I had recently moved to a new town when I was right about to finish seventh grade. I was bullied relentlessly by a group of four girls, but especially the ringleader. They were physical with me, said nasty comments and started plenty of rumors. It got to the point where I was skipping 2-3 days of school each week, hiding in the library, I even requested to have lunch with the disabled kids just so that I’d have a safer experience the last few months of that year.

Long story short my dad ended up coming into school and freaking the fuck out after I came to my parents crying saying I couldn’t slit my wrists. Never saw any of the girls again, except for once I remember running into the ringleader during high school.

Her five year old just passed away from an inoperable brain tumor. I followed the “journey” on Facebook for months. At first I considered it karma for her singling me out after I moved to the town, but it didn’t take long to turn into sympathy. She didn’t deserve to lose her little boy and he didn’t deserve to go through what he did. I’m pretty sure she’s since removed herself from Facebook because I can no longer find her, but I do think about her occasionally and wonder about her family, as she and her husband just welcomed a new little one before her oldest passed.