I know I don't write Katie stories, and bullying is not a fun topic, but why not spread awareness to end it?
This is a part of FootballandBTR's request to write a bullying one-shot to show that RUSHERS ARE AGAINST BULLYING!
Disclaimer: I don't own Big Time Rush or Facebook.
"Yeah, Mom, I promise I'll be smart with what I do online!"
Those are the words I spoke the Christmas I got my laptop. Now, I wish I never asked for that stupid thing. I know, most kids would be grateful to have a laptop, but I don't want to see mine anymore. I don't care about all the information I have stored on it. I want it destroyed. Now.
Hi, I'm Katie. I'm a victim of cyberbullying.
I always thought that everyone in the world got along. There was no such thing at hatred towards other people. I soon figured out that that was wrong. I figured this out in first grade when someone told me they hated me for stealing their blue crayon. It's stupid now, but it really hurt to know that someone didn't like me. Believe it or not, that person still hates me now, eight years later. Not because of the crayon incident, she probably forgot about that. No, this girl despises me all because I'm well-known and loved by many people.
She isn't.
In fact, when you think about it, we're complete opposites. I'm nice, she's not. I'm a bit more on the popular side, she's a bit more on the unknown side. I get good grades, she's been held back. I don't care what people think of me, that's what she lives to know about. That's just a small portion of our differences.
Now that you have some background information, it's time to tell the real story.
I had finished lunch and headed to my room to grab my laptop. I grabbed it off my dresser and took it into the living room. I sat down on the part of the bright orange cough the guys weren't taking up, turned on my laptop, and waited for everything to load. When ready, I went on the Internet and checked my e-mail. I read all six messages I had and replied to the ones that weren't junk. Afterwards, I checked my Facebook. I got rid of all notifications and then proceeded my wall. There were many new stories, so I loaded and read them all.
Camille Roberts: Audition! Wish me luck!
Three people like this. Twelve comments.
Jo Taylor: Needs a day off!
Twenty people like this. Fifteen comments.
After scanning many statuses about many different topics, I came across a link to a website posted by the girl I told you about.
Dani Hope Smith: Check out this website the girls and I made!
I clicked on the link, not knowing what to think of it. Usually, people won't post links to something clearly to make someone mad. At least, that's how it's been with my Facebook account. My guess was proven wrong when the link I clicked on led me to a website that I should have never known about.
"What's up, Katie?" Kendall asked, looking worried.
I pushed the laptop on the couch and ran to my room, not wanting to explain anything or see more of the website.
I slammed my door shut and locked it. I sat crisscrossed on my bed on put my head in my hands. Tears began falling from my eyes, splashing down onto my hands.
Why me?
…*…*…*With the guys…*…*…*
"What was that all about?" Carlos asked once Katie had left the room.
"I don't know," Kendall answered.
"She left her laptop, and she takes that thing with her everywhere," James remarked. There was a pause before he spoke again. "Should we check it?"
"No!" Logan answered immediately. "That would be an invasion of her privacy."
"Logan, whatever happened happened on that laptop. We need to check it to see what made Katie so upset," Kendall stated.
Logan sighed before giving in. James grabbed the laptop since he was closest and handed it to Kendall so all the guys could see the website at once.
"We hate Katie Knight dot com," Logan whispered.
"No," Kendall mouthed, shocked at who would create a website just to be hateful towards his baby sister. He set the laptop down on the coffee table and started pacing around the living room. Logan, James, and Carlos, however, explored the website to see what people were saying.
"Guys!" Kendall yelled.
"What?" Carlos looked up from the laptop.
"Why are you still looking at it?" Kendall exclaimed.
"To see what people are saying! You know, if they're defending her or not," James answered.
"Are they?"
Logan looked at Kendall with a sad look on his face and nodded no.
Kendall closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and bit his lip. He fell to the floor and let tears stream down his face. Not just because he didn't like Logan's answer, but because Katie, his lovable little sister, wasn't being stood up for. The guys got up from their place on the couch and ran over to Kendall, comforting him as best they could.
"It's okay, Kendall," Carlos told him.
"No, Carlos, it's not okay!" Kendall objected, anger showing in his shaking voice. "There are people that see Katie every day, know her good and well, that aren't doing anything about this situation!"
"Maybe they haven't seen the website," James remarked.
"Yeah, it could've just been set up today," Carlos agreed.
"You guys, I don't think all of that could be created in a single day," Logan commented.
"Let's just see how long it's been up then!"
Logan got the laptop off the coffee table and began scrolling down to the bottom of the homepage on the website. His hopeful expression quickly changed to one of despair when he found that what would have answered the question was nowhere to be found.
"We can't find out." The words spilled out of Logan's mouth so quickly that the others could barely tell what he had said.
