It was a very warm day towards the end of summer, and Sarah was bored to death. “This town is too little for someone so ‘unseen’ to have any fun...I really should be at the pool or hanging out with friends right now...if I even had any”, Sarah thought. School was just around the corner, and she dreaded that thought. The weird looks that she got in the hallways and the nasty words that were said to her haunted her in the back of her mind. Her parents were both at work, and Sarah had no way of transportation. Even if she did call and ask them for a ride, they would never come get her. Sarah’s parents were very strict, and almost everyday they would get into a fight about foolish things.

Later that day, she got a call from a group of girls at her school. This particular group was called “The mean girls”. The kids from the school didn’t give them that name, they made it up for themselves. They thought they could get away with prank calling, but the snickering in the background made it so obvious that it was them. They told her how she was one of the ugliest girls they had ever seen, and tried to make it sound like they were guys. Sarah hung up right away and called Lauren, her friend to let her know what was going on. She didn’t think for two seconds that Lauren would ask her to come over to her house, but she did. Sarah left home and walked down the street to Lauren’s house. Messing around on her slip-n-slide, and talking about the cute guys and secretive drama circling their school, they had a wondrous time.

It was about that time that school was rolling around. In one week, Sarah would be back to the normal routine of the dumb kids thinking it was ‘cool’ to crack jokes about her. Sarah was not ready for this at all. Her parents told her to get a grip on herself, and stop worrying about that type of thing, but how could she just forget it, when that’s what makes up her entire life? Sarah has a minimal amount of friends, and that number decreases by the second. She tries so hard to keep them, but they just think she’s weird.

School is here. Today is the first day, and Sarah was not happy at ALL. As well, this week, she found out her parents are getting divorced soon, which made it all that worse. The first few weeks of school actually turned out going pretty well. This was helpful, because she had to worry about choosing whose house to stay at over the weekend, and really didn’t want anything else under her belt while going through such a rough divorce.

One moth had already gone by, and she had thought it was great. Good grades where what she had, even though her parents didn’t really realize it. Maybe things shouldn’t be said to quickly. Had Sarah just possibly jinxed herself? Yes. Things aren’t always what they seem, until you hear it from Lauren, that people are secretly making fun of you, behind your back, but I was glad she told me. The next day at school, I stood very confidently, and people passed by with ugly grins on their faces. Sarah has now gone from and A+ student, to a C and D student. Her teachers started noticing the tremendous drop in her test grades, and that she hasn’t been turning in her homework assignments.

Sarah decided that she was going to start telling people that they need to leave her alone. She has bigger issues to worry about, rather than people making fun of her. “I’ve got issues at home, and until you understand what it feels like, you best keep your mouth shut, with all those nasty comments”, Sarah told a by passer in the hallway; one of the people from the normal crew of girls that made fun of her. After awhile people started realizing what she was going through. Kids finally gave their apologies too her, which made her feel great.

One little thing that you do too make someone feel good, or just one compliment, can change a person’s day. You never know what’s going on in someone’s life, until you walk in their shoes. Sarah made a few friends just because she told them straight up, and since she was so confident. People value these traits that Sarah had, and she knows it was worth it to show them to everyone.