The next day was the beginning of teenage issues week at the school, even though it wasn't the start of the week. To start things off, the school was having year level assemblies. The exchange students and their host families were all in year 11, so they had to wait till after recess for their assembly. After recess came and they all went into the Student Rec Centre, only to find out that the boys were going into the gym, and the girls were staying in the Rec Centre.
"It's a bit late for the puberty talk don't you think?" JT said as he headed off to the gym with the other boys. Paige rolled her eyes and Emma giggled. The girls made their way to the back of the Rec Centre, and climbed onto the couches there. Manny, Emma, Nat and Steph on one, Paige, Devon, Katy, Ellie and Alex on another. Just as they were getting comfortable, Ellie noticed that Cara wasn't around. Come to think of it, Ellie hadn't seen Cara since they got to school, when Cara disappeared to go to the bathroom.
"Ok... Welcome girls" Antoinette said at the front of the room. "As you know this week is teenage issues week her at school, and for the rest of today, instead of your classes, you're going to go to workshops with your teachers and you pastoral classes, working on what issues you think are important, what issues you face, and how to deal with those issues. First of all though, we've got a guest speaker and a student from the school to speak to you about their pasts. First I'd like to welcome Indiana to come and talk to you."
Indiana spoke for 10 minutes or so before going into question and answer time, before she introduced the student speaker – Cara.
As Cara took the microphone, she looked out at the sea of faces looking back at her, most of which had heard rumours about her story. She took a deep breath and began.
"Ok. So you all know I'm Cara, and I'm sure you've all heard rumours about me and my past. Some of them are true, some of them partly true and others are just complete bullshit. I'd better start back at the beginning for you all…" Cara drifted off, and she went and got herself a chair to sit on. She was feeling a little dizzy already.
"Right… The start. Back when I was about 10, I started to put on weight. Now I had, still have really, this irrational fear or getting fat. Nobody told me it was normal for me to be putting on weight, and so to counteract the weight, I started to diet. I cut out one meal a day, and I did that for about a year before I realised that it wasn't working… I was still putting on weight. So when I was 12 I cut out a second meal. I was only eating dinner. By the time I got to year 7, and my 13th birthday, I still weighed the same. That's when I stopped eating all together. It was a slow process, occasionally I'd eat a meal, or I'd have a snack or two during the day. I was happy, I had started losing weight. It didn't last that long, my mum started getting suss, and so I started eating normally again. I was officially anorexic for 3 months. Meanwhile, a few guys in my class had taken a liking to me, and because Nat wasn't around for them to get some from during class time, no offence Nat, I was their substitute. I'm not going to say their names… but they felt me up every chance they could for 3 years, even when I said no. But that's not even the main part. In year 8, just after I'd gotten my first boyfriend, something bad happened. I don't talk about it much these days, but for this I will. I was… I was…ra...rap... raped, by a random. I don't know who he was, so don't ask me. I also don't like reliving it, so don't ask me about how it happened or where or what happened either. That's all you need to know, that that's what happened to me. I was ok for a fairly long time, all things considered. I dumped the boyfriend, and the other boys came back to feeling me up. They often tried to go further, but we were in class, there's not much you can get up to there. So about the end of year 9 everything started falling apart. Me and my friends were fighting heaps, my best friend refused to speak to me and someone I thought I might actually be able to trust enough to also become my friend turned around and began telling people my 'thing'. That's what I call it, my 'thing'. You all saw how I stumbled over the word. I can't say it just yet. I don't know whether I ever will be able to say it. Anyway, by the time we came back for year 10, things were a bit better with my friends, and even though I wasn't happy, I put on a front and tried to make myself be happier."
Cara paused to wipe away her tears and she noticed that the guys were already out, and the Benny, Craig, Kyle, Jay, Marco and Jake were waiting for them, with Toby and JT not that far behind. Cara smiled weakly at them and turned away from them to keep speaking.
"By that stage things were really going down hill. I became really depressed, and I started to self-harm. My friends didn't care about me; if I did nothing in class it didn't bother them. My teachers started keeping me back after class; one teacher even asked if I was doing drugs. One afternoon I accidentally let something slip while I was being kept back, and we went thru all sorts of trouble to find a loophole in the Duty-of-Care rule. To this day my parents have no idea what I've been thru. It was decided that it would be best if I spoke to Antoinette, so I did, and gradually I got a little better, until the friendship problems came up again. The depression never really went away I guess, and I began to cut down what I was eating again. My friends picked up on it this time, and were constantly telling me that I was anorexic. I didn't believe them, and I wasn't, I had EDNOS instead. This year I changed friendship groups, and I'm actually a bit happier because of it. I've still got a long way to go, I know that, but I guess I'm getting there…" Cara said, standing up. She placed the microphone down on the chair and walked out of the Rec Centre.