The Social Scene and the Hate Machine
Chapter 3 — The Birth of Ignorance
“You know, your sister croaked because she couldn’t stand kissing a girl, and, like, here you are with Shanny Long Legs draped over you like your own personal sex doll!” Connie sneered as she passed Shannon and Summer’s lockers a month later. “Pssh. Whatever, losers.”
It took all the ice in Summer’s eyes and soul to keep Shannon from attacking Connie right then and there. “She’s not the enemy, she’s the product of the enemy,” she whispered.
Shannon seethed, but lashed out verbally instead of physically. “Yeah, okay. Because getting a helping hand from Cori the center totally isn’t lezzing a long-legged girl,” she snapped.
Connie looked at her for a moment, cocking her head like a dog hearing a high-pitched noise. “Fuck you,” she decided, strutting on.
“I was just guessing, Connie!” Shannon called after her, laughing.
The rest of the cheerleaders passed them then, ‘accidentally’ throwing elbows and hips Shannon’s way. Shannon didn’t bother dodging, but stared them down with a smirk pulling up her mouth. Summer felt the same smile coming to her face—pride in what she had created, smug superiority over what others had wrought.
The smile faded when Shannon turned to her and said, “If you’re worried about them being on to us, I’ll ask Ron to give ’em their period the hard way. I’ve got third period English with him.”
“Violence solves nothing, at least so far. But you’re right. It’s getting worse, not better. And tryouts are next week. We can’t let anyone else get sucked too deeply into this hive. I’m moving up the schedule. We move in two weeks. I can handle it. You get everyone to the skate park for a meeting tonight. I’ll get the reinforcements,” Summer said, her voice staccato with command.
As soon as she was through the door of first-period calculus, Mr. Boddicker snapped, “Miss Doby, you are due in Principal Llewellyn’s office as soon as the bell rings to release you from this class.”
With the knowledge she’d picked up from her father and Anya, she recognized the sting and the snarl of a vocal controller who used fear as his weapon, and further recognized that he was trying to undercut her newfound power. Straight-A Summer Doby going to the principal’s office would get attention; straight-A Summer Doby going to the principal’s office and enraging Mr. Boddicker in the process was a scandal.
She smiled and looked up through her glasses at him. “Sure thing,” she said warmly, hiding her fear.
She sweated her way through the lecture more than usual, dreading the bell. As soon as it rang, she got up and strode rapidly towards the principal’s office.
Ron grabbed her arm as she passed. “Summer, what’s up?” he asked.
She pushed him into the wall and lowered her glasses. “Principal Llewellyn wants to see me ASAP. If I’m not out in half an hour, grab our top ten and jump her on the way out,” she said.
“Absolutely,” Ron said immediately, less spacey than she had expected. Then again, she had appealed to his protective instincts, and she knew from Shannon that those were strong. He was already texting the gang when she left him and entered the office area.
“She’s waiting for you,” the secretary said. Her over-teased hair made Summer wonder if this was a former cheerleader who wasn’t good enough for sale. But it was a passing thought, a distraction to keep herself from worrying about the meeting, and she put it out of her mind to focus as she entered the office.
Principal Llewellyn was sitting on the edge of the desk, crossing legs that were still toned. The expression on her face was sour, highlighting the wear of forty-odd years, though Summer was sure that she would still be more than beautiful enough to capture the heart of a lonely older gentleman. The black suit and red blouse only heightened Summer’s mental image of a black widow.
At the sound of the door closing behind Summer, Principal Llewellyn turned so that her back was to Summer, and gestured to an empty chair. “We’ve noticed a stark change in you and ten other Glassville students over the past month. Skateboarding on school property, dressing in punk fashions that make a mockery of the school dress code, and worst of all, increased aggression and cruelty towards our athletes and cheerleaders.” She tossed her long platinum hair over her shoulder and went on, “I understand the pain you must feel after the tragedy of your sister’s death, and I understand any resentment you might have towards them, but withdrawing from our strong, victorious culture is not the answer.”
“Cut to the chase before I throw up,” Summer muttered.
