Ms. Trent

Ms. Trent is a carpentry club instructor at Calman High School.

## Personality

Trent seems to care for her students, preventing outright bullying, letting them stay late in club room, and even offering rides home despite it being forbidden. She doesn’t seem to be the type to pry into personal matters of her students, but that stops when they bring those matters into clubroom, such as secretly having sex there. Trent owns several dogs.

## History

Ms. Trent initially didn’t believe Lance when he told her that Hector took the welding mask and gave him detention. However, after Hector confirmed it, she rescinded her decision and gave Hector three days’ detention.

Ms. Trent started to suspect that Hector was the Darksteel Soldier a couple weeks before Calman High Massacre, but didn’t really believe it could be him until Hector demonstrated his supernatural abilities fighting Geoffrey. She survived the massacre without significant physical injuries, and seemed grateful to Hector for saving her life, defending him from murder accusations both immediately and in her testimony to the police later.

## References

1. ↑ “Geez. Well, could you at least tell that to Ms. Trent? She didn’t believe me when I told her you took it. She gave me detention.”

Hector nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

Lance eyed him. “I’m sure you won’t mind if I go with you.”

“Just... show me where she is.”

Lance led him into the back room where the club instructor sat at her desk, marking quiz papers. She looked up as they entered. “Hector?” she said. “What brings you here?” - Excerpt from page 58
2. ↑ Ms. Trent glared at Lance. “Did you bully Hector into saying this?”

“Of course not!”

“You’d better tell me the truth now. If I find out later, I swear to goddess I will have you suspended.” - Excerpt from page 59
3. ↑ He knew he would need to stay extremely late if he wanted to finish the helm. Thankfully, this was a common occurrence in the club. Members would routinely hang around several hours after other clubs wrapped up, and oddly, Ms. Trent never seemed to mind very much. As long as there were at least a couple of students still around, she would just stay in her office and read a book or some such thing, employing ear plugs for any machining noise. - Excerpt from page 79
4. ↑ He finished up the welding, screwed the jaw into place, stuffed the helm in his bag, and exited the building with Ms. Trent.

“You okay to get home?” she asked.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure? We’re not supposed to give students rides, but I can’t just let you walk home in the dark.” - Excerpt from page 80
5. ↑  “Oh, is that so? Well, all you have to do is start showing up again. I’m still not sure why you stopped.”

“Ah... just... personal reasons...”

Ms. Trent wasn’t the type to pry. Or perhaps she just didn’t care very much. Hector had never quite figured her out. But whatever the reason, she didn’t push the issue and let him return to the workroom with the others. - Excerpt from page 59
6. ↑ ‘*I, uh... I saw them having sex in the clubroom.*’

Garovel stared at him a moment. ‘*Uh. Huh.*’

‘*Yeah... I mean, I just walked in on them and... yeah...*’

‘*What did you do?*’

‘*I ran away. Which... probably wasn’t the right thing to do. They’d seen me. So... maybe I shoulda just talked to them, but... I... that... there was just no way...*’

‘*I can imagine.*’

Hector proceeded outside through the front of the school. ‘*But, um... anyhow, to make a long story short, uh... I mean, I wasn’t going to tell anyone about what I saw... but I kinda... ended up telling Ms. Trent.*’

‘*Ah. Damn, Hector.*’

‘*Yeah... I-I tried not to tell her, but... uh... Ms. Trent already had her suspicions, I guess... and... she sorta cornered me... and I just... I don’t know. I couldn’t lie about it. And I should have...*’ He shook his head. ‘*I really fucking should have...*’

Garovel gave a sympathetic shrug. ‘*You just told the truth. Why does everyone in the club hold that against you?*’

‘*Because... Katrina and Jamal were both expelled, and now they have to repeat a year.*

‘*Oh. Yikes.*’

‘*I hadn’t, uh... I hadn’t actually done anything wrong, so... they couldn’t kick me out of the club, but...*’

‘*They ignored you until you just left on your own.*’

‘*Pretty much...*’

‘*Is that when you decided to kill yourself?*’

Hector sighed. ‘*When you put it like that... it sounds even more pathetic...*’ - Excerpt from pages 222 and 223
7. ↑ “You certainly know how to stay focused; I’ll give you that.” She smirked faintly. “A few more minutes. But then we’re outta here. I’ve got an important home life, you know. My dogs need to be fed.” - Excerpt from page 80
8. ↑ He entered the workroom to the sight of a dozen familiar faces and a handful of new ones. He heard the chatter dull as a few people noticed him. Lance Alexander approached him straight away.

