Shirley Temple-Personal Narrative

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There was a weird girl in my high school who we all called The Bird. We called her that because of her nervous, birdlike movements and the way she would hunch her shoulders toward her ears as if she was hoping her head would disappear into her body. She had sallow skin that looked as if it had never felt the sun, and there was usually a blotchy red rash in the middle of her forehead. She had fine black hair on her arms long enough to comb, and she wore clothes that had been out of fashion since Shirley Temple was singing “The Good Ship Lollipop.” She was also the object of such contempt and such cruel ridicule, that it shames me to this day to think I was a part of it, even tacitly. Oh, I was never one to say anything to her face. I wasn’t that…show more content…
They were flapping their arms and screeching in her ear. She was terrified. Her eyes darted in panic. A couple of her books fell to the floor. When she stooped to pick them up, the guys bent over her in a circle, closing in, screeching, screeching. Then this girl came out of nowhere. I’d never seen such anger in a girl before. She went up to the leader of the tormentors and ripped into him with a hot fury. “Stop it!” she shouted. “Can’t you see what you’re doing?” The guys backed off, stunned. Then the girl went over to The Bird and put her arm around her shoulder and walked her to class. I thought about The Bird when I read heard about Nathan Faris, the little boy who shot a classmate and killed himself after being the target of teasing by the kids in his school. I thought of how I had been a part of The Bird’s misery, and how more than 20 years later it still bothers me. But I also think of what I learned that day about decency, bravery and about being a human being, from a girl whose name I don’t even know… a girl who rescued The Bird from some bullies. And I wonder if that one act of kindness may have saved another girl’s

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