BULLIED

Story 411

I've always felt isolated from everyone else. I'm socially introverted.

My grade has 88 kids. About 15 girls are the "popular" and mean group. The rest are just, Idk, people. And I have all of these stories...

1. In second grade, I sat down at a table next to Bully #1 and Bully #2. They both moved away. I didn't want to sit alone. I scooched up next to them again. The instant I sat down, they moved even farther down the table. I followed them again. This happened a third time. Then they said to me, "Look, we don't want to sit with you" and scooched away again, and so I ate my lunch alone.

2. Bully #3 moved with her whole cluster of meanies and said to me, "I like your shoes." Her shoes were fashionable, for 4th grade, at least. Mine were these ugly navy belt-buckles. I didn't think anything of it, butI said, "Uh...thanks." She giggled and moved away with her whole group fanning out behind her.

3. About a year ago I was looking through my Instagram photos and I saw a picture of a lot of girls that I know and am friends with at a pool party. It really hurt.

4. I'm not a bystander. Even though I'm bullied sometimes, I still take the heat for other things. For example, in first grade a girl was being picked on in the lunch room. There was this whole circle of girls around her, calling her ugly. I almost always sat alone, isolated at this table near the back. I watched, but I didn't do anything because I figured it was a one-time thing. The next day they did it again. Right when I realized that it was a daily thing, I walked right up into the circle (they parted around me like I was some noxious gas) and said, "Hi, I'm (instert name here), what's your name?" And she told me and I asked her to sit next to me and she did and I really made an effort to talk to her. I was her very first friend, and she was mine. I'm going into 9th grade, and we are still close friends.

5.One time I was at a party and one of my friends--friend #1--was rude to me--RUDE, rude. She had begged me to throw out this piece of garbage for her before, but I got so mad that I just threw it in her direction and stalked off. When I walked back a half an hour later to get food, she got in my direction and started insulting me. I told her to knock it off and she said, "Go f*** your mother." I turned around, found a bench, and texted my mom the entire story. After I finished, friend #2, who was close with friend #1, asked me what I was doing and who I was texting and stuff (she'd been beside friend #1 the entire time) so I told her that I'd texted my mom about what friend #1 said. Friend #2 ran off and told friend #1, who began to bawl and friend #2 came back and started screaming at me about it.

Those are some experiences that stuck with me. Even if you're bullied, don't be a bystander. Be victimized together. It's a lot less hard. I have an entire group of antisocials (as I call them) that I hang out with. It helps.