Musty-Khist

<sup>When I was a kid, I was bullied. School sucked a lot for me because I had only a few friends. They had other friends and I didn't want to play with them during recess. They liked to play games like Red Rover, Freeze Tag, or soccer. I was a very chubby kid, and that made me self-conscious about running around and playing with them. I was slow, so whenever I did play Red Rover, I would never be able to go back to my original team unless I was called over. I was always the first one to get "frozen" during Freeze Tag and it was rare when someone on my team would "unfreeze" me so I could continue to play. I would never get the ball passed to me if I ever decided to play soccer. This went on from grade one until grade four.

As a kid, my dad and I moved around a lot. By the time I was in grade four, I was already at my fourth school. I luckily had two of my friends with me in that school, and we hung out sometimes at recesses and lunch. Other than that, I didn't really do anything with any of the other kids. The next year, my dad and I moved closer to my aunt, uncle and cousins. I had to transfer schools again, this time to a Catholic school. I didn't understand anything in Religion. It was like a foreign language to me and I couldn't find my place anywhere. The closest person I had to a friend was my cousin, who was in my class, but he had his own friends. I had absolutely no friends at this Catholic school. I got made fun of for being bigger than most of the other kids in my grade. I befriended a grade two girl who was my "reading buddy". The school I went to had the older kids go to a younger kids class once a week, and we would read together. I had no friends my age, and during recess and lunch I would either hide out in the bathroom until it was over or I would walk around with the supervising teachers.

Sometimes I would cry in the bathroom because I was so lonely. Not only was I made fun of for not having friends or being bigger, but because my clothes weren't nearly as nice as the rest of the students' clothes. It was just my dad and I. My dad and mom have been separated for fifteen years, and my dad didn't have the best paying job at the time. We got help from my Auntie Gina and Uncle Tom, as well as my grandmother on my mom's side and occasionally from other family members. A year after the Catholic school, my dad and I not only moved again, we moved to a new province. I was leaving my mom, my cousins, my grandma, my aunts and uncles, and my friends behind all because my now stepmom didn't want to move to where we lived. Things didn't get all that better in my new school. I was still made fun of, but I did make some really good friends. This school was my sixth school. I still got made fun of for being big. By the time Christmas came around, I had gone down three dress sizes. I thought the bullying would stop, but people still kept making fun of me.

I didn't tell anyone about it. The only ones who knew about it were my friends, who stuck with me. The bullying continued as I entered junior high. I was hoping that my dad would find a place to live on the other side of the city for us so I could transfer to a different junior high. But that wasn't going to happen, because my stepmom was pregnant with my baby sister. So the bullying continued. I made more friends who were supportive of me. My now ex-boyfriend who is still one of my best friends also dealt with bullying, so we supported each other. We made each other happy, but it came to an end after six months of dating. While we had been dating, we got made fun of because we refused to kiss. And when we hugged, we got nasty remarks from one of the boys. After the break up, my ex and I communicated with each other through one of our mutual friends. We refused to speak to each other because we were upset with each other. After six months of this, we were in grade eight and we made up and went back to being best friends again. The bullying never stopped.

My grades weren't great. The best grade I got was an eighty in History, only because I liked learning about Japan and the Aztec's.  I failed math both in grade seven and eight. Even with the class that helped with math after math class didn't help much. One of my new friends moved back to Russia after grade eight. Grade nine was a bad year for me. People were coming at me in groups and I couldn't handle it. The only way I could even escape was to read or write. I didn't want to participate in class discussions, I didn't want to do group projects, and I really didn't want to take Drama any more even though it was too far into the semester after it got bad to change my class schedule. I failed in gym class because I didn't like doing the Beep Tests, the warm up run or play dodge ball. I hated dodge ball because people would usually whip the ball at me. By then I had lost three more dress sizes, the previous year I had lost two. I had already lost eight dress sizes, yet I was still being made fun of. I continued to be made fun of despite my starving myself and losing a lot of weight.

