Young Writers Society

Being best friends with Jimmy, I never had a problem with bullies. By the third month of high school we were infamous, the trouble makers of the class. Sam spent a lot of time with us but often he would just disappear and for a long time we didn’t know where he’d go – he spent that time with Gia. When he was with us though, I noticed that people would make jokes about his weight or treat him more awkwardly than me and Jimmy. They never really treated him like they did us. All of that stopped one day, no more jokes, no more acting awkwardly with him – it all just stopped one day in November. Jimmy made it stop.

We were sat in English, the only lesson the three of us had together in year seven, being told to get into groups of four. Instantly, Jimmy latched onto me and waved over Sam before turning his attention to carefully selecting a fourth member for our group. His eyes settled on Michael Rowland. I never liked that guy – I think he’s in prison now. Michael sauntered over like he was the king of the world, assuming that he was in charge of the class clowns. As soon as he sat down he cracked a fat joke; I think it was something to do with the chair creaking as Sam sat down. I swear I saw Jimmy’s eye actually twitch out of the corner of my. We started “working” on a piece of drama that we would have to present to the rest of the class at the end of the lesson. Every chance he got, Michael poked fun at Sam, even managing to wangle it into our routine, and every time he did the look on Jimmy’s face grew fiercer. When it came to actually performing Jimmy was on the verge of snapping and Sam looked like he was struggling to not cry in front of everyone.

We performed the act and the class laughed at all of Michael’s comments. Michael was playing a bully and Sam was his victim and Jimmy and I were supposed to be playing the bystanders who do nothing. We were trying to make a point about how people allow bullying to happen. But then Michael decided to adlib a couple of extra lines that pushed Jimmy over the edge.

“That’s enough,” he growled.

Michael stopped in his tracks and spun on his heels. “What?” he said, genuinely shocked.

“You heard me. I said that’s enough.”

Michael chuckled, looked away and looked back, now scowling instead of laughing. “What are you doing, man?”

“I’m telling you to stop.”

“What’s wrong with you, m…”

“Don’t play dumb.”

An awkward silence had settled over the class, the kind that meant no one even dared to mutter. Suddenly our less than mediocre drama was the most interesting thing that had ever happened in English.

“Sorry Miss,” Michael said, trying to rescue the situation. “Can we start again? Jimmy seems to have forgotten his lines.”

“Whatever is going on between you four, you can sort it out in here after class,” Miss Jacobs said.

“But I haven’t done anything…”

“That’s enough Michael. Sit down.”

We traipsed back to our seats, ignoring the grins and sniggers of the rest of the class.

“What the hell’s your problem man?” Michael snarled as we got back to our desks. “Were you tryna mess it up for the rest of us?”

“You’ve done nothing but poke fun at Sam since the start of the lesson and I’m sick of it,” Jimmy said quietly enough so that the others couldn’t hear him.

“What do you care? He’s a useless fat lump. He’s bound to get the piss taken out of him.” Michael didn’t seem to care that people could hear him, even Miss Jacobs. She snapped at him about not cussing in her class and told us, again to sit down.

“He may not be the smartest or the best at kicking the crap out of people, like you, but Sam is still three times the man you’ll ever be. I think we both know that that’s the real reason why you take the piss out of him.”

“Will you all sit down now?” Miss Jacobs barked.

Jimmy took his seat and Sam and I followed his lead, leaving Michael stood, embarrassed. The class cheered for Jimmy and it took a while for Miss Jacobs to be able to get control back again. I nudged Jimmy’s shoulder and gave him a quick thumbs up and he chuckled.

“Lay off man. I ain’t done nothing special,” he said, shrugging it off.

“Yeah you did,” Sam said, his smile lighting up his eyes. “Thanks, Jimmy.”

Now the hero of the class, people kept glancing back at Jimmy and whispering and making comments to him about being the champion of the geeks and the freaks who couldn’t stick up for themselves.Looking around the class, I could tell that everyone was talking or thinking about us and what had just happened. There was one person though that wasn’t suddenly looking on Jimmy with wonder. Cassandra Platte was looking at us, but it wasn’t admiration in her eyes like everyone else, it was fury, pure anger and hatred.

“What’s her problem?” I muttered.

“She hate’s me,” Jimmy said, making me turn to look at him. “That’s all.”

At that moment I was completely lost in Jimmy, his influence was overwhelming and I, like everyone else, assumed that he was the hero of the piece. Even now that’s one of the things I think we’re all ashamed of – we didn’t realise that he was one of the bullies and that Cassandra was his victim. I didn’t even notice it as we left the class.

