I sat there. Alone. Confused. Nervous. My mind was as blank as space. I didn’t have the guts to think about anything that had happened that day. My hands swayed back and forth on the rough, wooden ledge that surrounded the tree at the front of Regnart Elementary, known as the “Big Tree.” Squinting my eyes, I tried to peek into the school office windows, from a long distance. Although I was tired from a long day of school, I didn’t dare to slouch. Kids chattered away, satisfied that the hard part of the day had ended. That’s when my mother appeared around the corner. She wore a long, sun yellow dress and had a big smile spread across her face.

“Hi honey, let’s go.” She said in a sweet voice.

I hesitated for a second, then looked down.

“What’s wrong?” She demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything!” I thought in anger. Struggling to say something, I fidgeted with my hands. “Um...I can’t go.” I finally mumbled, pointing to the school office. She stood there confused for a bit. Then I stood up and led her to the office.

“Oh, there you are.” Mr. Harrison, our elementary school principal, said. “Come in, and we can discuss your daughter.” He said, putting on that annoying, fake smile. I gulped, walking droopily into a small room in the office. There was a big table where he gestured for us to sit down. My mother gave a look of a mixture of confused and worry.

“Okay.” He said sighing. “Your daughter has been teasing a boy, named Vez, along with another girl. She has been bullying him by teasing and hiding his stuff…”

My face felt a burn of heat and goosebumps started to appear on my arm. My mother nodded, with her red eyes narrowing as he explained everything that I had done wrong. Throughout all of this, you would have thought that I was feeling guilty for everything that I did. After all, everyone always learned that bullying was the worst thing someone could do to another person. Well, unfortunately that is not even close to what I thought. The first thing I thought about was blaming all of the people that I could think of. Whether it was my friends, or my family, I blamed everyone-except me.

“She teased him about a spider on his head for the whole lunch period.” He explained. My heart pumped harder than it had ever been, making my whole body shake. “The next day….” he stuttered . Sweat ran down my forehead, as I looked down at my feet. “It got worse-she got worse.” He said.

It stopped. My heart stopped, for just a second. It felt as if the world froze, and then continued again. A lump formed in my throat, making it throb. Everything rushed at me with a fast force. The secretary speaking on the phone. The misty, autumn wind, that blew in through the door. Tears rushed up in my eyes, making the world hazier than it already was. They continued to talk, as my mother looked at a pink form. No. I wouldn’t do it. I would not cry in front of the principal, or my mom for this. I had to be strong. “Why are you crying, if you are the one that made the mistake?” My mom had always told me. I struggled to pull my tears back from falling from my eyes. This was when I finally realised what that sentence meant. I had always thought that it was the most ridiculous thing that I had ever heard. If we’re being honest, I was always just too scared to admit that I had lost a battle. The story doesn’t end there, but I knew something from that moment. I knew that she was right. No doubts. None.