Take it from me, flying under your own power is probably the best thing in the world. Being able to rip apart locker doors isn't quite as fun, but equally appreciated considering just where I was leaving. I shuddered at the thought of that horrid place. I never want to be in a confined space again. I chuckled a bit darkly at the thought that with my powers I doubted that many people could actually Make me anymore. Once I was reasonably certain that no one had seen me I landed in the far end of the alleyway behind my house. Walking down the alley, I thought on what I wanted to do about the Trio. They had tortured me, broken so many things, physical and metaphorical. They had ruined my mother's flute, schoolwork, clothes, but those weren't the worst. Emma had personally broken more promises than I could remember, broken my heart, my spirit, and she tarnished my mother's memory as much as she could.
I wouldn't let this stand to continue any longer. I knew that my powers had to be changing how I was thinking, but that was my power telling me that too. Next to my more obvious powers, a fairly strong Alexandria package, I had the side power that enhanced how my mind worked. My memory was perfectly intact, showing me the horrors after I gained my powers in far too accurate detail. My thoughts have become more logical, I knew that those feelings of terror weren't gone but I had enough self-control to bottle it until I could deal with them without risking outing myself. Regardless knew that I didn't want to keep being bullied.
Opening the back gate I tried to not lose too much of the Waste that was covering me. True I wanted the repulsive stuff off as soon as possible, but if I spread it everywhere then I'd have to clean it up later or risk my Dad finding out what happened. Well, we would probably be getting a call later for me breaking out of my locker but I think I'll be able to minimize the fallout of that. I'll just say that I have no idea what could have happened, why would I want to ruin my own stuff, plus there's no way I'd be able to damage a locker that much. That and I can say I just chose to skip school after I showed up. Yes, I'd have to tell Dad about the bullying but that's way easier than telling him that I've suddenly got powers. That would have been quite the conversation.
Unlocking the door carefully, I didn't want to rip this door off its hinges after all, I entered the kitchen. Floating upstairs and into the bathroom I ripped off what was left of my wretched clothes and threw them into the corner. Eugh, disgusting things. Cranking the showers heat up to max I floated into the shower. I had to ease up on scrubbing since I was tearing the puff I was using apart. That, at least, helped me feel a bit better. Drying off was shockingly easy since the water didn't seem to soak into me as much as it should have. I guess it must be another perk of my powers, if an odd one. Wrapping my towel around me I floated into my room to get changed.
Wearing clothes that hadn't been defiled I exited the shower and began scrubbing the bathroom. Taking care to not break anything this time, having learnt my lesson from the puff. After having retrieved the refuse scattered around the house and the back yard and thrown out the garbage bag, I decided to make some tea. Preparing the teapot getting out the cup and bag I went and laid down on the couch. Now all there is to do is plan out a costume and wait. Once I have my tea I can go up to my room and have that panic attack I've been putting off.
Hearing my Dad come in from my bedroom I got up, remembered I had to actually walk, and went out to greet him. As I began going down the stairs he called up to me.
"Kiddo, you home? The school called, said that we needed to go in for a meeting, today preferably. Hope you don't mind but I said alright since it sounded pretty important. " He said as he took off of his shoes.
"It's fine Dad, it's not like I had any plans today. What did they call about?" I knew, but I needed to act like I didn't. He didn't look too impressed as he turned to me.
"Well, they said you didn't show up in school today, and something about your locker being vandalized. And where are your glasses?" What did he mean about my glasses, they're right- oh.
"I left school because of the bullying that I've been meaning to tell you about," cue looking ashamed from me to sell it and from him for not noticing, "but I've got no idea about my locker. I got some contacts after I fell and broke my glasses while I was out today." I then changed to a concerned face. Yeah, I was lying to him but I could fix our broken father-daughter relationship later.
"Alright, that… makes sense I guess. Who is it that's been bullying you? We can get them called in, they probably would have anyway after you brought them up with the school." I cringed, and this time, it was a bit real.
"That's kind of the reason I didn't really want to tell you." I said, with trepidation evident in my voice.
"It's alright, you don't need to say it this instant, but you'll need to tell your teachers." He said, trying to sound comforting.
"It's… Emma, Sophia, and Madison." He looked shocked.
