A YOUNG GIRL

By Idella J. Mayes-Jackson
Grade 5
IDDS

            There’s this young girl.  Her name is Shayla.  She lives with her mom.  Her older sister is in college in another state.  When Shayla wakes up every morning, she seems excited to go to school.  But when she gets there, she has no friends.  All the kids bully her.  She doesn’t know what to do.  At lunch she sits by herself.  At home she feels lonely too because she’s the youngest.  Her older sister gets her way all the time but not Shayla. 

            When she gets in the shower, she cries.  She says, “Why me?  Why am I the one every one hates?  Is it because I’m ugly?  Maybe I should get a makeover.”

            So that weekend, she told her mom she was going out.  She was walking around the mall and saw a place where the spa was $7.50.  Shayla went in and said, “I need to relax before I get this makeover.” 

            While she was getting a massage on her back, she was thinking about whether or not she should really get a makeover.  Isn’t it the way I act? She thought to herself.  Is that why no one likes me?  I’m smart and all.  What should I do? 

            On the massage bed, there is a place where your face goes so you can breath.  All of a sudden, she sees a tear on the floor.  She thinks, why me?  It’s always me?  Why, why, why?  There and then she decided to not get a makeover.  People were going to like her for who she was.            

            The next day, she woke up really early and took some of her older sister’s make-up.  She looked at it like it was a maze.  “What am I supposed to do with this stuff?” she thought.  “Why do girls wear this?” 

            She went to school really early and asked some of the other nerds in a shy voice, “Do I look ok?” 

            The leader – the one who does all the talking – Layla, said “Oh, you look FABULOUS, GIRL!  You look like one of them.”         

            “One of who?” said Shayla.

            “Popular kids CRAZY.”  Layla said. 

            “Are you sure?” said Shayla.

            So when the bell rang for first hour to start, she walked into class.  Every one looked at Shayla.  In her mind, she was thinking, “I must look really pretty.”  She put a little smile on her face. 

            She tried to sit by Michael, the cutest boy in school.  When she was about to sit, Michael said, “Nope.  This seat is taken.”

            “By who?” asked Shayla.

            Shawna came up behind her and said, “Me.”

            She’s the most popular girl in school. 

            Shayla ran to the bathroom and cried.  She took a rag and off all that make-up.  She got a drink and when she put her head up, she saw Michael.

            “I’m sorry about how my girlfriend acted in class,” he said. 

            “I can’t take it anymore.  Why do you treat me like dirt?” Shayla said.  “Why does nobody like me?”

            Michael was stuck.  He didn’t know what to say.  He stuttered, “I…I…I…don’t know, Shayla.”

            “You guys treat the other known nerds like trash also,” said Shayla.  “Why do you do that?  Is it because they are smarter than you but not as cute?”  What if everybody in the school didn’t like you?  Would you cry all day?” 

            “Yes,” Michael said as he looked to the floor. 

            “You think about that and just imagine how you would feel,” said Shayla.

            As Shayla was leaving to second hour, Michael said, “I have never seen you like that, Baby.”

            “And I’m not your Baby!” said Shayla.  But she winked. 

            At lunch that day, Michael shared what Shayla had told him with his friends.  They were all thinking that we should not judge people by how they look.  From that day on, there were no nerds or popular people.