Chapter Text
January 4, 2011
Taylor Hebert
“Hi! Is this seat taken?”
That was how it started. Looking back, it was the point my whole life went down a new track. Those five words. I looked up in slight surprise – most people ignored me on the Brockton Bay bus lines, and I ignored them – and considered the speaker. A girl maybe a tad older than I was, an older sophomore or a junior, with clean, pretty, Japanese features, long, straight black hair, and surprisingly warm brown eyes. Her clothing was neat but not fancy, although most people in Brockton Bay didn’t wear sweaters decorated with the Manhattan skyline. Or fill it out as well as the new girl did. They usually didn’t have New York accents, either, however pleasantly soft hers was.
“Uh, yeah, of course you can, I mean, no, it’s not occupied,” I answered, stumbling over my words like an idiot. Like a dunce. Just like everyone said I was.
Geez, Taylor, can’t you talk like a normal-
“Thanks! Are you headed to Winslow High School too?” The stranger’s voice broke into my inner monologue, which sounded painfully like someone I used to love like a sister.
I had to stop and stare again. The idea of someone sounding that cheerful about Winslow High School was completely alien to me. If there was one single point of agreement on objective reality between me and the rest of student body – I doubted there were two! – it was that the place was terrible.
“Yeah. New in town?” I guessed as the bus started moving again. She had to have just moved. God help her.
“Mmhm. Kind’ve unexpected,” she explained, getting settled with her overstuffed bookbag between her legs. “Got my stuff from the school yesterday, but that wasn’t on the bus.”
“I just bet Principal Blackwell loved coming in a day early,” I commented, rolling my eyes. The principal of Winslow High School and I were not on good terms, to put it mildly.
The new girl chuckled. “No, she didn’t seem that happy about it. Anyway, I’m Lily Hara. Sophomore.”
Lily held out her hand, and I took it, shaking it like I’d been introduced to one of the longshoreman or other union types Dad worked with. Her grip was firm, too, not limp or colt at all. “Taylor Hebert, likewise.” I wasn’t sure why I said it. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t going to turn on me too. I was the pariah. Maybe I just wanted someone to talk to. At least until-the-sudden yet inevitable betrayal after Emma and the rest of the bitches got their hooks in.
“Don’t suppose you’ve got homeroom with Mrs. Knott? I didn’t exactly get a tour yesterday. The principal was pretty eager to get out of there.” Lily frowned thoughtfully, then added, “There was a weird smell in the hallway, too. Maybe she was calling a cleaning crew.”
“I have no idea. The idea something crawled in and died over the break doesn’t surprise me, though.”
“Me, either. The place is pretty run-down for… well, it just surprised me.”
I wondered a bit at Lily’s sudden pause, and at what she’d been about to say, but didn’t ask. It was too nice to have a civil conversation with someone my own age for once. “Yeah. Me too.” Pausing, I hesitated over what to say next, then decided I’d better warn her. “Be careful around some of the students, too. Especially the skinheads. We’ve, uh, we’ve got this gang in town-“
“The Empire 88, right. And ones in red and green are the ABB,” Lily answered when I paused, nodding, her lips twisted in distaste. “Both of them are pretty hard on queer types, too, I’ve heard.”
An odd thing to add, but I nodded. I know Mom, being bi, among other reasons, hadn’t been a fan of either gang. Dad wasn’t either, and he hated how they kept trying to get their hooks into the Dockworkers. Keeping the Association clean after all the work his forebears put into avoiding getting entangled with organized crime, as long ago as Prohibition, was a real headache for him.
“Yeah, they’re bad. Be careful.” I hated that I felt like I had to warn someone with Asian ancestry, but it’d be all too easy for Lily to get dragged into the middle of that nonsense. The ABB wasn’t as inclined to queer bashing as the Empire, but they were definitely misogynistic assholes, and lesbians were supposedly a ‘special order’ for some of the clubs they reputedly maintained. Dimly, I wondered why Sophia never seemed to have trouble with the skinheads, despite abusing a white girl constantly. Not for the first time, I decided that everyone involved just sucked.
