Cassie photo © Olga Ekaterincheva
School photo © Metalrose
When Cassie Kendall was first mentioned in a conversation between Tom and Katie during Nowhere Feels Like Home, I knew she was annoying and shallow … I didn’t know she was in the running for the Regina George award for meanness. I certainly didn’t expect Katie and Cassie to be friends—because Katie had managed in one day what Cassie never could—capture the attention and affection of Tom Pike.
Cassie is lacking moral responsibility; she’s never been made accountable for her actions. So if someone does her a wrong—real or imagined—she feels it is necessary to decimate the person in return. She will get her way, or someone is going to pay. But as far as Tom is concerned, she’d do better to take a tip from Katie, and put away the feminine wiles and practice on her right hook.
Mean Girl gave me an opportunity to show just how much of a bully Cassie can be, for so little cause. And she’s devious and manipulative—does Katie stand a chance?
Bullying is rampant and the internet has given a wider scope and range to it. The problem we as a community face, is not only against the acts themselves, but against the thought process which I have seen in many comments on incident articles they (meaning the victim of the attack) need to get a thicker skin. Or I survived bullying when I was a kid…. So because it was done to you, it’s okay to continue? Or the victim needs to get tougher, while the bully needs to keep making people tougher? Or how about the thought that the victim just needs to learn to stick up for themselves? Lawrence King is dead because he stood up to a bully. A victim is a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious action and nobody wants to be the victim. We need to learn to have compassion for our fellow human beings and accept them for who they are and until such time as that occurs, we will have a problem with bullies.
Teaser: Katie is conflicted when someone who bullied her is now the victim.
Diary of a Misfit is available now for Kindle. A portion of the proceeds from Diary of a Misfit will go to the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth.