Hello! So, I'm in that defiant mood(for some strange reason, considering that I'm home with strep throat, I think XD), and I want everyone to know how much bullying hurts.
This is a series of one-shots about bullying and its effects. If you are the victim of bullying, please know this: You are not alone. Never give up hope. Don't ever feel like you need to hurt yourself. Talk to someone. Please.
If you are the person who stands to the side and watches, knock it off. You are hurting them just as much as the bully is. "Oh, but I have a reputation to maintain." Shut up. Are you willing to watch someone be beaten down, physically and mentally? Do you WANT them to feel terrible? Do you WANT them to kill themselves because of something you did or had failed to do? This goes for the bullies, too.
To the bullies: What's wrong with you? Why do you seek pleasure in other peoples' pain? That is sadistic and cruel, and you won't get far in life if you continue. Please, stop. How would YOU feel if you were in their shoes? Really bad.
So, this is for the misfits. The victims. Those freaks in the back of the class that no one seems to like. Know this. You are amazing. You are beautiful. (Handsome for all you Hetalia fanboys) You are special, one of a kind, irreplacible. Never, EVER give in to what other people think. I'll give you a secret: They're jealous. You are better then them. If you ever feel like hurting yourself, this is not the answer. Talk to someone. I'll listen if you want to talk to me.
I don't own Hetalia or any of the characters. I own Sophie, who is not really important.
Verbal bullying
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Madeline Williams walked through the halls of Hetalia High, trying desperately to be seen or noticed in some way. With a sigh of despair, she hung her head, her long, dark blonde hair falling over her violet eyes. It was no use. She was alone. No one liked her. She had already been told that.
Reaching her drama class in the auditorium, Maddie dropped her belongings on the floor next to the chair in which she was sitting in. Maddie fiddled with the bow in her pigtail, pushing her wire-rimmed glasses farther up her nose as she did. Her left hand had hidden itself in the pockets of her over-large red hoodie. She was in the front row of seats in the theater where her third period class was held. The auditorium was far too vast to be heated all at once, so Maddie shivered slightly. This was the coldest place in the whole school.
In groups, the rest of her class filed in, gossiping loudly and happily. The teacher, Mr. Johnson, walked in, conversing with the tech manager and directors of the play that they were in the process of producing. The teacher then sat on the 'apron' and waited for the class to stop talking. The apron was what they called the front of the stage.
The group of ninth and tenth graders slowly, but surely realized that they were causing a hold up and fell silent. When you could hear a pin drop, Mr. Johnson smiled in his quirky way. "Today," he announced grandly. "we will be discussing method acting."
He grinned at the teenagers and continued talking. "Method acting, in a nutshell, is acting from experience. How many of you have seen Julius Ceaser?" A few hands were raised, including Maddie's. "So, Julius Ceaser was raised being told that he was one step away from being one of those Roman gods. He could never be wrong. In the rare occasion that he was wrong, the universe would just have to realign itself. So, just think of the most arrogant man in the history of the universe."
Maddie smiled softly. Her cousin, Alfred, whom she was identical to for some reason, could give Ceaser a run for his money anyday. "But," Mr. Johnson continued. "He didn't know better. He was raised that way. People kept telling him that he was at the highest level a human could be at, so it must've been true. So, he had an-... an almost child-like innocence. Brutus was almost like Ceaser's son. Ceaser raised him like he was. Ceaser loved him. No, not like that, for all those yaoi people back there. Go get a tissue," he told to a group of girls whose noses had started bleeding. Everyone giggled. One person asked in a loud whisper, "Again?" but was drowned out by the lecture."Ceaser gave Brutus everything. Power. Money. Women. So, Brutus was one step below Ceaser himself. Now, you all know about Ceaser's murder?"
The class murmured in response. "Yeah. He was killed by the members of the Roman council on March fifteenth." One girl in the row behind Maddie said in a creepy whisper, "Beware the ides of March!"
"Yes! Good, Sophie," Mr. Johnson praised. "March fifteenth is known as the 'Ides of March' because Ceaser was killed that day. But, according to him, no one stabbed him." He looked around at the class' confusion. No, like, fifteen people stabbed him. Mr. Johnson's finally lost it. Not like he had it in the first place. "No one stabbed him," he repeated, grinning. Mr. Johnson then clarified, "Ceaser was so high and mighty that it was impossible for anyone to ever hurt him. So, according to him, no one stabbed him. Not until Brutus did. He looked at him, the man whom he had raised as his own, with the greatest look of betrayal a human face could ever hold, and he said, 'You, too, Brutus?' Ceaser didn't die from wounds. No, Ceaser died because of an utterly broken heart." Johnson gazed around at the class, whom were all listening intently. "Now, going back to the method acting thing, I want you all to remember a time when you felt broken beyond repair."
