It was a hot day in Gravity Falls. So hot they closed the pool because the water was evaporating! Wendy sat outside, licking an orange Popsicle as quickly as she could. She had only had it for about a minute and it was already half melted.
"Gah!" she yelped as she noticed the tangerine-coloured stain on her jeans.
"Hey Wendy!" came Mabel's cheerful voice.
Wendy looked up and smiled as Mabel and Dipper came walking up to her.
"It's sooo hoooot," Dipper whined.
Wendy noticed his hair was soaking wet.
"Is that sweat, or…?" she asked, nervous about the answer.
"Half of it is," came the reply.
"The rest is the remains of ice I put in my hat to try and keep cool."
"How do you do it?" Mabel asked.
Wendy looked up as her Popsicle fell onto the ground, nothing but an orange sugar puddle now.
"No matter how hot it is, you always keep cool. Cool as in cold, and cool as in popular. How?"
Wendy laughed.
"Well, I don't even know how it got this way, considering what it was like when I was your age…"
February 4th 2009
Wendy Corduroy wanted to be a normal 12-year old girl. But when you were a student like her at William K. Hanada Middle School in Gravity Falls, others made that impossible. As she shuffled to Biology class, she noticed three particular boys in Grade 8, a year older then her.
Please don't see me… she thought.
But it was too late. Wyatt, the first boy, tugged on his friend Ike's t-shirt. They both chuckled and alerted the leader of their trio, Robbie Verduct, a.k.a Robbie V. Robbie strode up to Wendy, Wyatt and Ike close behind.
"What's up, Braceface?" Robbie chuckled.
Wendy tried to say, "Going to Biology," but in her fear, it came out "Greeungh to Vionogly."
Ike laughed.
"Aw, look at Ms. Crooked Mouth, can't even talk without her braces screwing up her voice."
"At least we don't have to hear the real way she sounds," Wyatt tormented.
"If we did, I would stuff the braces right back in!"
Half the kids in the hallway were laughing, and Wendy wanted a locker to eat her and spit her out at the end of the day.
"Were already late, Bracey, come on," Robbie said.
Wyatt grabbed Wendy by the collar of her shirt and dragged her into the old area of the school. It was used about a decade ago, but later kids and teachers stopped going there. All it had were lockers 314 through 418 and a girls restroom. Ike opened the door to locker 357, known as Wendy's 'holding locker', and shoved her in. Wendy winced as she listened to Robbie lock it using locks supplied by his father.
Wendy sighed. She and the other kids called these their holding lockers because Robbie, Ike and Wyatt locked them inside until they decided what to do with them. In fact, Wendy never got the chance to go to period 6 Biology, or Period 7 Home Ec. The others never got to Periods 6 and 7 either, and all of them normally skipped Period 8 to hide their wet faces or wedgied pants. Wendy thought about the others. First was Thompson in holding locker #356. He was in the same grade as Robbie, both being 13, and was tormented for his width. Thompson was slightly overweight…no, really overweight. It shouldn't matter, but Robbie and his gang didn't seem to approve of "fat" kids.
In locker #353 was Lee. Wendy had 2 qualities Robbie and his friends didn't like: her braces and her height. Lee was the only reason she wasn't made fun of for her height as well. The blonde boy was even taller than she was, which was pretty weird for a 12-year old. So Lee was considered a freak as well.
Beside Lee in #354 was a girl named Tambry. For some reason, Robbie didn't like her acting more mature than he did, streaking her hair pink and already owner of her own cell phone. So the trio made her one of the 'weird' kids.
The only other kid was Nate in #353. While Robbie, Ike and Wyatt teased Tambry for acting too mature, they teased Nate for acting too 'childish'. The boy had his arms covered in a variety of temporary tattoos. Tattoos, for some reason, fascinated Nate. He was already saving up his money to get permanent ones when he was older.
Wendy stared at the locker door, motionless. Talking to the other Freaks, as Robbie and his friends called them, only gave her more wedgies or swirlies or whatever. She listened to the hushed whispers of her tormentors and thought about what they planned today. Finally, Robbie cleared his throat.
"Numbers 353, 356 and 357, please step out of your lockers."
Wendy listened for the clink of her locker being un-locked. She opened the door and nervously walked outside. Since there were 5 freaks and only 3 tormentors, the Tormentors took 3 of the Freaks, gave them their 'Punishment', then took the other two. Wendy looked up at Nate and Thompson, the other two who would be given their Punishment first. They both looked pretty worried, like her.
"Proceed to the washroom," Robbie ordered.
Ike started leading Thompson to the washroom, Robbie taking Wendy and Wyatt with Nate. Once inside, Robbie pointed at Thompson and Ike.
"Ike, proceed with this one's Punishment," he demanded.
Ike nodded and yanked Thompson's underwear up. The obese boy gave a yelp of pain, as Ike only lifted them higher, trying to go from Normal Wedgie to Atomic Wedgie. Thompson clenched his teeth in pain and tried to hold back tears. Crying only made the Punishment worse; and the Tormentors happier. Robbie turned around.
"As for you two," he snarled.
"You both get the same Punishment."
Wyatt and Robbie took Nate and Wendy into two stalls. Soon, the girls head was in the toilet, and Robbie was flushing it.
Twenty minutes. The torture continued for that long before the next two Freaks had their turn. After the twenty minutes, Nate and Wendy were soaking wet and gasping for air, while Thompson wobbled around trying to get out of an Atomic three Freaks were shoved back into their holding lockers. Wendy heard Thompson quietly sobbing from the locker beside her, and soon joined in herself. Life at school was bad enough now, but it was only going to get worse.
