Hated by the Public

Note: As always, everyone involved in this story are both completely fictional and above the age of 18, hope you enjoy the story!

***

Everybody hates me. No, really. It might seem surprising, I'm the textbook example of a preppy 'popular' girl. I come from a rich family, I have frankly gorgeous auburn hair, and enough curves to make a circle jealous. And yet, no one likes me. Better yet, everyone despises me, and I'd wager there are two primary reasons why.

The first is that I live in a small town, you know, the kind where everyone knows your name and basic situation, that kind of town, the one Hollywood just loves to glorify. The problem is, everybody knowing everybody isn't always a good thing, especially when your dad is the mayor.

Yeah, that's problem numero dos, my dad, the mayor, is a pretty crappy leader. Nobody within the town limits of Roxton would pass up an opportunity to make my dad's life miserable. Unfortunately for them he's got the sheriff in his pocket, leaving him untouchable. So they tend to go for the next best thing: me.

All my life I've been the scapegoat for his hatred. Teachers have failed me in classes I should have passed, shops will refuse to accept my credit card because of the name inscribed on it, and kids my age have bullied me for as long as I can remember. For the most part it never bothered me all that much. After all, I'm a smart, strong woman who can handle anything thrown at her, and once I get out of this town I'll be free from this torture forever. That's what I thought, it's nothing I can't handle, I just gotta survive, keep my eyes on the prize.

I don't know if I'm strong enough anymore.

Over this past weekend my father made an announcement that ruined my life: he banned all local newspapers from publishing anything negative against him, with the warning that should they persist, "their presses will be closed, forcefully and permanently." How he has the power to enforce such a ridiculous thing, I don't know. Why he thought it wouldn't make our situation ten times worse, I don't know. The mind of a dictator tends to lose reason within the first six months of reign I'd reckon.

So now the newspapers, previously the only outlet other than myself for spewing hate, is essentially shut down for good. Leaving me to bare the entirety of it. And, let me make this clear, I understand their hatred, it's fully justified. Trust me, I hate my father more than anyone else in this town, after all I have to live with him and take all this shit because of the rules he makes and the speeches he gives.

So, coming into school today I expected my daily routine to be worsened by a few exponents. My lunch money stolen, textbooks ripped, boos across campus, the usual. What I didn't expect was absolute silence.

Okay, not silence, in fact it was quite loud. All around me I heard whispers, mutters, and hushed conversation. 'Mayor' this and 'Tessa' that, but... nothing happened. No one sneered at me, or tried to slap me. They all just stared, and whispered, like they expected me to break out into song and dance at any moment.

The rest of the morning followed suit. The kids whispered around and about me, while teachers straight up ignored me. Didn't call my name for attendance, didn't ask me to do anything on the board, nothing.

That all ended after PE class.

I finished my shower and walked to my locker, only to discover it to be empty. This was a shock. Eight years of bullying and never once have I been exposed or threatened to be exposed. But here, now, I found myself in just a towel not an article of clothing in sight.

As panic began to invade my nervous system, Rose approached me. She's my neighbor, we used to play together a lot when we were younger, so I had a bit of a soft spot for her, and it seemed she did for me as well as she never directly partook in the eight years of harassment I've suffered, until now, it seems.

"Hey, Tessa." She said, smiling sweetly. "As I'm sure you know, your dad's little announcement Saturday didn't sit well with a lot of us. And... well, it seems the only way to get to your dad is through you so..."

"So you're gonna confiscate my clothes? I thought you were above all this, Rose. You've never hurt me before!"

"Oh, I didn't do this. This is everybody else's doing, but, I just can't find it in me to stop them anymore, sorry Tessa." Rose looked down at her feet, "It's not personal, for me at least, in fact I really shouldn't be here, I don't want them to think I'm siding with you."

"Wait, you're not gonna help me? Can't you just give me your jacket? I can give it back to you tonight, I swear!"

"I'm so sorry." Rose began to back away, but stopped at the doorway, "You can find your clothes in the supplies closet by lab, and hurry, they aren't gonna wait much longer."