Maddie stared at her hands. A time when she had felt broken beyond repair? Just last week.
Maddie smiled at her white, fluffy golden retriever happily. "Mr. Kumakitchi, I'm going to see Gilbert," she said. Kuma tilted his head to the side. Assuming it was in joy, Maddie said, "Gil? You wanna se Gil? Yeah, you like Gil, don't you, Kumaka? Come on, let's go see him!" Maddie herded the fat dog over to the front door and clipped his leash onto his collar. She called over her shoulder to her Papa, "I'm taking Kuma for a walk!" Papa replied, " Have fun, mon cherie!"
Maddie walked to the playground a block from her house, where her boyfriend always seemed to wait for her. Kumagurou wanted to stop and smell every trash can, but Maddie kept tugging him along. "Come on, Kumamidori. It's just over this hill." Kuma seemed to groan. Hills to him were as bad as walking farther.
Maddie happily walked up the slope, putting up with Kumading's impatient trudging. Se turned to him, saying, "Almost there, Kumalala! Almost there!" When the panting dog made his way to the top of the hill, he flopped onto the grass, drooling. His beady black eyes told Maddie that he wasn't very happy with her. Maddie just laughed and pet him on the head. Maddie turned back around and stopped cold.
Gil was here. But he wasn't here alone.
Gil was sitting on the bench next to a girl with long brown hair. And they were holding hands. Maddie watched, horrified. Gil had just cracked a joke, and they were both laughing. Gil was inching closer to her. They sat still for a minute, then Gil, Maddie's Gil, leaned in and kissed her.
Maddie stood frozen at the sight in front of her. She trembled, and with a shock, she realized that tears were running down her face. Gil had told her that he was her's. No one else's. He told her that he was going to be faithful. He told her he was going to be loyal. He lied.
Something in Maddie's fragile heart snapped. "Liar," she said loud enough for the duo to hear, dis belief laced in her voice. The two jumped apart. Gil stared at Maddie, his red eyes wide in shock. He got up and ran to her, and, instead of explaining, he tried to deny that she had seen anything. "Maddie! That wasn't what you think it was, I promise! She- she- she was just... just tutoring me! Yeah! I really need help in, um, chemistry! Yeah! That's all it was, Maddie! I swear! I love you, Birdie!"
Maddie was not gullible. She knew he was continuing to lie. The girl he had been snogging ran up to them and smugly told her what Gil's mouth had not. "No, he was kissing me! He's going to dump you for me! Aren't you, Gilly? He told me that I'm better than you. Prettier...More popular...Better. Better than you could ever be. You're nothing. You actually thought you had a chance with someone like Gilbert? Think again, sweetheart! You're nothing. You don't deserve him. Stick to the status quo, honey. Ah, but then again, there's no one in your level anyway. No one is ever going to like you. Ever."
Maddie stared at the two. One, whom she had trusted with something as delicate as her heart, had shattered it, and was now continuing to beat the remains with his lies. The other was grinding her into dust and sweeping the powder under the rug, along with her self-confidence. Maddie held up her hand impatiently for silence. "It looks like you two have the perfect chemistry. Thanks, Gilbert."
Gil grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. "Thanks?" Maddie jerked her hand away and balled it into a fist. "For lying to me. For leading me on. For breaking my heart. Need I continue?" Fresh, but thankfully silent tears cascaded down her face, and she turned on her heel to Kumajiro. Kumajiro, noticing his master's pain, lept up and bit the offending ex-boyfriend's pant leg, tearing it away and leaving the albino's leg exposed to the fridgid winter air.
"Maddie-" he started. Said girl whirled around, and for the first time in her life, spoke angrily. "Haven't you done enough? Just- just..." Maddie was about to tell him to crawl in a hole and die, but her self-control caught up with her. Just because he had hurt her doesn't mean that she had to hurt him. "...Just leave me alone," she finished, walking down the hill with Kumajiro in her wake.
Maddie marched home, her eyes red but not wet, her head held high. Kumajiro was doing his best to keep up with her slowly increasing pace. She started off walking, then speed walking, jogging, and then sprinting as if her life depended on it. Kumajiro didn't like this, but decided it was safer to go with it. His master wasn't this upset everytime she walked him.
