Peer Esteem

         Carmen was excited at being chosen to go away to cheerleading camp.  She was energized at meeting new friends, learning cheers, and having fun.  She could barely keep still.

         Carmen had come from a small country school.  The class sizes ranged from ten to twenty students and everyone was the same.  Although, even in this small school, she had trouble making friends.  She was shy and wanted out of her rut.  The camp was just the thing to break her out of her shell.

         The bus pulled into a place that looked like Jellystone National park with Yogi and Boo-boo raiding the trash cans.  The camp head councilor was a pleasant, thin, lady with curly blond hair, named Ms. Miller.  Ms. Miller explained the rules of the camp, as she gave everyone a tour of the camp.  After the tour, another cheerleader, Bonequesia, escorted the new girls to the dorms.

         Bonequesia seemed nice, but she would learn your secrets and spread them all over the camp.  If she couldn’t find any dirt, Bonequesia would make up stories.  After a few days, she made up a story about Carmen.

         After morning stretches, Carmen overheard Bonequesia telling some girls that she didn’t take baths, and the other girls were laughing.  Carmen tried to confront Bonequesia about the story, but Bonequesia turned the conversation on Carmen.  Saying “you shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.”  Carmen was so upset she couldn’t think straight.  The rumor was all over the camp, and nothing could be done about it.  More rumors would soon follow.

         Following the confrontation, one of the male cheerleaders came up to her and asked her out.  On the date, the guy attempted to rape Carmen.  Carmen was able to get away, but it seemed that someone had spread a story that she was easy.  Carmen couldn’t get a moment’s rest.  She was constantly teased and harrassed.  The whole ordeal was taking its toll on Carmen’s self-esteem.

         Carmen felt hopeless.  One evening, after bed check, Carmen took apart her razor.  She went down the hall to the bathroom.  Carmen filled the bathtub with hot water, and climbed in.  The water was a little too hot, but Carmen was too numb to care.  Holding the razor, loosely at first, Carmen took a few practice swipes at her right wrist.  The blade brushed against her skin and still she felt nothing.  Carmen inhaled, gripped the blade tighter and opened a vein.  Releasing her breath slowly, she lowered her arm into the water and watched the redness spread.

         The next morning, as the dorm leader checked the rooms to make sure everything was picked up and clean, she arrived at the bathroom, nothing could have prepared her for what she would find.  The curtain around the tub was drawn, and the floor near the curtain was wet with a pink tinge to the tile.  The curtain was pulled back, and Carmen was seen below the surface of murky red water.  Her eyes were open and staring blankly up at the dorm leader.  The leader reached into the, now cold, water to retrieve the lifeless form.  Carmen's hair clung to her face, she was still staring straight ahead.  The dorm leader, checked for a pulse that was not there, and grief stricken ran out of the bathroom to the nearest phone to call 9-1-1.

    Three emergency vehicles entered the compound with lights flashing and sirens blaring.  Two police cars and one ambulance, had arrived to fill out reports and remove the corpse.  Curious onlookers saw the EMTs load a long black body bag in the back to the ambulance.  The vehicles left, having completed their business, in silence.