She always said to stay away from the popular crowd. I thought she was just jealous because they liked me better. When they picked on her I thought it was just bad karma, but I didn’t know it would do that to her. Let me tell you the story.
It was my first day being a Beauty Girl and I was super excited for the party that night. The Beauty Girls was an exclusive club only available to those with exceptional beauty. I just happened to be one of those girls.
Anyways, Bella (the leader) was telling me all about our party when she stumbled over Vickie’s leg, who was getting something out of the bottom of her locker (not the leg, Vickie). Bella, not being able to deal with any kind of humiliation, decided to blame it all on Vickie saying that she tried to trip her. Then, she proceeded by calling her ugly and strutted away.
In English class, while I was writing an essay, when I got a text from Bella saying to check Vickie’s Facebook page and my twitter. When I finished my essay, I checked my twitter updates and then Facebook. It was basically just Bella saying how ugly Vickie is. At first, I laughed because the insults were funny, but then I felt a bit bad for Vickie.
After that period everyone was laughing at Vickie in the halls. They kept on saying things like “Haha, nature hates you!” and “You got a little something there, oh wait it’s your face!” and everyone was calling her Ugly Vickie. The guys were pushing her around and people were tripping her. She caught my eye expecting me to do something. Surely she’d understand that I couldn’t risk my popularity, right? Apparently, not. She turned around and started running away.
My last class of the day was Science. Vickie’s in my science class. I was bracing myself for her sad face willing myself to just ignore it, when I noticed she wasn’t there. All throughout the period, I was expecting her to walk in stuttering an apology for being late, but she never came. Near the end of the class, my teacher assigned us homework for the weekend.
“Does anyone know where Vickie is?” Mrs. Keel asked.
The class was silent.
“Well does anyone know where she lives? Because I have some extra work for her that she should do over the weekend.”
The class was still silent. I slowly raised my hand. The only reason I know where Vickie lives is because we used to be best friends in elementary school, but when we came to high school we started to grow apart. I wanted to be popular, she didn’t. Stuff like that. And when I was offered a place in the Beauty Girls club, I couldn’t resist. The only thing I had to do was ditch Vickie. I told myself it was for the better and that we were growing apart anyways, but I’m not so sure if that’s how she felt.
When the bell rang, I got Vickie’s stuff (which consisted of 5 stapled papers and 3 text books) and got to my locker. I was just about to close my locker when Bella showed up.
“Hey, Hailee! Ready to go?” she asked
“Um, well I actually have to go…bring something…somewhere.” I said.
“Oh, okay then well I guess I’ll see you later, right?”
“Yeah, totally!”
“Okay! See you later!”
I slammed my locker shut and speed walked out of that school.
On my way to Vickie’s house, I made the decision to tell Bella to stop bullying Vickie. She would listen to me, right? I mean if she’s a true friend she would definitely consider what I think. Hopefully. Once I got to Vickie’s house, I rang the doorbell. No one answered. I rang again, but still no one answered. I looked up at a window, and saw something move. I knew she was in there.
“VICKIE? CAN YOU OPEN THE DOOR?” I shouted.
Nothing.
“VICKIE, I KNOW YOUR IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR! I HAVE YOUR HOMEWORK!”
Still nothing. I decided to climb up to her bedroom window, just like in middle school. I left her stuff on the ground and started climbing. It was harder then I remembered. I opened her window and jumped inside. She wasn’t in her room. I walked in the kitchen, but she wasn’t there or in the living room. All of a sudden I heard a strangled cry come from her parent’s bedroom.
When I ran inside this is what I saw. Vickie had a jump rope. It was tied around her neck and attached to the metal bar in her parent’s closet. I immediately went to untie it, but Vickie started fighting me off. I managed to untie the rope anyhow.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?”
She sighed.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore. Okay? The laughing and the messages and how everything always seems to be my fault. I just couldn’t take it. When you ditched me for the popular crowd, I knew I would never find another friend. I tried this before, but I couldn’t do it. I almost succeeded this time, but you came and stopped me.”
“I didn’t know…” I started
“Of course you don’t. Your pretty, people don’t have a reason to bug you, but they do for me. It’s hard for me to just wake up in the morning. Not just because I have to go to school, but because I know there’ll be text messages, Facebook posts, tweets and other things about me. Then when I go to school, I get it right to my face and when I come home I can’t get away from it because it’ll all be on the internet again. This was my only option of escape.”
I sighed. There’s got to be something we can do I thought.
“Well, we can at least tell your parents because I know you didn’t. I know you too well.”
“Wait, what do you mean, we?”
“What you thought I would leave you here in this state? I don’t think so.”
“But what about your party?”
“And hang out with someone who bullied my best friend to the point of suicide? I don’t think so.”
“Thanks” she said and smiled.
That evening we told Vickie’s parents everything. Her mom cried a lot and her dad kept on clenching and unclenching his fists. I was scared he was going to punch a wall or something. I think Vickie thought that too because she took his hands in hers. Her mom called the school, who called the police and we had a huge meeting with the principal and a police officer. We had to re-explain the whole story. I slept over that weekend. To keep Vickie company and to make sure she didn’t kill herself again. Or at least try to.
At school on Monday, Vickie and I waited in the principal’s office with the police officer for Bella. When she came in, she looked annoyed with the world. The officer explained that she was being arrested for online harassment and that she would be going to juvie. It was quite a show, but somehow I think she thought I was the one who caused all this trouble.
