All names have been changed to protect identities.
Child Pornography Scandal
Let me tell you about this girl Carol. Carol was crazy. Like certified straight jacket padded room thought ketchup was spicy crazy. She was also a huge attention seeker. Probably in the contract she signed to be so bat shit crazy. Carol’s favorite source of attention was from-like all budding middle school girls-boys. Short, tall, fat, skinny, paper white, nighttime black whatever she didn’t care. As long as their eyes were on her, she was satisfied. Now Carol was one of those annoying girls you weren’t really friends with but she just kind of inserted herself into every situation and it was simply too much effort to deny her entry. So naturally she hung out with my friends and I. Eventually wormed her way into the number 2 position in our little hierarchy.
Around this time she started to develop multiple crushes on pretty much any boy that gave her a second glance. It was funny at first watching her go through wild emotion charged phases of crush rejection anger new love. Then it very quickly became annoying. Around the time we were ready to just block her from the group chat on kik, things became interesting again. Turns out she was sending these boys nudes~ A 12 year old girl sending around nudes to random boys in the class. By the end of sixth grade the whole class had seen what she looked like naked. She didn’t seem to care though. Like I said, any attention was good attention to her.
When one of the boys in class got caught by his mom watching her strip tease on skype, it was discovered she had a weekly night chat with the boys on Skype, charging them in a strip game. Different dollar amounts for every item of clothing she took off. Keep in mind, this is seventh grade. Of course the PTA board and the school had to address the issue, other than the police report and the narrow escape of sex offender on the records of my classmates, we also had to endure a school assembly. Carol was made to stand in front of us and act out skits detailing restraint, detecting predators and proper online behavior. I think that was the first time I’d ever seen Carol not like all eyes on her.
Vandalism Scandal
There wasn’t too much to do after school. We were good at using our imagination, but adrenaline filled situations intrigued us more. I remember garage roof hopping where we’d all go to this boy Fred’s house and climb from his fence onto the roof of his garage. The alley where his garage was, was nothing but a long stretch of small garages. Perfect for us to chase each other across. Apparently that wasn’t enough for the boys, and they took up tagging the garages as well. And obviously they weren’t very smart about it, because they immediately got caught.
I remember coming out of school to see two of my most well liked classmates being hauled into the back of a police car. In the seventh grade. Couldn’t y’all chill for a second and enjoy childhood before you begin your criminal career? I guess not. Because they got caught a second and third time and one of them who was a year older(held back in 5th grade), 14, got sent to juvie.
Suicide Gangs
A lot of the girls in my class suffered from depression and general anxiety. One of them, let’s call her Anna, liked to bring others into her misery. Whenever she was going through a depressive episode, she liked to gather all the girls and cry together. That might seem like a healthy alternative to being alone. And it would’ve been if she didn’t reinforce to everyone present how bad their life was. It wasn’t a healing circle. It was a pity circle. For everyone to fight over who had it the worst, but to collectively agree they wish they were dead. Pretty sick I know.
Not as sick as trying to get everyone into cutting. She actually succeeded with Carol and another girl Kary. Eventually even going so far as to plan a group suicide. Luckily that never took place and there was parental intervention before then. I went to the teachers I trusted and the principal to organize it. I may have been desperate to fit in and sad inside, but I wasn’t about to let anyone die.
Dancing in the Rain
To end on a more lighthearted note, I do have one distinctly fond memory. Me, Anna and this boy Alex were all hanging out together, somewhat of a rarity to be just us three. We decided to get milkshakes, me vanilla, him chocolate and her strawberry. We were a perfect Neapolitan. We headed to a nearby park to swing and enjoy the shakes. Before we knew it, rain started to fall. Then pour, until it was raining buckets all around us. Rather than run home, we decided fuck it. Let’s stay and play tag. So we did. This was one random afternoon in 8th grade. Just me and a couple friends acting complete fools slipping and sliding all over a children’s park in an intense game of tag in the rain. Laughing and screaming high off the adrenaline of being soaking wet outside, running atop a milk shake sugar high, and reveling in the joy of youth.
These are some of my main memories from middle school. Do I regret knowing these people and doing what I did? No. Would I ever go back and do it all over? Not a chance in hell.