Mandy turned to Lilah. “Are you ready?” she grinned. Without waiting for a response from Lilah, she pressed the ‘Post New Bulletin’ button. For the next fifteen minutes they clicked away on Lilah’s laptop, typing the nasty message to the girl who didn’t have a clue.

When the bulletin on MySpace was complete, the girls read it over. Every awful word passed over their eyes, none of it was considered too harsh, or too un-called for. It was perfect in their minds. Not once did they stop and think of the damage it would cause.

“What do you think she’s gonna say?” Lilah asked, giggling. At this point, she was almost proud of herself.
“Probably nothing. I bet she’ll be too embarrassed to say anything ‘cause everyone’s gonna see this.” Mandy grinned slyly at Lilah again.

And with that, she pressed the one button that would change everything: ‘Post’.

When Danielle went to school the next day, she was expecting the same old work, same boring teachers, and the same fun conversations with her friends.

Boy was she wrong.

She walked down the seventh grade hallway, heading towards her locker with her iPod ear buds in her ears. She was peaceful and content as she listened to Justin Bieber. That was; until everyone stopped and to her locker. When she noticed this, she quickened her pace
As she approached it, she was stopped abruptly by her best friend, Kailee who ran in front of her locker. Looked at her as she passed by.

“Jeez.” she said surprised. “What’s up?” Danielle asked.

“This,” she held up a folded piece of paper, “is what’s up.”

Danielle grabbed the piece of paper from Kailee’s hand and pulled her ear buds out. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she slowly unfolded it.

In her hands was a bulletin printed directly off of MySpace. Its author: Mandy.

“What the…” her mouth was wide open in shock.

“They both did it. Lilah and Mandy, together,” Kailee exclaimed.

Danielle was silent as she read the bulletin created by her ex-best friends. It was made up of random snobby remarks about how she was too ugly, or too pale, and there was even one that said her gym shorts were too short. After the random ones, came the most hurtful thing.

“Look,” Kailee said, pointing to a paragraph. “She called you a waste of air.” she looked at Danielle. “And she talks about me too. She said that we should leave school because everyone hates us. She called you fat and said your place at school is way at the bottom. Which is so not true I mean like-” she frowned.

“Okay Kailee! I don’t need a recap of the bulletin. I don’t wanna hear it! And on top of that everyone is going to see this. Everyone.” Danielle stared blankly as the brown tile. Her throat became tight, and a huge lump formed. This made her eyes well up with tears.

“Wait! This might help.” Kailee pointed to the comments at the bottom of the paper. “Read them.”

“’Mandy,” Danielle read out loud. “’Who do you think you are to be mean to Danielle like this? She’s one of the nicest people I know. And if you think we’ll back you up, you’re wrong.’ That’s from Annie.” she smiled and read on.

A comment from Carly read; ‘Wow Mandy, isn’t that a little too mean? Danielle’s my friend.’ There were a few others that were all alike, sticking up for Danielle.

Even though she had people backing her up, she still felt upset and at the same time, furious.

“So…now what?” Danielle asked. “Are we just gonna let it go?” she wiped away a tear rolling down her cheek. “I mean, I don’t know what to do.”

“That’s okay, I already did.” Kailee said proudly. “Well, I thought of one at least, I didn’t do it yet.”

“What’s that?”

“My mom said we should take it to somebody we trust, somebody who would deal with it.” she crossed her arms over her chest with a confident look on her face.

“Like…a teacher?” Danielle asked.

“Mhmmm.” she replied, nodding her head.

“Who?”

“Mr. Terry.” she smiled.

“Oh,” Danielle said, looking away.
Mr. Terry was their sixth grade social studies teacher. He was everybody’s favorite teacher. They trusted him, and he was pretty cool so he could deal with it. But part of Danielle didn’t want to take it to a teacher. It happened out of school anyway. They couldn’t do much if it did. She thought that maybe she could take care of it herself. She had good comebacks that left people speechless. But still…would that really end it?

Mandy and Lilah walked into science together that morning. Everybody stopped their conversations when they came. Mandy thought that was good, that maybe everybody was going to congratulate her. They gave her dirty looks and sneers.

Oh no…backfire! Mandy thought. She looked at Lilah with a panicked look on her face.

“Wait for it,” Lilah whispered. She flipped her brown locks and walked confidently to their seats in the back.

She expected high fives or a ‘way to tell her’, or something, but she got whispers and scowls.
“What.The.Heck people?!” Lilah threw her hands up in the air. “Shouldn’t you be congratulating me?” she held her hand up to her ear like she was waiting for compliments. It was silent. Except for a couple of ‘Boos’. She whipped around quickly, she was embarrassed. Mandy was right behind her. They took their seats and lowered their heads.

“You said they’d be happy and think we were cool!” Mandy hissed.

“Well that’s what I thought! I also thought they hated that loser.”
Lilah looked up at the class. Everyone had turned around in their rickety seats to watch them. She shot them a dirty look and sat back in her chair. Mandy messed with her long blond hair and her outfit. She felt uncomfortable in this kind of spotlight.

Before first hour the next day, Kailee and Danielle went to Mr. Terry’s class to show him the papers. Danielle felt nervous, and uneasy about it. She almost felt like a loser tattle tale going to get a teacher to deal with her problems.

Mr. Terry wasn’t surprised to see them because they visited quite often. He smiled and waved at first. When he saw the expressions on their faces, his smile faded.

“What’s up?” he asked, concerned. Danielle looked away, and Kailee handed him the papers.

“We have…uhm, something we want you to see.”

He unfolded them and looked it over. “What’s this about?”
Danielle still didn’t look up, she felt embarrassed.

