#sliceoflife 4 of 31

Today is day four of the #sliceoflife challenge, and my second day. So far, I am loving this challenge because it is forcing me to make time in my day to write. My mom has always told me that I definitely have 20 minutes a day to sit down and write but I never believed her. However, now that I have people besides her that expect me to do just that, I am finding that I do, in fact, have that time available. Maybe when March is over I'll spend this 20 minutes a day doing SAT work.
I want to write my post today about high school bullies, after seeing another slicer write a blog about bullies in middle school. I have accepted that bullies exist no matter how old you are, but what I still struggle with to this day is how to deal with them.

(Again, names are changed)

I walk into the library and look around for a table. Usually I sit with my friend Sara this period, but I can't find her. On a normal day, I would have just texted her, but unfortunately I left my phone in my car this morning and my high school has this weird rule that you can't go out to your car during the school day. I mean, I guess it makes sense safety-wise, but what could a kid go get out of their car that they couldn't sneak into school at the beginning of the day?
I see my friend Beca sitting at a table, but she's sitting with Gabby. I quickly walk to an empty table, hoping they don't see me. Unfortunately the gods did not hear my silent prayer.
"Liv, can you come over?" Gabby calls, "I didn't hear what the English homework was." She doesn't turn around to look at me, just assumes that I will happily prance over to wait on her. I do.
When I get to her table, I sit down in the only empty chair and begin to pull out my planner.
"Sorry, but Ely is coming in like two seconds so you'll have to move."
I give her a nasty look that she completely misses, immersed in her phone. Beca, however, notices.
"Don't worry about it Liv, I'm sure he can just pull up a chair." I smile in response, silently thanking her.
Gabby rolls her eyes. I quickly peek over her shoulder to see what she is so interested in that she couldn't even say hello. Twitter. Obviously. Why talk to the people sitting right next to you when you can cyber-talk with everyone else?
"Gab, do you want to know the homework? Because I really have to go study."
She finally looks up and laughs. Kind of weird, because I'm pretty sure my goal for that statement was not humor. "Geez, Liv, you need to relax. Seriously. Stop complaining about how you need to study. We all know you have a 98 GPA, there's no need to brag about it." Beca's boyfriend, Jack, who I've only met once, snickers and I feel my face going red. Before I can think of a clever response, Gabby grabs my English notebook and starts rifling through it, messing up my neatly organized papers.
"Here, I've got it." I take it back and pull out the assignment. I hate when people copy me, but Gabby knew what she was doing on this one. She asked me what the homework was, then when I was comfortably sitting down she made fun of how smart I am and then goes to copy my assignment. She knows that if I say no now, I'll look like an even bigger dork than I already do. Pure, cunning, manipulative genius.
I hand her the paper and get up to leave as Ely walks in.
"Liv, where you going? You know you can sit here, right?" Beca looks up at me.
"No, it's fine, don't worry I'm not leaving because you guys have cooties," I laugh awkwardly. "It's just that I have two tests today that I really have to study for."
"Okay," Beca says, laughing too, "Have fun."
"Oh, trust me, I will," I say and finally turn away and start walking towards the beckoning empty table. As I sit down and take out my history notes, I promise myself that I will never let Gabby get to me again. Next time, I will stand up for myself and tell Gabby that she can find another person to bother. Even as I think it, I know that it's a total lie. Gabby has friends and those friends have friends and if I want to remained well-liked, I know that standing up to Gabby is not in my best interest.