Curse of the Wickeds (The Cinderella Society, Episode 2) by Kay Cassidy

clear the woe-is-mes and pulled out the recruitment-surge file Paige had given me. Maybe I could at least prove my worth as leader.
    I started jotting notes about what we knew for sure and what we suspected was true.

    1 - Doubling their new recruit class (strength in numbers)

    2 - Targeting people in key positions (either directly or by getting to someone close to them)

    3 - Getting the Reggies to do their dirty work (building spy network to boost intel?)

    We were looking at the pieces—a lot of them, anyway—but something was still missing. The bigger plan of what they were trying to accomplish. Where did the recruitment surge fit in? Why the sudden need for extra Wickeds if they had spies doing their work for them?
    Paige walked in, stopping short when she saw me at the desk. “I keep forgetting you might be in here.”
    “Sorry. I thought it was okay that we shared the office.”
    “No worries. It’s fine.” She opened a drawer and tossed in her purse. “I’m just so used to coming in here when I need to regroup. It’s nice to be able to close out the world when you need it.”
    I’d been an almost-leader for less than a week, and I could already see where that would come in handy. “Want me to scat for a while?”
    “Not on your life. You need to be here more than I do.” She inclined her head toward my folder. “How’s it coming along?”
    “Slowly. It’s hard, because I know some of the players but not all. I don’t really understand how the Reggies operate.”
    She pulled up a chair next to me. “You’ve been to a lot of schools, so it’s probably similar to what you’re used to. The Reggies aren’t one group; they’re a community of little groups. Community isn’t really the right word, though, because they rarely connect, thanks to the Wickeds. The Wickeds get antsy if any groups show signs of merging. Size matters to the Wickeds, in their own ranks and with the Reggies.”
    She flipped to a new page of my notebook and drew a diagram of the cafeteria. Just like at any school, mapping out the cafeteria was the easiest way to show how the groups split out. The drama club, student government, class leaders, athletes, brains, goths . . . the list went on and on. Her map looked slightly different from my lunch period, but the groups were mostly the same. Whether you were sophomores or seniors, groups were groups and cliques were cliques.
    I tucked her map into the surge folder for future reference. Being an outsider might help in some ways, but it was an uphill battle to keep all the major players straight with a student body of a thousand and a half. All I wanted was to wrap up my mission and find my new comfort zone.
    “Oh!” I dropped my pen—I’d nearly forgotten my good news. “Mission accomplished with Heather, and I’ve got intel about the Reggies.”
    “Really?” Paige opened the door to the War Room and pulled Sarah Jane away from her earbuds. I filled them in on what I’d seen at the restaurant.
    Sarah Jane looked at Paige. “Any chance that’s a one-time thing?”
    “I’d be shocked it if were,” Paige said. “It’s a brilliant strategy for them. They can’t be everywhere at once, but the Reggies can. We need to get a research team together for that.”
    “Why Corrine?” I asked.
    We wandered into the War Room, talking about possible connections. The two columns Paige had separated out— KEY PLAYERS and KEY FRIENDS —were still there. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t figure out where Corrine would fit.
    “Is she a threat to them?”
    Sarah Jane gave a half laugh. “Corrine isn’t a threat to anyone except for the Class Nicest award. She’s friends with everyone.”
    Paige and I looked at each other. Could it be—?
    “She’s a floater,” I said at the same time Paige said, “She’s a connector.”
    It took Sarah Jane a second to add our statements together. “So it’s not what she has—it’s what she’s capable of?”
    Paige nodded.