"Wha- who are they?"

My question was answered as Rose exited the locker room, through the open door I saw a crowd of girls, all giggling with their phones out, ready for the long awaited event.

Holy shit. This is real. Obviously I couldn't go out that door, who knows what they'd do to me. Which meant the only other escape is through one of the old windows out the back. I'd rather not have to dash across the school lawn but it didn't seem like I had any other option. As I struggled to get the nearest window open (I swear these locks rusted over 20 years ago), my mind began to race ahead, planning my next moves.

The supplies closet was on the other side of the school, I'd have to run past the school entrance, parking lot, and down to the end of the hallway. It's a pretty safe bet that should I run into anyone they wouldn't let me escape, thankfully though my towel was fairly large so I could run full speed without worrying about giving any spectators a show. So as long as I could get out this window on time and avoid anyone I should have been safe-

THUD

The door behind me burst open, interrupting my thoughts and causing my foothold on the window to slip. As girls swarmed into the locker room, I fell onto the grass outside. Adrenaline rushed as my body took over, I began to sprint away from the window, towards the school entrance. The wind felt great as it blew through my hair and whizzed past my breasts. My... bare breasts. My senses began to return and I realized that all I could feel was the wind around me, I continued to run and heard a laughing taunt from behind me.

"It looks like you forgot something, Tess!"

Things just got bad, real bad. I could only hope that the inevitably wide-spread photos being taken through that window right now didn't reveal everything. My primary focus right now though was just to put as much distance between me and the crowd at my backside. My bare backside.

Due to these new circumstances my route was gonna have to adjust. I could no longer count on the combination of my towel and speed to do the trick. All I had left to rely on was pure speed, and perhaps stealth. I darted toward the treeline at the edge of school grounds, it would be a major sacrifice to speed but the coverage was worth it. In this temporary safety I processed what to expect while working my way towards the entrance.

The entrance area itself is open but should I stick to the treeline the bottleneck area will also be pretty narrow. It should be possible to cross fairly safely, my bigger problem was the parking lot. It was large, completely exposed, and unavoidable. There were no alternatives, I simply had to grit my teeth and bare it. But before I got to experience that nightmare I had to deal with what was in front of me. The statue of our mascot, a manatee, for you curious fellas, loomed above me. While not particularly long, I was expecting a crowd equal or greater to the number of people storming the locker room not even a minute prior.

I braced myself for the incessant clicks of cameras and mocking laughs of gawkers as I jumped into view.

Nothing.

The only sound I heard was my bare feet padding across the pavement before landing back onto the dirt leave mix under the trees. I was... safe. But why? I was almost too good to be true, was I too fast? Is the crowd unable to make it in time? That doesn't make sense, if there was enough coordination for Rose to warn me about it surely they could have told the crowd where the show would be.

I glanced behind me to confirm the lack of people, there was no one. No crowd, no cameras, no cheerleaders chasing after me either. What could this mean?

I figured there were two potential reasons, either the crowd is gathered somewhere closer to the supplies closet, or there is no crowd at all.

While the first reason has its immediate terror, it was the second that truly scared me. The second reason would imply that everything about this so far has been precisely calculated, with the intention of things ramping up in the future.

This wasn't a question of whether they'd try to publicly humiliate me, but when. How long would that torturous wait be? I knew that I'd find out... eventually.

I strode overtop the parking lot, thankfully it was empty. As I hurried my way across as quickly as possible, I snuck a look at the windows parallel to the parking lot. All of the students I saw were preoccupied, they didn't notice the girl being forced to streak across school.

Well, that's a bit of a lie. There was one person watching me travel toward the science building, though I wouldn't find out until later, it was the worst possible person.

I'd finally reached the science building and burst in to the hallway. Classes had started so there was not a person in sight. I threw the supply closet door open and found my clothes atop the pile of the Janitor's porno mags. As I dressed I noticed a note attached to my jeans:

"Welcome to your new life, bitch."

This really wasn't the end.