Secret Society Girl (36 page)

Authors: Diana Peterfreund

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Contemporary Women

v1.0

For the sons and daughters of Eli

You‘ve heard the legends, I‘m sure. We‘re the Ivy League‘s dirty little secret. We run the country, even the states you wouldn‘t think we‘d care about, like Nebraska. We start wars, we coordinate coups, and we have a hand in writing the constitution of every new nation. Every presidential candidate is a member—that way, whoever wins, they‘ll always be under our thumb.

The media fears us, which is silly, since the CEO of every newspaper and television network in the country is already a member of our brotherhood. We‘ve been controlling every aspect of the media for more than a century, from deciding which movies get greenlighted to choosing the next American Idol. (Do you actually think your text-message votes count?) We own most of the buildings of the university, as well as most of the land in the city, and we‘ve got a good proportion of it bugged. The local police work for us. The mayor lives in our pocket. There‘s not a student on campus who isn‘t afraid to walk past our imposing stone tomb.

Election to our society is a ticket into a life beyond anyone‘s wildest dreams. Success is our birthright from the moment we emerge from our initiation coffins into our new lives as members of the society. Any job we want is within our reach, and any job we don‘t want our enemies to have is out of theirs. We are given enormous monetary gifts upon graduation, as well as sports cars, valuable antiques, and a mansion on a private luxury island. We will never be arrested. We will never be impoverished. The society will see to that.

Our loyalty to the society supercedes everything else in our life—our families, our friendships, even our love lives. If anyone, even someone we care about with all our heart, mentions the name of our society in our presence, we must leave the room immediately and never speak to them again.

We can never tell anyone that we are members. We can never let anyone who is not a member into our tomb, or they‘ll be killed.

We can never quit the society or reveal any of its secrets, or
we"ll
be killed.

______

Which of these rumors are true and which are overblown conspiracy theories?

I‘d tell you, but then I‘d have to kill you.

Don‘t believe me? Fine, then turn the page. But don‘t say I didn‘t warn you….

FOOTNOTES

*1Names of people, places, and organizations have been changed to protect the confessor from litigation or, you know, assassination.

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*2The confessor later discovered this stood for Barbarian-So-Called.

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*3The confessor later learned the full text of the scene translated to: ―Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king?‖ and ―Good. Whether rich or poor, all are equal in death.‖

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*4The confessor freely admits that this was a blatant lie.

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*5It‘s actually not Balzac, but Edmond Rostand. The confessor should really be brushing up.

What ever would the Diggers say?

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*6Though at the time rather cutting, what the confessor didn‘t know was that the instances of attrition in the Diggers‘ entire two-century history could probably be counted on one hand.

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Contents

Title Page

Dedication
Begin Reading

1. Interview

2. Tap Night

3. Second Thoughts

4. Semper Paratus

5. Initiation

6. Party

7. Morning After

8. Barbarians