Their friendship still feels special, but they spend much less time together. Simmons, Darragh, and Lodge, who are all now 29 years old, still gather at least once a year, usually during the winter holidays, to play gift-exchange games, dance, and gorge on food. The three friends essentially created their own culture and, with it, a profound bond. Others included three-day sleepovers and a secret code language. These ceremonies were just one part of the elaborate set of practices that RMS developed during middle and high school. They’d chant, “Leaders of Star Clan, we come to these rocks, to drink, share tongues, and faithfully talk.” They’d divulge their feelings, meditate in silence, and drink a palmful of the creek water. The shared area in the middle, featuring a creek with large moss-covered rocks, became their ceremonial site. Inspired by Warriors, an adventure-book series, the girls divided the forest into four territories, and each girl ruled over one. When she was in middle school, she and two other kids, Margo Darragh and Sam Lodge, formed “RMS”-a name combining each of their first initials-that elevated their friend group to a sacred entity.Īs they approached high school, the girls would sneak out of their rural Pennsylvania homes at night and one would drive the rest on a four-wheeler into a forest on Lodge’s neighbor’s property. R achel Simmons was raised Catholic and later joined a Presbyterian church, but she told me the closest thing she’s ever had to true religion came from a childhood friendship.
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