After Death Short Stories & Hypocrisy Campus Novels

A boy in my sister Lily Bennett's class slaps her. Dad is furious. He storms straight to the school and demands that the teachers explain how they could have let something like that happen. Mom completely forgets about maintaining appearances. She floods the parent group chat with angry messages, refusing to let the matter go. My brother, Evan Bennett, is even worse. That evening, he shows up outside the school with seven or eight of his friends and corners the boy responsible. By the time Evan comes home, he says the kid has been "taught a lesson". But Lily isn't grateful. Instead, she pouts. "You guys made such a huge deal out of it that everyone at school is making fun of me now. Nobody wants to hang out with me!" Mom instantly panics. She stays up making 45 cupcakes so Lily can take them to school and give one to every student in her class. Dad and Evan apologize over and over again. They even send her a huge cash gift before they finally manage to make her smile again. The next day, one of Lily's cupcakes ends up on my desk too. I stare at it for a long time. Then, for the first time, I finally work up the courage to say something. "Mom... Some kids at school are bullying me." Mom is in the kitchen making Lily's favorite soup. She doesn't even turn around. "Oh, Ashley, kids your age make such a big deal out of everything. What if they're only joking around with you?" I try Evan next. "Evan... They take my lunch money. They rip up my tests..." He's busy playing one of Lily's games for her, trying to get her to the next rank. His eyes never leave the screen. Dad overhears me from across the room. "If you leave people alone, they usually leave you alone," he says dismissively. "Maybe think about whether you're doing something to provoke them." So, I go back to my room. I spend the entire night thinking about what he said. I try to figure out what I've done wrong. I can't think of anything. The bullying only gets worse. One day, the same group corners me in an alley after school. They humiliate me, take pictures meant to embarrass me, and hurt me badly enough that I become seriously ill. I call home again and again. No one answers. Eventually, the bullies leave me there. Before they go, I hear them talking about how badly I've been hurt. One of them mentions another kid who supposedly died after suffering similar injuries. By the time I make it home, I'm bruised, exhausted, and barely holding myself together. I open the door. Mom, Dad, and Evan are gathered around Lily. She's standing in the middle of the living room in a brand-new princess dress, turning from side to side while everyone admires her. But today is my birthday. I don't say anything. I still have a little money left in my pocket, so I turn around, walk to the bus stop, and use it to buy a ticket across town. I find myself standing outside a funeral home. There is a security guard near the entrance. I walk up to him and look at him quietly. "Sir," I say, "I think I'm going to die. Can you help me arrange a grave?"

My dad always calls me a lazy bum. It is because I often fall asleep without warning. I sleep in class, while eating, and even while crossing the street. My homeroom teacher, Yvonne Smith, suggests that he take me to a hospital for an examination. But Dad scoffs and says, "He's just staying up all night playing on his phone." After that, he confiscates my phone and removes the lock from my bedroom door. Every time I get sleepy, he slaps me. I don't want to be hit, and I don't want to make Dad angry. So, I start pinching my thighs, pulling out my hair, and even rubbing hand sanitizer spray under my nose to stay awake. But whenever the overwhelming drowsiness hits, nothing can stop it. On the day of the final exams, Dad happens to be one of the invigilators. I bite my lip until it bleeds and silently beg myself inwardly, "Just this once, please stay awake." Still, I fail to fight off the sleepiness. Suddenly, someone flips over my desk. The chair tips with it, and I crash to the floor. My temple slams into the corner of the desk, and darkness instantly floods my vision. Dad stands over me, furious and disappointed. "Zach Davies, are you really so obsessed with sleeping that you don't even care about your final exams? If you're that lazy, then stay down there and keep sleeping!" I lie sprawled across my exam paper as my vision slowly fades away. Dad, I think I am going to sleep for a very long time…

When I was 18 years old, I did something that I would regret the most in my life, just to make Adrian Dickson change his mind and come back to me. I reported his secret love affair with a poor student, Cassandra Addams, to his wealthy parents. The next day, the poor student was made to slap herself in the auditorium in front of the entire school, calling herself a bitch, and then, she dropped out of school. I thought that Adrian would be sad about it and even resent me for it, but he didn't react as I thought he would. He still went to school with me every day, ate with me at recess, and showered me with different gifts and flowers from time to time. He even agreed to marry me and made me his fiancee. But on the day of the wedding, my parents are suddenly kidnapped, and the huge screen meant to play a video of all the sweet, tender moments between me and him begins playing a video of Mom and Dad being thrown into a snake pit, howling in pain. I cry until I nearly faint as I watch the tragic scene in the video and plead with Adrian to save Mom and Dad. However, in front of all the wedding guests, he grabs me by my hair and forces me to my knees. "Sure. Get down on your knees and slap yourself a hundred times while calling yourself a bitch, and I'll consider saving them. How about that?" At that moment, all the blood in my body runs cold. As it turns out, he's been harboring a grudge against me the entire time.