Are You Happy Now?
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The most hated door in the whole school. The door that none of the kids wanted to go through, because it could only mean one thing, you were in trouble. I had done nothing wrong, yet, here I was, standing in front of this dreaded door. It was like any other door in the school, but the thing that set it apart, and the thing that made the kids hate it so was the name plate on it. It read “Principle Tanner”.
This was the third time this week I had been called into the office, and it was only Tuesday. Each time I got sent here I knew it was because Mary-Anne or Kate had tattled on me for something I didn’t do.
The first time was for a food fight that “I” had started during lunch. Never mind I wasn’t even there; my mom had taken me to McDonalds for lunch. But no matter what I said to Principle Tanner, he wouldn’t believe me. I think it’s because Mary-Anne is the one who told him that I had started it. Mary-Anne is his daughter so of course whatever she says is true. Anyways, I got a whole week of detention for that.
The second time I got called in was because “I” filled a kid’s locker with silly string. Let’s get something straight, if I was to fill anyone’s locker with something, I wouldn’t do silly string. Silly string is too common; I would use Easy Cheese, and besides Easy Cheese is cheaper to buy than silly string. Oh, and the kid who got the locker full of silly string was Dan Lowther. To clear my name even further I would never fill a guy’s locker with anything, I might do it to a girl, but not a guy. Most of the guys in my grade would try to beat me up for it, and if I got in a fight with a guy, my mom would skin me alive when I got home. And I would especially not do it to Dan Lowther. He’s my only friend in the whole school, and besides I kinda like him, and you certainly wouldn’t do that to your crush right? Oh, did I mention that I got another week of detention for that whole episode?
Anyways, back to standing in front of Principles Tanners office. I was here because of a stupid note. I sit right between Mary-Anne and Kate in math class and they constantly pass notes right over my desk. This time they were caught or should I say “I was caught” in the middle of passing a note when Miss. Lark walked up from behind us. Notice I said they were caught in the MIDDLE? That’s because the note was right in between them, right in the middle; so in other words on my desk. Miss. Lark made me walk to the front of the class and read the note in front of everyone. It said something like this…
Doesn’t look like Miss. Larks diet is working huh?
Maybe I should recommend lap band to her. =)
Can’t wait to get out of this witches class.
What about you?
I think it was a fake note and they just wanted Miss. Lark to find that note on my desk.
Well, that’s that. It’s not as dramatic as the other two, but I’m pretty sure Principle Tanner is sick and tired of “these things I keep doing”. I take a deep breath, put my hand on the door handle, turn it, push open the door, and walk into the dreaded office.
“Jessica… Why is not a surprise that when Miss. Lark said she was sending a student to me that it turned out to be you? This is the third time you’ve been in here this week. First you start a food fight, then you fill Dan Lowther’s locker with silly string and now,” He said glancing at the card I had given him that Miss. Lark had filled out, “and now you are passing notes saying rude things about Miss. Lark and calling her a witch. Did I miss anything?” He continued because I didn’t answer, “Is there anything you’d like to say?”
Trying not to sound disrespectful or rude I answered, “Yes, there is something I’d like to say. That was not my note, it was Mary-Anne’s and she was passing it to Kate. If you don’t believe why don’t you compare hand writing?”
“There’s no need for that Jessica. According to this card Miss. Lark already talked to them about it, and they both said they saw you write the note. If you don’t watch yourself you’re going to be expelled from the school. I’m not going to give you any detention. I think I will take a trip over to your house to have a chat with your mother… Jessica,” he said standing up and moving so that he was standing right in front of me, “I don’t want any more of your tricks, you got that?”
“Yes, sir.” I mumbled.
“Classes are over now. I guess you can forget about those two weeks of detention you have. I think this talk with your mother should be enough.”
With tears streaming down my face I walked as fast as I could down the hall, and nearly ran into Mary-Anne and Kate, who were laughing. No doubt at me. I made a sharp right turn and ran the rest of the way to the bathroom; where I hid until my mom came to pick me up.
-----------------
At exactly 9:22 pm that night there was a soft knock at my bedroom door. I knew exactly who it was and what they wanted. A couple minutes ago I had been sitting at my window seat and watched as Principle Tanner got into his new 2012 Dodge red truck. I slowly walked to the door and started to unlock it but stopped.
On my door was a full length mirror. I was wearing boot cut jeans with a cow girlish purple button up shirt with sparkles. I was also wearing some dangly flower earrings. My whole outfit had come from my aunt. In fact most of my outfits did come from her. Every Christmas and Birthday she liked to take me shopping and she’d buy two or three new outfits. My hair was pulled back in its usual messy bun. The only thing that wasn’t right was tear stained face.
