The Manipulation Game

Game On

Celia laughed, walking through the held open door. "What really happened?" She asked, turning to face Andie. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, like she did every time she tried to wriggle something out of Andie.

Andie laughed, and gave the same response she always did. "We played a game." With that, she walked out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

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Ridgeview Academy, as you've probably noted by now, is a school for only the richest or smartest kids, the most elite of the elite. Obviously, the Academy itself was expensive and gorgeous. It was made up of three buildings, all modern and minimalist, surrounded by dense forestry all around. The dorms were in a several story tall L-shaped building on the right side, which had a large basement known to the students as the 'Gameplace.' All the staff just assumed the kids were referring to the recreational games in the basement, but the students knew better.

"Remember," Celia said, as the elevator slid downwards. "Darren Lea is trying to take down Carly Harris. Since Darren is cute, I wouldn't mind coaxing a couple secrets out of hi-"

Andie cut her off. "You need to remember. This is the game. Only three rules, so no one needs a guidebook." She said, glancing at Celia, who was skimming through her handbag for a lip gloss. "Or a tour guide." She muttered, Celia oblivious as she smacked her lips together.

The door to the elevator opened, and the pair were greeted with the Gameplace. A large TV hung in the part of the room hidden from view around the bend, which controlled the unbearably loud music. There were tables of food along the right wall, and the left wall had a selection of speakers. The remaining space was taken up by pool tables and air hockey tables, games you'd expect at a high school party. The room was packed full of people, all talking or coming up to either Andie or Celia.

Darren Lea, just as Celia had forewarned, came up to Andie and put his arm around her, guiding her away from the crowd.

"Andie, Carly is beyond arrogant. She thinks she's bound to be the next queen." Darren lied through his teeth, putting his so-called convincing face on, as he gave a false reason for making Carly his target. In reality, Darren was trying to manipulate Carly because she turned him down for the fourth time. "I think we should..." He was cut off, and Andie was saved.

"I'd actually like to talk to you Darren," Celia said, grabbing the arm around Andie's neck and, as Andie moved out of the way, linked it into her own. "Andie will talk later, right Andie?" She smiled, and Celia swept Darren up as they turned around the bend, and disappeared from view.

Andie took a moment and looked around the room. Left and right, she saw people sharing secrets, making deals, fighting, and blackmailing. Each and every person at the party was playing the Manipulation Game, by messing with each other and destroying teenage lives. She could see the different ways people played. Some, as Celia did, used simple told secrets and snap judgements. Andie, on the other hand, used everything she could figure out about someone through psychology and blackmail, which was effective with keeping people in line.

All night long, people came left and right for Andie's help, and it was productive. Secrets were the currency at Ridgeview, and Andie was loaded. Once Darren left Celia's clutches once she found another boy to wriggle secrets out of, he told her a nasty secret about a boy who'd pissed off Andie, in exchange for her ignoring Carly for the next two weeks, along with most of the higher-ups, so she thought everyone disliked her. She had also gotten her own manipulation underway, as several people who'd attempted to beat her at the game were now being outcasted. The secrets were a small price to pay for her satisfaction, but she had enough other ones, she could get one out of someone whenever she felt like it. That was the Manipulation Game. Get what you want by any means necessary, and you become popular and connected for it.

The party wrapped up precisely at two in the morning, with the staff coming in and telling people to get to bed. Once she was back in her room, Andie pulled off her heels and grabbed her phone, going through the messages from earlier. She responded to each ridiculous blackmail threat with a secret that the person didn't want to get out, each cry for help with what they would have to pay her, until the last one that needed help. It was from Valerie Kisa.

Andie didn't recognize the name, which surprised her because she knew everyone. Andie opened her private notes on her phone, which was protected by several passwords. She had a category for all her personal notes on each student, even herself, so she kept track of what people knew and what they didn't. Valerie had a single secret filed as her own, and it was that her parents sent her because she had accidentally shot through her former schools windows, and was immediately expelled. She had only been at Ridgeview a few months, but was already completely immersed in the game, having provided many secrets of other students, but giving only the one of her own.

Her text was only a few words: I need a word tomorrow. Meet me in my dorm? It's 342. I've got the perfect deal.

Andie responded with a sure, and set her phone down, smiling to herself. The game was simple, and it made her powerful. Not just powerful.

It made her the Queen.

And no one messed with the Queen.