Something..."stolen"

It was my first year as a 3rd grader in a new elementary school. Since it was mid year my sisters and I were placed in a class with Ms. Sagan and made up the five girls of a majority boy environment. It was the year I learned cursive and I remember my teacher laughing at me because I would write some funky "F"s, I 've felt insecure about them ever since.
My favorite part of the school day was reading. My hand was always up to read aloud and I supposed my teacher liked me enough to keep on picking me and after reading came writing. This my friends was the first time I fell in love with writing. The class had to come up with stories about spring and I wrote about flowers who spoke to the sun about rain. My teacher was so impressed with my story she called my mother to tell her how, intelligent and incredibly perceptive my writing was at such a young age. I don't know why I didn't cherish that churning it into an awesome foundation for an impeccable craft, but sometimes life gets the better of you and I now know the danger of forgetting who I am.
That one story fueled me for the rest of the year and I found myself in another creative project in which the class had to draw what we thought was Easter. I had the the biggest white construction paper ever and I drew a large Easter basket with about 20 eggs. In my diligence, as children often do, with my tongue lapping the corner of my mouth and my face inches away from my project, I was sure to make every egg different! There would be a winner to this drawing contest and I didn't care about winning as much as I cared about doing my best. The winner would be announced after lunch and the drawing would be hung outside the classroom for people to view in the hall.
As my class was walking single file back to the classroom we passed by the main office where my assistant teacher announced Margo as the winner, I was a little disappointed because the second part of the prize was a jar full of candy! But I let it pass looking forward to the end of the school day. When we arrived to our classroom I saw my picture hanging in the hall...no one else's. I walked through the doorway with my Ms. Sagan congratulating me on winning while Margo and I exchanged faces. There was somehow a mix up and the wrong student was declared the winner! I jumped up and down in excitement but it was short lived as Margo's face bursted into an ugly cry, loud and obnoxious. Her picture wasn't even up to my caliber but it wasn't her fault an adult told her she had won.
I slowly walked to her desk and scooped up the candy being careful not to step on her as she continued her tantrum. In an attempt to calm her down the mistaken assistant teacher told Margo, "Vanessa is gonna share her candy with you. Aren't you Vanessa?". Ummm no, I thought to myself, my diligence and creative genius earned me a bucket of candy why should I HAVE to share when my kind personality already insisted that I share the candy with my classmates. I didn't like being told what to do just to pacify a belligerent child. Margo's face perked up and the class waited for me to agree with the assistant teacher's demanding question. I felt completely robbed!!! I earned it! It was my candy! I had won a contest fair and square but could have lost some friendships if I didn't oblige...so I did. I walked around the classroom passing out the gummy orange slices to my classmates and felt proud to do it, AFTER Margo had dug her hand in the jar taking a huge handful for herself. Not cool man.
But I learned something that day, peer pressure can allow others to rob you of what's rightfully yours, sure in this case it was just candy but from 3rd grade on I'd continuously fight a losing battle of giving in to my peers.
STOLEN! I should've dialed 911 and reported it.