Hi. My name is Cimmerian, and this is my story.



Here I am, staring blackly into the mirror. I am not happy with the person glaring back at me. I apply my coal black lipstick and prepare myself for another lie I call my life.

“Cimmerian, it’s time to go to school. Get down here!” My mom is disapproving of my life. What else is new?

“Coming mom!” After I put on my black combat boots and my skull and crossbones tee, I head out for yet another day of pretending to be something I am not. When I arrive I head over to the “popular” group and join in the conversation about our weekends.

“I had an absolutely fun-filled weekend,” proclaims Nina. I hate her so much. She is the type of girl that gets all the guys and never gets in trouble. I often wish that I could be like that. Never pretending, always liked, loved, and always having friends.

“How about you Cimmerian?” Right when she said this, a boy walked by me and gave me the strangest look. He looked like a kid I don’t recognize.

“Oh yeah, my weekend was okay. ‘ I know that all my “friends” can see through me, and I am not fooling anybody. I keep thinking about how that boy stared at me. It was almost as if he had never seen a living girl before.

“Cimmerian, you are such a loser, why do you even hang out with us. Everyone knows that you are not part of our group. All you do is stand around and act like you have friends. It is so lame and uncalled for. Why can’t you just find some real friends?” Everyone was agreeing with her and I knew that this was nothing new.

“Oh Nina, you are such a kidder,” I said with a hint of nervousness in my tone. Then our group moved on into the school as always. I am so frustrated right now. Everyone thinks that I have friends, and even though that is what I want, I am still not getting that happy feeling I am searching for. Even though all my “friends” call me names, cuss at me, and even push me into lockers, I still keep them. I love how they kid around with me; it gives me something to look forward to each day.

All day I kept thinking about that boy. I don’t know why his look had such an effect on me. It was just the way he seemed to see right through my act. I don’t know, maybe I am just freaking out over nothing. When I got home, I got a text from Nina.
Hey Cimmerian, need to talk call me as soon as possible.
*Cheerleading Chick*
I don’t get what is up with her signature. Anyway, I call her to see what’s up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Nina, it’s me, I got your text?”

“Oh hey Cimmerian. So, there is this rumor going around school that you don’t really like me and my group. Is this true?” Oh man, this is bad. What do I say? Umm, well I guess I will just go with the truth.

“Umm I guess so.”

“Cimmerian! I can’t believe you would do this. Actually, I can. I just sent out a mass text to all my friends and peers, telling them to dump you. Consider yourself dumped. And, don’t bother hanging out with us.” CLICK! Well this is just great. I go into my room and start balling my eyes out. After screaming into my pillow for ten minutes, I find my journal and start ripping all the pages out. All the pictures of our trip to the lake…gone. All the pages that I wrote on about having real friends…gone. It’s just not fair. I can’t handle my life anymore. After another crying spree, I finally go to bed.

The next day, I wake up. I go through my annual routine and I leave for school. When I arrive, I don’t see anyone outside.

“Cimmerian, are you sure there is school today?” My mom is always trying to find a reason not to send me to school so we can spend “quality time” together.

“Yes mom, I’m sure. I’ll see you tonight…maybe.” I mumbled that last word so she couldn’t hear it. After I get out of the car, I see one person. It’s that boy again. He keeps staring at me. Maybe I should go say hi. I walk glumly over to him and he just glares at me.

“Hi.” He glares “My name is Cimmerian, what’s yours?”

“Did your mom give you that name?”

“Oh no, I legally changed it to that, why?”

“Do you even know what Cimmerian means?” He is being somewhat mean to me. I hope there is a reason.

“Actually, I do. It is one of a mythical people described by Homer as inhabiting a land of perpetual darkness.”

“Why did you change it to that if you know what it means?” By this time, we are sitting on a bench close by.

“It’s none of your business.”

“Okay, well my name is Alex. Do you know what Alex means?”

“Humor me.”

“It means protector of mankind,” He said with a sort of smirk on his face.

“Well I guess we are kind of opposites.” I started to giggle but he put his hand up.

“I see how you are when you hang out with that group. You aren’t really friends with them. You only hangout with them so that you can seem popular. You really should find some new friends that you actually like.

“Like it’s any of your business. What if I can’t get any friends? Did you ever think of that?” I didn’t realize that I was yelling and crying by this point.

“Well it looks to me like you have one friend, and that’s all that really matters.”

“Oh yeah Mr. Protector of mankind, and who may that friend be.”

“Me,” he said with a huge grin on his face that made me smile. I started to cry big happy tears of joy. Before I knew it, we were in a brotherly embrace and we were both smiling. From then on Alex protected me. I started dressing in brighter colors, and even though I wasn’t the highlight of the school, I had one friend that would stick up for me whenever the time called for it.

Now that you have heard my story, you know what it is like to pretend you have friends and then find one true friend. I had to learn this the hard way. I hope that you will get rid of all the bad people in your life. Don’t just keep friends so you can be popular. In addition, please don’t lie to yourself just as I did. Take the time and find someone that is your “Alex”, and I promise you will be much more happier and a much more delightful person.