“Ronald Andrews, Dana Baker, Shannon Collins, Rick Dawson, Mickey Johnson, Katelyn O’Dowd, Priya Patel, Vanessa Poole, Kylie Stewart, and Emma Willis. Do these names all sound familiar to you, Miss Doby? Perhaps you recognize a common denominator among them?”
“They’re my friends. I wasn’t aware that having friends was against school policy. Did we have to get permission from the athletic department before hanging out together? Should I have had tryouts?” Summer said.
“Let’s see... twenty incidents with athletes and cheerleaders over the past week alone? Some of the verbal confrontations are within normal parameters, but shoving back and engaging in horseplay in the corridors? That’s asking for trouble. And gangs don’t fly in Glassville.”
“Oh, please. Shut up already. Yes, you heard me. Shut up, Wendy. Neither of us has time for this. You’re afraid of me, and if you weren’t you’d turn around to see that I’m still wearing my glasses. I’m afraid of you because I see the raw power you have to create the jocks and the cheer sluts, and I have no idea how you’re doing it. Let’s cut to the chase. We both know what I am—a vampire, and proud of it. What I want to know is what you are and what the hell you’re doing,” Summer said.
“Making better people,” Principal Llewellyn said, turning around but making sure she looked well over Summer’s head.
Summer smiled at the fear she saw, but slowly the smile morphed into a rictus of rage. Through her teeth, she said, “If poisoning innocent special ed students with allergies is the act of better people, gosh, I guess you win.“
“You have no idea what’s going on here—but then, you don’t know who you are or what you’re doing. It’s all right, dear, I understand. Neither did Mr. Boddicker, or Ms. Allen, or any of our alumni teachers,” Principal Llewellyn said with a smile Summer could easily read as patronizing.
“Or your daughter, I’m sure,” Summer shot back. “So they’re there to play zookeeper? Make sure the cages are securely locked in case they start realizing what you’ve done and start rattling the bars?“
“You think such horrible things of me,” Principal Llewellyn said, shaking her head mournfully.
Gee, I wonder why, Summer thought, but she decided not to give thought to the voice.
Principal Llewellyn continued, “They just make sure that you all pay attention in class so you can be ready for the bright futures ahead of you. I think we’ve started off on the wrong foot. You keep thinking I’m interested in war, and that’s not the case. What I’m interested in is a golden opportunity for you, your clique, and Glassville High. There’s no reason for a fight to start. In fact, I’d like to show you what I’ve been working on to better our community.”
Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly... but who’s the spider and who’s the fly? Summer thought, watching as Principal Llewellyn pushed a button to reveal a staircase behind her desk. If this were a spiral movie, it would be a trap, but if this were a spiral movie, I wouldn’t have these eyes. I have to see her hand if she’s this willing to tip it.
She followed the principal down the winding flight of stairs to the cool concrete of the laboratory. Principal Llewellyn tapped a code on a pad next to a metal door to open it, and gestured Summer through. Summer looked through to make sure it wasn’t an obvious trap, then entered. Her gorge rose, and she had to fight to keep her breakfast from decorating the concrete floor.
Phan Ng had been the last cut on her initial list; Summer had worried that putting her study buddy under would blunt her sharp intelligence and jeopardize her 3.8 GPA. As she’d worked through her list and mastered the finer nuances of control, she’d added Phan back on, but only at the end. It was too late now, though. Phan sat rigidly in front of the computer, her eyes open wide and unblinking, her golden skin flushed. “Yes,” she said, clicking the mouse. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” Every word was punctuated with the click of the mouse and the slow stiffening of Phan’s nipples under her blouse.
“You should see how her backhand has improved,” Principal Llewellyn said with a smile as Phan let out a breathy sigh and stopped clicking, becoming as still as a statue while she waited for her next command.
Even a few steps away from the computer, Summer could feel the pull, the subliminal whispers in her mind soothing her into docility, compliance, passivity, obedience. She could only imagine the power it would take to smooth Phan’s natural curiosity into a rote clicking of acceptance to heavier and heavier chains of submission.
