He was innocent when I first knew him.

Not caring what anyone thought and doing what was right. He was oblivious to anything cruel anyone could ever do, and not a cruel thought passed through his mind or escaped his thin lips. But this was then. When he used to be happy.

But soon, things changed. He saw things he'd never noticed before, people were cruel, and they led him to a side of himself he didn't even know he was capable of. Those people took who he once was and forced him to put a mask over it, because if he didn't, they'd wipe him off their feet and throw him away. He bends the mirror to look taller, but he's already above us all.

My school changes things. The school values plastered on the wall seem like a sick joke and the staff smile and say hello so that people can look at this fake mask and convince themselves that it'll be ok. But the truth is, this school is crueler than you could ever expect. When I first came here, I thought it would be great, because people always hope for the best, and when I saw those school values, smiling staff, and clean floors, I was excited. I have never been so wrong about anything.

Within the walls of my school are people who are more cruel than you could ever expect of someone this age. And all these kids just walk around in this sugar-coated false reality that they live in because they think it would hurt too much to stop and see what was actually happening.

People don't care if your grandpa died yesterday, or if you don't have any friends, or if your girlfriend broke up with you. They don't care if they hurt you or screwed up your life. Because they know if they stopped to see what was actually happening, they would be guilty or sad or whatever people feel when they look at someone who's been through something because of them.

This school is a lie. The school values are nauseating and the people are cruel, just so they can live in their false reality and not even look around because they know that if they did, it wouldn't be what they wanted to see.

I look at someone who used to be so kind and so happy and watch as these people tear them down and make them feel like nothing. This school doesn't value kindness or honesty or whatever the hell is plastered to that wall. All it does is make you feel like an idiot for ever expecting that something good could come of being here.

All you can do is hope that you make it out before it's too late. You can hope to just keep going and get it over with, even though every day feels like forever, and every year you feel like it will never end, and every second each fiber in your body is burning to get out and never go back again.

And that's what I'll do.

I'm going to get the hell out of here in a couple of months, and I swear I will never come here again. It will be over. I'll make it.