Gang Up

• Cosima Gilbert, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2014

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

The sound of footsteps pounding closer. I know I should move. Everyone else is running, but I can't. Screaming, running, laughing, arguing, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I can't cope anymore.

I need to escape. It’s impossible. I can't do anything in this wheelchair. Everyone thinks I'm an idiot. I may not be able to talk the same way they do, or walk or run like them, but I'm not stupid. They have no idea what it's like to be me, what I think or feel.

I decided to play gang up today and had a chance to laugh with them as they chased me and I 'wheeled' away. I was having the best time until Harry pushed me over and suddenly I was on the ground, looking up at seven people, laughing. I wanted to cry, and unfortunately I did in front of them. Everything had been ruined and I shut my eyes and wished I were dead.

The teacher carried me up the stairs and into the dreaded sickbay. The nurse, the disinfectant, the SMELL, I hate it all, but most of all I hate the fact that nobody ever wants to be there with me.

This is the fourth school I've been to and I'm only in grade five. I try to do everything I can to make friends, to like the right football team, the right people, to have the right family, but I’m tired now. I don't even watch football!

Again I wait for the ambulance to take me to hospital, in case something is terribly wrong with me.

I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my awful LIFE!

I have hundreds of tubes stuck to my chest, and millions of needles to test my blood, well, that’s how it seems. Oh and let's not forget the oxygen mask I have to wear because they can’t be too careful when I’ve had a fall!

My mum is so worried about me. You know what I think? I think that doctors make junk up so they can freak people out. Maybe doctors enjoy seeing people cry and gather together really late at night and share their stories. Maybe they have nicknames for everyone and mine is ‘wheely nilly’.

"Oh darlin, m' little spider boy, we are all so worried 'bout ya," my aunt says. She's always trying to be 'hip' and thinks she's really 'cool'. I try to avoid her toxic kisses.

"I'm really tired," I say, "I think I’ll get some sleep."

What I didn't know was that as I shut my eyes I would slip off and never return. It seems I had been bleeding in my brain. I'm sad I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to anyone, but I'm happy it’s all over.

I would like to know how Harry, felt when he found out he had killed me.