Michael, still fuming from what had happened with Jimmy, walked past Cassandra’s desk on his way out and swiped all of her belongings onto the floor. They scattered at her feet and she simply watched them fall, powerless to do anything about it. Then Michael spat something out about her having laughed at him and left the room. As we walked by on our way to the door, I remember thinking something about her deserving it. Now, I wish I’d done more, but I didn’t; I simply followed Jimmy out of the classroom and headed towards the dining hall. Jimmy, saviour of the people, didn’t save Cassandra.

After that, Jimmy and I became Sammy, Jimmy and I. We were inseparable and when one of our names was mentioned, it was usually followed by the other two. Naturally, the more time we spent with Sam, the more we got to know him. That was how I met Gia. Geraldine Samantha Carmichael Harlot, or Gia as she preferred to be called, was the daughter of a ballerina and a wealthy businessman who loved the ballet. From a young age she had danced and been taught that the most important thing for her was to become a member of the royal ballet. She and Sam had gone to the same primary school and had become close due to the fact that neither of them fitted in completely. Gia was brought into the group because of Sam but she stayed because of Lizzie.

By this point our group had grown – now there were six of us, me, Jimmy, Sam, Gia, Lizzie and one of Lizzie’s friends, Faith. I never liked Faith, but she was important to Lizzie so I put up with her. We would all sit together at lunch and make groups together in class and for months things continued that way.

Gia stole another chip from Sam’s plate and he attempted to slap her hand away too late.

“Hey come on,” he protested.

“What?” Gia said, feigning innocence.

“What happened to, “Chips are unhealthy and I need to stay in shape for my dancing”?” he moaned, placing an arm protectively around his plate.

“They’re healthier when they’re on your plate.”

I chuckled as Sam admitted defeat, all too aware that reasoning wouldn’t work.

“You should be careful, Gia,” Faith said. “If you keep stealing food from Sam’s plate you’ll get fat.”

I stopped myself from laughing but Jimmy didn’t.

“Gia? Fat?” he scoffed. “That’s physically impossible.”

“Anyone will get fat if they don’t eat well,” Faith said.

Faith and Gia didn’t get on well at all – they really rubbed each other up the wrong way. In fact, the only person Faith hated more than Gia was Cassandra. I don’t know why but Faith had always had something against her. I, myself, had been noticing Cassandra’s presence a lot more often recently, as if my eyes were drawn to her, and whenever I saw her someone was picking on her. This time a group of older lads were “accidentally” nudging her while she was trying to eat her lunch. A pang of guilt overwhelmed me, but I didn’t act on it. Faith noticed her quickly. Cassandra wasn’t doing anything offensive but her mere presence on this earth seemed to rile Faith so, naturally, as soon as she noticed her, Faith launched into a stream of offensive comments.

“God, Cassandra Platte,” she said, making the name sound like a swear word. “Doesn’t that girl have any friends?”

Lizzie looked over towards Cassandra and her face sunk. “I never see her with anyone. Maybe we should ask her to sit with us.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Faith said, almost choking on her sandwich. “Cassandra Platte is a moody cow. She brings it on herself.”

“Cassandra Platte is smart, funny and kind and a joy to talk to if you actually bother to be nice to her,” Gia said, scowling at Faith.

“Oh, hello,” Faith giggled, “looks like she has a fan.”

“I like Cassandra,” Gia admitted happily.

“Really?” I blurted out without thinking.

The table had fallen into an awkward state and, for the first time, I realised that Jimmy was completely silent. I looked over in his direction, highly aware that Cassandra Platte was a subject that you were best off steering clear of in Jimmy’s presence. As I’d predicted, he was looking down at the table, looking less than impressed with our choice of discussion topics.

“She’s been nothing but nice to me,” Gia explained. “She even helped me out when the guys were flipping up my skirt.”

“How exactly could she help?” Faith continued, desperate to badmouth Cassandra as much as possible.

“She told them to get lost. What was it she said? Oh…that’s right. It was that guys who force themselves on a girl are either over compensating or trying to cover up the fact that they’re gay. The looks on their faces were priceless.”

“That sounds like Cass,” Jimmy commented and, to my surprise, he was actually smiling as if he was caught in some long lost memory.

“Oh yeah, you guys went to the same primary school, right?” Faith said, changing the subject slightly now that things weren’t going the way she wanted. “I heard that she was like your stalker and that you finally got rid of her in ye…”

“Don’t talk about things you know nothing about,” Jimmy snapped.

The table fell silent and we stayed that way for a long time before Lizzie finally rescued us by asking about homework. That was when we learnt not to talk about Cassandra too much around Jimmy.