3.2 Work Release Programs
Monday, and back to the daily grind. Regrettably, Amy spotted me as we left our shared class. We were headed to lunch, but she spotted me before I could escape the classroom into the mass of people in the hallway.
"Hey Taylor, wait a minute."
I waited, turning to look at her.
"Vicky was looking for you."
"OK", come on Amy, just leave me alone, I haven't done anything to you.
"Well, are you going to be eating in the cafeteria today?"
"I, uh, need to go to the library, to get some books." Real smooth there, Taylor. I want to go to the library way more than I want to go to the cafeteria right now and I don't even believe me.
"Whatever then."
Amy clearly thinks I'm stupid, but she leaves.
Yeah, the library is out now. I don't know any places to hide in Arcadia yet, well aside from the bathrooms. I really don't want them or Sophia to start harassing me. It gradually escalated with Emma and Sophia freshman year, and I really want to avoid something like that starting here.
Do I hide, or do I pretend like nothing is wrong? Either way, this evening dad's going to find out. I guess it was advice from Lacey or something, but awkwardness hadn't been a deterrent from him getting to the bottom of bad things going on in my life. It sort of helps, I guess, but still it is unpleasant to go through.
Hmm, Sophia would tell Vicky I hid occasionally in bathrooms at Winslow. I'll eat outside again. It's not as if they couldn't find me regardless, but at least it's nice out.
Eventually, I finish lunch and start reading.
Vicky drops down in front of me, startling me out my book. She, uh, is actually pretty scary doing that. I sort of cringe, and put my stuff away. It's easier to steal a backpack than random stuff, but much easier than both is knocking whatever I'm holding out of my hands and stepping on it.
"Hey, why are you avoiding me? We were getting along last week, and I wanted to keep talking."
There's no good answer to that question. Vicky is being pretty seriously scary here. I imagine she could kick me in half if she wanted to. There's videos of her shoving around cars and stuff. Why did I come outside? Everything about her is terrifying. I mumble out "I just want to be left alone."
"Come on, who wants that? We're chill, hang out with us."
"I'd uh rather not, you were kind of mean."
"What!? I Am Not Mean!"
I'm going to die. Vicky is going to kill me.
"What is wrong with you! I've been nothing but nice to you, and came over to be friends and-"
And at that point, Vicky is terrifying enough that I lose control of my bladder.
I don't hear what she says as she notices and trails off. She reacts first. "Shit."
The moment broken, I run away, clutching my backpack.
Well, life is horrifying and humiliating.
Once I'm away from her, I slow down and catch my breath. I guess I can either walk home like this, or, actually, I guess I have to tell Mrs Green first.
I'm grateful to anybody listening that her classroom is close.
"Taylor, are you-" she notices, and sighs. "Well child, stuff like this has happened before. So, would it work for you to shower first and wear some spare gym shorts? Then we'll sort this out."
It's almost comforting that she has a default plan. I nod, not really feeling up to talking.
"OK, hold on a minute."
She picks up her phone and calls the PE teacher, and asks him to bring some girl's shorts from the extra supplies for gym.
"Taylor, you can either change in here by yourself, with me outside the door keeping it shut, or go down to the gym and shower first. If you change here, you can still go shower and change again. Do you have extra clothes?"
"I'll change here, shower, and then change into my gym clothes I have here."
"Sounds like a plan then. Now, if you're up to it, I'd like to know what happened. If not, you can get cleaned up first, but I do need to eventually get an explanation about what happened."
"Well, Sophia has been leaving me alone, but she's friends with Vicky, who came by last week at lunch. She and Amy and Claire were sort of nice, but also made fun of me some too, about some cape stuff. It wasn't a big deal, but I wanted to avoid them for a bit, so I've been eating lunch outside, and today Vicky came by and was angry, well, at least she was upset that I'd been avoiding her, and then she got downright terrifying and threatening, and I got scared enough that, well, here I am."
"OK, so if that's what happened, you're likely in the clear. However, I am not the person who gets to hear the other side of things though or make that final decision. I need to call the principal now. Please just wait. I'm sure a change of clothes will be here soon."
I nod, and just stand there, being miserable, and Mrs Green calls Principal Edgeworth.