Interrupted by knocking on my door again, I was pulled from my thoughts; I unlocked my door, opened it, and went and sat in the middle of my bed. “I can’t take it anymore, mom. All those things Principle Tanner said I did, I didn’t. I couldn’t have started the food fight, you know that. We were at McDonalds. And you know I’d never fill Dan’s locker with silly string and that stupid note…” I couldn’t say anymore because I was crying so hard. I turned around and buried my head in my pillows.
“I know, Jessica.” My mom said stroking my hair. “I tried to tell him but…”
“He won’t listen.” I cut in. “It’s because Mary-Anne and her stupid sidekick Kate…”
“Jessica.”
“Sorry, but it’s true.”
“Who’s Mary-Anne?”
“Principle Tanner’s Daughter. She and Kate are the ones who have been accusing me of doing all these things. So because she’s his daughter he believes her and only her.”
Our conversation was rudely interrupted by my little brother, Aaron, running up the stairways and banging on my door. Practically yelling he said “Jess! Your boyfriend is waiting for you down in the living room.”
“Get out of here, and I don’t have a boyfriend, you twerp!” I said throwing a pillow at him.
When I walked downstairs into the living room and saw Dan the first thing I said was, ‘Where’ve you been all week?”
“My dad had an accident and you know mom. She told the school I was sick because she wanted me to be there at home with her.”
“I’m so sorry, is he going to be alright?”
“Yeah, he’ll be fine… By the looks of it you haven’t exactly had the best week either.”
“On the contrary, it’s been the best of my life.” I said sarcastically. “I got blamed for a food fight, someone broke into your locker and filled it with silly string; I of course got blamed for it. A note that Mary-Anne wrote was blamed on me, and then to top things off Principle Tanner just left from here fifteen minutes ago.”
“What did the note say?”
“It said something ‘bout Miss. Lark’s diet not working, and then calling her a witch.”
“Oh, wow!”
“Yeah, so what brought you over here?” I asked changing the subject.
“Well, Mark’s family is having a party, and they told me to invite some of my friends. So you wanna go?
“Mark? Your Cousin?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure, I’ll go, when is it?”
“Tonight in an hour.”
“Tonight? Seriously, kinda short notice isn’t it?
“Yeah, it is, I was gonna ask you on Sunday at church, but with Dad’s accident and all…”
-----------------
Later, when both Dan and I were at the party, Mark’s dad got up and started talking, “I was told by a certain someone that we have some here with us who are extremely talented at not only playing the guitar, but also singing. Jessica?” He said holding out a guitar to me, “Would you please sing something for us?”
“I don’t know…” I replied.
“Come on, Jess” Dan piped in.
“Alright, but only one song.”
This was the first time I had ever played in front of so many people. There were at least 50 people, and a lot of the people were from my school; including Mary-Anne and Kate. Nervous as I was, I said in a steady voice, “One of my favorite singers, besides Taylor Swift is Megan and Liz. Their song that they wrote ‘Are You Happy Now?’ is very special to me, and… Well, here is my cover of ‘Are You Happy Now?’ by Megan and Liz.
“She stood out in the crowd
Was a little too loud
But that's why we love her
She's not like other girls
She could've conquered the world
Until you broke her
Down...
Are you happy now?
That she's on the ground
And do you realize the words you say
Make bruises that don't fade away
Are you happy now?
That you've brought her down
And she's thinking that she won't fit in
Cuz you said something's wrong with her
Are you happy now?
He liked science not sports
He knew what he stood for
He's not like you, you don't like that
15 years down the road, he could be everything you won't
But right now you're breaking him
Down...
Are you happy now?
That he's on the ground
And do you realize the words you say
Make bruises that don't fade away
Are you happy now?
That you've brought him down
And he's thinking that he won't fit in
Cuz you said something's wrong with him
Are you happy now?
I've heard that it was done to you
Is that why you do what you do
Well that's no excuse, no
And if it felt like that to you
Then why'd you wanna put them through
What hurt you
Are you happy now?
That you've brought them down
I, I don't think so
Are you happy now
That they're on the ground
And do you realize the words you say
Make bruises that don't fade away
Are you happy now?
That you've brought them down
And they're thinking that they won't fit in
Cuz you said something's wrong with them
Are you happy now?
Are you happy now?
Are you happy now?”
(Song wrote by Megan and Liz)
As I was singing, I saw Mary-Anne and Kate scowling at me. I knew right then and there that tomorrow was to be a terrible day.
-----------------
Surprisingly, the next day went well. All day Mary-Anne and Kate left me alone, but I knew my luck wouldn’t hold out the whole day. My mom was going to be late picking me up, Dan had to leave early, and all my homework was done, so I decided I would check out a book at the library and read it.
