Omake: Anti-Bullying
Taylor grumbled to herself as she took her seat in the auditorium with the rest of the students for some kind of mandatory presentation the school was doing today. She would have tried to skip by hiding the bathrooms until it was over, but unfortunately it seemed that Lily was under orders to make sure she showed up to whatever this was. So this was probably another scheme to get her to agree to join the team or something like that, however she had to hand it to whoever came up with this idea they really up their game with this by dragging the whole school into the PRT's needy bullshit.
As she thought this the lights in the auditorium dimmed and Taylor was sorely tempted to just take out her phone and finish a few more chapters of her latest book instead of listening to whatever this is. Unfortunately for her before she could a young woman walked onto the stage and the ear piercing feedback from the microphone broke her train of thought.
Deciding to actually pay attention to what was going on down there, mostly to glare at whoever interrupted her reading, Taylor saw the unpleasantly familiar face of the woman who ran the Ward's PR events for Boston. Taylor didn't remember the woman's name off the top of her head mostly because the only times she met the woman was when she came to Boston, and the other was when she showed up to talk (berate) to her after what she did during the tour.
'So that's what they're doing,' Taylor thought to herself while shaking her head. It was honest in hindsight with most of the 'team' being absent today with only Lily, Reynold, and herself being at school today.
Thinking this Taylor shot a glance to where Lily was seating nearly right behind her, 'Probably to make sure I don't try and ditch this trainwreck halfway through.' Taylor thought with a grimace.
"And now may I introduce the Boston Wards," the PR woman shouted into the mic with false cheer as the familiar forms of Taylor's 'teammates' came onstage with much fanfare from the rest of the student body.
Taylor watched as the team took their positions in various poses for what looked like a rendition of their lunchbox cover. However a closer inspection showed that there were three very obvious gaps in their lineup, which was one more than the absentee Wards.
'Oh god they already worked me into their god damn PR routine didn't they,' Taylor thought while resisting the urge to facepalm.
Luckily or rather unluckily Taylor was broken out of this train of thoughts by Weld's voice coming over the speaker system.
"Hello Saint George High school, today me and my fellow Wards would like to talk to all of you about a very important topic, bullying." Weld said in an even tone as a slideshow started up behind him, and while Taylor couldn't exactly make out his facial features from.where she was sitting she would put money down on him looking directly at her.
'So an anti-bullying seminar they are really doing it,' Taylor thought, 'yeah I mean go ahead blast my experiences to the whole world why don't you.'
It wasn't like Taylor had never heard of anti-bullying seminars or even the Wards doing then from time to time, but it was always something she put down as something that happened at other schools that weren't named Winslow. Apparently Arcadia had one at least once a year if she remembered correctly, of course thinking this made Taylor realize that Emma and Sophia would have been apart of such events and to say the irony left a bitter taste in her mouth would be an understatement.
Deciding not to participate in this farce any longer Taylor pulled out her phone and started scrolling through PHO. All the while Weld and the other Wards went over what Taylor assumed were the standard talking points, see something say something, tell an adult or teacher, and of course don't react, to them as if any of those things actually worked becaused news flash she tried and look where she is now.
Before Taylor knew it Weld got through the last of the slideshow to the obligatory applause of the rest of the school, but instead of walking off stage so Taylor could get on with the rest of her day he did something that Taylor really should have expected by this point.
"Any questions?" He asked as countless hands shot up, mostly to get a chance to talk to an actual hero rather then out of any care bullying or its victims. Because for as much Taylor hated to admit it the Principle was being honest when he said he had a zero tolerance policy on bullying, hell the kids at this school had probably never seen someone being intentionally shoved around in the hall much less what an actual bullying campaign loomed like.
Weld made a an act of looking across the auditorium before his metal eyes settled in Taylor's direction and a pit of dread opened up in her stomach.
'Oh he wouldn't dare,' she thought. But it made sense get her here talk about a topic close to home, and have Lily in the back to let them know exactly where she was sitting so they can go through with their fucked up public therapy bullshit or whatever the hell the plan was here.
"Ah yes you in the back with the curly black hair and glasses," Weld called out giving way to many descriptions about her as all the eyes turned in her direction.
'Welp no use pretending he was talking about someone else now is there,' Taylor thought as she stood up and a mic was handed to her by some rude supervisor.
