January twenty-two, 1992

In confusion, Everlee said, “Where are we, Mom? We have been driving for hours.” 

“It only feels like that, we have only been driving for 30 minutes.”

 “This is the struggle of living in a different area in such a small town with almost nothing in it. It’s like the snow is falling so much it's like a blanket on the ground, you can’t see anything but snow and only snow.”  a steady voice my Mom Veronica said. 

“Mom, there is nothing around. It doesn't even look familiar, we are lost.”

“Everlee stop talking, you're distracting me” Veronica threw her hand up in frustration.

In an unsteady voice, she tells her mom, “Mom slow down, stop!  What's on the road, it's something shiny.” 

“ Honey it's nothi………..”

The car tires screeched making the most horrendous noise, screaming, and glass everywhere. The next thing they know the car feels like it's flying and you are on an amusement ride spinning. But within a second that feeling goes away and you are in an enormous amount of pain and the warm car air quickly turns to a wall of cold air pounding against you. With a nice smell of fresh air then the smell of rubber and burning overpowers it. The last thing I remember hearing was the ambulance sirens and a bunch of yelling all muffled while my ears were ringing. It felt like the world was spinning before it all went black. 

December fifth, 1995

Ding ding, the school bell rings reminding us we have to get to our next class.  

“Ok class you have 2 pages for homework you should know what to do.” Mrs. Karen tells the class. Then she adds “Everlee wait…..are you ok you zoned out for half the class”

“Oh sorry, Mrs.Karen I’m ok. Just a little stressed, I should get to my next class.”

“Ok have a good day Everlee” Mrs. Karen tries to add as I walk out the door.

What's wrong with me? I can't keep thinking about the accident that happened a year ago. I loathe the feeling of people staring at me. 

“Scarface” Karly giggled

Of course, I ran into Karly. Out of everybody I hate her so much she’s been bullying me this whole time I've been at this new school. After I finally push through the school day I have to walk home because my parents work full-time jobs. On top of that my dad works a part-time job to help pay for bills. After a long day, I wait for my boyfriend Tucker to get done with his class so we can walk home together, it's about a seven-minute walk home. But with it being a winter day it could take longer. The snow has been rather bad, hopefully, it’s not too bad when I walk home today. In the corner of my eye, I see a black Toyota driving by as two girls and three boys roll down their windows and scream.

“She probably got attacked by a tiger” He yells with a giggle as they through a piece of paper at me and drive off all laughing 

“Don’t you have something better to do!” Tucker screams praying they heard him “Don't listen to them Everlee, your beautiful don't let them push you around,” Tucker conveys to me.

He’s the only guy that has been there for me and never looked at me differently since my accident. When he asked me to be his girlfriend in ninth grade I

I wipe away my tears and chuck the paper as far as I can into the grass to the left of me and start walking as fast as I can so I can get home faster. The second we reached home it started to flurry and the temperature dropped what felt like below zero. After I throw all my stuff down on the floor I run upstairs, breaking down crying. Tucker follows behind me and silently walks into my room and gives me a hug knowing that’s exactly what I need. 

“Come sit down, Everlee, we can turn on a show, forget about them. Those girls are just jealous of how pretty you are and those boys just wish they had you as their girlfriend,” He says brushing away the tears from my face as I still hug him burying my face into his shirt, as I slowly start to doze off. 

“ Did you have a good sleep Everlee, you slept for almost 2 hours?” He said smiling

“Yea that was refreshing, I needed that nap badly,” I say half awake, rubbing my eyes.

“I do have to go now, Everlee, my mom wants me home for dinner. I'll see you in the morning. I’ll pick you up tomorrow it’s supposed to be colder and supposedly snow again so I don't want you to walk” he laughs

The next morning, I get dressed trying to cover every part of my body, so I can disappear in the crowd and won’t stick out to Karly. As I walk outside to his car I wrap my hands around my stomach to help me feel a little less insecure. I feel like these clothes are swallowing me.

“Good morning Everlee” Tucker greets me with a huge smile on his face 

“Hey thanks for picking me up again Tucker '' I replied. We arrived at school and we both went separate ways for the first class of the day.  The second I walk into the classroom I feel eyes on me and I know exactly who is whispering about me, Karly. I walk to my spot without making eye contact and the next second I'm on the ground. She tripped me!

