Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @Lamestuff, Author of "Misadventures of Celia Rose"

When I was 13 years old, my older sister was in the grade above me. She was an eighth grader - a cheerleader, pretty, popular. We ran in the same circles, since I was on the varsity basketball team.

One weekend, some of the boy basketball players invited "some girls" to come over. I thought when they said "some", they meant more than just my sister and I. Still, I didn't really want to go. So my sister, ever the social butterfly, went alone. When she got home, she was subdued; normally the loudest person in our house, I wanted to know what was wrong, but she just said it was no big deal, and she didn't want to talk about it. I let it go.

By time we got to school on Monday, the rumors had flared up so high, the second we stepped out of my dad's truck and through the cafeteria doors, I heard it: SLUT.

I barely had time to register the words before a group of cheerleaders - all dressed in uniform, with my sister being the only one in normal clothes - swished by us. "Whore," her then best friend said (loudly), knocking her shoulder into my sister's chest. "Don't ever talk to me again."

I didn't get it. My sister, stone faced, turned on her heel and ran into the nearest bathroom. No one would meet my gaze. I was pretty well known, but was usually seen as the scarier one, and no one wanted to engage me. My own teammates avoided me like I was the plague. By time I tracked my boyfriend down, I'd already gathered the gist of the situation from whispers that followed me down the hall.

The boys on the team were telling everyone that my sister - never been kissed, never been touched, never been loved by a guy - had had sex with FIVE of the guys on the team, while the others watched. Three of the rumored guys had girlfriends - all on the cheer squad.

No one talked to my sister for almost a month, unless it started with "slut" or "whore" or "skank."

My friends were all painfully nice to her, but kept us both at a distance. By the third month, more than halfway through the school year, my sister was never even referred to by her name, unless it was by a teacher, and even they tended to ignore her.

She lost her spot on the cheer team, her friends all iced her out, and any boy caught within a few feet of her was immediately involved in the rumor mill, until only the sleasiest guys would go around her, just to stir up more trouble.

By the end of my sister's eighth grade year, she was the most well known "slut" in the entire school. By time she started high school, she was the "hottest frosh." She had to get a new phone 2 times, because she kept getting so many mean calls and texts. By time she was a sophomore, she had decided to finish high school early. One year later, my sister graduated high school.

I never went to the same high school as her, because I ended up going to an arts academy, but my sister never brought home good grades - only good enough to pass, to get by. She never had friends. Our house got egged three times. Her best friends spilled all her secrets. Her name was never followed by anything but "slut."

My sister was never the same after one stupid night that she still hasn't talked to me about.