Irony Story- The Second Table on The Left

Amanda looked on as the popular girls laughed at the small girl in the corner nibbling on an unpeeled grapefruit all by herself. The cafeteria was abuzz with morning complaints and sleepy chatter. Students entered the cafeteria and strolled mindlessly toward their usual tables. Everyone knew not to sit at the second table on the far left. That belonged to Brittany, Alexis, Sidney and Juliet. The kids knew not to sit near them, unless they wanted to be watched and ridiculed. The girl with the banana was new, and didn't know the rules.

Amanda looked on from her small table of friends, all noticing the bullying, but too submissive to say a thing about it. They didn't even stand up for Amanda when she was the target of Brittany's constant jokes and Juliette’s insulting remarks. Amanda wishes she could help the girl. She wouldn’t know what to say. What do you say to the new girl  who has already found herself a cruel group of bullies?

As Amanda sits uncomfortably in her hard grey cafeteria chair, she wonders how anyone could stand to be so cruel. She wonders what that girl with the grapefruit ever did to them, but already knows the answer. They take people down to build themselves up. Tragically no one ever stands up to them, but Amanda wishes someone would. Anyone but her.

Amanda had come to hate those girls over her four years here. The bell rings blandly in the background, sending everyone to start their monotonous days. The bullies stand up and begin to walk to their first period class, forgetting about the poor girl that they just tore down mentally.

That day passed slowly, with the memory of that freshman’s face when she realized the most popular girls in the school were laughing at her fresh in her mind.  Amanda hadn't stopped thinking about her, not even during her AP stats test. She wondered what she could do. She should have stood up to Brittany and her cult. During last block she decided she had to do exactly what she had originally avoided. The plan was set in her head, nothing can stop her now.

The next morning at 7:20 Amanda entered the already crowded cafeteria. She saw Brittany, Alexis, Sidney, and Juliet already sitting at their regular table, already having found another victim. Amanda watched them for a moment, before weaving through the throngs of students chatting with their friends. Nothing can stop her now. She hears snippets of conversations, but she isn't paying attention. Her determination to stand up to the bullies fills her head. Nothing can stop her now.

The girl’s heads turn as they sense her approaching. Their faces transform, all of a sudden serious, and the loud room seems silent. Amanda advances and as soon as she opens her mouth to begin her rant, Sidney cuts her off.

“Hey Amanda! I absolutely love your dress today! It’s like soooo pretty I wish I could pull that off like you do! And your necklace! It’s beautiful!”

Amanda is shocked. She has never heard Sidney compliment anyone, ever.

“I totally agree!” Juliet exclaims, “Come sit, we have an empty chair.”

Amanda has never seen anyone else sit at their table. As she sat down, she was expecting her presence to be awkward and unwanted, but instead she fell easily into their conversation about a new movie that had just come out. Mid laugh, Amanda sees the girl with the grapefruit sit back in the seat she was in yesterday. Alexis notices too, and points her out to the group.

“She looks like she just rolled out of bed and stole her clothes from a retired clown on the way to school, all while applying eye shadow to her eyebrows. They are legit pink.” exclaims Brittany, loud enough for the entire cafeteria to hear. Everyone turns to stare at the outcast to see if the statements were true.

The girl’s cheeks flush red with embarrassment as she shoves her face in a book. Amanda has completely forgotten about her previous notion to stand up for the girl as she laughs along. She has never laughed so hard in her life. She has finally found the place where she feels comfortable. These girls and their jokes make her feel like she belongs with them.

Amanda falls easily into the daily routine of meeting her new friends at that same table, at the same time. The most popular girls in the school were no longer only Brittany, Alexis, Sidney and Juliette. People now included Amanda on that list. She never once thought about standing up for someone again, not even as their list of victims piles up without a care.

In May the freshman with the grapefruit that was their victim in late September approached the girls at the second table on the left. Her mind was set on standing up to those horrible girls. Marsha had reached her breaking point when she witnessed her friend be publicly humiliated by the five bullies, all because of a shirt.

Marsha pushed her way through the crowd, struggling because of her height, but finally approaches the table. Marsha expects to be humiliated by Brittany, who usually runs the destruction, but today another girl takes her place.

“Look at her! She thinks she can talk to us!” laughs Amanda easily, like ruining lives comes easy to her.

“I bet she is thinking that we are members of the denim jumpsuit support club! Honey, that meeting is in SSR!” yells Amanda, her words oozing sarcasm.

The laughing continues, radiating throughout the entire room. In a fit of laughter, Sidney knocks over a chair and sends it flying towards where Brittany had just tripped Marsha. The metal base of the chair strikes Marsha’s head with enough force to send her to the ground, knocked out cold.

Marsha blinks open her eyes to five girls’ faces standing over her. The girls immediately calls for a doctor, and when he comes running in, he begins to explain the situation. These girls, named Brittany, Sidney, Juliet, Alexis, and Amanda, are  her best friends. He continues to explain how Marsha lost her memory and it is good that she was rushed to the hospital so quickly. She is lucky to have such caring friends.