Yesterday's Gone: Season One

didn’t fit into their tightly-formed cliques. Callie had run-ins with such people until she learned to stand up for herself.
    When she was in eighth grade, this girl, Brianna, decided to make it her personal mission to make Callie’s life miserable. She started spreading rumors, intentionally bumping into her, laughing, and name calling. Callie never let the bitch see her sweat , though. She did her best to ignore the girl. But at night, she often cried to her mom. Her mom always told her she was doing the right thing to ignore the abuse. Eventually, her mom said, Brianna would find someone else to pick on.
    That hardly seemed like an answer to Callie, though. Even if the girl had moved on to someone else, she was still being a bully. And that her mom thought it was okay so long as Brianna wasn’t picking on her, bothered Callie.
    After four months, it was apparent that Brianna wasn’t going to find a new target, though.
    One day after gym, Callie went to her locker to change out of her sweaty gym clothes, and was shocked to see that someone had opened her locker and doused her clothes, her purse, and books in vinegar. They also wrote “NIGGER DYKE” in big red marker across the inside of the locker.
    “Geez, Callie, douche much?” Brianna said, cackling with her catty clique.  
    Callie wanted to cry. But she wouldn’t let Brianna have that satisfaction. She closed her locker, and began to walk away, intending to tell the gym teacher, Mrs. Parker.
    And then something hit the back of her head.
    She turned around to see a wad of paper on the ground.
    And that was it.  
    Callie lost it. She ran straight at Brianna, screaming like a maniac, and shoved the girl backwards into the locker.
    Brianna’s eyes were wide in disbelief.  
    She never expected someone to hit her, least of all, Callie. Brianna might have backed down right there, if not for the girls all gathering around them, chanting, “fight, fight, fight,” like a mob demanding blood. Callie had little doubt whose blood they wanted to see. People only rooted for the underdog in movies, not in middle school.
    While part of her wanted to turn and run away, and take back the last minute of her life, another part told her she had to own the moment and do what needed to be done.
    She cocked her arm back and punched Brianna in the face as hard as she could. And again, as Brianna scrambled sideways and fell to the ground.
    Callie fell on top of her, swinging, fists pounding into Brianna’s face, head, and chest, screaming the whole time — in part because she was enraged, but also to scare anyone else from even thinking about jumping in to help Brianna. No way could she take on a whole mob of girls.
    Finally, someone did step in. Arms closed around her and pulled her off of Brianna. Callie screamed, and was going to turn around and strike out until a voice in her ear said, “Calm down!”
    It was Mrs. Parker, who’d always been super nice to Callie. She wrapped her arms around Callie until she calmed down, while the rest of the girls gathered around Brianna, who was still on the ground.
    “She’s not getting up,” one of the girls said.
    Another coach, Mrs. Timmons, rushed over and picked up Brianna, “We’ve gotta get her to the school nurse.”
    As Mrs. Timmons carried Brianna out of the locker room, Callie realized how badly she’d hurt Brianna. The girl’s face was covered in blood as if she’d been attacked by a dog or something. And as the door closed and Callie sat transfixed by the moment, she realized everyone in the locker room was staring at her. Staring at her with a mix of fear and something else, which Callie would soon recognize as respect.  
    At first, Callie was afraid she’d hurt Brianna so badly that the girl might die. When she didn’t die, Callie was worried that Brianna was so embarrassed by the event that she’d spend months plotting revenge, which would lead to an ever-escalating war that would end up with someone dead. However, that didn’t happen, either. Brianna had to be on her best behavior as her parents were busy trying to sue the school and even Callie’s mom, painting Brianna as the golden child who was roughed up by a thug. There were even accusations that it was a hate crime, with Callie being the perpetrator. But too many girls had come forward and told what Brianna had written on Callie’s locker.
    Nothing came of the threats, thankfully. And Brianna’s dad got a new job, so the family moved at the