Chapter 7

The bullied boys thanked Dan for his pointers. The cheerleaders thanked him as well. They had found new boyfriends.

Dan would miss fucking them, but his pillow and back wouldn’t. They had kept him tired every day.

Since the club meeting Jax and Cara had argued frequently, and most importantly, publicly.

Jax demanded Cara to get her girls back in line. The same demand as before. Just like before, she refused, not willing to let someone like Jax tell her what to do.

To add insult to injury, Cara loudly told him off, explaining it wasn’t her fault that he can’t fuck to save his life. He sputtered and complained, but everyone knew the truth. It was the only way to explain why the hottest girls in school were dating the boys that Jax had once bullied.

In a heartbeat, Jax’s power was broken. He tried to make a comeback and failed. His jock friends wouldn’t follow him any longer. Not after that sad showing at the sex-positivity club.

A few of the jocks had secretly approached Dan and even Greg to ask for advice to improve their sex life.

Dan and Greg: sex gurus. What a life.

An added bonus was that Nora lost some of her spies, but only the male half. Sure, Nora could still release the information she had on them. But when choosing between embarrassment and sex with cheerleaders, the boys’ choices were obvious.

News also spread of Dan’s new club and as Ms. Kingsly demanded, the club had to be real. They had to accept new applicants and had no way to screen them. By the end of the month, the club was full to bursting.

Dan strode through Masons High’s halls with his head held high and a spring in his step. His reputation had returned. None spoke of his first days of school. No talk of the harassment accusation and no talk of his father.

Carla offered to retract the claim publicly. Dan waved her off. Best to let the past die.

The next meeting in the music room was decidedly upbeat.

“What are we even doing here?” Lisa said. “We basically won right?”

“Nora is still out there. Let’s not underestimate her. We went years without knowing her involvement in the bullying,” Krista said.

“Cara may be dick whipped by Greg now, but that can change like ... this.” Mia snapped her fingers.

Greg blushed at the comment. “I wouldn’t say that about our relationship.”

“Is that what you are calling it now?” Carla pouted.

Greg soothed her before continuing. “Everything is not as rosy as it seems. In fact, the bullying has gotten worse.”

“How is that possible? Who is doing this?” Dan said.

“I should have known,” Krista said. “Everyone is doing it, probably.”

Greg nodded but Dan was still confused. “Why? This is nuts.”

“I learned about it in one of my classes. Nothing to do with the cult, just regular social studies.” Lisa had finally grown comfortable enough with them to stop speaking as if she was reporting a military battle. “At our age, we tend to determine social status by cutting down others. There is always a friend in the group that gets the most teasing, for example.”

“Shit! ... hold on. Is anyone thinking what I’m thinking.”

“If we could read minds, maybe,” Greg said, unusually sarcastic. A glare from Dan caused his eyes to focus on the floor.

“I think Nora is behind this. She’s spreading information and causing them to turn on each other.”

“What a bitch. So ... what? If she can’t rule the school, nobody can?” Carla said.

“Sounds about right. We have to move fast or risk losing what we gained.”

“Let’s go get her. Take her out with your dick, or Greg’s,” Krista said. She’d grown too confident, too perverted, too fast.

“No. What we have to do is use her power against her.”

“Like a ninja,” Lisa said.

“Sure, like that.”

“We set another trap, like the club,” Greg said, eager for another potential threesome. He winced at Carla’s playful slap on the shoulder.

“OK, let’s go with what works. She’ll avoid the sex club. So instead, let’s hold a party. A party for the entire school.”

“We can say it’s for school unity. Nora will have to come and mess it up,” Mia said from beside Dan.

Before leaving for sex positivity club activities they worked out the details. Dan would ask Ms. Kingsly for permission to hold the party at the school and the others would build the hype and send out the invites.

On the evening of the party on his way home, Dan opened the door and called out to his mother. She told him she was in the kitchen with his girlfriend.

