Tall Tanyah

Tall Tanyah

by Vyvyaan Akujobi

One very bright, sunny Monday, it was time for Tanyah to go back to school. She missed summer already and she really didn’t want to go to school. Today, she was officially going to middle school, the 6th grade. Tanyah got out of bed, got ready, ate her breakfast, and made her lunch for school.

Her parents came down the stairs, excitedly saying, “Who’s excited for their first day of 6th grade?!?!”

Tanyah replied: “Not me.”

Dad asked, “Aww honey, why not?”

Tanyah was very nervous and she said, “I’m really nervous about what people are going to think and say about me.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said Dad. “Just enjoy school and be kind and people will come around.”

Tanyah arrives at school. She gets out of the car and waves bye and blows a kiss at her parents. Even though her parents told her not to worry, the fear of not having friends and what people will think or say about her, kicks in. She suddenly faints.

A few people surround her, wondering if she’s OK. Everyone’s worried and confused about what happened. Tanyah finally wakes up and sees that it’s blurry. She rubs her eyes and wonders why everyone is around her.

One boy asks, “Hey are you OK?” Another asks, “What happened to you?” Tanyah replies, “Yea, I think I’m fine. And I think I fainted because it’s my first day of 6th grade.”

Person #1 says, “Oh oh, well, let me help you up . . . WOAHHHH OMG!”

Everybody around is so shocked at how tall she is. People are scared of her, some even run off. Most people are mesmerized by how tall she is.

Tanyah cries, “Why is everyone leaving me? Are they scared of me? Oh no, no one likes me, I knew this was going to happen.”

Some kids started to introduce themselves because they felt bad

even though she was different from them.

Derrick says, “HI again, I’m Derrick. I’m your first friend, don’t worry, those other kids that ran off and everyone who is staring, they just haven’t got to know you. But guess what, I’ll be the first to get to know all about you.”

Terrance and Kyla both happily say, “We wanna be your friends too!”

Tanyah smiles. “Thank you guys. This makes me happy. My name is Tanyah and I want to become friends with y’all too.”

All four of them hurry and get inside their school before the bell rings. Ms. Karry was one the meanest teachers in school. If you were late to class, talked in class, asked to use the bathroom during class, your surprise consequence was detention with her for lunch. As soon as Tanyah and her friends arrive to class, Ms. Karry starts talking.

Ms. Karry says, “Who is this tall girl? Excuse me, I don’t think you are supposed to be in this class. In fact, you’re not supposed to be in this school!”

The whole class laughs hysterically. Some people joke around, calling Tanyah names.

Tanyah joins in to say, “Good morning Ms. Karry and fellow classmates, my name is Tanyah McGower. I’m definitely in this grade because I’m 11 years old. You guys say all the jokes you want to, I don’t necessarily care. Ms. Karry, aren’t you a teacher, shouldn’t you be respectful and welcoming?”

The classmates react: “Ooooooo.” Tanyah continues, “And this is for everybody who wants to be naïve and mean. I might be different from everyone else, but I have feelings like you, and everything that you can do, I can do it too. I do it better though. Thank you for listening.”

Everyone is quiet and Ms. Karry starts the class. Everyone comments on Tanyah and they think that she is so cool. 30 minutes later, class ends. Tanyah’s new friends are so proud of her for sticking up for herself. They get into their next class, which is science. Here comes the bully and his girlfriend. Apparently, they’re one of the 6 bullies at their school. Maze and Faith have been dating ever since they met 2 years ago. Maze is 14 and he is 5 feet tall and a lil chubby. Faith is 14 too and the same height as Maze, but she’s skinny. They bully anybody that gets in their way. They’ve gotten left back many times, it’s unbelievable. Tanyah and her friend were right in front of them.

“Get out of our way Bigfoot!” Maze shouts.

“No, she’s as tall as a beanstalk hahahahahaha,” Faith says.

Tanyah turns around and this time she’s not crying.

“I know right?” she says, “But I know y’all not talking when y’all the size of a bean haha.” Tanyah walks to her seat.

Maze’s seat was right behind her, so he sat down. Tanyah rolled her eyes and wondered why he had to sit behind her. Class started. The teacher and everyone were introducing themselves. 10 minutes later Maze and Faith teamed up to taunt Tanyah and try to make her sad so that she wouldn’t stand up to them. Tanyah raised her hand and asked to move her seat, but the teacher said no. Maze and his girl laid off on the bullying. Just then, Tanyah had dropped her pencil and the bullying started again.

“Wow, I ain’t never seen a giraffe try to grab something,” they both laugh.

“What did you say? Repeat yourself,” Tanyah says.

Kyla tells Tanyah to calm down.

Maze continues, “I said wow, I ain’t never seen a gira--”

Tanyah punches Maze in his face before he can continue. He falls out of the chair.

“Oh my God, I knocked him out.”

They call the nurse to come get Maze and check him out to see if he’s OK. Mr. Tyler sends Tanyah to the dean’s office. Tanyah is built with so much anger. She starts to wonder how that anger just got built up and why didn’t she just ignore it. She was annoyed at everyone who hurt her that she didn’t want to talk to anyone or else another person might get knocked out too. She gets to the dean’s office and takes a seat. The dean, Ms. Williams, is stunned by how tall Tanyah is.

Ms. Williams, staggered, says, “Hello Tanyah, come sit here. It’s just the first day of school for you and you’re already messing up. If you’re a nice girl, don’t mess your reputation up. Tell me what happened.”

Tanyah starts to tell her side of the story. But then 2 students walk in. They come to Ms. Williams’s desk. One of the students is Maze, who has no respect for her. The other student is one of the cutest boys in school. He didn’t get in trouble often. His name is Jaymir, he’s 12 and around the same height as Tanyah. Jaymir looks at her and says hi and also says hey to Maze. Tanyah feels butterflies. But then Ms. Williams didn’t forget about Tanyah, so she continues

with her story. When she is done, Maze starts his side of the story. As always, he tries to make her sound like a bad person, like he does to everyone that makes him mad. The dean talks to them and tells them that they were both in the wrong and she finally makes a choice to suspend Maze for 2 days out of school and give Tanyah another chance. Maze doesn’t care and just leaves. Tanyah thanks the dean and promises that she’ll use this second chance as a lesson and as a new start. When she gets up to leave, Jaymir looks at her, shocked that someone is finally just like him.

Jaymir brings forward, “Hey Tanyah, my name is Jaymir. I finally found someone who looks like me. Do you wanna be friends?”

Tanyah chuckled in response. “Hey, yea let’s be friends.”

Tanyah waits for Jaymir to finish with Ms. Williams so they can leave together. Jaymir and Tanyah start walking back to their classes together. They talk about themselves and get to know each other. Maze sees them and starts to troll and start trouble with Tanyah. Tanyah tells Maze to go away and leave her alone or else she’ll knock him out again. Maze continues to annoy her.

Tanyah smiles. “If I did it once I can do it again.” Maze gets afraid and runs off.

Jaymir declares, “OMG, you scared him away. I could never do that and I’m a giant compared to him.”

They both laugh.

Tanyah tells him, “You can stand up for yourself, it’s not that hard. Bullies are tiny bugs that keep coming back to make you mad and get trouble, but when you stand up for yourself and stand your ground, they’ll go away.”

They finally get to class and wave bye until later.