Regaining Confidence
    
Urggg! I smash my head into the wall. Why can’t things just be easy for me? Why does it seem that all this comes naturally to others, but not myself?
    
The stinging in my eyes is multiplying by the second, threatening to do the one thing they just CAN’T do in school. Cry. And then the tears come. One at first, then another, and another, until my cheeks are wet, drenched even. My vision becomes blurry, and I grow dizzy.
    
I sit, hunched over in the corner of a bathroom stall, weeping into my jacket. What a fool I am. If only they weren’t such teacher’s pets, everyone would have believed me when I said that they trashed my locker, locked me a storage closet, and ripped my homework.

But no one did. After all, I don’t blame them. Rylie, Cara, and I have been best friends since kindergarten. Until we weren’t. But why would anyone else suspect something changed? I wish they would. It would make getting bullied not such a lonely ting.
    
Suddenly, the bathroom door barges open, followed by the sound of two pairs of feet. Oh no. I don’t even have time to wish myself luck before Cara’s fists are pounding on the stall door.
    
“Open up!” Cara snickers from behind the door.

For whatever reason, the fear I had just a second ago stops abruptly, followed by a small inferno of hatred boiling in my stomach. I shove the door open and stare right into their stunned faces. They weren’t expecting that.

“Why do you bully me?” I ask, expressionless. The question catches them off guard.
    
“Um, um . . . um,” Cara stammers as she tries to come up with a good reason.
    
“That’s what I thought. There’s no good reason,” I say, serious.
    
I leave the bathroom, my ex-friends astonished. I’ve never said anything to them like that. Even though I didn’t exactly stand up to them, it felt good. Way better than letting them step all over me. I don’t know how I mustered enough courage to do it. For whatever reason, I smile.