invisible string

year 5

Kids were really mean in Seattle. Chuck was nice, but the rest of them were really mean. Meredith didn't like them. She wished she could just go to school with Chuck and Derek. Derek was in fifth grade and fifth graders didn't play with second graders during recess. Which was okay. Derek still played with her after school and he always said hi when they saw each other, but during recess she just played with Chuck. And now they were jump roping. Meredith was really good at jump roping and that's what all the second grade girls did during recess, but the other girls didn't let her jump rope with them. They didn't like her because she wasn't allowed to have playdates after school except with the Shepherds and they thought she was weird because she didn't talk a lot. But Meredith thought that maybe she would talk to them more if they were nicer to her.

Meredith looked over to the spot where the girls usually jump roped, but now they were gone. That was strange. Every day they would stand in that spot and jump rope. Which seemed a bit boring. Chuck and her didn't jump rope every day. Some days they played tetherball, or hopscotch. But the other girls seemed to like jump rope every day. Except for today, today they apparently were doing something else.

Meredith felt a strong push behind her. She tried to look back but ended up tripping on her rope and falling on the ground. She heard lots of laughing behind her, but by the she was able to look behind, the girls were all running away.

"Meredith are you okay?" Chuck asked.

Meredith looked down at her bloody arm and leg and the pain rushed through her. "OW!" She yelled then began to cry.

"Meredith! Meredith!" She heard a voice come up behind her. "Are you okay?"

She looked up to see Derek with a worried look on his face. She sniffled a bit, "I'm okay. I hurt my arm and my leg." Derek was here. Things weren't as bad when Derek was there. He made it better when Daddy went away and when Mommy did that thing. Things were better when Derek was around.

Derek began to lift her up so they could walk to the teacher. "What happened?" Derek asked.

"The- the girls pushed me." Meredith let out a soft sob.

"They pushed you? Why?" Derek asked with a frown on his face.

"I don't think they like me." Meredith said quietly.

"That's crazy!" Derek exclaimed. "You're the coolest. You're like Wonder Woman." He said with a small smile on his face. Meredith laughed. Everything was better when Derek was around.

"Oh Dear." The teacher walked up to them. "Are you okay Meredith?" She said with a warm voice.

"She cut her arm and leg. I think it just needs to be cleaned and have a band-aid put on." Derek said.

"Thank you Derek. I think you're right." She nodded. Derek helped Meredith sit down on the steps then walked away. Meredith watched him walk up to Mark and whisper something in his ear. He then pointed to Meredith, and then to the mean girls. Mark nodded, and they both walked up to the group of girls. They crossed their arms and were saying something to them. It was really far away so Meredith couldn't hear what they were saying. But after a couple of minutes the boys walked away and Meredith could see that two of the mean girls were crying and the rest of them looked really scared. Meredith smiled at the distressed girls. Derek made everything better.