Stand Up

By Laura Ingram

Thirteen-year-old “Soccer-Sarah” faces intense and unrelenting bullying every day at school. Fighting cancer, enduring the rigors of chemotherapy and the resulting nausea and hair loss, bracing against painful spinal taps, and railing against the limitations caused by physical weakness threaten to take her down. But Sarah is determined to grow, flourish, and prove she can be normal, and once again play soccer, the central focus of her life before cancer. Raging against bullying, she starts an online support group for kids who, like her, are the brunt of malicious badgering, urging them to Stand Up to ignorance and abuse. Published by Nesting Tree Books, an imprint of Raven Publishing, developed for publishing the work of young authors, helping them learn about how the book industry works, encouraging them to write, and to let their voices be heard.
Author Laura Ingram was in fifth grade when she first wrote this about a girl who fights a life-threatening disease, and at the same time, must endure ridicule, bullying, and harassment because of the physical effects the disease has on her body, making her look different, and therefore a target of abuse. Author Laura Ingram, now a young adult, used the ravages of cancer as the disease of her fictional character, in order to support kids who suffer bullying for any sickness or abnormality. Whatever the reason for bullying, every child deserves better. With this book, we discourage bullying and encourage self-love and the ability to STAND UP.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raven Publishing of Montana
• Release date: Aug 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781937849948

Laura Ingram

Laura Ingram is a tiny girl with big glasses and bigger ideas. Currently a second-year college student, her poetry and prose have been published in over fifty literary magazines, among them Gravel, Glass Kite Anthology, Blue Marble Review, and Juked. Laura was featured as Moledro Magazine’s first “Teen Poet” in January 2017. Laura’s debut poetry collection, Junior Citizen’s Discount was published by Desert Willow Press. Laura loves Harry Potter and Harry Styles and hopes to be some sort of bird when she grows up.

Book preview

Stand Up

Copyright © 2018: Laura Ingram

Cover art © 2018 Celeste Lapin

Interior illustrations and plants on cover by Laura Ingram

Published by

Nesting Tree Books:

an imprint of Raven Publishing, Inc.

PO Box 2866, Norris MT 59745,

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This novella is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All rights reserved. Except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Names: Ingram, Laura, 1997- author.

Title: Stand up / by Laura Ingram.

Description: Norris, MT : Nesting Tree Books, an imprint of Raven Publishing, Inc. of Montana, [2018] | This book was written by Laura Ingram when she was in 5th grade in 2008. | Summary: When Sarah, whose cancer is in remission, returns to school she is bullied by classmates but starts an online support group for children who are bullied for being different.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018010747 (print) | LCCN 2018017772 (ebook) | ISBN 9781937849948 (ebook) | ISBN 9781937849955 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Children’s writings, American. | CYAC: Bullying--Fiction. | Cancer--Fiction. | Schools--Fiction. | Self-help groups--Fiction. |

Christian life--Fiction. | Children’s writings.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.I57 (ebook) | LCC PZ7.1.I57 St 2018 (print) | DDC [Fic]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010747

To everyone who asked that my first book be dedicated to them,

and believed I’d have a first book when they asked.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: I Thought it Wouldn't Hurt

Chapter 2: Flying

Chapter 3: Who's Ready to Stand Up?

Chapter 4: Not Ashamed

Chapter 5: We're All the Same

Chapter 6: Some Wishes Don't Come True

Chapter 7: Soccer Balls: The Very Stuff Dreams Are Made of

Chapter 8: Stare at Me

Chapter 9: Really Running

Chapter 10: Lost and Found

Chapter 11: Then and Again, Maybe Forever

Chapter 12: To Hit Escape

Chapter 13: Still Smiling

Chapter 14: Second Thoughts…(and third and fourth)

Chapter 15: Standing on End

Chapter 16: Hate My Hair

Chapter 17: Falling for Real

Chapter 18: Stay Standing

Epilogue

1

I Thought It Wouldn’t Hurt

I couldn’t hold back a strangled scream as I fought back the hatred and anguish that were burning and rising inside of me with every breath that I took. I looked from one of their smirking faces to another, trying to fathom the reality of what they had just done to me when I felt cool air on my scalp and saw my wig in their hand. I hung my head, my cheeks flaming as torrid as the inferno in my guts.

Now they knew. Morgan giggled, but it sounded more like an animal crying out in pain than amusement to me. I glared at her, trying to swallow the fire that was still flickering and rising inside of me—even after all of those weeks—the fire that they had told me they had already put out.

I sighed and tried to ignore them as they examined my wig and continued laughing, a sound that could make puppies pee.

Three and a half weeks ago, my doctor had told me my cancer was in remission, that it was gone, that it wouldn’t bother me now. They all told me my cancer couldn’t hurt me while I was in remission, that it would just leave me alone with its horrific pain and the fear that it brought along with it—the way Morgan always brought Marissa and Katelynn with her when she wanted to pick on someone.

If my cancer was gone, then how come it was still hurting me like this? I was bald, completely bald, and I was so skinny from chemo that my ribs made ridges underneath my Kicking Kretins T- shirt from spring soccer.

Morgan saw me bite back an unknown emotion, and immediately she pounced. Oh Sarah, you have simply beautiful hair, she hissed.

I gulped, focusing every bit of strength inside of me on not hurling my cocoa puffs.

But you must do something about these knots—I’d let you borrow my brush, but, you know, these days you can’t be too cautious, Morgan said.

Trembling, I simply said nothing and stared down at the dingy gray floor of the bus, trying to get up the courage to do something, anything, to stop her. Morgan saw me lunge for my one and only wig, and she yanked open the window. I opened my mouth, which seemed to be rendered useless. I tried to scream, tried to breathe.

No. My mouth formed the word but no sound came out. My wig, my normalcy, my self esteem, it all literally went out the window. My blonde wig was floating away from the bus on the warm September breeze, like some kind of oddly solidified sunshine.

P-p-p-lease… I faltered, but Morgan, Marissa, and Katelynn cracked up at a frequency high enough to be used as a dog whistle.

Please what? Are you stupid as well as ugly and diseased? It’s gone. Come on, guys, we better get away from Disease Girl in case stuttering and stupidity are contagious.

I turned away as they moved up a few seats, pressing my