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Simplicity was her middle name. Melodie hated the name she once loved. When everyone at school had found out, she had been called Simple, Simpering, and Simply Pimply. One of the guys, one of the cool guys that she was head over heels in love with, shouted at her one day in the hall filled with students - “Hey Simple-minded, don’t bother writing your exams!” Well she wasn’t in love with him any more and he was definitely not cool. What a jerk. The roving band of ‘popular girls’ always hung around him and his buddies. They picked up where the guys left off with their taunts and cruel jokes.

Melodie was fourteen. Not a pretty girl but definitely not ugly - except for the pimples that kept sprouting all over her face. They had earned her the horrible nickname ‘Simply Pimply’. Every time she looked in the mirror she cried and slathered on more concealer that really only made things worse. And got her worse names like Cake Face. So she had fixed her makeup so it didn’t look all cake-y. She brushed her auburn curls still they gleamed then pulled them neatly into a pony tail tied with a plain ribbon. Melodie was tall. Too tall for a fourteen year old according to the same bullies that called her names. She always wore flat shoes and tried to stay in the background, not always with success.

The bullying was almost more than she could bear. For a long time Melodie had kept silent, but her mom and dad finally butted in, like they always did and asked her what was wrong. It was at breakfast one morning. When they started asking her why she had been so quiet, she just looked down at her lap as though she had spilled something. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and tried desperately to shut them off. They would make her makeup run and she’d be late for the bus and…..and…..

‘Oh, honey. What is the matter?’ Her mom got up out of her chair and came to her. Her dad’s coffee cup halted in mid air. ‘What’s going on?’

Their conversation went on for most of the morning. Once the truth had come out, Melodie’s father called the school and told them his daughter was sick. She wouldn’t be in today and he would call again tomorrow. Melodie was terrified. If anyone found out it would just be worse. What could her parents do? But she was trapped at school and now at home not knowing what to do. Then she heard her mother calling her boss. Her mom called in sick but asked to speak to the Employee Counsellor there. And then her dad called in to his office and said he wouldn’t be in.

Over the next two weeks, Melodie’s life changed….not in leaps and bounds…but she didn’t feel alone with her problem any more. She was not returning to the same school, but she knew that the school's principle, her old teachers and the school counsellor knew about her problem. The new school had an Anti-bullying Program. She joined it right away, partially on the advice of her parents and new teachers, but because she was so tired of feeling like the biggest victim ever. She had been introduced to others that had faced the same problem. And to people that just wanted to understand and help. She learned that all the make-up she’d been using was just making her pimples worse - just like her mom said it would.

Melodie returned to loving her beautiful name: Melodie Simplicity Jones. Her smile returned and she stood straight and tall. A happy ending, but not without a lot of work to find happiness again.

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim.”

~ Tim Field