Monica VS The Darkness

Chapter 1

Monica Bradley wasn't having a great first day at North Hanson High. She had moved here to the small town of North Hanson, Washington from California with her family and she thought that the high school here would be just as good or even better than the one back home. However, on her first day here, she had been tripped multiple times, she'd gotten her hair pulled, someone had put bird poop in her locker, and this one girl with curly blonde hair and a polo shirt had thrown her empty boba cup at her. The only positive thing that happened today was that she made a new friend named Aimee, a girl with long dreads and a floral mini dress. Monica didn't know why she was being targeted, after all, she was nice and friendly and she had worn a cute outfit (a tank top and ripped jeans).

"Why were they doing all that?" Monica asked Aimee as they walked home together. Monica was currently pulling gum out of her curly brown hair.

Aimee sighed and said, "That's just how North Hanson High is, Monica."

"Well why haven't the teachers done anything about it?"

"Well...I don't know, maybe the teachers just don't care."

"But that isn't right!"

"I know Monica but you're not going to just suddenly change everyone's minds and convince the bullies to just stop bullying people."

Hearing this, Monica stopped as she sensed a good idea coming. She turned to Aimee, gave her a hug, and then said, "Aimee, that's a great idea! Thank you so much!" She ran all the way home, leaving a confused Aimee just standing there. The next day, Monica was wearing an oversized shirt and ripped jeans and in her arms she carried posters. She started taping the posters to the walls, each with an anti-bullying message.

Once she was done, she looked around and seeing the students taking time to look at the posters, she beamed. "I knew this was a good idea," she said to herself proudly and then she went to her next class. Throughout the day, she felt more and more proud of herself as some students came to thank her. What she found weird though was that when they would come to show her gratitude, they would always do it secretly. As she went to the cafeteria for lunch, Aimee came to her and asked, "Are you crazy?!"

Monica looked confused and replied, "No, why?"

"You're going to get in trouble with the bullies!"

"But Aimee, this is what the entire campaign is about! Saying stuff like that empowers them! We can't be scared of them!"

"Well there are legitimate reasons to be sacred!"

"Like what?"

At this, Aimee stopped, thought for a moment, and then sighed. "Just be careful ok?"

"I will...now do you want to go sit next to each other at lunch?"

"Of course!" Aimee said, her expression lighting up as the two of them headed to the cafeteria together. As time passed, things didn't seem to be going in Monica's favor anymore. The bullies came back worse than ever with Monica hearing that two bullies sent a bunch of kids to the nurse. Some of Monica's posters were taken down and ripped to shreds while others had warnings and crude and gruesome stuff written and drawn on top of the anti-bullying messages. She talked to the vice principal about it but the vice principal said there was nothing he could do about it, even when Monica showed him a poster that had "we will find you and end you Monica" written on top of her message in Sharpie.

"I don't understand," Monica confided to Aimee on the phone one night, "why is this happening?!"

"Monica, didn't I tell you you were going to get in trouble with the bullies?"

"I knew that was going to happen but what I didn't expect to happen was that Vice Principal Hall said there was nothing he could do!"

"Yeah, well, I'm...I'm not surprised."