As I walked back to my locker I could see that Mary-Anne was leaning against it and she was surrounded by her circle of friends. Sighing, I walked right through the group of the people and straight to where Mary-Anne was standing. “Excuse me.” I said as nicely as I could muster up towards her.
“Oh, what’s this?” She replied grabbing the book from my hands. “The Jungle, by Clive Cussler, I thought those were guy books. Anyways,” She said laughing, “reading is for those who don’t have anything else to do because they can’t get a date.” With that she turned on her heel and walked away; her circle of friends following her.
I got only ten minutes of peace and quiet until she came back. There I was sitting against my locker quietly reading, and Mary-Anne walks up and kicks the book right out of my hands. The book flew down hallway and landed with a thud right against the far wall; right next to Randy Miller, the most popular guy in school. He was also the guy who Mary-Anne had a huge crush on.
And of course Principle Tanner had chosen that moment, as the book was flying through the air, to walk down the hallway. He stopped, bent down, picked up the book, and said, “First you start two fights today and now you are throwing library books. We are only one month into the school year, and how many times have you been into my office? I can’t even count all the time on my fingers. That was the last straw, into my office, now.”
Great I thought to myself. I guess my day didn’t go as good as I thought it had. I started two fights, fights that I didn’t even know existed, and now I am throwing library books down the hallway.
I’d gone to three other schools before this one and in each I had experienced some bulling, but this was worse. In the other schools I had friends to back me up, here I only had Dan, but Dan was in a higher grade. So he wasn’t always around, and he just about always had to leave school right away.
For the fourth time this week, probably 20th time this month I found myself walking towards that dreaded door; the door that was hated by all the kids except for Mary-Anne.
-----------------
I was in that office for 47 minutes. I got the same old boring lecture except this time it was twice as long. So it was like any other “visit” to the office except for two things. One, it was twice as long, and two, the outcome was a lot worse. As Principle Tanner put it himself, “You’ve been getting good grades, but I can see that you don’t care about your fellow classmates. You have caused nothing but trouble since the start of school. It’s time, “he paused there, stood up, put his hands on his desk, leaned towards me, and repeated, “It’s time for your mother to find a new school for you; you’re expelled.”
Without even being excused I got up and ran out into the hallway and into the girl’s bathroom; where I nearly ran into Mary-Anne of all people. Without thinking of what I was saying I blurted out, “Are you happy now? This whole month you’ve been rude to me and have been getting me in trouble. I hope you’re happy now that you got me expelled.” I paused only long enough to wipe the tears from my eyes. “My dad died last summer, my mom is working, but she’s hardly making enough to send us to this school. She can’t afford any of the other schools in the valley, and thanks to you I can’t go to this school anymore.”
I could have gone on and on, but I was stopped short by what I saw in front of me. Mary-Anne had sunk to the floor and was crying. “Mary-Anne?” I said kneeling down beside her, “What’s wrong?”
“I… Randy…” she barely said between sobs.
“What about Randy?” I asked.
“Why would you care? After everything I’ve done to you, I’m sure you hate my guts. Just leave me alone.”
“That’s not true Mary-Anne, I don’t hate you. Yes, I hate the things that you did to me, but I don’t hate you.
Sobbing Mary-Anne finally told me the whole story, “After you left, Randy came up to me and told the reason why I wasn’t asked to the party on Friday yet is because I’m ugly, and everybody laughed even Kate.:
“I thought you said lots of people asked you?”
“I lied.”
Several moments of silence went by as Mary-Anne cried. It was her who broke the silence by saying, “I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’ll go talk to my dad and see if I can change his mind about expelling you. And,” After a short pause she continued, “and I’ll tell him the truth.”
As she turned to go, I stopped her by putting my hand on her shoulder and said, “Thank you Mary-Anne. Don’t listen to Randy, you are very beautiful. You know… If you want… I…” Grabbing both her hands I said, “Friends?”
She smiled and said, “Friends forever.”
Let’s just say things were good from there. I ended up not getting expelled, and Mary-Anne and I became best friends. She and Kate no longer were friends, and I no longer got bullied. From that day forward Mary-Anne and I have created many memories together, and will continue to do so for as long as we live.
Memories can be of things or places, but I find most of them are of people-
your high school crush, which might even turn into your boyfriend;
your first friend, who claimed nothing could separate you;
your mom reading you stories, while you sat on her lap;
your father tucking you in and assuring you that there were
no monsters in your closet or under your bed.
However many memories you have,
none could be better than the ones of your best friends-
telling your deepest, darkest secrets;
having sleepovers and telling scary stories in the middle of the night;
having a special spot that just you know about;
being hyper and doing crazy things.
No matter how crazy, sad, or happy your memories are,
The best of them are of best of friends.
- Miriam Spall
Song lyrics to “Are you Happy Now?” by Megan and Liz came from here- http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/megan_liz/are_you_happy_now.html