Finding Hope

Chapter 2

   As the teacher began talking Lea kept thinking about what her brother had asked her to do, only because she didn't want to focus on the lesson. Ms. Holen, her health teacher began talking. "Okay, class, who can answer the question on the board for me?" she asked. Of, course, Sara raised her hand. She was the biggest suck up ever! She was a teachers pet! Every teacher loved her just becuase she was so smart. For a popular girl, she was pretty nerdy. "Well, child abuse and bullying can do many things to a person our age, but the number one thing it can do is make the child suicidal," Sara finished. "Great job, Sara. That deserves some candy," said the teacher. Candy? For high schoolers? Yea, believe it or not, teachers gave kids' candy in order for them to participate in class. It was an incentive.

    Ms. Holen walked to her desk, grabbed a pack of starburst and handed it to Sara. As the devil recived it, she glanced at Lea smiling and giving her 'the look'. 'The look' usually meant she was better than Lea, smarter, prettier, nicer. But that was all a lie. Ms. Holen started talking. "Class, child abuse can make a person suicidal and insecure about themselves," said Ms. Holen. Lea felt hot tears coming down. She normally whiped her cheek and looked down. "Bullying can also do the same thing to a child. Bullying's goal is to make someone feel bad about themselves, while the bullier, or the bully's self esteem is rising. Everybody should feel good about themselves, whether it's bullying or child abuse, people need to feel good about themselves, and if they don't, that's where suicide comes into the mind," finished the talkitive teacher. Lea knew everything the teacher was talking about. She didn't just know about it, she lived it. 

  "When kid's around the age of you guys feel insecure aout themselves, they find no meaning of life. They think nobody wants them. They feel as if they are a dissapointment to life. So, they think of killing themselves. These thoughts float around their head like clouds in the sky. When those thoughts build up over time, they can't stay any longer. Some actually do it! They go for it and think it's the only way to make others happy. Becuase, as I said, they feel no body wants them. So, they kill themselves," Ms. Holen stopped suddenly as if being hit with something. She paused for a min. She looked as if she was thinking. And she was. Lea couldn't help but stare at her the whole time. It seemed like nobody in the classroom was listening exept for Lea. 

  Becuase they didn't think they need this. No one else in the classroom had to deal with this stuff except for Lea. No body else had to live this stuff in real life, except for Lea. No body else needed this stuff exept for Lea. So no one was listening. Most of the class was sleeping. Or playing with their supplies. Sara was fixing her nails. Ughh. Sara disgusted Lea. Ms. Holen began speaking again after a min. "Okay, 1 person from each table group come and get worksheets for every person at your table. You need to finish this worksheet. I'll give you guys about 15 minutes and then we'll go over it," she ended. Everyone at the table looked over at Lea. So she got up, and went to go get worksheets.

   As she was going. Sara also got up. "Oh, my goodness! Really?" Lea thought. She didn't want to humilate herself in front of the whole class. Sara was walking to get worksheets as well. She got up, and Lea tried to ignore her, but that wasn't humanly possible for her. How could she ignore Sara's long black silky hair? Or her nice leathery autumn brown boots? What about her American Eagle shorts? You can't forget about her Victoria's Secret Pink shirt. How could she ignore all of that? She couldn't. Abby just sat there smiling the whole time. Sara stuck her foot out, and tripped Lea. "BOOM!" Lea fell to the ground. The 4 worksheets went flying across the room. Right away, Sara acted innocent. The whole class burst out laughing! "Oh, my!" She pretended. "Are you okay?" asked the selfish little liar. Ms. Holen looked to see what happened. "Lea. Please. Don't make a scene in front of the class, please get up and go to your seat," Ms. Holen said assertivly.

   "What? Why are you blaming me? Sara's the one that tripped me!" She thought. Lea got up and stared at Sara. She felt like punching her in the face and pulling all of that beautiful, black silky hair out. As she got up, Sara bumped her shoulder and snickered. Lea went to pick up the worksheets and return to her seat. She handed out the worksheets to her table mates. She could tell they wanted to laugh because they didn't eye her and they held their mouths. "Only 20 more min. in this class and I could leave this place," Lea thought. She did the worksheet and the class went over it. People kept looking at Lea and turned away snickering, including Sara and Abby. Those 20 minutes felt like 20 hours. She hated it. 

   Finally, 1st period down. Only 6 more to go.