True Beauty

"You're fat!" "No guy would everdate such an ugly girl!" "Ew, she's so gross! She makes me want to puke!"

 Fat. Ugly. Whore. Slut. Fat. Ugly. Whore. Slut.

 I turned the corner quickly, escaping the words that were being called after me. Although, the words continued to echo through my head. I was worthless. They were right, all of them were. Who would want to date me? They were words I had heard countless times, and I believed every one of them.

 I found my locker after several more minutes of searching the long narrow, locker-filled hallways. I slid the backpack from my shoulders, and it crashed to the ground at my feet. I twisted the small dial carefully, reading the numbers off of the small paper in my tight grip. It opened, and I kneeled down in front of my locker, sorting through my backpack to put everything in my new locker.

Two girls walked past, laughing, and one mumbled, "Look, she's on her knees again." While it was nothing I hadn't heard recently, that was definitely the harshest words, coming from a girl I concidered my friend since I was seven. Last year, however, we had stopped talking. She'd ditched me for some new girl. She was "prettier" and "thinner" and "worth more". Again, I was just worthless, ugly, and fat.

 I sorted through my backpack, undoing a package of pencils and sliding them into a pink pencil case. The locker to the right of me opened, and a girl looked at me like I was a dirty old penny laying in a parking lot, tail-side-up. She put away her books quickly, tossing everything into a disheveled mess. A few friends came over and started talking, one of them kicking me by "accident". They left, staring at me and giggling. I heard the same three words: Ugly. Fat. Worthless.

 I finished up my locker as quickly as possible, grabbing what I needed for first period and closing the door as a group of students passed. It was a mixture between the "Populars" and the football players that I had ran into earlier.

 "Slut."

 "Whore."

 "She's so ugly."

 "She's like, a cow. She's so fat." 

I looked down at my body, making a mental comment to myself to ignore them. 107 pounds wasn't fat, was it? According to them it was, even though I happened to find out that the head girl wsa 113 pounds. They had decided, though, that I was fat. I was ugly, even though I had high cheek bones, light blue eyes, and long brown hair.

I was worthless though. Who would ever date me?

 "Shield your eyes!"

 "The monster's looking at us!" 

"Ew!"

And I just stood there, looking into my locker, my back towards them. The usual groups of students noticed me standing there as they walked by and greeted me by laughing and staring and pointing. It wasn't everyone; it was just two main groups of people, but when it came to being made fun of, it felt like everyone. As I stood there, I felt a tear drip down my face. I couldn't let them see it; I couldn't let them see my pain. I wouldn't let them see how much they were getting to me, and how badly their words hurt me. But all the same, in that moment, more than any other, I wanted to be dead.

Trenton 

"'Sup, Thomas?" I called to one of my best friends as I climbed out of my black '98 Acura, which I had taken the time to get washed the previous day. After all, it was the first day of the new school year, so I wanted my car to look as nice and shiny as possible. Thomas was one of my best friends; we had been friends since childhood. He was about six feet tall, skinny, and not very muscular; he had dark hair and bright blue eyes. 

"Hey, man." Thomas called back as he walked up to me.

 "Is Gage here?" I asked him as he approached me.

 "I haven't seen him yet."

 "Randy?"

Haven't seen him yet, either." 

"Dang. Well, how's your summer been?"

"Good. Yours?"

 "Good. So, you excited about school?"

"Kind of, I guess."

 "Oh, yeeeeah!" a loud voice cried out suddenly. I thought I recognized that voice, and, sure enough, moments later, one of my best friends, Gage, came barreling up to us. Gage was a chubby guy, to say the least, although he had a great sense of humor about his weight and, at times, claimed that he was merely 'big boned'. He had dark brown hair and was about my height, 5'9" tall.

 His eyes were a light brown, and he was one of the nicest and funniest guys one could ever meet. "'Sup, Gage?" I called to him as he continued to run towards Thomas and me. For a big guy, he was a surprisingly fast runner.

 "Hey, buddy!" Gage yelled as he ran up, threw his arms around Thomas, and squeezed him. 

"Dude!" Thomas yelled as he was nearly crushed in Gage's arms. Gage quickly released him, leaving Thomas to cough and gasp for breath.

 "Hey, man. How was your summer?" I asked him, tensing slightly in fear that he was going to squeeze me, as well. Fortunately, he didn't.

 "Great! I was in Texas with my cousin most of the time." Gage replied loudly.

"Sweet. Hey, have you seen Randy anywhere yet?" I asked.

"Nope. Have you?" 

"No."

"Bummer."

 "Bummer." Thomas said, mocking the way that Gage had said it. 

"Does somebody need a hug?!" Gage yelled.

"No!" But it was too late. Gage threw his arms around Thomas and squeezed him again. "Gage! Stop! Gage! Gage!" Thomas said as he was crushed once again in Gage's arms. 

"All right, easy, man. Easy. It's the first day of school. You don't want to kill the guy already." I cut in after a moment, laughing as I spoke. 

"Aw... Fine." Gage agreed as he released Thomas again. Just then, the five minute warning bell rang, so we rushed inside to get to our lockers and make it to class on time.