"Michael, hi, this is Lottie. There's been an incident between Victoria Dallon and Taylor Hebert. There was no blood or fighting, but it was very unpleasant for Taylor. I'm getting- oh, Taylor's change of clothes is here. I'll call you back."
She waves to somebody behind me. I didn't hear the gym teacher, but he's walking up to us. He's quiet for a big guy and has the extra clothes.
He brought shorts and warm-up pants. Mrs Green makes him help her close the window blinds and then ushers him out, and tells me to come out of the room when I'm changed.
I'm quickly done, and exit with my damp pants. Mrs Green says to go to the principal's office after I've showed. I won't be called over the intercom, but I am supposed to not waste time.
While I'm showering, I hear the intercom, "Claire Davis, and Victoria and Amy Dallon, please come to the Principal's office." I try to hurry and I get there maybe ten minutes later.
The three girls are sitting outside, but I don't look at them enough to even guess at what they're thinking.
The secretary sends us inside, and after shutting the door, Principal Edgeworth starts talking once all four of us are seated.
"Students, there has been a series events that brought you all here. I'm going to start with what I know, and then I'll be asking questions of each of you. None of you are to interrupt each other. If you think you have something crucial to add or that a statement is inaccurate or false, you will still wait your turn to explain. During lunch today, Taylor approached Mrs Green for help. Taylor had urinated in her pants, and very much wanted to get cleaned up. She told Mrs Green that this happened because Victoria scared her badly while they were talking. Taylor, during lunch today, did Victoria touch you at any point in time?"
"No, sir."
"Taylor, did Victoria make any explicit threats to your person? She could be intimidating, but please differentiate between her being scary, and her making an explicit threat to hurt you."
"Uh, she didn't make any explicit threats."
"If any of you have anything to add to just the physical aspects of what happened during lunch today, raise your hand."
None of us did.
"OK, so, since there was no physical assault or threats, we can continue without immediately bringing in your parents. All of your parents will be informed regardless though. This past Wednesday, during lunch, were any of you seated together at any point in time?"
I nod my head, and hear Vicky say yes.
"If any of you felt uncomfortable at any point that day while interacting with any other person in this room, raise your hand."
I raise mine a bit.
"Taylor, what parts were uncomfortable?"
"They, uh, came and sat with me and wanted to talk, which was fine, but we got to talking about capes, and they started laughing at me for not knowing something about Narwhal. It wasn't a big deal, but I wanted to avoid them, cause I-"
"Just a moment Taylor, I want to understand this a piece at a time. Do any of you disagree that Narwhal, the cape, was the last topic of conversation any of you has with Taylor that day?"
They nod, and Vicky starts to speak, but Mr Edgeworth cuts her off.
"Ms Dallon, you will be permitted every reasonable chance to explain your side of things. I fully acknowledge that there is a chance that perhaps Taylor misinterpreted some or most of this situation, but you will not convince me by speaking out of turn."
Vicky nods, and looks a bit sullen. This takes longer than the Winslow stuff does.
"Claire, who first brought up the name Narwhal, during this conversation?"
"Uh, Taylor did."
"Taylor, why did you bring up Narwhal?"
"Well, Vicky asked me to guess who the favorite heroes were of the the of them. I guessed Vicky for herself, and Narwhal for Amy. I uh left before guessing for Claire."
"Raise your hand if you disagree with these events as described."
We don't. This is kind of slow, but still way better than the girls getting to talk over me.
"Victoria, why was Narwhal funny as a suggestion?"
"It wasn't because of Taylor, but every guy likes Narwhal because she's naked-"
"What?!" I can't help but interrupt.
Principal Edgeworth politely adds to me, "Taylor, you must also wait your turn to talk."
I nod, but am mostly confused.
Victoria continues. "Yeah, Narwhal creates force fields, and doesn't wear clothes, she just wears opaque force fields, according to rumor anyway, and I thought Taylor was suggesting that Amy should try to hook up with Narwhal, because before we had mentioned that I had, uh, set Amy, up on some dates that didn't go so well."
"Do any of you have anything to add, or found Narwhal funny for a different reason"
We shake our heads. I don't know if I believe them or not, but I guess if Narwhal really is a sort of naked hero, it would be kind of funny.
