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It was known as one of the strangest and most convoluted shows still being aired regularly. Mainly because it was only on its third season, and enough people watched it that the network hadn’t cancelled it quite yet. Despite that, there had still been multiple youtube documentaries criticizing the show, mostly due to how much it disregarded privacy laws. Regardless, it was still airing, and High School Historians, even with its incredibly misleading name, was still airing.
The premise of the show was that a new guest every episode would talk about whatever crazy thing happened at their high school, using the real, legal names of everyone involved, and often providing video evidence. So far, in only two of the more than 40 episodes had the guest actually gotten consent of the people involved to tell the story, but it made good enough television that the lawsuits from the rest of the episodes hadn’t gone through yet.
Episode 46 was simply titled, Troy of Toronto, which was vague enough that no hockey fans would have actually watched it had the networks social media accounts not also posted multiple things making it clear that the episode would be about Troy Barrett, first line right winger of the Toronto Guardians, and not just a random one of the approximately 2820 people named Troy in the general Toronto metropolitan area. Because both the show and Barrett had gained a good bit of infamy, far more people watched it than was typical of the show, and that meant that once the story was out, truly no one could stop it.
The show opened on a stage with a live studio audience, the furniture arranged like it was an episode of Ellen. The guest this week had multiple paper documents in hand, and from the host's expression, it was clear that this story was going to be… let's just say entertaining.
Host: Everybody please welcome, Miss Peyton White!
General polite applause ensues.
Host: Now, from what the producers have told me I know this is going to be a juicy one, so I will just let you take it away Peyton.
Peyton: Thank you. So, this story will focus mainly on a specific boy I went to high school with, Troy Barrett. Mainly because I am pretty damn sure that he arranged the murder of a former teacher.
The camera pans to the audience, many of whom are leaning forward in their seats.
Peyton: So, we had a teacher, Mr Cass. He taught math, and no one really liked him. Mainly because he looked down girls' shirts. Everyone was pretty sure that he was a pedophile, but it was a small town in the midwest, and the administration really just didn’t care. He had been fired from his last job for ‘conflicts of interest’ with the school board, but everyone in the school knew what really happened was that he had sex with a student, and then when her family tried to get him imprisoned he tried to get them deported back to Venezuela, so they dropped the charges.
The audience audibly gasps, and the host recoils, with a hand on her chest.
Peyton: Anyway, this time he set his sights on 14 year old Amelia Tanaka, because her parents were also immigrants, and he figured if it worked once, it would work again. Long story short, he raped her. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for everyone else, she lived next to Troy Barrett. Everyone in town knew Troy. His parents got divorced when he was like twelve so that his dad could marry someone twenty years younger than Troy’s mother, but was rich as hell. Basically, as far as we knew, his dad sucked and at best would show up for holidays. He played hockey, was generally known as the hottest guy in school, and also as the macho man type, and an asshole.
Host: We all know the type. Pretty face, but a bitch at heart.
The majority of the audience laughs or nods.
Peyton: Yeah, that was the gist of it. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t necessarily a bad person. At least, not much worse than the rest of the people in town. But, he lived next to her. So, when he saw her limping back home with blood on her face and thighs as he got home from hockey practice, he went to her immediately. Now, no one knows exactly what happened, but we do know that he ended up taking her to the hospital, and convincing her to go to the police.
A picture appears on the screen of a teenage boy (very obviously Barrett) carrying a sobbing asian girl into a hospital, holding her bridal style as he attempts to verbally comfort her.
The audience makes cooing noises, both in sympathy to Amelia, and admiration to Troy.
Peyton: He made sure she took a rape kit, and communicated with her parents. He was also later seen exiting the hospital and re-entering with flowers and chocolates. Amelia also later told some of her friends at school that he learned her comfort food, and then got the family recipe from her mother so that he could make katsudon to take to her. Apparently it wasn’t entirely right the first time he brought it to her, but he continued to make it for her at least once a month until he moved away about a year later, and by the end it tasted just like how her grandma made it.
Another photo appears on the screen, of Troy sitting at a kitchen table with Amelia and two bowls of katsudon, then one of him in a kitchen preparing the dish.
The audience once again coos, and some seem to be visibly falling in with Barrett.
Peyton: However, the main story of this is what happened right before Mr. Cass actually got arrested, because Amelia had been worried about actually going to the police. I think that I will just show the video that one of Troy’s friends took, because it speaks for itself.
The video opens in a parking lot behind a Maid Rites, where a middle aged man is visibly getting beaten into the pavement by a 17 year old Troy Barrett. Barrett punches the man repeatedly, and once he is fully on the ground lifts the man’s head up by his jaw just so that he can slam his head into the concrete repeatedly. He spits on the man saying “You piece a shit! A rapist like you doesn’t deserve to live. I could kill you right now and no one would fucking care!” The man then laughs and lifts his head, saying “If you wanted a turn with her you should have just asked, what else are ch*nks like her good for after all?”. After hearing that Barret pauses, and then lifts the man onto his feet, directing two of his friends to hold him up. Once Cass is steady, Troy jumps what appears to be at least two feet into the air, and comes down with his elbow onto the man's face, breaking his nose, and undeniably concussing him once he hits the ground. He seemingly puts all of his weight into the hit, and shakes his arm out afterward. He then proceeds to jump again, landing on the unconscious man's genitals. He jumps at least five times before sirens sound, at which point he and his friends take off running toward a nearby cornfield. Once they get seemingly about a fifth of a mile into the fields, the camera starts filming, with the last frame being Barrett turning around, a grin on his face, along with Cass’ blood.
Peyton: I’ll be truthful, the real reason that I am doing this now is because the statute of limitations for violent assault has passed, and because it has been 5 years, and also he is now working in Toronto, there isn’t any risk of him getting in trouble for it.
The audience is clearly stunned, but all seem very admirative of Troy, with a number of the younger women in the audience appearing visibly turned on.
Host: Did Cass die of those injuries?
Peyton: No, but he was sentenced to multiple years in prison. However, about a week after he was imprisoned, when Amelia had finally started to feel safe enough to go to school again, he at one point went up to her and hugged her, saying “Don’t worry, he will never hurt you again. He’s gonna die in that cell, I promise you.”
The audience coos again, clearly touched by the story.
Peyton: A couple days later, the school found out that somehow it had gotten out to the inmates being held with Cass that he was a rapist and a pedophile, and he was found dead in his cell the same day that Troy told Amelia that. I will not go into any more detail as to other reasons I think he might have arranged Cass’ death, because I don’t want him to end up in jail for this, but, let's just say that there are quite a few reasons the entire town believes it.
The episode continued for a decent number of minutes after that, the host asking clarifying questions and Peyton adding more detail, but the first ten minutes of the episode was what was watched the most, and the consequences of the episode, and more specifically the video it contained, began immediately.