Bully by Rebecca K. (novels for beginners .TXT) 📖

Note From the Author:

Bullies are a part of your life. You can't escape them. They'll always be there and they'll always be trying to do something to knock you down. But, you can take a stand against them. You have a voice whether you know it or not. And you can use that voice. Talk to somebody who will listen. Tell them. You can work it out and do something about it. Sometimes, whether you know it or not, actions can speak louder then words, but sometimes a few words are all that you need.
Prolouge

Everybody's always saying how scary it is transferring schools or going to high school for the first time. Well, I'll tell you now that coming in from almost six years of home schooling and suddenly being dropped into a public school is much worse. You don't know the procedure. You don't know anybody. You can't make sense of anything. It's a pretty scary experience. But, it's even worse when you start having to deal with bullies. Hi. I'm Amanda. That's it. Just Amanda. This is my story of how I dealt with my bullies and worked my way through some of the most painful years of my life.

Chapter One

I walked up to the building as it loomed over head. I had never been in a school building for classes before. It was a completely new experience for me. So, as I walked through the doors, it was no surprise as I got looks from kids. Staring at my clothes, my bag, my hair? No, they were just staring at me. At least, this is what I tried to convince myself of. Nobody knew me and they were just curious. Unfortunately I knew the truth. I knew what I looked like. I was pretty in a sense. If you liked dark, Gothic, emo girls. I was always dressed in dark clothes and had my trade mark boots tied up around my ankles as I always did. I wore my hair down so it covered most of my face. Most of the time it was dyed some bizzarre color but not today. Today it was it's natural dark tint that my mother loved so much but I hated. It would have been streaked neon green, but I hadn't had enough time that morning to work with my dye.

Now, looking around me, I tried to navigate the building. The library and the office were the first things I saw as I walked in the door. The office on the left, library on the right. Then, laid out on opposite sides of the school were the gym and cafeteria then between them, classes. I tried not to look as freaked out as I was, but I knew I probably looked like a hamster that had just been cornered. 

Just as I was getting ready to run out the doors and away from the school, the bell rang signaling the beginning of the day. I didn't know what I should do, so, I just hitched my bag up my shoulder and walked down the hall way trying to find my class. As I turned the corner, I could see people watching me. I was hard to miss, I knew. That's why I wasn't surprised when I heard from behind me, "Oh. My. God. Is she seriously wearing combat boots? Who the hell where's those any more, except for like, I don't know. Army people I guess?"
In response I heard, "I don't know. She looks like she's, like, demented or something. It's so weird. No, not it. She, actually no. I think I was right. It's weird. Haha!"

I turned to see where the snide remark had come from and sure enough it was a cheer leader. Perky, blonde girl. I'm not saying that all cheer leaders are bad, I'm just saying that I've never had good experiences with most of them. Mostly because they were all snotty, high class bimbos who thought that just because they had money were better then everybody else.

That precisely reason was why instead of continuing on walking, I turned around to look at her completely. As soon as I focused my gaze on her and her friend they quieted, making no remarks as they walked past me. The best thing I can do is ignore them, I thought. But that doesn't always work. I learned that the hard way too. It's because of people like this that I was at this school. At my last school I had punched the quarter back in the face because he had called me a fucking bitch and then pushed me so hard that I fell. After giving him a broken nose and a black eye I had been dragged off of him and held in the office until my parents had come to get me.

That was also the reason that I had an anger management certificate on my bedroom wall. Even though it was always self defense my parents had finally gotten tired of the fights. They'd sent me off to a year of military school and then, upon arrival home, the first place I went was a counselor's office for anger management courses. I was still going through counseling, but the anger management was done and over with. That I was glad for because the last thing I needed was to have my mother in the office explaining why once a week she would be coming and getting me after lunch.

I was still branded crazy by my step brother though because, last year, in a fit of rage I had busted his door down and almost killed him. That hadn't been my fault at all though. He and his friends were being asses to me and I had finally had enough of it. As long as he hadn't all ready started spreading rumors here I'd be fine, but knowing Shaun, he probably had. Just as I was about to go back to the office and have somebody help me find my first class a teacher stepped out of a room. 

