Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund Read Free Book Online

tapped by someone after I left?‖

    ―You know I can‘t tell you that.‖

    ―No, I don‘t!‖ I noticed my raised voice had attracted some listeners from nearby tables, and leaned forward to talk to her more privately. Luckily, dining halls are mostly deserted during the breakfast hours—especially on Fridays. ―I don‘t know anything about how this works. I don‘t even know if those guys in their robes were serious last night. As far as I know, I wasn‘t tapped by anyone, Diggers or otherwise.‖

    At the word ―Diggers,‖ Lydia flinched.

    A horrible thought then came to me. Maybe Lydia had been tapped by Rose & Grave—the real Rose & Grave—and the reason she wasn‘t talking was that telling me that my experience was a hoax meant revealing exactly how she knew. After all, she hadn‘t reacted to any of the society names I‘d thrown out earlier, but I hadn‘t mentioned the Diggers. Still, she had, which she probably wouldn‘t if she‘d been tapped…my head started to hurt.

    Am I paranoid, or what? If I hadn‘t been tapped, they sure had missed out on a prime candidate.
    Smart, sexy, and neurotic enough to do any clandestine organization proud.

    Lydia sat back and took another sip of her coffee. ―It‘s true there have been hoaxes in the past.
    Do you think that‘s what happened to you?‖

    I shrugged. ―How do I know? If it was a hoax, it wasn‘t too high on the personal humiliation scale. You‘d think they‘d have at least tried for a fake initiation of some sort.‖

    She nodded thoughtfully. ―So what did they do?‖

    I opened my mouth to tell her, but then shut it again. Why should I share anything with Lydia if she wasn‘t willing to reciprocate? Besides, what was I supposed to say and what wasn‘t I? On the off chance that this whole fiasco had been for real, what kind of trouble would I get in for reporting the experience? There were too many options to keep track of.

    P OSSIBILITIES

    A) I was tapped by Rose & Grave, and so shouldn‘t tell anyone anything.

    B) I was either tapped or tricked, and telling Lydia meant I could figure out which one it was.

    C) I was the victim of a practical joke and Lydia was a member of Rose & Grave and was just toying with me.

    D) None of the above.

    Too bad Lydia was the one who‘d spent the semester doing logic problems in preparation for the LSAT. Ugh. As if I wasn‘t under enough pressure. Why couldn‘t a girl just finish War andPeace, rock her finals, whip out a kick-ass commencement issue of the Lit Mag, prepare for a summer in Manhattan, and enjoy a no-strings-attached relationship with a cute if slightly dorky boy who liked to buy her pad Thai? Was that too much to ask?

    Actually, looking at it laid out like that, yeah. It was an awful lot. And now I may or may not have to add ―join a notorious underground brotherhood‖ to the list.

    ―I don‘t know,‖ I said. ―Nothing like what happens in the movies, that‘s for sure.‖

    ―No pig‘s blood or sacrificed virgins?‖

    ―Where would they find a virgin around here?‖

    Lydia spit out her coffee. After she finished composing herself, she set her cup back on her tray and regarded me. ―You know, if you really think it‘s a hoax, I suggest you do some research.‖

    ―What kind of research?‖ I certainly hoped she wasn‘t about to propose another field trip to the Rose & Grave tomb. I was still scarred from last night, and I couldn‘t afford to lose another pair of jeans.

    ―At the library. They have lots and lots of info on secret societies.‖

    ―Really?‖ I raised my eyebrows. ―But what about the ‗secret‘ part?‖

    ―A surprisingly recent development.‖ She leaned in. ―They used to publish the list of Rose & Grave taps every year in the New York Times .‖

    ―That can‘t be true.‖

    ―It is. Members put it on their resume. They were very open about it. Kind of at odds with the whole ‗leaving the room‘ thing, huh?‖ She paused and looked