“Mandy and Lilah made it. About us.” Kailee looked over at Danielle.

It’s not about you! Get out of this. Danielle thought. She hated the fact that Kailee was trying to get involved with this. There’s one sentence about her, big deal. She thought.

“So…what do you want me to do?” Mr. Terry asked, skimming over the bulletin. Kailee was silent at that moment.

“I’m taking this to the principal.” he concluded. “This is awful…I’m sorry…I always thought…”
Lilah was one of his favorite students; he didn’t know how mean she could be. Danielle finally looked up at him; her eyes were now overflowing with tears.

“I don’t know why…I-I don’t know.” she began to sob. “Everybody’s seen it.”

“Okay, I can take this to Mr. Blomquist, and Mandy…well I’m not sure but I know she probably won’t be going to Cedar Point this summer with the seventh and eighth grade classes.” he shrugged.

Danielle felt a little sympathy for Mandy; she might not go to Cedar Point. It was too late to take it back. But they used to be friends…so maybe she could…

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Mandy was sitting in math class when the phone rang. Mrs. Sartorious answered it.
“Hello?” she paused. “Yes, I’ll send her down, alright bye.” she hung up. “Mandy! You have to go down to the office; I’ll write you a pass.”

Mandy walked up to Mrs. Sartorious’s desk and waited patiently. It didn’t even occur to her that this could be about Danielle.

“Here.” she smiled as she ripped the yellow hall pass of its pad.

Mandy walked down the seventh grade hallway, past the lobby area, and up to the office. She traced the lines in between the bricks in the office’s hallway and opened the door. She turned left and passed a couple of kids in trouble. The lady at the front desk was typing on her computer when Mandy walked up.
“Can I help you?” she asked, not looking away from her computer.

“Yeah, I’m Mandy, someone called me down here?”

“Oh, yes. Mr. Blomquist would like to see you in his office.” she pointed at the waist high swinging door that led to two desks on both sides and a small carpeted hallway. “Just go through there and turn left.”

She headed through, and knocked on the light wood door. Immediately Mr. Blomquist swung it open.

“Hi Mandy, come on in. Take a seat.” he said. Mandy heard friendliness to his voice and also a seriousness.

There was a long, gray table across from Mandy.

“So, do you know what this is about?” he asked, clamping his hands together and leaning back.

“Not really.” Mandy said. She fidgeted in her seat with his curious stare making her squirm.

“Well, I heard this rumor about a bulletin posted on MySpace. Do you know anything about that?” he furrowed his gray eyebrows pushed his glasses up his skinny nose.

“No.” she lied.

“Oh, well I heard you do.”

“Uhm, a little.” she looked away focusing on a plant in the corner.

“A lot.” he corrected her. “So tell me about it. I’m dying to know why you’d post this,” he held up the unfolded pieces of paper. “for everyone to see.” he gave her an expectant look.

She told him everything. About how she and Lilah felt replaced, and how they hated Kailee because she was annoying and she took up all of Danielle’s time.

Mandy was all talk. She couldn’t act as confident as Lilah. She felt bad about everything that happened after talking about it. And in the end, she cried. She hadn’t realized what a horrible person she’d turned into until she was faced with the facts; she’d hurt an innocent person and made her humiliated.

Danielle was walking to the office about a half an hour after Mandy was called down. She knew what it was about, and she wasn’t afraid. She knew Mandy was all talk, and that she couldn’t say anything to her face. It was all through MySpace because she didn’t have the guts to say all of this to her face.

It wasn’t a surprise that Kailee wasn’t in the office when Danielle got there. She didn’t have much to do with it, and Mr. Blomquist probably didn’t think she was an issue.

“Hey Danielle, have a seat.” Mr. Blomquist said as she walked into his office. He was at the head of the table on the left, and Mandy was facing her, straight ahead. She sat down on the gray cushioned seat across from Mandy.

“So, you know what this is about, right?” he asked. She nodded
“I called you down here so you guys could talk about it. And this is something I’d like to hear.” he said in his calming voice. He gestured for Danielle to say something.

“Uhm.” she swallowed the lump in her throat away. “I wanted to know, why?” her voice cracked.

“I wanted to get back at you,” she paused. “For ditching me and Lilah.”

“And you thought that would…do what? Because I don’t think your little ‘plan’ worked out too well.” Danielle got angrier, instead of tears there was a rumble of rage in the pit of her stomach.

“Well, I didn’t think-“

“Exactly, you didn’t think!” she cut her off and leaned forward in her seat.

“I-I’m sorry!” Mandy yelled.
Danielle looked away, and fell back in her chair. Her face got hot, and tears rolled down her cheeks. She bit her bottom lip as she folded her arms over her chest.

“That’s all I wanted.” she said. “All I wanted.” she whispered. She stood up from her chair. “Are we done?” she tried to stop her tears and sound alright. Mr. Blomquist nodded. “Okay then.” she fixed her brown-red short hair and fiddled with her American Eagle graphic T-shirt. “Bye.” she quickly fled from the room, leaving her worst memories behind.
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All of the events in this story are true. It all happened to me. My name is Lauren and my character is Danielle. Cyberbullying is no joke, it's not fun, and some forms of it are illegal. Once you post something online, anyone can see it. It’s really mean to trash talk about somebody online let alone in person. I don’t want anybody to experience what I’ve gone through because it’s awful, and it follows you wherever you go. It’s been over a year, and to this day, I still wonder why they thought it would be funny. It only gave them a bad reputation. So the next time you go on the internet, watch what you say. You just might push someone to his or her breaking point, and that’s nothing to be proud of.