Bullied

One

Before I came to my current school, soon to be high school, I had only switched two schools. Or so I told anyone who asked me. That was a lie. For one, I had only studied there for under two months, so it hardly counted to begin with. Truth is, I wanted to forget everything about the school. Unfortunately the past came back knocking on my present's doorstep. But that's a different story. Let me explain what happened then. Back when dad had to take a financial hit and I was dropped to this shithole.

Switching to a new location is difficult for most people but not me. I was cool with it since Dad assured me it was temporary and that his company will be back on its feet in a few weeks. Those weeks turned to months. I was a new student and trying my best to fit in.

I made a friend with the first person who shared my bench. His name was Fred. He was friendly and nice, so we stayed friends. The biggest issue was that he also had an enemy. It was like I had to choose between two gang leaders when I joined in. It was if I had just moved into a neighborhood where you were either an alley or an enemy. Fred's enemy was Justin.

This is not my story as much as it is theirs. I'm just a medium. In the timespan of a few weeks, I saw the two of them fight and cause complete chaos. I was there to see it all. Including the day it all turned up to eleven.

I'd been sick for a week and hadn't attended school during that time, not that they cared. When dad told the principal I would be taking sick leave, he just said, "Okay." No get well soon, no nothing.

This school was cheap for a reason. From dirty playgrounds, molded classroom walls to even toilet doors with no locks, this place was garbage. The only people who studied here were children with either low income, or a child they never wanted. I was lucky that my parents were the former.

Family income took a massive dive when his company went bankrupt. He was working on his new business when he had to cut some corners. Unfortunately my school was one of them. I couldn't complain much, since neither of us knew how bad this place really was. Even now, I don't complain much about it to parents since that time was bad for everyone.

I had recovered from the fever that day. I was late so I rushed upstairs to my classroom, not that it mattered. I later found out that the teacher of my first class was absent. Teachers in this school took absence for the smallest of reasons. I heard that this time the reason this teacher was absent is because he had to go to the car wash. He was not going to be late, but absent, because of how dirty his car was. The principal and other teachers were fine with it.

I hurried my way up the building until I was only inches away from the door to my classroom. The door was locked. That should have been enough for me to realize something was off then and there, yet I ignored the risk at the moment. I had finally become fit after days of laying down and the adrenaline in me was just too much. I knocked on the door. The lock behind the door clicked. Justin opened the door and pulled me in.

Everyone was looking at me as if I was not even supposed to be there. When the door closed behind me, I realized I was right. I was not supposed to be here. The environment felt different, more intense, from what I remembered a week ago. It was as if I stepped into the ground of a different school. Even the number of students was half. It wasn't what unnerved me the most however.

Fred was in the class too. Among the students, the majority of them were from Justin's group. Fred's group was mostly absent. As if that wasn't enough, Fred looked far more scared than ever.

I couldn't imagine what must've happened between them for things to go this far. As I looked at everyone around me, I was no longer sure if I even wanted to. I should've just stayed home but it was too late to think about that too.

Fred and Justin fought all the time but today it was significantly worse. Today Justin looked as if he might actually kill Fred. I made my way to my bench, where a bunch of boys from Justin's gang were sitting. They weren't sitting on the seat but on the bench behind mine, only their shoes were where I was supposed to sit. They moved a bit but after seeing their dirty footprints on my seat, I decided to just sit like them. On any other day I would ignore them but not that day. My mind was preoccupied.

I used to share that seat with Fred. On a normal day, these boys will be mocking Fred. There would be a fight that would result in all participants getting another 'final' warning from the Principal. Only, today was not a normal day. For one, Fred the loud mouth was quiet. For another, Justin's friends did not curse at me, or mock me. They scooted over and gave me enough room to sit next to them without any fuss. They were... nice about it. I sat next to them as if all was normal and stared at the white board in front of us.

"We thought you were sick," One of the boys said. He sounded nervous. Not for himself, for me. Since I was the new kid, I was also the least invested in this feud, at least compared to the rest. I may be on Fred's side more, but given how often I was mistaken for someone else, I doubt most even remembered me as is.

"I was," I replied. "What's going on here?"

"SILENCE!" Justin roared. "We have a surprise guest here. I guess I miscalculated. No worries. He won't cause any trouble... will he?" Justin, along with everyone looked at me. I have always been one of those socially awkward people who hates confrontations. Even when Fred and Justin fought and I was on Fred's side, I ignored everything and focused on my studies. I did not want to repeat the year like several of them had. Fred would keep talking and I would nod along, rarely paying much attention. With every eye in the class on me, I again nodded. "That's what I thought," Justin pointed a steel ruler at me. "Just so you know, if you try to do something stupid, you will be punished. Like her..." He then pointed at Amy who was hiding her face on the bench. "The boys will fill you up on everything."

"You should not have come here," The guy next to me tells me.

"Why?" I ask. "And what happened to Amy?" She was on her seat, with her head down and from the looks and sounds of it, sobbing as quietly as possible. She was known for being as loud as Fred, so to see her force her volume down was confusing.

"She tried to stop Justin, and got what she deserved," A girl's voice from behind me whispered. Before I even got to see and recognize who she was, the guy next to me said something that made me forget all about her.

"Amy stabbed Justin with a compass so he hit her," He then went into detail as to how, for her stunt, Amy received a slap from the ruler, leaving a thick red line across her face.

"Next time it'll be your flat chest," Justin warned her and ever since then, she was the example of the punishment others may get if they interrupted whatever it was that Justin had in mind. Only a handful of Fred's gang were in the classroom and most were too scared to even talk, let alone fight back ever since.