Sighing to herself Taylor took the mic with a grunt, well if she is doing this might as well make them pay for it she thought before speaking. "Okay fine my question is do any of you up there actually believe the bullshit you're saying or did whoever write your scripts just tell you to say it and you didn't ask any questions?"
The entire room went quiet at her question and Taylor was able to make out a faint grimace on Weld's features from her position.
"Well you see bullying is a complicated topic and..." Weld tried to get something out, and Taylor was almost disappointed she had thought by now they would have expected this from her.
"Then why are you doing this here? And not say a school that actually has a bullying problem, is it because you know they won't care about what you have to say, or doign this at a lower income school just doesn't give the same PR boost as it does here?" Taylor drove in harder she wanted to make whoever came up with this regret it, be it Gauss, Weld, or fucking Armstrong himself.
"Well the Wards and Protectorate have a limited amount of time to do these events and..." Weld once again tried to get out.
"So people in these schools who are probably being bullied just don't matter then? Because let me tell you this what you said up there about dealing with bullies talking to a teacher or getting help doesn't work, and I know because I tried it and it was always my word against theirs and there was more of them then me so guess who got punished for attention seeking behavior." Taylor asked mockingly, she was furious how dare they think she wanted this to put under the spotlight like this.
"Most people like that just want a reaction out of you so ignoring them should make them lose interest." Roulette spoke up for Weld who looked like he was about to melt.
"Nope that doesn't work either, ignoring them just makes them escalate to worse things." Taylor bit back.
"If that is the case I am sure a teacher will step in and do something," Weld said trying desperately to regain control of the situation.
"Wrong, because by that point you already asked them and they put you down as a liar or they aren't paid enough to actually do anything about it. So you go on ignoring them and they keep escalating: fighting back just gets you punished so why bother? Until eventually they escalate so far and you end up in the god damn hospital after what they did. I know most people would think that by that point surely something will be done, and I will admit I hoped that too, for a moment that is. So you know what did happen?" Taylor heard silence which she took as her cue to go on, "Absolutely nothing happened. The ones who put you in the hospital get off without even a slap on the wrist and you get shipped off to a different school district to avoid having to punish anyone or deal with the lawsuit. That is what happens. Be inconvenient enough and you get swept under the rug for your troubles."
Taylor was nearly panting now it hurt to let everything out like that and she knew she would regret it once she calmed down but they fucking deserved it. She took one more look at Weld before handing her mic back to the silent supervisor and sat back down.
Before Weld or any of the other Wards could dig themselves any deeper the same woman from the beginning stepped onto the stage, probably to end this tragedy of a Q and A session.
"Unfortunately that is all the time we have today thank you Saint George Highschool for having us with you today," she said with a level of cheer that sat at odds with the mood in the auditorium.
As the Wards were ushered off the stage the rest of the students made way to leave. Luckily for Taylor due to her position near the back she was one of the first groups to leave which save her from most of the stares that followed her out after her outburst. Deciding she might as well not bother with the rest of her classes today she made her way to her locker to gather up her supplies and make for the exit.
As she made her way out of the building she spotted Lily approaching from the side making a directly beeline towards her.
"Taylor we need to talk," she shouted towards her but Taylor just ignored her a kept walking towards the doors.
"Taylor please," Lily begged, but Taylor wasn't listening she had enough emotions for one day and was done.
Brushing past Lily Taylor walked down the steps at the front of the school and made her way to one of the bus stops. She had new stash for her vigilante supplies a few stops down and she wasn't doing anything else today so might as well start her patrol early.
Sitting down on the bus she open her phone to see numerous messages from the rest of the Wards, the PR manager, and Armstrong himself requesting a meeting at the earliest convience.
'Yeah no,' Taylor thought, 'they put her on the spot like that now they have to deal with the consequences.'
Upon thinking this Taylor had another idea and seeing she had some time before her stop she requested the forms from Jim about a risk to her secret identity. In the mean time she opened one of the PHO threads dealing with the local news only to see some new ones already blowing up about the Ward's latest PR failure.
Smiling to herself Taylor accessed one of the threads, 'might as well fan the flames while she has some time on her hands,' she thought as the bus drove off.
A.N: Hey
FirstSelector have a new omake for your and let me know what you all think.
