Imagine this:
Your alarm wakes you up. School today. You groan and pull up the covers. Sound like any other person, right? Wrong. You are terrified of going back to school. Judging glares, not-so-secretive whispers assault you. You can’t stand going back there. You can’t even stand the thought of it. You get ready, as slowly as possible. Your mother comments on how tired you look. Again. You shrug. You don’t want her to know you haven’t been sleeping. Every time you close your eyes, you see your classmates laughing at you. You can’t focus in class. Your grades are slipping. It wasn’t obvious at first. A 99 to a 92. Then five more. And five more. And five more. Now you’re failing. Your mother has made breakfast for you. Pancakes, a special treat. But you aren’t hungry. You haven’t been for weeks. So you refuse to eat. You pack a lunch. That relieves your worried mother. She doesn’t know you just throw it away. Everyone is finally ready to go. You pile into your car. The radio is on. Your younger brother is excited for school. He wants to see his friends again. You remember when you were his age. Happy. He and your mother are talking. They don’t notice that you stay quiet. You get dropped off at school. You can already see some of your classmates standing around the door. You don’t want to go. You almost turn back. You force on a smile and walk up to them. When they see you their conversation stops. They were talking about you. You can tell by the way they look at each, other. The bell rings, so you walk inside to your locker. Everyone is laughing and joking, but you just try to get to class as soon as possible. Your classmates don’t let you though. They come up to you, three of them. You feel cornered. You know they talk about you behind your back. You feel threatened. Even if what they say is as simple as “Hi” you feel like they’re insulting you. And why shouldn’t you? These are the same people that push each other in the hallways, and laugh about it. The same people that talk viciously behind their best friend’s back. If they can do that to their friends, imagine what they would do to you. So you don’t think before you blurt out the first thing on your mind. It obviously isn’t the right thing to say. But you can’t help it. Your mind goes blank with panic. And now they’re going to spread more rumors about you. The worst part is, they don’t realize the full extent of their actions. They see it as another way to pass the time. You see it as an attack, one you can’t return because if you do, you’ll either get in trouble or the