Rain

• Molly Hutchings, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

There she stood again, alone on the roof of her school building, in the rain. She never understood why but she was always drawn to the rain. Whenever the sky is hidden by dark, grey clouds she always felt the need to step outside to at least feel the raindrops against her palms. To her, the sound of raindrops against the roof was soothing. She never really had any friends, as if she ever wanted any. At least she though she didn’t She had just moved to a new school after being bullied at her old school. Why was she being bullied? For speaking her mind. Her old class was mostly made up of boys, ignorant boys.
These boys didn’t believe in women’s rights and she felt the need to speak up about it. One class debate was all it took for her class to hate her. The boys in her class would bully her during class time and then tell their friends about her, and why they hate her. Soon she became hated by a group of boys she had never talked to before. Luckily for her this all occurred in the winter. Why? So every recess and lunch time, she was able to isolate herself from everyone who hated her, and let her tears become mixed in with the rain that would pour down so frequently. Alone in the rain, she was able to let all of her feelings out without anyone seeing her.
She was seen as a tough girl, who wouldn’t let what anyone thought of her get to her. She normally wouldn’t be caught dead crying. Anyone would be shocked to see her cry, even herself. But all of this mental abuse was too much for her.
As she stood alone, she took the time to think about in a free that we live in, how is it that someone is bullied for speaking their mind? As the question popped into her mind she began to sit down in the shade of the roof so she wouldn’t make the foolish decision of getting herself any wetter. She pondered the question for a while finding no completely rational answer. She made extremely valid points to her arguments which were always immediately, struck down with hurtful comments or irrational opinions.
What was so wrong for a girl to be seen as an equal? There was none. Through this though, a bad memory came flowing back into her brain, like a waterfall.
“Well you girls don’t treat us as equals,” Her main bully argued, which was silly because she had never treated the boys as lower than her, and she had stated before that she wasn’t fighting for women to be seen in a higher regard than men but to be seen as equals so she fought back by saying
“You don’t even see me as a human being,” she regrated saying this because she knew what would follow and she knew she wouldn’t like it.
“Maybe because you’re not one”
She was brought back to her senses when she heard to bell go, signalling lunch was over. She wiped a few tears away from her eyes, mentally kicking herself and hoping no one would notice, but then again she made extra sure not to make herself known at her new school. She sat down at the back of the class, like always. As the teacher began the lesson, she felt a wave of relief hit her, because she could still hear the rain pouring down outside. Her comfort.