Punish the bullies at school

Really, school was the only choice. They wanted to make Winslow High their battlefield? Okay, I was game.

I spent all night thinking about what I was going to do to them. With my telekinesis I could trip them, give them wedgies, and cause wardrobe malfunctions, and with my clairvoyance I could watch their embarrassment from the other side of the school. That had potential, but using parahuman abilities could grab the attention of the PRT, and I didn't want that kind of heat. Besides, maybe I'm too naive and idealistic, but I didn't want them to suffer because I had become stronger than them, I wanted them to be punished for their crimes.

That's why as soon as I got to school, I headed straight for the principal's office.

"Principal Blackwell," I said as soon as she was able to meet with me. "I'd like to report a bullying incident."

Blackwell was a tall, thin woman. She nodded at my statement, neither seeming surprised nor terribly interested. "By whom?"

"Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements. They have been tormentingly incessantly since my freshmen year."

Again, her face showed no surprise. Winslow was a ghetto school, and often had to deal with **** and vandalism on a regular basis. Plenty of students wore tattoos marking them as a member of one gang or another. Bullying complaints didn't bother her very much. They didn't bother anyone, unless you were the victim. "Do you have any proof? Anyone willing to verify your claims?"

That was half the reason I had never come by here before. She didn't have friends, and no one was willing to stick their necks out for the geeky loner girl and risk becoming a target. And the teachers ... well, the teachers didn't care enough to pay attention.

Fortunately, she had the rulebook. A few miles away in her bedroom, the book flipped open and a pencil lifted up into the air. Taylor Hebert, the pencil wrote, does not need evidence, and her word is considered proof.

"You have my word," I said. "That is enough."

And miraculously, I was right. "Very well then," Blackwell said. "Those three girls will be suspended for the next two weeks."

That was the other half of the reason I had never gone to the authorities. Suspension? Really? A couple weeks vacation from school? Sure they might suffer academically, but I was suffering now! And time off would just give the bullies more time to plan ways to get back at me, and drive them to try harder.

"No," I said. "They won't be."

Back in my bedroom, the pencil lifted up into the air again. New Rule, it wrote. The punishment for bullying in Winslow High is ...