Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones, and Words Can Too.

Short Story about a girl seriously bullied at school.

  Nothing hurt more than the words that flew out of the other kids' mouths' as Nicola passed down the halls. They could throw empty juice cartons, and banana skins, apple cores, but those things could be shaken off. Like water off of a duck's back the bits of rubbish would wash out, brush off, fall to the floor. The words however, imprinted in Nicola's head like a library stamp, the old kind you had to force down onto the paper to get a good strong print out on the page. Silly words, cruel words, hurtful words spilled out their mouth's and drenched Nicola like a tropical downpour. No matter how hard she tried to shut her ears and block out the words they just kept coming. 

  The hallway seemed endless, she hated break time and lunchtime even more so. They weren't allowed in classrooms at lunch and break, they had to be outside or in the hallways, or even worse, the canteen. 

  The canteen was like a feeding ground for the many African wildlife. All the herbivores, colourful foreign exchange zebras, majestic tall english giraffes and the lesser-known smart leaping history antelopes. Then, the carnivores in all shapes and sizes, some more obvious than others. The speedy spotted sport cheetahs, the sly quick-witted laughing science hyenas, the slinky slim and beautiful panther-like art students. Then the top notch killer's, the fierce pride of popular kids, the lions. Amongst all of this congregation in the canteen, Nicola was nothing more than a shy, scared and pathetic little meerkat that had lost it's family. Maths student. 

  Nicola had always been smart, that's what had made her so special. Or at least that's what her mum had told her. She aced all her primary school tests getting higher marks than all other other students, specialising in her Maths tests. Coming to high school had been a big leap for her, and she had found it hard throughout her first year. She thought second year might've eased off a little bit, but she was wrong. 

A football hit her hard in the back of the head. Pain spread out through her head and down her neck. It felt like a fire burning on her skull. She reached up behind her and touched the growing tender lump on her head. She winced, tears brimming at her eyes. Behind her a voice cracked like a whip.

  " Hey, weasel! I hope you remembered what today is." Nicola turned to see the school's bully Angela standing there in her tampered-with uniform to make it look oh-so more s****y than everyone else's. Her skirt rolled up so it just covered her bum, and sat low around her hips, usually inviting more than enough attention. Her shirt was faintly pink rather than white, and she had a really obvious push up bra on underneath, in bright blue so you could see it. Her tie was low so she had full-on cleavage on show. Blonde hair and big false eyelashes sealed the deal. Nicola often wondered how she got away with this. 

  " Oi lesbo stop staring at her, and answer the question dipshit." Behind her was her buff sport's entourage, or as many people called them, her bodyguards. 

  " No, I mean yes I know what day it is. I wasn't staring at anything." Nicola squeaked, she felt smaller than a mouse.

  " Whatever cherry-licker" POW there was the first verbal hit, it was only going to get worse.

  "Today's maths homework hand-in, so you've got the rest of your pathetic little break time to get these questions done for me b***h." POW again it hit Nicola like a sledgehammer. She fought back tears. She hadn't even turned thirteen yet, and she was never allowed to use swear words or any mean names at home, never had. 

  There had been one time that Nicola's older cousin had come over to babysit and had put on a movie about gangs in America, it had been an 18 rated movie, and he hadn't noticed that Nicola, aged 7, had sneaked in the back of the room. She had sat quiet as a mouse watching the last twenty minutes, where one character had sworn nearly all the time he was on screen. She trundled off up to her room and climbed into bed silently, and when her parents came home her father had come up to kiss her goodnight and tuck her in. She had stirred and smiled at him innocently. Her father, a warm figure in her life, sat on the end of her bed and asked her one simple question.

 " How was your evening sweetheart, where you a good girl for Johnny?" And Nicola had smiled and answered him ever so plainly.

 " Yes daddy, it was f*****g awesome." 

SMACK! His hand whacked across her face faster than a formula 1 car. The pain spread throughout her face and she began to cry. He was shouting at her but her ear was ringing with pain so she couldn't catch anything he was saying. He smacked her again, for good measure, and left her to sleep. Bruised, hurt and scared, Nicola vowed to herself never to swear again.

  "Hello? What the f**k are you thinking about you skank? Take the questions now!" Nicola looked down, she was fed up of being afraid of these bullies, and she certainly didn't want to do the questions for her.

  " No." Her voice was almost a whisper.

  "What?" 

  " NO, I'm not doing your questions, do them yourself." Nicola said more strongly, looking up bravely at Angela and her crew. A look of shock or horror spread across Angela's face. Her body guards looked at her confused. She huffed and smiled with an evil looking glint.

  " Guys, teach this little c**t a lesson." 

POW. POW. SMASH. SLAP. POW.

Not just the use of her hateful name-calling that caused Nicola's brain to wince and tears to start rolling uncontrollably, but she had been grabbed by two or three of the guys and whisked outside. 

The cold air stang her eyes, and she was soon face to face with the concrete pavement. Her head shook as she hit the floor. 

KICK. SMASH. POW. THUMP.

Eventually her body went numb. Eventually she stopped feeling the violent kicks to her rib cage, or the boots stomping on her hands and legs, or the stones thrown at her face. Eventually all noise and pain stopped. 

And as she began to black out, she watched a pool of her own blood begin to surround her.

Maybe, Nicola thought to herself, she should've just answered the questions for Angela.

Author's Note

Some of the swear words were necessary I feel - but could be taken out. Let me know whatcha think :)