Nope.

I approach room 312 for the class. I decide to go invisible and wait for the girls to come.

It took about fifteen minutes for them all to arrive, Emily being the last. She tried to sit in the back, I suppose at this point she must have thought herself as mouse in the lion’s den. Which to a degree was true I suppose.

One of her now fellow cheerleaders saw her and gave her a tight hug. Lisa apparently was her name. “Oh my gosh, I am so glad you’re finally on the team. The hazing lasted so long. I am glad that it’s done. No hard feelings right?”

Emily just stood there slack jawed.

I decided to intervene before it got more awkward. I slowed down time except for Emily and made myself visible.

“Hi.”

She jumped at the froze state and my sudden appearance. Too easy.

“What did you do to them?” she managed in a mildly demanding tone.

“Not much. I made them think your part of the squad as of today, that’s it.”

“What about her… niceness?” she whimpered, having so quick lost that small confidence.

“Nope, that was all her, and checking, yep, you being a cheerleader didn’t cause it either,” I walked closer and patted the frozen girl on the shoulder. “She honestly didn’t like hazing you, and she probably had no idea how bad you had it. She was hazed before she joined the squad, she thought its just a natural part of the culture and she had honestly been waiting for you to be a member of the squad.”

“This was all some sick way to recruit me!” she shouted.

“No, the head cheerleader honestly did have it out for you, but that’s the lesson here. Good soldiers can do bad things when they have a bad leader.”

She glared at April with the new understanding of her ****.

“You ready?” I asked.

“So how is this gonna work?”

“Wait wait, I ran to the door, might as well explain it to everyone.”

Closing the door, I manifested my supplies. A geeky pair of glasses with tape in the middle, messed up my hair. Would buck teeth be overdoing it? Ah, you only live once! Buck teeth it is. Some freckles, a cheap suit, that looks like I failed to iron it correctly and a pocket protector. Perfect. Almost forgot, my patented Karmic Rumor Mill. Painted blue to match the cheerleaders uniform, and I wrote “Lucky” on this one.

Time resumed. I pushed the door open. “Welcome class,” I said trying to spit as much as could be reasonable acceptable. “And thank you for participating in this very important study.”

I strutted up to the front of the class and placed my box on a podium. All the girls were chucking to some degree. Even Emily, but I suppose she knew who I actually was, so she probably chuckled for a different reason. Which is fine. This is what the life of theatrics is for! I love it.

“So when do we get the college credit?” April asked already trying to wiggle out of the work if she could.

“When the study ends or you decide you wish to no longer be a part of it, you will get credits based on how active you were, up to a full year’s worth of credit,” I said periodically fixing my over sized glasses. I technically wasn’t lying either. Given them up to a year of free college credit for what was about to happen seemed reasonable. And the carrot had to be something even April wouldn’t turn down easily.

“Okay, so how does this study work,” she said showing her disdain for my character.

“It’s very simple,” I said nearly spitting on her. “This box is a Karmic Rumor Mill. The way it works is, you write a rumor on a note. Slide it into the box while holding it with one hand. And wait for the magic to happen.”

“That is idiotic! And ridiculous, I will have no part in it,” April shouted, waving to her squad to follow her.

I sigh, what I get for not making them more open, but its a karmic box, I don’t want to make them enthusiastic about it. Sort of an unfair advantage. Had it been one of the more harmless girls I might have let them off for this. But April. Oh no. Still didn’t want to **** a karmic curse. So instead I dug into her mind.

“I see, well you are of course welcome to leave. Though, I must confess, the Harvard professors may find your refusal on this matter odd,” I said shuffling some papers.

“What do you mean?” She sneered.

“The dean, had personally asked me to do this school first, as he saw your application form and was very curious how former national cheer champs would do, but I can’t **** you, so your free to leave,” I tried my best to show almost contempt for the fact that the dean had asked me this. “You weren’t aware of this?” I asked.

“I most certainly was not. I suppose, I should attend then, I see no reason to question something Harvard has personally set up for me,” she said trying to soak in the idea of being the center of attention to a school she had not yet even visited.

“Okay okay, go stay, all fine, but please don’t interrupt me further. Is that accepted Ms. April?”

“Yes sir.”

Such a suck up. Got to cool that down a bit actually.

“I want to make sure its understood, that, credit is not based on number of rumors or how intense they are. We want your data to be honest and natural, any pattern that seems to be based pure on you attempting to influence your score will not only be dismissed in your award but every instance shall reduce your score. Understood?”

Every girl nodded.

“Okay good, next rule. Only write rumors on cheerleaders in this room. And not about yourself. And lastly while not a rule, I do recommend you try and balance the nice and nasty ones at least to some degree. Oh and don’t try and take the box out of this room. I will be back at the end of the month to pick up the box, class dismissed.”

“Wait, your not going to be here like daily?” April asked.

“Your notes will be in the box. That is all I need, do you want to see more of me or something?” I asked with a bit of a tease just to mess with her.

“God no, I mean, your right, that’s not needed. I am sure a Harvard man is quite busy with other tasks anyhow,” she said trying to recover. Not bad of a recover I suppose.

Though, seeing Emily for another moment would be useful. So I have Lisa start tickling her. Both girls are beyond confused. And the entire class laughs.

“Dismissed, you can all begin tomorrow, except you two. Come here,” I said.

Everyone else left without a seconds thought. Lisa and Emily walked over to me, and I froze Lisa.

“Whew, the uptight former nerds always take it out of me,” I said. “Oh and don’t blame Lisa, that was on me. See, this is your game. So your getting an extra card so to speak.”

She just stared. No fun. Oh well.

“Karma in the name of the box isn’t just for show. The box is sentient. So, I really really fucking really recommend you don’t try and remove it from this room, or try to get another to do that. It’s a smart box.”

I paused realizing while important that wasn’t really why I held her after class. I mean, I am god like, hopefully she has taken my every word to heart. “Okay, here is the last rule. And your the only one that is gonna know it going in. This box can measure ones Karmic footprint so to speak.” I paused wondering if she knew what Karma was. She didn’t seem confused so I decided to continue.

“Basically, if the user is a mean jerk and the target is less mean, and the rumor being made isn’t light, then the box will reject it,” I said pointing to Lisa.

I had put a representation of her Karmic status above her as little hearts. She saw, 7 blue hearts flowing there. I guess even by the standards thus far. That caught her off guard.

“What the fuck,” was all she mustered as she fell down.

“Lisa was genuinely not a bad person. Her karmic level is 7/10. Currently, you’re 10/10. At least those are your scores in relation to school. So you could be nasty to even her, but doing so will drop your Karmic level. And the further the distance between the karmic levels, the worst it gets when the rumor isn’t light. It can do more than simply reject a rumor, but hopefully it doesn’t come to anything like that. So, don’t be ****, learn these girls, tailor your judgment to them. Get even.”

The hearts vanish. “And no, your not getting Karmic vision,” I chuckle. “You understand your a 10, Lisa is a 7 and you should be able to guess April. Learn the rest on your own.”

With that I unfroze Lisa. “Thank you for your understanding I said to her.”

I didn’t actually mess with her understanding of the situation, just cold pretended like I already finished my reason for asking to stay, its always more fun that way. She just kind of went with it too.

“Since your both here. I guess you two should be the first to try the Karmic Rumor Mill?”