I've always felt isolated from everyone else. I'm socially introverted.

My grade has 88 kids. About 15 girls are the "popular" and mean group. The rest are just, Idk, people. And I have all of these stories...

1. In second grade, I sat down at a table next to Bully #1 and Bully #2. They both moved away. I didn't want to sit alone. I scooched up next to them again. The instant I sat down, they moved even farther down the table. I followed them again. This happened a third time. Then they said to me, "Look, we don't want to sit with you" and scooched away again, and so I ate my lunch alone.

2. Bully #3 moved with her whole cluster of meanies and said to me, "I like your shoes." Her shoes were fashionable, for 4th grade, at least. Mine were these ugly navy belt-buckles. I didn't think anything of it, butI said, "Uh...thanks." She giggled and moved away with her whole group fanning out behind her.

3. About a year ago I was looking through my Instagram photos and I saw a picture of a lot of girls that I know and am friends with at a pool party. It really hurt.

4. I'm not a bystander. Even though I'm bullied sometimes, I still take the heat for other things. For example, in first grade a girl was being picked on in the lunch room. There was this whole circle of girls around her, calling her ugly. I almost always sat alone, isolated at this table near the back. I watched, but I didn't do anything because I figured it was a one-time thing. The next day they did it again. Right when I realized that it was a daily thing, I walked right up into the circle (they parted around me like I was some noxious gas) and said, "Hi, I'm (instert name here), what's your name?" And she told me and I asked her to sit next to me and she did and I really made an effort to talk to her. I was her very first friend, and she was mine. I'm going into 9th grade, and we are still close friends.

5.One time I was at a party and one of my friends--friend #1--was rude to me--RUDE, rude. She had begged me to throw out this piece of garbage for her before, but I got so mad that I just threw it in her direction and stalked off. When I walked back a half an hour later to get food, she got in my direction and started insulting me. I told her to knock it off and she said, "Go f*** your mother." I turned around, found a bench, and texted my mom the entire story. After I finished, friend #2, who was close with friend #1, asked me what I was doing and who I was texting and stuff (she'd been beside friend #1 the entire time) so I told her that I'd texted my mom about what friend #1 said. Friend #2 ran off and told friend #1, who began to bawl and friend #2 came back and started screaming at me about it.

Those are some experiences that stuck with me. Even if you're bullied, don't be a bystander. Be victimized together. It's a lot less hard. I have an entire group of antisocials (as I call them) that I hang out with. It helps.