Blinded By Darkness but Seeing the Light

Has someone ever been influenced by the people around them? Maybe they changed for better; they felt wonderful and happy because of their friends and family. But what if people started to hate what they believed in? At first, they may have ignored the bullies, but the bullies continued to bother them. Without realizing it, they changed. It’s like a chain reaction: when one person changes, the people around them will be influenced. Unfortunately, I have seen this happen to the people I loved.
This is how I, Audrey Kendall, almost lost sight of the Light.
I grew up learning about the Light of the world: God. Since I was about three or four years old, I understood how much God loves everyone. I mean, He sacrificed His Son to save us! I love everyone, but I would not want to be nailed to a cross! My mom and dad brought Madison, my little sister, and I to Middleton Church every Sunday. Eventually, Madison and I both trusted Him as our Lord and Savior. Since then, I have read the Bible almost every night, learned to pray, went to youth group, and became closer to God.
While becoming closer to God, I met my best friends: Robin, Damian, and Alison. We have known each other since we were eight years old. Some may consider us inseparable. We went to the same school and church, so we were with each other most of the time.
One thing I learned while I was younger was to be myself wherever I was. Wherever I went, I was the same friendly, shy brunette that everyone got along with. Well, almost everyone. Of course, there will be people who are against what I believe, but I did not let them bother me.
I trusted God with all of my heart, but finding Him got tricky when I only saw darkness and hatred around me.
This all started a few weeks ago, when flowers were budding and trees were growing their leaves out again after a warm, California winter. Since it was a Monday and I decided to stay up late the night before (which was not one of my best decisions), I ended up missing my bus and had to catch a ride with my mom. I was walking the stairs to the front doors of my school when I heard some yelling to my right. I froze in my place, believing that the noise could have been some kids from the daycare across the street. I looked around, curious as to what caused the noise. Just as I was about to go inside, I heard more yelling and crying. I quickly ran down the stairs and found one of the most gruesome sights I have ever seen. In the corner by the white, concrete stairwell and the gray, brick building, there was a kid with blond hair sitting there, shivering and sopping. I’ve seen him before: he was usually at school an hour before class began. He was a bookworm to say the least. He was shorter and leaner than the other high school students, so I thought he was a student in the middle school part of the Middleton Junior and Senior High School.
I rushed over. Looking closely, I saw a few scratches on his hands and face. His elbows and knees were scraped and slightly bloody. The incident caused him to tear his blue jeans and his long-sleeved white and gray polo shirt. Whatever happened to him must have hurt quite a bit. He was shaking, crying into his knees. His black backpack spilled out, so I tried to pick up all of his books and pencils when he stopped me.
“No! Please, I’m fine. You should go, you’re going to miss class,” the boy sobbed and looked up at me. His deep, brown eyes showed fear and nervousness. I truly felt bad for him.
I did stop, but not before I found a black, dusty Bible in the corner. It must’ve been thrown around.
“Is that yours?” I asked, pointing to the Book. He immediately panicked.
Nervously, he stuttered, “N-no, I swear! I-I’ve never seen that before in my life!”
“You don’t have to lie, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said calmly. He hesitated and took a deep, shaky breath.
“I was reading that Bible when two girls came up to me. They already teased me for reading books constantly, but I ignored them. I don’t know why I upset them by reading my Bible, but they didn’t like it, so they pushed me,” he said shakily, “I sat up there.” He pointed up to the ledge of the staircase. “I fell on my knees, but I think I’m fine, I’m not in a lot of pain,” he stated while trying to stand.
“Do you need to see the nurse? That looks uncomfortable,” I said while gathering the rest of his things.
He thought for a moment and then said “Yes, please.”
He was about one or two inches shorter than him, so I was able to support him with one arm while I held his backpack with my free hand. Slowly, we made our way to the front doors. Except for us, almost everyone went inside for class. Just at the bottom of the staircase, I saw two girls watching us. Obviously, those girls were the ones who hurt him. Instead of offering to help or showing any signs of empathy, they just laughed.
And those two used to be my best friends in elementary school. Anyone can see why I found new friends. Evelyn Camelia and Kylie Austin were gorgeous on the outside, but harsh on the inside. They find the worse in people and start to bother them. The idea of intentionally hurting someone confused me: why would anyone do that?
We walked inside right when the warning bell rang; five minutes were left until class. We picked up our pace and shuffled our way to the nurse’s office. We reached the brown, wooden door of the office when I gave him back his school supplies.
“Thank you, you better hurry to your next class,” he grinned. He turned away to go into the office when a thought occurred to me.
“Wait, I didn’t get your name!” I said quickly.
He looked back, “Isaiah, what’s yours again?”
“Audrey Kendall.”
“Oh! Your sister’s in my class! I see kindness runs in the family,” he joked.
