Bullying Rory Gilmore: Rory's 16th

Chapter 12: Set upon by bullies on the bus home

There was even more embarrassment for poor Rory when she got on the bus and found younger kids from another, less prestigious school staring down at her stockinged feet.

It was a mixed group, but mostly girls who seemed no older than 13. Surely middle schoolers. She ended up sitting down in front of them because there was nowhere else on the bus.

"Wonder how she lost her shoes?" said one girl, loud enough for Rory to hear and in a shaming tone of voice that made everyone else in the group want to chip in with something a bit mean.

"She has small feet," one of the boys said matter of factly.

Another girl, who was giggling, said: "Looks like she fell in the mud too."

"Or someone pushed her," said the boy.

"Do you think we should we ask her what happened?", said another girl.

"Probably she gets bullied," said yet another young female voice.

Rory kept staring straight ahead, unable to believe this was now happening to her on the bus with random people!

Then, they all went very quiet apart from a few whispers, but Rory couldn't make out what was being said.

To Rory's disbelief, she then got a number of swift punches to her upper back that came from right behind her in very quick succession. 

She didn't dare even look around to see who'd done it, but it felt to her like each of the three or four punches had, amazingly, come from a different person.

The punches really hurt but she steeled herself to not cry or react at all.  

When she still wasn't turning around or reacting, they all started laughing loudly.

The next thing, someone was tugging on her ponytail and it didn't feel like they intended to let go. Why couldn't this bus just hurry up, she thought. It had to just keep getting caught in traffic. 

Then to her shock, Rory found the cheekiest girl from the group, Kelly, sitting right next to her, sizing her up. 

"Think she goes to that posh place, Chilton", Kelly reported back to her group.

With that, the girl holding Rory's ponytail from behind, Shelby, tightened her grip.

"We should give her a few dead arms," said one of the boys.

"Good idea, but not here," said Kelly. 

"Yeah, the bus driver might ban us again", said Shelby.

Rory could see that she was nearly at her stop and she desperately wanted to get up now to press the bell. 

"Please, I really need to get off now," Rory asked her new tormentors politely.

The only response she got was a few giggles and quiet whispering, which really unnerved her.

Did they not hear her? She thought. They must go to one of those dodgy schools, she also realised.  

"Please can you let go, this is my stop now," Rory gave it another go.

Again, she got no direct response from them. Trying to pull away from them proved especially painful with Shelby holding her ponytail. 

"We could take her to New Haven?", Shelby suggested.

"Don't see why not," said Kelly, "it's not like she can do anything about it."

Rory's stomach was doing flips as she saw the bus pass through Star's Hollow. Why did the bus driver not realise there must be something wrong when she didn't get off at her usual stop?