Lily leaned back with a sigh. “New York’s not as bad about that, but I had to move, and…” She sighed, gesturing, and it drew my eye. None of her clothes were red or green, although her backpack was a dark sort of hunter green trimmed in gray. “It was just a whole thing. I’m glad to meet a friendly face.”
I mustered a wan smile, warding myself against the betrayal to come, but it seemed to satisfy her, because she smiled back. Lily really did seem nice. “Yeah.”
To my surprise, we started talking about books. Lily didn’t read a lot, but she liked genre fiction, and I liked to check that out of the library, although I knew better than to bring library books anywhere near Winslow. Not after all the other things I’d had ruined. Like Mom’s flute, dented and smeared with shit. Even cleaned up as best I could, it felt like it was reminding me of my failures, hidden under the bed.
Hopefully, maybe, someway, somehow, I’d at least be able to talk to Lily occasionally without put downs, instead of this memory being ruined like that flute…
Still chatting amiably, we walked though Winslow’s doors, and I made my usual frown at the screech of an unoiled hinge. Seriously, was the budget so far gone a little WD-40 was past them?
Before we could get by the office, though, I heard an imperious voice. “Hebert! In the office, now.”
Schooling my face into a neutral expression as I walked in, dimly noticing Lily following me, I looked to my left and spoke as respectfully as I could manage. “Principal Blackwell.”
I’d say I hadn’t managed it from the expression on her face, but in my experience Carrie Blackwell had always looked pissy and annoyed. “What the hell did you thinking putting all that in your locker, Miss Hebert?”
I blinked in surprise. “My locker? My locker was empty when I left last year.”
“Don’t play coy with me, Hebert,” Blackwell hissed angrily. “Do you have any idea how much we had to spend cleaning that mess up?! Or how much trouble you’re in for that!”
“For what? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, the anger rising, and I struggled to keep my voice level and calm. The last thing I needed was detention for snapping at her. Even if she deserved it. Especially if she deserved it.
Blackwell glared at me, and it probably annoyed her she had to look up to look me in the eye. “You know, all the tampons? The animal waste? The trash?”
“…what?!” I replied, surprised into losing my decorum for a moment. “No, I don’t know.”
“It was your locker, Miss Hebert! The locker you turned into a toxic waste dump.”
“The same locker I’ve complained about someone stealing things out of half of last semester?” I retorted acidly, my temper finally getting the better out of me. “The same one you never checked the lock on? The one someone stole some of my schoolbooks out of and left in your office, covered in juice?”
“I’ve had it with your attempts to get attention! I’ve got half a mind to have you thrown in juvey for=”
A soft, calmer voice interrupted. “Uh, Principal Blackwell, do you have any sort of evidence?” Both of us blinked in surprise, then turned to look at Lily, who was still standing in the doorway to the school office. “Taylor’s saying people have access to her locker somehow, and without evidence, the police can’t do anything. Just like she can’t get the police to do anything without some sort of proof.”
Someone was taking my side? That was novel, and I honestly had no idea how to react.
Blackwell didn’t, either, spluttering for a moment. She seemed oddly willing to let Lily provide suggestions, though, whereas I always got steamrolled. “Any fingerprints would have gotten lost in the cleaning.”
“Which is why you call the police first if you’re smart,” I muttered under my breath.
The principal glared momentarily, and I resolved to shut up. “Fine,” she ground out after a moment, sounding like she was chewing on glass. “But one more unfounded accusation, or one of your stories, Hebert, and I’ll-“
I glared back defiantly, swallowing the urge to say something, and Lily once again interceded. “Why don’t you have her show me around? If there’s something going on, maybe I can help?”
Blackwell’s fingers clenched, like she wanted to make a fist, but instead of upbraiding her, again the willingness to listen to Lily. “Fine. Show Miss Hara around. And no nonsense, Hebert.”
