'Bullying'

I wrote this in class. Hope you like.

So, today I got even more comments on how I look. I don’t mean to be different. I know I’m not perfect, but it’s just the way I am. “Why’s your hair like that?”, “Do you know how ugly you look?”, “I feel sorry for your mirror!” and all they do is laugh. Haha. Gosh, how do people come up with this kind of stuff? I mean, how can I be gay, when I’m female. I just don’t know how to get away from it. I see all these posters in my school and even on the TV about bullying, so why don’t they listen to them? It’s not hard. How did I deserve this? Did I do some kind of sin? Is this even classified as bullying or is it just me? Do I overreact like they say I do? Do they even know what I might be going through? I go home in tears and when my Mum asks me how I am, all I can say is I’m fine. Always the same. Why do I have to go through this? Why not the girl that doesn’t have enough money to buy a decent pair of school shoes? I’m just over it.

Today when I get home, it was just the same. In tears and the same answer to Mum’s desperate question, “I’m fine!” then slam the door shut so no one can hear the quiet sobs I can sadly call mine in my bedroom. I open up my laptop to find 3 new messages in my inbox. I open them. What a surprise!? “Why are you still even at this school, in this place? Why don’t you just leave already”, “Hey, your a joke. Why do you smell so much? Do you even shower? Or are you too poor for that too?” I slide the computer off my purple cotton doona cover on my bed, letting it fall to the ground with a bang. I pick it up, hoping it’s broken and all my problems are gone away, but it’s not. How unfortunate. I open the last message. It’s from a girl in my class. “Hey, hope your okay. I guess your not. Anyway, just letting you know of this website. It would really help if you want to get away from all the bullies, anyway, I better go, have a look if you want” I click the link at the bottom of the message. While it loads, I dab at the fresh tears with a tissue that have fallen down my cheeks and slid down onto my bare neck. I take off my school dress, pulling so hard that one of the buttons falls to the ground. Why am I taking this out on my  school dress? I put on my blue skinny jeans and striped green shirt and run downstairs to find something to eat. I scavenge through the cupboard for a packet of sweet biscuits and the tub of vanilla ice-cream, spoon out two scoops of ice-cream and place it on the biscuits. I guess I am weird. I put the two biscuits onto a plate and run to my room, placing the plate on my bedside table. I reopen the tab with the website on it. I read : “bullying.org. Where you are not alone” I click on the history tab on the website and a new page comes up. I continue reading about a 14 year old boy that fired a gun inside a high school in America. About a student that was killed and one who was badly wounded and I soon find out from more reading that it was caused by bullying. It tells me that a Canadian father and teacher thought he should start a group to tell people that are being bullied that there is always help. He set up the website in 2000. I always knew there was help, but I never thought I’d need it. Not ever, but I guess I did.

I log into my Facebook account on my phone. As I walk to school I read the lone message in my inbox. ‘Hey you. Why are you still here? Just go jump off a bridge. I don’t really care what you do. Just do it!” Oh my. I can’t handle this anymore. I just can’t. I get to school and sit in the corner like I usually do and watch all the kids run around laughing. I spot the girl who sent me the link looking at me through her extremely thick glasses. Suddenly a group of year 9’s are surrounding me, threatening me and ‘bullying’ me. I run. Not to the principle, nor the councillor. Or even my home. I run away. I run to a cliff that has been taped off by police tape. But I’m not scared of that. I scramble under the tape and sit on the edge. I sit there for 15 minutes and finally I decided what I was going to do. I ran home trying not to get caught by anyone as it was still school hours, pulled the fly screen of my bedroom window out and jumped in. I grabbed the closet and biggest bag and started packing it with clothes. I look at my computer sitting open on my bed from that morning. Obviously Mum hadn’t been in my room today. I close it, hard and stuff it into the bag along with my phone, phonebook and my purse. I sneak down the corridor and find the money jar in the cupboard. I take a $50 note and a $100 note and add them to the $3 I have in my purse. I write a note and tell Mum I love her. That I’m never coming home, so don’t look for me. I leave it under her coffee cup. I let the tears drip out of the corner of my eyes as I walk out the back door. I go back to the edge of the cliff that I was sitting at before. I look at my phone. 2 messages. One from Mum and one from the school. I open the one from Mum. “Where are you? Why aren’t you at school? Why would you do such a thing, your a good kid” I don’t bother opening the one from the school. I figure if anyone cared about me, they’d come and find me. I open my laptop and see the same webpage I was looking at last night. I see at the bottom of the page what they try and achieve. To help people understand that they are NOT ALONE in being bullied, to help people understand that being bullied is NOT THEIR FAULT, and to help people understand that there are many POSITIVE alternatives to dealing with bullying. I look at the contact button. I click it and up pops an email address and phone numbers. I press on the email address and up comes a new email. I type into the blank space: “Please help me, I am desperate. I want to leave. Forever and not come back. I need help. Right now. I’m on the cliff and the only thing I can imagine doing is hopefully going to solve everything” I wait for a reply and I get one. “Sit still. Please don’t move from your spot. We are going to help you through everything” And I did.

Reviews

[Issac Scott]

I like your subject material, but you may need to learn to place proper paragraphs instead of bulking up the story into giant sections. Work on your dialogue too; make it flow naturally. For instance, most people wouldn't say, "I am desperate." You know what I mean? "I'm desperate" sounds far more human, far less robotic. Try reading your dialogue aloud and seeing if it sounds natural-- like something you yourself would say.

Bullying is a real issue these days, so I commend you for writing about this problem. Keep writing and keep improving.

[t&l_louise]

Yeah it was for a school assignment! I tired to create something different, to keep the options open and I did.

I read it aloud to my class and they loved it. It was only meant to be short so I purposely made it bulky. Only because I thought I wouldn't put it here, but then I like it, so I did :) I also entered it into a writing competition.

Thanks for the review though!