Memoir, Bullying
I Was Bullied for Being Poor
Those who qualified for free meals had to go and collect the tickets so every one knew who the poor kids were — I felt ashamed without understanding why
I’d nearly survived the first year of secondary school intact and was still in the top set for maths. Not bad for a newbie, I thought.
Then, a mini-disaster struck.
If you read the previous episode about Karen, you would already know after leaving primary school we’d stayed friends and joined an athletics club together. Also, our dress up game had led to my first consensual sexual experience. But only a few months later, our friendship went up in smoke.
Often, we had both spent our break times with Victoria and Jane. Two other girls we’d been friends with at primary school. But Karen was growing up very fast and started meeting up with the girl she sat next to, who was in with a popular clique. It didn’t take too long before she wanted to ditch me for the new friends.
To be honest, I didn’t want a bestie anyhow. Not again. So I was happy enough for her to enjoy the company of others, but for some reason, maybe to seem more attractive or assertive to her new chums, she…
