Their Violence, Your Silence.

Everything looked hazy as I groped around, trying desperately to find my glasses. Come on!

They must be somewhere around here. My knees hurt as I slid across the hard concrete and there's a ringing in my ears.

Their voices are loud high pitched: 'Look at her, blind as a bat!'

'Not so though now are you? Geek!'

'Do you think her mother still dresses her? Look at what she's wearing!'

'Maybe she thinks she's a boy!'

Their jibes went on and I did my best to shut them out. If only I could find those bloody glasses! Without them I couldn't see anything at all. It hurt hearing them make fun of me and I felt a deep blush rise to my cheeks.

I must look really stupid, sitting here on my hands and knees trying to locate where my glasses had fallen. Thinking of it I was sure one of the girls had picked them up and I hastily got to my feet.

A sharp pain blossomed in the center of my back and in surprise I fell back down. Did one of them just kick me? That was new. I was almost used to their jibes now but they’d never physically hurt me before.

Their laughter echoed around me and it was all I could do not to clasp my hands over my ears . The sound was so shrill and high. It involuntarily made me think of the fire alarm.

It made me mad but there was five of them and only one of me, there wasn’t much I could do except endure. I knew that if I ignored them as best as I could they’d eventually get bored and leave. I just hoped they’d give me back my glasses without breaking them.

The glasses were expensive and I knew my parents couldn’t afford another pair. Also, without them I’d never be able to make my way back home. I couldn’t even see precisely how many fingers I had on my own hands, and they were right in front of me.

I felt another hard shove this time against my shoulder and my face automatically turned towards my attacker. All I could see was the hazy shape of a head, I could tell the girl had blond hair. Of course all five of them had…

The girl that shoved me sneered: ‘Look at her face! Can it get any uglier?’

More laughter followed that comment and even several more shoves. Of course if one did it they all had too. I swallowed once to clear the bile in my throat and waited patiently for them to leave. It couldn’t be long now.

Just as I thought that another of the girls scoffed: ‘This is getting boring! She’s boring!’ I felt the girl jab my with the toe of her shoe.

‘Here’s your glasses, geek!’ the first girl that shoved me said and I felt more then saw her throw something at my face.

I scrambled wildly to catch them before they hit the ground and this caused my tormentors to burst into laughter again.

The glasses made a ringing sound as they bounced once on the concrete before I managed to get my fingers on them.

Let them be whole, please don’t be broken! I prayed in my head as my fingers searched them for cracks.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt only the smooth glass, no dents or scratches I wasn’t familiar with. I slipped them on my face and sighed again when everything around me jumped into focus.

I was out in the parking lot, just around the corner of the entrance where none of the teachers ever bothered to look. There were of course plenty of other students who had witnessed what happened but as always they ignored it.

Still seated on my knees I watch the five girls walk away, loudly laughing while one of them pretended to find her glasses, groping wildly in front of her.

I turned my back on them and dusted off my clothes. I knew I was dressed stupidly but unlike them my parents couldn’t afford to get my new clothes all the time. Most of the time I wore the cast offs from my older brother and even the cast offs of my best friend Katie and her sister.

Since I was so small though, everything was to big on me. It made me look younger then I was and those stupid owl glasses I needed to see made my eyes look huge.

I understood why they bullied me, but that didn’t make it any easier. Couldn’t blame them for calling me a freak, geek or weirdo… Because really I was… the way I looked nobody wanted to be friends with me. Everyone was scared that Caleb and Marley and their groups of friends would turn on them as well.



I sighed and closed my book, I’d already finished all of the assigned homework and had been trying to read but it was getting to dark to see now.

My brother was late, normally he’d be here before dark, but I guessed he couldn’t leave his job on time. Just like yesterday.

You see, my dad always worked over time at his job and my mother worked two jobs. One as a waitress at a diner and one as a secretary for a small company.

My brother had finished high school but he said he didn’t want to go to college. He didn’t consider himself smart enough. I thought that was bullshit. Instead he worked at a garage fixing cars so he could pay some of the bills as well.

It was his job to pick me up after school since it was too far to walk home and the buss didn’t go in the direction I needed.

I hated the situation. We’d had to move from our old house because my parents couldn’t afford to pay the rent. We now lived in a much smaller house in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city.

I had to switch schools because of it even though we didn’t leave the city and I missed my best friend Katie a lot. She still came by my house every Friday and Saturday but I hated how I didn’t have anyone to talk to in school.

Just then Jared drove into the parking lot in his old rusty car, the thing looked ancient but my brother assured me the engine was fine.

I quickly hopped into the passenger seat, ‘Hey Jared!’ Relieved to be with someone friendly finally.

‘I’m sorry I’m late Winter! But I had to finish that car, the owner has just picked it up…’ I could tell how awful my brother felt about letting me wait for so long.

‘It’s okay Jared! I finished all my homework so it wasn’t time wasted or anything… Let’s get something to eat?’

Jared frowned at me for a moment but then nodded and pulled away from the curb.