Rebecca Lane. It was clearer than the bright blue eyes that stared out of my computer screen. My name wasn’t bolded, in italics or underlined but to me, it was jumping out of my screen and slapping me across the face. My gaze fluttered down to where there were already fifty-four ‘likes’ determining that “Stratton High Schools Ugliest Girl!” Facebook page was going to be seen by my whole entire school in less than half an hour. Comments were already streaming in, causing the scroll button to shrink smaller than my heart. I tasted a salty mixture of blood and tears that was all too familiar. My hands shook as I scrolled down reading the remarks, my breath lodging in my throat and my insides churning. The insults escalated, building in intensity and broke like a wave upon me, throwing me against the cold hard seabed again and again. I knew as I was reading, these words would stay with me forever, etched into the crevices of my mind and niggling my every action. Each and every comment felt like a whiplash across my back making me curl into a fetal position. I gripped my arms until my knuckles turned white and drew blood. The silence was absolute apart from the hot tears that streamed down my face and landed with a plop in my lap, heard and seen only ever by me.

The next day at school was torture. The stares I received burned me like hot irons and I could almost smell my burning flesh. People abruptly stopped talking as I passed, eyeing me like an eagle does its prey and then hurriedly finishing their sentence. Girls giggled stupidly and whispered amongst themselves while staring openly at me. Even the teachers looked at me fleetingly but then realised their rudeness and hastily busied themselves. Suddenly, my mobile vibrated in my pocket and I fished it out. Those next few words almost broke me. “LOL! Ur so ugly! No one wants you!” I took a breath and let out a shaky sigh. I won’t let everyone have the satisfaction of seeing me cry, I thought to myself. All of a sudden, my mobile vibrated with a torrent of messages half from people I didn’t even know. “Go home so we don’t have to see ur face!” “You should go to an ugly home!” “Just die!” The world blurred. I felt as if my eyes had been jabbed with millions of needles. I felt as if my brain had been doused in petrol and set on fire. I felt as if my body had been dunked under boiling water. I felt absolutely nothing… In the distance I heard the morning school bell ring and it dawned on me that my suffering had only just begun. I stared down at my shoes and decided enough was enough.

~~~

The school grounds were empty as Hannah made her way to the principal’s office. There was a chill in the air that hadn’t been there this morning and was creating mini whirlwinds amongst the fallen leaves. She hadn’t thought posting the page would create such a colossal response. ‘Whatever,’ she thought. ‘I’ll just blame it on Jessica. Say she made me do it.’ A crow’s screech ran through the desolate space, its scratchy cry almost sounded like a warning. Hannah skirted the corner and spotted something dangling from the school flagpole that looked too large and irregular to be a flag. It almost looked like a ghost suspended in mid-air, its willowy coat billowing in the wind. She drew closer wondering what it was and froze. Suddenly it dawned on her. A sudden gust of wind blew the body around and Hannah stared into the once clear blue now empty eyes of Rebecca Lane.