The Barrier Between Us

Chapter 3 ~ Maat's Past

Maat was a short kid up until 5th grade in which he grew several inches in a year as well as the following Summer. He was well-liked, not popular and all his friends happened to be female with the occasional male. His education was nice up until 3rd grade. In 3rd grade, he got bullied on several occasions over friendships, intelligence, family members, race of friends and gender of friends. All of this continued to happen up until the last day of 4th grade. After it stopped, I thought it was over. I fit into the athletic, smart, but shy group of friends who played sports including volleyball, soccer, basketball, and hockey. He sucked at Soccer, basketball, and hockey, as he is not very hand-eye coordinated. Most boys didn't even think he was worth their attention, or friendships. By the end of 4th grade, he was tired, annoyed, anxious and afraid of everything due to all of this. The start of 5th grade began, everyone had seemed to forget about it, he even went to a few parties during breaks but had seen that his so-called 'friends' had been texting about him and making rude comments. Bullying was not over. There were several times where the teachers asked 'Are you ok' and he said yes cause he just didn't want to talk to anyone anymore. He was done with people, didn't want to talk to anyone. There were several days where he just did work and didn't play anything at all. 6th grade came around, and everybody matured a bit, growth, hormones all those things happening to every pre-teen/teen in range. No bullying had happened up until Sly park which is a Science field trip with other schools. Even then, he still barely had any friends that were not female. Sly park helped with this, His classmates had bonded finally and it never stopped, it just grew and grew. Finally, by the end of 6th grade they didn't think of him that way. 7th grade came around and within the first few weeks he got bullied again for just his friendships by a new group of people who didn't like him but knew he could kick their butts if it came to it. Thankfully, the teachers that were basically like family to him as he had actually known them since he was born as his mom is a teacher and was always on campus. They noticed that he was feeling down for several weeks and told his mom and sent home a list of their full names. That was fun to look at all their middle names, however, I already knew about a quarter of theirs. He highlighted the people who bullied him ever since 3rd grade. They had finally stopped bullying him after a trip to the principal's office. He went through several long appointments talking with a counselor that didn't really help him much. 8th grade came around, most of the bullies left the school or graduated except for 1 who continued to bully him for being good at sports that are gendered; volleyball mainly, and he just never said anything. His friends stood up for him, which he never knew that they would do that. By the end of 8th grade, all of my friendships were true and not fake, we all bonded very well. By graduation, he got the honor award for determination, work ethic and that the teachers never had to really give him much attention because he was always on top of his work, done early and knew how to self-manage time. That moment, made not only him cry, the whole gym. That was one of the best moments of his life. Finally, his freshman year of high school had come around. By the 2nd month of school. Another good thing happened to him, he met some of his new best friends online and wouldn't want anyone else as friends. As the friendships grow, and the group goes larger, we are all there for each other. The bad part of his freshman year, he got diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Hereditary spastic paraplegia which means that he will have trouble walking. There is 1 good thing about this, there is a way to manage it. Present day, he is almost able to walk without any support besides arm crutches to help with balance. One day, the worst thing that could have ever happened. The bully that had been bullying me for years, was in the same high school. Now that it is all settled, we just avoid each other and try to avoid eye contact. There have been several occasions where Maat had needed friends to talk to and they weren't there for him. Now, he has friends that will always be there for him even in the very highs and lows of life.