Then one day in gym class, when my class was up in the weight room, I finally had had it. The girl who had been making fun of me since grade seven tipped me over the edge. She had started making fun of me in grade seven long before I had even known who she was. The only reason I even knew who she was was because she transferred from her home room class to my home room class and her whole schedule had been redone. She was in almost every single one of my classes in grade seven and eight, and then every class in grade nine. Not only was she making fun of me, she also had friends who were in on it. So this day in gym class, I stood from the machine I was on and, despite my ex trying to get me not to do anything, I just walked right up to the bench press was on and yelled at her. She started laughing. I ended up pushing her off, making her flip over so she was facing the other way. She looked at her friends with a shocked expression on her face, and they continued to laugh. Then I just walked up behind her and stomped her in the back. This made them stop. I stormed out of the room and into the stairwell. My ex followed me to calm me down. I was crying because I was overwhelmed with everything that had just happened. Ever since that happened, she and her friends and no one else made fun of me ever again.

After grade nine, I had finally managed to get down to a size ten in trousers and extra-large in shirts. That kick to her back happened three years ago. A year later on Facebook, she put up a, "Like my status for a TBH". I liked it and on my wall she wrote that she was kind of scared of me. I was in my eighth school now: high school. I didn't get made fun of much there, and I was happy about it. Occasionally, I would get a jab here and there, but I learned after the kicking "incident" that I shouldn't give a damn what people think about me. The only reason I wasn't made fun of as much in high school was because my school only had about seven or eight hundred kids in it, and they were all like me: something like an outcast who didn't fit in anywhere else. Now when someone makes fun of me, all I simply say is, "Aww, thank you!"</sup>

I saw a guy on the bus coming home with my siblings that looked exactly like France. AND HIS NAME WAS FRANCIS.

I'm so tired. The schedule was pretty tight, that's for sure. I made two new friends, Amanda and Kira (no Death Note jokes!). It was so much fun despite the fact that many of us (all of us) were pretty much sleep deprived for two and a half days. My competition was in IT - Software Solutions for Business. We competed at the Edmonton Expo Centre. My school was the largest team from Calgary to go, with thirty or more competitors. The first night was to just settle into the dorms of MacEwan University and then go to the Opening Ceremonies. (Thunder Bangers gave me a headache. DX) The second day was the first two competitions for my section. My friend Yesha and I competed. I couldn't finish it! DX Oh, well. That night we went to West Edmonton Mall. I was able to get Edo, a Mario hat, which is what I was planning on buying (it was only about eighteen dollars) for my Raccoon!Mario cosplay, and a bunch of stuff out of Ardene goodie bags with Amanda. The second day of competition was better, though. I had one competition the second day (yesterday) and after that, it was boring for the level one's and myself of my competition because we had to sit around for about five hours until pizza came and then to the closing ceremonies. At the closing ceremonies, I was the only person from my school to get a Safety Award. I was so shocked when the Emcee called my name. I was filming the thing and all I hear is, "my name!" I sat there for a second like, "What?" And then my friends James and Amanda were freaking out and telling me to get my butt down to the stage. XD I love my friends. And then I didn't realize I had to go to the table to collect my plaque after getting off the stage until my trainer/teacher told me where to go. I was so flustered I didn't notice anyone else going to the table. Last year I didn't get any awards, so...yeah. But it was so much fun. On the way home, Kira and I watched a bunch of Hetalia until the battery on my portable DVD player was going to die. After that, I went to sleep for about forty-five minutes until we were just outside of the city where we live. After everyone got off the bus, I met my dad in front of the school and we took a taxi home with two teachers, one of them being my trainer/teacher. WOO! It was so much fun. I went last year and competed in the same competition. On the way home, my teacher told me that she doesn't usually send grade tens, but since I had so much promise last year, she sent me. She told me after I asked why people don't usually get three years. So I went last year, this year, and I'm going to go next year. Honestly, it's just an amazing experience to go to Skills, even if you don't win a medal. My going to Skills two years in a row is going to look very good on my resume.