"What do you mean we can't find out? We have to find out!" Kendall panicked.
"Kendall, the year the website was created isn't there."
Kendall closed his eyes and sighed before taking the laptop away from Logan and staring at the website completely, stopping when he saw a small strip of white.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing to his new find.
"Let's find out," Logan smiled. He began zooming in on the text until he saw what he had been looking for.
"Guys! Two thousand four!" Logan cheered. James and Carlos sent each other confused expressions over their friend's outburst before asking Logan to elaborate on what two thousand four meant.
"The website was created in two thousand four."
"Two thousand four…Kendall, wouldn't Katie have been in third grade?" Carlos asked, wanting reassurance.
"Yeah," Kendall answered, confusion showing on his face. His confusion suddenly changed when things started to click for him.
"Katie, third grade…the thing! THE THING!" Logan yelled. James reached over and put his hand over Logan's mouth to keep him quiet so he wouldn't disturb Katie.
"What's the thing?" James exclaimed while being able to keep a whisper.
"James, picture this, Katie is seven or eight and she comes home crying. We're up in my room playing video games. Is that ringing any bells?" Carlos described. James crossed his arms and began looking at the ceiling as if it would give him all the answers. His eyes soon widened and he took his eyes off the ceiling to face Kendall.
"Katie…the threat…kill her…" James trailed off and his heart began beating faster with every second. His breathing also quickened.
"James, calm down, Katie's fine. It's just a website, she won't get killed by the person who set up the website. I'm sure no mother wants to drive their daughter all the way out here," Carlos soothed.
Slowly but surely, James' breathing returned to a normal speed, but his heart still wasn't slowing down. He ended up lying down on the couch to see if that would make any difference.
"Okay, so what do we do now?" Carlos asked. "We've already found out when the website was created and kind of who set it up."
"That's not going to work, we need to find out specifically who created it. The question is, how are we going to find out who made it?" Logan inquired.
"Let's go to Katie's Facebook and see," Kendall suggested. He went over to the laptop and closed the tab containing the website before scrolling through all the posts on Katie's wall. When he noticed the familiar link, he stopped to read what had been posted along with it.
Carlos walked over to Kendall to see what he had been looking at. Once he reached his destination, he tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"What's so confusing?" James asked from the other side of the couch.
"The post with the link has something about the girl who made the website and other girls," Kendall explained.
"Oh, well, she's obviously talking about a couple other girly friends of hers," James stated as if every guy would know that.
"Okay then," Kendall took a long pause out of surprise before continuing. "How are we going to find out who the other girls are? She has over three hundred friends on here."
"Do you guys not know anything about girls? You have to go to the family section and see who she has as sisters!" James explained, taking the laptop away from Kendall. "Alright, so it has to be at least three other girls in on this."
"Wait, one of those girls sounds familiar. Her! That Michelle girl! Katie had a best friend named Michelle in third grade," Kendall recalled.
"So, that takes out her. Meaning, it was Dani, Emily, and Piper who created the website," Carlos answered.
"Alright, so we've got information we need, now what?" Logan questioned.
"I think we should get Katie," Carlos offered.
"No, not yet. I think…I think we need to talk to Michelle," Kendall murmured.
After a long gap, Logan spoke up and agreed with Kendall. Carlos joined his two friends soon after, and, after some convincing, James was in on the idea, too. Kendall clicked on Michelle's profile and sent her a message explaining how they found out about the website, whether or not she had been in on it even though the boys agreed she most likely wasn't, and if she wanted to help the guys take the website down. A few minutes after the message was sent, Carlos' straight face turned into a grin.
"What are you so happy about?" they guys asked simultaneously.
"I don't know, I just feel like I'm, I mean, we're making a difference. It might not seem like much to some people, but I just feel like I'm doing some people some good," Carlos explained, causing his brothers to see things his way and smile, too.
"Carlos, we are doing a lot of people good," Kendall assured.
Ding! A blue box popped up on the left corner of the screen stating that Michelle had replied to the message.
"About the website, I'm sorry you got to see that. I wasn't a part of it, so thanks for thinking I wasn't. I would never do something like that to Katie, she's too nice of a girl for anyone to do that to her. And yes, I would definitely like to help you guys take down the website! I've been trying to convince the other three to get rid of it, but they refuse to… something about Katie deserving it. (Please excuse my eye-rolling.) Anyway, yes, I am all for taking down the website! What are we gonna do first?"
After the guys had read the message Kendall began typing the reply.
"We wouldn't expect you to do that to Katie, you guys were the best of friends before we moved out here. Thanks for trying to get the other girls to take down the website. The first step I think we should take is telling Emily, Piper, and Dani that we know about it. I don't think messaging them on Facebook would be very effective. Do you think you could call them?
