Living a Nightmare

by: Maricarmen, Geovanny, Kimberly, Rachel

On Wednesday September 16,2015 Rebecca Lopez was in school at Garfield High School, she was going to class she had all her books on her hands she had her English textbook that had a drawing of a man riding a horse and History textbook that had George Washington as the cover. Rebecca was going to her History class she had just got out of English class. She was so happy because when she was in English class she had just got an A in her exam. She loved her English class it is dark there was no color the windows were closed and no sun would come in for it to hurt her eyes. When she got out she started to walk to her History class her class was very far it was at the other side of the school. Every time that she would pass through the girls restroom she would always see a girl named Veronica and her friends. Veronica and her friends (Bianca, Diana, Malica, Jacob) are cheerleaders. Every time that Rebecca would pass through there Veronica would always do something to her she would always pick on her. Rebecca was headed to class when Veronica Came and just smacked Rebecca's books out of her hand. After Veronica did that she stared at her hand because the palm of her hand had turned light pink. Veronica turned around and she saw Rebecca kneeling on the ground getting all of her books and picking them up. Rebecca still had to walk all the way to class still. She was speed walking all the way over there. Rebecca still went late to class so when she got to class her teacher told her that she had to stay in ten minutes after class. She went in and sat in the back of the class. She had forgotten that she had Veronica in that class but when she had walked in the teacher didn't tell her anything she just said go sit down. All that Rebecca heard someone say "who is that sitting in the back?" She didn't how who said it so she just forgot about it and just paid attention to whatever the teacher was saying. When class ended Rebecca tried to go out without the teacher noticing her but she still got caught. So that made it even harder for her to get out of class on time. Her best friend (Kacey) was waiting outside of the class for her. After all Kacey and Rebecca had stayed. For her it was the longest time in her world because it was only her and the teacher and no one was talking. Her history class was super big it has a lot of chairs but only a little bit of people in the class. When her teacher let her out of the class the bell was about to ring so she had to go to her next class she had her best friend in that class but she also had Veronica and her cheerleader.

*****

Rebecca tried not to cry and kept her head high as she went from class to class. As she walked towards her next class down the hall from the other, she sees a group of cheerleaders already looking at her from head to toe. She tries not to cause problems so she walked by them with her head down facing the ground. One of the cheerleaders, Veronica, ran towards her blocking her from moving any further. "Where you going emo?" Veronica said. Rebecca tried to walk past her but the other cheerleaders surrounded her giving a mean face. "You don't need these, give them to me!" Veronica stated. Taking the books from her hand, pushing her down to the ground and beating her nonstop with her own history textbook. Rebecca started screaming in pain "HELP HELP PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!" running away and locking herself in the restroom. She thought to herself why, why would they do this to me, do they have no heart? She started to wipe her face from all the tears she had cried and got all her stuff and left the restroom. As she walked out with her eyes swollen and red, she started to run so she won't get late for her next class. Going inside the locker room and changing quickly wasn't her thing. She would always get nervous changing in front of others. As she changed and went outside to the track for their mile run the other students stretched and got ready. By the time she got there and went towards the class her face turned red as a tomato and she faced down so she won't face Veronica again. The teacher, Mr. Perez, had asked them all to line up on the track so they did as he said. When the timer started all the students started to run, but Rebecca didn't she decided to jog slowly so she won't run with the others. Veronica had noticed what she had been doing and told the other cheerleaders. They started to slow down little by little and Rebecca got scared. "Surround her" Veronica stated. "Can you leave me alone please?" Rebecca said. They all started to laugh and so Rebecca decided to run away from them. Since they had surrounded her, Veronica had pushed Rebecca and started to kick her on the stomach. Throwing rocks and dirt to her face and calling her names. "Is everything okay over there?" Mr. Perez said. "Yes, Rebecca just tripped and fell down, but she's okay now". Getting up in pain, holding her stomach tight and tears slowly coming out her eyes. By the time she had finished her 1st lap the period had ended and she went to the locker room. She changed quickly and left as soon as possible. She had texted her best friend ,Kacey, and asked her where to meet up for lunch. Her legs bruised from all the rocks that they had thrown and her not being able to walk. Seeing her best friend from the distance got her emotional . "What's wrong?" Kacey said "The usual Kacey, the usual." she stated. Kacey started to hug Rebecca while she let all her tears out and talked everything. "I don't know why they would do this to me, I'm a good person," she said."Eat some food you look hungry," Kacey said. Looking at the food and remembering all the cuts that had been bleeding disgusted her and made her push aside the food, wanting to throw up."I don't want to eat I want to leave home and stay there!" she said. The bell rang and Rebecca had struggled to get up from all the bruises that she had that caused so much pain her face was red, holding in pain and with every step she took it was worst. Holding on from table to table so she won't fall and moving her small feet as quick as she can, people passing by and looking at her from head to toe. When she finally got there she sprinted to her seat in relief to be so relaxed until she had to present her project on the Bill of Rights. Presenting in front of class was one of her biggest fears and she would always get nervous. Student to present and whichever student that passed up there made her think about failure and her messing up. When she finally went up she had her face down, back turned and feet moving nonstop. "Hi? My name is Rebecca, and I will be talking about The Bill of Rights." she said. "Why don't you talk about how dumb you are?" A student said. So embarrassed she faced the teacher giving her a look of failure and wanting to give up. "May I be excused?" Rebecca said. "Yes, of course anything you need," Ms. Nelson said. Not wanting to cry she went to the garden outside her classroom and sat on a bench. Tear by tear coming out, she thought what can I do so they can stop, is there anything that can make me feel better? Rebecca got up, cleared her tears and moved on.

