A Lesson in Bullying for Kelly (Week 2 Contd.)

The next few days were a whirlwind of activities for Kelly. Her new friends, especially the girls, really took an interest in her. They asked questions after questions, mentally taking notes to feed to Shaun later. The girls – Sharon, Olivia, and Carol – were surprised to learn that Kelly had never drunk or smoked in her life. She also hadn’t been to a club either.

When she told the girls that she had been with only one guy her entire life and didn’t even have a boyfriend before that, the girls could hardly contain their laughter. This was going to be easier than they thought.

However, when Kelly started telling them how unfamiliar she was with the culture and norms of these new places, the mean girls’ ears perked up. They stole a glance between each other, with Sharon taking the lead.

“Omg, you should have told us that before! We didn’t know that, or else we would never have bullied you.”

“Yeah”, Olivia interjected. “The only reason we were so mean to you is because we thought you were single. Public schools are no place for a single girl!”

“What… What do you mean guys? You know I’m married”, replied Kelly with an embarrassed smile.

“No silly, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about here, in the class. Do you have a boyfriend in the class?” asked Carol in a somewhat accusatory tone.

“No, I’m married! Why would I have a boyfr…” Kelly trailed off, confused.

“Oh, you silly girl. When you talk like that it shows you’re not really familiar with our culture”, came Olivia’s reply with an accompanying smirk.

“I… I don’t understand…”

Sharon took the lead now. “Ok, I’ll explain to you”, she said in a friendly tone. “You see, here, whenever a girl goes to college, if she’s single, she gets picked on by all the guys and girls for being a loser. So, before a girl enters college, she usually picks a boyfriend from the class to protect her. I mean, look at us. All three of us have our boyfriends in the same class, right?”

Kelly was bewildered. “I mean… Yes, I can see that you’re right, but…”

“But what, silly?” replied Carol. Apparently, it was starting to become her pet name for them. Not that Kelly took offence. She found it affectionate, like how her husband calls her babe or honey.

“But, but… What about women who are married?”

“Oh, same rules. Being married at home doesn’t count in the classroom, dummy”, replied Sharon.

Oh, another pet name. How nice of them!

“But, what about my husband? He’s the only man in my life. I can’t just be girlfriend to a random guy!”

“Do you want to keep being bullied?” Carol said with daggers in her eyes.

“No no, of course not. But this all sounds too complicated…”

“Nonsense. There’s nothing complicated about it. You take a boyfriend, and the bullying stops. It’s that simple”, explained Sharon. “Besides, what if it’s not a random guy?” she asked with a sly smirk.

“Not… Not a random guy?” swallowed Kelly.

“Yes, you’ve recently met him”, winked Olivia.

Kelly’s mind went blank. The only people she recently met are the people in her new gang. And all of them had boyfriends or girlfriends. Well, almost all of them…

As her eyes went wide at the realization, Sharon looked her in the eye, “What do you think of Shaun?”

... ... ...

The next day was a Friday, last day of the study week. Following Sharon’s proposition, Kelly’s mind was a jumble of thoughts. There’s no way she could pick up a boyfriend just for the sake of having a normal school life, right? Shaun was extremely handsome, true – but giving him that privilege would surely mean being unfaithful to her husband?

The thought of Shaun unexpectedly caused Kelly to shiver with excitement. Yes, Shaun was tall, imposing, a dominant presence - the few times they got to chatting, Kelly felt light-headed and nervous. She had butterflies in her stomach, whether she liked to admit it or not.

It was a completely new sensation for her. Shaun was the complete opposite of her gentle, loving husband. The thought of John snapped her back to reality. She admonished herself for having such thoughts. Her heart belonged to John - Kelly had no doubts about it.

Following Sharon’s suggestion, Kelly had asked for some time to think it over. Having a ‘school boyfriend’ was a bizarre thought for a woman with modest upbringing, so she was wrestling hard with the idea. Sharon and the girls, though, were having none of it.