I walked up to her, jingling with every step I took, to ask her where my first class was. Fortunately her answer was, "You're lookin' at it honey. I'm Ms. Darla. Welcome to your Home Ec. class."
I thanked her and walked into the class. The first thing that caught my attention was the couch. Normally in my Home Ec. classes there were little mini kitchens set up and in the back a box full of fake babies that we had to take care of for a week. But this, this class right here, was different. I could also see that the class consisted of mainly girls. There were a couple boys here and there looking extremely uncomfortable as they found places to sit. Since it seemed that everybody was all ready in their little groups I hung out at the back of the class until Ms. Darla came back.

"Ms. Darla, uh... Where do you want me to sit?"

She looked at me, then looked around the room, then back at me as if I had just asked her to answer how many people there were in the world total. I stood there for a minute, hoping she would answer soon. Just as I was about to ask again, she said, "You just sit where ever you like or where ever makes you most comfortable."

Eventually 'most comfortable' turned out to be the back of the room, on the floor by the door. I got hit every once in a while as people came and went but I got into the habit of blocking my head. Until one point when I wasn't paying attention and the snippy cheer leader I'd run into earlier came back in. I had my head turned up to the ceiling with my eyes closed when suddenly I not only heard, but felt a dull thud on my temple. I sat up immediatly to see her standing over me.

"God! Are you retarded? You don't sit by the damn door you idiot. You'll get hit."

I kept all the remarks in my head and took a deep breath. I looked at her again and said as evenly as I could, "Sorry, I'll move down a couple feet so it doesn't happen again."

She just rolled her eyes and sauntered down the aisle. I did as I said and moved down to where I could still see the board, but wouldn't get whacked with the door every time someone went through. When the bell rang I went to stand up, only to be shoved back down. I looked up expecting to see the snippy cheer leaders, but instead it was some guy.

"What the hell man? I was trying to stand up you know!"

He looked at me and smiled. Crouching down in front of me he handed me a piece of paper. As he was walking out, I saw him wave good bye at Ms. Darla. I looked at him then back to her. Waiting a second I decided to take a look at the paper he'd given me. It was folded into fourths. When I got it folded out flat in front of me I realized it was a note.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of Marissa's way. Her and her cheer whores can be major bitches. Hope you take my advice. Sincerely, Brock."

I was so shocked that I had to do a double take and re-read it. Normally when I got notes they were rude or explicit saying things along the lines of, "I want to see you naked." or "Strip for me???" This was another thing that got me put into another school. Sexual harassment. The private school didn't really do anything about it. They told us it was our fault for wearing skirts that were too short or wearing revealing shirts when, in fact, they were the ones who gave us our uniforms. One year a girl got gang raped by half the wrestling team but the school just swept it under the rug. I told my parents that I wasn't going to deal with that sort of stuff if the school wasn't going to do anything about it. I didn't care how smart I was or how rich my parents were, I wasn't going to go to a school where my physical health was endangered. So, they switched me to the public school. I was grateful for this too because it was closer to home meaning I didn't have to sleep in dorms. I could just ride the bus to and from the school instead of just spending the weekends at my home.

As I walked out of the room I looked at my schedule. As I went along reading the paper and making sure I didn't run into anybody, I discovered I was going the wrong way. I checked the map just to make sure and just as I thought I was supposed to be on the other end of the building. As I wheeled around to turn back I came face to chest, literally, with a scary looking dude. I stepped back and looked up at him. He was a football player obviously, I could tell from the jersey, and he stood about a foot taller then me. Meaning he was almost seven feet tall, because with my boots, I stood at six feet even. I looked down as I went around him mumbling an apology. He apparently had different ideas though, because just as I was coming around him, he grabbed my bag, which I had slung over one shoulder, and pulled me back.

Stumbling a little I looked up at him. He looked pissed, even though I had no clue what I'd done to him. Then