The new girl

I live in Ireland and I’m 11 years old. In 6th grade, a new girl came to our class. My best friend was the one who helped her settle in the most, so the new girl liked her. My other friends, not so much, because she was terrible at Irish. In fact, she wasn’t good at much of her lessons, and never tried any of her homework. My teacher never did anything about it. Then, on the bus, I reported her for standing up, since I was a monitor and her actions were causing the younger kids to stand up too. She was angry because of this, and told my best friend lies about me. My best friend told me I was a bully, and went off with the new girl to be her friend. My best friend didn’t speak to me at all, and it got upsetting. None of my other friends seemed to believe me either. I tried writing my best friend a letter explaining I never did those things to the new girl, but as soon as she saw it, she crumpled it up and left it on the floor without reading it. The boys picked it up, read the letter and laughed at me. I ran off the the girls toilet block, crying. I didn’t know what to do. That lunch, I cried again, and everyone took pity on me. My teacher found out and didn’t really do much, but we did make up. So whoever is spreading lies about you, don’t just sit back and cry like I did. Tell a trusted adult. Get some help.