A possible outcome for X...
(Bear with me while I give you a rundown of what happened to me, if I can save another 'X' from the same fate I will. Shows how these things can snowball):
X has felt a bit of a loser for a while. She's only 8 but her Mum won't get her a Wombles bag. What's wrong with a sturdy rucksack she says. Practical lace up brown shoes are fine, hardy and long lasting.
She goes around to Judith's house and they play with Barbie. X tries to plait Barbie's hair but it all gets tangled and messy, she can't get the hang of it somehow. X's nose runs and she picks up the old tissue in her pocket, her nose is red raw it always runs these days. Thing is her Mum never did playdates before reception and so these germs seem to get to her more than others.
X has tea. Judith is beautiful with lovely manners. X can't get to grips with her fork and oh no, all the peas have gone over the shag pile. Judith and her Mum exchange knowing glances! They think X doesn't notice.
X is allowed to play with Judith's stereo. Judith asks her to switch it on but she presses the button too hard and it seems to have broken. Judith and her Mum are very angry.
X loves Judith's Mum's battenberg cake and her lovely home. She thanks Judith's Mum for having her just as her Mum has taught her. Judith sniggers.
They go on a school trip, everyone is excited. The kids can choose room mates. Judith promises to share a room with her, X is over the moon. Oh no! Judith has changed her mind she wants to go with Jo and Jenny (those with the Wombles and Barbies). X is going to be put with Clarissa Carter the prettiest girl in her year. X is privately a bit worried but what choice does she have?
X gets put with Clarissa and her two besties. They all have cool clothes. X has well made 'sensible' clothes chosen by her mother! They have long lustrous locks, X has a sensible, low maintenance, rather severe bob.
They gang up and pretend X has eaten the sweets they had stashed under the bed. What a scream! X gets the blame after the teacher was consulted by Clarissa in her grown up way. X feels isolated and starts talking to herself or something annoying and odd like that!
Clarissa goes to the teacher and says that X has woken them up early every morning singing Annie songs! Guess what? The teacher lectures X thinking that good little Clarissa wouldn't make up stories, and well X is frankly, odd and annoying!
X gets punished. X feels ill. X gets terrible earache and sits on the stairs in the communal hall at 2am feeling isolated and alone and that she is annoying and odd. She wants to tell the teacher but she daren't, what if they don't believe her?
X goes back to school and it's swimming that Monday. She dreads the swimming lessons and coach trip back. Clarissa steals her knickers. Teachers don't believe that Clarissa would do this. The kids all laugh, what a scream. X reacts in an 'odd' way.
Guess what? X gets told she's careless and must have lost her knickers.
Judith, egged on by Clarissa, steals X's novelty rubber. X doesn't get Hello Kitty cool things very often, her parents don't approve so this is a prized possession. X tells the teacher, summoning up her courage. The teacher does listen but Judith insists it's hers. X thinks Judith looks a bit suss as she flushes bright scarlet. Mrs Harris decides she'll be fair. She takes her penknife and cuts Hello Kitty in half. X looks at her half Hello Kitty rubber in horror. Clarissa smiles at Judith when Mrs Harris's back is turned.
Mrs Harris has had a baby! Clarissa and her Mum buy lovely presents they wrap in glossy paper. X's Mum doesn't know about Mrs Harris's baby so X goes and takes off her ragdoll's old dress and wraps it up for Mrs Harris. Mrs Harris unwraps X's present when Clarissa and her Mum are there. Mrs Harris asks if there is a receipt and smirks and Clarissa and her Mum who can't conceal their giggles. What a hoot! Well X is frankly odd and annoying so it's ok.
There's a school play and someone has to be a diseased dog in a costume. Clarissa is the town princess in her tower who takes pity on the dog. Mrs Harris thinks it will be good for X to take part and gives her the part of the dog. Clarissa and friends think well serves X right, she's odd after all.
X gets cast as a flower fairy in the school play and has to play her recorder. Thing is she's not very good and frankly with that snotty nose she's not pretty. Mrs Harris explains that she can continue as the fairy but she can't play her recorder (Clarissa and all the others will though). Then Mrs Harris decides it would be fairer if X had a part in the chorus, how they laugh in the staff room, X as a fairy! And is there something a bit well 'odd' about her, why hasn't she mastered the recorder?
Guess what X isn't writing well! Her reports say 'her writing is well below the standard one would now expect'. Her work is spoiled by poor presentation. Mrs Harris also saw her looking odd in the school yard the other day. What she doesn't know is that X was playing with her imaginary friend Nigel the horse. Nigel has been coming to see her a lot recently, he's the only one she can talk to now.
Judith - egged on by Clarissa and Jenny - has been jogging the table when X begins to write. Mrs Harris doesn't see but X's writing looks even worse these days.
This time X does tell her Mum who goes to the school. But again it must be that X isn't writing very well and well this is true. X thinks she really is odd and not worthy of friends.
Mrs Harris thinks that X is over sensitive, quaint (what does that mean X wonders) and anxious to please. Well privately she thinks she's beyond odd.
X gets bus to school a bit later at secondary school. Every day they tell her she's odd, imitate her 'odd' voice and looks. X throws herself into her studies.
It has a good outcome (if you can call it that). X gets pretty! Suddenly Clarissa wants to be her friend? Can you believe it and X dates the best looking boy in the school. Life gets better for X, but guess what inside she feels 'odd' and has to work at social situations sometimes. What if she's not cool? What if they won't ask her to the coffee morning? After all it must be her fault at some level. Why else would no one want to invite her back to tea all those years ago? Why did the teachers believe the Clarissa and Judith?