Granted, it is very hard to be a Jehovah's Witness kid when you are in school. This was going to be even more of a challenge for me than I thought. I was not only the only Jehovah's Witness in the school, I was the first Jehovah's Witness ever in that school. Three of my teachers never heard of Jehovah's Witnesses. This was problem number one.

Problem number two. They did not want us kids in their school. On the first day, we had a lot of people surrounding our bus. Both kids and adults. They were yelling at us to get back on the bus and go where we belonged. They spit at us and called us names. They tried to trip us. Someone threw a rock at me. the cops came by to break up the crowd. I hate to admit it, but I couldn't tell them apart. All those white people looked the same to me, hateful and angry.

Problem number three. I did not look black. They would always ask me why I was a "bus kid" if I am not black. I explained the fact that I was of mixed origin. They then referred to me as a "mutt".

From day one all the way through to eighth grade graduation, I was the subject of ridicule. I had only one so-called friend at the school who was only my friend because she wanted to be better than me at everything and I wouldn't compete much. At lunch, I would sit alone and read all the material from the GB. I wouldn't dare communicate with them since each time I tried to reach out, they would do mean things to me. Mostly calling me names. Sometimes they loved to tie my shoelaces together and watch me trip. Or put glue or ink on my seat. Or take my books and tear out pages. Or steal my homework. The list went on.

I was trying even harder to be perfect. I woke up every morning at five to get in more studying. I was taking the "truth" more seriously. I wanted to get baptized as soon as possible. My dad wouldn't let me.

I was disappointed that he wouldn't let me get baptized. I thought that I was ready. Mr Ortez wasn't doing things to me quite as much anymore since I was hardly ever over there. I thought it had ended and would never happen again, but I didn't want to tell anyone what a horrible sinner I was. I thought if I got baptized right away, Jehovah might forgive me for my evil sin of fornication.

I was going to be in high school soon. The world was supposed to end really soon. I was such an evil sinner and could not be perfect enough and was not allowed to be baptized. I figured I would never make it into the "new system" and may as well just give up trying.