I remember entering middle school on the first day of 8th
grade and being a little nervous which is normal on your first day of school. I didn’t know anyone in my homeroom let alone anyone in all of my classes.
I met a couple of girls that I soon became close with. The only time I got to see them was during class and study hall. Other than that, it was just
hanging out after school.
I had a lot of insecurities and low self esteem when I was young. I
always felt like I needed to do things for kids just so they would be my friend. I found that some of the girls found it funny to pick on me just to
hear me apologize to them or beg them to be my friend. I remember asking so many of them on a daily basis, “are you mad at me? I’m sorry”. Many of the
girls in middle school were very tough, and I even watched one girl beat up a boy! She beat him pretty bad until the principal came and broke it up.
There was one girl who I’ll never forget, Lisa H. She was a nasty girl
who acted very much like a tomboy. She was popular with the guys (maybe they were just afraid of her) and had a best friend who was her puppet. When
those two got in a fight, Melissa would be my friend until she and Lisa made up and then Melissa made up lies and told Lisa I said things about her, to
where Lisa would threaten to beat me up after school. She never did of course but still, the threat was enough to make me upset all day and night for
much of that year.
One thing I will never forget is the day we had a substitute teacher
for English class. Lisa was in my class and for some reason the teacher was called out in the hallway with the Principal. All I could think was, “oh
no, please, don’t leave me alone in here with Lisa” because I knew she was going to get up in front of the class and start something. So, the
substitute goes out in the hall and the minute the door closes, Lisa stands up. She walks around the entire room pretending like she’s sniffing
something. She starts saying “I smell something gross”. She comes up behind me and sniffs loud and says “It’s you! You smell like dog crap”. All the
kids start laughing, and I just sat there frozen. She then proceeds to say to the class “let’s take a vote, who thinks she is the ugliest girl in this
class, raise your hands”. All I heard was silence. She then threatens everyone to raise their hands or else and says “YOU are the ugliest girl in the
class and everyone thinks so too”. I did all I could to fight the tears back just praying the teacher would hurry up and come back in. The door opened
and Lisa ran back to her seat like nothing happened.
When I got home, I ran up to my room, laid down and cried my eyes out.
I never thought kids could be so cruel.
