Bully This

Cynthia's Torment Part 1

She always sat in the back of the class trying not to be the butt of the jokes.  Cynthia was insecure, overweight not very popular and her classmates would constantly remind her of her flaws.  She had always been overweight but she had gotten heavier in adolescence. Jennifer her arch enemy would berate and ridicule her. She would ask the other girls why did they associate themselves Cynthia.  She even manage to have the majority of her classmates to call her Fionna the character from Shrek. There wasn't a school day that passed by that she didn't get bullied and joked about.  In the lunchroom she sat alone or with the other nerds and unpopular kids.  Of the few people she did interact with most were boys.  Luis, June and Alberto were the closest thing she could call "friends".  One or two females were polite and cordial with her, but it felt like Jennifer had waved a magic wand over the school and everyone including the teachers were under the spell.  Mr. Chang her guidance counselor even suggested for her to lose weight and to wear make up.  Those insensitive comments from an adult hurt even more. Besides her mom who she considered a single parent to her and her brother Jacob, who could she trust?  High school is supposed to prepare you for the real world.  Cynthia was starting to see what the real world was about.  Mean people with cruel words and evil intentions.  But there had to be more? 

There was Jennifer staring at her with a grin on her face.  "Good morning class."  She looks at Cynthia and says "I like your shirt Ms. Piggy." The whole class erupts in laughter.  Mr. Dawson the homeroom teacher quickly spoke, "now, now settle down I have a few announcements to make."  She sat there and listened to him talk for five minutes without ever mentioning or acknowledging Jennifer's comments or behavior.  This was a recurring theme every morning harassed and heckled for her looks, weight and wardrobe, without anyone intervening or saying anything. 

Last week in the lunchroom, Frank and Carlos who were brothers told her she should be ashamed of herself for eating her cousin.  She just stared at her tray, but did  look up to see Carlos grabbing her Cheeseburger.  You don't need this, you could skip a few meals.  Disturbed and shocked at what she had just heard, she got up to walk away, when June got up and walked towards Frank and Carlos, "ya fake MS-13 don't do none of that to other people."  "Can someone please come get dumb and dumber?"  Carlos' face was red as the sweater Cynthia had on.  Frank grabbed Carlos before things got physical between the two.  June had removed his shirt while being restrained by Luis.  Cynthia says "just take the whole tray and go." "Fuck all that, take this!" as June delivered a sharp left to his face followed by a right that missed his nose by inches. 

By now the whole lunchroom knew there was a fight going on.  Security intervened all the while hoping a food fight wouldn't ensue.  Embarrassed and with tears rolling down her cheek, she grabbed her book bag and ran off.  Exiting the lunchroom she runs into the janitor, she wipes tears out of her eyes and says "I'm sorry."  "Are you alright?  Don't let them get to you, those boys are cruel and have no respect for their own parents."  She turned to face him, looks at him and says "thank you Mister," he laughs and says "everyone calls me Trevor."  She smiles and tells him "thank you." "Cynthia, Cynthia" echoed through the hallway, it was Luis with a big grin on his face.  "You gonna watch the fight after school?  The Latin Kings are gonna have our backs," she shook her head in disbelief and ran off.  She just wanted to crawl in a hole and stay there forever.  It was two on the dot.  She knew that by 2:45 pm June and Carlos would be fighting. 

In science class she pleaded with June to leave it alone, but he wasn't trying to hear any of it. " Cynthia I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of this bullshit.  Tired of getting bullied by these losers and everything stops today, whether I win or lose it has to happen.  My cousin and his bros will be there to hold me down.  Tell Alberto and Luis to meet me by the pizzeria, I'm leaving school early to wait for him and his fucking brother."  "All this isn't necessary June, things are getting out of control quickly, please think about what's about to happen.  I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you."  "The only thing that's gonna happen, is me getting my respect and putting an end to this fuckshit once and for all."  They stared at each other and she knew from his facial expression he meant business.  "Violence never solves anything, but I gotta protect myself Cynthia, we don't deserve to be treated this way, the way we've been getting verbally  abused is just as bad as physical abuse, those scars never heal.  Talk to you later" as he walked away.

The crowd was large and rowdy, a few people stared and whispered stuff about her as she walked through.  Suddenly she was being grabbed by her book bag "it's your fault bitch," it was Muneca with three of her friends.  They all started hitting her while shouting insults.  The crowd cheered them on, Cynthia covered her face while being punched and having her hair pulled.  All three of them tried to knock her to the floor, if she fell it would be a disaster.  She felt like it was life or death and she wasn't ready to die.  Cynthia grabbed a handful of hair and started fighting back.  She was getting pummeled and could hear the crowd going crazy, "Rip her shirt off!" "Stomp her out."  She noticed the crowd had parted like the Red Sea, and a man's voice saying "get off of her."  The walkie talkie radio let her know that security was here, but so was Trevor who again was extending his hand towards her.  He picked up her book bag and handed it to her as she fixed herself up.  Muneca was shouting "this ain't over you fat bitch" as she was being escorted by security in the opposite direction.  Before she could gather herself, June and Carlos were fighting around the corner.

They were toe to toe in a circle surrounded by Latin Kings and MS-13. They fought and fought, no one had ever seen this side of June before. Cynthia was overwhelmed with guilt, this was all her fault. Now they were fighting in the middle of the street. "The boys are coming," the boys was a nickname for the police. Sirens and cop cars were coming from all over. Kids running and chaos erupted. Before she could get trampled she was grabbed by Trevor, "come this way." He walked her to the bus stop and asked her if she wanted him to wait with her til the bus came. She thanked him but declined and told him she was alright. Waiting for the bus she couldn't stop thinking about the fight and what had gotten into June. She was proud of him and felt like she owed him. All this started because of her. She needed to stand up and defend herself. A girl from her gym class nodded in her direction and told her "I got your back Cynthia, so glad you fought back, trust me Muneca is going to get hers. See you in school tomorrow" as she walked away. Cynthia smiled and looked at her phone. After another four minutes the bus was here. She paid her fare and walked towards the back of the bus. "They got you on Worldstar shorty."