----ALL NAMES ARE FAKE----


Do you remember in elementary school that loner that just walked around the playground? Watching stuff but never focusing on anything? Maggie M. was that loner but rather it was because no one wanted to be friends with her, never did. Not many people can say that they went through what she did. She was made fun of and bullied all because they wanted to belong themselves. But they don’t realize the impact it makes. Even in elementary school there was the popular crowds, the normal people, and then the people like Maggie.












* * *


The wind blew to my face, shedding my hair like a cape around me. My young pale freckled hands franticly tried to calm the strands down, what if someone sees my face. But for some miraculous reason no one was making fun of me.

The sun beat down on my back, the grass under my feet was lush green and it crinkled under my shoes. My only friends.

My neck craned painfully to see what was happening behind me. The usual, Lacey and her crowd which surrounded her. Katy, Julia , and Alice were on that rusty old jungle gym. My eyes moved to where Dari and friends would sit on a bench and talk about anything. They called it their “club,” yes very important club when all you do is sit there. Dari was mean to me and almost everybody else, even her friends sometimes. So you think I would not care when I saw tears rolling down her face, with her friends no where in sight.

I did.

My feet involuntarily started to carry me forward, toward the girl. The sun blinded, making my eyes water and blink. But I did not pause. I walked slowly to make sure I did not run into anyone that would possibly hit me. “Um, are you okay?” I asked when I was right in front of her. My voice was deeper then most girls my age, it sounded so weird to me.

Her head slowly popped upward, not expecting someone to be in front of her. I held my breath until my lungs cried out for air. “No,” she cried and burrowed her head inside her small hands once again. I sat down beside her, no longer caring what she was going to say to me afterward. The bench was cold under me, no one has been here but Dari. Why did her friends just abandon her? But deep down I knew her friends caused her to cry like this.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her but I already knew the answer. It was obvious from the look on her face.

She looked at me, her eyes impassive, but glad that someone cared. And ironically it was the girl she never cared about. She told me the story, her voice was cracked and slurred because of the tears that bonded her. She told me the story between chocked breaths.

Her friends truly left her alone. You may think it was odd, the girl that was always abandoned cared about other abandoned people. But Dari was lucky, she had people to talk to. She had friends. She should be with them.

I sat there with her, never leaving her alone that one faithful day on the playground. I sat there and just talked to her, and she listened until her tears had vanished from her face entirely. I could tell you more but that was years ago, and a moment in a year I would never forget.

And finally I convinced her to go talk to her friends. And she listened to me. I could not believe it. But what even shocked more was that she hugged me, I could not hug her back. I couldn’t move.

Dari moved away from me, gulping down what ever lunch she had. By then she was out of sight.












* * *


Maggie watched Dari as she walked off to her friends. She could not hear a thing but she knew what was happening. And the days that followed continued as they always did. Somehow Maggie knew that Dari would never forget about that one faithful person that helped her get her friends back, the girl she made fun of. Maggie’s mouth oddly curled into a crooked smile. Even two years later when Maggie got her first friends, she smiled upon that moment.

The wind blew to Maggie’s face, shedding her hair like a cape around her. Maggie’s young pale freckled hands franticly tried to calm the strands down, what if someone sees my face.

Note from the author:



It is not about the plaques on the walls but the difference you make in peoples lives.