Chapter 10

The next day, Stephanie and Melanie walked through the halls, laughing and talking about the show the day before. Usually, everybody was happy in the morning, laughing and chatting before the bell rang. Only one person was not happy as she leaned against the row of lockers, waiting for someone who used to be her best friend.

Melanie went off to her locker and Stephanie went off to hers. When she got to her locker, though, she found Gia, looking furious, arms folded across her chest.

Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Hey Gia. What's wrong?" Gia's eyes flashed.

"What are you doing with…that…that freak?" Gia said in a deadly whisper. Stephanie's eyebrows arched even more.

"Who?" Gia's eyes flashed even more. Stephanie had never seen her this angry.

"Melanie!" Gia spat the word out like it was poison.

Stephanie's eyes narrowed. "Melanie is not a freak! I can't believe you would say something like that!"

"Steph, come on. You know she's a freak. She's a useless, crippled, good for nothing little freak! She doesn't deserve to live on this planet!"

Stephanie opened her mouth to retaliate, but just then Melanie, who had been listening in pure disbelief and horror, rushed by, her crutch tapping furiously on the tiled floor. And from what Stephanie could see before the bathroom door closed with a bang behind Melanie, she was crying.

"Well you know what, Gia?" Stephanie yelled furiously. The whole hall was now staring at them. "I don't think you really deserve to live on this planet either!" She ran after Melanie, a mixture of anger and concern almost blinding her. "And you don't deserve to call me Steph, either!" she yelled over her shoulder.

Stephanie let the bathroom door close behind her. She could hear muffled sobbing coming from behind one of the stall doors.

"Mel?" she called softly, knocking lightly on the stall door. "Is that you?' Stephanie could hear a long, shuddering sob. "Steph. You can come in. I unlocked the door."

Stephanie stepped in to find Melanie sitting on the toilet, tears streaming down her face. Her crutch had been thrown down beside her and was now lying on the floor.

"Oh Steph…do you think that's what everybody else thinks about me? Th-that I'm a…useless freak? If that's what everybody thinks about me…" At this point Melanie started sobbing too hard to speak. Stephanie could just make out the words she said through her tears. "…then there's no point in living."

"Mel, you know that's not true. You know that there's at least one person in this school who cares about you." Melanie sniffled. "Oh, really? Who?"

Stephanie put a comforting arm around Melanie's shoulder. "Me."

Melanie was so surprised, her sobbing subsided a little. "Really? You really and truly care about me?"

"Yes. I do." Stephanie said firmly.

Melanie slowly turned her tearstained face to Stephanie. "Wow. This is so weird. I've never had anyone really and truly care about me before. Everyone just automatically thinks like Gia."

"And you know what you can do? You can persevere. You will change the world someday, Mel. I know you will. And once you're a famous peacemaker, poet and disability activist, Gia and all the other people who've been mean to you will be very sorry that they ever thought about being mean to you.

Melanie sniffled again, but a smile was slowly spreading across her face. "You're right."

Stephanie cheered. "All right, Melanie! Now let's go out and show the world just what you, Melanie Finegold, can do!" They high-fived and Melanie walked out of the bathroom proud and tall, ready to face the world.

A/N: I am SO sorry I haven't updated in, like, months. I've been working on my other two stories and I had MAJOR, MAJOR writer's block with this story. But I would like to give a very special thanks to Kayla Tsukino for giving me the idea for this chapter and taking away my writers block! Also thanks to Guardiangirl1 for giving me another idea, even though I didn't use it. And please, keep reviewing!