Moderating my glare with a force of will, I swallowed, and somehow my voice was calm when I answered, “Yes, ma’am. No nonsense, ma’am.” The urge to add something cutting came to me but I just spun on my heel and left, pausing just long enough to see if Lily was behind me.
She was, matching me stride for stride despite being a bit shorter, her hand coming up from her pocket. Still taller than Blackwell, though. “So, uh, I know it’s none of my business, but what stories was she talking about?” Lily asked hesitantly.
I didn’t have time to come up with an explanation before a cloyingly sweet voice reached my ears, almost a purr. “Oh, Taylor. I’m surprised you came back. Don’t you know no one wants you here?”
Looking over, I noticed Emma Barnes smirking at me but didn’t dignify the remark with a response. They’d backed off towards the end of last semester. At the time I’d been too grateful about them seemingly getting bored to wonder why.
“Can’t talk? Do you think she fell mute?” some vapid girl whose name I didn’t bother remembering asked of the group at large.
“Means we don’t have to listen to her stupid voice anymore,” another of the hangers-on replied.
“Too bad she didn’t figure out how to shower, though.”
“You think anyone would touch that?”
“Must have, because she’s sleeping with gangers to get her drugs!”
“Or she’s just so pitiful that they’re giving ‘em away.”
“Gotta be getting paid to help pay the bills if you ask me.”
I ignored all of it, just striding through until someone stepped in my way. Almost as tall as I was, similar in height to Lily, but more solidly built. Sophia Hess, one of the other banes of my existence. “Where do you think you’re going, Hebert? The dumpster’s that way,” she commented, hiking her thumb.
“She’s showing me the way to Mrs. Knott’s classroom,” Lily’s voice cut in, edged with irritation.
Sophia looked past me to the new girl. “Look, you don’t want to hang around with this worm here-“
“What, so I should hang around with the rest of you?” Lily looked around but wisely didn’t say anything that could be interpreted as an insult. “Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll take my chances with Taylor.”
Emma shook her head, smiling, but her voice was mournful. “You don’t get it. Taylor tells all these lies about how people are bothering her, when we’re just trying to be friendly.”
“I don’t think I like your idea of friendly,” Lily retorted, stepping up to my side. “C’mon, let’s just get to class, Taylor.” Taking the cue, I started to move, when Sophia started to shove me… and found Lily between the two of us. Lily glared at her, and then Sophia acted like she was going to punch the Asian girl. She just wasn’t there when it landed, ghosting to the side with perfect timing and leaving Sophia to stumble slightly when the wind up failed to connect. Instead of commenting, Lily just rolled her eyes.
I made my retreat while I had the chance, Lily keeping up easily. She was athletic, apparently. I’d taken up running and other exercise my freshman year, just trying to get some release, but despite the longer length of my legs, Lily wasn’t having a problem keeping pace.
“That’s what you’re ‘telling stories’ about?” Lily asked once we were safely down the hall and around the corner from the coterie of bitches.
Unwilling to meet her eye, I nodded, keeping an eye out for Madison Clements. She hadn’t been part of that posse, which made me wonder if she had another collection of them somewhere.
Lily frowned at that, then shook her head. “Well, now you’ve got a witness.” Then she gave me a devious little smile and produced a slim black rectangle from her pocket. A mobile phone. “And a recording. Let’s just see what we captured, shall we?”
I stared at her, surprised at that. “Wait, what? You recorded them?” Was that what she’d been doing in her pocket when we walked out of Blackwell’s office?
“Mmhm,” Lily agreed, that wicked little smile still on her lips.
“Let’s wait until we’re in Mrs. Knott’s classroom. It’s not that far away,” I decided, angling my head in the right direction. “None of them have that class with me, so…”
“Lay on, MacDuff,” Lily answered agreeably, even getting the old MacBeth quote correct.
I mustered a faint smile and nodded, trotting along a bit more agreeably. Even if Lily decided not to keep hanging around me, a recording might just be the thing I needed.
