Ann was thinking about Alice Wilson while she was waiting for her dad to take her car shopping. Shopping was fun. She could get used to it. And fortunately, there was money to shop almost anywhere she wanted to shop. That was just one of those things. Ann had gone from feeling sorry for herself the week before to a full understanding that she was one of the elite, born to good things. Some would say that was simply chance, but Ann had the feeling that she was somehow special, even chosen. She knew she was born with certain privileges that come with having money. Now she wanted influence as well. Ann knew influence could be used in a lot of ways. Her dad was going to use influence to cause Andrew Wilson some problems. Ann wanted to cause Alice Wilson some problems as well. She was thinking about it, but hadn't really come up with a plan. Alice was stuck up, and obviously vindictive. So Ann wanted something that would really take her down the social ladder all the way to the bottom. Ann knew the world in general was pretty tolerant. But people were not really that tolerant specifically. For instance abortion was acceptable generally speaking, but if a girl had it done she usually didn't want anyone to know about it. Alice was one of those nuts who had made a point of saying she wasn't sleeping around. She hadn't really given any reason except she was afraid of getting a disease. Her boyfriend had accepted that; at least they both said they had agreed on it. Who knew what went on when they were alone. Anyway, they had made a big deal out of at least saving sex until they were older. So, if Alice were to have an imaginary abortion, she would be discredited. But how to start that rumor without getting her name involved?
How to get even with Alice was the main focus of Ann’s every thought. She went over everything she knew about Alice over and over. Finally, she remembered that during an English class she had overheard some of the girls talking about Alice’s graduation trip. Alice had been given a weekend shopping trip to a larger town nearby as a graduation present. She was going to shop for her prom dress, and a summer wardrobe.
"Alice is in the city this weekend!" Ann thought to herself. "She said she was going shopping for a prom dress. But in addition to prom dresses, the city also offers abortion on demand at three different clinics."
Ann knew this because it had been clearly covered in her sex education class at school. Ann suddenly knew what to do.
She quickly went to her computer and typed an entirely fabricated description of Alice's visit to the abortionist over the coming weekend. She gave the city, the date, and 3 possible locations, with the most likely location being closest to the largest shopping mall in the city. She ended the article with a vague description of the prom dress Alice had chosen after the visit to the imaginary abortionist. It wasn't that hard. Alice favored the color green. Her eyes were brown with flecks of green so she thought she looked good in green. It was spring so the shade of green would be pastel. Most prom dresses were somewhat low cut. And the style this year seemed to be long. So Ann described the dress as pale green, low cut, and long. That was really a no brainer. And, Ann was correct. Alice was in the city buying just such a prom dress.
Ann, having seen a number of old detective movies, quickly put on some driving gloves so as to leave no finger prints. She didn't know if that was really necessary, but it was sort of fun. She printed an envelope with the school newspaper address, placed the printed version of the rumor in the envelope, stamped it, and deleted everything from her computer. She would mail the envelope from the mailbox near school. Ann knew the rumor would not be printed in the newspaper, but that it would be read by several students on the staff. And that was all the beginning a rumor needed.
Ann left the house happily with Fredrick. She was really excited about everything. Her world had just made a quantum change for the better.