I never knew that Somila would bully us. Somila was my best friend, even though she was older than me. Somila was like my sister, but the day she started bullying us I couldn’t believe it, I was so disappointed that she would do such a thing.

One day I was with my friends and we were very bored, we didn’t know what to do. My friend, Lolo said “How about we go to the park?” We all said that was a good idea. Then everyone headed to their house to bath and we wore beautiful clothes. My mother asked me where I was going and I told her to the park with my friends and she gave me a R20.

When we were about to go, my big cousin asked us where we were going and we told her. We also told her that we had money to buy drinks and snacks and she asked if she could borrow R5 and all of us said no because we were going to use the money and left her and went to the park.

When we got to the park Somila wanted all the money to herself, “Give me all of your money,” she said.

I said, no.

“Don’t forget I’m older than all of you,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean matter because your mind is equal to ours.” I said.

Somila was very angry because I warned my friends not to give her the money. She left us to play with other children we didn’t even know.

When we were about to go home, we found out that Somila had left early. She didn’t tell us that she was going home. We looked for her everywhere and asked all the other children. We went home but we got lost on our way. When I arrived at home my mother asked why I got home late, I told her we got lost because we didn’t go with Somila. She left us at the park because she wanted our money and we refused to give it to her and she got angry and left us.

My mother told my big sister and my big cousin about what happened and they said “We are proud of you because you said no,” I was happy because they were proud of me. My mother said she would tell Somila’s mother.

The following day I asked my mother to accompany me to Somila’s house. We arrived, Somila’s mother asked how could she help us. My mother told her that Somila was bullying us. Somila’s mother called her and asked her why she was bullied us. Somila said the reason she bullied us was because she also been bullied before, so that’s why she did what she did, and she didn’t say anything else. But I knew from then on everyone has the right to say no.

Tell us: Do you think Somila should’ve apologised?