Too far! | Teen Ink

Too far!

September 14, 2012
By Alexine BRONZE, Curacao, Other
Alexine BRONZE, Curacao, Other
3 articles 10 photos 1 comment

Dear readers, from the 3 themes that you gave me I chose bullying.
I chose it because I know that there are a lot of people struggling with bullies and although I have never actually gotten bullied myself, I sometimes get some stupid comments from people about my weight and body figure. I will admit, it hurts and these comments sometimes make me cry at night. So I can't even imagine how people that get bullied all of the time, deal with it.

Well, this is my story. I hope you like it.
Too far!

“OMG what did you guys do, I told you to hold her, not drop her.” said Jade. “You didn't say that, you just said to leave it all to you.” Jessica and Jennifer replied. “Well, when you see someone fall you try to catch them don't you? I mean really, how stupid can you be Jessica?!”. “Quit arguing! What are we going to do?” said Jennifer. “We have no choice, we're going to the cops right now.” said Jade.

3 Days earlier...

My name is Cassie and I live with my mom and brother in Manhattan, NY. I recently started my senior year of high school at a new school. I was super excited because, you see, I'm 16 years old so I finally have my driver's license and what's even better, I got my own car, so now I could go to my new school in style! I'm a bit of a nerdy-pants, I skipped a grade because it was all so easy for me. My new school is really big, more than 5000 students, but I still had trouble making friends. No one would talk to me, or sit next to me, or even help me find my classroom. Now I can tell you, high school is extremely complicated socially. You have all these different categories, just like you see in the movies. You have the jocks, the cheerleaders, goth people, science nerds, the hippies, the go green group, rockers, your regular nerds and last but not least the queen B's. At this high school that would be Jade, Jessica and Jennifer. They say that once you're on their bad side you might as well move to Alaska! You become an instant outcast and become the official target to get bullied.

Anyway, on my first day of school, during my lunch break I decided to sit next to 2 nerd boys, who although they were a little weird, they were also the only students who would even talk to me. One of them, Eric even told me I was pretty, while the other one, Dave, somehow found the courage to tell me I smelled nice. I thanked them both for their compliments and figured this was as a good a place as any to sit for lunch.

So I was sitting there, talking to my new friends when all of a sudden this really cute guy walked up to me and asked me if I needed a tour around the school. Of course I immediately jumped up and said yes! Well that was a BIG mistake! During the tour he kept telling me that he thought I was cute and funny and nice. When the tour ended he also told me the one thing I never expected to hear...he was Jade's BOYFRIEND! At least he was honest about it. In any case I just smiled somewhat stupidly, politely thanked him for the tour, gave him a handshake and walked away as fast as I could.
I'm guessing Jade's minions somehow heard parts of our conversation and told her their version of what they had heard. Before I even reached the door, Jade blocked my way and started asking me who the hell I was and what I was doing with her BF. No matter how I tried to explain what I said, she wouldn't believe that I was not interested in her boyfriend and that he was just showing me around school. The argument soon escalated and before I even realized it the word “b****” slipped out and I thought to myself, jeez; not the first day of school! She screamed “WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!”. I immediately back-paddled and tried to apologize but she was waaaay mad by then and didn't even listen to me. All she kept saying was that I was going to regret calling her a “b”. I drove home as fast as I could, I was scared as hell. When my mom asked me how my first day of school went, I wanted to tell her what had happened, but for some reason I couldn't, so I didn't. I just ate my dinner, did my homework, took a shower and went straight to bed, hoping that the next day would be better.

Morning came and I woke up, showered, had some breakfast and nervously drove to school. When I got there everything seemed fine at first, but boy was I wrong. There were flyers plastered all over the walls, littering the floor, the classrooms, the entire school was covered with them. First I figured it was an announcement for an upcoming school event, but when I got closer I saw that the flyers had my picture on it. I couldn't believe it! The flyer said in big bold letters not to get near me because I had an STD which I had gotten from sleeping with random guys. It also said that I was a “messed up b****”. Of course I knew who it was, but I couldn't prove it.

Everybody in that school was either staring, pointing or laughing at me, I was their new victim to make fun of. The only people who still had my back were my 2 new nerd friends Eric and Dave, which I totally felt guilty about considering I had ditched them the day before for the guy that was the reason for this entire drama. But they were really cool about it and told me they didn't think that I deserved such a harsh treatment, especially since I hadn't done anything wrong.

