Taylor was having a bad day. Not her worst day; no, that had already come and gone, but a bad day nonetheless.

It was her first day back at Winslow after... well, After. And the Trio were already gearing up for something big. Taylor had managed to avoid them all morning, but lunch period was always dangerous. She had been running out of hiding places even Before, and it would only get worse as time went on and they caught her in different places. In the meantime, she'd caught snippets of low voices as the Trio's hangers-on passed her in the hallways.

"Oh, doesn't she look nice. Nothing at all like she did before."

"That time away really did her a world of good. She should've stayed away longer."

"She must be wearing something new, I swear I can smell her down the hall."
Bitches, all of them. Taunting her even after what had happened. Like she hadn't had to be carried out of the school on a stretcher by guys in hazmat suits. Well, she assumed they wore hazmat suits. It's not like she was totally coherent by that point.

Anyway, all those little sarcastic jibes just at the edge of her hearing kept winding her tighter and tighter, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Taylor had snuck out onto the roof for lunch this time, using a jimmied-open door that the stoners used. And she'd almost been successful, too. She finished her sandwich and most of her water bottle when she heard a clunk as the door opened behind her. Shit, leaving her back to it had been stupid. She turned and saw Sophia standing in the doorway, the fucking predatory grin on her face, as she called out down the stairwell.

"Found her! Get up here so we can properly welcome her back!"

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUCK! She was trapped! Nowhere she could run and even if there was, Sophia was on the motherfucking track team and could run her down in a second!

Taylor clenched up and sank into herself protectively as Emma and Madison appeared behind Sophia, panting slightly. Emma walked out onto the rooftop with a smile. Oh god, that same smile she used to have when they were friends why is she smiling like that oh shit how bad was this gonna get.

"Tay-Tay! We missed you so much while you were gone! We had a whole thing planned for you when you got back -" Fuckfuckfuck "- but once we saw you we decided on something else." FUUUUUCK. "Now come over here. We need to get you looking nice for your first day back."

Emma pulled a makeup kit out of her backpack and oh hell to the no was Taylor letting them get anywhere near her face. She had to risk it. Taylor made a mad dash past Emma and swung her backpack at Sophia, who easily side-stepped, then pushed past Madison to run down the stairs as fast as she could. As she pushed open the door at the bottom, she heard Sophia calling down from above.

"Come back, Hebert! We just want to be friends!"

Taylor skipped school for the rest of the day. Not a super-great thing to do her first day back, but better than whatever the Trio had planned for her. Instead she spent a couple of hours at the library downtown, reading. Several times she had to read the same page over again because she was getting freaked out by the other library patrons. There weren't a lot of them in the middle of the day, and maybe she was just hypersensitive because of the Trio, but it seemed like everyone's eyes were on her. Every time she looked up, she could swear people were looking at her. The librarians, for one. That mom and her kid, definitely. The kid didn't even pretend to hide it, a huge grin on his face as he looked at her. And that creeper dude over in the corner who kept glancing down as soon as she caught him staring at her.

It was really freaking her the fuck out.

Right about when school should be letting out, Taylor set down the book she'd been unsuccessfully reading (couldn't check it out and risk the Trio damaging it) and grabbed her stuff. She joined an older black lady (who gave Taylor a weary smile when she saw her) at the bus stop outside the library and settled in to wait. The buses were reliably unreliable and it could be 15 minutes past their scheduled time before they showed up.

Aaaaand of course creeper dude was going to show up. Late 20s-early 30s, already going bald, looked like he got dressed in the dark... yeah, he was a real winner. And he kept fidgeting and glancing at Taylor when he thought she wasn't paying attention. Finally, he spoke.

"Uh, hi. I'm Mike. Who're you?"

Taylor clenched again, waiting for creeper to get the hint and leave her alone.

"Aw, c'mon, tell me your name. I just want to be friends."

"Leave me alone," she said in a quiet voice.

"What was that?"

"She said, leave her alone." The black lady butted in between Taylor and the creeper and stood like a shield for Taylor. "You don't go bothering her. Why don't you just leave."

The guy put his hands up in a mocking surrender. "Fine, fine. I don't want to bother her. She just seemed nice and I wanted to get to know her some."

The black lady glared at him. "I know exactly how men like you want to get to know girls her age. You get before I call the cops."

He backed away from the bus stop, hands still raised. "Okay, okay, I'm going." He flicked his eyes to look at Taylor. "You have a good day, miss!"

After he went back inside the library, the older lady turned to see Taylor trembling. She gathered the teenager into her arms for a quick hug, then released her.

"Oh honey, it's okay. He's gone now. You and me, we'll just wait for the bus together, alright?"

Taylor nodded. "Thank you, ma'am. It's just... it's just been a not great day. My name's Taylor, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Taylor. My name's Marie. And I'm going to guess that it being a 'not great day' is why you were here at the library instead of in school?"

Taylor shrunk into herself a little. "Yeah."

"Well, whatever it was, things can only get better from here. You seem like a nice girl. I'm sure things will work out."

"Thank you, ma- Marie."

The bus finally pulled up and the duo boarded. They sat together, Marie protectively not wanting to leave Taylor alone, and talked a little. Well, mainly Marie talked. Taylor learned all about her grandkids getting up to trouble, but at least they weren't running with any of the gangs, so bless God for that. Marie got off a few stops before Taylor, but by that point, Taylor was feeling calmer and less raw.

She walked from the bus stop to her house and saw her dad's truck in the driveway. He usually wasn't home before she was, but he'd been trying to make more of an effort since the Incident. Maybe it would actually stick.

One perfunctory dinner later ("How was school?" "Fine. How was work?" "Fine."), Taylor retreated to her room. She looked over the homework from the classes she'd made it to and it wasn't anything too complicated. She knocked it out quickly, then sat there for a while, stewing.

The Trio had obviously changed tack, trying to come at her a new way after trying to kill her didn't work. Killing her with kindness, maybe? Lord knows why they thought that would work, given everything they'd previously done to her. Maybe they were just running out of ideas.

Taylor paused a moment.

No, Emma would never stop coming up with new ways to hurt her. Sophia wasn't all that creative, just violent, and Madison's pranks were childish standbys more than anything else, but Emma could be counted on to find new ways to stab straight into Taylor's heart and twist the knife.

Fuck, she was toast.

She didn't even bother entertaining the thought of getting one of the teachers to help. None of them were worth a damn aside from Mrs. Knott and she could only guard Taylor during the one period which none of the Trio or their immediate hangers-on shared with her. So, small comfort that.

Taylor flumped down into her bed. Goddammit why did it have to be this way?

Outside, a blonde teenager stopped in front of the Hebert home and bend down to tie her shoe. A quick glance at the house, an even quicker frown passing across her face, and she continued on her way.