Rewritten

Elena gripped the straps of her backpack tightly, keeping her head down as she navigated the crowded hallway of Westbridge High. The familiar whispers trailed behind her, each word slicing through her like a dull knife. "Why does she even try?" "Maybe if she lost a hundred pounds, she'd be halfway decent." "I heard she cried in gym class again." Laughter erupted from a group near the lockers, but she didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Taylor Jennings, the queen of Westbridge High, leaned against the metal doors with a smirk, her perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around a diet soda. Beside her, Josh Carter—Elena’s former childhood friend—stood with his arms crossed, watching with an unreadable expression. Elena’s stomach twisted when Taylor suddenly stepped into her path. “Oops,” Taylor said, shoving her shoulder against Elena’s. “Watch where you’re going, piggy.” The force sent Elena stumbling, her books slipping from her grasp and scattering across the floor. Heat flooded her face as laughter rippled through the hallway. No one helped. No one ever did. She bent down quickly, her trembling hands reaching for her notebooks, but Taylor’s foot came down hard on the pages, pinning them to the floor. "You should really stop embarrassing yourself, Elena," Taylor sneered. "No one wants to see you struggling to keep up with the rest of us." Elena bit the inside of her cheek, forcing herself to swallow the lump in her throat. She wouldn’t cry. Not here. Not in front of them. Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse, Josh spoke. "Come on, Taylor," he said, but there was no sympathy in his voice—just indifference. "Let’s go." And just like that, they walked away, leaving Elena to gather the shattered pieces of her dignity off the cold, tiled floor. She clenched her fists. This wasn’t the life she wanted. And one day, she would make damn sure she rewrote her story.