Chapter Six – Social Pressure

Maple didn’t want to say it. The very idea was kind of embarrassing, and she knew that she’d somehow messed up, and admitting it to others would only make it worse. A thousand times worse, really.

It would be better if she could just stay in her room forever.

Maple didn’t mind talking with her sisters… much. It was kind of hard, because some of her sisters talked real fast, or very loud, and Maple didn’t want to interrupt them, but her sisters were all nice. They’d sometimes stop and actually listen when Maple had something to say, and even though Maple didn’t like talking much, those moments made her feel nice.

At the same time, she saw the way her sisters went after each other. They’d say mean things, and snipe at one another, and Maple was terrified that they’d turn that kind of attention her way. The response between her sisters was always to snipe back, to fling back as many insults as they’d received, and that was… kinda funny?

She liked seeing Athena and Teddy argue, or Trinity get into an insult fight with either of them. The newest sister, Aurora, wasn’t as good with insults, but she was bigger and kind of tough.

Maple was pretty sure that if any of her sisters aimed that kind of attention at her, she’d just cry.

Right now, she’d done something that would have her deserving all of those insults, and she felt like she had to tell someone about it, because it might mean trouble.

The problem was, Big Sister Emily was out and in school at the moment, which meant that Maple had to pick one of her other sisters to talk to.

Some were easy to rule out. Teddy would just make fun of her, then insist on going to find the people that tricked Maple and eat them.

Trinity would probably not… fully understand. Maple didn’t like to think less of her sisters, because she still loved them all a lot, but Trinity sometimes had a hard time with things that were a little more complicated.

Athena? Athena was a good choice. She was Maple’s best friend amongst her sisters, and yet… that’s kind of what made her not walk to talk to her about this, because it would mean disappointing someone she looked up to.

By process of elimination, that left…

“Um, sorry…” Maple said. Then, a little louder because she was pretty sure she hadn’t been heard. “Sorry?”

Aurora looked up, then half-turned in her seat to blink at Maple. The newest of Maple’s sisters, the one who made it so that Maple herself was’t the youngest, didn’t exactly look like she was the youngest. She was taller than everyone except for Emily herself, and that by only a little bit.

“Maple?” she asked. “What’s up?”

Maple glanced at the desk. It looked like Aurora was reading from some of the books that Sam had brought over and left behind, something about psychology? It wasn’t the kind of subject that Maple really cared about. “Um… I need to talk to someone. I might have made a mistake?”

Aurora leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms before resting them behind her head. “A mistake, huh?” she said, watching Maple carefully. “That’s strange. Everyone keeps telling me that you’re the smartest of us, not the sort to make a mistake.”

Maple winced. That was exactly why she didn’t want to say anything. But she’d already started, and if she backed out now, Aurora might press her on it later. That would be worse.

She took a deep breath, then stepped closer to the desk. “I, um… I kinda got scammed.”

Aurora blinked once. Then again. Then she let out a short laugh, not mocking exactly, but definitely surprised. “You?”

Maple crossed her arms, shoulders hunching. “I know! I know. It’s dumb. I should’ve seen it coming.”

Aurora sobered up, shifting in her seat. “Alright, alright. What happened?”

Maple glanced around, then tugged a chair closer before sitting on the very edge of it. “So… I was on the internet, right? Just, you know, doing stuff. And someone sent me a nice message with a link to a site. It looked all official, like a charity thing. They had banners, pamphlets, pictures… it looked really real.”

Aurora nodded along, waiting for her to continue.

“They were saying they were collecting donations for, uh, people orphaned by hero fights. Like, for people whose homes got wrecked when a hero threw a car at a villain or whatever.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Aurora raised an eyebrow. “That’s… actually not a bad cause.”

Maple nodded. “I thought so. People on the internet really love to hate villains, but a lot of that is because sometimes villains break things, and turn people into orphans. Teddy’s always going on about how capitalism is bad, but what if… what if we gave the orphans a bunch of money? Wouldn’t that make up for the villains accidentally making them orphans in the first place?”

Aurora rubbed at her chin. “Yeah, I can follow that logic. But you said you got scammed?”

Maple nodded. “I believed the site, but I don’t have heaps of money. So, uh, I started to run a scam.”

“You ran a scam?” Aurora asked.

“Just a little one?” Maple said. She winced again. “D-don’t tell Big Sister Emily? But I made a machine? The scamatronic? And it generates a bunch of fake accounts to donate tiny amounts of money, just enough that it looks like a bunch of people are already donating. Then I used that to convince some real donors that the charity was legit.”

“I don’t think I get it,” Aurora said.

“So… basically, it makes hundreds of fake accounts on a bunch of social media sites, and then they befriend people, and do normal stuff, and then they all boost the orphanage site and make it look like they’ve donated to peer pressure others into doing the same,” Maple said. “I made the machine using some of Sam’s psychology courses that she recorded on her phone, and her phone, and also some of Athena’s research notes. I figured if I took the best parts of what worked before and made it automatic, then it’d be even better.”

Aurora blinked. “You automated social pressure?”

Maple hunched her shoulders. “Yeah?”

Aurora ran a hand down her face. “Okay. And then?”

“Well, uh, it worked.” Maple hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to admit this next bit. “I made the orphanage over two million dollars in under a week.”

“Wow,” Aurora said.

“And that’s when some reporter started to dig into it, and, uh… that’s about when I realized it was all a scam.”

“When they started making withdrawals,” Maple admitted. “Like, big ones. They sent out a huge message talking about how they were so grateful for the donations, but now they had to ‘pause’ accepting new funds to ‘focus on infrastructure.'”

Aurora raised a brow. “That’s a scam excuse if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Right? That’s when I got really suspicious.” Maple sighed. “So I checked their records. Guess how many orphanages they’ve actually given money to?”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “I’m guessing zero.”

“Not even zero,” Maple groaned. “They just… made up names! Fake orphanages! One of them was literally called Saint McOrphan’s Home for Sad Kids.”

Maple sniffled, and the next thing she knew, Aurora was leaning way forwards and giving her a big hug. “Hey now, it’s okay.”

“I feel so stupid,” Maple mumbled. “I helped them. I built a scam for a scam.”

Aurora tightened her hug for a second, then leaned back, keeping her hands on Maple’s shoulders. “Yeah, you messed up,” she said bluntly, but not unkindly. “But you realized you messed up. That’s important.”

Maple sniffled again, scrubbing at her eyes. “I don’t know how to fix it.”

Aurora tilted her head, thinking. “You still have access to the Scamatronic?”

Maple nodded hesitantly. “Yeah.”

“Then we fix it.”

Maple looked up. “How?”

Aurora gave her a slow grin. “Can’t you use it to make the scammers look like idiots?”

“I.. guess,” Maple said. “I could boost any message, really.”

“Perfect! Make all those fake accounts of yours sound real angry about the fake orphanages. People love outrage bait, I bet it’ll go viral. And if you can figure out the real names of those scammers, then publish that too.”

“I guess there’s no point in them being rich if everyone hates them,” Maple said.

“Exactly.” Aurora nodded. “They’re scammers. That means their biggest fear is getting caught before they can disappear.”

“I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal, then?” Maple asked.

“I mean… that is a lot of money lost, but I think it’s okay. It’s not like it would have been easy to launder anyway, right?”

“Yeah. Big Sister Emily told me that I’m not allowed to take apart the laundry machine,” Maple said.

“That’s okay,” Aurora said. “C’mon, show me what this site looks like, I bet I can help you avoid jerks like that in the future, right?”

***

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