P.S. Your eye-rolling was totally necessary!"
Ding!
"I can try to call them. I don't know if they'll answer, though. Wait, don't you think you should be in on the conversation, too?"
"Yeah, that's why we'll video call you. You'll put them on speaker and we'll talk to them through the computer."
Ding!
"Oh, okay!"
The guys clicked on a little video camera on Michelle's profile and were connected to each other without any difficulties. Michelle left her computer to grab her phone and returned after a few seconds. She scrolled through her phone before stopping and putting her phone up to the webcam to show that Dani was being called.
"Hello?" a voice rang through the phone.
"Hey, Dani, it's Michelle," Michelle greeted.
"Chelle! What's up, girl?" Dani asked in an obnoxious voice.
"Not much, but I do have some people here with me. Say hi, guys." Michelle held the phone up to her microphone.
"Hi, Dani, it's Kendall Knight, Katie Knight's older brother," Kendall introduced. "You must remember Katie, don't you?"
"Oh, Katie. Yeah, she was my best friend ever!" Dani exaggerated.
"LIAR!" Carlos yelled.
"What? I am not a liar, whoever said that!" Dani disagreed.
"That was Carlos," Kendall informed. "Carlos Garcia."
"Okay, Carlos, I am not a liar!"
"Then why would you make a website just to be hateful towards Katie?' Logan inquired.
"Who's that person?"
"I'm Logan, and you haven't answered my question."
"I didn't make the website!" Dani objected.
Michelle took the phone away from her laptop's microphone before going off on Dani about how she did make the website, Michelle tried convincing her to take it down, and she called Dani some names that the guys wouldn't expect to come out of her mouth.
"Alright, fine, I made the website," Dani confessed. "And you know what? I don't regret it. That worthless little idiot deserved it. She's not a box of chocolates."
"Because you are!" Kendall scoffed. "First off, you should regret making the website. Katie's locked in her room right now crying her eyes out. Second of all, my baby sister isn't worthless. She gets A's on her report card, helps my brothers and me get out of trouble, and so much more. You can't even keep a lie going. Lastly, she's the best girl anybody could ever meet. You shouldn't be jealous of her because she has friends and people who care about her. She deserves everything she has. You just need to go lock yourself in your room and blog about your life troubles because nobody wants to hear anything from you."
"I'm not going to put up with that!" Michelle heard a click and looked at her phone to see that Dani had hung up.
"Whoa. Kendall, that was such a great speech. You defended Katie and put Dani in her place. You deserve a slow clap or something because that was probably the best thing I've ever heard," Michelle complimented.
"Thanks, I'm not gonna let her talk about my baby sister like that."
"You all, we haven't gotten Dani to take down the website," James brought up.
"You're right, James, but we also haven't gotten a hold of Dani's mother," Michelle smirked.
"We're going to get her mom in on this?" Carlos exclaimed. "Cool!"
Michelle looked through her contacts once more until she pressed the green call button on her phone.
"Hello? Mrs. Smith? Yes, it's Michelle. Um, your daughter, Dani, created a website in…" Michelle trailed off, not knowing what year the website was made.
"Two thousand four!" Logan shouted.
"Two thousand four," Michelle continued. "Now, this website was targeted to be hateful towards Katie Knight, a girl who Dani had been having troubles with ever since third grade. The website is still going strong today. The reason why I'm telling you this is because Katie's brothers found this website today after Katie had left the room once she had seen it. When I called Dani, Katie's brothers and I tried convincing her to take it down, but she refused to and began trash-talking Katie. We'd just like for you to help us have her delete it. Oh, that sounds absolutely amazing. Alright, I'll stay on the line."
"What's going on?" Kendall's eyes widened in suspense.
"Mrs. Smith is going to bring Dani on the line to apologize to Katie. Then, she's going to show us a video of Dani deleting the website and getting her punishment," Michelle explained.
"I'll go get Katie!" Logan darted towards Katie's room and the guys heard him furiously pounding on the door. After a creak, some sobbing, and a squeal from Logan, Katie came out of her room and into the living room. Logan trailed behind rubbing his cheek which had a red handprint on it.
"Don't ask," Logan frowned.
"I'll go get you a washrag, Katie," James left the room and went into the bathroom and came out with a warm, damp washrag for Katie to wipe her tear-stained face with. She sat down next to Kendall and laid her head on his shoulder.
"What's going on?" she whispered.
"Do you remember Dani Smith?" Carlos asked. Katie turned around and nodded her head yes.
"Sweetie, that's the girl who created the website," he informed.
"It's been up for a while," James added. "On the bright side, Dani will apologize to you, you'll get to see a video of her deleting the website, and receiving punishment."
Katie smiled at this before asking another question.
"Did you guys get her to do all this?"
