AJR-Panic Attacks

Soleil- 1 (School Bullies)

A/N- Soleil is my imaginations creation of Ryan's daughter. He said in an interview he didn't have a name picked out for his daughter if he has one, but he said the obvious answer is Summer. I changed it to be Soleil.
Soleil also has to do with another story I'm in the process of writing. You'll get that soon.
Anyways, happy reading!!

Soleil's POV

Mommy and Daddy came to school today because Winter was a part of the science fair. He was doing something about music and it looked really cool. My class had to do what we did everyday. Normal classes, normal recess, normal everything. I just wanted to watch Winter's presentation. Winter is in grade 5. He's two years older then me, and he's my best friend, and I'm in grade 3. Winter is a spitting image of Dad, and I'm a spitting image of Mom. One thing about school is I don't like my class. They're really mean. They constantly bully me about my name and what I wear and how I look. I haven't told anybody though. I know no one will care. The bell rings, signalling the start of class. We start with math, my least favourite subject. I'm really bad at it. That's another thing the kids in my class bully me about. I stopped asking questions in math when I didn't understand anything. I would just fidget with my pencil and wait until the next class. Next class, reading. One of my favourite subjects. I got out my book from my desk and went to read in the corner, sitting in a bean bag chair. I was reading my book happily when the bell rang for recess. I put my book on my desk and ran out to the hallway with everyone else. I wonder if I could find Mom or Dad or Winter. Or Lilly or Uncle Jack or Auntie Alba. Lilly is in Winter's class, and is also a part of the science fair. I see Lilly everyday, but maybe I can find all of them. I go through the doors in the hallway to try to find them, but instead I get pushed to the ground. My biggest bully, Connor, and his friends pushed me down and laughed at me.
"Well looky here. The brat, Solittle." Connor says. Just because I'm shorter then them, they call me stupid nicknames like that.
"Please go away." I say, trying to stand up. Connor pushes me back down.
"Ha! You think, loser? You think we would just go away? No you idiot, we're not leaving! We need to teach you a lesson!"
"Yeah!" The rest of his crew back him up.
"Please don't!" I say, cowering back into the wall. All of a sudden, Connor and his crew come at me and attack me. They pulled me, kicked me and pushed me, tying my hoodie strings around my head, tying my hoodie sleeves behind me and tying my shoelaces together. I was so scared, but I couldn't do anything. All of a sudden I hear a "Hey!" I know exactly who's voice that is. All of the bullies run away and Winter comes over to me.
"Soleil! What happened!?" Winter asks me, concerned. He starts untying my hoodie.
"They just came at me and started pulling me around. I'm fine." I lie.
"Soleil, are you sure? You seem pretty scared." He can read right through me.
"I'm fine." I lie again, forcing a smile.
"I don't think you are. Want me to get Mom and Dad?" He asks. I nod.
"Yes please."
"Ok, stay here." He says, and stands up and leaves. I untie my shoelaces and pull my legs up to my chest when the bullies walk past me again. They all kick my shins as they walk past. I didn't have the strength to say anything. Once they passed, I started crying. I hid my face in my arms, folded across my knees. Winter comes back with Dad and I can feel their hearts breaking.
"Soleil! What happened?" Daddy asks me.
I look up at them slightly, trying to hide the fact I was crying. Dad crouches down in front of me and moves my arms to my sides. It was impossible at this point to hide my tears.
"Soleil.." Dad says with sadness. Dad stands up, pulling me up with him, and wraps me in a hug. I cry into his shoulder and I tense up around him. I think a family passed us in the hallway, and we had to move out of the way.
"We can go into my classroom, there's no one in there." Winter suggests.
"Good idea Win." Dad says. I feel us moving around, I'm assuming us walking to Winter's classroom. I hear a door opening and then closing, and then all the lights that I did see vanished. I heard the commotion of voices, but I didn't pick up what was said. Something about lights? I think dad said leave the lights off, because I think Dad felt me starting to panic. My chest got tighter and I started hyperventilating. I also started shaking a lot. Dad started rocking back and forth while rubbing my back, trying to calm me down. It wasn't working very well, I was too stressed out.
"Hey Winter, can you go find Mom?" Dad asks. "She was talking with your Aunt outside the gym, can you go get her?"
"Yep!" Winter says, and I once again hear the door opening and closing.
"Hey." Dad says. I focus on his voice as he says his next words. "You're ok, I'm right here. I need you to settle down Soleil, you're ok." Dad rocks around the room for a bit and continues rubbing my back. I hear the door opening again and Mom and Winter coming in.
"What happened?" Mom asks, concerned.
"I don't know." Dad replies. Mom comes over to me and Dad and takes over rubbing my back.
"What happened Lei-lei?" That's one nickname that I actually like. I can't answer her. I just kept crying.
"Woah, her little heart." Mom says, feeling my heart racing.
