update: aita for refusing to pick my brother up from school till his step mom apologizes to me?

og post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/s/IZfqxZEqk9

sorry about the late update i got busy with school since my first semester is all ap classes

i did what many of you said and emailed the school to ask if there was any policy stating i couldn’t do pickups/drop offs/be on campus due to piercings, and like most of you said, they said no. i explained to them why i was asking and they said they would ask the teacher about the incident, but told me there was nothing they could do if amelia took me off of the pickup list, so i thanked them and gave them my number and requested they call me once theyre done “investigating” the incident with the teacher.

the next day the school called me to let me know the teacher confirmed there was a staring issue and a few questions from my brothers classmates (forgot to mention i stood in the doorway and waited for him to collect his things after checking him out of the nurse’s office) but that was all, and that she did not say anything of the sort to amelia. i decided to call jeff and let him know about my conversation with the school, and reiterated i would only continue to pick up my brother with an apology from his wife, or at least some kind of acknowledgment that she had lied to me. he told me he would have amelia call me, so i unblocked her and waited. she did call to apologize, but it was very reluctant, and dropped the bombshell that she is pregnant again and used that as an excuse. i decided to just let it go because i don’t want to damage my relationship with my brother and it just wasn’t worth it.

until today when i picked my brother up and he asked why i have so much metal in my face. he’s never said anything before about the piercings unless ive gotten a new one, so i asked what caused him to bring it up. again, a lot of you were correct, one of amelia’s older son’s had asked to get his ears pierced and she attributed it to me even though i never see my brother’s step/half brothers. she’d been complaining about it often around my brother, i guess trying to bait him into saying my piercings bothered or scared him too? i asked him if they did scare him and he said no and he doesn’t really think about them, but amelia constantly said things like “i just don’t understand why she does that to herself, she’s so pretty without the metal crowding her face,” etc. i’m not sure how relevant this is but her and my mom were close friends before their falling out and amelia has a son about a year and a half younger than me (not the one asking to get his ears pierced), and often joked about setting us up before i started leaning more alternative, so i think thats where the “shes so pretty” comments come from.

i was frustrated but didn’t want to upset my brother so i just decided to change the subject, and instead of dropping my brother off and immediately leaving, i told amelia i wanted to come inside and speak to her. she told me it wasn’t a good time and i insisted it was, so she came outside and we talked on the porch. i told her again that if my piercings were an issue, she could find someone else to pick my brother up, but i would appreciate if she stopped constantly complaining about them to the rest of her family. she told me it was none of my concern what she said in the privacy of her own home, and i said it was my concern when she was actively trying to bait my half brother into speaking negatively about me. she again told me she could say whatever she wanted in her own house, and i was just too tired to argue so i told her if my brother came to me again to tell me she’d been complaining about me i would stop picking him up and just see him during my mom’s visitations with him. she was very huffy but agreed and went back inside, slamming the door in my face.

this should be the last update, i’m just going to tolerate amelia in order to maintain contact with my brother because i don’t care about her antics and i have enough other things going on. i’ll continue only communicating with amelia and jeff when necessary, and hopefully nothing else will come out of this. thanks for the support yall <3