"Taylor, were you surprised that these three sat with you that day?"
"Yeah, I mean, we've never talked, and they are friends with Sophia, and usually sit with her group."
Vicky sends an intensely inquisitive look at me, but backs off when she notices Mr Edgeworth watching her.
"Have any of you talked to Taylor prior to that lunch? If not, why did you want to sit at her table? Raise your hands if you want to talk."
Vicky gets picked over Claire
"I've met pretty much everyone, I figured I hadn't met Taylor and I'd introduce myself and some of my friends. We were just trying to be nice."
Principal Edgeworth responds to that with a rather dry tone. "Victoria, I'm rather skeptical that you are acquainted with the entire school population. Do you wish argue my skepticism, or perhaps did you have another reason that you would like to add?"
Vicky starts to talk, but pauses, like she's unwilling to say something. Maybe something like 'Sophia said Taylor was easy mess with'. Not that I didn't just justfy that comment outside.
"Claire, would you like to add anything as to Victoria's interest in meeting Taylor, or perhaps you own reasons?"
Claire shakes her head.
"Amy, same question."
Amy also shakes her head. Huh, Amy hasn't actually said much of anything.
"Alright, I'm going to move on for the moment. Victoria, how did you find Taylor outside today?"
"I went looking for her, I wanted to know why she wasn't in the cafeteria the past couple of days, I was trying to be friendly."
"Amy, do you have anything to add this?"
"Uh, I have class with Taylor before lunch, I told her Vicky was looking for her."
"Amy, did Taylor suggest where she could meet Victoria or tell you where she would be eating lunch?"
"Taylor said she'd be in the library."
"Taylor, were you trying to avoid them?"
"Yes, I mean, I can see how maybe what I said at lunch was funny now, if that's true about Narwhal, but I didn't know that, and if they were going to bully me about it, well I just wanted to be left alone."
Mr Edgeworth smiles. "Well, even if it was relevant, we're going to leave unresolved the details of Narwhal's costume. Victoria, why didn't you respect Taylor's desire to be left alone?"
"I didn't know she wanted to be left alone. I really thought she liked having us join her, and I didn't believe she'd want to avoid us, so I went looking for her."
"Taylor, did Victoria appear angry with you?"
Vicky raises her hand, looking sheepish.
"Victoria, after Taylor answers my question, you may talk next." He pointedly looks at me.
"Uh, kind of, she flew down and that made me jump and, and she was scary, and did get really angry when I said that she'd been mean to me."
"Alright Victoria, you wished to add something."
"Well, I might not have controlled my aura very well, because I was upset, and if Taylor was already afraid, well I guess might have made it a lot worse. I didn't mean to, but I could see it happening. I, uh, wasn't paying enough attention."
"Taylor, did you know Victoria has an emotion affecting aura?"
Oh, that makes a lot of sense, I mean, she had gotten pretty unreasonably terrifying for being called 'mean'. She'd been upset, but ripping people in half wasn't something she did. She was a hero. Even if a scary one.
Principal Edgeworth is still watching me.
"Uh, no, I mean Victoria, uh well, Glory Girl, is like Alexandria, I thought it was, uh, Gallant that had the emotion affecting powers."
"They both do. That is however, beyond the scope of why you all are missing class and are here. Do any of you, and especially you Taylor, disagree that what happened today is the issue that needs to be addressed?"
We shake our heads.
"Well then, Claire and Amy, in the future, just because you may be having fun, doesn't mean that the people you're with feel the same. You will not be officially punished for last week, just a warning to be more careful of others feelings. Perhaps, in the future, you and Taylor may be friends since you do appear have not intended to make her uncomfortable. On the other hand, perhaps not, as there are many students at Arcadia. Be mindful of the feelings of others. You two are dismissed. See Mrs Reynolds outside for passes to class."
After those two leave, it's just the three of us.
"Victoria, what is worse, to hurt somebody intentionally, or because you don't care what you're doing to them?"
Vicky looking sullen, and shrugs.
"Young lady, that wasn't a rhetorical question. Your actions were deeply upsetting to a fellow student, and led to physical repercussions for her. You will be assigned 3 detentions and will be required to meet with me and your parents at a date to be arranged. You are dismissed. You as well are to get a pass from Mrs Reynolds."