"I know. She's also hyperventilating." Dad adds.
"What if we sit her down on the counter?" Mom suggests.
"Good idea." Dad says. Dad walks over to what I'm assuming is the counter and sits me down. I covered my face with my hands and continued crying in Daddy's shoulder. Dad started rubbing my sides, trying to get me to relax. Dad pulls away from me, moves my hands away from me, and makes me look up at him. The sight of Mom and Dad allows this calmness to come over me, even though my breathing was getting faster. Dad holds my hands as Mom rubs my back.
"Soleil, I need you to get your breathing back." Dad says. "Follow my breathing, ok?" Dad breathes in slowly, making sure I'm watching him. He slowly breathes out and I follow him.
"Good job, now do it again." Dad says. He does it again and again until he calms me down completely. I felt very weird at the end of that. I was exhausted, but also kinda nervous for Mommy and Daddy's reactions.
"Good job my little light-bug." Mom says. That was another nickname I loved.
"I'm sorry." I say quietly, looking away.
"Aww, Soleil! Don't be sorry! You can't control that!" Dad says, resting his hands on my sides.
"Yeah! You don't have to be sorry! We're here to help you." Mom adds.
"But I feel bad." I say.
"Don't feel bad!" Winter says. We all look at him. "Like Dad said, you can't control it. From what I saw with the bullies, you had every reason to freak out!"
"Wait, Winter, what do mean bullies?" Dad asks, and turns to me. "Soleil, what is he talking about? Do kids bully you?" I look away and nod my head.
"Yeah. When I found her today she was getting beat up by a bunch of kids. I told them to stop and they ran away." Winter says.
"And then once Winter left to get Dad they came back and kicked me. All of them." Everyone looks at me with sadness in their eyes.
"Soleil, why didn't you tell us?" Mom asks.
"Cause no one was gonna care." I say quietly.
"Soleil!" Dad says. "Why on earth do you think we wouldn't care! It makes me so sad to hear someone is messing with my little girl. Were you scared to tell us?" Dad asks. I nod. "Soleil..." Dad says, and wraps me in a hug.
"That's where all the bruises were coming from, huh? It wasn't you falling, was it!?" Mom adds. "It was the bullies the whole time." I nod my head and Dad pulls away from me.
"I'm sorry for not telling you. I didn't know what to do so I just let it happen. I know I shouldn't have, but I did. I'm sorry." I say. "It's ok Soleil, but let's not let it happen again." Dad says, giving me another hug. As me and Dad were hugging, the door opens and Uncle Jack comes in.
"Hey, everyone ok?" He asks. Dad turns around, pulling away from me.
"Yeah. What's up?" Dad asks.
"Oh, I was just letting you know we're leaving."
"Oh, ok." Dad says.
"You ok?" Uncle Jack asks me. I nod and turn to Dad.
"What's going on?" Uncle Jack asks.
"Wanna tell him?" Dad asks me.
"You can." I respond.
"Soleil was bullied and had a panic attack." Dad says.
"Soleil!" Uncle Jack was shocked like everyone else. "You ok?" I nod again.
"Do you need an Uncle Jack hug to make you feel better?" I smile and nod. Dad moves out of the way and Uncle Jack gives me a big bear hug.
"Thanks Uncle Jack." I say, pulling away.
"Anytime!" He responds. "Alright, see you guys later." Uncle Jack says and walks out of the room. Right as he left, the bell rung, signalling the end of recess.
"Alright little miss light-bug, let's go to your class-" I tense up at what Dad says.
"Hey, you ok?" Dad asks, noticing I tensed up. I nod and relax as Dad put his hands on my sides once again.
"Let's go to your class, I'll talk to your teacher about the bullies, and then we'll all watch Winter's final presentation for the science fair, then we can go back home and watch a movie." I relax when I realize I don't have to go back to class today. Then I realize I might have to go into the classroom, and tense up again.
"You can stay out in the hallway with me and Win, ok Lei-lei?" Mom says, reading my mind. I nod and smile.
"Alright. Let's go." Dad says, wrapping me in another hug, pulling me off the counter. We all walk to my classroom and Dad puts me down. Dad goes in, and talks to my teacher. I sat down with Winter on a carpet box in the hallway, Mom sitting beside us, rubbing my back. Before long, Dad comes back and we all walk to the gym to wait for Winter's presentation. I sat on Mom's lap and I hear Mom asking Dad,
"So what did her teacher say?"
"She had no idea. She said she would talk to the kids' parents and the principal, but I couldn't give her much information on what happened. So we will probably have a meeting with her teacher and the principal another day." Dad says.
"Ok." Mom responds. "And how is my little light-bug doing now?"
"Good." I respond.
"You breathing better now?" Dad adds. I nod. "Good."
Winter started his presentation and he did a great job. Once he was done, he put his poster board away in his class and we signed out of school. We walk back home and me and Winter both put on our pyjamas. We run back out to the living room with a bunch of blankets in our arms. Dad was setting up a movie on the TV, and Mom was getting snacks. We all sat on the couch, Winter beside Dad, me beside Winter, and me beside Mom. We snuggled all together, covering ourselves in blankets. We watched the movie then continued the rest of our day.