I had to remove the lyrics of the song for this story, so while reading this story, listen to the song Dark Enough by Amanda Lopiccolo
-I sat there and watched as Olivia got up from her seat at the front of the class and went over to Amanda, a blonde girl who moved here from Atlanta 2 weeks ago, Amanda didn't look like she was in the mood, she kept trying to push Olivia away, but Olivia wouldn't leave her alone, not until she had helped Amanda, I don't know why she's so persistent with helping people…
-But about a week later, I found something about Olivia out. It was during Gym class, everyone had left the locker room, that's when Olivia started to change, she always waited till she was last one in the room to change, anyways, I was leaving when I saw the cuts and burns all up and down her sides and arms as she pulled on her long sleeve shirt and then pulled her gym shirt on over… I didn't understand why she was cutting, or what led her to do this to herself? Her life was perfect in my eyes, in the eyes of the girl who sat at the back of the class, who cut herself… But maybe she always wanted to help people because no one really helped her…
-As weeks went by, I could see it in Olivia's eyes, that things weren't getting any better, I wanted to help her, I wanted to help her so badly, but how could a girl who was going through what she was going through help her if she couldn't even help herself?
-For awhile Olivia was gone, just went missing out of nowhere, but there were no signs or anything to show that she was really missing, so something had happened to her, maybe she moved… but it was really weird that we were told never what had happened, none of her friends were told that she was leaving, for awhile her friends kept asking each other if they had heard anything from her, but no one had…
-About a month and a half later she came back, but she was different, it turned out that she had been moved to a new foster home after it was found that she was being abused in her last foster home. No one knew that this was happening to her, no one even knew that she was a foster child. But when she came back, she didn't talk to anyone, she was sad, she didn't dress out for gym anymore, and she wasn't trying to help anyone, I guess she stopped because no one was helping her. She's been back for a week now, and I haven't seen her smile, not even once, her friends didn't understand why, and they didn't notice the cuts and burns, but I knew…
-I was sitting at the back of the class one morning, like always, and everyone was in class. I was waiting for Olivia, because I was going to try and help her, but she wasn't her yet, the last bell rang and a few minutes later Olivia came in, everyone turned towards the door and looked at her, for a moment she just stood there, and then one of her 'Friends' pointed and laughed, and then everyone was pointing and laughing, I just sat and watched, silent, wondering why her friends would do that to her. I thought she was going to ignore them and head to her seat, in the front of the class, but she turned, and she ran…
-The next morning, I sat in my seat, as the morning announcements came on, it was the same old, same old boring announcements, they shut off, and the principle came over the intercom, "Sorry to interrupt, but there is another important announcement, we were just notified about this situation earlier this morning, please turn back to the announcements channel, it will be on in a minute…" he sounded very sad, but then the announcements came back on, it was the principle again, he didn't look happy to say what he was about to say, "Students and teachers, we have lost one of our very own, Olivia Benson… She wasn't very happy, and none of us knew, it's horrible that something like this had to happen to show us how she felt. She was an excellent student, an amazing cheerleader, and a great friend to everyone she knew, I'm sorry that this has happened to one of our own, may she be happy where ever she is now, …" He stopped for a moment then took a deep breath, and continued, "She wrote a few notes: 'I'm sorry I didn't say, but my mind was messed up, you couldn't save me anyway.. And to the girl in the back of the class, who feels the way I did.. How does someone so perfect, feel so insecure, as to scar her skin with cuts and burns, and still want to hurt more..?'"
-The announcements cut off and everyone in the class turned and looked at me… "Class! Class, I know this is hard, but please turn back around…" The teacher got quite after saying that, took a seat, and then watched me, for the entire remainder of the class period…
-Everyone turned back around and the class was quite, but some girls crying. I sat there and thought, if she knew what I was going through, why didn't she talk to me? Maybe we could have helped each other out… But, now I wonder, how does someone so perfect, feel so insecure, as to scar her skin with cuts and burns, and still want to hurt more… but, I guess she was so involved with helping the people around her, that she didn't have time to help herself, or to let someone else help her… and maybe she finally just stopped helping people in the end, because she taught no one was ever going to help her…