"Just Kidding" and "Gaining Up"

           A time that I was picked on by a larger group of people was when I was in the fifth grade. I remember on the first day of school, there was a new girl and she didn't really know anyone or have any friends. My mom told me that i should try to become friends with her so, even though nobody else wanted to, i did. Unfortunately, i began to regret that later on.
             Eventually, the rest of my friends and some other girls in our grade began to really like her. They all became friends with her and once that happened, she began to to be really mean. Sometimes a lot of girls describe one another as being "two faced" and this girl was exactly that. Some days she would be really nice to me and then another day she would be really mean and make me wish that I hadn't come to school that day.
             After that most of my friends, except for about two of them, started acting like her. Whenever she was mean to another girl, they would do the same thing. Sometimes i wouldn't hang out with them and I'd just talk to my other friends, but then they would get mad at me for "ignoring" them. It was like they didn't even understand that they could be really mean sometimes. When this happened i kind of felt like I shouldn't have been the nice one and befriended her. It seemed like i was the only one who actually tried to be this girls' friend and then she just turns all of my friends into these mean girls.
             I had about three options in this situation. I could have either confronted all of them and told them that i didn't like how they were acting, just stopped being friends with them, or i could've just kept on pretending that nothing was wrong. I knew that if i did the first two, I would probably have a group of girls hating me and not wanting to talk to me because of an issue that didn't really involve them. So, unfortunately i stuck with the third option and continued to pretend like nothing was wrong.
              I think the reason that some people are bullies is because they may have low self esteem and want to take it out on someone else. They could end up not really caring if they hurt other peoples' feelings, just that they feel good about themselves. Bullies probably get other people to gang up on others because it may make them feel like they're in control or like everyone is on their side. They also might feel better because they know that they are no longer the victim.
             I don't think girls realize that sometimes, just talking about another person behind their back can be really hurtful. Instead of being mean to each other we should just try to work out our problems with one another without getting other people involved. It'll most likely make situations a lot better and a lot easier.