Mia’s Horror Story

By Pooh Bear Sr.

There was a girl named Mia, who was a 6-foot tenth grader. She had been intelligent all her life and excelled in both school and sports. There were some people above her in sports, but it was fine because she tried her best to maintain her grades, which allowed her to play the sports she loved. There were these mean girls who judged her for caring about her grades, and she tried to ignore them, but they continued to make fun of her. She tried to make friends, but people just made fun of her height and made her want to quit sports and stop caring about school, just to stop the teasing and bullying.

“They’re just teasing you because they are jealous of you,” said her parents.

“ Yeah, right, what would they be jealous of?” said Mia.

 Her parents were trying to get her to like herself, but she kept thinking down on herself due to the things the girls said to her and how they treated her. The only thing that made her happy was when she played sports, but when she played sports, people made fun of her for her height and not being on the A-team. 

The basketball season just started, and Mia was very excited to play her favorite sport. Her parents were very excited to see her play the sport she loved. Today was their first practice, Thursday, November 13, from 6 to 7:15. When she got there, she was the first one. She put on her shoes and started getting some shots up to be ready for the practice. Mia thought that if she got there early and showed her dedication, she might start and be on the A team. She was wrong. At their first game, she sat on the bench the whole game and didn’t get to go in. This made Mia and her parents really sad. The reason Mia and her parents were annoyed was because this one girl showed up to one practice and got to start.

Mia decided to go talk to the coach about how she picked who plays.  

“ How do you pick who starts or who is on the A-team?” Mia said

“I really pick it off of skill. Is there a way you think I should base it on?” said the coach. 

“ I think you should base it on dedication, because a girl who only showed up to one practice all week got to start over people who went to every single practice and were not late to a single practice,” Mia said 

  “ I understand why you are a little mad. I will consider your ideas,” said the Coach .

“ Thank you for your time,” Mia said. 

  This made Mia a little less mad because Mia realized how The Coach picked the lineups.

After Christmas break, and we were back at an early morning practice. This time, Mia was not the first one there; Mia was actually the last one. This made Mia very confused. 

“Practice started an hour ago, and I was late,” said the coach.

“No one told me practice was moved earlier,” Mia said.

“The girls made a group chat to tell everyone it was moved to earlier,” said the coach.

“ I was not added to any group chat,” Mia said.

Come to find out, they added everyone to the group chat except Mia.

Mia’s coach had a player meeting. We talked about including everyone in anything we did as a team. Then the coach asked Mia to stay after, and Mia said okay. When Mia and the Coach were talking, she asked Mia if any of the players were bullying her or had previously bullied her. 

“Some of the girls have made fun of my height and how smart I am, but my parent just said they were jealous of me,” Mia said.

“ I will keep an eye on them during my practice because I do not tolerate bullying” said the coach.

I was very happy because something was going to happen, and the bullying might even stop. When I went home, I told my parents about the meeting we had. 

“What was it about? said my parents.

“ It was about it we are going to do something as a team, everyone has to be invited or included in the things we do as a team,” I said.

“ Nice, did anything else happen?” said my parents. 

“ The coach asked me to stay so she could talk to me,” I said.

“ What did she say?” said my parents.

“She asked if any people were bullying me or had been bullying me,” I said. 

“ What did you say?” said my parents.

 “Some of the girls have made fun of my height and how smart I am,”  I said.

“ It is okay, I hope it gets better because you told her,” said my parents. 

“ Thank you, love you!” I said.

After basketball season was almost over, the bullying stopped, but like two weeks after it stopped, it started again. Those two weeks I had so much fun, and I made so many friends. I went to three haunted houses and enjoyed them so much. I went to six sleepovers and had my first birthday party, and invited my whole basketball team, and they enjoyed it very much. At one of the sleepovers, we listened to Golden. It was the best part of the whole night. 

Then, after being friends for two weeks, we just stopped being friends and they said that they hated me all along and were just using me for all the stuff I got them and using me for my stuff. After that, they acted like they did not know me. At basketball practice, they tried to be my best friends.

“ Why are you only friends with me at practice and not at school?” I said.

“ I don’t know, when I try to talk to you, you do not talk back,” they said.

“ When I talk to you, you turn around and walk away,” I said.

“We will try not to do that; it was not on purpose,” they said.

“ Okay,” I said.

The next day at school, we were all called to the office. The whole basketball team was called. When we got there, we were so confused. We had no idea why we got called into the office. We realized that someone had told the principal that people were spreading rumors about other people. We all got called in one at a time and were asked some questions; these questions were really weird. The principal said to keep it confidential. I left the office and went back to class. Five minutes later, we got called to the main office, which was very scary, and I was the only one called. I realized that the rumors that they were spreading were about me. Then the principal asked me some questions.

“ Have you ever been bullied?” said the principal.

“ Yes,” I said.

“ Who bullied you?” said the principal.

“ People on the basketball team,” I said.

“ Why did they bully you?” said the principal.

“ They bullied me for my height and for how smart I am,” I said.

“ They are just doing it because they are jealous of you,” said the principal

Then I thought to myself that two different people have said the same thing, and maybe they were right. So for the next few days, I tried to believe them and tried to think that they were just jealous of me. Then, the next few days, the bullies were just meaner and ruder.

“ Why have you been so mean lately?” I said.

“ We have not been mean lately, you have just been so annoying,” they said.

“ Well, that is rude, and you are just jealous of me because I am better at school and sports,” I said.

“ No, I am not,” they said nervously.

“ You are lying, that is why you are nervous and don’t know what to say.”

“Fine, I was, and I am very jealous of you because you are so good at sports and school, and I want to be like you,” they said.

“ I will be friends with you if you actually want to be friends and you are not going to use me this time,” I said.

“ Okay, so we are friends now,” they said.

“ Okay” I said.

Then we were friends, and the bullying stopped, and I had all the friends in the world. When we went to the last basketball game, I started, and it was so fun. I felt like the coach considered my ideas, and it was amazing that I was able to tell the coach how I felt, and she listened to me and considered my ideas, and followed through with them. I feel like sometimes people do not really listen when you try to tell them something important to you. I had not only made an A-team for basketball, but also had many people whom I could call my friends. Sometimes all you need to do is confront someone if you think the thing they were doing was wrong. That is the reason I now have friends and can be free at school and not spend every day and every night alone. “Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of you.” By Harold S. Kushner.