Hidden Behind Barriers

Chapter 2

After a decent English lesson, double Maths, where Rose stopped Melanie from bullying her, and finding her Geography homework ripped in half, Erica went straight to the library when the dinner bell rang.

    She wanted to read her book, but knew that she would have to re-do her Geography homework, which was a pain in the backside. Erica liked Geography, but she knew it hadn’t been an accident.

    Thankfully, it only took her fifteen minutes, so she could read after all. Erica knew that she was safe for a while. Melanie and Jared wouldn’t dare to step foot in the library unless it was part of a lesson. They hated reading, which seemed strange to Erica. She didn’t see how anyone could hate reading.

    “Erica?” A shy voice brought her out of her book. The voice belonged to Stacey, Lily’s younger sister. Stacey was in Year 9.

    “Hey, Stacey. Is everything alright?”

    Stacey looked worried. “Well, I...I can’t find Lily anywhere, and saw you in here, so I was wondering if I could talk to you instead.”

    “Of course you can.” Erica replied, moving up to make room for Stacey. The girls knew each other well, thanks to Lily being Erica’s friend. “What’s wrong?”

    “Melanie.” That was all it took for Stacey to start crying. Erica hugged her tightly and wished she knew what to do.

    It was known by Lily and her parents that Stacey sometimes was bullied at school. There was a system for bullying at the school, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Unless you were in Year 7.

    At that point, Lily arrived in the library. Erica saw her and went over, telling her what had happened. Lily’s blue eyes darkened in anger. She was protective of her sister.

    “Thanks for telling me, Erica.” She said, moving away. Erica left them to it and went back to reading, feeling worried.

Five minutes before afternoon classes started, Erica was walking along the corridor from the library when she heard raised voices outside. Mia ran into her.

    “Do you know what’s happened between Lily and Melanie?” She asked.

    “Stacey came to me at dinner and said Melanie was bullying her.” Erica replied. Mia looked grim. “Why?”

    “Come on. We need to stop them before there’s a full-scale fight.” The girls ran outside as fast as they could.

It seemed as though the full school was crowded around one spot near the computer rooms.

    “Let us through.” Mia said to a group of Year 8’s, who took no notice. “Move it!” They shoved past them and found Lily, Melanie and Olivia stood in the centre. Stacey was stood with Rose and Jake next to them, and all three looked scared.

    “It’s true though. She’s a kid. Why should it bother you?” Melanie said.

    “She’s my sister, you lit-”

    “Lily! Walk away. She’s not worth it.” Olivia snapped. “It’s only Melanie.”

    “This has nothing to do with you. Stay out of it.” Melanie turned on Olivia, who didn’t seem to care.

    Olivia laughed and smiled at the other girl. “Ok, Mel. So you’re- what? Going to start bullying me too?”

    Around them, there were murmurs and whispers. Melanie looked around for Jared. He wasn’t there and she knew she was on her own.

    “Good for you, Liv.” Rose whispered to her.

    Erica knew that Olivia was the one person who Melanie would never try to bully. They both had a strong personality and Olivia could stand up for herself very well. Melanie knew it too.

    A whistle blew from behind them. “Didn’t you hear the bell?” The teacher on duty shouted. “Get moving to your classes. Anyone who’s still here in five minutes is getting a detention.”

   The teacher was talking to Stacey and the Year 11’s. Everyone else had disappeared when the bell had rung.

    “Go on, Stacey. You don’t want to be late.” Lily said, still not taking her eyes off Melanie.

    “Yes, go on, Stacey.” Melanie smiled at Stacey. Lily shoved her shoulder to turn her around.

    “Leave our family alone, Melanie. And all of us.” Lily gestured at the group. Erica looked uncomfortable. She knew that wouldn’t happen. Looking at each of them in turn, Melanie moved away to go to her next class.

    “You should tell a teacher about her.” Mia said, looking after the girl in disgust. Olivia laughed.

    “There’s no point, Mia. The teachers don’t believe Melanie’s a bad person. Plenty of students have complained about her in the past- and not just the Year 11’s.” She looked at them all. “From now on, we all stick together. Melanie Fletcher isn’t going to get the better of us.”

Geography was Erica’s last lesson of the day. She was relieved that she had had a chance to do her homework again.

   As she took it out, she noticed Jared watching her. He looked surprised when he saw the sheet in one piece. Before she could stop herself, Erica gave him a sarcastic smile. She couldn’t help it.

    The first thing the teacher did was to take in the homework. Everyone had done it apart from Jared, who said he said he didn’t understand it. The teacher let him off and gave him an extra week to do it, after going through it again.

    Erica and a few others were annoyed. They knew Jared rarely did homework and it angered them that the teachers didn’t believe he was mean outside class. A boy called Ryan sat in front of Erica and they rolled their eyes at each other. Ryan had been the main target of Jared’s taunts last year. He tried to tell a few teachers, but they said Ryan had been making it up.

    Melanie and Jared were clever. They acted like good pupils in class, and did their bullying when teachers weren’t around.

    As the lesson ended, Mia appeared at Erica’s side. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ve got the new girl starting in as well.”

    “Oh yes. I’d forgotten about that.” She replied. “I wonder why she’s starting halfway through Year 11.”

    “I don’t know but we’ll find out, I guess.” Mia said. “Hi Rose.”

    “Hi. See you tomorrow.” Rose answered. Mia walked off and waved. “I, er, thought we’d walk to the bus together after this morning.”

    Erica grimaced. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Once she arrived home, Erica dumped her school bag on the sofa and opened the door to go upstairs. Erica’s mum put her head around the door.

    “Hi. Was school good?”

    Erica blinked. “Um, yeah. I have homework, though, so I’m going upstairs for a bit.” She lied. Her mother nodded and Erica escaped to her bedroom.

    Once there, she pulled out some sheets to make it look as though she was doing homework, before pulling out her book and music. She sat on her bed and let the words and lyrics take her away into the sanctuary which she preferred.