The Only One

A girl who finds love and friendship in a sea of discrimination at only 6 or 7 yrs old.

Camille Williams  

Ms. Forgo

English 10

November 10, 2014

The Only One  

Shunned, outcasted, humiliated that’s what I was for most of my life. Kids told me that I was too weird and unusual and no one wanted me around. I didn’t need them to tell me this: I already knew. I was about 6 or 7 yrs old when the torture began. It was late morning of the beginning of my 2nd grade year, drifting in the early September air was the realization my life was about to change in an unexpected way. I wasn’t use to being in such a big building with so many people: It was just two years previous that I was in one of the units for the little kids, there at elementary school.

I thought it was going to be hard enough trying to remember the place of everything let alone who everyone was. My soon to be new home room (at school) was as big as a normal sized bedroom, maybe a little larger.  Half of the classroom was filled with decks in tight, neat rows of about 3 or 4. The remainder of the room was filled with colorful plastic bins running along the wall, neatly stacked in their individual cubbies. These bins stretched around a large desk which was as long as a person. I already figured that this was the teacher’s desk because of it’s immense size.  

    The year began like every school year does, but little did I know things were about to turn for the worst. One day when I was sitting on the bench by myself at recess, a girl approached me and asked if she could sit with me and I said yes. We were so engrossed into our conversation that we instantly connected and soon forgot about the world around us. It was like we had stepped into a whole different dimension where time itself had stopped or seized to exist altogether. The remainder of the time we were  on the playground was a blur. Somewhere in our time jumping we went from sitting on the bench to swinging on the swings then climbing on the monkey bars. Finally to the point where we were no longer below everyone else, but everyone else was below us.  We felt invincible sitting on top of the world overlooking everything that stretched as far to the west or east of the school, as the eye could see. The days became longer and less relevant as time went on.

One day the second grade was no longer a place for children to learn and grow but instead it became a wild like environment. Everyday was an adventure of constant fighting for  survival.  The teachers and students had gotten vicious with their words. It was like stinging poisonous darts were flying off the silver tongues. In that instant they were no longer people; transforming  into the most vicious and wild animals ever known to man.  My new friend and I had to constantly fight back the waves of never ending attacks, or so they seemed. It was this way everyday, constantly fighting off everyone that tried to mess with us who wanted us to feel miserably alone.  It usually didn’t work because we held on tight and just kept being ourselves.

One day the bond that held us so close together was tested and almost stretched to its limit. My friend and I had just came from playing in the sand when we heard our teachers calling all of the kids in from recess. Just before we went into our separate classrooms I kissed my friend on the cheek, goodbye. I didn’t realize that kiss would cost us our friendship. The following week we were told that we couldn’t talk to or sit by each other during lunch and recess, but what they really met was we couldn’t talk at all during school hours. This became very frustrating, tiring, and upsetting to us both. We could not even be in the same room without the teacher’s moles (my other classmates) monitoring us like we’re some kind of  dangerous criminal  or animal ready to spring from our enclosed prisons at any given moment. They would watch us like dogs non-stop: waiting for us to screw up and get to close, giving them a reason to report back to headquarters (being the teachers). This went on for what it seems like forever when one day I realized that there had been a gap that was ripped between me and my friend, we were growing apart. I felt myself filling up with dread almost immediately when this realization hit me. I refused to believe that I might have just lost my best friend.  

As I thought back to what happened over the last past few days and how hard it was for the both of us, my faith started to fail me. I was so upset and frustrated that I couldn’t stand not knowing for sure, so I decided to end this once and for all. I found my friend in the back of the gym, sitting on the top row  of the bleachers by herself. I started to make my way over to her, not really caring that one of the teacher’s moles (a little boy) was standing nearby.  Before I could get one word out she told me to go before we got into more trouble with our teachers again. I felt all the tension in my body melt away in waves of anger and relief, as the mole rudely interrupting us; threatening to alert our teachers. I almost laughed in frustration: partly at the fact they tried so hard to split  us apart over a little kiss, partially because it almost worked. For the first time ever I felt more than comfortable passing on my mother’s message. I told the little boy that I didn’t care and he could tell if he wanted. We didn’t do anything wrong, and if our teachers had a problem with us they could talk to our parents. I turned to my friend and held out my hand, then we made our way back down to the floor. As soon as our feet touched the ground my friend told me what I have been longing to hear since this whole mess started. She told me that we were still friends and the only reason she avoided me was to protect me from getting picked on by the kids and getting in trouble with my teacher. We wrapped each other into a big tight hug glad that the nightmare was over and that we were still friends. I never really knew what happened to my friend after 2nd grade; we lost touch. At times I still tell our story: this story of the girl who was the sun in my day, the one who shook my world, who freed me from my cage, and the one who taught me how to fly.

Author's Note

This is a piece that I did as a English project for school I hope you all like it especially you Josh. Now that you shared a piece with me I want to share a piece with u. Any suggestions and tips would be very appreciated.

Reviews

[Josh]

I really, really like it, Camille!! Thanks for sharing :-)

[Meg]

A very emotional piece, however at times a little cliched. I feel like I've heard it all before. Maybe add some detailed accounts of why kids thought you were weird, or when they picked on you. It also jolts about a little, at first you're talking about being ostracized as a weirdo, then you talk about being split up from your best friend. Just make sure you have clear ideas. Otherwise, a nice piece :)

[Writer360]

Thx. I worked really hard on this piece in particular;I find it to be very helpful and rewarding when people read and give me feed back on my pieces, so thx again I really appreciate it. :)

[Meg]

My pleasure

[Writer360]

Please ignore the stuff at the top please, this was a piece I as part of my English project and that's why my teacher's name is on it. I meant to delete that but forgot to.