For Teens October 22, 2018 Issue

No more mean girls

Marjorie Kehe

It all started at the beginning of the school year with a silly fight with two of my best friends. I assumed it would blow over. It didn’t. Things only got worse, and these friends settled into a pattern of alternately being mean to me and ignoring me.

I recognized this routine only too well. The year before, one of these girls and I had treated another friend exactly the same way—for no good reason. One day we just decided that we didn’t like her anymore, and so we mistreated her.

This had occurred toward the end of the school year. Over the summer, I came to feel deeply ashamed of my behavior. To my great relief, when I saw this girl again in September, I was able to tell her how sorry I was, and she graciously accepted my apology. Just a few days later, the fight with my other friends broke out, and I found myself on the receiving end of the same type of unkindness.

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