Take it
When Grace first saw her new school, she knew she was in trouble. The whole school was separated into friend groups, and they were unmistakably not about to let her in. The principal had a solid grip on her shoulder, and though it was probably meant to be reassuring, it just made her feel like a spooked dog being held by its collar to be prevented from bolting, which she definitely felt like doing. Over the microphone he announced, “This is Grace, our new scholarship student that I told you about.”
Almost instantaneously everyone turned and started hissing to their neighbors. It took Mr. Sanchez (the principal) to bellow “Silence!” to get the school to quiet down, but when they did, he called up Vanessa Wright, the other scholarship student, to show Grace to her classes. Once they got to Grace’s first class, Math, Vanessa rushed off to Science, her first class, with the words of advice to “Stay away from Hadley and her gang.”
Grace just got out her school-issued textbooks from her music-sheet covered locker, when, speak of the devil, she bumped into Hadley who was walking the opposite direction.
“Watch where you’re going!” Hadley barked, not bothering to help her up.
“Sorry,” Grace mumbled under her breath.
Once she picked up her textbooks and stood up, she realized this wasn`t going to end well. The girl had a malicious smile on her face, the I`d-set-the-world-on-fire-just-to-watch-it-burn kind of smile. The sort of smile that makes you feel like a rabbit being circled by a wolf.
“Hey new girl,” she said in a tone that was like poisoned honey.
“Hi,” Grace mumbled back, trying to slip around her at the same time.
With deadly precision, Hadley’s hand shot out and grabbed Grace`s arm. She snarled out
“I said watch where you’re going, you hobo!”
Grace absolutely froze, incapable of forming a thought. She was saved by the bell though.
“I’ll see you later!” she said in that sugar-coated tone of hers and sauntered off.
A few weeks later in the hallway, Grace was walking to her locker when she heard,
“Hey, hobo!”
Grace sighed at the familiar tone that spoke the familiar nickname. “Can you just leave me alone for a single day, Hadley?” she asked, vexation apparent in her voice.
“Now, what fun would that be?” Hadley questioned, with a sadistic smile.
This continued for quite a while. Hadley and her clique, which consisted of her, her right-hand-woman, Jessica, Hadley’s boyfriend, Nick, and a multitude of the girls that hero worshiped Hadley, would corner her before school, when she would be there alone, because her only friend, Vanessa would always get there right before the bell rang, since she could bike to school and didn’t have to worry about highway traffic. The gang wouldn`t physically harm her, they were too busy worrying about ruining their perfect nail jobs. They would usually just call her names stuff like that, mostly. She eventually learned how to avoid them, which included staying near the end of the building after school because they liked to stay at the front of the building. Anyway, at the end of the school day, after she had packed up all her textbooks and things, she sat down on the bench closest to the end of the building. While she waited, she decided to read the announcement board that hung opposite to her. Nothing really caught her eye, until she saw the ad for the talent show. She decided to give it a second glace. See there is a reason she was given a scholarship there. She almost passed out from joy when she realized that there was an eight-hundred dollar reward if you win. After calming down a bit she read on and, with the smile dropping off her face, she realized you had to pay to get in. Not as much as the reward for winning, of course, but still a lot of money for an overworked single mother and her child. The fee was fifty dollars, and Grace just didn`t have that kind of money. That is, until she remembered that her mother’s pay day for both of her jobs was a week before the show, and she knew where her mother hid the money from her jobs.
Grace then had it down to the smallest detail, all flawlessly planned out. The day had finally come and Grace was bent over the opened floorboard, arguing with herself.
“Take it!” she muttered to herself, frustrated.
“Now is not the time for a moral debate!” she hissed under her breath, finally giving up and snatching two twenties and a ten before running out to the car. She felt slightly guilty for stealing the money from her hard-working mom, but she really wanted this new music equipment.
Anyway, the day of the show had come up, and she’s waiting backstage with her guitar in her hand and music in her head. It feels so overwhelming. But, as she reminds herself, she wasn`t about to give up now, after going to all the trouble of writing the entire song from scratch, and stealing the money. After giving herself the pep talk, she sat down on the bench backstage and waited for her name to be called, filled with a fresh confidence, nervous confidence, yes, but confidence all the same. When she hears her name being called she wipes her hands on her jeans and takes a shaky breath before sitting down and plucking it experimentally. Then, opening her mouth she began sing in her angelic yet haunting voice.