Once we were seated – I had a clear seat next to me, and Mrs. Knott had been very agreeable to putting the new girl there – Lily fished a set of earbuds out of her bag and handed me one side. Plugging it in, she replayed the recording, and we listened to the playback, trading smiles. It wasn’t the clearest thing in the worst, but it was better than I’d dared hope for.
“Just what are you two up to?” a voice somewhere between annoyed and amused came from behind us. Nearly jumping out of my seat, I turned around guiltily, to see Mrs. Knott standing there. “You know I don’t like mobile phones in my class, Taylor, as many times as I’ve chided others for it.”
Lily cleared her throat. “It’s not her fault, ma’am, it’s mine. I recorded some people hassling her and we were making sure it was good audio, that’s all.”
Mrs. Knott blinked at that, then reached for the phone. “I see. May I hear it?” Lily surrendered it, and Mrs. Knott put in one of the earbuds. Her expression tightened as she listened.
“I see,” she repeated in a rather different tone. Her eyes flicked over to mine, and I shrugged a bit. I’d told her about my problems, and she’d tried to help a few times, coming back rather silent and downtrodden each time. “Keep doing this, and transcribe it, girls,” Mrs. Knott advised us finally. “Make copies. Once we’ve got a few days of evidence, I’ll take it to the principal.” Another exchanged look. Neither of us really expected anything to come of it, but at least we had something concrete we could point to. Something I might be able to use another way, too.
Lily nodded. “I will, I promise, ma’am. Taylor, do you have an email account? I can shoot you this recording right now.”
I rattled off my home account. My school account was probably full. Again. Fucking hate spam. “I’ve got records I’ve been keeping at home, I’ll transcribe this tonight,” I told her, smiling with that faint, pleasant, most awful feeling. You know the one, hope.
Lily didn’t have all my classes, naturally, but she shared several of them. There wasn’t a lot of difference in Mrs. Knott’s class other than having someone to help, of course. She wasn’t as strong in the topic as I am; for one thing I was actually getting the advanced course work, but I’d had a conflict somewhere else. It was nice, though, and it also kept Greg from rambling at me. Honestly, the biggest difference was being able to share a locker so I didn’t have to carry everything constantly. People were obviously getting into mine.
Math was nothing to write home about, with Quinlan rambling tiredly before he gave us word problems to work on. I had to deal with Emma’s simmering resentment, but at least it was solo work, so Mr. Quinlan was keeping things quiet. It limited her ability to bother me today. English was more annoying, but Art was another quiet period without any of the troublemakers nearby. Julia was fuming, and she tried to mess with my work, but the teacher intercepted her leaving the table. Mr. Patrick wasn’t sympathetic, he just didn’t want to deal with accidents, and she got chewed out.
Chemistry could have been a horror – Emma’s memorable attempt to light my hair on fire last year came to mind – but fortunately, Lily and I shared that period. I even managed to get her registered as my lab partner for the semester with Mr. White. Even better, no lab on the first day of classes, which further limited Emma’s ability to mess with me, and Madison had been transferred out of that section for some administrative reason I neither knew nor cared about.
We spent lunch together, just talking a little bit about Brockton Bay up on the third floor in a stairwell at the back corner of the building. I think Lily thought it was strange, but she didn’t protest, and it kept things peaceful. It also gave me a chance to give her some ideas on who was who among the Winslow Bitch Herd.
Today had been too peaceful, honestly. I was gonna get it, certainly, and gym worried me. Fortunately, I saw a now-familiar face outside after a trip to the bathroom (mercifully juice-free this time). “Oh, hey, Taylor. You’ve got gym, too?”
“Uh-huh,” I replied, nodding, only to get shoulder checked by Sophia shoving her way past me.
“Clear the damn hallway, Hebert,” the other girl grumbled with a glare, even though I’d been standing against the wall. Then she gave Lily one, too, as if daring her to say something.
Lily glowered back, watching Sophia leave. “Have they been doing that all sophomore year?”
