“Ha, ha...” Shouted the many students, their laughs like speartips. I sat there, on the ground, fighting back tears, as I picked up my school supplies, stuffing them hurriedly into my backpack. “HA, HA, HA, HA...!” The students screamed, echoing throughout the building, directing them at me, trying with all their might and volume to break my ears and my spirit.

I picked up my backpack, slinging it over one shoulder, then running home, running with all my speed, energy, and endurance, wishing I was safe, safe from the noise and headache that came. It was like a homemade present given to you, only to discover that it was filled with poison, poison that was dripping all over you, going through your ears, then, turning into acid, acid that caught you, that gave you what only your worst enemy could wish to give to you. The box was really full of pain, pure pain, pain that was infecting everything, every piece inside your head, making you only know, feel, hear, taste, see, pain.

I ran home, tasting pain in the form and shape of tears running down my cheeks, to seek quiet peace inside my mouth, finally dissolving on my bouncing tongue. I reached for my house key once I had reached my destination, unlocking the door, bursting into the mudroom.

I ran past mom’s office, where she was working. The door was open… I didn’t care. The key was still in the lock… I didn’t care. The cats were going to get out… I didn’t care. I ran up the stairs and burst through the door and into my air-conditioned fortress of solitude, my quiet, peaceful room. I had weakly pushed the door closed, with such little strength in my horrible state, that the door wasn’t fully closed, though it still blocked my view of the hallway. I sat on the floor, hugged my knees close, and started to rock back and forth, back and forth, all the while I asked myself why such happy sounds brought such horrible scars.