Vicky leaves, and I'm ready to go too.
"Taylor, Mrs Green tells me you are a rather quiet student. Would you agree?"
"Yeah, I just want to get through things and be left alone."
"Despite my admittedly outside perspective on your history, I am unsurprised. However, I do encourage you to try and find some friends amongst your fellow students. There isn't a 'best' time in your life, except perhaps in retrospect. If those three had been less careless, they might have been potential friends. Not everybody is a reflection of their acquaintances after all. I do not think they meant their actions poorly. Regardless, I expect they've burned any goodwill you might have for them. Do try and forgive them though for the parts of their behavior that were simply poorly thought out, rather than malicious."
I shrug and grunt out an OK. I'm not sure if he's seriously suggesting I be friends with them now, but I guess if they actually leave me alone, I can forgive them screwing up being friendly. Eventually anyway, as I doubt I'll be forgiving Vicky for a while.
"Well, I expect you won't wish to stay in school for the remainder of the day. Is your father generally able to take calls at work?"
"Yes, but I can make my own way home. I'd fine."
"Well, I've got my own regulations that I've got to follow, so please bear with me. If your father is available, I'll put him on speakerphone."
The conversation is as awkward as I expect. Dad is willing to come get me, but I convince him that I'm fine getting home on my own and that I'll call when I get there.
The highlight of the day is tinkering. Not that there's been anything to compete with it since breakfast this morning.
I've placed sensors on the steps of the house, so I can stop when dad gets home but don't have to worry about the time. Down in my secret basement lair, I'm again trying to get some better electrical function out of my tech. Currently, I think I can build a strength amplifying suit in about four days. The suit will immediately begin decaying, but will last at 90% effectiveness for about 8 hours. I'll be able to recycle the suit, but it'll still take the same amount of time to remake. If I could get more metals like in my squiggles, it would be able to survive the chem treatments to reenergize the polymers, but until then, it's like a really big turtle unit, in the shape of a suit of muscles. Also, no radio, because no electricity, or compatible computers. Actually the lack of electronics is really hard. If Tattletale goes for the testing plan, I guess we'll have to get ourselves burner phones. On the other hand, power suits that last less than a day are really poor theft targets. Maybe I could do ion based metabolic packets, as a charge carrier for a single direction reaction chamber?
I lose myself in my work until dad gets home.
While making dinner, dad asks questions until he understands what happened. I'm not happy about it, but I guess kids are stupid, even high schoolers, and I am just tired of it. Dad eventually agrees to shift the conversation away from my humiliating school day, and we continue to discuss what to do about Tattletale. He's finally come around to the idea of sponsoring her, especially since she is already an active cape, and my first gen power armor will be rather terrible. His only stipulation is that I can track her if she steals stuff from me.
I guess I can drug her food with a polymer that is released slowly from the body. Anywhere she goes, my units with be able to find if it connects to the sewers or storm drains. Of course, I can trace the trail of the suit's decaying polymers anywhere from that point, but I'd have to do it in person.
Tattletale did provide a list of all the Bay capes, and Glory Girl does have an emotion affecting aura, so, that's something for her being honest and knowledgeable. Dad and I put our heads together and start hashing out how we want this goods and services exchange to work with Tattletale.
The next day, I sit in the lunchroom and immediately regret it. A red haired boy sits down across from me.
He starts talking while I'm still considering him. "Hey, I'm got some friends, but they're kind of dumb sometimes. I'm not going to bother you, but they asked me to give you an apology. I suggested grovelling, but they didn't go for it."
He's cheerful and happy, like it's no big deal to him. My response of "OK" dampens his enthusiasm.
He gets back up from my table. "Yeah, well, they're sorry, and I hope you enjoy your lunch. Goodbye."
"Goodbye"
I missed his name. I don't even feel bad as he goes away.
What is with that group? It's like they took turns talking to me. Huh, maybe Sophia got warned off by Edgeworth, but she subtly lied to her group, just implying that I was like her, and maybe they'd like to be friends with me? That's not entirely unreasonable. Sophia is more, uh, punchy, as a bully, but maybe she tried to emulate Emma.
