Cari

(prompt: Start a story with the line "Everyone whispered about _______, but no one had the courage to talk to her.")

Everyone whispered about Cari, but no one had the courage to talk to her. The poor dear had chosen to wear a pretty white dress of all things.

Nathan had noticed it first; she'd gotten up to sharpen her pencil and that's when he saw it. It was small at first, but by the second period it had grown to the size of her hand.

Of course Nathan was your typical immature, grade 7 boy and while the female body had become quite attractive to him, its functions remained a dirty joke. As soon as he saw the tiny red flag he immediately pointed it out to the two boys he sat with who gasped and made their own crude comments about the little accident.

Only 5 minutes of class remained at that point, but Nathan and his gang easily spread the word to two-thirds of their classmates. Cari sat at the back with the other special kids so it was easy for her to miss the heated whispers flying around the room.

I was in the other third of the class, but I sat next to Nathan in second period so it wasn't long before I, too, was informed. I had yet to receive my first "gift", so I had no idea what Cari was going through. I wouldn't get to experience that part of a woman's life until the next year in grade 8. Thankfully I didn't have any incidents happen that were made public to my entire grade.

I wish the "gifted" girls would have sympathized with Cari, but alas, middle schoolers are cruel. Besides, Cari was not the kind of girl you made friends with. She was the kind of girl you pitied and joked about behind her back - or to her face if you were one of those kids.

So in second period when I was informed of Cari's incident, I did nothing. I just kept looking back at her table like Nathan and his buddies, waiting to see what would happen.

I saw the moment when she found the spot. At that point it had grown, so she had to bundle the once-white fabric in her hand as she went to the front of the room to ask the teacher's permission to go to the bathroom. At first she was told, "No. Class just started, you should have gone during break." But Cari then whispered the situation to the teacher at which point she was allowed to leave.

As soon as Cari left the room, the kids in the room who knew all started to giggle and fill in the others about what was going on. I don't remember what we learned that day in science class, but I do remember the awful feeling I had as the day continued.

The next time we saw Cari, we were returning to home room after second period. She was in a new set of clothes and sat at the foot of her locker with her arms wrapped around her knees. As we came into the hallway she lowered her head to hide her tears. Everyone avoided her as we walked by in the hall.

By the end of the day the whole grade 7 wing knew about what happened to Cari. One creative group of girls replaced Cari's name in the Bloody Mary chant saying that if you spun 3 times in front of a mirror repeating "Bloody Cari", when you stopped and looked in the mirror you would get your period.

Since I was an eye witness to the events, I told my side of the story to the friends not in my class. Eventually the whole thing blew over, but if Cari had any chance of escaping the social rejects group, it died along with her white dress that day.

Every once in a while I think of Cari and wonder what happened to her. I always feel bad for the way she was treated and even though I never did or said anything to her, I feel shame that I didn't show her some kindness. I often wish I'd had to courage to be a friend to kids like Cari. I wish I wasn't so worried about what the cool kids thought of me and I wish I'd done the right thing more often.

So to all the Caris out there, I'm sorry. While I wasn't the one who actually bullied you, I didn't do anything to stop it which is just as bad. I'm sorry I didn't have the courage to do the right thing and I'm sorry that my cowardice didn't make your life any brighter. I promise to teach my children to be kind and more importantly to stand up for others. It may not change what happened to the Caris of my generation, but hopefully my future kid can make someone's life a little brighter by being a friend to them and doing the right thing instead of the cool thing.