Sometimes I sit and just contemplate what I’ll write next. I think of the character and how I think their story can make an impact on others because, overall there should be a message that resonates long after the book has been closed. As I thought of the teens that would make up the Mystyx I really wanted to encompass a range of topics and emotions—I’m an emotional writer, in case you haven’t noticed—that weren’t normally discussed or most often ignored.

Jake Kramer (Mayhem) was instantly a challenge for me mostly because he was a boy. I can totally relate to all things on the female spectrum of growing up, trying to fit in, stuck-up classmates and troublemakers, etc. But when I sat down to write Jake’s character I was more than a little nervous. Then his story came to me, actually it fell right out of today’s news headlines.

The topic of bullying in schools across the nation is growing. With statistics showing that more than 77% of students are bullied verbally, mentally and physically every year it’s a topic that needs to be discussed even more. As a mother of three the rise in this horrendous pastime concerned me immediately. I’ll share my own personal experience with bullying: there was a girl I went to school with in elementary and part of middle school, she was a grade higher than mine—even though that’s because she’d already failed twice. Anyway, this girl just did not like me. I’d never said more than two words to her but she could not stand the sight of me. There were days that she would say vicious things to me and I remember standing at my locker thinking “what is her problem?” Now, there was never any physical altercation she just seemed to have a lot to say all the time. Looking back now I see that was a form of bullying. I never told my parents or anyone else for that matter, I just figured if I ignored her she’d eventually get tired and stop. Come to think of it, most of the students ignored her, maybe that’s why she always had so much to say hoping one day somebody would listen.

Being bullied creates feelings of isolation, not necessarily fear all the time. There’s a misconception that every student that’s bullied is afraid to fight back. Besides physically—which, of course is prohibited in public and non-public schools—students may not know how to fight back. The first step would be to tell someone, anyone.

The first day of this school year when my youngest daughter, who is a seventh grader, brought home the packet of “homework” for the parents, one of the papers I saw was a Report Bullying form. I read over this form carefully and realized that it was a form to anonymously report any bullying incidents seen or experienced by a student. I was shocked but thought it was a great idea. In talking with my daughter about bullying she relayed that one of the main reasons students in her school don’t report bullying is because they don’t want the rest of the school to think they’re a “snitch”. This was a painful revelation but on another hand I understood exactly what she meant. Jake didn’t want to be a snitch and he thought nobody would believe a guy like him in any case. His choices were different from what most students face today and while he fought back on the only grounds he could—using his supernatural strength—I’m hear to say that there is a way for all students to fight back. Again, the first step is talking about this situation, on all levels, from adults to the students to the administration, getting the word out that bullying will not be tolerated is a beginning.
Mayhem