"But, why? Why would Emma do this to you?" The one question I didn't have the answer to, yet.
"I don't know, it started after summer camp a year and a half ago. I've got a journal of things that they did to me, I should probably bring it with us, shouldn't I?" He nodded, still trying to get his head around the idea of Emma bullying me. Hell, I was still trying to after all this time.
"Yeah, alright, you should do that. We need to get going in a little bit, but I'll call the school to tell them about the bullying." Agreeing I went upstairs to get ready after giving him the full names of the students and teachers that were relevant. I changed into nicer clothes, what was the old me thinking with her method of dressing? True I wasn't going without a sweater or jeans but these ones fit me better and had some colour at least in place of my usual grey-on-grey. Ignoring my own complaints, I grabbed everything that I could think of as evidence, including the journal of course.
Heading back down I saw Dad waiting by the door, looking very angry, probably at Alan Barnes, Emma's father. He was also one of Dad's closest friends. He looked up at me coming down the stairs and put down the phone. I guess he might also be angry with the school. We began heading out to the car, with a grim look on his face. Once we were driving I explained what had been happening over the last year and a half, while thinking out my strategy.
Entering into the school, I was glad to see that no one else had stayed late. What was not making me happy was the school itself. This 'esteemed establishment' had about as much credibility as the drug dealers that hung out across the street. Actually, they at least had equal amounts of robbing and poisoning you no matter who you were. Therefore, they surpassed the school's reliability. Great, that just really improves my faith in the faculty here. Focusing on the people standing outside Blackwell's office I had to resist the urge to grin. Emma, Sophia, and Madison were standing with clear amounts of agitation mirrored by their parents. Greg was standing a little bit away from the rest, looking really confused. I, however, was playing up the scared bullied kid that was worried about having to be in the same room as them. It was all about image in things like this, it would help turn their parents and the teachers against them. If I played it right I could also get them to realize the truth, that I Had actually broken the locker, since they knew that I'd been shoved in there. Them trying to say otherwise would actually be worse for their cases.
I held my head down, looking spooked and wary while they tried to look innocent. Excluding Sophia, she just looked pissed to be here, and at me probably. The secretary sent us in, opening the door for us. Inside the conference room sat a few of the teachers that I had named to Dad. I guess that they couldn't all make it here in time. Ms. Blackwell, Mr. Quinlan, Mr. Gladly, and Mrs. Knott were sitting around the table while the rest of us filed in. Blackwell glared at me as I entered while Mrs Knott looked at me with a mix of pity and worry.
"Now that you're all here maybe we can begin getting a better idea of what exactly happened today." Blackwell said while looking over all of us.
"So why are we all here?" Greg asked with a hesitant tone of voice, he clearly would rather be home doing whatever it was he did after school.
"We're here to figure out why Ms. Hebert's locker was filled with that disgusting stuff and what happened to the locker afterwards. Here are some photos of the scene so that we're all on the same page" Blackwell replied, placing some pictures on the table.
"Well, I got to school this morning hoping that I'd be left alone, since I've been being bullied a lot recently, and went to my locker. When I got there I saw them," I began, pointing at Emma, Sophia, and Madison. Alan tried to speak but Mrs. Knott shushed him, asking for me to finish, "standing nearby my locker. When I opened it I saw all of those vile things and, well I decided that there really wasn't any point in being here anymore. After I saw that thing though I threw up from the stench." By now the Trio had gotten the pictures and looked horrified at the shattered locker door. After all, they knew the truth about what had happened, seen me thrown into there yet here I was without a blemish and there was my poor locker, warped by my hand until it was unrecognizable.
"When I turned to go Emma said 'How do you like your Christmas present, Taylor? I know it's a bit late but we spent tons of time preparing it for you. I hope you enjoy it.' and the others said something about 'wallowing in filth' but by then I had stopped listening and just began walking out of the building." Greg looked like he was about to speak up but then his eyes widened in realization. Mr. Quinlan noticed and asked Greg.
"Mr. Veder, do you have something to say?" After a pointed look at me, he spoke up.