“Please tell me you came to return the mask.”

“Sorry,” Hector said. “I lost it.”

“Geez. Well, could you at least tell that to Ms. Trent? She didn’t believe me when I told her you took it. She gave me detention.”

Hector nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

Lance eyed him. “I’m sure you won’t mind if I go with you.”

“Just... show me where she is.”

Lance led him into the back room where the club instructor sat at her desk, marking quiz papers. She looked up as they entered. “Hector?” she said. “What brings you here?”

“It’s like I told you,” said Lance. “He’s the one who took the mask. Then he went and lost it.”

“Is this true?”

He gave another nod. “Yeah.”

Ms. Trent glared at Lance. “Did you bully Hector into saying this?”

“Of course not!”

“You’d better tell me the truth now. If I find out later, I swear to goddess I will have you suspended.”

“I didn’t bully anyone!”

“He’s telling the truth,” said Hector. “He, uh... he tried to stop me, actually.” ‘*Why does everyone think I’m being bullied?*’

‘*You do look very bulliable.*’

“Alright,” said Ms. Trent. “Lance, you’re off the hook. Hector, you have three days’ detention, and you’ll have to pay a fine to replace the mask.”

Lance took a relieved breath and left. - Excerpt from pages 58 and 59
9. ↑ “Why did it want to hurt you? Because you’re the Darksteel Soldier?”

Hector paused at that. “...The what?”

“Oh, come on. I’ve seen the news. A young, black male in a metal helmet, terrorizing criminals around the city. You can’t tell me that’s some other guy.”

“Yeah, o-okay, that’s me, but... the Darksteel Soldier?”

“Isn’t that what you call yourself?”

“Uh... no...”

“Well, that’s what they’re calling you. You didn’t know?”

“I, uh... I haven’t really... been paying attention to the news lately...”

“Hmm.” Ms. Trent eyed him again. “I started seeing the reports a couple weeks ago, and I had my suspicions about you, y’know. I remembered that helmet you made. And you’d been missing a lot of club meetings. But still. I didn’t *really* think it could be you. You’re just. So...”

“Y-yeah, I know... I’m still surprised, myself...”

“Never can tell with the quiet ones, I suppose.” - Excerpt from pages 279 and 280
10. ↑ “She’s just traumatized,” said Ms. Trent. “Give her some time.”

He doubted time would make much difference. He looked at his teacher.

Small cuts riddled her face. Her hair and clothes were all a mess. She didn’t look any less traumatized than Sheryl, really.

“H-how are you feeling?” he asked her.

“Alive. Thanks to you.” - Excerpt from page 279
11. ↑ A sudden shriek drew his attention, and he saw a group of students pointing at him from behind the line of police officers.

“That’s him!” one girl shouted. “I saw him kill someone!”

“Just look at him! He’s covered in blood!”

“He killed that boy in the bathroom!”

The police pulled out tasers and started toward him, all seven of them at once.

“No!” yelled Ms. Trent. “He’s not the murderer! He protected us!” - Excerpt from page 280
12. ↑ She actually knew more of the details than Hector probably realized. She’d looked into the events rather extensively and found several contradictory testimonies from people who’d been in the school at the time of the attack. In particular, there was the version given by one of his teachers, Ms. Trent, who claimed to have been saved by Hector.

Ms. Trent’s account of what transpired had been too difficult for the media or the police to believe, what with it talking about students becoming possessed with murderous intent. This, combined with the fact that Hector’s own father had been among the listed victims, gave Gina a fairly clear picture of what had truly happened. Not to mention, it also explained why Hector seemed to have an especially difficult time talking about it. - Excerpt from pages 484 and 485