“Most of last year, too,” I replied, cringing a little at the admission.
“Sheesh. I’ll look out for you changing if you do the same for me?” Lily glanced off in Sophia’s direction. “Let’s just say the girl posse around here has not made me feel especially trusting.”
I was almost pathetically grateful, and I hoped it didn’t show. “Y-yeah, I’ll do that, of course.”
While I was changing, I could vaguely hear Lily rustling through her gym bag. After I’d pulled up the pair of slightly ratty sweatpants I wore for gym, and was reaching for my top, Lily abruptly stuck her head in, with me wearing just my sports bra above the waist.
“Oh, hey, Taylor do you-“ Then she got a look, eyes widening slightly. “Oh, wow, you look good. Damn.”
I turned beet red, holding my top to my chest. “You don’t need to butter me up! What do you want?” I asked, utterly mortified.
At least Lily had the decency to close the door properly again, calling out, “Do you have a spare scrunchie? I can’t find mine.”
“I, uh, I… I think so,” I answered, uncertain. I was pretty sure I had a spare, if someone hadn’t stolen it. Lily’s hair wasn’t too much shorter than mine, I could see why she’d want one. Hastily pulling on my shirt, I shoved my glasses back into place and fixed my hair. Once I had it into a ponytail, I reached into my bag and found a spare scrunchie. “Here.”
Lily accepted it with a bright smile. “Thanks. I’m serious, though. You should show those guns off, and the abs.”
Giving her a dumbfounded look, I spluttered out, “What? I look like an emaciated frog.”
My new friend(?) gave me a puzzled look, shaking her head slightly as if she didn’t agree, then leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Taylor, lil bit of advice. When a gay girl tells you she likes how you look, she’s probably not BS’ing you.” Lily walked into the stall, leaving me to process that.
I blinked, staring at her, and could feel my blush turning flaming red again. The idea that someone had seen me without my shirt and liked it just… that didn’t… that didn’t make sense, right? I’m a scrawny, overlong frog, my lips are too wide, my glasses make me look like a nearsighted owl, and… I’m ugly. Everyone tells me that. None of the boys have ever shown any interest, either, except Greg, and that’s just because I don’t tell him off as much as the other girls do. My mother was beautiful, Lily had such pretty features, and I’m… just not, and I don’t. She was just being nice, had to be.
Coming back out in sweatpants and a T-shirt with the hero Legend splashed across the back in a dynamic pose, Lily looked at me, then waved her hand in front of me. “Taylor? You there?”
Blinking again, I nodded my head and decided I didn’t really know how to react. I was straight, after all, but at least she wasn’t insulting me. Probably? Lily just seemed too nice for that.
“Y-yeah, I… I uh…” I jerked my head, causing my ponytail to sway. Too many people, and if anyone had heard that I was so going to get it. “Let’s get out there. I really hope it’s not dodgeball today.”
Lily’s eyebrows went up. “You think they’re gonna go after you?”
“Try know they are,” I said sourly, trudging out and watching for Sophia. She was usually the ringleader of anything that happened in gym class, because she was the athlete.
Several of them were waiting for me when we left, and I knew Lily had locked her phone in her locker before heading over here. No way we were going to get a recording here. The usual insults started up – I was too fat, too skinny, too ugly to get laid, whoring myself out, druggie, whatever. Lily’s face twisted a bit, but she didn’t take the bait, just following me.
Fortunately, it wasn’t dodgeball. Instead, we were doing Fitness Evaluation. Timed sprints, push-ups, sit ups, pull ups, rope climb, nothing too crazy. Lily grinned a bit, elbowing me. “Show your stuff off.”
I gave her a puzzled look. “Show what off? I just do some exercise to keep fit.”
My companion gave me a searching look, then shrugged. “Well, I guess we’ll see.”
