Hayley DiMarco - Mean Girls. Facing Your Beauty Turned Beast

2004, 2008 by Hungry Planet

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
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Ebook edition created 2011

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ISBN 978-1-5855-8127-6

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CONTENTS

THE BEAST

The Mean Girl. The beast. The one who tears at your flesh and devours your heart. She growls when you walk by. She hisses as you leave. She probably drools in her sleep at the thought of tormenting you. Shes a beast, all right, plain and simple. Its evident in all she is and all she does. So what do you do with this beast in your life? Can you find a hint of hope, or are you destined to spend your life running in fear from this rabid female? Oh, my dear, the answer is near. Come with me on a journey through the bizarre and the twisted. Join me in scrutinizing the female psyche, and follow me to a land of freedom and hope.

Girls have become the most catty, manipulative, emotional people on the planet, and you are at their mercy. Or are you? At one time I didnt see a way out, so weak was my faith. But now I do. I believe that the Mean Girl can be a thing of the past. I believe that her power over you will diminish and that your victories will be many. Your bruises will heal and your cuts will mend. Mean Girls is a call to spiritual strength. A call to stand firm. It is a call to face the beasts in your life head on and with faithful resolve. And it is the answer that youve been looking for. Mean Girls... shall we attempt to find the beauty in your beast?

MY STORY

If you have a Mean Girl in your life, I understand more than you might know how horrible you feel right now. You hate getting up in the morning because you know that as soon as you get to school or work, she will be there. Leering at you, laughing at you, thinking about you, talking about you. You dont know what shell do next or where she will be. Oh yes, I know that feeling all too well because my high school years were plagued with Mean Girls.

In my small class of forty people, I was the victim of choice for the popular crowd. For four years I hated going to school. I sat in class day in and day out and watched them plot and plan to hurt me. I tried to make friends, but in the end even they turned against me in one way or another. The kiss of death for me (which might have some of you rolling your eyes) was that all the boys liked me. I was really shy, and so I guess I was kind of mysterious. I also wasnt a sexually active girl, so, boys being boys, they all wanted to get the virgin. (News flash: they failed miserably!)

I was continually the subject of all kinds of plots. If I was dating a guy, they wanted to get him from me. If I had a nice car, they wanted to ruin the paint job. If my mom trusted me, they wanted her to stop trusting me. One day a pair of panties was placed in our mailbox as if someone was returning them to me after a night of passion. What a joke. Torturing me was quite a sport for them, though. Every day when I left school I would find a big wad of spit on the hood of my car. Every day, without fail. I hated walking out to my car as they all laughed at me. I can remember being afraid to go to the bathroom because I might meet one of them in there alone, and that would be devastating.

When I started dating a guy that one of them wanted to date, they not only TPd his house but also spray painted his driveway with bad things about me . They were bent on making me look bad. When our Sadie Hawkins dance (girls ask guys) came along, one of the girls asked my boyfriend before I could (of course, he was a stupid boy for saying yes, but thats beside the current point).

I thought I had found sanctuary in those few friends I told you about, but they soon turned on me as well. Why is it that girls think that boys are more important than their friends? My friend made out with my new crush the day after he and I found each other. I was shocked, but I guess I shouldnt have been. After all, friends arent as important as boys. Ugh!

All this meanness finally culminated in one horrible act that freaked me out and made me fear for my safety. One day during my senior year I went to my locker, and as I opened it I saw a small noose with something hanging from it. It was soft and slimy like a dead finger. A note that hung from the rope said, Beware the DOA. Needless to say, it totally freaked me out. I slammed the locker and ran to the school office. This was too much. Until that time I hadnt said anything to anyone, but this looked like something that should be taken more seriously.

When the principal went back to check my locker, she found that what was hanging there was a peeled carrot, carved to look like a person. Apparently it had been left in the freezer overnight so that now it was cold, clammy, and limp. Pretty ingenious, even for Mean Girls!

I was devastated that their hatred of me had gone that far. I dont know for sure why the girls decided that I was archenemy number one, but I was. Was it because I was shy? Was I aloof in my shyness? Ill never know, but my high school years were tainted by the treatment of a handful of angry teenage girls.

I always thought they had no idea what they were doing to meuntil years later when I found out the truth. I was at a party with a bunch of friends from high school, and one of the Mean Girls was there too. She pulled me aside and said, We treated you really bad in school and did some really mean things. Im sorry about what we did. I thought that was a really nice and noble thing to do, so I smiled and said, Oh, dont worry about it. We were young; its okay. I forgive you. She looked at me in shock, her mouth open, and said, Oh, great. Whyd you have to be so nice even now? It would have been much easier if you would have been mean about it! Even then, my kindness was driving her nuts. Maybe thats what they mean by kill em with kindness.