Could it be Krista or Mia?

He was greeted with a leggy girl that he didn’t recognize.

“You should have told me Nora was your girlfriend,” Mom said, smiling.

Remove the glasses and the pig-tails, and yes that was Nora sitting in Dan’s kitchen, with his mother, in his house!

It took all his willpower and his fingers digging into his palms to stop from hurling himself at the girl in front of his mother.

His mom had no idea of his anger or Nora’s deception. She was just glad he found a new girlfriend. Before Dan arrived, they had chatted at length about his old one.

“Mom, I need something before we go out. It’s in my room, you know what I’m talking about,” Dan said.

Mom winked at him and left for his room. It left him alone with Nora.

She swung in her chair to look at him, only then did he notice her sleeveless one-piece.

Nora smiled at his notice. “What a wonderful mother. How did a shit like your dad get with her?”

“Why are you here?” He took a step toward her.

“Ooh! Going to go all caveman on me. I like it.”

“Just answer the question.”

“I know what this party is about. I also knew about that sex club of yours before you even had your first get-together. Getting the application was easy. And did you really think I would not notice all my male followers vanishing,” Nora wagged a slender finger at Dan.

“Congrats, you know stuff. You still lost and will lose more.”

“But why though? Are the higher-ups in the cult paying you that much? I don’t have the exact number, but since you still live in this little house, it can’t be that much.”

Dan couldn’t let her rattle him. There was no drawback to her knowing any of this. Working for the cult that owned the school was not against any law or rules. The principal herself invited him there in the first place.

“Before you ask why I am doing this, answer my last question. Why do you want me to lose?”

“You already know. I want the money the cult is offering.”

She hissed her teeth as if disappointment. “Is that all? Here I was hoping you were angling for something ... more.” She crossed her bare legs, flashing her panties.

“I’m not going to stop if you offer sex.”

“I suppose not. You have plenty of that. Still, I can provide it. That and all the money you need.”

“You really want to bully people that badly. It amazes me that I have to go so far just to stop some mean girls and jerks from running the school for a couple more months. Soon high school will be over and—”

“And what? None of this will matter. Please. If you believe that, then you have not paid attention. After high school is college. That means the sorority. After that, it’s company work or the office. This isn’t about bullying.”

“Well, if you want to explain I’ll listen.” Dan glanced to see if his mother was coming back. He’d sent her to get condoms. Embarrassing, but it would take her some time to find them.

Nora leaned forward and fixed him with her eyes. “It’s about power. It is for me anyway. The world is changing. The old idea of jobs is falling away. Soon work will be a myth. What will replace it? Think about it.”

Dan knew some of what she talked about from personal experience. He’d gotten into this craziness because of his loss of work.

He just couldn’t understand what the school and the cult that ran it all had to do with it. Dan reminded himself that this was Nora’s interpretation. Nora was a girl who got off on dominating people. Her view was a twisted one.

“I can see you need some help. So, I’ll help. In a world without work, the only thing that will matter to people is each other.”

Then it hit Dan like a truck. “With no jobs, there will be nothing to do. Nothing but hang out and talk with friends.”

“And fuck.”

“That too. Social hierarchy and gender dynamics will be all-important in that kind of world. High school is the perfect place for that. It’s all everyone thinks about.” Nora motioned a slow clap. “I heard the cult uses the school as a testing ground. You are twisting the tests. Seeing what works to control people and what doesn’t.” Another horrible thought hit Dan as he saw Nora’s pleased smile.

“Now you’re getting it. This victory of yours is hollow. All it does is provide me with more data. Data I can use to improve my skills. Since you have come to this school, you have shown me that with a little bit of coaching super-hot popular girls will fall for losers who can fuck good. You showed me that the beaten-down will flock quickly to anyone who shows some grit. Then I learned that sex can quickly divide loyalties. I mean, Cara’s cheerleaders turned on her quick. Same with Jax’s jocks.”