Playing With / Bully Magnet

Basic Trope: A character who is an easy target for bullies.

• Straight: Kayla is an easy target for bullying from Alice and her posse.
• Exaggerated:
  • Kayla is frequently bullied by everyone she comes across, even the supposed "unpopular" kids.
  • The cabal of bully principals in the state Kayla lives in (so switching schools won't help) have made it a mandatory action for student graduation to bully Kayla. Attempts at removing this rule have been unsuccessful for now, mostly because everyone up to the Chief Justice of the United States is a Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up who would love to spend some time bullying Kayla themselves but, alas, work comes first, so making sure her life remains a Hell on Earth is the best they can do.
• Downplayed: People tease Kayla occasionally, but it's not as horrible as being bullied.
• Justified:
  • Kayla is a jerkass and purposely provokes the bullies to get a reaction out of them.
  • Kayla is a nerd in a school full of Jerk Jocks.
  • Kayla is non-confrontational (out of shyness or pacifism) and the bullies believe that this means she is weak.
  • Kayla does not has the fashion sense of Alice and her worker bees (because she is humble, a nerd or lacks the money to buy cool outfits — the latter also probably means she lacks the connections Alice has), which translates in Alice's train of thought as a good enough reason to target her.
  • Kayla is a Kid Hero — a.k.a. easy pickings. Other elements like having skipped grades means she also falls under "nerd".
  • Kayla is a very gifted individual, which translates to "she is looking down on us, let's show her!".
  • Kayla has made the decision to stand her ground and fight back, which means the jocks are more driven to knock her teeth out.
  • Kayla has the very bad luck of being a persecuted minority (of any kind) in a school full of people who hate those like her.
  • Kayla is the Teacher's Unfavorite Student, meaning the bullies think (or worse yet, know) that as long as she is the only one they bully they can get away with murder.
  • There is no actual reason (at least at first) — for the sake of drama, she is the target of the Irrational Hatred of an awful lot of people.
• Inverted: Kayla is "bully repellent": for whatever reason, no bullies pick on her. In fact, she may have a fearsome reputation for absolutely no reason at all. It's just that there's this threatening aura that surrounds her that strikes fear into the hearts of anyone who comes near her. And no, she might not even have a Face of a Thug; She might even look Hollywood Homely!
• Subverted: Alice approaches Kayla, but then decides to do something else.
• Double Subverted:
  • Alice picks on Kayla later.
  • Alice was going to tease Kayla for her clothes, but makes fun of her hairstyle instead.
  • Alice doesn't pick on Kayla, but her Jerk Jock boyfriend, Bob, does.
• Parodied:
  • Alice and Bob are Schedule Fanatics about how, where, and when they bully Kayla.
  • Kayla is a literal magnet who attracts bullies.
  • Bullies line up to abuse Kayla like park-goers line up to ride their favorite attraction or vehicle owners line up to get their driving licenses. Some even wait for days, camping in place.
• Zig-Zagged: Sometimes the alpha bitch bullies Kayla and sometimes she just leaves Kayla alone.
• Averted: Kayla doesn’t attract unwanted attention, so nobody bullies her.
• Enforced: Executives say there's no easier or better way to present Kayla's misery in school than having her be the most (or maybe even the only) bullied kid at school.
• Lampshaded: "There's Kayla. Bullies always go after her for some reason."
• Invoked: "There's Kayla. I'll go pick on her."
• Exploited: When Kayla comes into the picture, she inadvertently relieves Kate, who used to be this (not that it makes Kayla feel any less bad).
• Defied:
  • Kayla avoids the bullies at all costs, possibly even Un-person-ing herself to that end.
  • Kayla stands up for herself and puts Alice in her place. After that, Alice won't bully her ever again.
  • Flash, the normally Barbaric Bully, decides to reform and protect Kayla, standing up to her other bullies, and of course, due to Flash's reputation as The Dreaded (not even Bully Hunter Claire can put a stop to him), they all oblige. When this is expanded upon, it's revealed that Kayla actually did a kind thing for Flash when the two were in kindergarten: When Flash had no food, Kayla gave him some of hers. Whether or not Kayla and Flash start dating after he saves her is Depending on the Writer (more optimistic writers actually make Flash and Kayla an Official Couple, less optimistic writers tend to keep them as Just Friends).
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???
• Deconstructed:
  • The bullying Kayla deals with leads into Mugging the Monster when she gets fed up and finally fights back. It may even veer into Bullying a Dragon if the bullies keep provoking Kayla after she mops the floor with them.
  • Kayla resents her situation and blames herself for being an easy target for bullies.
  • Kayla develops serious low self-esteem.
  • Kayla becomes a bully herself to keep herself from being a target.
  • Kayla's situation continues to deteriorate until she is Hated by All, and her bullies lynch her.
• Reconstructed:
  • Kayla realizes that although she did things that made her an easy target for bullies, she doesn't blame herself and takes measures to defend herself when people pick on her.
  • However badass or plain bad Kayla tries to be, there will always be someone better than she is at that and they'll see her as a perfect target for bullying. If anything, Kayla's efforts just paint an increasingly bigger target on her.
  • For a given value of "reconstructed": an Enemy Civil War erupts between the bullies who hate Kayla so much that they want to kill her and the bullies who hate Kayla so much that they think death would be too merciful for her.
• Played for Laughs: Kayla being the only bullied kid at school (or even the only bullied kid in the county) is part of her Hilariously Abusive Childhood.
• Played for Drama:
  • How long do you think a human being can endure being the the sole target of all the people with bullying tendencies in the city/county/state/country? Kayla is dangling dangerously close to her limit, and it won't be pretty when she reaches it.
  • Kayla gets on her knees and begs the hundred bullies surrounding her and getting ready to beat her to a pulp (or for some of the less savory bullies, something even worse) to explain to her what did she do to them and what she can do to make things right so they won't do this. The answer by their leader is "I don't know either, but there is just something about you that pisses me off" and orders the assault to begin.
• Played for Horror:
  • Kayla's bullies do things like rape and Cold-Blooded Torture. The fact she is the only one they target whenever they get the urge, and more people feel the urge regarding her than they do with anybody else, is one of the reasons nobody seems to care about her fate.
  • The hatred Kayla receives from the bullies is showcased to be obscenely irrational and trying to explore what caused said irrationality brings some awful facts about their minds to light.
  • Kayla's bully magnet tendencies are revealed to have supernatural origins - a Curse, a pissed-off spirit possessing the bullies, Van Helsing Hate Crimes, a universal design, etc.
  • Everyone's all laughing at and jeering Kayla, until she one day comes to school fully armed with a bunch of military grade assault rifles...