Free Scandal by Kate Brian

give them one last chance to bail. But no one moved. “The first task will be held here on Monday at midnight. This is the knowledge task. I can’t give you the particulars of how you’ll be tested, but you’re going to want to scrounge up your Easton handbooks and study them. Carefully.”
    Shelby scrunched up her face like I was insane. “I don’t even know where that thing is.” Which made sense. She was, after all, a senior, and the handbook was something we were given out the first day we arrived on campus. Most people forgot about it about ten seconds later.
    “I’m sure you can get a new one in the office. Or better yet, take one out of the library. Asking Double H’s secretary for one might arouse suspicion.”
    “Speaking of Double H … wasn’t there a little announcement about the banning of social clubs?” Vienna said, raising her hand as she spoke.
    “Yeah. What does that mean for us?” London added.
    There was another creak overhead. We all held our breath. Then a set of keys jangled and the front door slammed so hard some of the furniture piles shook. I looked my friends in the eye, one by one, and summoned the firmest tone I could muster in the midst of my trepidation.
    “It means,” I said, “that we’re going to have to be very, very careful.”

THE RULES
    “Okay, so why are we here again?” Graham asked, coming up behind me and Ivy as we walked into the gym for the girls’ basketball game. “I mean, it’s Saturday night. Sat-ur-day night!” he added, doing a twist move with his hips. “Shouldn’t we be, like, I don’t know … partying?”
    Ivy and I laughed. I was about to answer when Gage and Trey Prescott, Josh’s roommate, joined us. Gage slapped one hand down on Graham’s shoulder and leaned in close.
    “Dude. Look around,” he said. “What’s more of a party than ten half-naked girls, sweating and chasing balls?”
    “Gross!” Ivy protested.
    “Please don’t let him corrupt you,” I said to Graham. “You’re such a nice guy.”
    Graham stood up straight and tilted his head. “Still. The man does have a point.”
    The three guys laughed as they jostled through the door ahead of us. I rolled my eyes at Ivy and took one of the blue-and-gold pom-poms the freshmen were handing out just inside the door. Easton was playing the Barton School, and Tiffany, Shelby, and Missy were all on the team. Normally this was the kind of thing Ivy would have steered clear of, not being a big school spirit girl and all that, but I had convinced her it would be a good thing to support our prospective sisters.
    “So. I’ve been thinking about the first task,” I said under my breath, running the silky plastic of the mini pom-pom through my fingers. “And I think it might be better if we—”
    “I don’t want to hear about it,” Ivy said, pausing at the end of the jam-packed bleachers. At my old school, Croton High, a girls’ basketball game wouldn’t have drawn much of a crowd, but here at Easton, where we were all campus-bound in the dead of winter, it was like a rave. Gage and Trey had joined Josh and the other guys at the top of the center bleachers. As I found them, Josh met my eyes, then quickly looked away. Graham, I noticed, had broken off from them and was sitting with Sawyer a couple of sections away.
    “What do you mean you don’t want to hear about it?” I waved at Constance, who was sitting a few rows in front of Josh, wearing an Easton sweatshirt over a plaid skirt. She was surrounded by Kiki, Astrid, Missy, Amberly, and Rose. She smiled and waved back, but her always sweet and welcoming face turned a tad sour when she saw that Ivy was with me.
    “I want to be tested just like everyone else,” Ivy told me, holding her ground as a couple of Barton guys tried to nudge us forward onto the bleachers. “I already know more than I should. But if we’re going to do this thing right, you should test me and make sure I make the cut.”
    The Barton guys finally got