You're not alone

Part 1

Today would be her first day of the last year of elementary school. Little ten-year-old Meredith stood in front of the huge school building, scared to go inside. Her mother had just dropped her off before hurrying to the hospital, not even saying good bye or whishing her a good day.

Meredith looked down at her shoes, trying to bring up the courage to go inside. It took her a few minutes until she finally started walking, passing the entrance guard before climbing the big staircase that lead to the first floor. She walked down the hallway, towards her class room, the same one she had spend the passed five years in as well.

When she reached the door she stopped, looking inside where all the other kids were running around, screaming and throwing balls. They were all lot taller than her. She had always been the smallest. She slowly walked over to her desk in the corner in the back, the only table that was standing alone while all the others stood in long lines so that everyone had someone sitting next to them, except for Meredith. Next to her table was another single table that was also empty and only behind this one the others were sitting.

"Oh look! Wierdo's here!" Meredith heard Lisa yell, not wanting to look up but being very aware of the fact that they were walking over to her, Lisa and Samantha leading them.

"Hey wierdo! Ready to start the new year?" Samantha asked, placing her hands on Meredith's table, leaning on them, Lisa standing next to her. Meredith still didn't want to look up, fidgeting with her hands in her lap.

"Awww, are you scared?" Lisa asked, laughing at Meredith who started moving her leg up and down nervously, hoping the teacher would come in soon. As always she had waited to get out her things because if she would have, they would have played with it or stolen it, thrown it around and things like that. She had learned from previous mistakes.

"Sam, what do you think would be perfect to start this year?" Lisa asked, and Samantha replied: "I don't know, I guess we can come up with something funny. You remember the locker? That was hilarious!"

While the two of them were laughing at the memory Meredith felt a cold shower going through her spine. At the begin of last year they had locked her into a locker, leaving her in there the whole night and only letting her out the following morning. Meredith hated the fact that she hadn't grown a single inch over the summer, meaning that she would still fit into a locker. She had screamed for help, alone in the darkness, crying the whole time but no one had found her. When she had returned home after school the following day it appeared that her mother hadn't even noticed that her nine-year old daughter hadn't been at home the whole night.

"That sounds like an amazing plan Sam!" Lisa grinned as suddenly the teacher entered the room, saving Meredith from the two girls and her fellows. "Good morning class, please take your seats." Mrs Hunter said, as Meredith finally looked up for the first time she saw a boy walking behind Mrs. Hunter. He was new. He had dark curls and was just like everyone else a lot taller than Meredith. She looked around, thinking where the boy would sit, seeing that in the first row were a few empty seats since Jack and Ben seemed to be missing.

"So, as you can see, we have a new student, would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Sure, uhm- my name is Andrew, I'm from New York and my mother and I just recently moved here to Seattle." He explained, standing confidently in front of the class.

"Great! Andrew, you can sit here in the front if you'd like." Mrs Hunter said to Andrew, pointing at the empty seat next to Lisa. "But Jack usually sits here." Lisa said offended and Andrew quickly said: "I can also sit in the back, there's a free table." He offered, pointing at the empty table next to Meredith, making her starting to move her leg once again. She wasn't used to having someone sitting next to her in class. And the others would probably start bullying him too if he would sit down next to her. But he seemed so nice.

"Sure!" Mrs Hunter said, glancing at Meredith for a moment. She could try to become friends with him. But how? She doesn't know how to make friends, and he would probably think that she is weird just like the others in no time. Andrew now walked over to Meredith, moving the single table to hers before sitting down right next to her.

"Hey" he said quietly since Mrs Hunter had already continued talking about new arrangements. Meredith didn't look up at him nor replied, wanting to punch herself for that but she just couldn't bring up the courage to make eye contact with him. Great, now it was over, he thought that she was weird.

From the corner of her eye she saw him looking at her for a few more seconds before starting to unpack his things. She started to do the same but still not looking up, not at him nor the teacher. She disappeared into her own little world, her safe place, where no one else could get into. It was a place she had in her mind, carrying it around with her the whole time in case she would need to escape the real world for a while.

After a few minutes she finally looked up at the board at first, before carefully turning her head to look at Andrew who was listening to the teacher's words. She opened her mouth and a small and quiet "Hi." came out while her fingernails were digging through her extra wide jeans into her skin. Andrew now looked at her, smiling. "Hi" he replied. She tried to smile a little too but she didn't know if it was working. "What's your name?" he asked quietly, throwing a quick glance at the teacher to make sure she wouldn't notice that they were talking.

"Meredith." Meredith said with a small voice. "That's a beautiful name." Andrew whispered before smiling at her one last time and directing is attention towards the teacher again. "Thank you." Meredith wanted to say, but only her lips were moving so that he didn't hear it.

Now starting to concentrate on what Mrs Hunter was saying as wells Meredith acknowledged that they were talking about a one week class trip into the mountains. The whole class was listening enthusiastically, excited about the trip. It was tradition that the classes did a trip like this during the last year of elementary school and it seemed like this trip was going to take place in only three weeks from now.

"So, I guess you're all really excited to go on that trip right?" she asked, receiving nods from every student among the class. Meredith on the other side wasn't that excited because being away from home meant being away from her comfort zone. Her room was the only place no one would yell at her or be mean to her, it was the only place she could cry without her mother telling her how weak she was. Her room was the only place she could take off her prothesis without being looked at or called names by her classmates.

She looked down at her left foot. She always wore baggy sweatpants or jeans and thick wool socks so no one would see the prothesis that was attached to her leg that ended shortly beneath her knee. But P.E. was a different story. Changing clothes in the same room as the others was always hard for her because they would always make jokes about it. Once they even hid her prothesis so that she had to jump around on one foot for a whole hour until she had found it outside in a bush behind the gym.

So, she wasn't exactly thrilled to go on a trip with her classmates since like they said, she was a weirdo, she didn't fit in and she never would.