****

She couldn't stop thinking about it, about the things they would say to her. They were stuck to her like glue. Rebecca always wondered why the teachers never noticed anyone bullying her and if they did why didn't do anything about it. She always got called all these nasty things that would make her just want to disappear , but she wouldn't. Rebecca always thought about the things they called her ugly, weird, emo, unwanted, and wondered if they were true. Then she started to believe those things were true. She didn't have any friends, her parents never really noticed she was depressed. "Nobody cares about me so why don't I just disappear. Everything would be better if I was gone." Rebecca thought. It would kill her just to get up in the morning and know what she has to face at school. "Why couldn't I just fit in like the rest of the kids what so different from me to them. I have a nose, a mouth, eyes, ears, legs and arms." Rebecca thought as she got ready for school. When her mother dropped her off and Rebecca was walking to class she could already hear Veronica and her little squad making jokes about her and the rest of the school laughing at her. As she was walking to her first class she saw Veronica. "Hey look it's the little goth girl" Veronica says. Then all the kids started laughing and all giving her these faces. Rebecca couldn't handle it anymore she ran down the steps crying feeling everyone laughing at her all she wanted to do was run away.

She ditched school and went straight home. She locked herself in her room and started to cry her eyes off. She thought about the time of when she just wanted to disappear she could do it right now disappear and no one would even notice. Rebecca got a knife from the cabinet and watched blood bleed from her wrist as tears came down her cheeks. She got pills from the cabinet and stuffed them down her throat. Her parents came home and found her on the floor. They rushed her to the hospital with tears in their eyes. "she'll be fine" the doc said "Has Rebecca had any depression issues at home?" "Not any that we know of or at least she didn't show depression". her mother said. "Well it looks like she going to need therapy after shes fine."

****

Rebecca starts to notice she didn't deserve what she was going through. Rebecca no longer wanted to put up with who she hated the most the bullies. Rebecca really wanted to go into a different environment and get out of the school she no longer wanted to be in, she decided to move to a different school and she picked her own schools rival Roosevelt High School. Rebecca really wanted to start somewhere fresh so she did as she said she moved. She noticed that she still felt insecure about herself. She decided to ask for help and get therapy. The first day she went to Roosevelt she felt a relief walking in somewhere no one knew who she was. The same day she had to go to therapy it was a good day for her she had no trouble with anyone. Everyday of the week she felt happier about herself she noticed that she was feeling better about herself. She really started changing her looks she even saw interest in being a cheerleader. She started to figure out how she could be part of the cheer team. They finally told her the good news that she was eligible to join cheer and her schedule became very busy. She hardly had anytime to pay attention to who disliked her or who didn't. Rebecca was really glad on the choices she made like having therapy and moving to Roosevelt. Never did she think twice about leaving the problems she left behind. Rebecca became a very popular cheerleader she became really pretty she had never imagined such a big difference would have happened to her in such a short period of time. She no longer was that emo girl everyone called she no longer was the quite one. Rebecca was really confident about herself, many people thought she was the prettiest girl of the cheer team. She really wanted to feel loved since she had never experienced what love felt like. Rebecca started going on dates with the captain of the football team Jonathan. The first few dates they were both just trying to get to know each other. Rebecca started to feel like she always wanted to be with him the only person she wanted to go out with was Jonathan she always wanted to by his side. He was the only person she would always worry about. She became so attached to him in so little time. Jonathan proved to her that he really liked her he would do the cutest things to get her attention like things that proved to her that he really had no bad intentions for her nor there relationship they planned on having. They had this going on for a while until Jonathan finally planned the cutest way to ask her out. She said yes they really loved each other and they would prove that to each other day by day. They both put in the most work they can. Jonathan would not let the relationship he had with Rebecca fade he really tried his best to have her. Jonathan would always tell her '' he would rather lose an argument with him than losing her ''.