guys—there‘s one in every dorm—who never did get used to the idea of Eli‘s unisex bathrooms hopped up and down on the balls of his feet as if waiting for the girl to leave before he braved the toilet. ―You done, or is there gonna be another party in there?‖

    I schooled my features into a neutral expression. ―Anyone have a roll of toilet paper?‖

    See? I would be an expert at this secret stuff yet.

    Ignoring the onlookers, I made my way back to my suite, where I assumed Lydia would be waiting to receive her blow-by-blow of the whole (truncated) experience. But Lydia was gone—tapped, perhaps, by another society in my absence. She wouldn‘t have left for any other reason, right? Not tonight.

    I waited in the common room for fifteen minutes, figuring that if her tap worked the way mine had, she‘d be back