Even with several people helping, there was more than enough opportunity for my tormentors to make me miserable. Whispered remarks while I was trying to do my exercises, someone even “tripped” over me while I was doing sit-ups. They got yelled at, but I got stepped on and a sneaker stuck in my face. Yuck. Then came the mocking remarks about how I looked like a clumsy giraffe running. I just took that as fuel to go faster, and was the second time behind Sophia, much to her annoyance. (Lily came in third; clearly she worked out too.)
The worst of it came doing the rope climb. Madison and Sophia had conspired to arrange a whole series of distractions and aggravations once I was a couple of feet off the ground. Sophia “casually” bumped into me, trying to jostle me loose. Madison pulled on the line, sending it swaying. Julia pretended to fall over and distract the coach after I was even higher up, and two of the girls jerked the rope, making the sway even worse, and I didn’t dare kick one of them in the face. For one thing, the effort might have caused me to fall! These people are psychos.
Then Lily’s firm voice cut in. “Knock it off, you two. That’s not safe.” She sounded like she was directly below me, and I felt the rope stop moving. Maybe she’d grabbed it to steady it.
“So what? It’s just icky Hebert,” one girl replied.
“Yeah, who cares if her skanky ass falls?”
“Maybe if she cracks her skull she’ll stop coming to school so we stop having to-“
“I said knock it off,” Lily snapped loudly enough to get the teacher’s attention once more.
“The heck? Hey, new girl, why’re you grabbing the rope?” came the dulcet tones of a middle-aged white dude reliving his glory days at Brockton Bay’s worst football school. Supposedly we’d been good… once. Just like him.
Lily sounded aggravated when she replied. “Steadying it, Coach Evans. Someone grabbed it and sent it swaying, I’m making sure Taylor has a safer climb.”
Coach Evans grunted, and I could just picture his beefy, buzzcut face. “Fine. Rest of you, clear out.”
Grimly, I climbed up the rest of the way to the designated point, then came back down the way we’d been taught before dropping lightly onto my feet. My hands were shaking just a little; I’d been up there longer than usual.
“Hebert, stand here take a breather,” Evans commented, glancing at me. “New girl, get up there.”
Panting slightly, I just nodded, watching Lily take her turn up the rope. She was slim, but I could see the well-toned muscles on her arms, and her T-shirt rode up a bit as she went. Part of me wondered about her legs, if they were as sleek and toned as the rest of her underneath those sweatpants. All I could tell was where her hips and rear filled it out. Not too big. Probably firm. She had good technique, too, better than mine, definitely. Wasn’t like I could practice this at home.
“Dyke,” Sophia whispered in my ear, shoulder-checking me from behind.
“Carpet muncher,” Madison added, although she was certainly looking up, too, the stinking hypocrite.
I didn’t snap back, but Coach Evans told them to get a move on instead of cluttering the area around the rope. He didn’t give a shit about me, but student injuries ticked him off. At least he cared about something, I guess.
Lily came back down gracefully, dropping onto her feet from a bit above the usual height before tossing her ponytail back over her shoulder. She shot me a grin. “Were you watching?”
“Yeah. You must have practiced a lot,” I replied with a nod. “Better than me.”
Something about that made her smile flicker momentarily; I didn’t have the first idea what. It didn’t last long, though. “Yeah, well, you’re looking a little better.”
“Thanks for making them stop, I thought I was going to fall for a hot minute,” I told her, mustering a wan smile of my own now. Then I laughed a little. “Guess you’re just my hero today.”
Lily’s lips curved up a bit more, and something mischievous twinkled in her eye. Whatever it was about that, she didn’t clue me in, instead chuckling softly and answering in a self-mocking voice, “I’m glad I could be of service, citizen.” She even struck a bit of a pose before she let out a laugh.
I smiled back. It felt weirdly natural, instead of contorting my face like a shrieking baboon or yawning like a narcoleptic frog, the way Emma and the others kept taunting me about. I didn’t say anything, though. Not much to say, I guess.
