"Female Bullying"

Why me?

"What do you want Cameron?"
Akira muttered as the usual routine of torture began. Her regular bully, Cameron, stood with her arms crossed and her weight shifted on one foot with her clique girls Tilly and Chloe on either side. They had Akira backed against the wall with no escape route.

Was one day without the constant pestering too much to ask for? She'd never even done anything to these girls yet they insisted that her mere existence was an unforgivable crime. It's not like they didn't have other targets. Brad from science class, for instance, would be low hanging fruit- sure- but it would at least make sense to pick on him. Or Betty! Akira had heard Cameron complain about her talkativeness before. Not to mention the countless other oddities of the school. Yet the 'mean girls' chose her. Honestly, it was quite baffling.

Cameron flicked her tight auburn curls behind her shoulder.
"What I want?" She scoffed and her groupies followed suit. "What I want is my homework assignment. You do have it don't you? Or did you 'forget' again." Akira could almost see the quotation marks around that word and she winced involuntarily at the implications. A few weeks ago Akira learnt her lesson not to stand up for herself the hard way. She still had a faint bruise that seemed to give a dull pain every-time she thought of it.

"Y-yeah I have it hold on..." Akira fumbled around in her bag and Cameron tapped her finger on her arm impatiently.

Cameron didn't look like your typical bully. In fact, that's probably how she got away with all the things she'd done. She wasn't one of those "academically challenged so she takes it out on others" bullies. She actually had the highest grades in Akira's year. At parents' evening, Akira often overheard the teachers gushing about how much of a model student Cameron was and how lucky the school was to have a girl like her. Those comments always made Akira feel sick to her stomach. She wondered what the school would do if they ever found out about the real Cameron.

Actually, they'd probably believe Cameron when she tried to twist the narrative to make it all Akira's fault.

She pulled the assignment from her bag and handed it over. Thinking that was all the girls wanted she went to leave. She didn't make it two inches before she felt something slam into the wall next to her.
"Did I say you could leave?" Cameron had her right hand against the wall just above Akira's shoulder leaving less than a metres distance between them. Akira shrunk back as far as she could but that was no where near as far away as she wanted to be. She shook her head feebly in an answer to Cameron's question. Her bully smirked and held out her free hand.
"Gum." She said simply and, without breaking eye contact, Akira reached into her pocket to grab her packet of gum. Cameron snatched it from her and popped one in her mouth. She took her hand away from the wall and stepped back.

Akira willed her feet to take her to class as fast as they could. One thought was on loop in the back of her mind as it was with all of her encounters with Cameron.

Why me?