SOS || a.i.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

“You’re so stupid, why do you even go to school? You’ll never get any smarter. But hey, we’ll always need more McDonalds workers,” Emma Houston, the most popular girl in my fourth grade class, spits out at me.

“I…I...” I stuttered. Emma had been bullying me ever since the second grade, when I had first enrolled at Pacific Bay Elementary. I had been assured by every counselor and teacher I had talked to that it would go away soon. Maybe two and a half years was considered “soon” to adults.

I didn’t know what Emma hated about me. I had never said anything mean or done anything to deserve the torture she put me through. She had everything, rich parents, yummy sweets in her lunch, the most expensive jumpers and trainers, nothing to be jealous of. She was even dating the most popular boy in the school, who happened to be my crush.

He had once helped me hobble to the nurse after I had fallen off the monkey bars in the second grade. I had been trying to impress Emma and her group of second grade mean girls because I wanted to be friends with them, but my hands had slipped and I fell to the ground, spraining my ankle. The boy had helped me up and taken me to the nurse.

But, that had been before Emma even liked him, so that couldn’t be it. Plus I hadn’t even talked to the boy since. I felt like I would never understand why Emma hated me so much.

She and her group of six other wannabes had cornered me after the last school bell had rung and made me miss the bus. They were now hurling insults at me left and right, and I was fighting back tears.

“You’re so dumb, maybe you should dye your hair blonde. That would make more sense. Plus, it wouldn’t make you look as ugly, but nothing will make you look pretty,” Steph Jenkins, one of Emma’s groupies said, bumping fists with her best friend, Marissa Fowler.

Aspen Spenser was next in line for the hurtful gestures. She was a bigger girl and was only on Emma’s ‘squad’ because she could punch, hard. And I was about to receive one of her infamous hits.

It was in the jaw and then in the right side of my stomach. I fell onto the floor in pain as Aspen stepped back, grinning at her work.

I just laid there. I wasn’t shy, why didn’t I just say something? It felt like someone had zipped my mouth closed and was dangling the key right in front of my face, but every time I tried to reach for it, they would pull it away from me.

‘GET UP LAYLA! UP!’ a voice inside of my head screamed, but I couldn’t. It hurt too much. I felt my mouth filling up with blood but I just swallowed the foul tasting liquid. They couldn’t see me bleed, not after already seeing me in pain. It was too much of an achievement for them, and I wasn’t going to let them have their trophy. I finally stood up, trying hard not to let the pain display itself on my face. I’m stronger than that, I kept telling myself. I’M STRONGER THAN THEM.

The insults continued to hit me square in the face, but I stood my ground, boxed in by the other girls.

“What’s going on here?” Mrs. Kline, our teacher, asked, walking up to us, her car keys twirling around her finger. When she got closer her mouth opened wide at the sight of my tear stained face and the group of seven girls surrounding me, including her little girl, Penelope.