Lily’s watchful presence kept the showers from being the usual agony of wondering if someone was going to douse my clothes or whatever. I returned the favor, even though it got me shoved, and ignored the comments about ‘joining my girlfriend’ or the suggestion about how I was just in here to stare at other people’s bodies. And then someone else made a cutting remark that it wasn’t like I had one.
My new companion popped out of the shower not long after, glancing at me. Giving my expression a lingering look, she asked, “Were they giving you crap again?”
“You say that like they’re ever not,” I groused sourly, lifting Lily’s bag for her. Absently thanking me, she shouldered it. We headed for her locker to get our things for World Affairs, our last class of the day. “By the way, Gladly’s lame. He wants to be popular, and he’s pretty boring.”
“Yeesh. I thought I came here to learn.” Then she elbowed me, gently, friendly like, and added, “If I just wanted to hang out, I’d stick around you.”
I stared at her, not sure what to say to that, and just ducked my head. “Y-yeah. That… that might be nice.”
I did my best to tune out World Affairs and the petty annoyances, like Madison dumping pencil shavings on me, just noting it for my records. At least there was nothing on my chair this time. Lily was sitting nearby, and when we had a group project, we were able to carry the load even if Sparky was as useless as ever. Her knowledge of New York and its cape scene helped a lot with our preparation for the Elite. We didn’t have the “best” presentation, but we got an excellent grade, and Winslow’s slightly horrifying vending machines didn’t hold much appeal to either of us as a reward. Yuck!
Lily caught my eye as we left the classroom, a mischievous twinkle back in it, and I noticed she had her phone in her hand, but she wasn’t doing anything with it. Except recording, of course. I didn’t smile, to avoid returning it. Instead, I tripped over Madison’s foot, distracted as I was with Lily, landing face down.
“Wow, Taylor, you’re so clumsy!” Emma’s cloying voice came. “Do you think you’re okay?”
The urge to curl my fingers into fists rose, but I just started to get up, right as a foot came down on my ass. “Let her up, Sophia,” Lily cut in, glaring.
“Nah, she should just stay down there. Worms like her are more comfortable wriggling on the ground,” Sophia chimed in, then added nastily, “Until someone steps on them.”
Silently, I gave in for a moment, just enough for Sophia to relax the force, and then shoved my way up, unbalancing Sophia. She nearly tumbled off her feet.
“Taylor, why would you shove Sophia that way?!” Emma snapped at me.
Lily retorted sharply. “You mean gotten up despite Sophia trying to put a foot on her butt?”
“You’ve got a smart mouth, maybe you oughta shut it,” Sophia growled as I got to my feet. Lily gave her a glare but didn’t comment, aware she was being recorded. “What, nothing to say, you coward?”
Lily just dusted me off without answering.
“Oh, hey, knew you were a dyke, Taylor, but shouldn’t you avoid the public displays of affection with your ugly little girlfriend?” Julia commented.
“I mean, they’ve gotta do it now with those baggy sweats. Not like anyone would touch Hebert with her clothes off,” Madison added. I saw Gladly leaving the classroom, and he must have seen what happened, but he didn’t say a damn thing. Just looked at us and wandered off. None of the coterie of bitches seemed to care about his presence, which spoke for a lot. What a useless asshole.
A few more gaybaiting remarks and we were able to push through, Lily glaring down Sophia as if daring her to try something. “No wonder you looked so weary this morning,” Lily commented to me once we were out of earshot.
“Yeah,” I replied, closing my eyes and taking a breath. I looked at her and mustered a smile. “Thanks.”
“Hopefully we got them on the recording,” Lily replied with a wink.
I nodded slightly, my smile just as fragile. “Let’s get our stuff and get out.”
“You said it. You want to hang out after school? I’ve got an after-school job lined up, but it doesn’t start until later this week.”
My reticence to open up almost had me refusing but the thin, fragile reed of hope won out. “Yeah. That’d be nice. You want to come over to my place?” Dad wouldn’t mind, I’m sure.
I really hoped Lily wouldn’t be just one more person turning on me, like Emma. I really hoped.