“The subliminals are just there to induce trance at the necessary depth and install the triggers. It’s a subprogram that serves as the foundation for the master program. Follow me, Phan. We have to get you ready for practice.” Principal Llewellyn took Phan’s hand and walked her through another set of doors, deeper into the basement.
Master program? She’s already out enough that one word would have her licking your toes for life! And there’s more? You bastard bitch, Summer thought.
She had considered taking a look at the screen, just to get an idea of what approach Principal Llewellyn was taking with her victims—but now she didn’t dare. As hardcore as the programming appeared to be, she was no longer sure whether it was her idea to look at the screen or not, and that thought chilled her blood. But she followed Principal Llewellyn deeper into the basement, to see how it all ended.
The next room had a chair reminiscent of a dentist’s office, with a bright light mounted over it. A tall brunette lay in it as if she had been poured there, long brown hair spilling carelessly over her shoulders. Her gaze was fixed on the light, staring at it as it flashed on and off, inhaling as it came on, exhaling as it turned off. Her face was expressionless, but still seemed to convey utter contentment at having her life reduced to the simple task of inhaling and exhaling, inhaling and exhaling...
Summer shook herself to keep from falling into the relaxing rhythm. Play into the urge that teenagers have, or are given, to fit in. Evil, but kind of brilliant. I guess being principal of a high school for as long as she has does have some advantages. Her mouth set into a harder line as she considered what was before her, and she noticed a small detail that chilled her blood even further.
The chair had straps on its arms. But the straps fell away from the arms, unused. Unneeded. How far down are they that they give in that easily? And how much further advanced is the program now? She forced herself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly—but not too slowly, lest she be lulled into the soothing rhythm of the entranced girl before her.
Principal Llewellyn guided the girl out of the chair and stood her behind it so that she could still see the light, then loaded Phan into it. The light reflected off the glaze in Phan’s eyes as she went limp. Her mouth fell open. “Just relax, Phan. Relax and let the light guide you. Just like the rest of the team. Let it ease you into the flow. Just like the rest of the team. In with the light, out with the darkness. In and out. Just like the rest of the team. In and out. Let the light reshape your mind. Just like the rest of the team. In and out.”
Slowly, Phan’s breathing synchronized with the light, and with the girl behind her. It was even more compelling with two beautiful, hypnotized girls breathing in and out in perfect unison, in as the light came on, out as it went off, in as it came on... Summer realized what was happening and flexed her feet to avoid falling under again.
Principal Llewellyn turned the brunette around, away from the light, but there was no change in her breathing. Synchronization. Part of how they make them a hive mind. I wonder if they still breathe like that when they’re fucking, Summer thought, the irreverence blunting her rage—and her lust, because she could admit that she was controller enough and predator enough for the sight of the entranced brunette to bring heat to her loins.
“Jasmine, dear, did you enjoy your nap?” Principal Llewellyn asked, but the girl simply stood and breathed, eyes empty and staring. “Good. Now undress. We need to get you in the shower before you get your uniform and meet your teammates.”
The statuesque brunette animated enough to undo the snap of her jeans and lower them with her damp panties, then unzip her knee-high boots and step out of the whole pile. Her hands moved behind her back to pull off her shirt and undo her bra, but she never lost the thousand-yard stare. Summer had to keep herself from getting into Jasmine’s line of vision and taking that lovely, vacant shell for herself.
Principal Llewellyn crooked a finger, and Jasmine followed her down the hall to a row of booths that looked more like an old arcade than any kind of shower Summer had ever seen. She kept her distance from the principal and her prey, watching from a few steps behind as Principal Llewellyn loaded Jasmine into the booth furthest on the left. God, the subliminals in those booths must be weapon-level! That hum’s making my bones hurt, and that’s just from outside, Summer thought.
The booth on the right opened, and a curly-haired blonde swaggered out in a black satin bra and matching panties. Summer forced her face to remain expressionless, to be as distant and cold as her great-aunt’s Alaskan tundra. No. That can’t be her.