"Yeah, well. You see I was there, and what Taylor said is totally accurate. I felt really bad and wanted to help her but I wasn't sure of what to say, I think Mr. Gladly was there too, but he didn't speak up at the time either. Just stood around like he always does when Taylor gets bullied." I nodded in agreeance with Greg, something I thought I'd never do. All eyes turned to Mr. Gladly at this, who began sputtering before he actually got words out.
"Well I, um, don't really have a counter to today," he said, looking at his hands in shame. But with a bit of confusion, he'd left before I'd been shoved in had probably heard what had happened from everyone else, "but before I thought that you just had a few disputes here and there, not something that you'd want to get a teacher involved in."
"Then what about those times I told you I was being bullied, or however many spitballs were thrown into my hair? The glue spilt on my work, how every time you call me up to the front of the room I get tripped? What about those?" Greg, feeling confident with how well things had gone last time began acting oddly competent compared to his usual self.
"I've seen it happen a ton of times, with the other teachers too. It's a daily occurrence, you can't seriously say that you're that oblivious. I once even saw Blackwell shredding a note about the bullying that I handed in along with a few Taylor wrote." Mrs. Knott looked furious at that, even the other two teachers didn't look happy. Alan, however, was the first to speak up.
"Alright, so far we have some claims about my daughter and her friends doing some pranks here and there but that's no reason to be truant and blame it on them, is it?" He said with a voice I imagined him using in court.
"They keep destroying my work, so I'm not getting good grades anymore. I keep getting my stuff stolen and ruined like the books in my locker," I said pointing out the photos focusing on the inside of my soiled locker, "and money's been tight for a while so I didn't want to keep draining that with replacing everything. I don't have any friends since they scare everyone off, threatening them, doing things to them too. Here are some photos of what I've had damaged." I handed them out. When Mrs. Knott saw them she spoke up.
"I remember the day that this happened, it was a few months ago, How much do you have, there's got to be a few hundred pictures here." She asked.
"I've been recording everything that's happened since September this year, it's not a lot but it does mention every teacher who noticed, I flipped to a few entries in my journal where both a teacher and Greg had seen me at the same time. After I went through a few more where only one party had seen it going on. I'm so glad that my powers came with super-memory right now. Otherwise, I couldn't have pinpointed like this and might have just started from the beginning. Greg spoke up again, so far he was batting three for three, well by his standards at least.
"I don't quite remember all of them but a few I'm sure that at least most of these happened." Mr. Quinlan decided to add his own two cents.
"I can't remember any of these. With so many other issues in this school, you can hardly expect that little tricks like these would be noticed above gang violence, drug usage, and weapons being brought to school." Mrs. Knott glared at him and flipped to one of the events.
"Well I personally remember this one," she said, pointing to one where both of them had witnessed me being tripped down the stairs by Sophia, "and I remember you being there. I admit, I haven't been doing things the way that I should have, but at least I'm not lying about it." Blackwell cleared her throat.
"Hopefully, we can get back to the other half of the question since this was supposed to be about the damage to the locker and not what has been troubling Ms. Hebert. Now, do you have any idea as to why your locker looks like a bomb went off inside of it? Other than the waste which you claim these three put there." Now here comes the hard part. If anyone here chooses to not play along then I'm going to be outed instantly. Yes, they've got to be suspicious but there isn't any proof, yet at least.
"I honestly have no idea what happened to it, I left school at the start of the day." I gave the four who knew differently a pointed look, they Knew I was lying and if they said a word they'd ruin everything. Shockingly it was Sophia who came to my rescue.
"Yeah, most of the things in here we did, even the locker thing today." She said, holding the journal while leafing through it. Emma looked shocked while Madison had caved in on herself almost literally. The lady who had come in with Sophia, who clearly wasn't related, looked quite upset. Almost as much as Alan did in fact.
"You're accusing my daughter of doing this horrible thing with you as well? If you've done something wrong then don't shove the blame onto others." Sophia looked at him like he was a fool, which he kind of was at the moment.
"I said We did it, not just me, all three of us. We had nothing to do with whatever broke the door. But we filled it with that shit and said stuff pretty close to what Hebert and Veder said we did." Alan looked red as a tomato at this while Madison's parents simply looked very disappointed in their child. Blackwell did a repeat performance and cleared her throat even louder.
