Mitchell.K's+Independent+writing+task+Jimmy

“Jimmy”

This is my story, a story of persecution, conflict and change. It is not on the scale of the holocaust, no but it still had great effect on me. My name is... well you can call me Jimmy, that’s a nice easy common name for you. I am young, still at school, fairly happy, but this was not always so. When I first came to my current school it was hard for me. The school was, and still is, a fairly nice place, the teachers are nice, but I soon found out there was a very ‘concrete’ social um, I guess you could call it a food chain, nerd to the “popular” it reminded me of Jews and Christians, how the Christians had all the control. On my first day I found my way to the “nerds” group. They seemed to be the most accepting. I was new; they showed me around the school, which was nice and all but then they showed me places only the popular kids could go when I asked them “why” and “why not just go there”, all I got were blunt stares and answers like “because we’re not cool enough” and “we just don’t, they will always beat us”. At this moment I thought that these “nerds” were weak and that I shouldn’t associate with them any longer, I decided to become “popular”.

After observing the clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms and behaviour of the “popular” kids, I began to dress, look and act the way they did. I found out the leader of the group’s name was Jack. He was the most popular kid in school, he was the best at sports, the girls loved him, maybe even some of the guys and he was quite charismatic. When I finally approached him, it was in one of the no go area’s for the other kids. They all came to me surrounded me, it was quite intimidating. Jack circled me, inspected me like I was for sale. The he said it “wannabe, look his hair is like mine, he’s wearing the same clothes as you and walks like him, loser, wannabe, new kid” as he push me to the ground, outside the no go zone. “Remember to never come here again, loser”. I had no idea why this happened; I didn’t understand that being like them wasn’t it, you had to be accepted. This made me give up on the idea of being popular; I went on to be a ‘loser” with the “nerds”.

If being rejected wasn’t enough, this made me the target of bullying. They taunted me, teased me and physically hurt me. It felt the worst when Jack did it; it was even more of a put down. The teacher seemed unaware of the situation, or at least they ignored it. There was one time when it was worse than the others. They had surrounded me like they did on the day I tried to join them, “ not so much a wannabe anymore, but still a loser” said Jack, smiling as if he had said something smart. I saw him whisper something in another kid’s ear, I saw the shock and doubt on the kids face, and then Jack said bluntly “If you don’t do it, you’re out”. Then the kid took me into the bathroom, and then “dunny flushed” me. From what I had heard this was the worst that had happened. It made me think I was worthless, that I should be flushed away, for days I stayed alone not even daring to talk to the “nerd”, this made understand why they showed so much cowardice. This experience did also make me realise two things, they “feed” on the bullying, and that most of them are only following.

I had started to hatch a plan. I had to do two things, stop the “outsiders” from accepting the “popular” as dominate over them and I had to stop the follower’s. First I got all the “non-popular” together. “We have to stop letting the popular kids control us!” I proclaimed to them. “But, they are stronger than us, they will always beat us” said one, “But we are stronger in numbers, we can and will beat them”. This caught their interest, so I told them my plan, and how they should stop following the “popular” rules. Now I had to work out a way to stop the followers. I thought of many ways to persuade, or even threaten, but they all were bad ideas. This dilemma looked like it was about to de-rail the whole plan. The others started to lose hope,” What are we going to now? We’re just going to have to go back to the way things were” said one of them, “wait, wait don’t give up, I’m sure he’ll think of something” said another. This made me feel much better, more powerful. Then it came to me, “we’re going to have to fight Jack and beat him. “But none of none of us are strong enough to beat him”. “Yeah, that’s why this happened in the first place” they said. “I think I know someone who can”.

The next day I decided to confront Jack. “What’s this loser think he’s doing?” said Jack as he chuckled. “I’ve come to stop this” I said surrounded by kids, “Stop this? So you’re the one causing the problems, what are you going to do? Fight me?” said Jack. “Yes, you’ve given me no choice” I said as if I was a movie hero. Just then we were surrounded by kids. I got one hit on him, in the face, his lip began to bleed. “Time to teach you a lesson, loser” he said. Then he hit me to the ground. He didn’t let me get up. He kicked and stomped me. I began to bleed and bruise. “He’s had enough man, stop!” said the kid that “flushed” me that day. But Jack didn’t stop. That kid ran in so fast and knocked Jack out clean. The kids told the story to the teacher’s, which resulted in Jack begin expelled. To this day I am in the “popular” group making sure none of this bullying occurs again.

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