Manipulates Madison

There were several girls up at the desk talking to Mr. Gladly, presumably to give Madison a chance to try to bother me. I wasn't sure why they bothered. Madison had never had the razor's edge that the others had. Her abuse had a minor edge of sadism to it, but for the most part she didn't have the sort of enthusiasm the others had.

“They don't really want you either,” I said, staring straight ahead. “What do you think will happen when I leave?”

I could feel her eyes on me, but I didn't turn my head.

“They don't really need you, you know. How long will it be before Emma finds someone a little more...useful,” I said. “Everybody needs a minion, but you aren't strong enough.”

I glanced at her, and saw that she was frowning.

“Sophia loves to bully the weak, doesn't she, and where Sophia goes, Emma goes.”

“That's not...”

“You think Emma is in charge?” I asked. “I guess she is, in a way, but she needs Sophia's approval desperately for some reason, so if Sophia asks for something, you think she'll argue? She's going to drop you like a hot potato. Maybe you'll be the next me...after all, Emma likes to turn on old friends.”

As I spoke, I realized it was true, and from the look in Madison's eyes, she did too. My mind raced, thinking back on all the interactions I'd seen between the three of them. There had been a definite pecking order, and Madison had always struck me as more of a hanger on.

“I'll bet the other two keep secrets from you,” I said, watching her face.

It was a hit, from the way her lips tightened.

“They're using you,” I said. “They make you think they're sharing damaging stuff, because friends trust each other with things. But they hide the rest of it because they're grooming you to be the next me. They're stealing your secrets for ammunition, and they're giving you trash in return.”

“I'll never be you,” she said.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “It'll be worse, because at least I'm generally not a rat. You'd rat right away, so they'd have to do something so horrible that you'd never ever tell.”

“You don't know anything,” she said.

“You think Sophia could get a box of rats?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I heard that the locker was full of bugs,” I said. “Only way to top that would be to put somebody in a box where there was nobody around to help them. Maybe deliberately add in some spiders and rats. There was an old reality show that used to do those things, only they let people out when they screamed for help. You think Sophia would let you out just because you said please?”

“They were going to let you out,” she muttered. “Just leave you in there for a little bit.”

“That was a lie,” I said. “I'd have been in that box screaming and gagging on that stench, and they'd have left me there until someone took pity on me; but this is Winslow. I might have ended the school day there, gone missing. I could have died. And if I had, who do you think they'd have thrown under the bus?”

“I didn't even know about it until yesterday!” she hissed.

“Your word against theirs,” I said sweetly. “And we both know how that works.”

She stared at me for a moment, then got up and moved back to her seat.

It wouldn't be enough to substantially change her behavior, but it would plant a seed in her mind. At the moment, the Trio seemed like an impenetrable monolith; but once cracks started to show, and you put the right sort of pressure in the right sort of places, even the strongest structure could fall. The trick was finding the right places to apply leverage. While Madison was the weakest link, she was also the least important. Neither of the other two would have told her anything damning, and she'd hardly be able to turn state's evidence.

For the rest of the hour she kept glancing back at me.

I'd never realized how easy it was to manipulate people. Maybe I'd never be a hero or villain, but I could certainly make my own life better. Maybe I could make some extra money doing small repairs; we certainly needed some extra cash financially. All I'd have to do was find some way to stop Emma and Sophia. Three days ago, I would have said the task was impossible, but my mind was starting to see possibilities, and that gave me a lot more hope than I'd had in a while.

***

Leverage