Bullying: Friends with Stars. A Little Mix and Demi Lovato story

Chapter 1

Aliyah's point of view:
It was a typical school day. A day of tripped, cornering, hitting, pushing, and grabbing of the backpack handles. You might ask: 'Why is that typical?' Well, it's typical at my school Paramount High. Black students, myself included, are treated like this pretty much every day. When we do, people just watch, and when the bullying stops, they just walk away.

It hurts me to get bullied, and even worse when it happens to other people. I knew that it wasn't right, but the teachers don't seem to do anything about it. Besides, I don't even think that they know that this is happening. The African American students seem too terrified to tell and get help.

Whenever I approached one, they would say that they were threatened by their bully. The person bullying them would say things like: 'If you tell anyone about this, I will burn your school books.' or 'If you tell anyone, I will make it even worse for you.' This really angered me, wondering if they really were going to do those things, or if they were saying that just to scare them. Well, the others don't want to take any chances and stayed quiet about the situation.

Even I got pushed, tripped, and got my backpack handel grabbed. It hurt me, but what happened to me last week was the turning point. I was returning to Social Studies class from the bathroom, when I felt something hit the back of my head. I turned around, but didn't see anyone. I did see a paper plane on the ground. I opened it up, and saw that it was a note. It said: 'Go back to Africa, where you belong. You don't belong here, with a school of whites!' I sighed.

This was totally typical. Us blacks receiving messages and notes telling us that we're not welcome here at school. Racism was big in the days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. And apparently it's still going on today, which really ticks me off. When I got back to class, I showed my teacher, Ms. Sarah Black the note. "I'm going to take it down to the copy center and have it shredded," she said. "Thanks. But first, let me get a picture of it," I said. I got my phone out of my backpack, and took a picture of the note.

In Social Studies class, we were learning about Christopher Columbus, and how the first North American people came here. It was very interesting. After class, our lunch bell rang. As I was coming down the second stairs to go to the cafeteria, I felt a push from behind.  The push made me trip and I started to fall face-first towards the floor. I grabbed the banister, which stopped my fall. "Aliyah, are you okay?" a voice asked. I looked up to see my two best friends, Madison Clark and Jackie Miller running towards me from the cafeteria.  One of the security guards watching the cafeteria was with them. 

"Hi girls. What are you doing here?" I asked as they helped me up. "We heard you scream, and thought you were in trouble. We came as fast as we could," Madison said. I smiled at her, but I felt something wet on my chin. I touched it, and my finger was bloody. "Is my chin okay?" I asked. Jackie looked under my chin, and saw that it was bloody. "It looks kind of bad," she said with a wince. "Ooh. I'd better go to the nurse," I said, and I tried to take a step, but I sat down in pain. 

"What's wrong?" Madison asked. "My knee hurts," I said with a groan. "You should have fallen all the way down the stairs!" a voice said from behind. We all turned, but the person started running back up the stairs. The guard was in hot pursuit, so the three of us went down to the nurse's office to check on my chin and knee. The nurse said that my chin was scraped, but not too bad. It just needed to be bandaged up. My knee, on the other hand, was bruised. I needed to have an ice pack on it. I had to be in a temporary wheelchair while the ice-pack was on my knee.

I felt sad and angry. The nurse called my mom, and told her that I got hurt. She said that she would be there soon to pick me up. Madison and Jackie stayed with me the whole time, and we had our lunch while we waited. As we were eating, the guard came into the room, and said that she caught the person who pushed me. We asked who it was, and she said that it was a girl named Gianna King, and that she was waiting for her parents, along with our principal, Mr. Donovan. "Why am I not surprised," I said. Gianna's a senior in our school, and is always picking on the African American students. She's never really did it to me, until now. The guard then gave me a note that she found in Gianna's pocket. It said: 'Don't tell anyone about this, or else!' I told the guard to shred it, but took a picture of it.

When my mom came to the nurse's office, I told her that I tripped down the stairs, and caught myself on the banister. Which was half of the truth. When I got home, I emailed my Spanish teacher, Ms. Payne, telling her what happened. She told me that she hoped that I'd get better, and that she'd email me the notes that they went over in class, so that I wouldn't be behind. I thanked her, and went to do my homework. 

After I did my homework, I waited for my dad to come home, and then we all had dinner. I told him what happened, and then told them that students at school are getting bullied, and that I wanted to help them but I didn't know how. However, I didn't tell them that I was being bullied.  "Hmm. Maybe you could talk to the principal tomorrow. He might have an idea," Mom said. I thought that it was a good idea, so I agreed. After that, we all went to sleep.