I race out of the classroom and go sit by my locker as tears begin to rush out of my red, puffy eyes onto my face. I keep thinking about all the bullying, all the hatred. “Why? Why would they do this to me? Why do they think bullying and saying mean things is okay?” I ask myself. It feels as if my boyfriend and my best friend are really the only people who truly care and stick up for me.
I might as well introduce myself….My name is Alicia Ramirez. I’m a 7th grader at Forever Middle School. I’m not very popular. My family isn’t wealthy, and I don’t wear name brand clothes. I don’t have a lot of friends except for my boyfriend, Bryce Hyde, and my best friend since 5th grade, Adam Baker. I have a very small diagnosis of Autism, but personality wise, I’m a strong, great, caring and loving person.
As I walk out of the bathroom and enter the hallway, I see the bullies and immediately try to turn around, but before I can, the leader of the bullies, Tori, approaches me.
“Did you have fun crying your eyes out in the bathroom you big baby?” she says. The bullies begin to laugh at the “so-called” hilarious joke. As I feel the urge to run back to the bathroom, Bryce comes up and handles the situation like a man. He tells them to go to the bathroom and take off all their masks AKA “so called” makeup. Then Adam, who is the assistant captain of the hockey team and my best friend, comes up and tells Bryce to back off his girlfriend. My mouth dropped open with shock. I mean Adam and I haven’t talked in awhile, but I never knew he was dating Tori, the most popular girl at school.
“It’s not my fault that your girlfriend can’t even stand up for her self” Adam says. My eyes start to swell, and I can feel tears starting to form. Before a single one can fall onto my face, Bryce takes a step towards Adam.
“You better shut that big mouth of yours before it gets blasted with my fist,” Bryce warns.
“Bring it on, cause you will just get it back twice as hard,” Adam challenges. Before I could manage to get a single word out Bryce punches Adam and all I can see is blood oozing out of Adam’s nose. Even the bullies are completely silent for the first time, including Tori. Before any more punches can make contact, Dr. Tillo comes and orders them to her office. All you can hear iss a chorus of Oooo’s coming from onlookers. I pray to God that Bryce won’t get suspended and that he will be at the 7th hour assembly so that the bullies won’t say anything and my plan will fall into place. It’s the plan that I personally have always wanted to do myself but never had enough courage. The plan that will change my entire life completely.
What you’re probably and possibly thinking now is what the heck kind plan are you talking about? Well that, my friends, must remain a secret because I need to shock everyone otherwise it won’t work. The main thing I am worried about is that it is now the end of 6th period and we are going to be lining up to go to the auditorium in a few minutes, and Bryce still isn’t back. They start calling off names of the kids that need to line up. My name is called, as I stand up I can feel my knees start to wobble, my palms starting to sweat. The butterflies of anticipation fluttering in my stomach. I can feel the nervousness tearing me up inside. On the outside I look excited to go to the assembly, but on the inside I am a nervous wreck. We start to walk down the hall. I quickly go over the plan and how it’s going to work without the most important piece, the one that I need the most, Bryce.
We arrive at the assembly and I give the teacher the signal. He nods his head okay. I climb up the stairs to the mic and all I can hear is the gasp of the audience and the thump of my loud, fast, beating heart. I inhale a huge, overly big deep breath and tell myself the show must go on with or without Bryce. I inhale one more breath and say a pray before I speak into the mic. Here goes nothing I quietly tell myself.
“As, some of you may know my name is Alicia Ramirez and I am here to speak my mind in regards to a situation.” I hear someone shout something, but I go on anyways. “Now, this situation seems to happen a lot here at Forever Middle School and it usually is started a group of very hateful, snobby, mean, 7th grade girls better known as the bullies. Some of you may not know them but, these three girls think it’s cool to pick on someone different, someone who stands out from the crowd, someone who has a disorder.” I feel the tears starting to come but I fight the urge to cry. “They also think it’s funny to turn friends against you, some of you may not know them but there names are Tori, Andreah, and Macy.” On cue the spotlight shines right on them and I hear lots of gasps from the audience. “You guys think it’s hilarious to send girls home crying, running out of their classes, and you especially think it’s funny to make girls want to hurt themselves all just so they can kill the pain you caused them.” The three girls start to cry saying they did not mean for any of this to happen. Suddenly, Adam walks up on stage.
“I did not mean to hurt you Alicia. The reason I stopped talking to you is because I was jealous,” he says. “The reason I was jealous is because Bryce is dating you, and to be honest, I love you, Alicia Ramirez.” Tori starts to bawl even harder. I look towards the back and see Bryce nodding his head and mouthing the words it’s okay to me. “I know you’re dating someone, but I could give you so much more than him.” Adam nods towards Bryce’s direction. “So please, go out with me cause I love you and I wanna be with you.” Adam hands me the mic. Every single eyeball is focused on me. I am so speechless. My plan was not like this at all. All I was going to do was going to do was expose the bullies for who they really are. But this, this is a surprise. I look at Adam’s shaggy yet cute brown hair. His light green eyes look straight into mine. And I realize right at that moment that I want to be with him. I open my mouth but no words come out. So instead I mouth sorry to Bryce and shake my head yes to Adam. He then comes up to me and wraps me in his arms and kisses me. All I could hear was a large “awww” coming from the audience.
It’s been four months now and everything is perfect. The bullies are no longer bullies but friends. Bryce and I, well, things worked out okay. Turns out he had feelings for Tori and thats how me and her became good friends. Now they are dating. As for Adam and me, things are just perfect. I mean I fell in love with my best friend, how better can that get? I am glad I made that speech because it truly changed my life, all thanks to a few words.
Briana Maus is a student at Franklin Middle School.
The Quill 