Kitty roamed the halls of McKinley, quietly dragging her backpack along side her. That day, she had called Marley an elephant. In response, Marley began to chant, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me".
The entire glee club had joined in. Kitty wished Ryder had been there to stand up for her, but he had left long ago because of the catfish scandal.
Kitty remembered slinking over to Unique, a venomous smile plastered on her face. She had tapped the bitch on her shoulder, and as she turned around, she slapped that fake so hard his/her wig fell off. The next day, the whole glee club had yelled at her for slapping Unique.
She deserved it. She had hurt her best friend.
As the whole club chanted the hurtful phrase, Kitty had had enough and stomped out of the room, stopping just outside the door. She knew they were going to talk about her. They say they are a 'safe place', but really they are just as cruel as the jocks who throw slushies' at them.
"Finally, that bitch is gone" sighed Tina. For all her faults, at least Kitty didn't talk about people like they were worthless. She only talked down.
Quickly grabbing her bag, she silently slunk away, knowing that no one really cared about her in there.
Kitty thought about that phrase:
Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me
How ironic that they had chosen to use words to hurt her.
The phrase was continuously called at Kitty during glee. Everyday, someone said it, and it really hurt. She hadn't told Ryder because he would feel bad for her, and he didn't deserve that weight on himself.
So she rolled her eyes, pretending the words hadn't hurt her.
…
Cheerios practice ran long again, leaving Kitty exhausted. Slumping into her house, she dumped her bag by the door and dragged herself into the kitchen. Starving, she quickly started to microwave some chicken nuggets. Quickly changing from her skintight, short cheerleader outfit to her big sweater and sweat pants. Scurrying into her bathroom, she wiped every trace of makeup from her face.
Hearing the timer go off on the microwave, Kitty rushed down the stairs. As she took out the junk food, she gave a small smirk happy her parents weren't home. They're off at some Bible convention in some small town no one cares about.
Blowing hair out of her face, Kitty rooted through her gym bag, looking for her hairbrush, when she came upon one of Coach Sylvester's notes. She constantly left secret notes in bags and lockers, saying it reminded her of her 'Soviet Spy Days'.
Unfolding the note, it read 'Drop five pounds'.
Kitty looked over at her plate of chicken nuggets, seeing that she had eaten them all. All twelve. There was no way she could loose that within the week. Panicking, Kitty ran up the stairs, starting to do something she hadn't done in two months.
She was going to make herself puke.
Kitty might have stopped if she thought she had friends. That's what stopped her before. She had thought that she had friends in glee, so she decided to become healthier and stop shoving her fingers down her throat. But now she had no one, so what was the harm?
Once she reached the bathroom, Kitty dropped to her knees in front of the toilet, pushing her fingers down her throat. She felt the familiar feeling of bile rising in her throat as her nuggets came back up. It tasted and felt terrible, but she kept going, unable to stop.
As soon as she finished, she sunk to the cold floor, her body convulsing with sobs.
In this moment, she knew no one could save her.
Days passed and Kitty grew thinner. She lost a lot more than five pounds, now only skin and bone, but the glee club didn't notice. If Ryder were still here, she would have talked to him, but his parents made him move out of the district, ashamed that their son had been so publicly humiliated. It "ruined their image".
They still talked on the phone and met up at the Lima Bean, but she never told him how empty she felt, or how alone she was. She didn't have the heart to tell him that his former crush, Marley, was a cold-hearted bitch who enjoyed torturing her on a daily basis.
The 'sticks and stones' phrase was a constant in glee now. Every single day, it was said, and Kitty tried her hardest not to cry.
Kitty refused to eat, and when she did, she threw it right back up again.
Maybe life is overrated…
Kitty rose from her bed, screaming.
Oh God, she could still feel his hands on her, his rough hands touching her without her consent. She had only been eleven when her best friends brother had taken something she could never get back:
Her innocence
Snow began to fall on the January night in Lima. Kitty, still alone in her house while her parents traveled Europe to 'spread Christian ideals', watched the snow fall from her living room window.
Tears streaked down her face as she thought back to the constant insults. No one had noticed that she had stopped insulting people. Come to think of it, they hadn't noticed that she had stopped talking all together.
Throwing on a tank top and shorts, Kitty stepped into the freezing night, a note clutched in her fist. It was barely 19 degrees, but the sting of the cold felt good. It numbed the hollow feeling inside.
Seeing a soft snow bank in her large front yard, she lay down, letting the cold seep into her blood.
Kitty stared at the sky wishing things were different. She wished she wasn't so alone, or as numb, or as miserable as she was now. She counted the snowflakes falling from the sky, letting them fall on her cold skin.
She didn't know how long she was outside, but she knew she would never go back inside.
This isn't a bad way to die, she thought. She kept counting the snowflakes, thinking about stories of princes and princesses. She had always wanted to be a princess when she was little. She wanted to be the belle of the ball, someone people would notice. That's all she wanted, to be the happiest girl in the room. But that would never happen.
Kitty closed her eyes, seeing herself in a beautiful white gown made of snowflakes, and smiled her last smile.
It was ironic that it was Marley who found Kitty's body. Marley had come to Kitty's to drag her to glee club. They needed her for a dance routine, but she didn't show up, so Marley trudged over to the blondes house.
She saw Kitty in that snow bank, her skin red and blue, her eyes closed. Marley had checked for a pulse, but there was nothing. Crying and screaming, she shook the tiny girls body, hoping she would wake up or say something.
Of course, nothing happened.
Marley slid into the choir room, still crying. "What is it?" asked Jake, "Did Kitty say something?"
The with a smirk he added "Sticks and stones may-"
"Kitty's dead" interrupted Marley, her voice shaking.
The whole room stopped breathing for one second. And in that one second, they knew why Kitty was dead.
They had killed her…
At the funeral, the glee club sang Kitty's favorite song, Wide Awake by Katy Perry. Everyone gave a short speech, but Ryder confessed something they didn't even know about.
He told everyone about how he had been molested as a child, and how when he had told the glee club, Kitty had come to him to help him. He talked about how she had told him of her similar experience, and how she never truly got over it.
Marley sang a song instead of giving a speech.
After the funeral, Marley unclenched her fist, revealing a note. "I found this in Kitty's hand when I…"
She stopped, unable to say anything else. What the note said caused sobs to erupt from the pitiful group.
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones
But Your Words Have Always Hurt Me