Can I sit with you?

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Creative Writing Piece

It was December 2nd and Angie Lila was getting ready for her first day of school. She was dreading going to school and tears streamed down her face at the thought of entering the classroom. “Angie are you almost ready?” her mother yelled from the living room.

“Almost,” Angie replied stifling a sob. Slowly she pulled out a yellow dress and a pink shawl. Quickly she got dressed and tied a ribbon around her bald head. When Angie was 2 years old she had developed a rare disease which caused dark spots on her body and made her hair fall out. Angie knew that if she went to school she would be bullied and teased. She had never had any friends because of her condition.

“Angie let’s go your going to be late and it’s the first day of school. Remember, first impressions,” her mother said lecturing her. 

“But mom I don’t want to go,” Angie complained her face turning red.

“Oh baby, everything’s going to be fine, it’s a new school year,” her mother reassured. Angie dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and stood up. She grabbed her bag and walked out the door hand in hand with her mother. The front lawn was shrubby and the sun was so bright Angie had to shield her eyes. They walked to the bus stop and sat down on the bench for a brief moment. A bus drove to the curb and made a quick stop letting the tires brush against the hard cement. Gripping her mom’s hand, Angie pulled herself up onto the bus and clambered to the row of seats. The ride to school was an unpleasant 30 minutes. The bus driver kept curving to the wrong side and every 5 minutes rode over a bump forcing Angie forward.

By the time they had arrived at school Angie was sick to her stomach and was already wishing she were back on the bus instead of at school. “Remember it’s a new year so there are many chances to make friends. And your very smart, so if you find it hard to make friends at least you’ll do great in school,” her mother encouraged noticing the grumpy look on Angie’s face. Angie forced a smile knowing that her mother was only trying to cheer her up. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad…

She kissed her mom goodbye and walked into the school and up the stairs to the 5th floor. After 5 enduring minutes the door swung open to reveal Angie’s teacher, Mrs. Pallof. Mrs. Pallof was a pretty woman in her 30s. She was wearing a blue coat dress, pearl earrings, and her hair was curled. “Hello class please put your things in the lockers and come to the rug,” Mrs. Pallof explained.  Quickly she handed Angie a slip of paper and a lock, then ushered her towards the lockers.

Angie strolled over to locker 74 in bank 3 and opened the door. Then she took out her supplies and shoved her bag and coat inside of the ajar locker. “Look who it is, Angie Lila the mud spot. I bet you can’t even open your lock,” came a slimy voice. Angie turned around and stared into the soulless eyes of the girl she hated most, Yavalia Harrington. Yavalia had bullied Angie ever since Kindergarten because of her disease. She believed that since Angie didn’t have any hair she had no brain.

Angie felt her eyes well up with tears but quickly blinked them back. She glanced at the slip in her hand and read the digits 7-24-14. Fingering the lock knob Angie spun it so that it stopped at the 7, then spun it to the left at the 24 and finally spun it to 14. She pulled at the lock and it opened smoothly making a gentle sound. Knowing Yavalia wasn’t exactly the smartest person, Angie said, “I can definitely open my lock but the question is can you open yours?”. Angie twirled around carrying her books, and walked off leaving Yavalia behind.

Once everyone had come back to the rug Mrs. Pallof introduced herself and explained the schedule. “Okay class, for the first 2 periods we have are math and writing. I will hand out an assessment that you will have both periods to complete. Don’t worry about it this is just for me to see what you know. Now go your time starts now,” Mrs. Pallof instructed. Angie rushed to a table and urgently began her test. 

School had always been easy for her so 15 minutes later she had finished the math and started the ELA. Angie had great reading comprehension so she sped through the passages and when she read the questions, the answers came to her easily. She flipped over the page and read the essay prompt “Write about what you think it feels like being bullied“.  She wrote about all the times Yavalia had bullied her and how each day she would run to her room and cry into her pillow. She wrote about how she used to cover her face in a brown paper bag and the smug face of Yavalia filled with pride. Before she knew it the periods were over and she was handing in her work to the teacher.

