Bunny Lake Is Missing: A Mystery Novel on Bullying

By J. A. Sorlie

Bunny didnt care where she was going because she was so upset. It started againthe bullying and it was her 16th birthday. Of all the days to pick on her it had to be on this day! Why or why wouldnt anybody listen? She had asked to speak to her teachers, the school counselor, even her Mother but, as usual everyone put it down to her being a teenage bunny.

So intent was she to escape the hurt, that it was automatically a given where she was headed. To her favorite spot by Lake OHare on the Pier. However, as Bunny was trying to run to a place where she could think, she wasnt paying attention to the fact that one of the strangers she had bumped into was Grey Wolf. Her Mother warned her about characters like him but, she was too upset to notice. Oh, but he had noticed her, the pretty, shapely, well dressed bunny and, began to follow herquietly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493151431

J. A. Sorlie

J. A. Sorlie, a first time author was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Writing about the subject of bullying was a passion for her and she does not want to see any more children hurt by this tragedy. Ms. Sorlie still resides in Portland.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Peer Pressure

Bunny didn’t care where she was going because she was so upset. It started again… the bullying and it was her 16th birthday. Of all the days to pick on her it had to be on this day! Why or why wouldn’t anybody listen? She had asked to speak to her teachers, the school counselor, even her Mother but, as usual everyone put it down to her being a teenage bunny.

So intent was she to escape the hurt, that it was automatically a given where she was headed. To her favorite spot by Lake O’Hare on the Pier. However, as Bunny was trying to run to a place where she could think, she wasn’t paying attention to the fact that one of the strangers she had bumped into was Grey Wolf. Her Mother warned her about characters like him but, she was too upset to notice. Oh, but he had noticed her, the pretty, shapely, well dressed bunny and, began to follow her… quietly.

Meanwhile, Marvin had contacted one of his best agents and sent him scurrying to the city called Farmville to nose around. Harry Mouse was so non-descript that he could ‘nose’ around places most people wouldn’t go to, because he was well, to put it nicely, hardly worth noticing being a mouse. That’s what I liked about him. He was good at what he did because people actually didn’t see him. I called the charter service and booked a flight to Farmville for the next day.

Bunny was sitting and thinking about her past years starting in first grade and coming forward… . remembering all the bullying she has suffered through. When she started first grade her Mother sent her to school on that first day, in one of the prettiest dresses made of a pink and black poke-a-dotted material, outlined with black rickrack and pretty bows placed on the sleeves, neck and then tied in the back with a big fluffy bow.

The other children in her class noticed this dainty, pretty little bunny all dressed in her finery. Jealousy became immediately apparent during recess. One little boy named Peter, started taunting her about this beautiful dress and said she looked like she was going to a party instead of school. He then picked up a clod of dirt and smeared it onto her dress. She started crying because all the other children were standing around her laughing and pointing fingers at her. Bunny ran into the school… straight to the bathroom to try and wash off the dirt smear. It just made it more noticeable.

At the end of the day, she met her mother outside who was waiting for her baby. Mrs. Lake was so proud of her handy work in making this dress that she was excited to find out how her Bunny’s first day at school was and the reaction over her pretty dress. The dirt spot stood out like a beacon and Mrs. Lake was immediately mad at Bunny for being so careless with her clothes. Bunny tried to explain what happened to her dress in-between sobs but, her Mother was so intent on the dirt smear that she failed to listen to her daughter’s explanation.

This type of bullying continued through out her first 6 years of school. If they didn’t taunt her about her pretty clothes, they made fun of any small change that occurred. Such as her winning a spelling bee or being the first one called in class because Bunny was a very bright child and studied hard.

One of the most embarrassing things to happen to Bunny was in the fifth grade. Because Bunny did study, one night she was preparing for tomorrows spelling test and she used her spell books story filling in the words as the story went along. This was one way she could check that the words were spelled correctly. However, because bedtime came upon her, her Mother told her to stop studying and turn in. Bunny forgot that she hadn’t erased the words in the spelling book.

