Michael Lopez and Sophia Salcido Lopez and Salcido 1

English 3H: American Literature

Ms. Storer, Block 3
November 26, 2019
Living the Hard Life
It is September in 2019 and a 16 year old girl named Kylie Maud had just changed schools from
the other side of Tampa, Florida. She is starting school at Eastlake Ranch High School next
Monday and doesn’t know whether to be excited or afraid. Hopefully it all goes well…

Kylie, who is a very confident, outgoing person, stands to the right side of the stage which
represents the hallway at the dimly lit Eastlake Ranch Auditorium speaking to the audience in a
quiet, but powerful tone describing her high school experiences in vivid detail.

Kylie: in front of the lockers It was the first day of junior year, I liked all my classes and
everything was going well. The next few weeks that went by I was doing well academically, I
had good friends, and I started a happy relationship.

Scene transitions into Kylie walking towards her friends standing at the lockers.

Kylie: turns to her friends Hey so do you guys know what happened this morning?

Laura: What do you mean?

Both Laura and Jack look confused.

Kylie: Ok so when I walked into school it got really quiet and people started whispering. I think
they were whispering about me. Do you think I'm just overreacting ?

Kylie nervously fidgets with her phone while awaiting their response

Jack chimes into the conversation

Jack: looking up from his phone for a second to speak to Kylie It’s probably nothing, you're just
overthinking it.

The group walks off to their classes talking and laughing as if their previous conversation never
happened.

Scene ends.

The new scene begins during lunch at Kylie’s school in the hallway next to the lockers. Scene is
brightly lit and sparsely populated.

At the beginning of lunch, Kylie goes to meet her boyfriend Jerry at her locker but when she gets
there she sees him tearing the paper off her locker. She then walks up to him to ask him what he
is doing.
Kylie: speaks to Jerry in concerned tone What are you doing?

Jerry: speaks in a standoffish tone Nothing I just thought maybe you wouldn't want all this paper
on your locker.

Jerry continues trying to get rid of the paper while looking at the locker as if he was trying to
find a way to say something

Kylie: I don’t think that’s it, you looked angry.

Jerry: starts acting defensive Well it is. I was just trying to do something nice but now your just
questioning me.

Jerry is constantly avoiding eye contact with Kylie.

Kylie starts to get very irritated.

Kylie senses that something is wrong so she reaches for the paper. Something is written on the
paper so Kylie starts to read it. What she finds are notes that are making fun of her saying she
has no real friends, she has no social life, she is a failure, and that she is the least intelligent out
of everyone.

Kylie’s boyfriend begins to speak quietly sensing that Kylie was in shock.

Jerry: I was trying to hide it before you came to your locker, I didn’t want you to be upset.

Jerry waits for Kylie's reaction not knowing how she will react.

Kylie looks confused, is silent for a moment, and then begins to speak to Jerry.

Kylie: You know what it’s fine it’s proably some stupid joke.

Kylie smiles and walks away. As she walks away her smile quickly fades. Her boyfriend is left
utterly confused.

As Kylie walks she has the notes clutched in her hands

For the next few days, Kylie just goes through the motions of school. She continues to receive
paper notes, then she receives text messages from unknown numbers. Kylie will be standing on
the right side of the stage while signs go around her that represent the text conversation she has
with her bullies.
Each day the scene around Kylie changes as the bullying continues. The colors fade, the voices
of people are like static, and everything seems like a blur. This will be visualized by the light
fading out.
Finally, while walking down the hallway,Kylie is tired of being bullied so she replies to one of
the anonymous text messages.

The scene moves to Kylie texting the bullies on her phone in her kitchen, the conversation is
being shown to the audience with the use of signs that have the text message on them.

Finds out some of the people and confronts them in the hallway, in a stern, yet calm manner.

Kylie: Why are you doing this to me?

Kylie is not one for emojis but you tell from the words she is typing that she is angry.

Amanda, Carol, Peter, and Aaron: All in the same chat; Amanda begins to say: Because we can
and honestly you’re a little unbearable.

Kylie: What do you mean we? There is more than one person!? Can you please just stop, I dont
have the patience for this anymore.

Peter: Ur just being over dramatic we r not that bad.

Carol: Your just mad that you can't do anything good with your life.

Kylie: What is it about me that made you guys come after me??

Peter: I mean for starters, your just a whore who can't do anything good with her life

Aaron: He's not wrong. You aren't anyone special. You are just an irrelevant girl who thinks that
she can come and act like your all that and put herself above everyone

Kylie who is extremely confused gives them an explanation to why they might be saying these
things

Kylie: Look, I don't have a clue to where and why you guys thought of me like that, but I have
been living my best life; happy, loved, and everything else you can think of. I came into this
school wanting to continue living that good and positive life. You guys for some reason just
decided to start attacking me for reasons that you guys probably have with yourself. I understand
that you guys are most likely feeling that and you guys are just letting that anger and emotion out
but you really need to learn that what your doing is only making it worse.

The whole group who is in utter shock all begin to take a step back and think about what was
happening

The following day, the bullies came up to Kylie to give an apology by the lockers.

Amanda and Carol are the first to come up to her in the hallway and say sorry. When doing so,
they both are beginning to cry
Amanda and Carol: Listen kylie, we don't know how words can explain how we feel… We are
so so sorry about what happened. We just thought that if we were to make fun of you, that it
would make every problem go away.

Right when Carol and Amanda finish, Aaron and Peter approach as well with the same
reasoning

Peter and Aaron: we thought about it a lot last night and we both thought that what we did was
really wrong. We obviously cannot forget the fact that we did that, but we were hoping that you
could maybe forgive us. The reason we did all this was we thought that if we were to ridicule
you that we would feel better about ourselves, but after you pointed it out it ended up hurting us
more.

Kylie: Listen, what you guys did was COMPLETELY disrespectful. I understand that you guys
may be fighting things with yourself, but that does not mean that you have to take it out on me.
Though at the same time, I understand that you guys were all hurt and wanted to let it out. Now
that you have explained to me the reason why this was happening, I will be here for you guys if
you need someone to talk to, even though you guys made fun of me.

Scene ends with the newly formed group discussing their inner problems in a heartfelt and
emotional discussion

The End.