OVERPOPULAS

Chapter 2

 I was stunned to hear what he said. Fight him? Why? Now!? I had so many questions I forgot to even respond to what he said.

"I said fight me!" Eric shouted. "Come on, show me what you've learned!"

"Why!?" I stammered, still shocked from the sudden aggression coming from Eric.

"I need to know what you have learned from school." Eric's voice sounded more serious than ever. His eyes were staring right at me, piercing my soul.

"If you are really ready to graduate then you should be able to at least land a hit on me." Eric proclaimed.

"Why do we have to do this now!?" I asked. "Can't this wait until after graduation is over!?" Eric was unfazed by my questions. Instead he got into a fighting stance and told me to get ready.

"Wait!" I yelled. I wasn't ready for what was coming next. At the speed of light Eric came charging at me at full speed. My reaction time wasn't fast enough and he tackled me to the ground. It hurt more than I expected. We did this all the time in school during our self-defense classes, but why did it hurt more than before?

"Get up!" Eric demanded.

I did as he said and got up from the ground. Eric didn't even bring out his hand to help me up.

"We're going again." Eric bossed.

And so we went at it again and again. Everytime Eric won, and I never even got a single hit in. After the tenth time, I didn't want to get up anymore. I just accepted my defeat and laid there on the ground.

"Weak." Eric said, almost in a whisper. "That was all you can muster? How disappointing."

After saying that Eric walked back inside the complex and left me lying on the ground, I didn't want to get up. He was right, I am weak. I couldn't even land a single hit on him, and all he did was charge right at me. How pathetic. I laid there for what felt like hours, looking at the sky. My sister appeared above me.

"Are you ok?" She asked me.

"I don't know." I responded, as I rolled over on the ground to face to my right.

"I heard about what happened. With you and Eric." Alice said as she sat down next to me. Putting her hand on my forehead. "He told us that you're not worthy to go on stage and accept your graduation certificate." Alice continued.

"He said that?" I asked.

"Yeah." She responded. Eric really said that? My own brother. Is he really that mad that I didn't even touch him once? To go to the point of calling me a failure? I know he was the top of his class in the fighting category, while I only excelled in academics.

"You shouldn't let him get you down, just because you're not that good at fighting doesn't mean you're worthless." Alice said, reassuring,

"But he's right. Academics and book smarts are useless compared to fighting skills. Fighting skills decide your fate in this world. You can be smart all you want, if you can't fight back then what's the point?" I rambled on.

Alice didn't have anything to say to that. She just rubbed my head as I laid there. I heard the door open and my mother yelling at me.

"Why didn't you come back to the house!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. "You look like an absolute mess right now! Get up and let's go! Graduation starts in ten minutes."

Alice helped me get up from the ground and rubbed my head. My back was hurting from the fights me and Eric had. I rubbed through my hair to get the grass out of my hair and shook the dirt off my shirt and my pants. After I was done I walked to the car my family had and got in. I saw Alice in the backseat, with my father driving, and my mother in the passenger seat. Eric, was not in the car. He didn't want to go to my graduation?

"Ugh, you couldn't even take a shower huh?" My father scolded me. I didn't respond, only sat there in silence and put my seatbelt on. My dad started the car and drove off. I sat there thinking of what Eric said about me. Out of all of my family members the one I couldn't get a bit of respect from was my brother. Even on the day of my graduation he couldn't even be bothered to say congratulations.

Alice put her hand on my shoulder and said. "Even though Eric says you're worthless. I don't think that at all. You are the best brother I could've ever asked for."

I didn't say anything, but her words reassured me a lot. I wish I had said the same thing back to her. But the time I found the courage to. We were already at the school.