After first period I went to Jade hoping we could have a rational conversation and work it all out, but before I could even find her, I got a message on my phone. It was a blown-up picture of my butt-crack showing! Somebody must have taken the picture when I bent over to tie my shoelaces just before gym class yesterday. Even worse, Dave ran over to tell me the picture had been circulated throughout school. So now I was the STD-carrying/butt-crack girl! I was starting to lose it, I didn't know what to do. All the kids kept laughing at me. I got comments like 'don't touch her' or 'eewww she might infect you', and some called me a 'fat ass' just because of that stupid picture. I decided to skip school for the rest of the day. I just couldn't face them. I couldn't stand seeing Jade and her minions stand there and laugh at me in my face, or listen to the kids whispering about me behind my back.

I drove to this bridge we have near my house called the Brooklyn Bridge. That's where I always go to clear my head. It's so peaceful, so quiet, you can hear the water running below and you can feel the cold breeze on your face, I just love it there. When I got home my mom confronted me, telling me that the school secretary had called asking for me and she asked me why I had skipped school, but instead of telling her what had really happened, I told her that I just wasn't feeling well and that I decided to go for a drive to try to shake it off. I've always been so straightforward with her so she never doubted me for a minute. She asked me if I was feeling better or if I wanted to go to the doctor and I told her that yes, I was much better, that it was just a headache. I didn't even eat that night, just took a shower and went straight to bed.

When I woke up in the morning I was scared to go to school, but I knew I had to go, I couldn't let them win. If I let them see that I was upset, angry, or scared they will never stop teasing me. When I got to school the kids just kept staring at me as usual and laughing at me when I turned my back. I could hear their comments, but the one thing that finally pushed me over the edge was when Jade shoved me aside, called me a tramp and told me that I should just return to wherever the hell I came from. I pulled her aside and started to ask her what the hell I did to deserve all this, I told her that I didn't mean to call her a b****, but she just kept saying that I deserved everything that was coming to me so I just walked away.
Later that morning during gym class while I was training, Jade went into the girl's locker rooms and switched my shampoo with green hair paint. After the shower I looked like Shrek's girlfriend, Fiona. The paint covered not only my hair but my entire body had a greenish tint.
I completely lost it then. I ran towards Jade and pulled her by her arm and started yelling at her telling her that she really was a b****. I even told her that I'm sure her BF would love to be with me instead of her! You can imagine the screaming of insults that started, it was about to escalate into an actual fistfight when I realized that I was being as 'bitchy' as she was so I just turned around and stormed off.

My mistake was not realizing that Jade and her minions had followed me to my favorite thinking place. When I got out of the car the two minions, Jessica and Jennifer, jumped out of their car too and jumped me. They started hitting me and pushing me on the ground. I tried to get up and run but they caught up with me in the middle of the bridge. They grabbed me, dragged me to the edge of the bridge and they kept pretending to push me over, so I started to struggle to try to get away. Then suddenly my hand slipped from Jessica's grip and Jennifer couldn't hold on to me by herself so she also let go. Next thing I know I'm falling into the water. While I was falling I could still hear them screaming from above. I heard Jade screaming: “OMG what did you guys do, I told you to hold her, not drop her.”....

Now I'm sure you're wondering what happened next. What happened to me after I plunged into the freezing water?
Well, I can tell you that the three girls ran to the police station to tell them what happened and that the police sent a rescue team to try and find me. I can tell you that they found a shoe and a scarf that I was wearing. And I can tell you that my mother was heartbroken. She couldn't understand what had happened since she was never aware of a problem to begin with.

I can tell you that Jade, Jessica and Jennifer were sentenced to 1 year in Juvi and 6 months of community service.

Now to answer your question, yes, I did die on that fateful day.

But, what is even more tragic is the fact that my future was cut short for such a stupid fight.
I died because of a stupid case of bullying that got out of hand.
But still, I forgive them for what they did and only hope that my death has been a wake-up call to all bullies and would-be bullies out there. A lesson of how bullying can hurt someone and how it can even kill. At least then my death will not have been in vain.

Thank you for reading my story, I hope you liked it.


The author's comments:
Well i entered a writing competition, sadly i didn't win but i had fun with the experience

so i wanted to posed it here so you guys can read it and i hope you like it

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