Chapter Text
Taylor is stretching her legs, getting ready for her jog, when the doorbell rings. Confused about who’s up and visiting at six in the morning, she goes to the door and looks through the peephole.
Oh! It’s Lisa! Bearing gifts, it seems. At least, the blonde is holding overstuffed bags and shaking them enticingly at the peephole. She thinks one of the bags is clothing, at least, there’s cloth in it.
Opening the door, she says happily, “Lisa!”
“Taylor!” Lisa greets back, hurrying inside, and bumping hips with Taylor. “Where’s Amelia?”
“Kitchen, making coffee.”
“Well, she better share the wealth, since I got us all these donuts.” Lisa looks at what Taylor is wearing, and asks seriously, “And you, were you
really going to go on a run without Amelia?”
“I offered to go with her, and she turned me down?” She’s not sure what’s wrong with going for a jog. It’s healthy.
“And when you run too far away, and hurt your bond? What then?”
Paling, Taylor says, “I wasn’t even thinking about that!”
“It’s okay. I caught you in time. Just… keep in mind that the both of you need to be no more than-”
“Half a mile away,” she recites easily, knowing that from School House Rock, just like this next bit, “or about five blocks.” They step into the kitchen as she suddenly feels very floaty and disconnected as she says, “Oh my God, I almost went running and hurt Amelia. Five blocks is nothing. That’s my whole range for my bugs.”
Taylor sits in a chair at the table, looking at nothing, as Amelia sits and drinks coffee from a mug that says, ‘SNARKY TEXT HERE.’ Her soulmate blinks at her, saying, “You did what now?”
Lisa helps herself to a cup of coffee, and explains about the jogging and range for the soulmate bond. Finishing with, “But I stopped her, so don’t worry about it too much.”
Amelia sips her coffee, then says, “... If I were more awake, I'm certain that I'd be freaking out.”
Lisa says, “Taylor is doing enough for the both of you.” Reaching out, Lisa takes Taylor's hand and asks, “Hey Taylor, once this is over, you wanna go get some ice cream?”
She blinks, confused, and suddenly the world is clearer, more in focus. “What? What are you- I don’t… I just… Okay? Sure. What’s all over?” Taylor frowns at Lisa in confusion. Wanting to know.
Lisa grins at her, “There you go, Taylor is now all back to normal.”
“What did you do?” Taylor demands.
“I confused you enough that you stopped disassociating.”
She scowls at Lisa, not saying anything.
Amelia just chuckles darkly, sipping her coffee, “Gimme a donut.”
The bag is given to Amelia, and Lisa pulls things out of the bags, “Okay, here are some clothing choices for your day at Arcadia.” Taylor reaches for the black clothing, only for Lisa to shoo her away, “Ah-ah-ah! Not for you. That’s possibly Amelia’s stuff. And speaking of Amelia, she gets to choose what you wear today, Taylor. It’s good for your self esteem.”
That has her soulmate perk up, and look through everything. Every so often, Amelia will glance at Taylor, then back at the clothing, and back at Taylor. Until, finally, Taylor is given a long navy blue skirt that she inspects and nods in approval when she finds surprisingly deep pockets on it. Then there’s a button up blouse that she’s less certain about, but she just nods and accepts.
“I don’t have shoes that match this,” she reluctantly says. It’s much more she doesn’t have shoes that aren’t half destroyed by the Trio or by some other fucker at school.
Lisa pulls out a pair of purple high top converse sneakers. They’re clearly brand new, match her hair, have the star logo on them, and she wants them so badly, she may just cry. Lisa walks over to her, handing them to her with care, “Here you go.”
She holds the shoes to her chest, not sure what to say or what to do, but it sorta sets in as Lisa and Amelia sort through a different bag of clothing, that she no longer needs to worry about the Trio or other bullies destroying her clothing or other things she owns. She can have nice things again. She no longer needs to hide all her valuables away in her room.
“... I’m gonna go take a shower and get changed,” she says.
Amelia smiles at her, pulling out a pair of black jeans, “I look forward to seeing you in the outfit.”
She gets up, and leans down to give Amelia a kiss that her soulmate returns, and starts to head upstairs just as her father comes through the kitchen door, saying, “Is that coffee I smell?”
Amelia says, “I made it!”
“That’s very kind of you, Amelia,” her dad says, then his eyes light up when he sees the bag on the table, “Ooh! Donuts.” He pauses, “Wait, why do we have donuts?”
