Once upon a time, there were these three best friends named Abby, Amy, and Abigail. They were the best of friends and did everything together. But what two of the friends didn’t know was that Abby had a very big secret, a secret that she had been keeping ever since she met them in 1st grade until now, in 6th grade. Her secret was she had type 1 diabetes and felt ashamed of it because she felt that all she was to people was a sick girl who couldn’t take care of herself. That’s why, ever since she moved here to this small town in Colorado, she felt she didn’t have to be a sick girl near people, that was, of course, if no one found out.
But she still had to follow a certain number of rules for herself, so no one had to suspect anything. For example, everywhere she went, she needed to carry apple juice with her at all times to maintain her blood sugar and so it didn’t go too low or too high — because blood sugar was her main source of energy and came from the food she ate, if it went way too high, then it could cause severe heart conditions. So she needed to have and maintain a certain diet. And her mom to her felt like just another person who reminded her that she was sick because of all the importance she gave her. Sometimes, it even made her feel like her own mother was ashamed of her but she knew she was just helping her hide the fact that she had diabetes like by hiding her continuous glucose monitor under her clothes.
Ever since what had happened at her last school, when one of her closest friends recorded a video of her in a hospital having a seizure and showed everyone in her old school, she had lost all her friends. The thought of her having an illness was such a big deal that they stopped talking to her and stopped hanging out. That was until she moved here and she felt like she had the chance to begin a fresh start and to have no one who knew what had happened to her before she had moved here. That was until today, when some 3rd grader was getting bullied by some 8th grader and she wanted to tell the teacher but didn’t want to be a tattle teller. But she felt like she had to, so she did.
“Hey, you over there, don’t you know what happens to bullies when they pick on kids, they get reported to the principal’s office.” As she was about to go to the principal’s office.
But little did she know she was in for a surprise when the 8th grader said, “You will regret this.”
And sure enough, she would.
The next day, when she was walking to school, she heard whispering and laughing, she didn’t think anything of it until she saw people staring at her when she walked inside the school. Suddenly, she felt someone pull her into the girls’ bathroom. It was Amy and Abigail. And just as she was about to scream,
“Why the heck did you pull me in here for?”
Amy put her hand against her mouth, closed the door, and pulled out her phone to show her the video that everybody was talking about. It was a video of her having a seizure in a hospital.
“What is this?” said Abigail.
As Abby started seeing the video, she stared at them both and started having shivering lips as if she was about to cry.
“I can ex… pla… in,” she said as she was shivering.
“If you don’t tell us right now, we’re leaving,” said Abigail.
And just as they were about to leave, Abby built up all of her emotions and said, she said what she never thought she would say, ever,
“… I have… DIABETES!”
Just there and then, Amy and Abigail stood there looking at Abby in a state of shock as Abby dropped down on the floor and started crying. But just as suddenly, she felt two arms touch her back as she looked over at both shoulders and smiled when she saw Amy and Abigail.
“We didn’t know you had diabetes, Abby, we are so, so very sorry, but what I don’t understand is why you never told us,” Abigail said with a calm voice.
“I guess I was just scared of what you and Amy might think about me.”
“You don’t have to be ashamed of who you are or what you are, we both accept you for being you, so who cares what everybody else thinks, you have us,” said Amy as all three of them hugged on the ground, crying and laughing.
The very next day, Abby decided to hold an assembly in her school and explain all about her illness to people and really open up something that she’d been trying to avoid for years. Some people supported her and some people didn’t, but at the end of the day, it didn’t even matter. Who cared what people’s opinions were of her? She should just be happy for who she was and not ashamed of that. She had people who actually cared about her, what more did she need?