Reminiscing bullying problems before they moved to Whoville...
Chapter 16: Bullying Memories
A couple of hours later, Jonah went back home with Travis, feeling totally relieved, but also suffering from the abuse that Paul caused. They went upstairs and entered in their rooms. While Jonah was in his room, he laid flat on his bed, just looking at the ceiling. It was like the world has suddenly froze and that it can't be thawed, because of total sorrow that he's dealt with.
Minutes later, he's reverting back to where he got bullied in school back in Whereville, a memory that definitely became the most horrific and most likely traumatic moment that he's ever experienced.
Jonah's eyes blinked twice as a few tears were streaming out of his face, just remembering all the kids laughing and taunting him, nonstop.
Jonah walked by the Whereville High School in the hallways, where a lot of kids were giving him a hard time, but they didn't even care as they went on poking fun at him.
"Hey look, guys! It's the emo from down under!"
"Let's all try and communicate with it."
"My life sucks. What is happy? I am an emo freak who is the last freak of all mankind."
They all laughed at him and pointed to what he wears. It was all too much for Jonah as he walked away without saying a word. Then, one kid comes from behind and shouts, "Dude, it must suck to be you!"
He got away very quickly, then some girls were doing the same thing as one said, "Well, look who showed up. The little emo that looks like a wimpy shrimp."
"No girl would ever fall for you."
"You are a hopeless, wasted piece of trash. Why would you even be in this school?"
All the girls laughed at him and Jonah felt totally humiliated and one of the girls threw a banana at him, and he fell down on the floor, leaving all students pointing at him and laughing at him and jeering at him for no reason. He felt completely scared and that he got up and run away from the students.
Then, one person stopped Jonah and shoved him in the face and said, "You are a NOBODY!"
He shoved him through the locker and he managed to get away from him. He said, "Yeah, that's right! Run, you big emo crybaby!"
Jonah looks around and there's mean students here, mean students there and mean students everywhere. He couldn't take so much of it and started running through the halls, while all the students poke fun at him.
Then, he was bombarded by a bunch of girls that hate Jonah's personality and one slapped him in the face and the other girls laughed at him. Then, one got on his face and said, "Why don't you just kill yourself?"
The girls left, laughing at him as they walked away. He started running away and hid himself in the boys' room, where it was mostly empty. He got into the mirror near the sinks and his hair was unkempt and messed up and he looked at himself and tears filled his eyes. He blinked a few times as the tears rolled down his face and whispered, "Why can't they just leave me alone?"
He went to the other side of the bathroom, laid his back against the wall and sat down, curled himself in a little ball and just bursted out crying in total and complete misery.
Jonah felt that he was a loner in the world and he can still hear the kids' taunting and teasing echo through his head. Whereville High was the hurtful thing he ever experienced with a sea of a million students constantly tormenting him for no reason at all. He laid his head down a pillow and started crying, hiding his face in it.
A few tears were falling from his face and asked, "Why couldn't they stop?"
Travis was in his room as well, looking at the ceiling, feeling ultimately depressed about both the abuse he suffered with Paul and also for being bullied when he was 13, back at Whereville Middle School, refer to it as the worst time of his life. It was completely devastating for him to deal with the older kids giving him a hard time, even though he's different from others.
He can still hear the teasing and taunting in his head and he covered his head to try to ignore it, but it grew louder and it was difficult to forget about it.
13-year-old Travis was walking towards the hallways of Whereville Middle School, where some 14-year-old girls looked at him in a disgusting look and said, "Hey, Travie. Where'd you get the shirt? Did the emo fairy sent you a look that made you feel more grosser?"
They started laughing and Travis walked away from all of it. Then, he girl threw a snow cone at his head. He removed it from his head and puts it in the trash can and resumed walking. As soon as he came to the cafeteria, some boys were going at him and pushed him to the floor.
"Hey, guys. Look! It's Travis, the king of all emo freaks! You and your brothers are nothing but douches."
"Just leave me alone." Travis said.
"Now he says to 'leave us alone'. You're pathetic, Mosley!"
"Listen, kid. We do not condone with freaks like you."
"I'm not a freak!"
"You're pretty much an ugly freak!"
Then, one of the boys poured some water on his clothes and splashed it on his face. Then, some of them splattered cream pie in his face. All of a sudden, one poured fruit punch all over him. That caught the attention of other students, looking at Travis, like he's a hot mess. All the students could do is point and laugh at him, which made Travis completely hurt. He backed away and started running away from them.
As soon as he went in the hallways, some other boys ganged up on him and carried him to the trash. Travis was kicking and screaming, just desperately trying to escape, but help never came. One of the boys opened up the trash and Travis tried hard to release himself from them, but the boys grabbed him tightly and just threw him in the trash and left the lid closed.
"Hope you like to stink, Trav!"
All the boys left and Travis popped out of the trash, looking dirty and trashy, with a banana peel on his hair and some gum on the other side. He hopped out of the trash can and proceeded to sit on a tree, just crying and hiding his face, so no one could see him like this.
Travis dealt with some bad hands at that school, but he also dealt with the abuse from his stepfather and it was always the worst thing that could ever happened to him, even more so than seeing Jonah almost being choked to death earlier today.
