[ s e v e n ]
26th July 2007.
"You're fat."
'Yes, Ashleigh, you are fat,' she thought to herself.
"No I'm not," she denied.
"Yes," the other girl insisted, "You are. Are you blind?"
"I'm not blind!"
"Yeah, you're not. You're ugly."
'Yes, Ashleigh, you are ugly,' her conscience taunted her even more.
"No, I'm not," she repeated, weakly.
"Yes, you are."
"You're the ugliest person in the class." Deborah tilted her face, so that her head her head up high, in a way that beauty pageant princesses would hold their heads. "Your hair is so messy. Your skin is too white, and you are too ugly."
Tears pricked at Ashleigh's eyes and she bit her bottom lip, which trembled slightly, as she attempted to hold the waterworks back.
"Why aren't there prizes for an ugliest girl in the world competition?" she asked. "You would so win it."
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words wll never hurt me.
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Ashleigh's peers would always say that and chant it. However, she never really understood it completely. And now that she did, she knew how wrong that statement was. The first half was undoubtedly correct, but the second portion, was nowhere close to being correct.
Until now, that is.
-
Ashleigh sat in her usual spot, eating the minimal amount of food she had for lunch. It was barely enough to keep her satisfied for hours.
A different girl walked up to her.
Cassandra, she remembered it was.
Her hair was a mousy brown and it cascaded down her shoulders in perfect princess curls. Her green eyes looked like they could have pierced through anybody's soul, if she tried. She was one of those girls who looked like they could be a brilliant, successful child model.
Cassandra was nice to Ashleigh.
For the beginning.
Ashleigh believed every fib she told, and she was delighted that somebody was finally noticing her and being nice to her.
One day, there were rumours going around.
"Ashleigh pushed James in front of a car, and now he's in hospital with a broken arm."
"She's such a bitch."
She said the 'b' word.
"She's the biggest priss I have ever met."
"Yeah!" everyone chorused, agreeing with every statement Cassandra had stated.
It was enough for an already delicate eight year old.
She cried for hours. Why was nobody else going through this? Why was everybody so mean?
Another girl came up to her and asked, "Wanna be friends?"
She sniffled and mumbled, "Yes."
The girl laughed and apologised, "Sorry, my friends and I don't hang out and make friends with losers."
Loser.
She was a loser.