A month later, and the whole Bella in juvie drama died down. Vickie and I are closer than we ever were before. She’s like a sister. I have her back and she’s got mine. People are people and some still bully her a bit, but when I’m around all I have to do is give them the look and they’ll be quiet. The Beauty Girls are no more. Any club that puts down a certain student or group of students are banned. Apparently, they weren’t banned before. With Bella gone, school seems brighter.

You know that saying “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? Yeah, it’s a lie. Sometimes words can hurt more than broken bones. I experienced that first hand. Let me explain.
It was a Friday. The last day of the week, almost the weekend. I had a French paper due that I had already finished and was somewhere in my locker. I was looking in the bottom of my locker, when Bella tripped over my leg. I groaned. I knew she wouldn’t let that go and would say something.
“What is wrong with you? Can’t a girl walk by without being tripped?” she asked.
“I-it was an accident.” I mumbled. I guess she didn’t hear me because she gave me a death look.
“Now Hailee, as you can see Ugly will never be one of us. Let’s face it she’s not even the same species. She will never be pretty. Her name says it all. Ugly.”
Then she walked away dragging Hailee along. Hailee used to be my best friend, but as soon as we got to high school she ditched me for the Beauty Girls. It’s some club for the prettiest girls in school. Obviously, I could never be one of them. I’m not pretty.
In P.E. we played dodge ball. I hate dodge ball. It gives everyone a reason to hit me in the head with a ball. I always get out first. It kind of sucks. When the period was finally over, I got changed and got all my stuff. Now, I know we’re not supposed to have cell phones in class and stuff, but I had a legitimate reason. I wanted to be able to call my mom in case an emergency happened. I wanted to be safe.
I checked my phone and saw I had an update on Facebook. I knew it couldn’t be good. The only things that happen on Facebook are insults. I could just delete my account, but then I wouldn’t be able to see my family in Italy. So I just have to put up with it. I went on my account to see what it was. It was a post from Bella on my wall. It was saying how ugly I was and there were a whole bunch of comments already saying things like “LOL!” and “So true.” They were all agreeing with her. They were all saying I was ugly.
I left the change rooms in a hurry. The other girls all had their phones and I could hear them Snicker. The halls were worse. People kept on saying “Ugly Vickie! Ugly Vickie!” They were laughing and pushing me around. People were tripping me so I couldn’t even talk a step forward without almost falling flat on my face. All of a sudden, someone pushed me in the middle of the hallway and I saw Hailee. She looked at me like I disgusted her. I gave her a pleading look asking her to help, but she just looked away saying she had a rep to protect. At that moment, I knew I had no friends. No one to lean on when things got tough, no one to stand up for me when people got mean. No one. I was alone in this battle of me against the world and I couldn’t do it alone. I broke away from the group of people surrounding me and I ran away.
Once I was home, I fell on my bed and cried. I kept on thinking about how no one liked me. About how everyone thought I was as useless as a piece of dirt. I went on my phone again and this time I went on twitter. Everyone was tweeting things with #UglyVickie at the end. I realized there was no way out of this, except one way.
I grabbed my skipping rope from the back of my closet, where I threw it the last time I tried this. I went to my Parents Closet. It was the only place I could do it. I had the rope tied around my neck, when the door bell rang. I ignored it, if it was a door-to-door salesman they’ll leave. Then it rang again. I ran to the window and saw Hailee standing there looking up into the window. I ducked, but I was pretty sure she saw me. I didn’t want to deal with another emotional crisis. I just wanted to get away from everything, but she started yelling.
“I’M COMING UP!” She yelled.

I ran back to my parent’s bedroom and stood on a stool to tie the other end of the rope to the bar in my parent’s closet. Just as I was finished I heard her walking around and I stepped of the stool. She walked in the bedroom. Her eyes went big as I started to choke. Hailee ran over to the closet and tried to untie the rope, but I tried to fight her off. My fighting off didn’t work to well because she untied the rope and I fell.
As I gasped for air, I asked “What’s wrong with you?”
She gave me a look and said “What’s wrong with you?”
I sighed and explained everything. From how it felt to get ditched to how it felt to live in the torture of waking up to bullying to going to sleep to bullying. I told her how it’s even in my dreams because when hear something for a certain amount of time, you start to believe it yourself. It felt good to get it all off my chest.
“Wow,” she said when I was done “I really didn’t know it was that bad.”
Then she suggested we tell my parents because I never did. I asked her about the party she was supposed to be going to, but she said she wouldn’t hang out with someone who caused her best friend to become suicidal. I smiled at that because from that moment I knew that she would be there for me.
That night was full of confessions and tears. When I told my mom and dad everything, my mom started crying. Seeing how upset it made my mom, made me cry too. Like I hadn’t cried enough already. My dad looked like he was about to go kill somebody, which I think scared Hailee so I held his hand to make sure he didn’t do anything. My mom called the school, who called the police and they all came to my house to discuss it all.
Hailee slept over that weekend, but I think it was to make sure I didn’t try to kill myself again. She saw me looking for my pills that she hid and lectured me for 20 minutes! I had to get my mom to tell her that I needed them for iron, but it was nice to know she was there for me. It was just like old times and it felt good.
After the weekend on Monday, Hailee and I went to the principal’s office with the police officer to see Bella get arrested. It was quite a show. She got arrested for online harassment and went to juvie. She started yelling and screaming saying that she’s not a bully. Yeah right. After she left, the school seemed quieter and more peaceful.
It apparently took a month for all the drama and the gossip to die down, but things are great. Hailee and I are like sisters again. We look out for each other, no matter what. I have to go to a therapist and self-esteem classes, which helps. I still get bullied a bit, but I can just walk away now. I still don’t feel pretty, but I feel like I am important to this world, like I can do something great.