"It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel because they don't think it will come back." ~ Maya Angelou, American writer (April 4, 1928 — May 28, 2014)

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." ~ Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 — January 30, 2006), widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 — April 4, 1968)

We used to chase that boy home from school
We called him freckle faced red headed fool
He was different, he wasn't cool like me
Sticks and stones didn't break any bones
But we never left well enough alone
One day he ran away from home you see
And I passed him as he walked away
And in his eyes I heard him say

One of these days you're gonna love me
You'll sit down by yourself and think
Of all the times you pushed and shoved me
And what good friends we might have been
And then you're gonna sigh a little
And maybe even cry a little
But one of these days you're gonna love me

~Tim McGraw, One Of These Days

While Yasmine, Moon, Demetri, Hawk, Robby and Miguel would show kindness to Jackie, the other students did the exact opposite. 

They acted like Jackie had the proverbial plague and made it a point to avoid her by asking each other "Do you hear a fly buzzing around?" or "Did you hear something?" whenever she would speak up or even sometimes greet them.

But worst of all? They'd see to it Jackie wasn't invited to the parties they were throwing. This was accomplished by making sure an invitation wasn't there for her when she opened her locker door or when she looked in or top of her desk in a classroom, leaving her off the guest list, or deciding to be straight up honest with her and informing her they didn't want her to come. Usually it was a little of all three.

Jackie's face would initially light up in anticipation at possibly getting an invitation to a party, only for the light in her eyes to dim a little and her mouth to turn down in sadness when she realized she was being ignored and left out instead. For Hawk, Demetri, Yasmine, Moon, Miguel and Robby, this caused mixed feelings.

One was empathy for Jackie; she showed she wanted to be invited to a party where she could have fun, but all she got was disappointed at having to (possibly) stay home during the nights when the parties were being thrown. The other was anger at Jackie's tormentors; they strongly disliked how those students would treat Jackie as though she was just a nothing, whereas Hawk, Demetri, Miguel, Robby, Yasmine and Moon firmly believed she was a superbly lovely person to hang around with.

The phrase on page 235 from the revised and updated 2009 edition of the 2002 self-help book Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which they'd read a few times, came back to them right then (except paraphrased in this case).

I don't care how old you are — few things are more unlikely to make you insecure than being uninvited to a party.

And did they know how true those words were — quite true, indeed. It didn't matter the age of the person; being left off the guest list for a party was one of the not-so-good things in life, as well as one of the causes of insecurity.

Well, Moon thought angrily, since they had the nerve to leave Jackie off their guest list for the party they're throwing, then I'll pay them back by not inviting them the next time I have a party. This time, only those I like and feel I can trust are invited. She nodded as if convincing herself. And that includes Jackie, too.