Dream By Julieta Santana (Pepin I.C.E. Anthology 4/8)

When the bell rang, Judy was late. She got beat up again. She was wearing baggy clothes to cover her body because she hates showing herself as a pretty girl. She has a pixie hair cut because why not? She was late for music class. “F*ck, I am late again” she said. 

When she got to class, the teacher said “You are late, Ms. Kim.”

 “I know Ms. Brown” she said. 

When Ms. Brown saw the bruises she said, “What happened to you?” 

All of the students know that she gets beat up from Bella and her minions, but not the teachers, so she lied. “I hurt myself from falling downstairs”. 

“Do you need to go to the nurse” Ms. Brown said. 

“Yes, please.” said Judy. 

When Judy went to the nurse, the nurse was mad. “Again, Judy? Why can’t you tell the principal that Bella has hurt you?” 

“I don’t feel like it right now, Mr. Diaz.” Judy said.

 “How are you feeling? It is ok to cry here,” said Mr. Diaz. When she heard him say that, the tears started to roll.

It’s been a month since Judy’s brother passed away. Her brother’s name is Sam.  Before he died, Sam was mad at their brother Michael for leaving to South Korea without saying goodbye.  He was also bullied, just like Judy. Judy, Sam, and Michael have a cultural background that is hard to understand.  Their mother is Mexican and their father is South Korean.  Sam was bullied by classmates because he looks more Asian than Judy. His classmates tell him he needs to go back to Korea where he belongs. Bella is Sam’s ex-girlfriend, and she bullies Judy because she is jealous of her. Judy convinced Sam to break up with Bella right before he died because he trusts Judy more than anyone else.

When Sam passed away, Judy felt a lot of depression and anxiety.  She is very shy.  Sam’s friend Ace slapped her and told her to kill herself her first day back to school because he wishes she had died instead of his friend. This happened in the hallway between classes, and everyone saw. Judy was very embarrassed.  She went home and hadn’t returned to school until today. Judy goes to dance class at school. She loves dancing, so when she dances a sad song, she thinks of her brother. Sam wanted Judy to follow her dream to become a background dancer for a performance group. Judy loved her brother. He was always supportive and went to her dance recitals. Judy is shy, but not shy to dance. She shows her feelings when she dances. She loves to dance sad songs. Her dance teacher tells her do happy songs but, Judy loves dancing to sad songs, especially since Sam passed away. Even when she cries after her performances, the audience applauds her. She is happy in those moments because she knows that Sam would be happy to see her following her dreams.

About The Author

This is Julieta’s first year of camp.  She is going into her sophomore year at Pepin Riverview.  She enjoyed meeting new people and finding a social group that accepted her love of the K Pop group BTS.  She wrote a story that she didn’t know she was capable of and she is very proud of herself.