Nicole C. Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Maybe it was for the Best

“Get out of here!” she screamed at me.

I was never one to fit in wherever I went, nor was I one who

cared about what other people said about me. I didn’t have many

friends, so my family members were basically my best friends. We

went through everything together, just my mom, two younger

brothers – John and Alex - and I. As for my dad, I don’t remember

much about him. My parents divorced when I was very young, and

there weren’t many photos of him at home. It was always hard for

me to fit in, and we were always moving to try and start over.

However, since my mom was a single mom and didn’t make a lot,

we lived in pretty bad conditions. We never got the best of

everything, but all three of us would always try to save up some

money to give to contribute to the family savings once in a while.

Our home only consisted of one bedroom that we all had to share, a

kitchen and a small living room. There was barely any space to

move around in, and it was always quite dirty. It was foul smelling

and there was dust everywhere.

Unfortunately, moving here for my family to start a new life

didn’t let me have a chance to start all over. Things just got even

worse here. Pretty much everyone bullied me about having a single

mom and living in such bad conditions, as most of the kids had a

nice and expensive home. Despite that, someone called Marissa

bullied me everyday, using every chance she got. She was probably

one of the meanest students in the school. Marissa would never hurt

me physically, but it was always those few harsh words that affected

me. Even when I walked past her in the hallway, she would say a

sentence or two to me.

Even so, I never told any one about this either. It was like

something just between Marissa and me. She would keep it away

from the teachers and parents, and I didn’t want to worry anyone.

Since our classmates didn’t want to get in the middle of everything,

they never told the teachers. Although her harassing me should only

have affected me socially, it also started to affect me academically.

As it got worse, my grades started to go down, and I could see an

obvious drop in the effort I put into my work. My work was sloppier

than it had been before, and I was getting some pretty bad

feedback about my work. I’m pretty sure my teachers noticed

something different, but they never asked. They would always look

at me worriedly and ask me if everything was okay. One time, one

of my teachers even asked if I needed to see the guidance

counselor.

As I walked down the hallway, I saw Marissa standing across

from me.

“Why don’t you get out of my life, already?” It was Marissa

again, greeting me with her “lovely” words.

“Maybe you’re the one bringing me into your life! Why don’t

you get out of my life instead?”

“Why would I bring you into my life? You’re way too bad for

me anyways.”

At that point, I couldn’t stand it anymore. Maybe it was time

for me to get back at her for all that she had been doing to me ever

since I moved here about two months ago.

On Tuesday, while Marissa had her necklace off and wasn’t

looking, I quietly sneaked over and stole it from her. It was a silver

necklace with a small pendant shaped like a lock in the middle. It

felt smooth and delicate at my fingertips, giving me the impression

that it was very expensive. At that point, I didn’t know how much

this would affect Marissa and me later on; all I cared about was

getting revenge on her.

Since my mom was struggling to raise three kids by herself, I

decided to sell the necklace and give my mom the money to use.

That way, I was not only taking revenge on Marissa, but also helping

my family.

When I gave the money to my mom, she seemed pretty

surprised.

“Where did you get all this money, Ava?” my mom asked.

“Well, I’ve been saving up for the past few months, and since I

didn’t have any use for it, I decided to give it to you so you wouldn’t

have to stress that much!”

“Oh! Well, thank you!”

She obviously didn’t suspect anything, especially since she

didn’t even know I was being bullied at school.

The next day at school, I arrived finding Marissa in an

extremely bad mood, most likely because I took her necklace.

“Where is my necklace!?” she screamed.

Nobody dared to speak, seeing how angry she was.

To avoid being caught, I ran down the hallway, pushed open

the glass doors and rushed out to the field. I didn’t know what to do.

Should I tell her the truth? Should I lie to her? What if she finds out?

I sold the necklace, so even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to

return it to her. I suddenly realized that that necklace could have

been very valuable to her. All the guilt came rushing to me.

I decided to just tell her the truth. I mean, lying to her

wouldn’t make things better, right? I’m sure we could work things

out together.

As I walked back into the hallway, I heard a small voice speak

up all of a sudden.

“I saw Ava take it from you when you took it off yesterday

during break time. I don’t know where she put it though…” All I

knew about that little voice was that it put me in big trouble.

“Ava!” I didn’t realize that Marissa could see me from where I

was.

“Wh-wh-at? I didn’t take your necklace!” I stumbled.

However, Marissa realized from the fear in my voice that I was

lying to her.

“Ava! How dare you take my necklace!

“I’m sorry! But you could have thought about what you’ve

been doing to me for the past few months. Do you think you

wouldn’t have done something bad to me if I treated you that way?

It’s not what you think it is, Marissa,” I replied. I really wanted to

stop all this right now.

“Ava, you don’t know what I’ve went through either! Maybe

you should think about other people for a change!”

I was taken back by the anger in her voice after I replied to

her so calmly. However, she did have a point. I never really though

about what was going on in Marissa’s life the whole time, or why she

may have been harassing me.

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t think about what was going in your

life. But you still didn’t have to take it out one me!” I replied.

“I know…but you still could have thought about me for a

change!”

“Well I’m sorry I think of that at that time!” Why couldn’t she

just apologize already? We were so close to getting this over with.

“Fine…I’m sorry, too. Now can I have my necklace back?”

“Oh…about that…I sold it and used the money to help my

mom…”

“What? Um…well then can I have the money back, at least?”

I’m glad she didn’t get too angry, or else those few minutes would

have been a waste of my time.”

In the end, everything worked out. I gave her back the money

I got from selling her necklace, and bought her another one.

Turns out, Marissa’s parents were divorced also, and she didn’t

really know what to do about it, so she decided to pick on me since

my parents were divorced, too. Fair enough…I suppose. After that,

we became best friends and we pretty much went through

everything together.

You know, I guess everything does happen for a reason.