His eyes were filled up with tears, as he curled himself up in a little ball and started crying. As the last-born and youngest of the triplets, it seems as though Travis felt like he was nothing, based on what he is, but he's different from everyone else just like his brothers, but those memories of being bullied or witnessing one of his brothers bullied, it felt like it was something that he couldn't stomach to see it.
He sobbed a number amount of times and and rubbed his eyes from the tears and sniffled a few times, because he was choked up about the traumatic memory of being bullied. With a few tears streaming down his face, he just needed to let out his frustrations and sorrow of being the victim of bullying by song. He picked up his Who-Guitar and starts strumming a sad song, which he wrote when he was in his lowest point in his life and starts singing it, tearfully.
Staring out into the world across the street
You hate the way your life turned out to be
He's pulling up in the driveway and you don't make a sound
Cause you always learn to hold the things you want to say
You're always going to be afraid
There's only hate
There's only tears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Oh so what will you do?
There's only lies
There's only fears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Broken down like a mirror smashed to peices
You learned the hard way to shut your mouth and smile
If these walls could talk they would have so much to say
Cause everytime you fight the scars are gonna heal but there never gonna go away
There's only hate
There's only tears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Oh so what will you do?
There's only lies
There's only fears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Oh no So what will you do?
Your falling, your screaming
Your stuck in the same old nightmare
He's lying, your crying
There's nothing left to salvage
Kick the door cause this is over
Get me out of here
(Kick the door)
There's only hate
There's only tears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Oh so what will you do?
There's only lies
There's only fears
There's only pain
There is no love here
Tell me what will you do?
There's only hate
There's only tears
There's only pain
There is no love here.
After he finished it, he just felt the tears flow out of his face and before he could even put the guitar away, in comes Jojo, who's standing near the door. He sees him come inside and Travis asked, "How long were you standing?'
"Long enough. Are you okay?" asked Jojo.
Travis sighed and said, "No."
"You wanna talk about it?"
"I don't know. I was just-I used to be bullied a lot back in Whereville, because I'm so different and they used to call me 'emo', 'shrimp', 'freak' and whatnot. That really hurt me a lot and they don't really care about it. Why couldn't they just leave us alone?"
Jojo could definitely tell that Travis has been bullied before they even met. Jojo asked, "How old were you?"
"13. When I first got bullied, I was probably around 9 or 10, but in middle school...it was terrible. Being bullied by your stepfather is one thing, but other people in school. It's just horrible for me to even endure it."
"I understand how you feel. I get bullied a lot and most of it revolves around how I look, my dad being mayor and everything. I didn't want to deal with it, but I was ignoring it. At times, it gets me down and I just take it out on paper. I just write songs about it whenever I feel sad or angry or anything that makes me feel bad or I could just go the the observatory and stay there until I feel okay, but often times, I'm not so okay."
Travis looked at him and he said, "I never knew everyone was like that. Why do they hate us?"
"I wish I knew. Also, that song you did-did you write it?"
"Yeah, I did."
Travis picks up the song he just sang to and handed it over to Jojo and he looked at it. The lyrics of the song definitely connected to Travis' angst and somewhat anguish-like. He looked at him and asked, "That's how you feel?"
"Towards our stepdad. There was one night that he was mad at me for being bullied and he bullied me too, by punching me in the face, kicking me in the shin and everything. I ended up with a black eye, bloody nose and a scratch on my arm."
Jojo covered his mouth in shock and he couldn't believe that it actually happened to him. He asked, "Is that true?"
"Yep. After that happened, I had to clean myself up and wrote the song while I was crying, because back in Whereville at our house after our mom got killed, there was no love in the house that we used to have before our real dad passed away."
"That touched my heart. I'm sorry you had to go through something like that. I actually came over to see if you or Jonah are okay." Jojo said.
"I think I'll be okay, but I can't stomach another minute of feeling Paul's presence."
Jojo nodded his head and left Travis' room to check on Jonah. He looked back and said, "Hope you'll be okay, Travis."
"I'll try."
He left the room and then, sees Jonah in his bed, crying. He enters and said, "Jonah?"
Jonah slowly turns around and his eyes were red and puffy, because he'd been crying a lot. Jojo looked at him and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Somewhat." Jonah answered, tearfully.
"What's wrong?"
Jonah sighed and said, "I looked back on my bulling in Whereville High and it's the worst thing I ever had to deal with."
Jojo puts his hand on his shoulder and said, "I've been bullied too."
"The worst thing they said to me was 'go kill myself'. It's like they don't want me to exist here. It just bruised me hard."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Jonah came to Jojo and hugged him tightly as Jonah cried on his shoulder. Jojo sighed heavily, knowing that Jonah has been through a lot and that bullying problems from Whereville still haunt him a lot and also dealing with his stepfather made him realize that they shouldn't live like this. Jojo told him, "Everything's gonna be okay. I promise."
Jonah wiped his eyes a little and looked at Jojo's eyes and said, "You sure?"
"Of course. You're my best friend and so's Travis and the others."
Jonah sniffled and said, "You're a good friend."
"Hopefully, there's something we can do."
Jojo walked away and then, turned back and said, "See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
"See ya."
Jojo's a good friend and shared with Travis about being bullied. It happens to everyone, though. The song was "No Love" from Simple Plan. Kinda relates to my new OC characters, right? Stay tuned for more!