Emma: Seventh Grade

Chapter 49: Gym Class

As Emma entered the gym for her next class, her stomach knotted up at what she saw. Kendra, Briana, Alyssa, Nate, and Josh were all standing in a circle and chatting. Had Josh joined Kendra and her gang, now that he was dating Briana? Emma couldn't believe it. She had no idea that Josh would stoop that low. Her heart raced as she set her backpack down against the wall and buried her face in her phone, hoping that she wouldn't be noticed by the group.

"Hey, loser!"

Emma heard Kendra's snobby voice echo across the room. Looking up, she spotted Kendra, Alyssa, and Briana walking towards her while Josh and Nate lagged behind. Her heart sank and her mind raced with worst case scenarios. What were they going to do to her? Were they going to humiliate her in front of the others? Were they going to pull her pants down in front of all her classmates? "What do you want?" Emma grumbled, looking back down at her phone.

"So where were you for the last few weeks?" Kendra asked, with a smirk covering her face. "Psych ward again?"

"None of your business," Emma mumbled, still scrolling through her phone.

Suddenly, Emma felt a slap on her cheek. "Ow!" she cried, placing her hand on her cheek where she was slapped, trying to nurse the pain away.

"You will answer the question!" Kendra fumed, the smirk gone from her face. "Or there's more where that came from!"

"Yes, I was in the psych ward!" Emma cried, her voice shaking. "Now can you please drop the subject?"

But Kendra only laughed. "Hey everyone!" she called out. "This loser was in the crazy house again!"

Emma covered her face in embarrassment as the whole class turned to look at her. Why did Kendra have to announce the fact that she was in the psych hospital to everyone in the entire gym? She felt awkward enough coming back after three weeks, but now Kendra and her friends were making it even worse.

Just then, Mr. Ferrington entered the gym just as the tardy bell rang. He was wearing his usual polo and gym shorts and was carrying a clipboard under his right arm. His gray hair was slicked back, and he wore a gray mustache under his nose. "All right, let's split into two teams for kickball. Boys against girls. Girls kick first. Let's go!"

Emma watched Josh join his fellow guy classmates as she was forced to follow Kendra and her pals to the opposite side of the gym. As the girls formed a line, Emma watched them one by one as they kicked the ball and ran around the gym, trying to avoid the boys.

Before she knew it, it was Emma's turn to kick. The bases were loaded and everyone was looking at her expectantly. A red-headed boy with freckles rolled the ball towards her, and Emma swung her right foot, kicking the ball as hard as she could. The ball flew up in the air and Emma ran as fast as she could to first base, then to second base, where Nate was standing.

Just as Emma touched second base with her foot, she tripped over Nate's foot and crash-landed on the ground, face first. In spite of the pain, Emma got up as quickly as she could and continued running, but she ran right into Josh, who tagged her with the ball. 

"You're out," Josh told her nonchalantly.

It wasn't fair. Nate had tripped her on purpose, giving Josh enough time to tag her out. Tears filled Emma's eyes and she started to cry as she ran off the field towards the back of the line.

"Way to go, loser!" Alyssa scoffed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You trying to make us lose or what?"

"Nate tripped me on purpose!" Emma retorted. "It's not my fault!"

"Yeah right," Kendra added, her mouth upturned in a frown. "You just suck at everything."

Emma wiped the continuous stream of tears that were running down her face. Here she was, crying like a baby again. As badly as she wanted to run out of the gym, Emma knew she couldn't miss any more school after three weeks of absence. She already had a ton of homework and tests to make up, and it was not going to be fun. She just needed to learn to toughen up and get through the bullying.

"All right, that's three outs for the girls!" Mr. Ferrington called. "Boys' turn to kick!"

"Nice going, Fatso," Kendra breathed in Emma's ear as they traded places with the boys.

Emma walked over to second base with tears in her eyes. Ever since she had gained weight in the psych ward, she felt ugly and disgusting. Now, Kendra was rubbing it in even harder, like pouring salt in a wound. Looking down at her flat stomach, a lump formed in Emma's throat. She wanted nothing more than to lose every single pound that she had gained, perhaps even more.

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of the ball being kicked. It flew through the air as one of the boys ran to first base, then to second where Emma was standing, then he stopped. All the while, the boys clapped and cheered.

Then it was Nate's turn to kick. With a smirk on his face, he kicked the ball as hard as he could and suddenly Emma felt a smack right on her left eye as she toppled backwards onto the ground with a thud.

Emma lay on the ground in a daze, staring at the ceiling lights. Her face stung where the ball had hit it, and her head ached terribly. Slowly getting up into a sitting position, she saw that everyone was continuing to play kickball as if nothing had happened. Even Mr. Ferrington was busy staring at he clipboard through his reading glasses, unaware that Emma was knocked to the ground.

Painfully standing up, Emma took a good look at Nate, who was jumping up and down because he had made a home run. She looked at Josh, who was busy chatting with Briana. Emma felt a stab of pain in her heart as she studied them. Josh and Briana looked so happy together, and it made Emma sad and jealous. Also, she was furious with Nate for knocking her down with the ball. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about it

Emma did her best to hold back tears throughout the entire class period. She was so relieved when the bell finally rang, and she dashed out of the gym before anyone could catch her. She ran into the girl's bathroom, hid herself in one of the stalls, covered her face, and sobbed. It was only her first day back and already so much had gone wrong. First of all, Emma had loads of homework to make up and she didn't know how she could possibly do it. Secondly, she was still being picked on by Kendra and her gang. And lastly, seeing Josh with Briana all the time only made the wounds in her heart bigger. Emma thought that she and Josh had a special bond when they first met, but unfortunately she was wrong. Josh hated her so much that he was willing to date one of Kendra's crappy friends in order to stay away from her. Emma knew she had screwed everything up and there was nothing she could do to take it back. The more she thought about it, the harder she cried. Although she was able to briefly forget about the guilt and the pain when she was in the psych ward, it was all flooding back now.