For Danielle.

Everyday four fourteen year old girls waited for the school bus to take them home. I was one of them.
The others were Kaley, Amanda and Tasha.
Tasha was my closest friend there. Amanda was the bully, she picked on everyone else. Kaley was her sidekick, only because she was too afraid that she would get picked on by Amanda too.
Then, this girl named Danielle joined us.
She was from another part of the country. She was new, and she didn't have any friends.
She was plain-looking, really, the kind of person whose face you would forget a couple of minutes after meeting her.
And she was extremely shy. The few occasions that she did talk to us, we found out that she stuttered and stammered, and had trouble forming sentences. Her voice was also kind of distorted.
Amanda immediately found it hilarious, and started making fun of Danielle and her problem. The rest of us didn't laugh with her, but we were too scared to actually stand up against Amanda. That day, Danielle went home in tears.
Amanda never lost a chance to somehow humiliate her in front of people. She would deliberately force her to talk and then laugh at her, she would trip her in the hallways. A couple of people did try to tell Amanda off for what she was doing, but Amanda's reactions were scary. She was a bully. People were scared of her.
And life was hell for poor Danielle.
After a month or so, Amanda went vacationing with her parents for four weeks and I plucked up the courage to go and talk to Danielle.
Maybe I did it out of pity, but once I did, I found out what a nice person she actually was.
She asked me about my hobbies, my interests. I had to patient with her, give her time to say things properly. But she was an extremely nice and friendly person.
Slowly we grew closer and she began to trust me.
She told me that she was in an accident, when she was nine years old, that had killed her father. The accident had damaged her larynx somehow and affected her speech. She told me how miserable she was, without any friends, without anyone to talk to. She told me her mom was a full-time working woman and she barely had time for Danielle. She told me how much it hurt to hear those mean comments from people all around, and how much she hated how Amanda treated her. She told me she missed her dad, missed having a proper family. She liked how I went up to talk to her, and said I was her first real friend.
We became very close, and I started caring about her. We would talk everyday. There was a spark in her eyes whenever she saw me, and her smile was bright enough to light up the entire room. I made her friends with Tasha and some of my other friends and she finally started fitting in. She finally started feeling at home.
And then, Amanda came back.
Everyone who had become friends with Danielle now backed off. They were too scared of the bully's mean words. She had a tongue of iron and could make anyone cower, and everyone was afraid of her.
It seemed as though Amanda had a new wave of insults to throw at Danielle.
And when she saw me standing next to her, her malicious glee heightened and she smirked. "Poor Juanita Jellycakes. Drowning your sadness over Lindsey on this stupid parrot who can't even speak? You must be getting desperate! Lindsey was so smart to have left you."
Lindsey was my best friend. She and I had a huge fight a few months ago, and we fell apart. All my friends knew the topic of Lindsey was off limits.
I hated Amanda so much. But I was also scared, frightened, intimidated.
So I didn't speak up when she targeted Danielle next.
It was horrible. She said the meanest, meanest things to Danielle. Stuff you wouldn't want to say to your worst enemy.
I looked away in shame. I couldn't stand up for Danielle, I was so scared of that bully. No one did. Everyone stood and watched as Amanda said cruel, mean, deep and personal things to Danielle.
And Danielle stood there and took it all. She looked at me a couple of times, and I looked away. What a coward I was.
After ten minutes of this, Danielle's eyes filled with tears. She just walked away, without a backward glance.
Amanda smirked, with a sick, satisfied look on her face. It was mortifying, all of it. I could barely lift my head, I was so ashamed of myself.
Danielle didn't come to school the next day, or the day after that.
Two days later, Tasha came running to me, a paper in her hand and tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Juanita...it's Danielle. She's. She's dead." She broke down.
For a few seconds, it felt like the world was moving in slow motion. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It was unbelievable. I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. I was shocked.
"She committed suicide," said a couple of girls nearby, as shaken as I was.
It was terrible.
I went home that day guilt-ridden and feeling terrible.
Had I caused her to kill herself? If I had only stood up for her, would she have been alive today?
These questions ran through my mind over and over as an ocean of guilt rose in me.
I was miserable. I stayed up and cried till 3 am that night.
I felt responsible for her death.
And I was, actually.
I could still picture her face when she looked at me hopefully when Amanda was taunting her. It slowly became obvious to me what happened in her life.
She had grown up without a father, a mother who was too busy, she had been in an accident, close to death, and had suffered so much; it wasn't her fault she had speech problems. All her life, she had been picked on, without any friends to help her or ever be there for her. When I came into her life, she had clung to me, thinking I cared about her. But I had let her down. Terribly.
She was all alone. She didn't have anybody. Not being able to handle it all, without any friends, she must have decided she couldn't live with that kind of misery any longer. Maybe if I had been less selfish, maybe if I had been a better friend to her, if I had been there for her and stood up for her, maybe she would have still been alive.
"Oh, that's too bad," Amanda said, with fake sorrow in her voice, snickering when she heard what happened to Danielle.
Her reaction made me sick. How could a person act so inhumanely about her, even in death? After some time, she went on to make fun of a twelve-year-old boy with large glasses.
I was mad. I was really, really mad.
I walked up to Amanda and punched her in the face.
I had had enough.
If there were anyone who were responsible for Danielle's death, it were me, and Amanda. And she had no compassion, no kindness...was she even human? What would stop her from targeting the next Danielle?
Slowly, all the people in my class stood up against Amanda. Everyone protested, and fought back. We stood united against one bully, and in front of all of us, she cowered.
That was the last time we ever saw her bullying anyone.
Danielle's memory still haunts me, but I will always think of her as a gift - a gift to me and to anyone else who has experienced bullying, a gift that reminds me to repent that mistake for the rest of my life, and to never make that mistake again.

Author's Note

Please let me know if you liked it. :)

Reviews

[Monideepa]

In our life all of us face difficult situations. However painful that might be taking away one's own life is no solution. Danielle should have protested and I am sure then the narrator would have backed her. There are many positive things in life to look up to. Aatreyee you seem to be a gifted writer. Please give us more positive writings so that we dont lose our hope. Keep it up.

[Prantik Ali]

Kaley, Amanda and Tasha. We've all seen them haven't we?

It's wonderful. How you've taken an issue as serious as bullying and turned it into such a nice piece of work. I really liked reading this story.

You're a talented writer, keep sharing :)

[Aatreyee Ghoshal]

Thank you so much. :"D

[Coyote Poetry]

A very sad story told. Need to be read by more people.
"Danielle's memory still haunts me, but I will always think of her as a gift - a gift to me and to anyone else who has experienced bullying, a gift that reminds me to repent that mistake for the rest of my life, and to never make that mistake again. "
The above lines are solid. Bullying is terrible. Make people afraid to be them selves. Thank you for sharing the powerful story.
Coyote

[Aatreyee Ghoshal]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review it. In so glad you liked the story.
And yes, bullying is indeed a serious issue. I just hope people find the inspiration to stand up for themselves and others.

[Coyote Poetry]

We can't allow the bullying. A needed poem and you are welcome.