SAPPHIRE: An Autobiography

Chapter 4

Soon enough, summer break was over.

I was going back to the hell hole.

Good thing was I was going to be in the eighth grade. I was happy because at least I had five years left and not six. And I would have juniors now!!!

Before you even ask, yes, Ethan and I still had our 'thing.' We spoke a lot over the break and grew closer still.

This semester I went back to the dorms because the break made me feel like I was over it all and I could take anything anyone brought to me. Let me tell you now, don't ever think like this except you have a gun in between your butt cheeks.

I remember the first day like it was yesterday. I was in my room when I saw the 7th graders piling in. I expected them to be really tiny or something but some of them were bigger than me!

Two girls in particular caught my eye. They were so pretty honestly it was unreal. I said hi to them and invited them to my corner. They came and we spoke for hours. It was really nice. I later learnt their names were Samantha and Diamond. They spent an extra year in elementary school so we were the same age. Miranda joined us and then we started telling really funny stories. What's more? They didn't call me a liar. I thought if I can't find real ones in my grade, what's wrong with the grade below me?

As the old saying goes though, all good things come to an end. The girls in my grade started talking and saying things like, "Why is she talking to her juniors?" To be very honest, I didn't really care, but it made me uncomfortable so I quickly ended the conversation.

The 7th graders were almost 15 in number. That was two times the number of 8th graders.

Basically this semester, for the first few weeks, my mates calmed down. I guessed it was because they didn't see me for a long time before the end of seventh grade so they got tired of me. I didn't know all they needed to ignite the fire of hate towards me were these new 7th graders.

I noticed most of the seventh graders were getting rude to me or saying offhand comments about me and the eighth graders were laughing. What was I supposed to do? My mates were encouraging it. There was no stopping them now. The seventh graders told the new set of twelfth graders that I was a "pig" and didn't wash my clothes when in actuality I did wash them. I just didn't wash everyday like the other people there. It was because I didn't want to wash everyday. Why did I have to do things like everyone else? Well this caused a huge problem. Seniors always yelling at me for little things that were blamed on me and whatnot.

The only thing even remotely dirty I did was leaving a bowl of milk behind a wardrobe for weeks. And let me tell you how I can justify that. I was taking cereal when someone in twelfth grade called me. She sent me somewhere so I totally forgot about the food. I don't even know how it got behind the wardrobe. Maybe in my haste, I dropped it there. I guess we'll never know.
Of course, when I did find the bowl of milk, the milk was hardened and all. Due to my string of bad luck, my roommates were there to see it as soon as I brought it out. They told the seniors and I was punished. Laugh my a*s out right?

Things only got worse as it progressed. Miranda began to hate me for reasons unknown to man. When she was with the juniors, she would say, "Look, you can get rude to Sapphire, but not to me. I'm different from her." Who did she think she was? The rock?

You're probably saying I should have exposed her secret of liking girls but I didn't. I'm not that kind of person.

Did I mention I was in the swimming club? Let me tell you what happened there one day. We were all swimming peacefully for some time. I came out of the water for a break and sat on one of the benches. This man called out to me from outside the pool and said I should help him pick something up. I didn't know what to do because our swimming coach said we shouldn't leave the swimming pool area no matter what. I didn't want to get punished so I told the man I was sorry, I couldn't help him. I thought I was doing the right thing. The man called out to two girls in the seventh grade and they left the pool to help him. I thought that was the end of it. When I got back to the dorms, a twelfth grader told me to kneel. I was literally so confused so I asked her why.

She said I was mad.

I knelt on the floor. In front of the seventh graders. Perfect. The twelfth grade girl asked me why I got rude to the man. I told her I didn't. Do you know what these little chipmunks told the girl? That I told the man to leave me alone and I ignored him. Excuse me what? The older girl went on about how the man is probably older than my father (which is not true obviously) and how he could give birth to me (not genetically possible) and how I was rude and he could curse me and blah blah blah.

If you haven't already picked up the fact that I cry a lot, you're lagging. I'm a very emotional person naturally. I cry for movies, when someone's leaving, when I'm angry or when I'm happy. This time, I was pissed because i wanted to slap the sh*t out of these people but I couldn't. It was so frustrating.

At the end of the day, she mad me go find the man to apologize to him. He said he wasn't even angry and he understood. Ugh.

We'll this went on and on. It wasn't any different in school though. Jeremiah and Sammie started dating. Otis and Delores were together too and they would go behind the school to 'make out' or as I liked to call it, 'swap spit.'

Sammie, Cynthia and Delores had obviously not forgotten I asked them if we could be friends. They suddenly came to me and started acting friendly with me. It was weird but I welcomed it. Suddenly, Sammie told me she and Jeremiah had broken up. I was so sad because they were perfect for each other. Like I said before, all good things come to an end.

A few days later, Jeremiah came up to me and ASKED ME OUT! I asked him to repeat what he said and he did. I told him to hold on, then I went to meet Sammie and told her what he did. She said she didn't care and I could be with him if I wanted. I told him no obviously. Later that day, Delores and Cynthia attacked me saying I was a horrible friend because Jeremiah told them I said yes. I found out it was a setup from the start. They became 'friends' with me so they could do this. They said it was a test. Some test.

It took days to get Ethan to calm down.

Everyone now knew me as the friend-betraying boyfriend snatcher. Great right?

Jeremiah went on to say, "Did you really think I would ever be interested in you?" I guessed not.

To top it all up, I contracted a skin disease. Or should I say two diseases. Don't worry, they aren't contagious, you can still hug me. I have dermatitis and keratosis pilaris. Sounds scary right? Basically what these do is give me black patches on random parts of my skin. They also give me raised pores which means I look like my body is covered in a horrible rash. My elbows became dark and still haven't gone back to normal. The body I was so proud of was ruined.

I started wishing our uniforms were long sleeved. I wore a sweater everyday. I couldn't let people see it. They would make fun of me. I tried my best to hide it. I didn't want anyone to find out. My skin was always itchy and red and black. I would always wear king socks to cover it. My mum got me product after product but nothing worked. We prayed. I prayed. I prayed to God to take this thing away. It was ruining my mental health. I was always scratching something or blowing on something. I couldn't even dress up in my room without putting a blanket over myself. I kid you not, I cried nearly every day because of this. Why couldn't I be normal. Now the only thing I had in my favor was my brain. I just hoped my brain wouldn't run away from me too.

Life: 1

Sapphire: 0

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Good day everyone.
How has life been treating y'all? Good I hope. If your experiences in school are similar to this in any way, make sure to contact me. I'll respond as soon as I can and try my best to help. Nobody should have to go through this.
If you're wondering, no, the skin disease hasn't gone. She still has it but she's found something to maintain it now so it isn't as itchy anymore.
Feel free to send me covers, once again. I'd appreciate it a lot.

By the way, you like paprika flavored pringles best right?

Yours,
Sparkly duck.