Reverse Reverse Psychology

You walk into psychology with a bit of a swagger, feeling strangely good. You have a plan. You got accepted into Sarah’s study group, and from here, it’s only a matter of time before you keep impressing her with your knowledge and get into her pants. You walk past Vishal, ignoring the mildly confused look on his face as you pass your usual seat next to him. You don’t even give him a second glance, heading straight for the front row, where Sarah sits, flanked by Mike and Xiaoming.

She’s wearing a white business blouse, although there is probably a button or two more undone than you would see in most offices… it’s a little distracting, and you see her raise an eyebrow as you approach.

“Hey,” you say, leaning on a chair at the end of the row. The guy sitting in it looks back at you, annoyed. “How’s the—“

“What are you doing here?” she asks you.

Wait. This wasn’t the response that you were expecting. She was starting to warm up to you just a day ago, wasn’t she?

“You invited me to join your little study group. I just wanted to talk over some things, you know, the way people sometimes do.”

“He actually fell for it,” Mike snickers, and you look at him, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh god, he fell for it,” Mike continues, slapping his thigh, and you see a Xiaoming quietly laughing too. The flat line on Sarah’s face twitches, and you start to get a real bad feeling about this situation.

“What do you mean?” you ask, regretting the words even as they leave your mouth.

“Dude, we’re in psychology. So we have to mess with someone, like a psychology experiment. So we pretended to invite you to join your group, see what you would do,” Xiaoming says.

Oh come on. That’s some bullshit. What are these people? Kindergarteners?

“Don’t feel too bad,” Sarah says, and for a moment you think you see some sympathy in her eyes. “It was just simple reverse psychology.”

She turns away from you then, and you stand there in the front row, stunned and embarrassed. You thought you were the one playing her, when she was the one pulling the wool over your eyes! You start to stalk back to your seat.

Okay, so maybe the plan wasn’t perfect. But how could you have known that this was all a set-up from the start?

“Hey, what happened up there? It looked to me like you got schooled,” Vishal says, laughing a little as you return to your typical seat.

“I thought I had an in,” you say. “Turns out I was just the butt of a joke.”

“Hey man, don’t get so down.” Vishal’s voice is reassuring, and he shares a sympathetic look with you. “At least you’re on her radar now. That’s better than most the people in this room.”

“You do have a point,” you say, nodding to yourself. Maybe this is something you can work with?

“Anyways, you know how the prof said we had to participate in some experiments? I think I found one that fits our tastes,” he says.

“Oh yeah, what is it?”

“I’ll text you the details tonight. But it looks fun,” he says, giving you a mysterious grin.

The professor clears his throat, grabbing the attention of the class, and fires off a question, signalling the start of class.

Michael -10
Xiaoming -10