Kendall beamed and told Katie that they did. "Well, along with some help from someone you might remember." Kendall brought up the video chat window and Katie's face had a grin on it instantly.
"Michelle!" she screeched.
"Hey, Katie!"
Katie looked up at her brother and gave him a hug. She also gave James and Carlos hugs, but stopped at Logan.
"I'm sorry about earlier, I-"
"Shut up," Katie giggled before wrapping her arms around Logan. He smiled and did the same.
"C'mon you two, Dani's coming!"
Katie ran into the living room and took her spot next to Kendall, wanting to hear the apology Dani had for her.
"I'm sorry," Dani groaned into the phone.
"What're you sorry about?" her mother asked.
Katie covered her mouth to keep her snicker at Dani's mother quiet before listening to Dani apologize again.
"I'm sorry I made the website about you."
"I don't think she heard you!"
"Mom! Ugh, fine, I'm sor-"
"You are not to put in all that attitude!" Dani's mother scolded. Katie could barely contain her laughter.
"I'M SORRY I MADE THAT WEBSITE ABOUT YOU! IT WAS WRONG OF ME TO DO THAT AND I'M SORRY!" Dani yelled into the phone, frustration showing slightly in her voice.
"Meh, that was alright, I guess," Katie criticized. The guys broke out into a fit of giggles over their sister's remark before joining in on how Dani could've done better.
Dani huffed into the phone before hanging up. A few minutes later, Michelle was sent a video of Dani deleting the website. Michelle e-mailed the video to the boys and Katie. Katie started crying from laughter because of how Mrs. Smith was being towards her daughter.
"Oh, I love you guys. Thanks."
"We love you, Baby Sister," Kendall smiled.
As you can tell, if you have people who love and care about you, technology isn't always a bad thing.
Bam! It's finished and it's fluffay!
Fun Facts
1. I started this as soon as I read Footballand BTR's notice
2. I kind of based Dani off a girl I know
3. I used Facebook her instead of Facenovel because I didn't want to use a parody the entire story
4. Kendall collapsed on the floor in tears because that's what I did when I found out about BTR on Ellen and the summer tour. Except my tears were happy tears
5. I deleted a lot of the story after Kendall's objection to everything being okay because the original way was making the whole thing go downhill
6. If you're wondering why James said, "…kill her," when he was thinking about the thing, it's because Dani threatened to kill Katie. Just some background information for ya
7. I don't know why I chose the name Michelle, but every time I wrote it I thought about Full House (which I don't own)
8. Emily and Piper are girls I know, that's why those are Dani's friend's names
9. I was trying to find a synonym for pause and found that awkward moment was one
10. Yes, I said that James, Kendall, and Logan were Carlos's brothers
11. I enjoyed writing Kendall's speech defending Katie
12. I had to find synonyms for the words smiling and laughter a lot
13. Each time I added onto this, I was listening to Famous, Any Kind of Guy, and the Holiday Bundle
14. This is over ten pages long
I hope you enjoyed this!
Since this is about bullying, I'd like to address it. To any of you who are being bullied, tell someone. Now. Don't keep it to yourself, that's a serious issue. Forget what the bully has said to you, it's just an empty threat. If you tell someone, anyone, what's happening, they'll make sure you're safe and that the person who's bullying you gets the consequences. If you have been bullied, you're not alone. I have been, too. People can be mean, and it isn't fair to anyone. You're perfect the way you are and the person who made you feel bad has some issues about themselves and they took it on you because they didn't know how to deal with it. You're beautiful, perfect, amazing, talented, and the best at being the most important thing you can be. That thing? You. If you feel like you're alone, I'm always here. I love you all, each and every single one of you. You're all amazing. So, if you're being bullied, tell someone and keep yourself around your friends and family. I know you've probably heard that plenty of times, but trust me, it's so helpful and you'll be grateful that you let someone know. To those of you who have been bullied, you're just the person that the bully chose to take their anger out on. To those of you who know of someone who's being bullied, tell your family, your teachers and as many other people as you can about the person you know who's being bullied. I know it may seem weird that I'm here telling you all, some of you who don't even know me, that I love you and want you to be safe, but I do. I don't care what kind of person you are, how you look, what you do, what you've done, what you will do, anything else that defines you. If you aren't safe, I want you to let people know because I care about your safety. I want you guys to feel like people care about you. If it seems like no one does, they do. If you don't believe that, I'm here for you all and you can always talk to me. You're all beautiful, wonderful people. Don't let one person bring you down. They're only doing that because you're above them. To end this, just know that I'm always here, you'll always be loved, and you'll forever be a beautiful diamond.
Sorry if that was super sappy and fluffy, but I just wanted to let you all know that. :)
Thanks for reading you guys! :)