PRISONER EXPRESS

I was never one for mind games when I was growing up. Sometimes I saw friends in school take delight out of this kind of thing. Often the individual targeted by this pointless persecution never realized or they had become in the eyes of those who though they were superior, little more than just someone to be made a fool of, even if it was without their knowledge. To me, I never could understand their need for this every day. Those who were involved never seemed to care about the pain and suffering their victims were forced to deal with every day. I remember this one girl in my class, she never really said much to anyone. A few of us knew that her family didn't have much money and that she got most of her clothes from Goodwill or the church. Anyways, it was a regular thing on weekends that this certain group of popular girls threw house parties at each other's houses. Everyone who was anyone wanted an invite. It was considered a sign of your acceptance to receive an invitation. Well this was this unpopular girls' secret wish to be able to somehow be asked to the party, but she had, seeing so many other kids better off than herself rejected by these girls, all but given up the chance of ever being looked at much less talked to by any one of these girls. No because of habit of keeping to herself at all times, like always sitting bus to and from school, she never said or even looked at anyone on the way to class or was ever seen in the halls where our lockers were located.

Apparently, she had long ago learned a lesson that others like herself hadn't, that the locker area was the place where the unpopular were most targeted by the elite of the school. I saw that she kept all of her school supplies with her through out the day in her backpack along with a small lunch she brought with her every day. She always sat in the far corner of the classroom and never left class until everyone had left for lunch and to go home at the end of the school day. There were even a few times I saw that she even left after the teacher had.

In this way she became an almost non-entity to most of the class. If one was to ask someone what her name was, nobody would be able to come up with it. I saw that she was following the popular girl's conversation during the weeks they talked about the up-coming party. Now it wasn't the kind of attention the average person would notice, but I did. Up until this time of the up-coming party she had kept to herself and never so much as left her little world, but it was like for some reason she was being drawn out of herself and on some level dreaming the impossible. It was almost as if she hoping against hope that she would be somehow be invited to this party, the party of all parties of the school year. I could see it in her eyes each day as the party came closer. It was a week before the party was to happen that when this girl went to her desk like she had done every day of the school week that she found a small folded note. I watched her kind of stop and look around maybe thinking she was somehow at the wrong desk, but because of her habit of bringing even the slightest attention to herself, she quickly sat down. At first she just looked at the small note as if it was some how alive and for about 10 minutes she just looked from the note to each and every person through out the class. I guess after she had looked around the class and that no one seemed to be paying her any attention like always. She slowly and carefully opened the note and started to read it.

Hey! I see you checking out my friends and hoping you'll be invited to the party this weekend. Well you peace of dirt you can forget it. With your goodwill clothes, go crawl back in your shell and if I catch you with that pathetic look of hope in your eyes again, I'll make sure to make your days in school a living hell!! Yeah sometime you have to keep certain people in their place