I chuckled, “That’s a blessing from God. By the way, if you want to talk to someone to talk to or want to hang out, don’t be afraid to find me!”
“I won’t! Thanks again, you have no idea what this means to me,” he replied. I had a feeling quite a few people ignored him, so I was glad I could help.
We said our goodbyes and I ran to class. Unfortunately, being a sophomore, most of my classes were on the other side of the building on the third floor. I made it to my performing arts class with two seconds to spare.
Of course, the one day I get worried about being tardy to class, the teacher is out sick, so we had a study hall.
I smiled to myself because of my unneeded worry and then took my seat. I pulled out some notes for a huge test coming up and started reading when I felt something hit the back of my head. I turned around quickly, seeing a piece of notebook paper rolled into a ball. I unraveled it, mortified at the words on the paper:
“I see you’re still up to your friendly, Christian antics. Why don’t you save everyone some time and be quiet already, nobody wants to hear you! There is no God!”
I looked around to see who threw it and Kylie was failing to hold in her laughter.
And that was the first of many issues to come from living as a Christian.
The bullying got worse that week. Later that day, the two decided to “join” me at lunch in the cafeteria. Luckily, Alison, Damian, and Robin were there with me. At the gray, circular table, Evelyn and Kylie took the two seats open to my right.
Evelyn got right in my face, “So, why aren’t you at one of those Christian schools? You’re better off there than here!” I stayed quiet.
“What makes you think there is a Christ? You never saw or spoke to Him, so you’re clearly blind! Evelyn added.
“Yeah, if you’re so certain, where is He?” Kylie snickered.
While smiling, I said, “With me, as always.”
They looked at each other then busted out into uncontrollable laughter. Everyone at the table looked at each other in shock. The two girls calmed down a moment later.
Kylie spoke up, “That was hilarious, right everyone?” No one answered. “Right?” she repeated.
“Oh, so they’re all on her side. Well, I would stay away from her, she’ll only make you the joke of the school,” Evelyn retorted while walking away.
“Watch it, everyone. You stick up for her, you’re getting exactly what she’s going through,” Kylie threatened, following Evelyn back to the other side of the loud, crowded cafeteria.
“What was that about?” Robin questioned, “I’ve never seen them bother you like that before.”
“They saw me helping out someone before school. I don’t get it, why do they decide to make fun of me? I just helped out a kid who was hurt!” I exclaimed.
“Wait, how did they know that you were a Christian?” Alison asked.
I told them all about Isaiah and what Evelyn and Kylie did to them. Throughout the entire story, all three of them looked at me in pity.
“I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with carrying around a Bible?” I emphasized furiously.
“Some people don’t like it. They don’t believe, let alone trust, God. And people are saying things like ‘God hates you’ when He loves all of us. The world is dark and twisted now, but God is the Light,” Damian said. He always had a way with words.
“But enough to threaten me and hurt that boy?” I questioned.
“Maybe, I honestly don’t know what they’re thinking, but we have a special trust and happiness,” Robin said, happily. We quickly finished our lunches and headed to our next class, gym. We all went down the yellow-tiled hallway that led to the separate changing rooms. Damian split off and went to the left as Robin, Alison, and I went to the girls’ locker room on the right. We quickly got changed into our gym clothes, which included white shoes, dark green gym shorts, and a yellow shirt with “Middleton High” written in black ink, and headed out to the spacious, noisy gymnasium. The walls were a pale yellow, the mats in the corner were green, and the floor was black and covered in several different markings for the sports. Kids started to stretch out and play basketball while all four of us went to grab some badminton rackets and a birdie from the closet. As I turned away to grab the red birdie, I heard a yelp, sob, and some laughter. To my shock, I saw Robin walking away with Alison. The tall blonde was bawling and clutching her rounded nose. Damian stood right outside the closet with both concern and anger etched into his intense green eyes on his muscular face.
I quickly ran over to him, “What happened? Please don’t tell me it was-”
“Evelyn and Kylie did it,” Damian interrupted, “Kylie threw a basketball over at Alison and Evelyn claimed that it was an accident and she couldn’t catch it in time, even though it was an obvious lie.”
“You have got to be kidding me! She did nothing wrong!” I yelled back in rage.
“No, but you set them off, they said it themselves,” Damian looked down, his black fringe covering his face. “We can’t see you anymore, Audrey. Maybe we can all hang out outside of school, but not here. Alison and Robin both agreed with me on this. We’re not going to get hurt because we talk to you,” he muttered.
I look at him in shock, “Are you serious? We’ve all been through thick and thin as a team! We met through Christ! So why leave now, when you’re confronted with being a Christian?” I yelled back, almost in tears. How can they just abandon me?
“Listen, Audrey, I’m really sorry, it’s for the best,” Damian spoke softly.