"Since we have multiple people all agreeing on what has happened then I guess this has become about the bullying since we've dealt with the locker as much as we can. Now, what would you like to see happen so that you were satisfied?" She looked furious at the Trio since she couldn't even downplay it since Sophia had verified enough of what I said, Greg and the teachers too. I made a good act at pretending on thinking about what to decide but in all honesty, I'd come in the door knowing. It looked like Sophia also realized this but had chosen to play along, good.
"I'd like a transfer to Arcadia." There were a few stunned looks, my Dad and Sophia included, at my statement.
"I would have expected expulsion, or even suspension. Most people would have gone with one of those." Blackwell said. I shook my head at her and continued, I needed to sell the idea that I wanted and could do more but was willing to be reasonable with them. Emma looked like she'd come to a great realization after Sophia had whispered something in her ear.
"Honestly, I'd love to go with something harsher, but expulsion would mean that they'd get fast-tracked into Arcadia which would almost defeat the purpose of going there. Plus it's probably too much to ask for." At this Blackwell nodded in agreement.
"Suspension is just an extra break from school unless it's an in-school suspension which I doubt you'd want to do since the staff is stretched as it is. All I've ever really wanted was for it to stop. I don't care about punishing them nearly as much as I do getting out of this situation. If you can guarantee me that then I won't ask for anything else. I won't spread this on media, I won't try for some stupid court case, I just want out." I added the last bit to remind them exactly How screwed they were if they didn't do this. I wasn't even lying when I said it all either. Not that I'd be upset if they were properly punished, I just knew that they wouldn't be.
"I think that can be arranged, I'll talk to your father about the specifics. You'd likely be starting next week. We'll let you keep your textbooks and borrow ones in place of those destroyed today until Friday, preferably brought in before 3 p.m. if you don't mind." I smiled and nodded, that was perfect for me, I'd probably learn everything in them by Wednesday. Not that they needed to know that.
"You five can leave," she said pointing to the students," I'd like to have a word with everyone and then Mr. Hebert." We quickly departed, the Trio grouping up to talk away from us while Greg followed me like a lost puppy.
"So why did you let them off easy anyway? And how did you get out of there?" Greg seemed to have gone back to regular Greg again.
"I got what I wanted, plus they wouldn't have done much even if I'd asked them to." I said, walking towards the car to wait for Dad there.
"That doesn't answer my second question though." He said following still.
"How I got out of there is none of your business Greg." I heard a gasp of realization from behind me, great, he'd either figured it out or thought he did. He rushed to get right next to me and whispered quietly enough I was pretty sure that no one else would hear us.
"You broke out, didn't you? You must've gotten powers in the locker and you were the thing that they thought was an explosion, right? And you said all that to keep your identity secret." Why does he keep jumping from brain dead to actually competent? I needed to keep him from spreading this. Denying won't work since he's figured it out and has some pretty good proof to back it up. Plus any excuse I can make now would have been something that were it real I would have used in the meeting we just had. Instead, I stopped and gave him a glare that stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Now Greg, hypothetically if I Had, wouldn't you saying such prove that I needed to do something to fix the leak that's just come up? What would you suggest someone in such a theoretical situation should do? Hmm?" A little bit of threatening to make him realize how stupid he was being and giving him a way out.
"Um, I uh, would try to be close enough to them so that they couldn't tell anyone," his real intentions bled through clearly. He'd had a crush on me for a while but even with him helping me there was no way I would be going out with him.
"Well either way just make sure that you don't go around spreading any Dangerous rumors, someone might just get hurt after all. If I heard one I'd know just who spread it this time." He blanched at that. He knew that since I was a parahuman that it wouldn't be me getting hurt, at least not directly and that was enough to shut him up. Hopefully it would at least. He shortly left with his mother along with the Trio, each purposefully looking away from me. The wait for Dad wasn't too much longer.
"Good news kiddo, the transfer was worked out and the timeline will stay the same. I had to sign about not letting this news go everywhere but I think it was worth it." I smiled up at him from where I was sitting on the steps.
"That's great, I can't wait to get started there." I surprised myself realizing that this also wasn't a lie. I did want to go there, have a chance at friends, at getting good grades. Being normal essentially, even if my power would make the grades super easy it would make the story of the work being destroyed even more believable. The car ride home had a much brighter atmosphere than it did coming out here.