“Oh, okay. So what was with all the stuff there? Like the gold snake torches and costumes?”
“They’re just Medusa-related decorations,” she replied. She leaned forward. “Don’t worry, those rumors about us being Satanic cultists really are bullshit. We just think all that stuff looks cool, and it makes our parties seem more magical and fun. Like we’ve all been teleported to ancient Greece or something.”
“We go out to the island most of the time because we don’t want anyone else to see us and get things twisted,” Camila added. “I mean, I can only imagine what you were thinking when you went over there and saw us. If you told anyone about it, there’d be crazy rumors circulating RFA for months, and everyone would think we were in some sort of serpent-worshipping cult.”
“I didn’t say anything to anyone,” I said.
“I figured,” she replied, eyes crinkling around the corners. “Otherwise we would’ve heard all about it by now.”
I chewed my bottom lip and tilted my head to one side. “You know… I think I actually might’ve seen more than one of your parties,” I said. “Did you have one at the Connery mansion a few months ago? In a secret room upstairs?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t at that one, but a few of the older society members probably were,” she explained. “The parties and other functions don’t just stop for us when we leave school. It’s a lifetime membership sort of thing.”
“Oh, right.” I frowned as something else occurred to me. “I think I also remember seeing a guy filming the party... and it was a really, really wild one. Like an orgy.”
“Yikes,” Camila said, wincing slightly. “You must have the worst impression of the society from everything you’ve seen so far! But don’t worry. We’re just a very sex-positive group, and some of the older members like to have…” She hesitated, brows knitting. “I guess you could call them swingers parties. Some of them like to film them so they can go back and watch it later, for obvious reasons. But it’s all consensual. If someone doesn’t want to be filmed, they don’t sign the consent forms, and then they get blurred out of the shots.”
I pressed my lips together. “I see.”
She groaned. “God, you must think the whole society is some sort of crazy porn club,” she said. “But I promise, Laney, we’re so much more than that. Like I said before, the crazy parties are just a reward for the hard work we put in. Our mission above anything else is to help ourselves and other girls succeed in life by grabbing onto every opportunity we’re offered.”
“Right. So why do you want me to join?” I asked.
“Because you’re just like us. You aren’t massively privileged like most of the other students here at RFA—you had to get in on your own merits. So we think you could really benefit from membership.”
“We’d be able to offer you protection, too,” Kiri said.
“Protection?” I wrinkled my forehead.
The two leaders exchanged glances before looking back at me. “I know this is probably a difficult subject for you to discuss, but we know all about the blacklist, and we’ve seen how badly people have been treating you,” Camila said, eyes filling with concern.
“We’ve done what we can to help,” Kiri added. “Like the other day, for example. I caught some girls taking photos of you in the changeroom after gym class. They had their camera right up to a little hole in the door.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Yeah. They were going to post the pics online, I guess. I made them delete all of them, but it didn’t achieve much, because they aren’t the only girls going after you.”
“I know,” I murmured, hands knitting in my lap. “Most of the guys are going after me, too. You should see the disgusting messages they send me every day.”
Camila sighed. “The only way we can properly help you is if you join us,” she said. “If people see you with us and realize you’re one of us, they’ll be forced to leave you alone.”
“Why?”
“We have an understanding with the Princes—we stay out of each other’s business. No one from the Medusa Society can be blacklisted under any circumstances.”
“Also, if anyone dared to keep attacking you anyway, they’d be screwed, because we have access to resources that can help us get back at them,” Kiri said, one brow arched wickedly.
Camila nodded. “Exactly. So if you join us, the bullying will be over. Just like that.”
I looked down at my lap, gnawing at the inside of my cheek. Relief from the blacklist nightmare sounded incredible… but I wasn’t sure about the Medusa Society yet.
It sounded a little too good to be true.
The money, the gifts, the free college, the amazing future job opportunities… something about it just didn’t ring true. They told me there was a catch—grade maintenance, function attendance, and a promise to work at a Network-related company once college was over—but that seemed a little too easy compared to the scale of the rewards.
I wasn’t particularly interested in their parties, either, with all the sex, drinking and drugs. They told me those events were consensual, and I could do whatever I wanted at them, but still, something about what I’d witnessed so far rubbed me the wrong way. Even if it was just a bit of sex-positive fun for them, it seemed too grown-up and lascivious for me.
Maybe I was just immature for my age, but I wanted to go to normal high school parties with red plastic cups, nervous first kisses, and bonfires. Not wild adult parties with brazen sexual acts and trays of cocaine.