Michele

“Life is a fight, but not everyone’s a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species.”
― Andrew Vachss, Terminal

“Ignoring is what you are supposed to do with bullies, so they get bored and leave you alone. But the problem in school is that they don't get bored, because whatever else there is to do is more boring still.”
― Paul Murray, Skippy Dies

“Roo: What’s your definition of popularity?

Hutch: I used to think people were popular because they were good-looking, or nice, or funny, or good at sports.

Roo: Aren’t they?

Hutch: I’d think, if I could just be those things, I’d – you know – have more friends than I do. But in seventh grade, when Jackson and those guys stopped hanging out with me, I tried as hard as I could to get them to like me again. But then . . . (shaking his head as if to clear it) I don’t really wanna talk about it.

Roo: What happened?

Hutch: They just did some ugly stuff to me is all. And really, it was for the best.

Roo: Why?

Hutch: Because I was cured. I realized the popular people weren’t nice or funny or great-looking. They just had power, and they actually got the power by teasing people or humiliating them – so people bonded to them out of fear.

Roo: Oh.

Hutch: I didn’t want to be a person who could act like that. I didn’t want to ever speak to any person who could act like that.

Roo: Oh

Hutch: So then I wasn’t trying to be popular anymore.

Roo: Weren’t you lonely?

Hutch: I didn’t say it was fun. (He bites his thumbnail, bonsai dirt and all.) I said it was for the best.”
― E. Lockhart, Real Live Boyfriends: Yes. Boyfriends, Plural. If My Life Weren't Complicated, I Wouldn't Be Ruby Oliver

“Often the right path is the one that may be hardest for you to follow. But the hard path is also the one that will make you grow as a human being.”
― Karen Mueller Coombs, Bully at Ambush Corner