Maddie practically flew through the door, and she slammed it too close to Kuma's tail for his comfort. She unclipped the leash and hung it in the closet. Her chest heaving from the lack of oxygen in her lungs, she shakily walked up the stairs. "Maddie? Amour, is that you?" Maddie paused, her foot suspended above the step. She spoke in a calm voice that contrasted with her feelings. "Yes, Papa."
Maddie was good at masking her voice. She had spent countless hours in her room, talking to her reflection in her mirror happily through her distressed tears. Maddie could be crying now, and as long as Papa didn't see her face, they could carry on a pleasant conversation.
Maddie started again on her path. She walked into her room and collapsed on her bed with a sigh that reverberated through the stillness. Kicking the door gently shut, she flipped over onto her stomach and began to cry. Snips of the new couple's harsh, grating words pounded against Maddie's brain.
"This isn't what you think it is!"
"He's going to dump you for me, aren't you, Gilly?"
"She's just tutoring me!"
"He told me that I'm better than you..."
"I love you, Birdie!" This was the last straw for Maddie. Such a lie. The biggest lie of all. And she had bought it, like some sort of fool. Maddie curled into a ball, her already disheveled hair tangling more. Embarrassment flowed through the girl. She actually thought that he loved her.
Maddie's violet eyes opened. The class was standing up, preparing to act the scene. This wasn't scripted, but all that happened was a few people pretend to stab a person, the person says, "You, too, Brutus?", and then stage-dies. "Okey-dokey. Who wants to be Ceaser first? Maddie, you look like you picked a good memory," Mr. Johnson called out. Maddie silently nodded and stood up. "Uh...Gilbert! Why don't you be Brutus? Your motivation for this is you're tired of playing second banana. You want to be at the top of the pile, so to speak. Got your dagger?" Gil grinned and held up a plastic knife. "Alrightie, then. No actual stabbing of the Maddie, please. Action!"
Maddie stood in center stage and crossed her arms, fake glaring at the actors and actresses circling her. Then, one by one, each person came up and stuck their prop between Maddie's arm and her stomach. Maddie jumped, as if she couldn't believe that they had the gall to hurt her. Then, Gil sauntered up and poked her in the stomach with the tip of his 'Dagger'. Maddie grasped what the blade was supposed to be and doubled over. She pretended to gasp in pain as she jerked it away, and then let it fall from her limp fingers with a small clatter. She closed her eyes and remembered Gil's words at the park that day. "I love you, Birdie!" She let the shock, anger and betrayal creep into her expression, mixing with the fake pain. "You, too, Brutus?" A tear, a real tear caused by the painful memory slipped down her face. Maddie looked into Gil's eyes. He didn't seem to be faking the look of triumph. Maddie collapsed onto her knees, and then fell to the side on her shoulder. The tear crossed sideways across her face due to the sudden change of position and hung from her nose for a few seconds before falling onto the stage with an inaudible plop!
Ta-da! Did you all catch what Hungary said? Pretty mean, right? Yeah. So, if you notice, what actually hurt Maddie the worst was Prussia lying to her.
"Lying isn't verbal bullying," you say. Well, look who knows everything! *rolls eyes* You'd be surprised. To be betrayed, to me, is the worst type of bullying that a person can do. You know, you trust someone, you love them, you laugh with them, you give them everything, and they just rip you down. Destroy you. Never regret anything. I hate people who do that. It's so terrible that I can't actually describe my rage with words, which only makes me angrier. Grr.
So, if you feel like you need to hurt yourself, please, don't. Talk to me, and I'll try to help you. Even though I'll probably fail miserably.
Ja. Daht ish mein sctory. Zhe chahptah un. Moar chahptahz to cuhm. Ja. Gutenwafel. Ich leibe tahkin und tyhpin un zhe Jerhmun aksent. Ja. Ish fuhn. :3 Vhat about ze Frenchy-franch askent, non? Da. Or zhe Ruzian. Or British! Nah, British isn't as fun to type. But look! Colour! Favourite! I'm putting the 'u's in where Americans don't put them! XD Sorry. I'm messing with the mood. I tend to do that.
Okay, flames are accepted, but not appreciated!
(Hey, why aren't good reviews called icecicles? I mean, if BAD reviews are flames, then good reviews should have something to do with coldness. Hm. Daht ish fuhny. :3 Moar Jerhmun aksent.)