The blonde strutted up to the bank of lockers next to the booths and started going through until she found a lavender blouse and black jeans that complemented her in all the right places, then put them on, adding socks and black leather boots almost as an afterthought. A letter jacket with the softball logo went over her shoulder, tossed there with calculated carelessness. “Hey, boss! You want any more boring paperwork before I K those Ks from Mayville?” she asked with a sneer.
“Nope, Helena, we’re all good,” Principal Llewellyn said with an all-knowing grin that only another controller could fully appreciate.
Summer took it in, caught between horror and awe at the confirmation of what she had tried to deny to herself, at the sudden sharp transformation of a shrinking violet into a Venus flytrap. My God. Helena McDermott, what have they done to you? You only said you were going out for softball because your brother said girls only liked diamonds that boys gave them. And it took two weeks to get those many words out of your mouth in a row.
The thought of Helena’s older brother sent Summer’s train of thought on a new and just as chilling track. And because this is Glassville, and because Todd went out for baseball, her parents won’t even think anything of it. They’ll think it’s teen angst and peer pressure, that it’s normal, because gosh, didn’t the same thing happen to Todd? But there’s nothing left of the calc queen now. What am I getting myself into?
But she thought of Helena, and Phan, and Dawn. How many before? How many more? How can I not try to stop this? She held to that determination, held it in her heart like the glacial ice in her eyes, even as the moans from the booths made it harder and harder to think of anything but control and sex.
“Now, see, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Next week we recalibrate for the boys, and then cheer tryouts,” Principal Llewellyn said with a leer.
The thought of synchronized, mindless, horny cheerleaders darted across Summer’s mind for a moment, and she understood just how much of a temptation Principal Llewellyn thought she was placing in front of her—and how successful it would be for a controller who hadn’t had it run in the family, who hadn’t watched the hive murder her sister. She put on her best and brightest smile and said, “Cool, boss. Just one thing—why the bitchiness and bullying? You’d think they’d be more popular otherwise.“
“But then they wouldn’t have the confidence they need to face the world outside Glassville. They have to know that they’re better than everyone else. That’s what gives them their performance edge. They know there are haves and have-nots, and don’t they just have it all?” Principal Llewellyn said, turning away to move a couple of names across the whiteboard.
So she didn’t see Summer draw the battle lines with a tilt of her glasses and a subzero, “NO.” I’m not going to trip on your acid of the mind, bitch.
With that, Summer walked past the principal into the locker room, where Helena looked at her with no trace of recognition in her hazel eyes and sneered. “Sorry, nerd girl, cool kids only in here. Four-eyes and other species of geek are on your other left,” she said.
“Gosh, Helena, I’m just here to watch you serve up softballs to your teammates so they can touch all your bases,” Summer shot back, walking past the shells of people she had once known, ignoring the hate that radiated from them at anything and anyone that wasn’t one of them.
“Ignore her. Besides, we do have to welcome you to the team,” Lena, the team captain, said, as she moved in on the ready Helena.
Summer noticed out of the corner of her eye, but kept walking, even as she chalked up another mark against Principal Llewellyn and her process. I’d bet a hundred bucks she bends the ugly ones and sells them the same way she does the boys. Lena was the closest thing Dawn had to a friend because she was the only one who would share a table with her, and she never shut up about boys.
Her mouth firmed into a hard line, and she ran out the door before she could see anything else that would send her over the edge. She wound her way back through the booths, past Phan still spaced out in the chair, past the computer still throbbing with subliminal submission, and up the stairs back into the principal’s office.
She came out of the principal’s office to see her crew waiting in the main office area with various expressions of concern and worry on their faces. “You okay, Summer?” Dana asked.
“I’m a long way from okay. I don’t think I can ever really be okay again after that. Am I one of them now? Fuck no. Am I in my right mind? I just saw the devil at work. Everyone to the skate park on the double. Shan, you’re driving me. Am I okay?” Summer tore her glasses off, threw them to the ground, and stepped on them in fury before storming out, her cadre behind her as they sped to the skate park without delay.