Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Not knowing things wasn’t new for her. She had been out of the loop for such a long time now that she didn’t even know what the current word for ‘cool’ was. Was it ‘hip’? Maybe ‘groovy’? No, those words have been out of style since before she was born.
The fact of the matter was that Taylor Hebert was not ‘cool’. In fact, she was so not cool that she was currently sitting in Computer class browsing the Internet to find a word to describe herself, incorrectly, as cool. She was partial to ‘hotsy-totsy’, maybe she could bring it back?
No.
Clicking away from the Internet and back to her schoolwork, Taylor continued staring at the screen, staring blankly as if it held the answers she needed to fix her life. Her programming assignment could be described as cool, maybe, from a certain point of view. Could she transfer that coolness into herself somehow? It would make sense if coolness could be shared between objects and people, even if they aren’t physical things.
But… no.
Taylor thought back to her mother’s flute, currently sitting in her locker. She isn’t sure if it could be described as cool, but it was full of love, and longing for love from someone that is no longer around. Could that be transferred to her somehow? Maybe then Emma and the Trio would leave her alone.
Again, no.
Closing her eyes, Taylor shook her head and let out a long sigh. It wasn’t in her nature to focus too long on these sorts of thoughts. She had to be pragmatic and adaptable, not idealistic or whatever else people tried to say she was. She knew now what kind of person she is, what kind of person she can be, will be. For now, she was just a liminal version of herself waiting to be the Taylor Hebert that is supposed to exist. She didn’t really matter all that much yet, but she will matter before too long.
You see, a few days ago Taylor made a new friend. This new friend, which she liked to think of as her new best friend, is special. Taylor’s new friend was cool. This friend was so cool that she didn’t even have a real name, or even an identifiable gender, probably. Taylor just called this friend ‘she’ and ‘her’ because Taylor wanted her best friend to be a girl, and her friend hasn’t said anything to disagree so she hopes she isn’t being too rude to presume a gender.
Closing her schoolwork, since she knows she can just finish it later, Taylor opens the Internet again and quickly finds the PHO Wiki. Clicking away the pop-up ads to find the search field, she quickly typed in the name she was looking for: ‘Placeholder’. Her new friend.
It was quite a surprise when Placeholder debuted in Brockton Bay, fitting into a niche nobody really thought needed to be filled. Now that Placeholder was there everyone just kinda accepted it. She was new, no real information could be found on the wiki page about the cape. Taylor squinted as she saw the top paragraphs of the article were just the lorem ipsum sample text. Probably some idiot’s idea of a joke.
Yeah.
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.”
It always felt nice to read those words. To say those words. Oddly satisfying.
Yes.
Anyways, this article was in desperate need of editing, and Taylor felt she was up to the task. Clicking the edit button, she found herself presented with a simple text editor, and she settled forward in her chair to begin the process of replacing the joke text with some real details about Placeholder.
Taylor spent a few minutes thinking of what to put in, and managed to remember that Placeholder probably wouldn’t want too much about her powers being put online for the public to read, so she chickened out and closed the Internet again. It was a good thing she gave up before too long though, as she was so absorbed in reading the sample text that she didn’t even notice that class had ended and she was sitting alone in the classroom with the teacher.
“Taylor?” asked Mrs. Knott, sounding a little strained, “Do you need something?”
Mrs. Knott gave Taylor a look that she was not able to parse. Something along the lines of worry, or maybe pity. Probably the last one.
“No, Mrs. Knott, I’m fine,” she replied, “I just wanted to finish what I was working on.”
This seemed to satisfy the educator, and she stopped paying Taylor any attention as Taylor packed up her things and headed out into the halls.
Winslow High School’s hallways were a danger zone, especially for someone as not cool as Taylor Hebert. The graffiti might have been nice to look at, if it wasn’t just propaganda for the gangs. The strobing florescent lights were a nice touch though, even if it was unintentional. Maybe if someone had a seizure they’d close the school and this nightmare would be over.
By far the ugliest thing in these halls were the people. Ugly children, ugly adults, ugly teenagers. Taylor didn’t look at any faces, keeping her head pointed downward to avoid the ugliness that everyone seemed to revel in. She had to be quick as she made her way to her locker. She wasn’t quick enough.
Taylor sighed a little inside as she heard what might pass as giggling echo out from some hanger-on of Emma’s. How did these people think they were cool? Who gets to decide that sort of thing? Placeholder was cool. Emma and most of her posse were apparently cool, even if Taylor wanted to disagree. This girl was not cool, but because she did what Emma wanted everyone would pretend she was, at least as long as Taylor was around to target instead.
“Blah, blah blah blah! Words words, words! Yada, ya ha ha!” said the bully. Taylor had to hold back a laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Only Taylor could hear what the girl was actually saying. Everyone else would hear some sentence about what Taylor was wearing or about how Taylor couldn’t look everyone in the eye. But Taylor heard the truth, that the words were just words, it didn’t really matter what they meant.
“Taylor, blah. Blah! Ha ha,” the bully continued, “you even do do do do dah la la?”
Insane. Nobody realized how absolutely insane they were. Only Taylor, and Placeholder of course, knew what these people were actually saying. Everyone else was clueless at to how uncool they really were.
Yikes.
Taylor managed to contain herself as she continued on her way towards her locker and ignored the idiots who were laughing at meaningless words as if it was some amazing insult. The girl kept going, but Taylor was no longer paying attention. She was at her locker now, and she quickly unlocked it and grabbed her things. The school day was over and she was ready to go home.
It wasn’t to be, of course. That would be too easy. No, another generic bully approached as Taylor didn’t manage to catch herself from sighing this time.
“Beep bleep, Taylor?” said the new bully, “Are you sample text, sample text dolor set amet?”
Oh, those words again. Taylor shook her head to clear her thoughts and decided to pay closer attention to what the bully in front of her, her former best friend, Emma, was trying to say.
You see, to Taylor and every smart person, Emma was clearly just spouting nonsense, but to everyone else, what Emma said was something along the lines of “What’s wrong, Taylor? Are you upset, gonna go home and cry yourself to sleep tonight?”
Well, no, Taylor was not going to go home and cry herself to sleep. She was too busy for that. Helping Placeholder enter the cape scene took up too much of Taylor’s time for her to remember to cry at night. Emma didn’t have to know that, though. Emma didn’t deserve to know when Taylor cried anymore. Emma was just another generic bully now, not worth Taylor putting in the effort to decipher the drivel that came out of her mouth.
Deciding to not engage, Taylor turned away from generic bully girl and closed her locker, before pushing past the crowd of boring children and making her way out into the wider world of not-Winslow.
School’s out. Time to go home.
