The Real Me

Chapter 3

             In books and movies,those events that change everything,that extract the normalcy from everything,always begin on a normal day like any other. Of course,this event was no different.
           We were in class and Mrs Thompton was going through boring roll call. But sooner rather than later, boring became drama. She was calling Amy's name when some random new kid just interrupted loudly saying
       "Walter? Does that mean you're related to Walt Disney? Maybe you could hook me with the Princesses cause I've got a couple of questions."
    The whole class went quiet because we knew that he was so in for it. He was still chuckling at his lame attempt at teasing when he noticed that no one was laughing with him. His smug grin was quickly wiped off his face and replaced with a look if confusion. Just then, someone whispered "I can't believe he just said that to Amy."
            He turned to his friend with a question on his face and as his friend,Paul our regular victim nodded,the colour slowly drained from his face as he realised that he just ruined his social life even more than his friendship with Paul did.
         Everyone turned to Amy expecting her to lash out but surprisingly she just faced the front of the class without a word. From my seat beside her, I could hear wheels in her head turning as they worked out a plan to teach our resident newbie, Elliot Wilfred pay.
         Coincidentally,his name was next and as the teacher called his name,he could barely whisper present in response.
The day went on as normal and everyone everyone forgot about happened during first period but the tension around Amy didn't vanish that fast. It remained thick around her even till we got to her house.
         Before we could even drop our stuff, Amy began ranting and I could barely pick up a few phrases like 'how dare he', 'does he know who I am', 'he's so gonna pay' and before we knew it she burst into tears.       
         Having been through Amy's mood swings before, Callie and I knew that she needed comforting which in Amy's case requires you saying things in her favour whether she was right or wrong. We let her cry between us for a while before we heard her take a deep breath signalling that she was feeling better.She stood up and headed to her bathroom to wash her face and by the time she came back,her swollen tear streaked face was replaced with a clouded one making it impossible to detect how she was feeling. She sat on her desk and pulled out a notepad and a pen. She turned to face us and said in an icy tone   
"Gimme ideas."
             I turned to look at Callie and our eyes met. I turned to Amy and suggested a time out knowing that it was the safest idea that was going to be discussed. Obviously,Amy refused it asking for something more 'creative' than that. For over an hour, Amy came up with ideas,each worse than the last,to embarrass, no scratch that, to utterly humiliate Elliot.
      "Why don't we just cut him some slack? I mean he's new, we should give him a chance to have a social life before completely ruining it,right. We should give him a second chance, I mean if you were him wouldn't you want that too." I said carefully hoping that somewhere in there, Amy's heart would feel a pang of compassion, however small, for him.
            As I finished saying that,Callie gasped and I glanced at Amy, looking for any sign of emotion in her face. I felt a glimmer of hope when I saw her eyes grow soft. I saw a look in her eyes. It seemed familiar and I recognised it as the sadness I saw in the eyes of those we teased and bullied. I knew that only those who had gone through that could have that look and I remembered that Amy never actually told us why she changed schools.
             A wave of recognition came over me as I thought to myself, "Had THE Amy Walter been bullied?!"
            I shook my head knowing that was unlikely but then I knew that it wasn't completely impossible.That would explain why she bullies others so much because she didn't want to wait to be bullied first. I decided to stop playing tug of war in my mind and ask Amy about it. I knew that I had to be subtle because Amy could be as defensive as a porcupine.
           I stood up and walked over to her. I put my arm on her shoulder and asked with concern, "Amy,were you ever bullied?"
          She looked at me,her eyes filled with pain but didn't answer. Her reaction was more than enough of answer for me.
    "Do you want to talk about it?" Callie asked cautiously,her voice laced with sincere concern.
     Amy looked down and said nothing. Then I saw the glimmer of a tear running down her cheek as she sobbed softly. This was nothing like her dramatic,staged tears from before. These tears were real and I could sense that they came from deep inside.
        I helped her up and sat her down on the edge of her bed and gave her a side hug. I looked over at Callie, who looked ready to burst into tears herself. She walked over and sat next to Amy giving her a hug as well. Amy needed to know that we were there for her, no matter what and with that, I knew that our bond was truly unbreakable not just a facade to others.