Page 33 - The Muse 2019-20 Issue

The next day, Tuesday, I stayed after class. I told Mrs. Elle about being bullied and, unlike my mother, she gave me some ‘amazing words of wisdom.’
“Bullies are no better than you are.”
I laughed when she told me that because it wasn’t true. I knew they were better than me. I knew I wasn't good at anything.
However, Mrs. Elle did suggest that I enter a writing competition. At first, when she explained the competition to me, I thought great more work... no thanks. But within a few minutes, she swayed my opinion, and I decided to give it a shot. What did I have to lose?
That night, I went on my computer and tried to search up the submission form on-line. But then I remembered, Mrs. Elle had said it was a paper application. I had to write a letter requesting to submit my story for consideration. Seriously? Well, no matter. I had one month to write a story, and I wanted to start NOW!
Day after day, I raced to Mrs. Elle’s class to write. When I wrote, I felt free. Free of my peers' criticism. Free of my personal bullies. I could make my own world without them. In this Utopian world, I found a place where I felt supported, and teachers and students alike encouraged me to do better. Now that I was spending so much time writing in class and outside of class, the other kids were having “fun” with some other loser.
Two days before the story was due, I was finished. It wasn’t perfect, but I was DANG PROUD OF IT. The next day, I went to the post office, and I mailed my story in a pretty, crystal blue envelope. Now, I had to wait and wait. I was excited and glad I had entered into the competition, but as the weeks went on, I was becoming less and less confident and more and more stressed. I stopped writing, and I was back in the scrum with the bullies.
Then one day, I opened my mailbox to find some magazines and a letter addressed to me. I carried the letter into my house with shaking arms. I brought the letter up to my room and placed it on my desk. With some trepidation, I opened it. What was inside surprised me. So much so that I ran. I ran out of my house. I ran around the block. Feeling as light as a feather, I ran to my school and up the five flights of stairs that led to Mrs. Elle’s classroom. I burst through the door, and I told her the news. I HAD WON!
The following weeks were the happiest of my life. I stood up to those bullies, and I was so confident about it. My grades were rising, and by the end of the month, I had made five new friends. This was the highpoint of my life, but it was only the beginning.
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Desmond Howard, Grade 8