They decided to push Kelly with her decision, and their eyes set on another new girl named Amanda. “Time to teach Kelly a lesson in bullying. Sorry, Amanda babe”, thought the sadistic Sharon.

Amanda had joined the school around a month ago. She was a shy nerd who kept mostly to herself. Sharon decided Amanda would be the perfect victim, and this time, Kelly would be their accomplice.

“Hey Kelly, take this chewing gum”, said Sharon, taking the gum she had been chewing out of her mouth.

“Eww, why?” came the reply from a disgusted Kelly.

“Stick it to the loser’s hair”, Sharon pointed to Amanda. “Make sure she doesn’t see you, bestie”.

“Wh…Why?!”

“We told you, single girls in the school get bullied. Do you see Amanda with a bf?”

“N… No”, stammered Kelly.

“There you go. Go, finish the job, then I’ll have something even more fun for you.”

Kelly was visibly shaking as she sneakily stuck the gum to Amanda’s hair. Amanda had really pretty, flowy hair, so Kelly really felt sorry for her.

When she came back to her desk, Sharon and her henchwomen – Olivia and Carol, all high fived her. Even the guys including Shaun were saying how cool she was. Though Kelly felt guilty, she was feeling proud that the gang considered her one of their own now.

For her next cruel trick, Sharon had printed Amanda’s number on a bunch of fliers. The stickers read “Finest whore in the town” and “Call for a good time” with Amanda’s phone number and Instagram ID, along with a picture of her face photoshopped pretty believably on some pornstar’s body. The whole thing took Shaun 10 minutes to make last night after Sharon divulged her plan to him. “Sadistic fucking bitch”, Shaun told her. “Just the way I like it.”.

Sharon tasked Kelly to put up the fliers in the bathrooms, parking lot, and even the nearby bus stop. After the naïve housewife followed her instructions to the letter, much to the delight of her new friends, Sharon gave her one final task.

She told Kelly to grab Amanda’s phone without alerting her. Kelly was horrified. This was straight up theft! Sharon saw her hesitate, so she doubled down on the brunette. “Do you want to be a part of the popular guys or not, Kelly? This is your final test.”

Just then, Amanda came back from the restroom, bawling her eyes out. Apparently, she saw the fliers with her photoshopped face, and already got some lewd messages from random horny guys. As she was crying with her face down on her desk, Sharon nudged Kelly. “Now is your chance, you useless bitch”, she hissed.

Kelly took a couple of unsure steps forward, tiptoeing to Amanda’s desk. Her phone was lying on the desk, right next to the crying girl. Just as Kelly was reaching for the phone, Amanda raised her face. Seeing Kelly stand there, she suddenly hugged her tight, bawling her eyes out.

“The people here are so awful. First the gum, then the fliers. People have been snickering at me all day. No one even came to ask if I’m ok. Only you. Thank you so much for coming over. Thank you. Thank you”, said Amanda, still hugging her.

Kelly looked back at her friends, unsure about what to do. She saw Sharon make a mocking crying gesture, then silently telling her to get the job done.

With a deep sigh, Kelly hugged Amanda back. “Don’t worry, Amanda. It will be ok. Don’t cry anymore”, she said while patting her back. In reality, she stretched out her hand, grabbing the phone and hiding it in her pocket. After a couple of minutes of consoling the crying girl, she went back to her new ‘friends’.

She was feeling awful.

Sharon was delighted to see Amanda’s phone didn’t have a lock. She swiped it open and launched Instagram. Navigating to her profile, she took a picture of the photoshopped flier from earlier, and hit post.

“Finest whore in the town”.

“Call for a good time”.

With her number and realistically photoshopped face.

For all of her thousand followers to see, including her family, friends, and relatives.

“And that is what happens to girls without boyfriends in this school”, whispered Sharon in Kelly’s ears.

The housewife shivered.