At school the next day her teacher told them to take out their spellers and began calling out the words. When Bunny opened up her book to the page they were on, to her horror, she realized that she hadn’t erased the words from the night before. There was no time to think so she pretended to be writing each word called out. Bunny’s teacher came by her desk, pulling her hand off the book and stopped the class in mid test. She held up Bunny’s speller and stated out loud, class this is a classic example of cheating. Then she instructed Bunny to take out a piece of paper and finish the spelling test. All of the words Bunny wrote down were 100% correctly spelled.

At recess time Bunny was told to sit at her desk. When the other children left to go outside, her teacher called her up and asked her to explain why she cheated. Bunny explained what she had done the night before to make sure she knew how to spell each word correctly. That it helped to write them down into the story line. She had planned to erase each one before she went to bed but, had forgotten. When the teacher began calling out the words Bunny panicked and didn’t think to pull out a sheet of paper. Her teacher said okay.

When the recess was over and the kids came back into the room, Bunny’s teacher did not apologize for calling her a cheater and from that day on, everyone thought she actually had cheated. It was a very humbling experience and one she never forgot again.

Bunny never could forget this teacher because ever chance that Mrs. Lockhouse had, she would pick on Bunny. Another example came when the week of Valentines Day came; she came down with tonsillitis and had to stay home. Bunny was excited about her classes Valentine’s Party on Friday, so even though she still wasn’t well she begged her Mother to let her go back to school.

Bunny wore her new dress she had received for her birthday in November. Her Mother had helped her pick out a very pretty card to give to one of the boys who teased her. Mrs. Lake said to Bunny that if you give him a special card he will feel guilty for making fun of her with the others.

The first thing to ruin this special day for Bunny was Mrs. Lockhouse calling her up to her desk, while the other kids were getting ready for the party and, passing out their valentines. She said that it was pretty funny that Bunny had been out sick all week except for the day of the party and, also, coming to school wearing a pretty new party dress. Bunny was mad and told Mrs. Lockhouse that she was still sick, with swollen tonsils but, she didn’t want to miss out on the party. She also told her that she had saved this dress that she got for her birthday in November just for this special occasion and, that is why she was wearing something new.

Mrs. Lockhouse never apologized for this taunt either. As for that boy Bunny gave the special card too, Bunny saw him specifically tear it up in front of her and, the other children laughed. During the party while the other kids were counting the many valentines they had received, Bunny found that she had gotten very few, which made her feel extremely sad and, rejected.

CHAPTER 2

Formative Years

Nothing really changed as she went to Junior High either.

Junior High or Middle School as it is called now, are known as your 7th and 8th grade classes. The purpose of doing this separation between Grammar and High School was to prepare you to become young adults by the time you entered High School. However, since you remain in the same homeroom, with the same students for both of these two years, you start forming clicks.

A click is where the popular students separate themselves from other classmates because they consider them to be inferior or not fit into their social standing. This distinction between the popular in-crowd can range from anything such as not being a jock, wearing name brand clothing or shoes, and perhaps looking slightly disheveled (coming from a poorer background), gay, obese, and have skin blemishes. In other words: not fitting into the Barbie Doll look.

These same kids from Grammar School followed her into the 7th grade and, continued the taunts. On one occasion she was invited to a 16th birthday party by, a mentally challenged classmate. Carla was a really sweet girl whom everyone always made fun of behind her back because of her mental state. She had the mentality of perhaps a ten year old. Bunny, being a very kind and loving person tried her best to understand Carla and, befriended her, so that Carla never felt the sting of her classmates taunts.

Bunny’s Mother purchased a very pretty, blue and white flowered dress to wear to her first party. When she got there all the other kids were down in the basement listening to records, dancing and having a great time pretending to be Carla’s friend.

Bunny took a deep breath to calm down, before descending the stairs to Carla’s party. She knew she was taking a chance by becoming once again, a butt of jokes by these so called friends. Once there she tried her best to enjoy herself, be friendly and have a good time.

One boy asked her to dance and while she was tooling around the floor, Bunny