Mia and the Dreaded Bullies

By Charmina Mason

Mia and the Dreaded Bullies follows a girls struggle to balance school, friendships and what she dreads most; the bullies she run into everyday in school.
Mia finds that with the start of the school year many things have changed. Shes happy that the summer is over and her best friend Jayda finally returned from California. But the happiness is short lived because Tina and her clique love to make Mias life difficult for one reason; because shes tall. Travel along as Mia learns to cope with Tina and her clique, work to keep her best friend from being suspended, and eventually learns how to handle her everyday situation.
Mia and the Dreaded Bullies is a heartwarming book that children and parents can read together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462851997

Charmina Mason

Charmina Mason is a first time author, who was born and raised in New York City. She is the eldest of five children and attended public schools kindergarten through eleventh grade. She graduated from Touro College with a degree in Psychology, and currently resides in NYC with her husband and three children. She decided to write a book about childhood bullying because she wants other girls to know that they aren’t alone.

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Charmina Mason.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011905409

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-5198-0

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4628-5197-3

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-5199-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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95572

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

DEDICATION

To my daughter who will one day stand as tall as her mother, I love you.

To my husband, thank you for being patient.

Thank you to my family for loving me. I love you.

INTRODUCTION

It’s not what you think I’m not really hiding in here; I’m just sitting in this empty classroom because I’m not ready to go home just yet. I only need a minute to collect my thoughts and get my things together. The classroom was filled with students and a teacher teaching a math lesson. And before you ask, I’m not having any trouble with it math. I love math. I’m pretty good with numbers; it’s not the work that has me debating if I’m ready to go or not. It’s the girls who just left the class that have me thinking. I don’t remember doing or saying anything wrong to any of them. OK, maybe I said some things, but it wasn’t to their faces, and I’m sure my best friend Jayda wouldn’t tell anyone. Jayda is always around when I need her; she’s very protective. Sometimes overly protective, but she’s very good at what she does, which is keeping Tina and her clique off my back. But when she’s not around, Tina always find a way to make me feel bad. Tina, the ringleader, loves to call me names like too tall Jones, tree, and giant. Amanda is the second in charge; she usually picks up the slack of making jokes when Tina is out of school or off of her game for the day. She’s the one who came up with the saying that I look like one of the blimps from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, long and full of hot air.

They weren’t always mean. When we were in the sixth grade, Jayda, Shay, Tina, Amanda, and I all had the same classes. We use to take ballet, hip hop, and tap lessons together we were friends. At some point we grew apart. I just want them to stop picking on me and find a hobby that will make me happy.

The jokes didn’t start overnight. I really don’t remember when things took a turn for the worse, the bullying I mean. One day I was a normal child, and the next day I’m the odd one out. At least that’s how it seems. It was June, the end of the sixth grade, and everyone went their separate ways for the summer. My father put me in gymnastics hoping it would help pass the time, but it didn’t because I knew that my best friend was away visiting her grandmother in California. At night when I had nothing to do, I usually followed my brother out to the park down the hill to watch him practice his jump shot. And eventually he grew tired of that. He began to count down the days until she returned, saying, Two more weeks until you get out of my hair, seven days until you get off my back. So my grandmother brought my little cousins over from Queens to visit us for the summer, and that was great.

Eventually the new school year arrived, and on the first day of school, I notice things had changed. I wasn’t the same person I was back in June. I was a little different; my body had changed. Jayda and I, who were always similar in many ways, were now very different. I can’t believe that it happened so quickly; in a matter of months, I was now a head taller than Jayda.

The jokes didn’t happen immediately after we returned to school, but each day was a word here and a word there. Now it’s every day all day, and forty-five minutes of laughing at someone, namely me, isn’t all that funny. I have to come up with a way to get these girls off my back, but first, I have to get up enough courage to leave the classroom.

CHAPTER 1

"What are you doing here? It must be eight o’clock in the morning. Stop jumping on the bed, I said as I turned to look over at the Hello Kitty alarm clock on my nightstand. It’s only seven o’clock on a Saturday and you’re waking me up. You’re out of your mind. Sometimes the fact that you live right down the street is a bad thing."

The room is dimly lit. The gray color around the room insisted that I stay in the bed. When it’s gray inside, it has to be gray outside, which makes me not want to look at all. Out of habit, I peek through my bedroom window, the scene outside of the window was no better; the clouds screamed don’t get up, and the water droplets that clung to the windows whispered stay in bed.

