Bound To A Bully

"What do you think you're doing here?" he snapped in her ear.

"Hudson, please, I just need-"

He slammed the locker door in front of her, almost closing her fingers inside it. "You know the rules. You are not allowed to walk down the same hall as me."

"I just need to get-"

He knocked her books out of her hands, and they smacked down onto the floor. She kneeled down to start picking them up.

Hudson started to laugh. "That's where you belong, you know that. On the ground beneath me."

He squatted down so that he was close to her so that she could hear him, as he whispered into her ear, "You're nothing, understand? You'll always be nothing to me."

"Yes, I'm nothing," she whispered.

He stood back up and looked down at her with disgust.

"Stay there until I'm gone. I can't stand the sight of you," he told her before he turned and walked away.

Amanda sat on the ground next to her locker, rocking herself back and forth, chanting quietly, "I'm nothing."

Her eyes popped open as she jolted up in a sitting position and took a deep breath, looking around she realized she was in her new dorm room and not back home at her high school.

It was just a dream. She sighed.

"Hey, are you okay?" Amanda heard from her roommate, Tabitha, from across the room.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a nightmare," she told her.

"Well, take a deep breath and relax. Today starts the first day of classes. You'll already be anxious as it is," she told Amanda before she rolled over and went back to sleep.

Amanda nodded and adjusted the covers that were on her.

The first day of college.

Tabitha was right. She was already going to be filled with anxiety just from making sure that she found all her classes, then learning what expectations each professor was going to have in each class.

Amanda decided that it was better for her to get up and start the day early. She had a self-mantra that she repeated to herself consistently, "I am somebody. I'm not nothing. I'm worth something." She looked at herself in the mirror as she continued to chant the mantra in her head. She could no longer see the skinny twig that she was all throughout high school. Puberty finally graced her with its presence. She had more of a figure now, and just before school started, she decided to cut her long hair that was stringy and thin to her shoulders to help it look thick and healthy. She was happy with her transformation. Just one more way to say goodbye to her old self and hello to the new her. This Amanda wasn't going to let others determine her worth. No longer was she going to let anyone bully her the way Hudson did. She shook his name out of her head. No, she was no longer that shy, awkward girl that let everyone walk all over her. No longer would she be the butt to their jokes. She was going to meet new people and have new experiences. Especially first experiences. She smiled to herself in the mirror before grabbing her shower caddy and making her way down to the bathrooms.

Amanda walked back into her dorm room to find her roommate Tabitha still sleeping in her bed.