People in my classes said that I couldn't talk. They would hit me if I tried. So I've stopped. On the baseball diamond, in classes, out of classes, and at home. Since the end of elementary school I hadn't spoken, and didn't payed attention to anyone else. I told myself that I chose this.
A girl in my class was out behind the high school one day. She seemed to be looking for something, but me being me I didn't ask what. Soon a group of girls came up to her.
"What did you want?" asked one of the girls, in a very condescending tone. "I wanted to ask if I could join you all at the..." "Excuse me?" cut in another of the group. "You're asking if you could join us?" "That's pathetic! You little wimp! You can't even make 100s let alone be apart of our friend group!" yelled another one.
The one in the middle, seeming to be the ring leader, spoke, "Look, the five of us are standing behind the school, like you asked. I think we've already wasted enough time. You may not be a part of our group." The girl looked shot. From what I could see they hadn't spotted me, or they just didn't care cause it wouldn't make sense for me to step in.
"Can I ask why?" the girl asked still looking a bit shot. "How could you?" asked one. "You aren't popular!" yelled another. "You don't look pretty." condescended the other. "In short it would be a waste of our time." answered the leader.
I listened to this and wondering why the girl hasn't given up. She speaks, "What if I changed myself so that I could be pretty and became popular?" The leader seemed a bit shocked by this. "If you there was the slightest chance you could look pretty then you could join, yeah. But there isn't." My teeth were the only thing between me and throwing these girls a fast ball. One so fast they would never forget it.
They all made fun of her until. "What? Did we hit a nerve finally?" the condescending girl asked. The girl they were picking on had her eyes welling up with tears. I thought about the situation. This was behind the school, where no one was. No one would know and no one could help her.
Then, out of pure anger, I walked toward them. They noticed me now. "Hey look it's the mute kid!" yelled the noisy one. I looked her in the eye and realized this actually called for words. I haven't used my voice in years. I grabbed the crying girl by the shoulders with as firm a grip as possible and asked her a question.
"Why do you want to lower yourself to their level?"
I could feel the group's collectively growing anger towards me. "What's your deal?!" asked the condescending one. The leader seemed to be frightened to a degree. "Why did you say that you jerk?!" the yeller asked. I answered, "Because it's the truth." The yeller found she could no longer find words. The one who seemed to speak in questions finally settled on one, "Who are you to say that?" She sounded so calm compared to the other two. I answered with a question, "Who do you think I am?" "You're the guy who sits in the back of the class!" the yeller found an answer.
"True now let me tell you who I think you are." I responded with a bit of a mischievous grin. "The yeller. The question mark. The leader. Last but not least the condescending one." They took a step back as I pointed to each of them, making clear who was who. Hatred found its way onto the leader's face. "You can't just come in here and tell us who we are! We have our rights!" I responded to the leader with a grin to match hers, "Indeed, I have mine, and she has hers." I indicated that I meant the girl I was behind.
"Can you not stand in front of her?!" the question mark asked. "Yeah, what's up with that?!" the yeller chimed in hoping to beef up their defense. "I'm behind her because this is her fight." they looked at me confused. "I am merely pushing her and giving her a new angle. She wasn't going to come out of this okay the way she was going."
"What are you blabbing about?!" the leader seemed to be getting desperate now. I let go of the girl and simply stood behind her. "Simply put, madam, do you wish to continue on your quest to become like them?" She looked straight into my eyes, there was some kind of golden gleam in them. "No," she responded, "I don't think I will do that."
She looked back at the group of friends with a second wind at her back and offered, "But if you guys ever want to join me, I just might consider it." They ran. They booked it they were so scared. The girl they were just picking on had just transformed in front of their eyes. She wrapped her arms around me. She was crying. "Thank you.... so..... much...... for saving me." I let her cry for a bit.
"Hey," I got her attention, she looked up, "Why on earth are you crying all over me? All I did was give you an insta-kill scenario." Her eyes beamed, "You may not say a lot..... but you care." I looked at her and thought about how I knew nothing about her. I felt a little bad but in the end we went our sperate ways.
She sits near the front of the class and talks with a few other up there. She is a high B student, who likes to talk. She keep comes over to me during lunch to ask if I want to do something with her. I say yes, and we go out. Her name is Joyce.
