Speak Up

               In every school, there is a person that nobody really knows exists. Hazel Johnson was that one girl. Before junior high, though, she wasn’t like that. She was still quiet, but she wasn’t as unknown. But those happy go lucky years came to an end. When she entered junior high, things changed. She became quieter, more invisible. She had no friends, save her poems. She wrote poems every day, and always carried a small, black leather notebook to write her poems in.

                Everybody ignored Hazel. She appeared to be antisocial and emo. But she wasn’t either one of those things. She was just hiding a secret. A big secret that she should have spoken up about. But she was forced to remain silent. Her stepdad was abusive. He beat her every day when she got home. But beatings were only the beginning of the pain. Hazel hated going home every day to her stepdad’s abusive hand, but she couldn’t tell anybody. Her stepdad had threatened to disown her if she uttered so much as a word.

                That was why she said nothing. Instead, she expressed her pain and fear in her poetry. She was very protective of her poetry book. If anyone else so much as touched it, she would practically bite their head off. If someone read any of her poems, they would surely report it, and her stepdad would disown her, and she’d have nowhere to live. She had no family.

                But, as I mentioned before, beatings were just the beginning. There was another thing that Hazel’s stepdad did, and it was worse than beatings. He raped her. Hazel couldn’t do anything about it. She just tried to forget everything, and went on with life as if nothing was wrong.

                One day, while Hazel was at her locker, she dropped her poetry book, and ran away to class. A boy Hazel had gone to school with for years, Ryan Adams, noticed her drop her book, and picked it up. Before he could return it to her, she had disappeared. Ryan decided to hold onto it until he saw her again at lunch. But, curiosity got the best of him, and he began reading her poems. It was like reading an Edgar Allan Poe story, Ryan thought. At first, he thought it was just a theme of her poetry, but as he continued reading, he realized that all of her poems were about fear, pain, the beatings, the rape, and her stepdad. Could it all be for real? Ryan decided to confront Hazel about her poems.

                He did it at lunch, following Hazel when she went outside. She always sat by herself in a corner, where hardly anyone could see her. She was shocked to see that Ryan had followed her. Ryan showed her the book, and her eyes widened, and she tried to grab it back. Ryan held it out of reach, and admitted to reading it. Hazel became scared, looking away from Ryan. That’s when Ryan knew it was true. Hazel had been beaten, raped, and abused by her own stepdad, and he had threatened to disown her if she told. Hazel had written about all of it.

                Ryan told Hazel that she needed to tell the counselor. Hazel explained that her stepdad would disown her, and that she would have no place to go. Ryan said that she could live with him and his family. Hazel considered, and then decided to tell the counselor. Ryan walked with her to the office, and the two sat down and discussed Hazel’s stepdad, and showed the counselor the poem book. After reading through it, the counselor made some phone calls, and told Hazel that she could stay with Ryan for now. From then on, Ryan and Hazel were the best of friends. They were brother and sister. Hazel’s stepdad was put in jail, and Hazel goes to therapy twice a week.

                Abuse is a serious problem, and if you are experiencing abuse, you need to tell someone. Let someone know what is happening, so that they can help pull you out of the abusive situation. If the person abusing you has something on you, keeping you from telling someone else, then you really need to speak up. The situation will be taken care of, and you will feel much safer when it is. Speak up.