Taylor slips out of the kitchen just as Lisa starts explaining why she’s here. She heads upstairs, showers, and changes into her new outfit. The white blouse’s sleeves go down to her wrists, and it is a little difficult to button them closed on her own, but she manages; it also has a neck that goes up to the chin, and said sleeves and neck end in small decorative ruffles. The navy skirt goes down about two inches beyond her knee, and is an A line skirt, so should she need to, she can run in it easily enough.
Which reminds her that she needs to make sure that Amelia starts to run with her. She doesn’t want her soulmate to be left in the dust, should they need to book it at some point.
Staring in the mirror, there's something missing, so she heads to her jewelry box in her room. Something she hasn’t opened since Emma started this bullying bullshit. Opening the lid, she makes a face.
Friendship bracelets.
Disgusting.
She picks them up, ignoring how part of her heart is aching and screaming that “No! She can FIX her! Emma is her FRIEND!” That’s a lie she’s been telling herself for the last two years. The locker proves it. She goes to the bathroom, and flushes the bracelets down the toilet. It’s this or fire, and she doesn’t want to possibly burn her house down.
Returning to the jewelry box, she searches through various junk a twelve year old girl thinks is precious, and finally finds it. The golden (or is it gold? It is surprisingly heavy, and isn’t tarnished at all) necklace has a long chain and a pendant with a large chunk of amber on it. In the amber is a beetle.
A gift from her grandmother, thrown in and forgotten. All because of a younger Emma demanding she never wear it, since bugs are ‘icky.’ Well, now it’s a perfect fashion statement.
Putting it on, she smiles, happy how lovely it is, and how it completes the look.
She goes downstairs, and when she gets there, Amelia is also fully dressed in her new outfit. Wearing green and black striped arm warmers, a black graphic t-shirt with a bunch of lines on it in a clear joke she doesn’t get, a pair of black jeans, and black combat boots, all shiny and clean.
Taylor tilts her head, saying, “You’re beautiful.”
Amelia blushes, “You flirt!”
She can’t help it, she laughs.
--
Amelia hugs Danny, more at the sheer novelty of being allowed to do it than anything, when he drops them off at Arcadia. Carol shoves her away in disgust if she tries for a hug, telling her she's too old for them ever since she was five, that unmitigated bitch. Mark just didn't hug back, his depression too bad to even notice that his daughter might want attention or comfort. Amelia could ask her aunt or uncle, and she has, growing up she got hugs from them, but it's kinda pathetic doing that as a teen. So this is the first hug she's gotten from a parental figure in literal years.
She watches Taylor hug him, too, and they both say their goodbyes to the man. Taylor reminds him to drive safely, and Danny promises to do just that. He leaves the parking lot, and Taylor takes a deep inhale, saying, “Let's get this show on the road.”
Thankful for the extra two inches of height the boots give her, she presses a kiss to Taylor's cheek, “Office first.”
Taking her soulmate’s hand, Amelia leads her to the office, and once there, the secretary glances up at the, does a doubletake, then says, “Miss Dallon?”
Taylor's hand tightens in hers, but stays silent. They discussed this the night before, and Amelia is taking point on this. “Lavere. It's Amelia Lavere. I'm no longer going by Amy Dallon; you should have gotten a fax about that already.”
The secretary shuffles through papers, finding a sheet of paper, and inspecting it. “So I see, miss Dal-... Lavere. It also says we're going to be hosting your soulmate, a Miss Taylor Hebert?” She pronounces it ‘A-bern,’ which is wrong on every level.
Taylor corrects the secretary, and then promptly ignores her, just icing her out entirely. Her soulmate is so cool.
Amelia needs to work harder to be as cool as Taylor is so effortlessly.
Looking at the secretary, Amelia smirks, pleased, “Yes, she’s going to be with me in my classes. She’s actually a sophomore, not a junior, so she likely won’t have the same classes if she joins Arcadia, but since she’s just shadowing the classes, that won’t be a problem.”
“Yes, that’s in the notes.” The secretary gives her an annoyed look, “Now then, Miss Lavere, it says she is registered in Winslow, and her grades are … less than stellar.”
Taylor doesn’t even react other than to squeeze Amelia’s hand tightly. Amelia scowls, “And that is due to a systemic bullying problem that the staff at Winslow refuses to take care of.” She forces herself to keep calm, knowing yelling won’t help, “Did you see the News this morning?”
“I glanced through the newspaper, yes.”