Get up, we have a dance class in one hour, Jayda said dryly as she clicked the light on then decided to take it upon herself to lay out my clothes for the day. I’m not going to let you walk around town with me today wearing your brother’s sweat suits, your mother’s T-shirts, and your father’s socks, she said as she went through my closet with a fine-tooth comb.

I don’t want to go today, you can go without me and then later you can teach me what I missed, I said while covering my head with my blanket.

You can’t miss today. We’re learning the final steps to the dance, and we only have a couple of weeks to perfect it, so let’s go. I want to master the moves in this play because I really want the lead role, so come on, she yelled as she pulled the covers off of the bed. Julie, who I’m sure is already waiting for the doors to the dance studio to open, is going to be there looking as smug as ever. I have already decided that today will be the day that I trip or push her, accidentally of course, to guarantee that the part is mine.

And you have all of this mapped out already? You actually said it out loud, and by the look on your face, I can see that you’re serious, I said, turning over and slamming the pillow down on my head. I hate going to that class, I’m the tallest one there, and I don’t want to dig into my bag of excuses today to get out of dancing, I said softly. The moves are hard to learn, and besides, Julie always get the best parts anyway, and I always wind up in the back with the scenery, I said finally getting out of the bed.

Well, if I remember correctly, last week when you were practicing your poses, Joey was paying attention to your every move, Jayda said while picking out a bright pair of orange tights.

Oh please, Joey is a little boy who plays way too much, I said while grabbing a towel and heading toward the bathroom. I find him very annoying. I walked into the bathroom, which is right across from my bedroom.

He doesn’t play with me, why do you think that is? Jayda asked pretending to care.

Probably because when he told you to double back and move to the left, you tripped and fell into a bucket full of dirty water, I said laughing, If you would have hit me as hard as you hit him, I wouldn’t play with you either, and with that, I shut the door and turned on the shower.

I didn’t really hit him, I mushed him. And I’m pretty sure that he got the message. Jayda said as she walked over to the bathroom door and yelled over the water. Hurry up, I don’t want to be late, she said while running down the stairs toward the kitchen.

The smell of eggs and bacon met her nose halfway up the landing. Grandma was in the middle of pouring pancake batter when Jayda walked in. Good morning, Grandma, it smells yummy in here, she said as she picked up a plate and a fork and walked over to the table. I forgot to eat breakfast before I came over this morning, and you know what they say, ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’

I knew you would say that, just like you forgot to eat dinner last night, and the night before that. I’m beginning to think you don’t like your mother’s cooking, Grandma said while flipping the golden brown cakes.

Well, my dad said it’s all right for me to eat at a friend’s house whenever I want. He said until my mother’s chicken is white and not pink when I bite into it, I can miss dinner, Jayda said wearily.

Well, what’s wrong with her breakfast? Grandma asked while setting a plate full of pancakes on the table next to the bacon.

Smiling and filling her plate, Jayda answered, Nothing, I just prefer your breakfast and lunch and dinner. She reached for the bacon then began to pile some eggs onto her plate. As she picked up the strawberry syrup, she noticed the school flyer on the table announcing the first school dance. She also noticed the huge slash through the middle. Interestingly enough, she set the flyer under her plate and continued with her breakfast.

OK, how do I look? I asked as I entered the kitchen showing off my new light blue hoodie from the Gap, dark blue Levi jeans, and black and blue polo rain boots.

Why are you wearing that? That’s not what I picked out for you. You were up there destroying the look I put together for you. I knew you were up to something, that’s why it took you so long to get dressed. Didn’t you say you don’t care about how you look? Or was it me that said you don’t care about how you look? Or is it Joey? Jayda asked as she filled her face with food.

I don’t care, but I never know who I’ll run into on my way there, I said while cutting some of Jayda’s pancakes and stuffing them into my mouth.

Good morning, Grandma, I said cheerfully. These pancakes are delicious. Can you pass me a plate please? I’m starving.

You know you’re not starving. Your family would never let you starve. Don’t ever let me hear you say that again, Grandma said with her lips stretched thin, her face red from the heat of the stove.

Excuse me. I’m so hungry I could eat an elephant, I said with a blank look on my face. I looked at Jayda for help. What’s wrong? It was a joke. Just something that we say when we’re extremely hungry, like ‘my stomach is touching my back,’ I said to my grandmother. She really isn’t hip to the way kids speak now days. She says it’s not English; it’s some made-up language that needs to die out soon.