 For  third period, the class read for the whole 30 minutes and talked about what was interesting in our book. When that was over 6th and 7th grade had lunch.  Angie walked over to a table filled with girls and confidently sat down smiling at them. The girls looked at her weirdly and one whispered “Ewww she looks weird, we should move.“  The girls got up and walked to another table laughing as they saw the hurt expression on Angie’s face. Angie spooned down her mashed potatoes gooey and salty from the butter mixed into it. The bell rang and Angie rushed up the stairs to class aware of the people looking at her.

As soon as Mrs. Pallof had gotten everyone seated, she started handing out the assessments from earlier so that they could see what they had gotten wrong. Angie smiled as she saw the familiar 100 on her paper and laughed out loud when she heard that Yavalia had gotten a pathetic 0. “Now class head up to the gym for your double period of PE,” interrupted Mrs. Pallof. As soon as PE was mentioned, Angie’s smile faded into a grimace. The gym teacher hated Angie because to him she wasn’t normal and used anything to make her do extra. Confidently Angie pushed away her thoughts and headed up to the gym. When she arrived she was surprised to see a strange man standing in the center of the gym. He was dressed in a short sleeved shirt, gray sweatpants, and a whistle was hanging from his neck. 

“Hello class, I’m Mr. Hendricks your gym teacher for this year. Mr. Burks has quit. Now 5 laps around the  gym all of you,” Mr. Henderson said. 

Yavalia walked over to Angie and bluntly hissed “Just because Henderson is new means that I  can turn him against you, okay mud spot?”

Angie nodded and after running her 5 laps she went to Henderson to tell him about what Yavalia had said. Unfortunately Yavalia had beat her to it and told Henderson “Sh… she pushed me and I slammed into the door.” Mr. Henderson nodded and signaled Angie towards them. 

Angie walked over, a huge lump forming in her throat. “Liar she’s a liar Mr. Henderson.” Angie reasoned. 

Mr. Henderson turned to face Yavalia and cursed “Yavalia you are  full of it. Next time know in advance that I watch your every move and try to tell the truth. Angie if she ever tries to bully you again you tell me and Yavalia, two demerits.”  For the rest of the periods they did push ups, half sit ups, and other exercises. When the lifelong PE periods had ended, Angie thanked Mr. Henderson for defending her and headed down to science her last period. For her science was fun because they always got to do labs.

Angie hurried into the classroom and sat down in her desk which was right behind Philip Johnson’s. Angie had had a massive crush on Philip since kindergarten. “Okay class today we will be mixing sodium peroxide with other chemicals and we will record our observations,” Mrs. Jerrol instructed, bringing Angie back to reality. Lucky for her, Angie was teamed up with Philip who was not only a nice boy but a smart and intelligent one.  id, handing her some of the supplies. She nodded her head in gratitude and slipped on her lab goggles. First she poured in the peroxide, then the fluorine, and finally the other 3 chemicals. The liquid substances fizzed a bit and then exploded shooting chunks of orange fuzz into the air. This was one of her favorite experiments which was making elephant toothpaste. Philip and Angie looked into each others eyes for an intense moment, and then burst into laughter pulling each other into a tight hug. After science they walked down together and not to their surprise bumped heads with Yavalia.

“Hey Philip, did you know Angie has a huge crush on you?” Yavalia teased. Philip turned to face Angie his face full of confusion.

“Is this true Angie?” Philip asked slowly recovering from the shock. Angie nodded her head slightly to confirm his question. “Angie you know I can’t love you like that, we’re just friends. It’s not because of how you look because you look great, but I just can’t feel that way for my best friend. 

Angie ran to the bathroom and collapsed into the stall crying unstoppably. “See mudspot, you have no friends and your own best friend doesn’t even like you. You’ll never have friends, your just a pathetic spot of mud,” Yavalia taunted. Angie pushed open the door as hard as she could so that the door slammed right into Yavalia forcing her to the ground. Quickly she ran out of the restroom, got her belongings from her locker, and ran out of the school before Yavalia could tattle on her. She jumped on the bus and sat down her heart pounding. “That’ll show you little miss perfect” Angie thought, pretending to say that to Yavalia. When she got home she ran to her room and started her homework right away ignoring her mom’s questions about her day. Once she had finished her homework, she told her mother she wasn’t hungry and went to sleep. 

The next morning when she went to school, Yavalia and her friends were waiting for her. They cornered her and teased her pulling at her clothes.

To be continued …