Don't Take It Personal

T E N

SINCE October was coming up very quickly, Principal Atkins had decided to start an introduction to Bullying Prevention.

October was the month for it, but he decided to do an introduction first, then the next month would progress more in detail.

Coming into the school this morning, you could see majority of the school wearing blue.

My hair was in a ponytail and I was wearing a baby blue top with black leggings and baby blue converse to go with it.

I wasn't dressed up of course, but it was a step up from wearing sweatpants everyday.

Leg day at the gym really paid off.

I sat in the Auditorium with Layla on my left side, and Laken, Kade, Louis, and Isaac going down the row on my right.

Easton sat on the other side of Layla and Brooklyn was down beside Isaac. Her friends were with her which filled the rest of the row.

"You really couldn't take the extra time to incorporate blue into your clothes, huh?" I looked at Laken. He was on his phone.

"I did." He responded, looking away from his phone to lean down and lift the end of his nike black sweats up. It showed he had on blue socks.

A dry laugh came from my lips. "I would actually expect nothing less from you."

The only blue things Layla had on was the ponytail holder on her right wrist and her air forces that had baby blue laces.

Other than that she was wearing black leggings and a black top.

Everyone else had on blue something. It filled the auditorium up with that color.

There was a screen up in the front on stage. I assumed we would be watching a bullying awareness video about suicide or something.

I had seen it all three and a half years I was here. This was going to be the fourth time.

I became bored easily as we sat in the auditorium for about fifteen minutes, waiting for Principal Atkins to get his microphone to work for the speech.

After getting it to work, it took him longer so he could try to fix the screen so a video could play.

I found myself messing with the blue summer bracelet on Laken's wrist. He kept his left arm close to me and scrolled through his phone with his right.

Layla leaned over, whispering in my ear. "Easton took the DVD."

My brows crinkled as I looked over at her. Her cherry brown hair was straight, but had a braided piece in it with baby blue beads attached.

"What?"

She pursed her pink lips together before sighing. "That's all I know. I guess we'll find out." She leaned her back against the chair, slouching.

I looked in the other direction, seeing my brother and Louis talking. Isaac looked bored while his hands were entwined with Brooklyn.

No one seemed to know about the dvd situation.

I rested my head against Laken's shoulder.

Shit was gonna go down.

I could just feel it.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," Principal Atkins smiled while holding the microphone to his lips.

"I see a lot of blue out there and I am incredibly impressed with this. As we know," He walked around for a moment.

"October is bullying awareness month. Bullying is a community-wide issue that must no longer be ignored or thought of as a rite of passage. Bullying directly affects a student's ability to learn. Students who are bullied often do not want to go to school. They may find it difficult to concentrate, show a decline in grades, and lose self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth."