Mindy was a party girl. She never drank or did drugs, but she loved the music, the dancing, and the thrill that came with the party. And that’s exactly what she was doing the night of Halloween. By midnight, at her friend Troy Daylen’s house, the neon lights were shining throughout the room, the music was blaring, and the bodies around her were dancing to the rhythm of the bass. Her own laughter could be heard amongst the entire crowd but she couldn’t care less. Since it was Halloween, she was dressed as Tinker Bell from her favorite story “Peter Pan.” The green of the dress she was wearing was mesmerizing in the atmosphere of the room and her hair was sticking to the back of her neck. To catch a small break, Mindy broke away from the crowd and made her way over to the couch. She pulled out her phone to check the time and began to panic. It was 2:30 a.m. and her parents instructed her to be home by midnight. For all she knew, they probably had a search warrant out for her right now.
Troy Daylen was the host of the party, but that was only for popularity. The boy never partied much. Mindy pushed her way through the crowd and over to where he was standing. She was trying her hardest not to panic. “Troy,” she called to him, trying to speak above the music. “Hey, would you mind taking me home? I came with a friend but I think she left already so I don’t have my car.”
“What’s the matter, M? Did you have too much to drink?” he teases.
She rolls her eyes. “Uh, no. I’m just really late.”
He studies her for a moment and nods, grabbing his keys. The ride to her house was quiet until they pulled into her driveway. Troy turned himself in her direction and asked, “Why do you come to these parties, anyway?”
Mindy considers this for a moment and decides he isn’t going to get a serious answer. She had his full attention in the palm of her hand. “You know me, always here for the alcohol,” she jokes.
“Goodnight, Mindy,” he laughs.
“Goodnight,” she smiles. She gets out of the car and heads into her house, waving a thank you to Troy as he leaves to go back to his party.
The door squeaks too loudly as she walks in and her parents are on her within the second. Her father stays quiet as her mother screams at her, scolding her for every night she came home late before this. To lighten the blow a bit, she tells her parents that she lost track of time and that Troy had brought her home. They both admired Troy, always compared and contrasted him to their own daughter. After all, he had a perfect 4.0 GPA, a football scholarship to any college he wanted, and volunteered at the charity banquet downtown every year for the families of fallen firefighters. To them, he was golden. Hearing that he was the one who brought her home, her mother stopped yelling and, instead, promptly told her to go up to her room. She did as she was told and threw herself onto her bed, way too tired to even change into her pajamas. Just like that, she fell asleep.
It wasn’t until 8 a.m. the next morning that her mother woke her up for church. Her mother, being the way she is, already has her clothes picked out for her. She crawls out of bed and drags herself to the bathroom where she showers and changes, then slaps on some makeup before leaving. The wet hair on her shoulders bugs her so she puts it up in a bun on top of her head to get it out of her face. When she arrives at church, she sits in the back row as always. Feeling something was off, she looked up to find many girls from her school turning back to look at her, laughing. What was so funny? Maybe, she thought, her wet hair looked oily instead of wet, so she took it out of her bun. The other girls just rolled their eyes and a few guys looked her way and snickered. She crossed her arms and lowered her head, feeling vulnerable.
The next day at school wasn’t much better. In fact, things just seemed to progressively get worse. Soon, the entire school was in on the joke except for her. Confiding in Troy once again, she decided to ask him what was going on. He was in a group of friends and refused to talk in private. One of his arrogant football buddies saw Mindy and butted his way into the conversation. “Hey, Troy,” he laughed, “Was this the girl that was all over you?” The rest of the group laughed with him.
“Excuse me?” she retorted.
“Troy told us how drunk you were after his party. Heard you were throwing yourself at him by the end of the night. It’s kind of pathetic.”
Mindy couldn’t seem to find her words, but when she did, she directed them towards Troy. “Please, I’m not that desperate,” she spit out, her voice cracking before she could finish the word “desperate.” She walked away as quickly as she could with tears in her eyes, unable to believe her friend could do this to her. Her party-girl reputation was already on the verge of a bad rumor, but this lie set it off like a bomb. She managed to swallow back her embarrassment for the rest of her classes until she got on the bus to go home. The 15 minute ride was brutal. Everyone had heard how rude she was to the star athlete for “telling her secret he couldn’t keep because he was worried about her.” Everything was turning around on her in a single day.
When Mindy got home, she ran up to her room and locked herself in, refusing to eat dinner. Things had to get better, she thought. It was a weekend thing and everyone would be over it by tomorrow, if not then by the end of the week. The thought was so naive but she dared to have hope and it failed her. The rest of the week turned into a month and a month turned into five months. The rumors never stopped. Not a lot of gossip happened in the small town they lived in, so she was now the center of attention. She stopped going to parties but that didn’t stop the student body from creating something crazy in their minds and suddenly becoming true.
How could this happen to her? She never really even talked to anyone. She was quiet, made good grades, and was nice to everyone. She just trusted the wrong people. It was ridiculous to think that all of this had started because of one sarcastic remark she made to Troy’s question. All he needed were those words as sparks to his flame. But now, instead of a campfire starting with the people at the party that night, it’s now a wildfire that’s spread to nearly the entire time. Eventually, Mindy got tired of feeling like this, tired of feeling like even more of an outcast. She decided to get help by telling her parents what was going on. They knew there was something wrong from the start but put it all down to teenage hormones. Of course, they didn’t believe that it was Troy who had started all of this. What they assumed was that she got herself into some argument with the wrong person at the party and now it was backfiring. All the same, they were her parents and they still wanted to help her.
Within the next month, they were packing their things to move to a whole new city since they couldn’t seem to contain the rumors in the town they were in. It reflected badly on their parenting as well. The new city was nice, despite how busy it was. She made friends almost immediately after she started school. No one there knew the terrible things they were saying about her back home and, because it was a small town, it was doubtful they ever would. Mindy found a new home, a new church, new friends, and a fresh start. It would be a while before she could fully trust anyone again but she was willing to try, to get that awful weight of sadness and humiliation off her chest.
She would never forget the way one joke led to one rumor, which led to hundreds of lies leading to a horrible reputation. One thing piled on top of another and she experienced firsthand how truly awful and effective the snowball effect was. But just when she thought she couldn’t handle it, she got help and turned her life around. Now, she had a perfect, but not too perfect, reputation at her new school. Mindy has shared her experiences with closely trusted friends and they were there to comfort her, not to ridicule. Not once did she believe she could overcome the effects bullying and rumors had on her life. But she’s prospering now with a new found confidence. She made it, and she’s going to continue to do so by helping others make it through their experiences, too.