“No, it’s for your best! Have fun without me,” I ran away from him and snuck into the girls’ locker room. And, to my luck, the troublesome two were in there, staring and smirking at me while I was trying to hold in my tears.
“Where’s your precious God now?” Kylie asked while Evelyn pushed me into the gray lockers. While laughing they both left the locker room. Then, I completely lost it. I slid down the locker and curled up in my knees, sobbing into my long, brown, curly hair.
What did I do wrong?
I was a wreck, so I skipped gym and cried out all of my frustration. Gym was the last period of the day, so I could finally go home. I was able to sneak out of the locker room without anyone seeing me and I ran out of the school through the gym doors. I sprinted for three blocks straight, only stopping when I got to my blue brick house. I ran up the carpet stairs and went into my bedroom. I plopped down on my bed and cried into my white, fluffy pillow and covered myself with my baby blue comforter. I stayed like that for what seemed to be an hour before I felt a gentle hand on my back.
“Audrey? Are you alright?” said the person. From her higher-pitched voice, I could tell it was my sister.
“Not really, Mad. I had a long day at school,” I mumbled.
She chuckled, “I heard, Isaiah wouldn’t stop talking to be about it!”
I looked up at her, “What happened to him shouldn’t have happened, but I shouldn’t have helped either.” Her blue eyes, which are identical to mine, had confusion written in them.
“What do you mean, why would you regret helping someone?” Madison questioned.
“Because Kylie and Evelyn saw and they are hurting me and my friends,” I cried. Madison saw how upset I saw so she hugged me. I swear, she can read my mind. We look, and act, like twins, even though she’s two years younger than me. We both have long brown hair, freckles, and we are the same size and height! She stood up, reaching out her hand to me.
“Come on, we’re talking to Mom and Dad,” she stated. I didn’t have much energy left to disagree, so I stood up and walked down the stairs into the living room. Dad was on the couch in the room, reading the newspaper when he saw me.
“Harriett! Come out here!” Dad yelled, still staring at me.
“What’s wrong, John?” she asked, and then looked at me with a tear-stained face, “oh honey, what happened?” She sat me down on the brown couch, directly across from the flat-screen television and the fireplace.
“Evelyn and Kylie are at it again. I helped out a boy who got hurt by them. He was reading a Bible when they pushed him over the side of the stairs. He’s fine now, but they were around when I helped him. They’ve made fun of my Christianity since!” I muttered.
“Oh, sweetie!” Mom exclaimed, while hugging me. Her hazel eyes looked right at me, “Are you okay?”
“I’m really bothered by it. They hurt Alison!” I exclaimed.
“Is she alright now?” Madison gasped.
“I don’t know, Damian said they were staying away from me, so I never figured out. Kylie and Evelyn threatened them to stay away from me or else they would get hurt!” I started tearing up again.
“Audrey, God said there would be people who opposed Him,” Dad said, his shaven face looking at me, “There is no need to be worried, God will provide, you just have to trust Him.”
I smiled, knowing that was the truth. That night, I prayed for strength, courage, and trust as I dealt with the issue at school. I was on my iPhone afterwards, looking up some verses when I ran into several verses where He tells us to trust him.
With that, I trusted God completely with this situation.
The next day went by quickly. I talked to Isaiah in the library for a few minutes and then went to all of my morning classes. At lunch, I sat at a different table, away from Alison, Robin, and Damian. I was reading through the Word on my phone when I spotted Kylie’s bleached hair out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and Evelyn was reading my phone.
“Why are you wasting your time reading that? It is completely useless!” the black-haired teenager exclaimed.
“The Bible is not useless! It’s God’s Word!” I said back.
“And why should we care?” Kylie shot back.
I immediately replied, “Because He died.”


Evelyn’s brown eyes met Kylie’s green ones for a moment and they burst into laughter. Everyone in room looked at my table. Right before everyone was about to go back to their conversations, I stood up.
“Do you know what the worst part is?” they both looked back at me, smirking. “He died for you! He sacrificed His Son! Did he have to, of course not! So, why did He do it? Because He loves us, every single one of us! And that’s why I trust God, because He loves us and cares about us! The Word isn’t a waste either, we learn about God, how to pray, and how to live through the Bible!”
They stood there, rolling their eyes while I sat back down. All of a sudden, a few claps led to an entire applause from the cafeteria, much to the surprise of Evelyn and Kylie, who just walked away with their normal, stuck-up attitudes.
After they left, Robin came back over to me.
“Want to eat lunch with us?” she asked. I nodded quickly while grabbing my backpack.
God brought me peace and happiness through my trust in Him. He loves me, and He gave a gift that is truly priceless: sending His Son down for my sins. For that, I trust Him in everything I do