someone please help me..., always unhappy Options

[simply_confused]

I really need advice on this..please help me! Here goes...

I used to be best friends with 3 girls in Yr 7, let's call them Iris, Michelle and Gloria. Now Iris is older than us, she's 13 and we're 12. She was always known as the 'big sister' and would always help us if we needed help. Iris could be bossy at times and always wanted people's attention but we still loved her as a friend. Even though she wants everyone to listen to her, we usually agree with her just cause we don't want her to get so pissed. We were very close friends, we were always together no matter what, even the teachers knew.

We're in Yr 8 now, and I've lost all three of them. It started when Iris said that I was trying to get people's attention from everyone including guys. Naturally Michelle and Gloria agreed with her because they were scared of her. Me being the only one not scared of her, told her that I don't try to get people's attention, I just like talking to guys and girls. Iris immediately got mad at me and started calling me names like sl*t, b*tch, attention-seeker and an annoying pig. I didn't understand why she said that, so I tried to ignore it. But then she started b*tching about me to everyone, including my friends. She sent me emails saying that everyone hates me and Joyce(another close friend of mine) hates me to death. It got to the point of when she got Michelle and Gloria invovled and told them to start b*tching about me to everyone. One lunch time, I got so unhappy that I ran to the washroom and started crying. I finished crying and then I came out and saw one of my other friends Nicholle. She started comforting me and told Joyce and my other friends to come and comfort me. I was really grateful for it, they made me feel a lot better. They made me realize that if they treated me like this, it wasn't worth being friends with them. Unluckily, after lunch was a lesson that I was in the same class as Iris. She told me that me crying was just another classic way of getting attention. I just ignored her but then afterwards lots of stuff happened. She would continue b*tching about me to everyone, she turned all my friends against me except for a few that trusted me, and she tried to make me a complete loner. She kept sending hate emails to me and when I was around with Joyce she'd go "Are you stuck with Joyce or something? Cause I tell you, she hates you so much!" and when I would ignore her, she'd go "Are you deaf now? Or are you mute?" She literally forbid me to talk to Michelle and Gloria, even though Michelle was my primary school friend unlike Gloria and Iris. I just don't want her to bother me anymore, I tried ignoring her but she would just continue mocking me. I tried standing up to her but that was even worse cause she would spread even more bad stuff about me. I just want them to mind their own business and leave me alone. I'm completely over that fact that they don't want to be friends with me anymore, but I don't want to be their enemy! I just want them to leave me alone, can anyone please help me out?