Actually, I have an idea to improve my elastic polymers, I'll just draw... Oh, right my stupid blunt nib pens. Fine, I guess I can wait until I get home and avoid any chance of somebody catching me tinkering.
I get through the day, get home, get through my homework, make dinner, and tell my dad about my day over dinner. I pack some of the leftovers for Tattletale. Dad mostly gets her stuff that can be eaten cold, but we had salad, and that can get packed as well pretty reasonably.
Tattletale sent a Polaroid as we requested. I put some shampoo in her next package, because I don't hate her. This package also contains my offer for her to do some heroing, testing my power armor. I'll call anything with goes over the limbs armor, and if it has a cockpit, then it'll be a mech. I think I could build a mech. Polymers are lightweight enough, and Tattletale looks small enough that I eventually could make it work. I'd need more metal, but the ion metabolic chambers might scale well. To make tools, I'll work out how to launch spikes or something. Oh, Tattletale's suit will need degradation catalysts, so it will break down quickly if she runs off with it.
The next couple weeks pass quickly for me. I'm left alone again at school, thankfully. Tattletale agreed to test my equipment for me. It works reasonably well. One of the first things I built, a sound recorder, she uses to narrate how well the stuff works. I finally admitted she can't have the internet because I can't make wires to carry the signal, or a computer for her to access the connection. She admitted she'd had her laptop and phone, sort of as a faint hope that it'd be useful, but their batteries had run down.
She's been helping my units harvest material from the next selected boat wreck. Her work is a great help. Mostly in the form of her using her brain for moving and collecting stuff. She says the power suit is working well. We've tentatively agreed that she'll start off hitting the Merchants. She'll take whatever she can in cash, and run. We'll split the cash.
I won't show her my full map of the Bay, but I've been sending updated paper maps of where there are unusual concentrations of chemical by products from making drugs, or drugs themselves. Tattletale says that none of them are likely safe houses though. Even the Merchants try to limit the amount of drugs that might lead back to their lairs. The areas with a lot of blood though likely are associated with fighting matches that Hookwolf arranges.
I'm still unwilling to meet with Tattletale, but next week is the protective tests using the new version of the armor. Those will be on the beach, in the boat graveyard. The dozen or so boats that got driven up onto the beach at the edge of the docks.
The next version of the suit will be armor plated, an organic iron carbon foam ranging from half an inch thick down to just an eighth. It's lighter than it looks, but it looks awesome. Tattletale is getting a grey theme, because I haven't figured how to bind the color pigments properly. Color was a low priority objective anyway. Aside from blunt punches, Tattletale would get a few weapons. The first 'weapon' was just the palms of the suit's hands. They had the resource absorption enzymes and reactants. If Tattletale wanted to really slowly give somebody a chemical burn, that would do it. It's intended function though was to eat through a doorknob or something, though that was also slow. The first real weapon was the spike launcher, on the right forearm. It launched spikes. It had four rounds, each in their own barrel. The left forearm had a tethered grapple hook, that could be launched as a bludgeon. Or, it could be launched to help climb things, because it was a grapple hook. The mechanism couldn't lift the suit, not even without Tattletale in it, but it would at least ratchet, stopping her from falling, and letting her more easily climb walls.
I was very excited, the suit had all sorts of recording mechanisms, and could break into pieces for easier transport.
Tattletale would get the suit on Monday, go test it that evening, and then it would break down into small enough pieces to get shipped back to me. I'd analyze the results and maybe be able to turn it around from another test run on Friday. Assuming all goes well, the week after, Tattletale gets to raid a Merchant storehouse and get a hot meal. She's gotten really insistent on that. I'll call a place of her choice beforehand, place an order for takeout, she'll pick up, pay, and eat on a rooftop. Then hit the merchants, get the loot, and get more hot food if she wants. I really ought to make her a chemical stove or something. I can't supply the electricity, or deal with the fumes from burning something in my underwater lair. Tattletale had gotten an actual toilet and shower though. The nice thing about polymers is they're easy work with. Once I had gotten confident enough to not accidentally kill her in the process, I had expanded the underwater lair with the extras. Anyway, only a couple more days until the weekend, and then soon, testing.