Laugh At Me Now - Original Song - Connie Talbot (citation purposes)
Laugh at me now,
I promise it will only make me louder.
Laugh at me now,
Cause' it will only make me work harder.
Don't need your approval,
Just need to know that I'm getting closer.
My plans are bigger than you,
I want to' go places you will never go.
And time will hopefully bring that,
and I'll be the one to say
who’ that girl with the blonde hair is?
I've forgot her name, what a shame,
who is she anyway?
Who's that boy with the dark hair?
I'm sure he's in jail, what a shame,
didn’t like him anyway.
Who's laughing now?
I told you it would only make me better.
Don't get friendly now,
It's too little too late for you to come back.
10 phone calls from you,
none that I've answered to.
And time will hopefully bring that,
and I'll be the one to say
who that girl with the blonde hair is?
I've forgot her name, what a shame,
who is she anyway?
Who's that boy with the dark hair?
I'm sure he's in jail, what a shame,
didn’t like him anyway.
I want to' see my name in lights,
Watch your face light up in jealousy!
Who's that girl with the blonde hair?
I've forgot her name, what a shame,
who is she anyway?
Who's that boy with the dark hair?
I'm sure he's in jail, what a shame,
didn’t like him anyway.
As the song ended she sat there, chewing her lip tensely. A few seconds passed, until the crowd erupted into cheering and clapping. Grace coved her mouth as she beamed, eyes moist with tears. Happy tears, thought Grace, definitely happy tears.
A week had passed and the contestants were waiting for them to announce the winners. Grace was nervous to say the least. Palms sweating, butterflies- no scratch that, elephants stampeding in her stomach. As the principal walked up to the stage and cleared his throat, Grace looked across the gym and met her mother’s eyes, and a hopeful yet nervous smile was exchanged with a comforting and prideful one. At this, Grace was hit by a sharp pang of guilt. You see, she had told her mother about her auditioning, just not about the fee. Grace felt so guilty, because she just realized how much her mom did for her, and she had thrown it back I her face by stealing the money for selfish reasons. She had deceived her mother, just because she wanted new music equipment. And then she remembered how stressed her mom had been when she counted the money and realized that fifty dollars were missing. What made her feel the guiltiest was that fact, when asked what was wrong, her mom had admitted to feeling guilty about not being able to buy her the new music equipment. I screwed up, Grace thought. And with that thought, she realized that yes, she had made a mistake, and pretending she hadn`t wasn`t going to help fix it. So, Grace decided that if she got any money at all, she would give it to her mother. Because, after all, she deserved it.
“In first place, Grace Novak!”
There seemed to be an explosion of cheering in the gym as the roar of noise produced by the students reflected the blinding happiness Grace was feeling. She stood there in shock, as she was pushed towards the stage. She snapped out of it just in time to walk up the stairs and accept the check and ribbon. The rest of the ceremony was just a mess of colors and sounds to her, the only thing she clearly remembered was that Hadley was in 2nd place and Vanessa in 3rd Hadley had done a gymnastics thing, and Vanessa had done this awesome juggling act. After the ceremony, it was the end of the school day, anyway, so they packed up and went home.
“Ma?” she called out, tapping her on the shoulder. “There’s something I want to give to you.”
What is it, Honey?” her mother asked.
“Here, Ma,” she said handing her the check.
Her mother initially started protesting, of course, about how she couldn’t possibly take it and such, but grace was having none of that. The look in her eyes stopped her protesting short.
“Take it!”
And that’s how this story ends, with Grace`s mom having the money safely stuck in her hiding space, and with Grace’s situation at school at least a little bit better, well, she now has a reputation other than “the new kid” and the bullying has lessened up quite considerably. Grace is quite happier, now that she has finally confessed to her mom about stealing the money. She`s also gotten that new music equipment that started this whole mess in the first place.
The End