Social Order

Jack studied the group

It appeared the girl on the far right was not as into what the other four were doing. The girl in the middle with the glasses seemed to be the one dictating the conversation. He approached them. "Ladies, stop what you're doing and one by one tell me your names. You first," he pointed to the girl on the far right.

"Helene."

"Kara," said the girl next to her.

"Isabelle, but people call me Izzy," said the other girl in glasses.

"Sarah," said the girl in the flannel.

"Maddie," said the girl on the right.

"Stand up if you think you're the prettiest of this group," said Jack.

Izzy stood up. She looked a bit uncomfortable as she admitted she thought she was the prettiest, and would probably had never said that out loud to her friends.

"Helene," said Jack. "Do these other girls treat you as an equal, or just a hanger on?"

"Hanger on," she said meekly.

"That's not true," said Kara.

"Is it?" asked Jack.

"Well, I mean..." Kara searched for the right words. "She's OK. She just kind of tags along, but we've all know each other for year, and she's just, you know, part of the gang."

"Yeah, she's just shy and stuff," said Sarah. "She's just always there."

Jack nodded. "When you guys go out, do you invite her, or does she invite herself along?"

"We invite her," said Izzy. "If we did not, she'd never leave her room."

"Helene, stand up," ordered Jack.

Helene stood up.

"Helene is now the leader of this group. You must obey her. Helene, you must obey me. Now, I want you to give each of your...friends...a humiliating task to perform right now."

Helene still looked embarrassed and stood with her head down, but she thought about it and glanced at her friends.