“Then you might have noticed that Blackwell, the Principal of Winslow, has been arrested for hiding evidence of bullying, and facilitating suspected bioterrorism, kidnapping and deprivation of civil liberties. You may want to know the reason for that is standing right in front of you.”
Taylor smiles more than a little viciously, still not saying a word.
“I… see.”
“Can we go now?” she asks. “We just wanted you to inform the teachers of my new name, and of Taylor’s name, so they don’t mispronounce it; like you did.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Thanks.” She turns, taking Taylor with her, and they walk out of the office. Once in the hallway, they’re stared at by a bunch of idiots, so she glares at them, and says, “What? You see me every day. Go away.”
A few scatter, but some keep staring, making her scowl. Taylor, thankfully, just keeps a stiff back and walks with her as they go through the halls. It seems she’s channeling her inner Mantis for this. Which is good, since the staring doesn’t stop. Assholes.
She leads Taylor back outside, to the courtyard, and pulls out her cell. Messaging Vicky, she asks, ‘Where are you?’
She doesn’t get a reply, not on the phone, instead, there’s a whistling, and suddenly Vicky is in front of her. “Ames! Did you just text me?”
She smiles, “Vicky.” Hugging her sister, she checks on the other girl’s health on automatic, and notes that she’s just fine. Pulling away, she says, “Just wondering where you were.”
Vicky hugs Taylor, who stiffens in the blonde girl’s arms, as Vicky says, “I’m here! It’s great to see you here, Taylor! I was so worried that neither of you would show up. It would be understandable if you didn’t.” Her voice lowers, and she stops hugging Taylor, “What with the Wards and all.”
“If we don’t show up the entire time we’re in our bonding period, I’d be marked as truant,” Amelia says sadly.
“That’s bullshit,” Vicky mutters.
Taylor laughs, “Don’t I know it.”
Vicky looks at Taylor, “You look amazing! I love the necklace!”
Taylor gives Vicky a shy smile, “My grandmother gave it to me.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It’s real amber.”
“Wow. It must be, like, two inches wide, too. I love that.”
Taylor just smiles, and Amelia smiles with her. It’s so nice that her soulmate and her sister get along.
She retakes Taylor’s hand, saying, “Let’s get to our lockers, and put our stuff away.” Taylor’s heartbeat spikes, and Amelia is suddenly reminded what her soulmate’s Trigger is. “Taylor. Look at me.” When the girl does as directed, she continues, “The lockers can’t fit a person inside them. I promise. It’s going to be okay.” She presses a soft peck of a kiss to Taylor’s mouth, “It’ll be okay.”
Vicky looks mad, “Did those assholes at Winslow shove you into a locker?”
Taylor clings to Amelia, nodding silently.
“Those fuckers!”
Amelia says, “Vicky, it’s worse than that. What happened was her Trigger event, and it was way worse than just being shoved in a locker.”
Vicky looks stricken, and floats over to rub Taylor’s back, “... Okay. You don’t have to tell me anything. I don’t need to know. Just know that I got your back, alright?”
“Alright,” Taylor whispers.
They stand for a bit, but Taylor is very strong, and stands up straight in less than a minute, no tears or anything on her face. Her soulmate says, “Okay, I can do this. We can do this together. Let’s go to the lockers.”
The lockers are a non-event. They put their things away, take out the books they need for the current classes, and close the lockers. All without any incident.
As they walk to class, Vicky asks, “So, I was wondering, why do you have Loss on your shirt?”
“To cause psychic damage to people who care about this sort of thing,” she replies.
“What’s Loss?” Taylor asks, sounding curious.
Which is how they get into the lore of Ctrl+Alt+Del the earth Aleph webcomic, something that Amelia knows is seeping in through sheer osmosis, rather than because she or Vicky ever read it.
Taylor just stares at them in confusion and horror the longer the explanation goes on. Until finally, they get to their classroom, and they have to stop. Taylor says, “Oh, thank god. I… I just find it horrifying that people think it’s funny that it’s okay to mock the man for his girlfriend’s miscarriage.”
Amy says, “No, no, no. They’re mocking him for how badly he explained the healing process of losing a potential child. ‘Move past it and heal,’ is very bad advice, and-”
Taylor tugs her into the classroom, asking her in an obvious subject change, “Where do you sit? I want to sit next to you.”
“We have assigned seating.”
“Then I’m sitting on your lap. Where do you sit?”
Amelia laughs, and goes to her seat, Taylor doesn’t sit on her lap, just taking the seat next to her.
Jenny is just going to have to live with it, she supposes. Same with Mrs. Greenwich.