Don't Be Mean, Charlene!

Meanness begats meanness. This story came about because of all the girls out there who can sometimes be soooo mean. The thing about mean girls, is that they sometimes grow up to be mean women. So - here's to all the Silly Jilly's of the world - saving the planet, one Mean Charlene at a time.
______________________________

Silly Jilly loved everything about everything and she loved everything about everyone. Well, almost.

Silly Jilly loved to walk her dog. She loved to help around the house. Silly Jilly even loved cleaning her room. Well, almost.

Silly Jilly loved to be silly, which is why everyone called her Silly Jilly. And most of all Silly Jilly loved being silly with her friends. Everyone at school was Silly Jilly's friend. Well, almost.

Silly Jilly was nice to everyone and wished everyone was nice to each other too. But there was one girl at school that wasn't very nice to the other girls. She had red, unruly hair and freckles and everyone called her Mean Charlene. Well, almost.

Silly Jilly tried to be nice to Mean Charlene. She decided that if Mean Charlene were ever mean to her, she would do her best to forgive her.

Once Mean Charlene took away Nicki's ball. Another time she pulled Belle's hair. Mean Charlene made fun of Barbie and told her she couldn't be in her secret camper's club anymore. Mean Charlene made lots of girls cry.

When Julia fell down and scraped her knee, Mean Charlene laughed at her. When Timberly dropped her books in the hall, Mean Charlene kicked them out of her reach. And when Emmy-Lou cried on the first day of school, Mean Charlene called her a baby for the rest of the year.

The girls in the class had enough. They were tired of Mean Charlene being so terribly, horribly mean. Even though Timberly wanted to get even and kick her in the shins while she wasn't looking, all the girls decided they would start to ignore her. If she talked to them, they would walk on by. If she said something mean, they would pretend not to hear. Even if Mean Charlene wasn't acting mean, the girls decided they would pretend like she no longer existed.

Silly Jilly wasn't too sure about this idea. However, she knew it was better than holding her down and kicking Mean Charlene in the shins. So, over the next several days, that is what the girls in the class did. They completely ignored Mean Charlene.

Then one day, at recess, Silly Jilly noticed Mean Charlene standing at the back of the playground by herself. She was crying. Silly Jilly looked around the playground and true to their word, every girl was ignoring Mean Charlene. Silly Jilly felt awful inside and decided to find out what could possibly make someone as mean as Charlene cry.

She approached Mean Charlene, feeling a little nervous that she might make Mean Charlene more upset.

"What are you looking at?" Mean Charlene snidely asked.

"Why are you crying?" Silly Jilly questioned.

"None of your big fat business," Mean Charlene snarled.

"Do you want to play with me?" asked Silly Jilly, doing her best to over look Charlene's meanness.

All of a sudden, Charlene stopped crying and looked Silly Jilly in the eye. "You would want to play with me?" she inquired.

"Well, yes," Silly Jilly stammered. "On two conditions."

"What?" sniffled Charlene.

"You have to apologize to all of the other girls and you have to stop being so mean, Charlene."

Charlene thought for a moment and then agreed. She slowly walked over to the other girls who were playing on the jungle gym. She told them how sorry she was for all of the mean things she had ever done to them. She apologized for stealing their balls, pushing them around, kicking their books, calling them names, and every other mean thing she ever said or did that she could think of. Belle asked her why she was so mean.

"I don't know," replied Charlene. "I guess because I am jealous of all of you."

Charlene went on to explain that she was jealous of each of the girls in one way or another. The girls in the class seemed to have better clothes. They were smarter. They could play four-square better and run faster. She was jealous that they each had beautiful, soft, "normal" hair and smooth skin, while she had straw-like bright red hair and freckles all over her face. Charlene didn't think the other girls would like someone like her, so it was just easier to be mean.

"Well, we don't know if we like you or not," said Emmy-Lou. "You haven't given us a chance to even get to know you. You've always been so mean."

So, from that day forward, Charlene decided she would no longer be mean, the girls decided they would no longer ignore her, and Silly Jilly decided that she would continue bringing peace and happiness to every girl in the class, every girl on the playground, and every girl in the world. Well, almost.

The End.


COPYRIGHT 2008. Emma C Miller. Any reproduction of this story may not be made without express written consent of the author.