The laughter started the moment Elliot and I walked into prom.<\/p>\n
Not whispers. Actual laughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she seriously bring her little brother to prom?\u201d one girl mocked.
\n\u201cLooks like one and a half people came tonight!\u201d another boy yelled.<\/p>\n
People laughed while others pulled out their phones like we were entertainment.<\/p>\n
Elliot squeezed my hand gently. \u201cDon\u2019t look at them,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t new.<\/p>\n
Ever since Elliot transferred to our school sophomore year, people mocked him for having achondroplasia before they ever noticed how smart, funny, and kind he was. While others made cruel jokes, I sat beside him in chemistry when nobody else would. One conversation turned into friendship, and eventually love.<\/p>\n
When we started dating, the jokes turned toward me too.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know you could date a normal guy, right?\u201d
\n\u201cCareful not to step on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Elliot always handled it with quiet strength, even when I could see the exhaustion behind his smile.<\/p>\n
Prom mattered to me because I wanted him to have one perfect night.<\/p>\n
But standing in that gym while people laughed again, I realized how badly I\u2019d underestimated them.<\/p>\n
Then another voice shouted, \u201cMaybe she should pick him up and dance with him like a child!\u201d<\/p>\n
This time, I saw humiliation flash across Elliot\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just go,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
As we turned toward the exit, our math teacher, Mrs. Parker, stopped us and led us onto the stage. She grabbed the microphone and silenced the entire gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last two years,\u201d she said, \u201cmany of you have mocked Elliot relentlessly. What most of you don\u2019t know is that he spends three days a week tutoring struggling freshmen after school.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went quiet.<\/p>\n
Then she lifted an envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, the faculty chooses one senior for the Heart of the School Award. This year, it goes to Elliot Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliot stared in shock.<\/p>\n
Suddenly freshmen in the crowd stood up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helped me pass algebra!\u201d
\n\u201cHe stayed after school with me for weeks!\u201d<\/p>\n
Applause slowly spread through the gym.<\/p>\n
Then Mrs. Parker added something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight\u2019s prom was livestreamed for families at home. The comments made toward Elliot were clearly heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several students immediately panicked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are all about to become adults,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd if this is how you treat someone for being different, then some of you have serious growing up to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, the bullies looked ashamed.<\/p>\n
Then one of the boys who laughed earlier stepped forward awkwardly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, man. Seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others quietly apologized too.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker handed Elliot the microphone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to think if I ignored people long enough, they\u2019d stop,\u201d he said softly. \u201cBut pretending things don\u2019t hurt just teaches people it\u2019s okay to keep doing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd especially Olivia. She\u2019s never treated me like someone she needed to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tears filled my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m exactly the same person I was before this speech,\u201d Elliot said. \u201cThe only difference is now you\u2019re finally paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gym erupted into real applause.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker smiled. \u201cI believe these two were in the middle of a dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliot turned to me. \u201cYou still want to leave?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked around the room \u2014 at the students finally seeing him for who he truly was.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
And this time, when we walked back onto the dance floor together, nobody laughed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The laughter started the moment Elliot and I walked into prom. Not whispers. Actual laughter. \u201cDid she seriously bring her little brother to prom?\u201d one girl mocked. \u201cLooks like one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}