The Bully (Calamity Montana)

Hey Diary,

Cal was nice to me today. For like five minutes, he was not Satan’s spawn. I was walking to biology from English and the bottom of my backpack broke open. It wasn’t even the strap I had duct-taped. Seriously the thing is a piece of crap. I knew I should have bought a new bag instead of spending my extra money on this padded bra. But hey, the nipple comments aren’t coming as often. Winner. (That’s sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.) So anyway, my bag broke and all of my books flew out in the middle of the hallway. No one stopped to help me pick them up. Shocker. (More sarcasm for you.) Someone kicked my history book and sent it flying down the hall. The spine is broken now. If it would have happened at any other break, I would have at least had Sareena there to help. We’ve been trying to stick together more. Power in numbers, you know? They pick on her when she’s alone just like they tease me. Anyway, Cal stopped. He actually stopped. I thought I was going to die of shock for a minute when he handed me my bio book and didn’t like, throw it at my face or something. He sort of smiled at me too. Cue me almost falling on my butt. I totally froze. I just stared at him as he stacked my books. For a split second, he was that guy who’d kissed me. And stupid, stupid me, I fell for it. He even walked with me to English, like I was this real person, not some random who sits in the front row and actually reads our Shakespeare assignments. He could have just walked in and sat down. He could have just left me to pick up my books alone and continued pretending like I was a nobody. Instead he walked through the door and told Mr. Robinson, loud enough that everyone could hear, that he had to help the scholarship kid because she can’t afford a decent backpack. The whole class laughed. Because that’s all I am to them. Poor. Have I mentioned that I hate Cal Stark? Yeah. Still do. He’s such an asshole.

N.R.