Take A Step (unrestricted) (on hold)

Eight: By Chance

Eight: By Chance

Sophie

            Daniel Cross.

            I’ve been in need of saving and quite a lot of repairing up until recently, before I met him. Nobody in particular besides Jean and Jet and their mother had been nice to me, and I admit that I had been hurt a lot. It wasn’t only Nolie who’d given me the ‘privilege’ of constantly getting bullied. In fact, Nolie hadn’t touched me until the incident with Sadie, her sister. Sure, she talked about me the same way as others did, but she used to leave me by myself to make me feel like I was alone and a total loser, and the ‘pushing-me-down-the-stairs’ thing wasn’t normal routine.

            For my first year, I’d gotten bullied by other senior girls. Those were some of the scariest days of my entire life until I finally realized I just had to get used to them. However, I only thought about that when they graduated.

            I had spent my freshman year either getting thrown inside my own locker or my shirt getting soaked in milkshake. I spent a whole day trying to scream for help when they put me in my locker after I accidentally bumped on the most popular senior at that time, Annika. She was secretly a lesbian, and I never had any problems with in-betweens unless they did something to me, and Annika did. I guess it was normal for people to have secrets because like Nolie, Annika had them—secrets. When she found out I knew she had a girlfriend, she spent each and every day trying to get me to commit mistakes just so she’d have excuses to hurt me.

            Like that Saturday when we both got in detention because she made me spike the swimming team’s water jug and it took her eons to convince me. When I realized I had no choice, I agreed but had gotten caught. I was interrogated until I told them it really was Annika. And so during the night Jean and Jet were away because they visited their grandparents for the weekend, Annika and her friends managed to pick our room’s door lock and drag me off the bed by my hair. They did horrible things to me and finished off by pouring ice water on my already throbbing body. I had scratches on my stomach and bruises on my arms. That Sunday I didn’t bother getting up. I practically had to get down on my knees for Jean and Jet not to tell a soul when they got back Sunday night—they came through the door and found me curled up in bed, still in the clothes they left me in. They came to my side, demanding for whoever it was who did that to me. I knew it took all their strength not to tell their mother, but I managed to ask them otherwise. So they took care of me, and made sure never to leave me again.

            That was inevitable though; they couldn’t spend every second with me, and so whenever Annika or one of her friends had the chance, they would push me, making sure that I hit my head on one of the lockers, or maybe hit me square in the stomach with a ball during P.E, sprain my ankle during lacrosse games, and many others. Most times I would keep those injuries to myself and cry to sleep at night, wishing to end my terrible life. Only I couldn’t. Some people still loved me, and since Aunt Kristen was busy with work, she called once a month to check on me. Aunt Kristen did the checking, and Jean and Jet kept me alive.

            For my sophomore year, I had a really bad encounter with one of the boys from St. Andrew’s. He tried to hit on me on Ritual day, even as I was quietly watching people, sitting out. I think he was a junior then, and he tried to kiss me and rip my blouse off. He’d pulled me into one of the bushes behind the trucks parked around and it took me a moment to remember that I had a Swiss knife in my pocket. Mrs. Wiggs had given it to me for self defense. It was the first time I threatened to kill someone. He let me go. I went back to St. Joan’s building and slept that memory off, just like the others. The next week after that, I heard the douche transferred out.