At school today everything seemed to be fairly normal, just as any other school day would be. When I went to my third class of the day our teacher asked us all to stand in the front of the room so that she could give us a new seating chart. I was hoping she would sit me with somebody nice, like Cooper. After I heard Cooper’s name called to a certain seat, I was hoping that my seat would be by someone else nice at least. When she got to the names for the last table it was the worst possible seating. There are four seats at a table and my seat is beside Ellison. Grace was at the table beside us. I didn’t know what to say. There was nothing that I could say. All I could do was sit down and hope for the best.

As I sit in the blue plastic chair, I put my backpack beside it on the dirty old floor. Ellison came to sit down and sat her purse on the table along with her other things. She scooted her chair as far over to the other side of the table as she possibly could. Our teacher asked us to take our English books so that we could do a worksheet that she was passing out to the class. I was just hoping that everything would stay drama free. I picked up my worksheet off of the table and grabbed a pencil out of my backpack. Ellison, who acted like she knew what she was doing glanced at her worksheet and then had a clueless look on her face. I could tell she had no idea what to do. It made me feel special because I had been listening in class and she hadn’t, so she had no idea what to do.

I watched as Ellison glanced at Grace to see if she knew the answers. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grace shrug her shoulders. Grace pointed at me and shook her head. I knew that they wanted answers from my paper but I didn’t want to offer them any. Although, if I didn’t give them the answers to the worksheet they would get mad at me and treat me bad, like they already do. I watched as Ellison tried to glance at my paper and I put my arm over the paper so she was unable to see what the paper said.

“Hey Quinn, what are the answers to this paper?” Ellison quietly whispered so that the teacher could not hear her. I did not say anything in reply because I did not want to get caught for cheating. Ellison grabbed the paper out of my hand when I did not reply and I heard Grace quietly laugh at the nearby table. Cooper looked over and he didn’t know what to do. He said to go tell our teacher, but I didn’t want to get yelled at by Ellison and Grace later on for telling on them. I was starting to feel terrified and trying to think of what to do. So I just waited until she got done with the paper. When she did I put my head down on my desk feeling defeated once again.

That afternoon Cooper couldn’t come over to my house so I was feeling even worse when I walked into the house full of chores to do. After an hour of chores I sat down on the couch wondering what I could do. So I went outside to ride Brisa and ponder on the day. The bright orange sun was setting and it was peaceful. I felt as if I had nothing to worry about when I rode her until the thought of Grace and Ellison came to my mind.

When arriving at school the following day Ms. Parks, my Science teacher called me to her desk. I always like Ms. Parks, and now I know why I liked her so much. Her deep brown eyes seemed like she had a sincere meaning about everything she did. I respected her for that. “Quinn, are Grace and Ellison bullying you?” Ms. Parks asked me with a very serious expression expecting me to tell the truth.

“They just sometimes aren’t very nice to me,” I replied looking down at my shoes reminiscing on all the things they had done to me in the past.

“I have noticed some things they have been doing lately and I just wanted to make sure that you are ok,” Ms. Parks said.

“Well thank you but I just wish they wouldn’t do the things they do,” I replied almost in tears.

“If it is ok with you I am going to speak with them and make them aware that they are hurting your feelings so that maybe I am put a stop to it,” Ms. Parks suggested.

“That’s fine I appreciate,” I said with a half smile.

The next day as I walked in school with Cooper everything seemed to be going smoothly until I entered my Science class. Ms. Parks wasn’t there today but Grace and Ellison were. After I sat down in my seat and started on the assignment for the day. I felt someone tap on my shoulder. It was Grace. She had a very hateful look on her face.

“Quinn, I don’t know who you think you are running and being a little tattle tale to the teacher, we weren’t doing anything to you so you better go tell Ms. Parks you were mistaken when you told her we bullied you because we did not, is that clear with you?” Grace said standing in front of me like if I didn’t say yes that I would clarify things with Ms. Parks that she would do something terrible.

“I…I…I didn’t tell her you bullied me she asked me if you guys were and I just said you had done some things I didn’t like,” I said in a very soft whispering tone.

“Excuse me? I said you better clarify things with Ms. Parks,” Grace said.

“There is nothing to clarify, I told the truth,” I said quietly. As Grace got up in my face even more I could tell that she was about to get angrier than she already was. I got scared so I started to stand up out of my chair and walk away. Then I suddenly felt her fist jab into my face and her leg kicked me so hard in the stomach I fell over. I could hear the substitute teacher screaming and kids were all running over to watch what they thought was a fight. Although I didn’t even make an effort to fight her back I just laid their defeated on the cold, dirty, school floor crying and wondering what I was going to do and why these girls hated me so much.

At home I had an ice pack lying on my face and I just laid on the couch feeling that anymore crying would be no good. My mother was terribly upset and had no idea this had even happened. Cooper had called me from school after he heard about it and promised to ride the bus to my house after school to sit and talk with me and try to make things better. This had been going on for over a year now and I didn’t know what else to do. I knew Ms. Parks would believe me. Even if she did believe me that Grace punched me because she was mad Ms. Parks knew what she was doing to me, that didn’t matter? What would I do when nobody was around but Grace, Ellison, and I? They could do whatever they wanted to me and that was the scary part

Ms. Parks had talked to me when I got back to school a week later. It had taken me a while to emotionally and physically recover. As bad as I didn’t want to be there, I knew I had to be. The principal was aware of the situation now and mom was taking me to and from school so they couldn’t be around me on the bus.

I had heard the principal announce over the intercom earlier in school that morning that anyone who was bullying someone else would be taken out of school to the alternative school facility on the other side of town. I knew Grace and Ellison came from to high class families and their money could buy their way out of that.

After I had been at school most of the day everything seemed to be going great. Grace and Ellison hadn’t said a word to me and they had ignored me every time they saw me now. I was hoping it would stay that way. Cooper sat with me in every class now and walked me to every class. Sometimes I wondered how two girls could be so mean. Cooper was so nice, yet those girls were so mean, and at the end of the day we are all still humans.

The next couple of weeks went by and everything seemed to be fine. Until one day I went into the restroom and I saw Ellison standing there putting on her lip gloss in front of the mirror. As I tried to walk away I heard her say my name. I turned around silently.

“Yes,” I replied.

“We will be back to get you I hope you know, you didn’t win this war, you only won the battle,” Ellison said as she walked out of the bathroom giving me an angry look. I looked at my reflection in the mirror only to start sobbing. After a few minutes I dried up my tears and tried to convince myself that I was stronger than they are and I could get through this. I walked back to Ms. Parks class and sat down silently by Cooper at my desk.

When I sat down I felt myself start shaking from being so nervous. My hands were sweating my cheeks felt hot and steamy. My chest was beating hard and I could not focus on the lesson. I felt like everything Ms. Parks was saying was a complete blur. I saw Grace and Ellison whispering in the front of the room. It made me feel even worse.

Grace got up to throw something in the trash and while the teacher was turned around she laid a note on my desk. It had a picture of my face and she was throwing darts at it. I felt so worthless so hopeless, like they owned me and I have no idea how

The next school day I felt nervous once again and I had a reason too. When I walked into Ms. Parks room Grace grabbed my backpack and Ellison continuously punched me and kicked me. I acted like a limp doll not wanting to fight back and almost giving up I just laid there and then everyone and everything around me went black as pitch. I could see nothing and everything was blurry. I felt terrible pain and did not know what else to do but just lay there. Even when I thought it was over it seems like it will never end.

I woke up in the hospital and saw Ms. Parks, my mom, and Cooper. I had lots of bruises with a bandage around my wrist and a cast on my ankle. They had beaten me up pretty badly. I never wanted to see those girls again. I hated school, I hated it I tell you. I never wanted to go back. I want to stay at home and ride Brisa all day where nobody can bother me or bully me. I wanted my father to be proud of me and be able to stand up for his daughter, but he couldn’t.

When I saw Ms. Parks she told me what happened when I was taken in the ambulance. She said that the cops were called and Ellison and Grace were being taken to a juvenile detention center because bullying is against the law and now that they have all the evidence they need to prove I was being bullied they took Grace and Ellison out of school. This made me much happier, as if things had turned around for me. I prayed that this never happens to anyone else. You feel so trapped. You feel like the person that is bullying you almost owns you, and you have no control. They can do anything they want to you. So now if I see someone being bullied I will take action.