Mean Girl

Alexia had no respect for me. Since the 3rd grade when she moved into my neighborhood 3 houses down from mine; she has turned my once peaceful world upside down. I was never the most popular kid in our class before Alexia moved in, but I was still liked and respected by the students and my teachers. I never talked back, I always turned in my homework, and I even help tutor other kids after school like I was a teacher-aid. I have never been told I was pretty, smart, or special in all my life, so I just went through life day to day usually ignored by the boys and barely acknowledged by the girls in my class. I was shy and never had enough nerve to go up to any group of girls to ask if I could play with them. Mostly during lunch period I would sit at the table in the back corner of the lunch room and eat by myself. I didn’t seem to have anything in common with the other girls anyways. They always were giggling and pointing at which boy Susan or Tammy liked that day. Or they would just compare each others outfits and bicker about whose ensemble was prettier than the others. My parents were earthy people and never paid much attention to the latest fashion or anything materialistic at all. We were probably the only family on our block that didn’t have any televisions in the house. My parents gave me books and we would play board games together as a family to pass the time. Both my parents are archeologist and so at least 3 times a year I am pulled out of school to accompany my parents on an excavation somewhere exotic. By the time I was in 8th grade I have been to over 20 countries. Egypt was my most favorite trip of them all, because seeing a pyramid in a book or a movie from school never captures the true beauty and magic the man made structures really have. Because of the way I have been raised I have always been the odd person out at school socials. Alexia only made me stand out more by the way she would instinctually seek me out to make my days at school hell. Alexia was 100% gorgeous even in 3rd grade when she walked into our classroom for the first time she beamed a bright light. Her golden hair hung wavy down to the middle of her back. She would always fling it across her shoulder wafting her strawberry shampoo smell right into the boys face and they all would be in awe of her magnificence. Her clothes always looked brand new and I could never tell if she ever got dirty. Even at recess playing 4 square or Tetherball she always came back to class spotless and not a hair out of place. All the girls wanted to be her best friend and all the boys wanted to be her boyfriend. I would just stare at here like the way my mom stared at a new artifact found under a rock. At first I thought she was amazing and full of grace. I guess when she looked at me she felt the complete opposite. I would sometimes catch her staring at me in class with her nose crinkled up with distain and malice all over her face. She would look at me like I had been bathing with pigs and lived in an underground cave. I never understood why she never liked me. She hardly spoke to me until one day in 6th grade. We got locker assignments and for some reason the Gods were angry with me and made the both us locker partners. As soon as she found out her partner was me; the game was on for her. She made sure every day of school was made difficult for me to deal with. She would be standing by our locker with her group of friends, and when she would see me coming, she would say very loudly, “Here comes the Lord of the Flies!, she is so ugly the government moved Halloween to her birthday!” They would all cackle like a group of witches around a cauldron. I would never make eye contact, and just try to hurry and get what I needed out of that locker as fast as I could because the insults never stopped, they just got louder and worse than the last one. People would stop what they were doing just to watch, listen, and laugh at me being humiliated day after day.


By the time we were both in high school she would still make sly comments as she passed me in the hall, but she didn’t make a show about it like she did during middle school. I was a depressed teenager, I was isolated and alone most days. Senior year I was walking home from school one day and after that day my life has never been the same. The normally busy street was unusually empty while I was walking along the sidewalk, and then I heard the rumble of an engine coming from behind me. I didn’t bother to look to see who it was because nobody looks to see who I am. My head was down looking at the sidewalk cracks as I walked along and suddenly I hear someone scream, “Bomb is dropping!!” And next thing I knew I was hit from the top of my head with a large cup of chocolate milkshake. The cup and straw fell to the ground and my entire head and upper body was drenched with the wet cold shake. In shock I look up to see who did this to me and there she was hanging out of her boyfriend’s sun roof yelling “Loooser!!!!” as he drove away. I heard them all laughing. I began to cry. My eyes immediately swelled and hot streams of tears were flowing from me like the shake was flowing off my head. I wanted to just kill myself after that. Year after year Alexia has gone out of her way to make me feel like I was not good enough to be on this earth. As far as she was concerned I was dead to her already. I had nothing to clean up with, so I just kept walking home with chocolate milkshake all over me. With every step it would just drip off my head and fingers leaving a trail like I was a slug. At the time I felt like a slug or something worse. I finally turned on my block and I found myself standing in front of Alexia’s house. Her boyfriend’s car was parked in her driveway and I could here them laughing and carrying on in the house. I was so angry! I wanted revenge. 10 years she has tortured me and I never retaliated once. Today was the day to fight back!

Breathing hard and blinded by my tears I walked to my house. Neither of my parents were home, they were actually out of the country and wouldn’t be back for another 5 days. I walked upstairs, took off my clothes, and took a quick shower. Still blinded by my anger, I put on some black sweat pants and shirt and ran downstairs to our garage. I found what I was looking for. I grabbed the can of gasoline and a book of matches. I was in a trance, my mind was blank, and my eyes could only see red. I casually walked to Alexia’s house and began to pour the gasoline around the parameter of her house. I sprayed all of the door knobs and windows with a sealant I found in the garage. It was the middle of the afternoon and nobody saw what I was doing. Alexia and her friends didn’t hear what I was doing either. After saturating the house really good I took the match book out of my pocket. I stood there, frozen in time, dazed; my mind was still in a trance. It was like I was having an out of body experience. I began to walk back home, but just before I left her lawn I struck the match and threw it in her yard.

I woke up a few hours later in my bed. My room was dark and the house was empty. The sound of the sirens didn’t wake me up, but the silence in my head and my house is what startled me. Now I was back in my body and I remembered what I had done only a few hours earlier. I looked out my window and I could see black smoke still rising where Alexia’s house once stood. I ran outside to see what I did for myself, and the fire truck, police, and ambulance was still parked outside her house. The firemen put the fire out, but the house was burnt so badly only the support beams stood. The entire neighborhood was outside crowded behind the yellow tape. I swallowed hard. I walked up to my neighbor Mrs. Jefferson and asked her what happened like I didn’t already know. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. She said, “Oh my goodness, it’s so horrible. I can’t believe this happened in our neighborhood!” She began to cry harder now and her body shook. I instinctually held her. I tried to comfort her and tell her it was an accident. Just as those words part my lips I seen the EMT people wheel out 4 body bags; slowly loading them up in the back of the ambulance’s. As I held Mrs. Jefferson still crying on my shoulder, I felt numb and emotionless. I actually felt relief like a load has been lifted from my chest. In between sniffles Mrs. Jefferson said she over heard one of the detectives say that looked like a homicide and foul play was a definite factor. She said that she hopes they catch the monster that did such a thing to 4 young beautiful kids. I just patted her on her back and said, “I am sure they will do everything in their power to find out who did this.”