The Bad Boy Experiment

7

Author: Kaylee

"You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past."

― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

Sometimes it's hard to understand why people do the things they do or act the way they act. How did Dan become involved in all of this 'bad boy business' in the first place? How would Zoe, a popular rich girl, decide to toy with Dan and not someone else? It's not like Dan was the only nobody in the school.

Three days before the experiment

Dan donned a blue dress shirt and black dress pants. It was a fairly typical everyday outfit for him. Dan sat alone at his regular lunch table with his crappy bagged lunch.

A group of cheerleaders walked past, pushing over the stacks of books that Dan had piled up next to him alphabetically.

"What a nerd." One of the girls said snarkily.

All the rest in the group laughed as they walked away. Dan groaned and put his head in his hands. Quickly, the books were restacked and then carefully placed in his bag.

Dan looked over at the table across from his own. Bo Francis, Mark Tick, Susan Fisher, Phil Lester, and Phil's slut girlfriend Jessi Saccarilla, all sat together laughing and eating their lunches like there was nothing wrong with the world. That everything was perfect and starvation, war, and homelessness wasn't an issue.

Dan looked away.

He was only lying to himself. Jessi Saccarilla wasn't a slut, she was actually a wonderful person and Dan used to be very good friends with her. They were all smart enough to know of all those issues in the world. He was just jealous that he couldn't laugh at a stupid inside joke like that.

Suddenly, someone plopped down on the seat next to Dan.

"Hello there buddy! You are literally the loneliest person in the lunch room, quite possibly even the school."

Dan whirled around to come face to face with Zoe Sugg.

"What are you doing here?!" Dan exclaimed, clearly shaken.

"I thought I'd give up some of my popularity and let my reputation sag to help a nobody feel included."

"Really?"

"No not really!" Zoe laughed. "I have this project I have to do and I want you to be my subject! You are the loneliest most unpopular guy in the area, and I'm going to see that people know your name and praise it like a god."

Dan looked at Zoe, still puzzled as to why she'd come to him.

"How?" He asked.

"By making you bad. I've already talked to everyone I needed to, you can do whatever you want and not get punished or have it affect your life academically at all! Then at the end of the month Nove-"

"Wait!" Dan interrupted. "What do you mean by 'making me bad'? Like getting suspended and killing people?"

"No! Oh my god no! Like building up a fierce rep, you know? Besides you can't get detention or suspension unless you ask for it.. As I was saying, at the end of November, we get to have an assembly in our honour explaining that it was all a big hoax and-"

"If I do agree to this idea, and it is a stupid idea, we are not going to hold an assembly and say 'oh golly gee wiliker, tricked you, lets laugh it off.' We are not calling it a hoax! At the least we'll be calling it an experiment."

"So you'll do it?" Zoe said hopefully.

"That's not what I said."

"Fine meet me on Sunday at 10am with your answer. I'll be at the school early anyways and if you agree I can take you shopping for your new wardrobe. My treat!"