“What are you wearing you, dork? Why are you trying to cover up Everlee?” Karly says laughing 

“What the heck why did you trip me, why can’t you just leave me alone for once” I yell back

“Hey look she has a scratch on her face, haha looks like you're gonna have another scar, scarface.” the whole class laughs 

I get up and run to my seat as fast as possible trying to cover my tears. Finally, the end of the day comes. I go to my locker to pack up but once I open my locker papers fall out of drawings of me and words that cut deep. All of my stuff is covered in one of the kid's lunches that they dumped in there. I ran home, leaving everything in my locker except for what I had in my hand from the last class I had for the day. I get home and my parents are at work. All I keep hearing are the dings from my phone. Tucker is blowing up my phone

“Everlee, why didn’t you come to my car after school so I could give you a ride?” 

“Everlee, are you gonna answer me?” 

 “Answer me Everlee!” 

“I’m coming over if you don’t answer me!” The texts just keep coming in!

“Love you, Tucker, thanks for always being there for me” I replied flipping my phone over and heading to the bathroom ignoring the ding from my phone. I start the bath and let the tub start to fill up while I stand there with tears streaming down my face. With thoughts running through my mind. I should just end it all right now. I get in the tub crying even more. I lay down, took a deep breath, and slid under the water. I hope and pray that the pain goes away and I close my eyes hoping it will. Until I feel something wrapped around me. I take a huge breath, coughing up water. “Tucker, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” I say while crying. I grab him as he wraps his arms around me while we sit on the bathroom floor in silence.

“Everlee, what happened, please don’t ever do that again. If you need anything I have always been here for you. What made you want to do this” He blurts out in love and confusion 

I told him about everything and I thanked him for saving my life and helping me not make the biggest mistake ever.

“We will go to the school first thing in the morning and tell them exactly what happened and you are going to get help and call your parents.”

He goes and gets me a towel and dry clothes. As he helps me to my room and covers me up with a blanket, and waits by my side until my parents get home. The next morning after staying up late talking on the phone with people that can help get me to a better place. Tucker and I, along with my parents, went to the office at my school to talk to the principal and counselor. I tell them about how long the bullying has been going on, and how bad it has gotten. They told me they wanted to get the school officer involved and contact the kids' parents. They would most likely be getting suspended or possibly even expelled. Not following the rules and encouraging me as a student to end my life is against our school culture and policies. 

Once I came back to school, after getting the help I needed, the school counselor asked me to talk in front of the school. About my accident and how the bullying afterward affected my life. When the day rolls around, I get to talk at the assembly with all the kids. I get nervous but Tucker is there to help me through it.

“Hi everyone, my name's Everlee. You may also know me as Scargirl. But most of you don’t even know what happened to me. When I was a freshman I got into a very vital car accident. I slowly recovered from my injuries, but I healed and survived. I am left with scars and discoloration on my arms and face. But if you don’t know a person's background or don’t know a person's home life. That doesn't give you a right to bully them, it never makes it any better. I almost took my own life about a month ago because of it and it’s nothing to joke about. So next time you feel the need to bully a kid, why don’t you ask them how they are, or if they're ok and learn their story before you go right to making that person's worse” as the crown stars clapping and walk off the stage with a smile on my face, so glad to get my story out there. I walk up to Tucker and give him a big hug “Thank you so much Tucker for always being there for me and never judging me for anything, I appreciate you” I tell him with honesty 

“You are very welcome Everlee, I’m so proud of you and how far you’ve come,” he says while grabbing me for another hug  

The month I went back I made tons of new friends. I expressed myself with clothes and I was not ashamed to wear them. I was not afraid to stick up for myself anymore and I learned to love myself for who I was. When we pack up and get ready to get back home to cozy up on the couch and watch a movie while drinking hot chocolate. We walk out to a big burst of fresh air and the snow seems almost melted, and the sun is finally shining. It's been so wet and depressing out it finally feels fresh and good to feel my skin soaking in the sun!